Calories burned? 532
Time spent on treadmill? 1 Hour, 45 minutes
Total distance? 6.01 miles (Farthest EVER for me at once!)

Leaving the gym looking like this:

and this:

PRICELESS!!!

Oh hell yes! What an awesome workout! My face gets SOOO red, doesn’t it? So, now I’m less than 5 miles from reaching my perfect 10 goal, which I shall try to get tomorrow morning before work.

I’m SO motivated!!!

95.11 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
14.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

Before I get to today’s post, if you haven’t read Craig’s latest blog yet, you should. Really, it’s refreshingly honest and touching. I know I can relate and I’m sure most of you can too. At first, he debated even posting it and several readers encouraged him to, including me. I was reminded of the House episode from the other night about a blogger who fell ill. You can read a synopsis of this episode here. When learning that she needed a heart valve transplant, her first response was to ask her readers for advice. Her boyfriend discouraged her from doing it because he was tired of their lives being so exposed on her blog. She said “If I start to pick and choose now, then I’m not being honest”. That really hit home for me and caused me to really think not just about how much I share here but also all the things I don’t share. So when I read that Craig wasn’t sure if he should post what he had in mind because it was so personal and revealing, it made me think of the series of posts that I had been considering that were also personal and revealing. So, I made a deal with him. I told him if he posted his, I would start mine. Well, he posted his, and I’m a woman of my word, so I’ll be starting a new blog series in the next week or so. I’m still working on a title, but the content is almost done. I can tell you this. It totally fits in with today’s post below.

Now onto today’s post!

On my Progress Pictures page, you’ll notice that I have always posted a picture of me wearing a white tank top and black shorts, while looking straight to the camera. (Boring, huh?) What that page doesn’t show is that I have also been taking a variety of other pictures all along as well. Pictures from the side, pictures from the rear, pictures of my bare belly, close-ups of my arms, legs, and face. I haven’t been posting these other views for a few reasons. Part of it is OCD and the fact that I didn’t want my pictures page to become too overcrowded. Another reason is modesty. I had considered sharing the bare belly photos of me a while back during the “Exposed” craze, but didn’t because I realized I was far too modest to be that exposed yet. I guess the biggest reason I hadn’t posted these other views was because up until now, there wasn’t really a major difference in the before and after, so I thought “What’s the point?”

Well, here is a side view of me as I was on September 28, 2009 (Day 1 of this journey) and me as I was on March 8, 2010 (Day 161 of this journey):

I can see a difference, can you? It’s weird, because when I look at my current photo by itself, I see a fat girl with belly rolls and cellulite. But something funny happens when I put the two together…I see a much healthier girl. A girl with a little bit of muscle definition just starting to appear. A girl whose collarbones are now visible for the first time in over a decade. A girl whose double chin has all but disappeared. (Score!) My face is starting to look different, more defined. My posture is better.

This realization is a pretty awesome feeling – one I’m NOT used to and one that’s hard to put into words – but that’s what I intend to do over the next few weeks. I hope to benefit greatly from this new series I’m starting and hopefully some of you will too.

Edited to add:

Check out the $50 shopping spree giveaway on Mary’s Weight Loss Blog! I can win a $50 Shopping Spree Giveaway from iHerb.com and so can you! Click here for contest details! I hope I win because their pancake mix looks delicious!

85.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
14.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

I’ve been meaning to tell this story now for a few days, but have been otherwise preoccupied, so here goes.

Thursday night we went to the fair. Now, I have to tell you I was SO looking forward to going to the fair this year being 43 lbs lighter. In years past, there were a lot of rides that I just wouldn’t fit on, namely any ride that locks you in over your head/chest. So in past years I’d just settle for rides that didn’t have the over-the-head locking mechanism. It was just always kinda sad for me because I love roller coasters and scary thriller rides. So, needless to say, I was super excited to go this year 43 lbs lighter in anticipation of riding some of those rides, and one in particular: The “Speed” ride.

I’ve seen this ride in action before and it looked spectacularly scary. My kind of ride! It takes its passengers about 121 feet in the air while spinning them around and the entire arm also spins an entire 360 degrees.

It’s considered a ’specialty’ ride at our fair, which meant that you couldn’t use your armband to ride it. (We purchased armbands for unlimited rides). This ride only took tickets…ten of them for $11. I paid my $11 and waited patiently in line until the attendant told me ‘hop on up’. So I did. Here he is ‘locking me in’ my seat:

I fit! I really fit! So, I asked him to be sure, “I’m locked in, right?” and he said “yes” and came over and gave it another push to be sure.

Whew.

Ok, here we go.

The ride starts and awaaaaay we go! It was AWESOME. When we got all the way to the top, I was literally hanging there, looking down at my husband and kids and just thinking about how incredibly awesome that moment was. Here’s a picture my hubby snapped of me in that moment:

It didn’t last long.

We did two whole spins and then felt the ride slow down. The girl behind me said she didn’t know why we were slowing down, the ride was much longer than that. When we came to stop, the attendant came right up to me, pointed, and said “you gotta come off, you’re not locked in all the way”.

WHAT?!?!

He said, “yea, and I don’t want to get sued.”

I said “Well, I don’t want to DIE!”

So, that was it for my “Speed” ride experience. I mean, I heard it click in, but I guess it wasn’t ” locked”? I think I’m lucky it didn’t come undone while I was 121 ft in the air?!

After I got off the ride I quickly walked to my family and went on to finish our fair experience. I was trying not to be upset or embarrassed, but truthfully I was both. How could I not have been? I didn’t even think to ask for a refund or anything either, I was in such a hurry to move along, ya know?

Well, I can tell you one thing. I WILL lose the rest of this weight so that I never have this problem again…and you can take that to the bank!

Here’s the video of me going around in it and quickly coming to stop. You can even hear my husband say “that’s it?” He didn’t know why it was stopping so soon either.

80.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
13.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

Well, I completed my third 5k of the year today. It’s the Hope, Love, and Faith 5K which benefited the Heil Luthringer Foundation which provieds education for those suffering with Multiple Sclerosis and other diseases. The race was at the Naples Philharmonic which is about an hour drive for us. My plan was to get up extra early so that we could get there with enough time for me to walk a good mile before the race started. I have found that if I don’t do this ‘warm up’ prior to any jogging or running that I get the worst shin splints ever. Unfortunately, I overslept, which threw my plan all the hell. I did get there in time for the race, but just barely. As such I had to go to Plan B and just walk the first 10 minutes or so of the race and hope that was enough to prevent shin splints. Luckily it was.

Something else to mention is that it was COLD this morning. Ok, it was in the 40’s, but for Florida, that is COLD. It was also the first time I’ve ever done any type of exercise in cold weather. I was nervous about how my breathing would be, but I managed OK. It was definitely harder to catch my breath than in the air controlled gym, but it wasn’t as horrible as I was imagining it being either. I will say though that all day my chest/lungs have felt “harsh” as a result. I’m hoping that I don’t get sick.

As I said above, I started off just walking fast and then after about 10 minutes or so I started doing running intervals. I’d walk for a minute and then run for a minute (or two). I bought a new watch a couple of weeks ago, this Nike Fury:

Wow, it was incredibly helpful to have! I’d recommend it (or a similar watch) to anyone. It really helped me to stay on track and I don’t think I’d have finished in the time I did without it.

There was a point in the race where I was almost in tears. My goal today was to finish in less than 50 minutes. I didn’t care if I was last as long as I could get under 50. So I passed mile marker 1 and felt like I was making good time, even though I had to walk the first half mile or so. So I kept on going, and going, and going. I was getting anxious because I’d look at my watch and see that I had been going for 40 minutes yet hadn’t passed the second mile marker yet. I was so scared I wasn’t going to make it in under 50 and really had to keep myself from tearing up over it. So at around 45 minutes or so, I turned a corner and saw mile marker 3 and the finish line not too far in the distance. Whew! There must not have been a marker for mile 2! Hehe! I felt silly then for getting so worked up over it. Anyway, I finished the race in 46:29 as you can see from the picture:

All things considered, I must say this was my favorite race so far. I felt the gamut of all sorts of emotions from being disappointed in myself when I thought I wasn’t going to break my record, to feeling so very proud of myself when I did. I also didn’t let the cold weather or me oversleeping prevent me from doing it. Well, I’ve gotta go get ready for the parade tonight. Hope you’re all having a great weekend so far – mine’s started out pretty damned good!

76.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
13.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

This morning I weighed in at 219.8 lbs which is the same as it was last Monday. That’s zero lost this week, so I’m still at 36.2 pounds lost total.

I guess the lesson I learned this week is that every choice matters. I had six really good days this week. On those days I ate really well, pushed myself in the gym, had kickboxing class and did a 5K. But I also had one off day, remember? And I suppose all the good work I did this week wasn’t enough to make up for that one day I veered. Every choice matters. The choices I made that day to overeat, to eat unhealthy, and not to exercise, MATTERED.

It’s times like these that confirm in my mind that I’ll never be that girl that can just casually eat a cookie, or overindulge one night without ramifications. From the time I started this I had full intentions of making this a lifelong commitment, not a “diet” that would end once I reached a certain weight. But even so, there was always a part of me that hoped that someday I’d be able to indulge in some of the things I’m not right now. That someday it’d be ok to have some birthday cake at parties instead of always passing. That someday it’d be ok to just have a burger every now and then. Now I’m not so sure I’ll ever be able to indulge like that. It’s difficult to see other people who can eat till their hearts content and not think twice about it. Yesterday we were working on the float for my daughter’s clogging team and someone brought McDonalds for everyone for lunch. It was awful nice of them, but of course there were no salads or grilled chicken wraps, ya know? Just burgers, so of course I declined. Meanwhile all these skinny minnies around me are scarfing burgers and fries down. It’s just not fair, I say in my best whiny voice. But, I accept it for what it is so I will continue down this path to a healthier lifestyle. Right now, no other option even seems feasible for me. (What does that say about how my whole mindset has changed?)

Remember a few weeks ago when I tried on some size 20 jeans and they fit? Well, I went shopping last night to buy them because all of my pants have just gotten way too loose. It was time. Well, guess what? The 20’s didn’t fit anymore, so I had to buy these:

SIZE 18W!

I haven’t been a size 18 in YEARS. I’m really stoked about this – it made today’s weigh-in results much easier to swallow!

And just for fun, here I was several months ago, before I ever started this journey, wearing size 24 jeans:

And here I was last night, holding the same jeans:

You can also see this week’s regular progress pics here.

49.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
13.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(2) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

I was hoping for at least a 2 lb loss this week, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw a 3.2 lb loss! Yep, I weighed in this morning at 219.8 lbs which means that I’ve lost 36.2 pounds since 9/28!

This loss signifies a few different things for me. First it means that I’ve passed the 35 lb milestone! While this isn’t one of my ‘official’ milestones that I have listed in my sidebar, it’s still notable for me because it’s the most I’ve ever lost before in any of my past “diets”. Ever! It also means that I’m out of the 220’s and now in the two-teens! I can hardly believe it. I’m now closer to being under 200 than I am the weight I started at, 256. This loss also means that I am right on target to reach my goal to be under 200 by the end of the 911 Fitness Challenge I joined. I have 19.8 lbs left to lose over the next 9 weeks in order to reach that goal. Totally reachable! Wanna know something else? My BMI is now 38.9 – under the 40 mark! When I started this journey four months ago my BMI was 44.1. So I’m down 5.2 points in that regard. One more number before I go – 14%. That’s the percentage of weight I’ve lost over the past 126 days.

These results make all the work I’ve been putting in recently SO worth it. I feel this merits repeating, if you’re reading this and doubt whether or not you can lose weight, please, please know that you CAN do this. I doubted it for many years too until one day I just made the decision to change my life and so can you. Feel free to a email me if you have any questions; I will help any way I can.

36.22 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
6.4 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(1) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

Edited: I have updated my pictures page with today’s photo here.

We celebrated my mom’s birthday today and since I volunteered to make the cake, we had all sorts of sweet temptations lurking in my home all weekend…and I’m happy to report that I resisted it all. Well, I may or may not have had a lick or two of icing, but yeah.

It was the first cake I’ve baked since taking on this challenge to lose weight. I could have refused and just asked my sister to get a cake or something so that I wouldn’t have that kind of temptation here, but that wouldn’t be confronting my struggles now would it? Everyone seemed to like it…the top heart shaped layer was covered in coconut, my mom’s favorite. Speaking of my mom, here she is with my two daughters:

So, happy birthday Mom and thanks for all you do! ♥

I haven’t worked out since Friday evening because my ankle started bothering me. I have an old injury that I think flared up because of all the walking/jogging I did last week. So I decided to wrap it and stay off of it for the weekend which has helped a lot. I plan to be at the gym bright and early tomorrow morning to get this week started off good like I did last week. I have another 5K (walk for wishes) next Saturday and my goal is to beat my previous time.

Hope you all had a great weekend…mine was a bit trying but I think I came out stronger for it. Tomorrow is my weigh-in and if my sneak peek on the scale this morning holds true, then tomorrow will be a very good day for me indeed!

33.1 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
6.4 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(1) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

You all might remember when my plans got derailed and I couldn’t go to kickboxing last Thursday? Well, tonight I’m going and I am very excited! So I thought I’d focus today’s blog post on what all is involved in our kickboxing class.

Well, for starters we do a lot of kicking. Kicking to the front, to the side, to the rear. There are four steps to a proper kick, but I don’t think I could explain them in words, lol. You have to “chamber” your leg, kick, chamber again, and then bring it back down. The class is actually called “Cardio Kickboxing” so we do a lot more than just kicking exercises. We also do a lot of punching. I don’t know what each move is called, but I’m learning. While punching we jump from side to side so we’re always moving. We punch to the front, to the side, jabs, uppercuts, etc. I really like the punching part and am thinking about asking if I can take hand weights to use when I punch. We also do various other cardio stuff such as football runs and jumping jacks. I think she throws this other stuff in there to help condition us to be able to do the kicking better. She also throws in other stuff like lunges, squats, etc. It’s always a great workout (the best I get during the week) and as I’ve mentioned before, I just love going!

I debated whether or not to post these pictures. A part of me thought it was a silly thing to post, but this blog is my way of journaling this whole weight-loss experience. Much to my surprise, kickboxing has become a big part of this journey for me, so it’s only appropriate that I share them here.

I think we were doing punching exercises when those pics were taken, I don’t remember. I’m hoping my sister can get some more pictures at tonight’s class and maybe some during the kicking portion…that would be so neat to share with you all!

I’ve made good progress this week and have really done a lot to catch up on my distance goal. I’ve walked another 4 miles since I last posted. My food has also been on target. Last weekend I bought a box of sugar free popsicles because I thought at 15 calories each, they would be the perfect snack to help cool me down after workouts. All week though I felt bloated and hardly saw any movement on the scale even though I was doing everything right. Then I noticed on the box that the popsicles has something called “Sugar Alcohol”. So I did a quick wiki search and found out that sugar alcohols can cause bloating because they don’t completely digest. No wonder I was feeling bloated! So I don’t think I’ll have too many more of those. I’ll stick with my 10 calorie jello cups.

p.s. – My water bottle came in and I absofriggenlutely LOVE it! I’m kinda liking this reward stuff!

29.0 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
6.4 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
1 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

Today was the Calusa Bug Chase 5k that I walked/jogged in with my two daughters. Here are the three of us just before the race:

Our shoe time chip tags:

A quick picture before the start:

The beginning of the walk was along part of the trail that goes through Calusa Nature Center. It was SO beautiful.

And here was the view to our side:

Here’s my youngest daughter, Madelyn, running toward the finish line:

Here’s my oldest daughter, Marisa, right after the race:

And here’s me, running toward the finish line. Yes, running!

That may not be the most flattering picture, but I was so friggen proud of myself today that I don’t care! I walked for the first two miles and alternated between jogging and walking for the last mile, with a RUN toward the finish. I finished in just over 50 minutes, so that means I was about 7 minutes quicker today than I was for the Turkey Trot back in November. Oh, you may recall from yesterday that my biggest concern was going to be that I would be the slowest one out there. I was also concerned that there would be a time limit on the race and they would disqualify me (or us) if we didn’t finish under a certain time. Well, they didn’t disqualify us, but Marisa and I were the last ones to finish, and you know what? It didn’t bother me at all! I’m stoked that I am now able to jog as much as I am (and run at the end!) considering back in November I had doubts as to whether or not I could even WALK that far. See, it’s little improvements like this that gives me the confidence to believe that someday I will be able to run an entire 5k. I’ve still a long way to go, but if I just keep progressing, I will get there! (By the way, Madelyn ran ahead of us early on and finished in 35 minutes! I was so proud of them both!)

After the race we went to eat breakfast at Bob Evans…oh boy at all the unhealthy choices there! I did good though. I had their ‘lite eggs’ scrambled, dry wheat toast, a 1/2 slice of ham, and lowfat yogurt with fresh strawberries and bananas….mmmm was it good!

One last note. I updated yesterday’s post with a new goal for the year (and Perfect 10). Now that I’m bike riding, I’d like to bike at least 300 miles this year. So, I’ll be logging that at the bottom of my posts along with the walking and 5Ks. It will help me to keep track of it all.

18.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
6.4 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
1 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

I weighed in this morning at 225.2 lbs which means that I lost 4.7 pounds for the week! This brings my total lost since 9/28 to 30.8 pounds and it means that I (finally) hit the 30 lb mark! Oh yeah! This totally makes up for that gain I had last week.

I’m motivated now more than ever. Seeing that picture of me practically swimming in a shirt that was too tight for me just three months ago makes me wonder “what will I look like 3 months from now?” I still sit here in awe that this is actually working. Why oh why didn’t I decide to do this sooner?! I can’t change the past, but I can control my future and do you know what I see in my future? A longer, healthier life spent doing things that I used to pass on. I see a lot less excuses and a lot more LIVING!

So, I’m roughly 26 lbs away from my next milestone of being under 200 for the first time in14 years. (!!!) As such, I’ve set a new goal for myself to get under 200 before April 1st. That is the day I go for my final weigh-in for the 911 Fitness Challenge that I joined with Lynne. I’ll need to average about 2.3 lbs per week to meet this goal. I’m realistic enough to know that I can’t control what number the scale chooses to give me on any given day, but I can control what I eat and what I do to make sure I maximize my chances here, and that’s exactly what I intend to do!

Thanks so much for sticking with me on what’s been one of the greatest rides of my life so far. I certainly would have given up already had it not been for all of the support, inspiration, encouragement, motivation, and the occasional kick in the a$$ that I have gotten from all of you, and of course, my family. xoxo

p.s. I bought a new tank top and shorts today since the ones I have been wearing in my progress photos are so loose now. You can see me sporting them in today’s picture on my Photo Page. Heh, I think I like the really loose tank better, it hides more!

14.5/500