Spark Friends - you need to hold me accountable!

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

I am not a morning person. Never have been. It's just not in my genetic makeup. Although, if you talked to my parents, they would shake their heads in disbelief that "their" daughter could sleep until noon or later (if they would let her!). In fact, I grew up on a farm. Getting up early and getting the chores out of the way before the heat of the day was the way to go. Plus, if you got stuff done, then there was time to play later!

Well, some of that stuck. When I know that I need to get up, I can do it. I CAN get up to meet my friend at the gym. I CAN get up to get in my workout before a football game (as long as it is 6:00 or later!). I CAN get up to get ready for a trip. I CAN get up early if the reason is appropriate and "good enough."

So why do I have problems getting up to go workout before work if my friend isn't going to be there? Why am I not a "good enough" reason to get up and get going? Okay, two easy reasons come to mind. One, I can work out AFTER work. Two, it's 4:15 in the freaking morning!! No one in their right mind gets up at 4:15 AM!!!

Okay, so I'm not in my right mind. That takes out that excuse! LOL!

AND, I like the feeling of knowing that I am DONE with my workout. I've drunk three glasses of water already. And it's only 6:30 in the morning (when I head to work). That's a great feeling!

So...I'm going to get that feeling tomorrow morning. My friend isn't going to be there, but that won't stop me. My in-laws will be here tomorrow night (no evening workout). We've already established that I'm not in my right mind and that I CAN get up if the reason is good enough. And, to know me is to know that I AM good enough!

Please check on me on Thursday and ask me how my workout was. I plan on...no...I WILL give you a positive report of the excellent feeling! Not some sorry copout.

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

A Perfect Example of Never Give Up!!!

Monday, September 06, 2010

My Boise State Broncos kicked some serious butt tonight! They played the Virginia Tech Hokies, a very good, highly ranked team. BSU came out strong and were quickly up 17 - 0! Then, things went awry. VA came back and scored...and scored...and scored. It was neck and neck from the half on. Up and down. Down and up. Penalties followed by mistakes followed by more penalties.

Finally, in the last quarter, with only 1:56 to go in the game, BSU got the ball. A touchdown was imperative if they were to win the game. Down by four, BSU used the sidelines, the game clock and their one time out to march the ball down the field. After ticking only 47 seconds off the clock, BSU scored! That left over one minute (and two time outs!) for VA Tech to try to march down and score. BSU was able to hold them off and win the game!!! Woot Woot!!!

And now I'm doing a happy dance, trying to calm down so I can get to bed and relating this game to my weight loss journey...and probably yours too! We start off strong. Raring to go, we kick some major butt. We eat well, we exercise and we (generally) see results on the scale (scoreboard). Then, things happen. We make mistakes (make unhealthy choices), get some penalties (injuries so we can't exercise) and lose our momentum. But...if you stay in the game, clear to the end, you can still win. Never give up.

So you made a mistake. There's always the next play. You got a penalty. Learn from it and don't make the same mistake again. Play the game, stick with it and it will pay off in the end! Go Team Spark!

Oh...and GO BOISE STATE!!!!!! BCS Championship, here we come!!

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

Started my training and DH's good influence on me

Sunday, September 05, 2010

So I started the training for being able to do a chin-up yesterday. I did some reps on the thingy (Gravitron +) and then I did the "explosive" moves on the lat pull down. I did not do the lower-yourself-slowly thingy cos I didn't have a spotter to do it in real life and i didn't think about using the Gravitron + to do that part.

Let's just say that I am feeling it today! I have never been able to make my biceps or triceps sore with the exercises I've done in the past. I found that I can be sore in those areas! OUCH! Oh...and guess who found her core muscles! LOL!

On top of that, I pulled weeds for an hour yesterday. Lots and lots and lots of squats in that activity. Today, I am sore from the neck down. I am fine if I am moving. I am fine if I am sitting still. It's those darn transitions that are killing me! LOL!

Now, on to my DH's good influence. We have a habit of going out to dinner most every Saturday night. Going out to eat is still a treat for me and so I think of it as a celebration. An excuse to eat whatever I want, as much as I want. And, to top it off, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings (so we could watch the TCU vs. OSU football game).

DH has started eating more healthily (is that a word?). And he's dedicated to it and been doing very well with it. (He's lost 22 pounds in just about five weeks. Men! Ugh!) Anyway, he decided to order the grilled chicken sandwich. Because he was ordering healthy (or at least relatively healthy) I felt that I needed to do so as well. I had the Garden burger. (Turns out it wasn't AS healthy as I thought, but it was better than some of the other choices there!) He hasn't had a cookie in over a month so he hasn't bought cookies. If he doesn't buy them, I (generally) don't buy them and thus don't eat them. I really want to eat the rest of the stew in the crock pot (about half!), but I'm holding back because I want to be supportive of him.

So, anyway, he's being a good influence on me so I will try to be a good influence on him. Or at least not be a bad one! LOL!

Time to go have some popcorn...

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

More podcast insights!

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Today, Jillian Michaels was in my ear. I was only half listening because I was also working. Also, she preaches pretty heavily for organic meats, milk and thin-skinned veggies and against trans fat. I get where she's coming from but cannot afford to follow all of her advice...especially about organic food.

BUT, she "teased" the topic that was coming up after the break. BTW, since I don't listen live, the breaks are at most 10 seconds. Sweet! Anyway, the tease was how to train to be able to do a pull-up or chin-up. Wait a minute...that's one of my goals! I'd better pay attention.

I ended up listening, rewinding, listening again and then writing down which podcast and where in the podcast the info was. I want to do this! How do you do it? I'll list what I can remember, but please don't do this based on my description. Find this podcast (free!) and listen to her instructions. Jillian did recommend that if you have weight to lose, do that first and THEN train for this.

The first step included using the Gravitron or whatever that machine thingy is called in the gym that offsets some of your weight. Offset some of your weight and do the recommended number so reps and sets. (See why I bookmarked it? The details are very sketchy! LOL!) If you don't have a machine thingy in your gym, you can use some band thingys (yes, that IS the technical term for it!) Second, you should do "explosive" (at least I think that's the word she used) lat pull downs. Set the weight to a level that you can only lift it four times. If you can lift it five times, up the weight. Hold your hands in the same position as you do for the chin-up. Then pull down REALLY fast (thus, the explosion!) and slowly lower the weight. Repeat for four reps and do three or four sets.

Lastly, you're supposed to hang from a chin-up bar, start in basically the up-position and then slowly lower yourself. And by slowly, I mean take 30 seconds to lower your body. Huh? I don't even think I can make that last for one second, let alone 30! LOL! If you follow her plan, you should be able to do about 10 chin-ups after a month of training.

So guess what I'm doing in the gym tomorrow! Yep...listening to the podcast again to try to get the instructions! LOL! Okay...that and I'm going to try at least the first two parts. I think you need help on the third part and I don't know how that will work.

I'll let you know how this goes!

  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

Eat like you're already the weight you want to be

Friday, September 03, 2010

I discovered podcasts that I can download onto my iPhone or iPod. I have found quite a few that are about health, nutrition, exercise, etc. and are, most importantly, free! One of the ones I listen to is Fat 2 Fit (sorry, can't remember the people who host it).

There big theory/belief/push is that it is very important to determine what calorie intake would have you maintaining at your goal weight. Hmmm....if I eat enough food to maintain my goal weight, I will lose weight and continue to do so until I meet my goal. As I get closer to goal, the weight will come off more slowly. Okay. That makes sense to me.

In fact, before I started listening to this podcast, I had just increased my calorie range on Spark from 1200 - 1440 to 1400 - 1750. And as soon as I did that, I started losing weight. I had been plateaued for quite some time. Wait! I'm eating more food AND losing weight? No, I did not increase my exercise. My theory is that my food intake was just a little too low and my body was seriously considering switching to survival mode...if it hadn't already! LOL!

So, maybe there is something to this theory. All I can say is that I like it! I can fit in a less healthy snack, not feel deprived or guilty, and STILL lose weight. Sounds like I'm a winner, winner, winner! LOL!


I just rechecked the BMR calculation that they have on their site. Based on my activity level, I could/should be eating closer to 2000 calories per day. Does that mean I can eat even more food? Dare I?

  Member Comments About This Blog Post: