Busy

Man it's been a crazy month. I'll try to catch you up.  One of my goals was met on October 13th. I ran a 10k with my brother Cory. We did the Alpine, Utah Oktoberfest run. It was actually pretty fun and I'm really glad we did it. We went slow (12 minute miles), but we ran the whole thing which was all I wanted to do. Cory was really supportive even though I made him go slower then he usually does. Back in June we were training to run a half marathon but for lots of reasons we decided to put it off until we all felt like we could comfortably run it. So instead of not doing anything we decided to do a 10k to keep ourselves in the running mood. It was FREEZING in the morning, but I warmed right up and it was a really good run.We raced each other in the end,I think I won! ;)

It's amazing to me how much a let my healthy eating go when I'm busy or not tracking. These past few weeks I've been studying to take my Esthetician Practical Exam and because I'm a procrastinator I had a lot to do and a lot to study.  I told myself that the test was my priority and everything else was going to have to wait. That included the gym. The chubby girl in me loved not going to the gym! Loved it! The healthy girl missed it...A LOT! After I took my test on Monday (I passed!!! Hallelujah!!) I let myself rest that night and then hit the gym again on Tuesday. It felt so weird to have workout clothes on again but I loved it! We went to Zumba and I felt like I had so much energy. Anyway, I've stayed about the same with my weight over the past few weeks, except I did weigh myself yesterday morning and I was 179.6!!!!!!!!! I was so excited to see that little 7 staring up at me! I haven't been in the 170's in....I really have no idea. I weighed in last night at Weight Watchers and I was 181.2 so I obviously went up a little over the day. I keep my own weight record though every morning so I know that 179 was true! So a lot of fun good stuff have been happening lately and I'm just excited to keep going. The other day Myra said, " I wonder what you're going to look like when you get even smaller."  I wonder that too. I have kind of an odd shaped body I think so it'll be interesting to see where I lose my weight and where it will hang on for dear life. Anyway, starting today I'm back on the tracking train again and I'm headed for Skinny Town!! Cheesy, I know :) Here are a few motivational things for you...and me!

I did think about this picture while I was running. Who could stop running when Ryan Gosling is telling you to keep going?!  Sometimes I imagine a really hot guy running behind me or working out behind me in class. It keeps me going hard :)

I also thought about this while I was running. There is going to be a time in my life, and it's not going to be too far in the future, when my body won't allow me to run anymore. That's why I need to do it now. I think of all the patients that come into my office who can barely get out of a chair. They would give anything, I'm sure, to be able to run down the street. I need to keep working out for all the people who can't. 



And this is my desk top background right now. I see it multiple times a day and it reminds me to keep going. To stay strong and focused. It IS hard. Losing weight, keeping it off, working out, all of it is HARD! I'm not going to sugar coat it. People ask me all the time how I lost my weight and when I tell them Weight Watchers and working out they roll their eyes and blow it off. I think it's because they want something easy. They want a pill they can pop or a shot they can get or something that will make it easy. The fact is, that won't work. It won't work unless you change your life. It's hard, but that's what makes it great!!

Moments to remember:  Jake giving me his hoodie cause I was cold and I put it on and he said "wow, you're tiny. I can't fit into that anymore."  Maybe the first time in my life that anyone has called me "tiny" :)

Success!!

I've had a great couple of weeks!! I stuck to my plan of eating more healthy food rather then foods low in points and it paid off. At my weigh-in last Wednesday I was down 4.8 pounds! I also worked out hard last  week, I did...

9-13-12 Thurs: Core class and step class
              Fri: Zumba
              Sat: Hiked for an hour
              Sun: Rested
              Mon: Lifting class, core class and Body Attack (2 hours total workout)
              Tues: Zumba
              Wed: Body Attack (sports inspired cardio workout, lots of running, jumping etc)
9-20-12 Thurs: Stationary bike for 30 minutes after going to the temple
               Fri: Zumba
               Sat: Hiked for an hour
               Sun: Rest
               Mon: Planning on Pump, CX Works and Attack

So all that combined with my healthy eating has made for a great few weeks.  I weigh in Wednesday night and hopefully I've be down a few more pounds.  I love this new way of eating! I'm focusing on fruits and veggies a lot. I made dinner almost every night last week as well and I know that helped. I made the choice to make dinner last Friday night before going out with friends because I knew after the baseball game we were going to watch that they would want to go get something to eat. I also knew it would not be healthy, and it turned out to be 5 guys. Case in point! I had a few fries and a diet soda and I was fine. I think there is something in me, maybe it's pride or maybe it's trying to prove to other people that I'm strong, but I get this high off of having willpower. I love when other people are eating something that I know I shouldn't be eating and I say "No". It makes me feel strong! Not that I starve myself or never indulge in anything, but I try to do my best when temptations come. Luckily most of the people in my life are supportive of it but some I can tell get a little annoyed with my new way of eating. Saturday night was a bit of a challenge. My friends all had stake conference except Myra and I (because we are now in a family ward in a different stake) so they all went to that and Myra and I went on a hike. I stayed up really late Friday night which meant I couldn't get my butt out of bed in the morning to go running. I was feeling really guilty all day about not working out so when Myra and I were trying to decide what to do while everyone was busy we decided to do something physical since she hadn't worked out either we thought we'd go on a hike. After the hike we met back up with everyone for a movie at our place but it ended up just bring a big food/talking fest. Everyone wanted ice cream so when we went to the store I found a brand of ice cream called Arctic Zero

that only has 150 calories for the whole pint!!! That's only 4 points! It was kind of expensive, but worth if for me to feel like I was enjoying myself along with everyone else. I got the vanilla kind and put fresh raspberries, blueberries and blackberries on top! It was so good and I felt great that I made a healthy decision when I could have easily chosen something unhealthy. Everyone else that night had ice cream and chips and candy bars but i didn't and I felt perfectly satisfied. I just keep telling myself that this is my life now. This is the way I'm going to be eating from now on. I'm not only doing this till I reach a certain weight or size, I've changed my life and I'm going to be a healthy person. With that mind set I feel good about things. I thought I would feel deprived, but I'm just learning how to eat and stay satisfied in this new life. It's a fun challenge actually. 

Little Set Back

Alright so I know I promised to be completely honest on here so I will tell you I haven't had the best month in regards to weight lose. I weighed in yesterday at 188.2. On the 29th of Aug I was 188.4 so I'm down...if you can even call it that. But definitely not the amount that I want to be down. At my lowest I was 180.4 (which I realized I told you wrong in my other post, 181 was not my lowest, 180.4 was) so that means I've gained 7.8 pounds back since May 16th. I've realized a few bad habits I have that I need to stop and hopefully it will help me get back on track.

1. I HAVE to track what I eat. As I've said before, I'm not good at it. I do good during the week but the weekends are really hard. My goal is to track EVERYTHING this weekend. I sat down and made a menu and a shopping list for this week so hopefully that will help with my goal.

2. I can't act like calories don't count if I don't write them down, or if I eat them Wednesday night after I weigh in. Thursday starts my "new week" with Weight Watchers so I consider Wednesday night my cheat time. Just thinking this way shows that I'm not fully committed to this way of life yet, even though it's been 2 years. I have changed a LOT of things about the way I eat and exercise but I'm still holding on to my favorite things from my unhealthy life (i.e. brownies). Not saying that you can't have this stuff every once in a while, but probably not 2-3 times a week :)

3. Just because I work out a lot doesn't mean I can eat what I want. This past week I did a kickboxing class Thursday, Zumba Friday, ran 6 miles Saturday, lifting class core class and cardio class Monday, Zumba and Elliptical on Tuesday and skipped yesterday. You would think that with all that working out I would have been down more...nope! I'm sure it's because I ate peach cobbler and cookies and m&m's and whatever else I thought I deserved. Besides cancelling out everything I just did in the gym it's also just stuff that should not be in my body. I have a strong healthy body and I need to treat it with respect. Junk food doesn't belong there. It's a temple and I need to treat it as such.

4. I need to stop hiding behind the same foods. Even if they are "healthy". I eat Progresso Light soup pretty much everyday for lunch. It's because I know that with 5 saltine crackers the whole meal is only 6 points (remember I have 29 points for the whole day) and for some reason soup fills me up GOOD, so I stick with that. Everyday. But I can't eat soup for the rest of my life. So with the help of a blog that I'll tell you about in a minute I got some new healthy ideas for lunches and dinners. Time to stop hiding.

I've recently been obsessed with a blog/tumblr called Undressed Skeleton (I have no idea how she came up with that name but despite the name, it's a great blog).

The address to the site is http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/

Her story of getting healthy and staying healthy is really inspiring. Every time I read it it makes me want to be a better person, a more healthy person. She has tons of recipes and workout ideas. I pretty much got all my menu ideas from her for the week. She's young but she knows her crap! :)

Also Pinterest has become my new best friend when it comes to getting healthy and getting inspired. I can find any workout I want from how to lose ankle fat to getting ride of earlobe chub ;) And there are tons of pictures and quotes to keep me motivated. I love it!!

Alright so I have my meals and workouts planned for this week and I'll keep you updated. I'm feeling very motivated today! Though I always seem to be motivated when I'm not hungry it's when my stomach growls that I go into survival mode where I don't care what goes into my mouth as long as I can shove it in in less then 3 seconds :) Wish me luck and please say a little prayer too!

Fitspiration

I wanted to add this in so I'll remember it. I've had some positive comments the last few weeks and I need to write them down so they can motivate me. The other day we were playing a game with a bunch of my friends. The game goes that you choose someone playing and then you read the question and everyone has to guess which answer on the card describes that person the best. The question was about me and it asked "If Brooke was a school teacher what would she teach?" The answers were Gym, Social Studies, Math, Home Ec, and something else. All the girls chose Home Ec because they know I love to bake, but all the boys chose gym. When asked why, they all said "well she spends a lot of time at the gym, working out and stuff!" Who would have ever thought that people would say that about me? Not me! CRAZY!!
Also, I've been training for a half marathon lately but we recently put it off till the spring, anyway all my friends knew I was training and would ask me about it. The other day my friend Brandon told me he was going to run a half marathon in November because I inspired him to. WHAT?! I inspired someone?! Everytime something like this happens it still amazes me. My friend Christina told me last night that she can't believe the change just from last year. It's hard for me to see the difference at all. Sometimes I still just feel like my 232 pound self. Anyway, just a few little things to keep me going :)

1st week back

So this week has been...ok. I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but I did better then past weeks. So I guess as long as I'm progressing that's good. I did track this whole week which is a BIG thing for me. It always amazes me how much I don't realize I'm eating until I track. Lots of forgotten calories for sure. I weighed in this morning at 189.8...which I'm not really sure how that happened. Yesterday I was at 187.2 and I didn't eat a TON of food or anything yesterday. I also didn't work out yesterday either though so maybe that was the reason. I only ended up working out 2 times this week. I did try to go to the gym Thursday night but my IPOD was dead when I got there and there isn't much with cardio that I can do without my IPOD at 10:00pm so I came home. Saturday morning I did a 3 mile run and then a core class for half an hour. And Monday I did a lifting class for 45 minutes, a core class for 30 minutes and a cardio class for 45 minutes. My HR monitor said I burned 956 calories. Not too bad! I realized this week that I do NOT work out well at home (unless it's a run). I need people there to motivate me and push me to work harder. I give up way to easy if I'm working out alone. I have to remember this whenever I tell myself, "Oh I'll just go home and do a workout video instead of go to the gym." Usually it doesn't happen (i.e. Friday) because I get lazy and have tons of other things to do when I get home that I don't want to work out. So anyway, this week wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. Definitely lots of room for improvement. I'm a little worried about this upcoming week because I'm going up to Utah from Thursday to Monday. I'm going to have to make a large effort to eat what I know I should, and try to get some exercise everyday. Fruit is going to be my saving grace I think. I need to eat as much of that as I can. We are taking family pictures in October and I really want to be at my lowest weight. I would love to lose about 10 pounds before then. That is what I have to keep in mind everytime I want to eat something I shouldn't.
Every month my friends and I have a music exchange where we pick a theme and have to make a playlist which we then share with everyone (give to everyone). This months theme was "workout mix" so I have tons of new songs to work out too! I can't tell you how excited I am about this, I've needed new workout music forever!
I REALLY don't want to weigh in tonight but I know I need to. I just know I'm going to be up and I hate that feeling but I guess I just have to do it and get it over with. It's just easier to stay in denial if I don't actually weight in with Weight Watchers even if I am weighing myself at home. From here on out it'll be down!! I love the picture at the top. It's so true! Everything about weight lose is hard, but being overweight is also hard. I choose to lose weight, that will be my "hard." I will try to write more this week, if for no else then just myself. Maybe it will keep in on the right path if I'm thinking about it more.

I'm back!!

So over the last 2 years or so I've lost 50 pounds (well about 45 at the moment...). I've been doing Weight Watchers and I really do love it. It shouldn't take a normal people this long to lose this amount of weight on Weight Watchers, but I am perfectly happy with the amount of time it has taken me. By losing it slow I've made habits that I know will always be a part of my life. I workout at least 4 times a week now and I think about everything that goes into my mouth, whether good or bad (cause let's face it I do NOT always make the right decisions when it comes to food), but at least I am aware of what I should and shouldn't be eating. I remember before I started this whole thing I had no idea the amount of calories I was eating. It shocked me to read labels and to track points and realize how unhealthy I was. I know this just sounds like everyone else's story about weight lose but it's mine too. All the cliques are true, eat less, eat right and exercise...that's all it takes. At least for me. I don't presume to be a weight lose expert but I know I'm doing something right.
       I've been fluctuating around 50 pounds for awhile now and I really need to get my butt in gear. I'm going to be totally honest on this blog in the hopes that it will make me want to do better and be better since I know all of my followers (if there is anyone left at all :) ) are reading this. And don't worry, this is not going to be JUST about weight lose. I have some big decisions coming up in my life and I need a place to "talk it out" :).  Anyway, so as of this morning I weigh 187.6 and I started out at 232 so that means I'm down 44.4 pounds. On May 8th I was at 181.4 which is my lowest so far. I'm obviously going in the wrong direction here so as of today I'm turning that around. My new week with Weight Watchers starts on Thursdays (I weigh in Wed night and so my new points and week starts Thursday morning) and with today being Thursday it's the perfect day to start. My goal weight is 145  which means I need to lose 42.6 more pounds. I would love to do it before my birthday in May next year. If it happens before that then great, but that is my goal right now. 9 months to lose 42.6 pounds...can I do it?? It'll take a lot of discipline especially with the holidays coming up, but I have discipline, no doubt about that. I can do it!
       My first goal is to have a "perfect week" on Weight Watchers this week. That means I track EVERYTHING I eat, I stay in my daily points range (which is 29), I drink at least 6 cups of water a day, I eat at least 5 servings of fruits or veggies, 2 servings of dairy, I have healthy oils in my diet and I take a multi vitamin. They also want you to add whole grains and lean proteins to diet everyday too. Also my goal is to workout 6 days this week. Here is my plan...

Thurs: Run 4 miles
Fri: Lifting (lower half) for 1/2 hour, Zumba 1 hr
Sat: Yoga 1 hr, Run 2 miles, CX Works (core class) 1/2 hr
Sun: Rest
Mon: Body Pump (whole body lifting class) 45 min, CW Works 1/2 hour, Body Attack 45 min
Tues: Run 5 miles, Zumba 1 hr
Wed: CX Works, Body Attack

I was coming home from the gym the other day and realized that if I was married with a family right now there would be no way I could spend 2 hours at the gym. There are perks to being single and I need to remember those :).  I also didn't have to come home and make dinner, I think I ate cereal. Anyway, I'm at a point in my life where I need to do this because I can. I need to run now while my body still can, I need to learn to eat healthy food now so I can teach my children how to do it. Just lots of things to take advantage of while I can. Anyway I'm gonna eat some lunch and I'll try to write more tomorrow.  The pictures at the top are of me and Laura. We've both lost weight over the last few years and I love comparing the first picture taken in 2010 to the other one taken on the 4th of July this year. You really can change your body, it just takes work! I'm ready to work!!

Coming!

Ok, I know I keep saying this, but I really am going to blog soon. I have a few lined up that I've been thinking about so keep checking back, I promise I will do it soon! :)