Intensity

Over the years, when I worked out, it was always with one particular instructor. I knew his routines by heart--well enough to break out and do them in the aisles when I heard the songs playing at stores. (I never did this, but I could have.)

A year ago, I knew I had outgrown these workouts. I knew I had to incorporate weight work and flexibility training. I didn't know where to turn, though, as I am a girlie girl and the thought of doing men's weight work made me ill.

I sat down at Collage Video and started previewing clips. Then I found my magic bullet: The FIRM. For me, the magic was with the older FIRMS, the originals, put out by Anna Benson, her husband Mark Henrickson and her sister Cynthia Benson. I ordered Fat Blaster, Volume 4, and Maximum Body Shaping from Collage and fell in love. This was in September.

One year ago this week, my son and I took a mini-vacation to celebrate his birthday. We were in a city, and we hit many thrift stores so I could find more FIRM videos. I came home empty handed. Why? Because The FIRM works and is still in high demand. So, upon arrival home, I sat down and ordered almost all of them from Amazon's Marketplace.

And the rest is history.

I started building muscle, I started working out at a higher intensity. I sweat bullets. I was in LOVE. Beautiful, graceful instructors in a beautiful setting--it's nicknamed The Mansion--was right up my alley.

As time wore on, I progressed and branched out. I found and fell in love with Christi Taylor, Cathe--who I consider the holy grail. She's tough! I bought P90X and have done a few weeks of it, but I don't care for long rotations so it's back on the shelf for now.

All this time I was building muscle, and I have the Bod Pod results to prove that! I was losing fat slowly. I call myself The Tortoise--which is a play on words, because one of my favorite workouts is The Tortoise by The FIRM. Slow, slow, slow-yet I've watched carefully what I ate, and worked out pretty faithfully--even when I was having all that bad pain.

Then comes the purchase of The FitBit. That arrived in mid August. I played, tinkered and charted things. I got determined to get more steps in. Slowly, in my tortoise fashion, I increased my daily step count. Right this very minute, my weekly average for daily steps is 24,000. That's a lot--for me, and for everyone as I am in the top 3 rankings in all the FitBit groups I'm in.

It was tough to get that many steps in especially when I couldn't get out to walk a lot. So I added in George Foreman's Walking DVDs. I do one every morning. I get 3-4,000 steps per workout. I then added Stephanie Huckabee's PowerFit cardios. 20 minutes each, I gain around 2000 steps with each of those. I also discovered more of Petra Kolber's DVDs: I'm especially fond of Cardio for Beginners. Plus, I walk for real outside. I am less efficient around the house prompting more steps. Going to Walmart? Great, I walk the store a few times for a couple thousand steps. No one has a clue what I'm doing as I am pushing a cart.

I've charted, I've graphed, I've deciphered and figured. This past week I came up with a formula for myself. My goal is to have a 1000 to 1250 deficit daily between what FitBit tells me my calorie burn is and what I consume.

It's working. (For now, at least!) This week's weigh-in, I lost 3.5 pounds! I had entire months where I didn't lose that much! I am thrilled. I also hit the mini-goal I had of losing 30% of my original weight.

Now, knowing me and my track record, who knows if this will continue. However, I figured out that the additional steps per day count AND that I don't need to do everything at high intensity. I try to do a step tape or power walk every day or six times a week. Both are high intensity for me. I average between 6-7,000 steps per step tape. I also do weights three times a week. I stretch a lot, mostly using Classical Stretch. It's that light aerobics, the moving in the low-end of the aerobic target zone, that is helping. I think.

The best part is I'm not starving. I get to eat between 16-1800 calories per day. That's a lot! Well worth it.

I love my FitBit. I love it more than chocolate. I love how my health is improving. I imagine myself kicking that HDL into high numbers with all my hard work. I love this week's weigh-in.

"Missing Your Blogs"

I got an email just now that said "Missing Your Blogs." That's all it said--and it made my night. It's nice to be missed! I replied and stated that I can't think of anything to say!

Writer's block, maybe? Stuck in a rut, or perhaps better put, in a good routine? I'm sailing along right now and have nothing profound or mundane to say. Hmmm.

This past week I've been working on things that bother me. Specifically things that have happened to me that changed me--changed me in a bad way. Won't go into specifics, but it was pretty bad to me.

I started thinking of Stuart Smalley. Remember Al Franken playing Stuart? I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like me. Positive affirmations. I started thinking about how they actually do work if you use them, and I came up with a few. The one that I used repeatedy this past week was:

I let go.

Every time the negative memories popped into my head, and that happens a lot, I just repeated over and over, "I let go." You know what? It started to work. I started having a bit of peace. I didn't get upset, I didn't get anxious, I just kept repeating it and soon the thoughts disappeared. It may just work.

Think it would work if I positively affirmed: I'm not hungry, even when my stomach is growling? lol

My husband tells me I have a bad habit of hanging on to bad things and thinking them over and over and over. He's right, I do. So I'm trying to change that. I let go.

Now, I won't be using Stuart's line. I know I'm good enough, I know I'm intelligent, and I know people like me--I have confidence in that arena. Yet I can think of many affirmations to use in areas where I'm not so strong.

Losing weight and getting healthy is not all about losing weight and getting healthy, it's mostly about fixing thinking. It's the stinking thinking that gets us overweight to begin with. So I'm at a stage now where I'm not afraid to tackle some of the more difficult self-messages I feed myself. I've come a long way, but now it's time to dig really deep. As my motto states: I can and I will.

Move it!

Exercise. Something I have always loved, then got to big to enjoy, then found again. My heart belongs to Anna Benson's The FIRM workouts. I love them beyond words.

It's been about one year since I got serious about fitness. Many, many dollars later, I have a wonderful collection of exercise DVDs and VHS tapes. In that year I've learned to lift weights, which was Anna Benson's gift to me. I also rekindled my love of step aerobics.

The three components of exercise: strength, cardio and stretching are being met. I have not yet found a yoga tape I love or will even do. However, I love Classical Stretch.

The past few weeks, I have found myself changing in what I crave to do. My body is talking to me. Partly because of the FitBit, and partly because of my doctor's note that "exercise will raise my HDL," I've changed. I've toned tings down somewhat--or rather, added some toned down things.

I discovered George Foreman's Walk It Off series. Petra Kolber leads these, but George is our coach! They're fun. It's marching in place, walking around the living room, with great music and nice chitchat between the group. I also bought some Classical walking CDs from Collage Video. Was I ever thrilled to discover some of my beloved FIRM songs on those!

I'm averaging at least 20,000 steps a day now. That's way up. I'm moving it. This also started the scale moving again for me--at least that's what I figure by looking at my spreadsheets. Not much, but it appears I've lost 5 pounds in the last 30 days.

My body has also been craving fluid movement, graceful movement. I don't like yoga and I doubt I ever will. I have a few yoga DVDs, but--eww. lol (No offense to those that love yoga!) Today I really stepped out on a limb and bought a Qi Gong DVD. It is just so beautiful and graceful. When I'm all alone, I can see myself attempting it! I also bought a cardio yoga DVD that does a bit of cardio, then into a good stretch. I'm trying.

Finally, I bought Petra Kolber's Breathe 1 & 2. I love Petra Kolber--she just has a good energy to her. These tapes look so graceful. I need some grace in my life.

So I grow and change. I can lift weights and love it. I can do step and love it. Now I'll add some walking DVDs, some floor aerobics and some new flowing movements.

I love how my body tells me what I need and what it craves. It knows what it needs for fitness. Told hubby that when I was much heavier, I just couldn't do these graceful moves. I'm feeling more confident that I can now.

Fitness is at the center of my life now. That's a very good thing.

~~~~~~~
Happy Birthday to Jack LaLanne today! He's 96 today! I found this quote he made last night and it sums up perfectly why I started my get healthy journey:

"I don't care how old I live, I just want to be living while I am living!"

Me too, Jack! Me too!

Determination

I asked my husband to guest blog for me tonight. He asked why, and I told him I couldn't think of anything to blog about. That's funny, because I talk...a lot.

This past week I have realized a few things:
1) My rate of weight loss SUCKS
2) It bothers me
3) On the other hand, I don't care because...
4) I'm determined.
5) And...I've got it.

I've been at this for 19 months! Never once have I wanted to throw in the towel. Never once have I wanted to go back to my old ways. Never once have I stopped believing in myself.

While I may not be close to goal, by golly, I'm at goal mentally. I've nailed it.

I'm a lifer. This is real, I'm reaping the benefits already, I'm just a tortoise. That's my lot in life, I accept it. However, I'm in it for life.

I win!

Dang, Girl, Post

I promised I'd post more once September hit.

But then school started...
But then I got behind...
But we haven't finished our big basement project...
But I got a FitBit and I don't like to sit for very long now...
But I got overwhelmed again...
But I haven't even logged my workouts for the last week on my side bar, so I can't post until I catch up with that...
But I need to clean the house...
But I need to pay the bills...
But I need to run to the grocery store...

But
But
But

"Everybody I know has a big 'but'." PeeWee Herman

I will never get caught up with anything. That's how life works, isn't it!

I need to write a big review on the FitBit. I am in love with that thing. I am averaging over 20,000 steps a day! Huge motivation, that FitBit is. Soon, I promise.

We celebrated 21 years of marriage this week. Makes me feel old! I was 21 when we met!

That's it. Short post for this rainy Saturday morning!

ONEDERLAND!!!

Weight: 199

Finally! Woo-hoo!!!

Monday Morning Weigh-In

200
that's a 2.5 pound loss since I last updated my sidebar. I've been floating between the last entry on the sidebar, 202.5, and 206 forever, it seems. Hopefully this new movement (two days in a row at 200) is the start of a new trend, a plateau buster, and I will be on my way with the scale again.