Finally got my work out in today, super late. I enjoy going with other people, I just don't like having to wait for them. But gosh, I just don't feel right until I hit the gym. It's great, never thought I'd feel that way, but I totally do. 20 minutes on the treadclimber, 284 calories. I'm almost 500 over my goal for the week, and 16 minutes over. Had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, snacked on a banana, just ate a piece of chicken-spinach pizza, cheese removed, from last night (I ate 2 slices last night, cheese-less), and I'm make yummy, healthy turkey-cabbage casserole for dinner. Ground turkey, brown rice, potatoes, cabbage, onion, low sodium stewed tomatoes, it shall be delicious. And really healthy and low calorie. I'm looking forward to it. and I picked up a Fitness magazine from the NEx, I've never read one before.

So, I have 4 minutes left to cardio until I meet my goal for this week, and of course that will be well surpassed tomorrow. I'm all 200+ calories burned above my goal. Had Frosted mini wheats for breakfast, yum, and a banana and 2 slices of bread with a little butter for lunch. Haven't yet decided what dinner will be, but today is looking good. Need to get in some more veggies, more protein, and more carbs. It's so ridiculous, I still for 2 days have not met my calorie minimums. I hate trying to shove stuff down to get to it, so I get pretty close-ish, but not all the way there. Never thought that that would be a problem for me.

Had a great workout today. 39 minutes total, 20 on treadclimber for 287 calories, 13 on stationary bike for 84 calories, and 6 on elliptical for 61 calories. Had a bowl of cheerios for breakfast. Starting to think about lunch but I'm not sure what I'll be having. And dinner will be the catfish I was going to make last night(had a Boca burger instead.) And I think I may swing by the store to get some bread, bananas, chocolate, the few things I would like to have before I really go grocery shopping on Friday. And so far, the week's dinner menu looks like this (beginning Friday): Ratatouille, chicken tortilla casserole, gumbo, cabbage casserole, meatloaf, chicken noodle soup, and turkey lasagna. All=freakin yum, dude. And those will all be made with healthier/lower calorie recipes, pretty much all from sparkpeople.com. Can't wait. I like having a menu set up, though, makes my life easier, and I don't have to scrounge for ideas for dinner last minute. I hate having to figure out what to make, not having everything. Menus for the week are definitely the way to go, I think.

And now I am well into the 180s! 186 as of 10 minutes ago. I am so thrilled. Not only did I actually meet my goals for this week, I really exceeded them. Now, I know that the generally approved weight loss is 1-2lbs/week, but I also know that this is really not going to happen much. I'm sure it was basically me kick-starting my ass into weight-loss by monitoring what I ate all week. Amazing the huge difference eating God knows how many calories (quite a few, I am sure), and then dropping to 1500 or below (usually closer to 1200, my minimum recommended) every day makes. And it's just so weird, because I don't generally feel hungry, definitely not after I eat. I eat 4-5 times per day(which is probably the biggest thing to not feeling hungry), and I still have chocolate and bread(wheat), and whatever. It's just astounding to me.

Anyway, I'll be hitting the gym in about an hour with Val. I need to eat some breakfast, drink some water, change my clothes, take the dog out, you know, all the morning stuff. And you better believe I will so be watching what I eat, but still be satisfied. I love it!

And look, now I'm even into the next BMI point down! I know, not really an accurate measure, but it makes me feel better.

Home from the gym. 32 minutes, 10 on bike, 22 on the elliptical. 301 calories burned. Feeling good now. I always feel better after I get back from the gym. I enjoy going. It's great, the feeling of enjoying working out and eating right. It makes this whole weight loss/fitness thing that much easier. I will probably heat up some of last night's leftovers for lunch, and I'm making catfish and leftover collard greens for dinner. And probably some beans. And I may through some tomatoes into the beans. Yum.

Official weigh-in tomorrow, I'm excited. I can't wait to see what I have lost. I'll be happy with any loss, but I know I've at least lost 2lbs. And 2 more weeks until measurements, and photos. I don't post the photos, but I want to see how I compare to those I took two weeks ago. I'm hoping to see at least a noticeable difference. It's hard to look at myself every day and say, yeah, I think I look smaller, because I don't think I do. But, I do know my tight clothes are fitting better and the clothes that fit are becoming looser. So, we'll see. I'm looking forward to it, either way.

And, this time next month, I'm planning to be in the 170s. I am so freaking excited for that. That will mean I have lost over 10% of my body weight. How cool is that? And in just a little over 2 months, I will be out of the "obese" category. I will not ever let myself get here again. It's too much, way too much. I want to be fit, and lean, and little. To be able to buy small clothes, and run 5 miles, and do 100 push ups. I want to feel like I look great, whether I'm naked, or in a swimsuit, or, hell, even in a parka. In anything. I want my husband to think of how light I feel when he picks me up, and I want to have a fit body to carry babies in. And I want to be really healthy. You know, I'm not really terribly unhealthy, I mean, I've obviously got all of this weight to lose, but, my blood pressure is great, I rarely get sick, I don't drink. But I like the feeling of teaching my heart and lungs to work more efficiently, I don't know how my cholesterol is, but I imagine with the way I am eating and exercising it is all getting better. I appreciate what my body does, and what it can do, and what it will be able to do, but I want there to be less of my body to love. I want to love the way I look, and the way I feel. And that is the end of my rambling for now.

So, did about 27 minutes gym exercise today (plus did a few minutes of vigorous playing with the dog to round out my time. Did 20 on the stationary bike, 153 cals, and 7 on the elliptical, 83 cals. Also ate really well today, but I'm still almost 300 under the minimum, so I will be having another serving of the Buffalo Chicken casserole I made for dinner (358 cals/serving). Yum. My own recipe and it was amazing. http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=707399 The recipe, if you're interested. It's super yummy, and filling for one helping. Gym again tomorrow, weigh-in on Wednesday. Also made out a weight loss calendar for myself today. Assuming things go as I plan them to for now, by the end of February, I should be at my goal of 129lbs. That would be awesome. I also wrote in all kinds of things to look forward to, so that I keep up motivation and everything for my weight loss, like, my husband's birthday, or Holidays, percentage of body weight lost, when I'll be at and below my high school weight. Inspiring things. Oh, and I did my push ups today. Today's were ROUGH. 2 sets of 14 and 2 of 10, plus a set of 15, all with 60 seconds in between. But I managed to get through them, and I felt really accomplished afterward.

Did my push ups yesterday because I forgot to do them Friday, but they got done. And Just got back from the gym, upped my workout today from 30 minutes to 45. Burned off 620 calories on the treadclimber. I feel great now. I didn't go to the gym yesterday, but I ate pretty well. As usual, I could have used more vegetables, but overall I ate pretty healthy, and actually had to eat some more so I could meet what sparkpeople considers my minimum caloric needs (1200). And I made it up today. So, I'm pretty impressed with myself. And I am already (unofficially) weighing in for my goal lbs for Wednesday, so maybe by the time it rolls around, I will be at my actual goal weight. That would be pretty cool. And I have a really good chance, especially since this will be my first full week using sparkpeople. I enjoy exercising. And eating right. I still treat myself to chocolate when I want some, but at the very max, it's like 5 squares (1 full serving) and usually I don't eat even that. It's really nice to see the weight dropping off. And I will be taking official measurements I just over 2 weeks, so we shall see how many more inches I have lost by then. I'm excited.

Back from the gym. Good workout today, 20 minutes on treadclimber, 270 calories. I'll be eating some lunch here pretty soon, leftovers from last night, yum. Had Cheerios for breakfast. I still have push ups left today. And my scale is inching rather quickly toward my goal weight for next week. And, I still managed to stay within my allotted calories yesterday, even with a decent size portion of spaghetti and an after-dinner chocolate. So it was a pretty good day. Today, I think, will be much the same. I'll probably fry up some of the chicken I have left from the other night for dinner. Maybe some brown rice or beans for dinner, and maybe collards. We'll see.

Worked out with Val today. Great workout. I did 13 minutes on the stationary bike, 100 calories, and 20 minutes on the Treadclimber, 290 calories. Cheerios for breakfast, GM for post-workout snack. And so far today, I've already had 5 cups of water. And making spaghetti with turkey meatballs tonight for dinner. I'll put in some onions and spinach and mushrooms into the sauce, the meatballs will be made with extra lean turkey, and it's a low calorie recipe I got off of foodnetwork.com, and the pasta is whole grain, so overall, not an unhealthy meal. And one to which I look forward. I'm really enjoying eating healthier and working out a lot. I feel better, I feel better about myself. My skin looks better, I'm losing inches, I sleep really well almost every night now, which I have not done in a very long time. I do think I will try to start adding on 5 minutes to a couple of workouts per week, so I can gradually increase my stamina even more. Plus, I've lost 5% of my body weight, which is pretty cool. I just have another 30% to go. :\ So, I'll get there. If I can keep up with my goals, which I think I can, it will be in the early part of next year. Although, I do really want to be a mother, but I want to lose a lot of this weight first, so I plan to lose as much as I can before I get pregnant, but at the same time, I want to be pregnant now. So, I guess we'll see what we see.

2 more lbs lost, for a total of 10lbs!

I had a pretty great workout. Burned less calories than I like to, 270 in 38 minutes, but I was on a stationary bike, and it was great! It was a surprisingly intense workout. I wanted to throw something different in there, to mix things up, I sweat so much, it was gross, but it felt great. I also started tracking my calories on sparkpeople.com. It's kind of cool to see everything, and I don't actually eat terribly, by which I mean, like too many calories. I was over on them the first day I tracked, Monday, but I had indulged that day and eaten a few pieces of chocolate. And yesterday, I was well within my calories, even though I had made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and collards for dinner. So I was kind of impressed with myself. And, as you can see in my ticker, there's a new number. 2lbs lower! Yay! And my waist was 1.75" smaller when I measured it this morning to plug into sp.com, I was pretty thrilled.

100 push ups update Monday

I finally started 100 push ups. Completed the first week set-day 1. Proud of myself. So, I skip tomorrow and do it again Wednesday. In a 6 weeks, my arms should be looking good, and doing great push ups x100 or so. Yay! Can't wait. Plus I'll hopefully be down another 12lbs or so. I'm looking forward to a lean, mean me.

Good workout today. 300 cals/20 minutes. I shortened it because my shin was hurting. I need to take a rest day, but I want to do that Wednesday, so I can try to lose as much weight as I can before weigh-in. Just one more day, my shin'll be ok. I really do need to start throwing in some strength training, though. I think I'll start that on Thursday. I just don't want to go into the weight room and look like an idiot. Stupid, I know. Oh well, I'll just shove through it. One time will make it easier to do it again and again. And really, nobody in there cares whether I'm there or not, or if I look stupid. It's a mental block. I'll get over it.

I did great this past week. Went to the gym every day except Tuesday. Awesome. I'm very proud of myself. And today's workout was great, 450 cals in 30 minutes. My usual cereal for breakfast, and now a GM. And I'm only 1 lb away from my goal weight for Wednesday. I'm excited about that. Since I had a great workout today, I just need to watch what I eat, which I've been really good about, except Friday, we went to the movies and had popcorn (no extra butter) and a soda, both of which we split and did not finish the soda, by like half, and then we went to Wendy's, but I only ate the chicken I ordered, no fries, and only a couple sips of the drink. And I'm still down 2 lbs from last Wed's weigh-in, though of course it's still unofficial since it's not Wednesday yet. I know people tell you to only weigh in 1x per week, but I find it easier to keep on track and more motivating to weigh in every day, that's why I'm only doing official weigh-ins on Wed.s though. So I can keep it more accurately, but still see the day-to-day results. Oh, got off-subject, anyway, gotta keep today in good standing, and tomorrow and Tuesday, gym and pretty careful eating. And then, maybe, I'll weigh in 189lbs for Wed. I really like this whole losing weight thing. And, I've been going to the gym for 4 weeks now. I really am proud of myself. And J is proud of me, which is nice to hear, too. Oh, and I did notice 1 pair of jeans that are pretty tight in the waist fitting better.

Great workout today, 450 cals in 1/2 hour. Green monster now. Kix for breakfast. Pretty good day so far.

Another great workout. Got back on the treadclimber today. 430 calories in 30 minutes. Love it. Had Kix for breakfast, GM post-workout. J really liked this one, except it was too thick for him. Spinach, banana, yogurt, 1% milk (out of soy), 1/2 cup or so of blueberries, white nectarine, including skin. It was really yummy.

update

Well, got in my nice workout. 26 minutes, 300 calories, 2 miles. On the elliptical. On the plus side, all this cardio is really helping my stamina and everything, so even if I haven't really run any miles yet, I have the ability to go at least a couple, at a fast walk. I just have to get it to the point where it's a run, it's outside, and it's fast. When I can do 1.5 miles in under 12 minutes, I'll be happy. That's going to take a lot of work though. But I'm willing, it's what I want to do. I had a bowl of Kix for breakfast and am now having a GM although, it's rather muddy looking today, as I used frozen blueberries instead of peaches. Not as pretty, but even tastier.

Just wanted to update. Had a yummy Boca burger with tomato slices, roasted red pepper slices, 1 piece of American cheese (not quite the full piece, more like 4/5 of a slice) and yellow mustard on 1 slice of wheat bread (I cut it in half to make a top and bottom). And also sliced up 1/2 a cucumber and ate that with balsamic vinegar. Getting ready to get something to snack on. And I decided to start http://www.hundredpushups.com/. I want to get my push ups up in number and really work my body, so I figured this would be a good way to try. Now I've just got to get going on that. Oh and I tested rank 3 at 15 good form push ups.

update

Did a short workout this morning on the elliptical. 150 calories, about 15 minutes, mostly because J had to go to watch early, partly because the treadclimber was occupied and I just didn't feel like a longer workout. It was a couple of hours earlier than I normally go, and I'd just gotten up. Not my favorite time to exercise. I did make a yummy GM for post-workout breakfast. It was great, made J try it, he said it wasn't bad, but he wasn't real keen on it. What a baby. I think he was weirded out by the color, and probably would like it better with pb or something. Oh well, I'll get him to drink one sometime that he likes. I did lose another pound this week, which I'm excited about. Hoping that I'll really start dropping some weight now that I've gotten over my first (very small) plateau. Especially with better eating. I wasn't eating super-terrible before, but it really wasn't that good, and I definitely lacked in the vegetable department. So hopefully this will change soon. I'm almost in the 180s! Hmm. Never thought that would make me happy. But I'll take what I can get.

Update

So, I did not get to the gym today, which I feel kind of crappy over. But, I did get in my grocery shopping. With that came 2 hours of walking through the stores. And I bought a ton of good food and the junkiest thing I bought was cheez-its, and they were not for me. I don't even eat them. So I now have a bunch of great foods in my house, and a TON of frozen and fresh veggies. I bought some fresh nectarines and bananas, and some frozen peaches, strawberries, and blueberries, because I am not good at eating all the fruit I should, and it goes bad and wastes money. Also got some 1/2 fat vanilla Silk, yum! and some low fat vanilla yogurt for my smoothies. Speaking of which, I am a Green Monster convert. I made a small one a little while ago (I had 2 slices of pizza sans cheese with roasted red pepper, chicken, and spinach for dinner, and 2 buffalo wings at about 4pm) for my evening food (I go to bed rather late, so I still have a few hours to be up, at least) and it was amazing. I used 1 med-small banana, maybe a 1/4 cup lf vanilla yogurt, a couple splashes of vanilla soy milk, 2 handfuls of spinach, and probably half a cup of frozen peaches. My smoothie maker kind of sucks, but it gets the job done, so I still had a lot of very small pieces of spinach in there, but, you really couldn't taste it, def. true in that respect. It was so good. I can't wait to start my day tomorrow with one. A lot of recipes call for pb in them, but I wasn't super keen on that, even though I like pb, so I used the yogurt instead to supplement the protein, so I still got it from real food. I probably will at some point get some protein powder, though, but not at the moment. Anyway, I have run way one, so I'll stop.

Update

So not only am I very happy about the inches I have lost, I also burned off...wait for it...560 calories at the gym today. Youch. I'm very proud of myself. I worked out for an additional 10 minutes over what I usually do, and I did a little bit of a faster pace today. I had a magazine with, which while a little heard to read whil working out, makes the time go by more quickly, so that, while I enjoy working out, my body isn't like, "I've been active for too long!" Or whatever. I did kind of make an idiot out of myself with it though. Right as I was finishing, I was trying to move the magazine so I could see me results, and I dropped it, tried to pick it up off the pedal, nearly fell face first into the pedals as my feet continued backwards, and knocked the thing to the end. Another woman there picked it up for me. I felt kind of stupid, but, who really cares? And, I had a nice bowl of oatmeal with a little butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon this morning, and an egg salad sandwich (without yolk) for lunch. And I'm making whole grain spaghetti for dinner, with some ground chicken in the sauce. Yum! And I finally can go grocery shopping tomorrow, which I will do in full force.

New measurements.

Measurements are:
Original
Bust-44 1/2
Chest-37
Waist-42 1/2
Hips-46
Midway-46
Thighs-44 (together) 28(individually)
Knees-31 (tog) 18(ind)
Calves-15 1/2 (ind)
Forearms-10 1/4 (left) 10 3/4 (right)
Upperarms-14 3/4 (left) 14 1/4 (right)

July 12
Bust- 43" (-1.5")
Ribcage- 36" (-1")
Above navel- 40 3/4" (-1.75")
Hips-44 (-2")
Under navel- 45" (-1")
Thighs- (together) 42 3/4" (-1.25") L- 27" (-1") R- 27 1/4" (-.75")
Just above Knees- (tog) 28.5" (-2.5") L-17.5" (-.5") R17.5" (-.5")
Calves- L-15.25" (-.25") R-15.5" (0)
Upperarms- L-13.25" (-1.5") R-13.25" (-1")

So, while I don't see it yet, the math doesn't lie, I've definitely lost several inches all over (individually added up, 12.75". Wow) . Now I can't wait until I can actually see it.

Sunday update.

Just got back from the gym. Another really good workout. 350+ cals in 25 minutes on the treadclimber. Also, I've had a full glass and almost a full bottle of lemon water. Had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, I'll be having lunch here shortly, leftovers from last night. Still have 100 pushups to do today, but they'll get done.

Saturday update.

I didn't go to the gym today, ok, technically yesterday, but I did do a total of 65 push ups. I need to do more of them and keep track, as that's my real strength training right now, and I need to be able to do a lot of them for my intended career choice, though I am a few years from that. It's still better to go ahead and be prepared. Plus I like to do it. But anyway, main reason I didn't go today, my shins were a little painful from the upward climb on the treadclimber. I'll be back in there tomorrow. I kind of missed going today. I'm finding I really do like to go. Someday when I get more into shape and lose some weight so it's easier on my knees and ankles, I'll actually take up running. I need to be able to do that, too. At least a good 1.5 miles. More really. Better to be over-prepared, rather than just cutting it. I'll get there, though. My whole diet(I use the word in the sense of everything I eat, not limiting my intake for weight loss)was left wanting today, though. I ate 3 bowls of King Vitamin, could have done worse there, but could have done better. I ate a lot of jalapeno chips. I'm not really sure how many, I stupidly ate them straight from the bag, not from a dish. I did have a half of a chicken breast in there somewhere, and my dinner was good. I stir-fried more chicken with onions, garlic, a lot of broccoli, rinsed bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and rinsed baby corn, cooked in soy sauce and a little bit of peanut oil. And I had brown rice with it. Point is, I ate a complex carb, a good protein, and a lot of vegetables. So that kind of helped against the rest of my dietary slacking. Tomorrow will be better. I have plenty of left overs, so I know what I'm having for lunch! And I'll probably even add in more broccoli. Yum!

Update.

Another great one, 400 calories burned on the treadclimber. This is so my favorite machine. Had a protein-y breakfast, hardboiled eggs, but I don't like the yolk, so I didn't eat it, and 1.5 pieces of bacon. And a bowl of rice krispies. I love those. I am now about to eat a bowl of ramen (I used less than a full packet of flavoring) with leftover pork and bell peppers from last night, yum! And a cup of unsweetened, natural applesauce. And 2 cookies for dessert. It's easier, and better, to just eat them instead of obsessing about them all day. And a glass of iced tea. I've already had 2+ glasses of water with lemon today. I only use about 1/3 cup of sugar for my whole gallon of tea, so, I worked it out, and the whole pitcher has like...258 calories. So much better than all the Coca Cola I used to drink all the time. Alright. time to eat now. Dueces.

update.

Another great day at the gym. Burned off another 400 cals on the treadclimber. That machine is fantastic. Buying a blender next payday so I can start making the Green Monster smoothie. Google it. Can't wait. Really need to kick start this whole cleaner eating thing. That will really help with the whole weight-loss, health-gain thing. Oh, and if I can make my goal of burning 2lbs per week off, by the end of the year, I'll be all the way down to 141. That would be awesome. That's 12lbs less than my low high school weight.

New update.

Skipped a few days, but I did go today. Tried the treadclimber today, and I really enjoyed it. Burned off 320+ calories in like 30 minutes. I'm going to try to get on that more often. It's usually got someone on it. Weighed in another pound less.

Another day.

Another good workout. I skipped yesterday, but that's ok. I am still floating at the same weight, which kind of blows, but, I'm working on it. At least I'm working out on a pretty regular basis, now. And I feel better when I go. So I'm happier. I can't wait until I really start seeing the results, though. But I have lost some 1/4 and 1/2 inches in places, maybe slightly more. Even if I don't see the difference yet, that makes me feel a little better.

Gym day...I dunno, 2 of them

Forgot to update after workout yesterday. It was AWESOME! 45 minutes on the elliptical, didn't think I could do it, but I did. And I burned 489 calories. Today's was short, Something like 25 minutes, split between stationary bike and elliptical. Only burned around 150-170 cals, but better than nothing, and worked my thighs pretty well. I'll do a better workout tomorrow. Oh, and walked the dog a little bit last night, probably will again tonight, don't know yet.