Walking and Health

It’s the first day of summer.  Any change in season is a great excuse to make adjustments in your own life.  Nows the time to get out more and walk.  Take advantage of the extra day light outside and make an effort to get the entire family out doors and more active.  If you have a pool, vow to swim and play in the water.  If you have a play area in the back yard or at a nearby park, take time to get the kids out for 30 minutes a day.  Not only will they get in fun time and exercise, but they’ll release all that extra energy. 

Summer fun is a time to plan a little R&R.  Rest and relaxation.  You don’t have to plan a huge, over-the-top vacation.  Keep it simple and keep it stress-free.  You have enough stress at work.  Don’t bring it home while trying to plan out some extravagant minute-by-minute, we must be doing something fun at all times, kind of activity.  Plan a series of short trips locally, or plan a Staycation.  What’s a staycation? 

A Staycation is a vacation the entire family can take together, however, instead of planning a trip to somewhere far away, you plan your vacation based on local attractions, up to and including your own back yard.  Want to go camping?  Set up a tent in the back yard.  The idea is to keep it simple and keep it basic.  Staycations are happening all across the country as the economy is on the re-bound.  Don’t deny your family the anticipated summer vacation that you normally take every year.  Plan your trips and stay local, get discounts, shop around, have a special treat everyday. Paln your vacation close to home and it will be as good as if you were hundreds of miles away.  Keep an eye out on local happenings in your area and add them into your staycation.  Look for free activities to do at the local library or marketplace and get out for the day.  It’s all good and you’ll be more aware of all the many activities that your city has available. 

Enjoy your summer and get back to the basics of life.  Play Monopoly or Risk or a fun game of cards.  Camp out in the back and after the BBQ, have S’Mores and do campfire skits for entertainment.  The kids will enjoy and appreciate the quality family time.  Keep all cell phones and other electronics away from your staycation area.   The key is to ”feel” like your getting away from the day-to-day routine.   Take plenty of pictures and involve the kids in event planning and use their imaginations and your own to take you to exotic places.

My goal is to lose 5 pounds. Why even start it, you ask?  Truth be told, I need to lose about 100 pounds to be at the recommended healthy weight for my height.

The leader at the local Weight Watchers Group that I attend on a weekly basis, told us her story of her yo-yo dieting since she was in the 8th grade.  Then she went on to say that she tried again later in her life, she’s probably in her late 60s, and this time it worked.  In fact, she has kept the weight off for the past five years.  What’s her secret?

She lost her weight, a total of 112 pounds, in 5 pound increments.  She lost 5 pounds 23 times.  She laughed when she exclaimed that people would come up to her and ask her about her weight loss throughout her journey.  They would eventually get to the question that she felt was none of their business, but she would tell them anyway.  What was the question?  They would ask her how much weight she still had left to lose.  If she had lost, for example, two pounds in her quest for the next five, she would tell them, I have three to go.  When she first started her weight loss, she said she had some strange looks. They probably wondered what type of mirror she was looking in since her reflection showed a still, very plump woman.

The main point here, is to know your total goal, but break it down into smaller increments so it’s not so overwhelming.  This applies to most goal-setting in our lives.  Break it down and reward yourself for achieving smaller goals.  Eventually the larger goal will be achieved.  With this mindset, I am once again starting my Weight Watchers Journey.  My goal is to lose 5 pounds, 20 times.

Progress Report:  May 13, 2010 - First Day Attending a Weight Watchers Meeting

I weighed in at my first meeting.  The scale didn’t break, however, I felt very overweight seeing my weight written down.  I have a 5% goal and a 10% goal recorded in my book and these are set by Weight Watchers.  My goal is to lose my first five pounds. I saw other woman in there who were bigger than me, smaller than me and everywhere in between.  I saw a lady receive an award for losing 5 pounds and I saw another lady receive an award for reaching a goal of 5% weight loss.  This means she started at her original weight and lost enough weight to reach a goal of 5%.  If she originally weighed 200 pounds, then she must have lost 10 pounds.  Her next milestone, along with her five pound increments, will be a weight percentage loss of ten percent of her original weight, which in this example is 20 pounds.  Weight Watchers sees a 10% decrease in weight as a major accomplishment because they know that losing 10% of your body weight helps in overall health factors such as diabetes, heart health and other illnesses associated with obesity.

Progress Report:  May 20, 2010 - Week 1 of Weight Watchers in the books

I stepped on the scale and held my breath.  I felt really good about my goal this week.  I wanted to lose at least 5 pounds by my first weigh-in to keep myself “in the zone”.  All week long I was “in the zone” and I didn’t want this weigh-in to discourage my mind set.  I looked at the lady sitting at the weigh-in table as she gave the ok to step on the scale.  She smiled as if to say, it’s ok, whatever the outcome, you’re here and trying to make a difference.  I got on the scale and I felt like a contestant on “The Biggest Loser”.  I couldn’t see the scale face beause it was pointing towards her for privacy.  She quickly wrote the number in my book and smiled at me.  She said congratulations as she handed me back my book.  I looked at the new, lower number in my book and looked up to the left for the net change.  I had met my first 5 pound weight loss goal with a loss for the week of 5.2 pounds!  What a great feeling.  I wasn’t focusing on the total picture of 100 pounds, but on my first goal of five pounds.  ”Done”, “history”, “let’s move on”, and “I’m ready”, were the thoughts running through my mind. Now, I’m “in the zone” to lose my next 5 pounds.  1 down, 19 to go.

Progress Report:  May 27 Week Two on Weight Watchers    Weight Loss To Date 5.2 lbs

I was a bit nervous again about the second week.  I lost five pounds the first week and I knew I probably couldn’t match that again, but I was ok with that.  I was hoping to lose 2 to 3 pounds the second week.  I got there a few minutes before the meeting started and there was a short line to weigh in.  I got to the front of the line and after updating my paperwork, I was asked to step on.  The lady in front of me had gained weight.  The lady behind the table, said it was a temporary thing and told the disappointed woman to not give up.  I closed my eyes for a brief moment and remembered the five pounds at a time.  If I didn’t lose weight or I gained weight, it was ok, because it’s all about taking baby steps.  Sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move forward.

I got on the scale and once again I was in the blind.  Only the lady writing down my numbers knew my weight.  She told me it was ok to get off the scale and she recorded my number in my book.  She handed it back to me. I was a little nervous, but excited at the same time.  I counted points all week and I know I slipped up here and there.  A lady at work brought in home-made chocolate chip cookies.  I had one, but I was ok with that, because the key to any weight loss plan is to eat in moderation. Back to the scale. I looked at my little booklet and I saw that I had lost two pounds!  I’ll take two pounds.  Now that’s two pounds from this week plus five pounds from last week.  So, there is 7 pounds less of me!  Only three more pounds to go!

Progress Report:  June 3rd Week Three on Weight Watchers   Weight Loss To Date 7.2 lbs

So, how to begin. I am only human.  I caught a cold two days ago and used that as an excuse to not go any place extra that I didn’t absolutely need to go.  I know it’s a lame excuse, but I wanted to share my “In the Zone” success and my “fell out of the zone” failures.  I don’t think I gained or lost this week, however, i didn’t go to get weighed in.  I’m going get back “into the zone’ and go next week. 

Progress Report:  June 10th Week Four on Weight Watchers  Weight Loss to Date 7.2 lbs

Well it’s been four weeks and this is much longer than I’ve ever stuck with any weight loss diet.  I know every January for my New Year’s Resolution, I start a weight loss diet, but then go off of it within a week.  I went to the Weight Watcher’s meeting.  I was seriously nervous because it was my daughter’s birthday, and I did have some cake and icecream.  i included them in my points, but I did go over.  I also went bowling over the Memorial Day Weekend and I twisted or sprained my knee, so I haven’t walked like I normally do and it has affected my weight loss. 

I got on the scale and I didn’t lose a pound. I gained a few ounces, but I’m good with that because I can look back at the week and I can explain what happened. It’s called life.  Life and all it’s wonders sometimes gets in the way.  I’m still “in the zone” and plan on working hard this week to really follow through and stay on my points and track my points. Writing things down is the key to any successful journey.  I’m also going to try to get out and get in some exercise.  This is just a small bump in the road and I can still clearly see the road ahaed of me.  Five pounds at a time and I have three to go.

• Have you ever started a weight loss program and had it sabotaged?
• How do you get back on track when you do lose focus?
• What motivates you to accomplish your goals?

Progress Report:  June 17 Week Five on Weight Watchers    Weight Loss To Date 7.2 lbs 

The weight listed is the official Weight Watchers scale weight that I lost.  I had a rough week again and I have to honestly tell you that I stayed home and watched game seven of the NBA Finals.  My mind set was that if I stayed the same or lost weight, then it would still show on the scale the next week.  This is my reasoning.  I will say that the most important thing I’m coming to realize is that it’s all about time. 

If you think about time and were to monitor weight gain or weight loss in the past five years of your life, you’ll see ups, downs, and plateaus.  If your eating habits revolve around your levels of stress, you will see fluctuations during emotional or stressful times in your life.   This is normal human behavior.   So, I am looking at this weight loss as a road trip that is going to have hills and valleys.  The main point is to stay the course and reach the final destination.  This the mindset to a successful journey.  People will say this diet didn’t work or that diet was too hard to follow.  Actually, they just need to re-think their mental attitudes.  Find a weight program that works for you then stick with it through the ups and downs.  In the end you will reach your goal.  It took me 14 years and four children to pack on this extra 100 pounds.  I hope it won’t take 14 years to lose it. I’m realistically looking at one year at the minimum to shed all this extra weight. It sounds like an eternity.  Stay on a diet for one year.  However, it’s a life style change that I’m making.  My mentality is set.  I’m not on a diet.  I’m on a mission to make better choices one day at a time, one meal at a time.  I’m looking forward to the next weigh-in, good or bad.  I mentioned earlier that I’m taking it five pounds at a time and, taking it one step further, I’m taking it one day at a time.  

Share your thoughts below.  I’d love to hear from you.

How Does the Weight Watchers Program Work?

I started my Weight Watchers Journey once again.  I’m tracking my meals on their tracking system.  I calculate my daily number of points based on their calculations.  You take your weight and use the first two digits as the starting point for the number of points you get each day.  For example, if you weigh 193 pounds, then your first number in the calculation would be 19.  Then you add other points based on your daily activity level, whether you are pregnant or nursing, etc.  The total of all these variables added together is your daily point count that you are allowed each day.

How Do You Know How Many Points You Eat In A Meal?

The booklet that they give you at the Weigh Watcher’s meeting has a variety of foods listed and the corresponding points.  Let say for example you eat a breakfast of a small packet of oatmeal, a piece of whole-wheat toast and an 8 ounce glass of ornage juice.  You look in your book and you can get an approximate amount of points for each item.  However, Weight Watchers provides a sliding scale point finder. Look on the package at the Nutritional Facts and based on the amount of fiber, calories per serving and total fat, you can use the point finder and get a more accurate point usage.  So, in our example, the oatmeal packet is 3 points, the toast is 1 point, and the glass of orange juice is 3 points.  The first meal of the day came to 7 points.  If you had a told of 25 points for the day, that would leave 18 points allowed for the remaining food items you can eat for the day.  That’s it in a nut-shell.  You can exercise and earn more points, or take advantage of 35 extra points they give you to be used throughout the week.  These are extra points for special occasions. You can use the extra points without feeling like you cheated.  The Weight Watchers plan is very flexible and has evolved throughout the years into a plan that will work for anybody who sets their mind to losing weight in a safe manner.  The point system, if followed correctly, will yield an average of two pounds weight loss per week.

Week One Goals:

1. Lose 05 Pounds
2. Drink at least eight glasses of water per day.
3. Reduce my BMI by 2 points.
4. Exercise at least minutes per day/five days per week.
5. Maintain a 1200 per day calorie intake.
6. Follow the Weight Watchers Point System.

I hope you will join me in my quest to lose weight. Personally my goal is to lose weight and get fit in order to become a healthier person for myself and my kids, and more importantly, to have a healthy vessel in which God can work through.

May God Bless you today and always.

Our Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord,

Help me draw into a state of humbleness with childlike reverence to do your will.  Help me and those who wish to take up this challenge.  We will look to you for guidance and support in our efforts to become healthier individuals.  Feed us spiritually so that we may shed pounds and selfish feelings of the flesh.  Thank you Lord. Amen.

Picture of me and my husband prior to Day 1 of my Weight Watchers Journey.

I will use this picture as my starting point and will provide updates as my weight changes.

Today is Veteran’s Day.  Remember the men and woman around the country and around the world, who stand for freedom.  They volunteered to fight for our country. Some of them fought in wars from the past and some of them are currently deployed throughout the world.  They stand for all that is right trying to protect freedom that we sometimes take for granted.  In honor of them today, let’s remember them and say a small prayer for them.  May they continue to stand firm in their commitment to protect our rights.  May God Bless them and watch over them.  May all veterans of all wars and military branches know that they are not forgotten. 

To all of our military, we salute you:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again.  Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause.  Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.  So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
     — Theodore Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena

Here we go about to embark into summer and you look at your swimsuits from last year and wonder how they shrunk when you haven’t even washed them.  Wait a minute.  It’s not the bikini that got smaller, you got bigger.  How did that happen? You were mentally ready on January 1st to lose those extra pounds, but by January 10th your heart just wasn’t in it anymore. You shed a few pounds, but spring came and you got more active, so that meant you could eat more because you’re burning more calories since you are exercising more.  Just like a bear that wakes up from his long winter break, you started eating and eating.  Now it’s time to get back into shape.

Summer is around the corner and summer bikini bummer is right in your face.  Let’s deal with it and start working on your tummy now.  Try different exercises that work the whole core.  You don’t want to concentrate so much on your abs that the rest of your muscles get neglected.  Pilates is a great way to exercise the entire core.  WebMD has a great slide show on Abs, the name of the section is called, Ab Envy and you can link to it here.  Ab Envy Slide show .  A few of the exercises they reveal are:

• The Canoe Twist
• The Cat Kick
• The Pilates Zip Up
• normal everyday “extras” to help abs

The main point is that if you start a few months before summer and exercise more and make good choices towards eating healthy, the Summer Bikini Bummer will be a thing of the past. 

What do you think?  How long does it take you to get into shape for the summer bikini months?  Do you work out all year so you don’t have this issue, or do you feel like your weight creeps up more and more every year and you have to try harder and harder to get it off?  Let me know what you think.

So, you go on a diet and you lose those extra pounds.  Now what?  How do you keep off the pounds that you just lost?  The last thing you want to do is get back to your old eating habits and gain the weight back that you worked so hard at losing.  The gaining weight, then dieting to lose it, then gaining it back again is the old yo-yo dieting theory.  Some even say that if you lose weight and then gain it back, you usually end up gaining more weight or gain fat and not muscle, so in a sense, your body is worse off than before you started. 

There are many products out on the market now that can help you to lose weight.  But, let’s say you lose twenty pounds by following a strict diet.  Good for you, but how do you keep the pounds off.  Well, Dr. Suzanne has gone and done it again!  She gave you the revolutionary secrets to fat loss in her eBook “Top Secret Fat Loss Secret” which shook the very foundations of the food manufacturers and opened the eyes of millions just like YOU to help take your life back and your waistline.

Even though, she helped people lose over 56,562 lbs total and counting with her amazing secret, she noticed an unsettling trend.  She found that there was no problem for them losing the weight but, to her disheartenment they seemed to be struggling to keep it off!  We have ALL gone through this. It seems too familiar.

LOSE the WEIGHT….GAIN the WEIGHT…LOSE the WEIGHT…GAIN the WEIGHT…

This viscous cycle of Yo- Yo Dieting has to end and end NOW!  As you know, Dr. Suzanne leaves no stone unturned when searching for the TRUTH!  After countless interviews with diet experts and people just like YOU who have struggled with the battle of bulge and have won she discovered that all of them did a very similar SIMPLE EASY to DO SYSTEM that kept the weight off !!!!

Instead of keeping this amazing discovery to herself Dr. Suzanne has created the YoungSlimFit Program to give you all of the tools that they used to finally end their battle with the bulge!!  So if you are someone who is just flat out sick and tired of the endless Yo-Yo Dieting then do not hesitate any longer.

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