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JUST-A-GEM's Recent Blog Entries
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Monday, October 22, 2012
In the month it's been since I've posted things have been good. :) Maintenance mode is quite the chore sometimes and although I knew that this was the case, I didn't KNOW, you know? It's hard to stop looking for the deficit when you've been doing it forever (it seems). Remember I have been on this site off and on since 2006, weight loss has become second nature (usually followed by weight gain, but NOT this time!!). I've bounced a lot and I hope that I can get that under control to a few lbs in each direction on average for fluctuations. October is a month of sweets.. Son's birthday and Halloween and they have got me a smidgen, but I think I have it under control now. This is exactly why I want to blog at least every 4 weeks though..
Lowest Month Weight: 153 lbs
Highest Weight: 161 lbs
Current Weight: 157 lbs
Everything in the love-life is going swimmingly. I am pretty smitten. I know the feeling is mutual. We go out in the back yard almost everyday (with and without the kiddos) and throw a football around or play catch (I'm the manager of my company's softball team, fun AND practice). I am totally digging it. I love playing and the little extra burn is a good offset to that candy. LOL.
I am getting back into my run routine for the Half on January 13th. I was supposed to start my training program to run the whole thing in July, but as luck would have it that was the month that my lower left lateral calf went completely numb and then progressed to full foot-fall syndrome (I had to wear ankle-foot orthosis even, because I was tripping over my own foot.. fell down some stairs at work). I was instructed after we discovered the source of the issue to wait until I regained feeling (which could have taken up to 4 months or required surgery) to continue my current run routine or pursue my new program. We learned the source on the 23rd of August and I almost have complete feeling back and I no longer am experiencing foot-fall syndrome. Yay for no surgery and shorter than anticipated recovery time. Today was my first run.. I know that I am not fully un-numb, but I needed to get out there in this beautiful, cool morning weather we're having down here in Houston.
My new plan for the Half is to get back to my normal easy run of 4 miles and start the race (through the insanely packed first 3 miles) with a brisk walk warm-up. Follow that up with 4 miles run at race pace then a mile recovery brisk walk, followed by 5 mile run. I think that this is attainable in the 3-ish months I have before the race. I might surpass this, but it's the goal at the moment.
Thoughts from my other event runners? This is an almost entirely flat, concrete course and I was at about 4-4.5 miles normal and 5 mile "long and easy" before my hiatus that started Mid-June. This morning's 5k was moderately difficult if I'm totally honest. :/
So this is all that is going on in Heather's world.. Well, maybe not all, but it's the gist of what's relevant here I suppose.
Love you guys!
xxoo
Heather
Monday, September 17, 2012
Is it crazy that I just recently had my little thrill over the towel wrapping around me? And I have like 7 inches on both sides overlapping so I guess it's been that way for a while. Idk how I missed that, but I love that I notice these little things and I think that after 15 years in an obese body I won't ever take them for granted. The little ones that pop up each day are those things that keep me on track. And habit. Can't really discount habit at this point. Habit is your friend in the end.. In the beginning it's a little bitch. LOL.
Current weight: 160 lbs (-154 from all-time high)
I am working on getting back out there on my runs now that my nerve damage DOES seem to be reversing itself. It's slow, but it's happening so now that my worries about surgery are dissipating I can focus on training again for my half. I'm pretty excited. This will help with the toning on my legs that I want to get done. I still don't love the BF seeing my dimply butt!! Haha. But I am getting more comfortable with this.
The boyfriend. Y'all ready for this? I am seeing a 20-year-old. Maybe not 100% wise, but let me tell you. He's like having my very own Hunter Hayes. Having every one of my favorite country love songs dedicated to me. I don't know where it's going, but for now I am pretty happy. He's 20 which honestly makes me even more self-conscious about the stretch-marks and the desperately needed tuck situation, but not because of any indication from him that it's a problem. Just one of those things I have to become comfortable with. I hope that as the months progress, I will become more comfortable with my new body. Skin and all..
Guys are an issue. When I started losing weight, I was married with no plans of changing that and this single world, the thin one is a SCARY place for me. I am not accustomed to having to handle guys hitting on me. I am not accustomed to the persistent ones for sure. The ones that don't care when I say that I have a boyfriend. This has been a HUGE issue the past couple of weeks for some reason. I got asked out 3 times in 14 hrs when I wore the dress below and 2 of the guys are borderline stalking me now. I'm just ill-prepared for this.. Any tips from you lovely ladies? I try to let them down easy and I think this is what gets me into trouble.
This is the dress that I believe caused the issues. Haha. It was a gift from a great new friend (and the story of how we met is hilarious).. It's also a SMALL from Express!
A couple other pics. I am getting this skirt taken in because I love it and I think it will last me forever because it will be easy to take in. This style is great for my body type.
Love you guys,
xxoo,
Heather
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Truer words have never been made into an image to be shared all over the web and I want you all to commit them to memory or save them and just keep looking back at them.
I joined SparkPeople in November of 2006. I think I weighed somewhere around 260 lbs then. I really can't quite remember. Unfortunately I didn't start blogging until 2009... Actually, I just looked and my first weigh in was January 16, 2007 and I was exactly 260 lbs. I bounced around a lot.
When I came back in 2009, I weighed in at 289, but I had a high of 314 when I was pregnant with my daughter. I will still count that as my highest weight. I've never been so miserable. I managed to get down to about 242 lbs, but my motivation waned and my weight climbed once again. This time I topped out around 302 lbs and I wasn't even pregnant. Why was I doing this to myself?
I was so ashamed. My body ached. I signed up for a half marathon and I half trained. I did work at it, but not nearly to the extent that I should have. When I showed up on race day January 20, 2011, I weighed somewhere around 280 lbs. I was MIA from SP at that point, so I couldn't tell you exactly. I do know that I caused a stress fracture in my foot from going that distance with not enough training at too high of a weight. I couldn't even bear the weight of my comforter on it. This lead up to my 302 high and my 4 year old calling me fat and the rest is history.
Everyone will say it, motivation is the number one factor in achieving any kind of weight loss, but especially extreme weight loss. The problem is that one kind of motivation is never enough.. One kind of motivation is going to fail you at some point. Doing this for someone else is going to fail you.. even if it's your children that you're mistakenly putting in front of yourself that you using to drive you. First and foremost, this is for you. Be selfish. You either do it now in this, or you do it later when you leave them behind early from one obesity complication or another. I promise you that they'd rather it be now.
This is the first time that I set out from the beginning saying that I am doing this for myself. I love my children. I love my family. They don't have to live in my body. They are not invested in how I feel when I get out of bed in the morning. They are not invested in my ability to hold a conversation with the person I walk up the stairs with at work. This is me. These are my motivators. I am motivated by all the little things like putting my purse beside me in my seat in the waiting room.. and how my back no longer hurts when I lie down at night.. And how I can draw my left leg up into the driver's seat with me when I long for a change in position in my hour wait in traffic.. I am motivated my all the numbers that are going down.. the numbers on the scale, or on the tape, or on the rack, or on the blood pressure gauge, or on the grocery receipt, or on my monthly co-pays because for an entire year I have gone without a single cold/upper respiratory infection and I think it is 100% connected to just a complete change of lifestyle.
Motivation isn't a prize every 10 lbs, but it can be. Motivation isn't a piggy back ride, but it CAN be. Motivation is any little thing that makes you smile to yourself and think, damn.. that 3500 calories that I decided to burn/forego more than I consumed was totally worth it. Let it be that number on the scale one day or the co-workers compliment or even just the fact that you made a healthy choice and it didn't even hurt! It was just second nature. I love that feeling these days. These little motivators are the things that you have to start glorifying if you want to make it to goal. These are the things that you have to start journaling to yourself if you don't find them worth blogging about.
Anyway. These are all my thoughts for the moment. I'll leave you with some NSVs that I have amassed:
I was carried around piggy back for the first time since childhood... All around my house. It was the most amazing feeling ever!
I got the courage to post a bathing suit up on FACEBOOK!!
I can shop for panties and bras at VS..
I think I look my age more now (26), I think.
I wear my 4 and 5" heels with EASE!!
I can sit on my BF's lap and not ever worry about hurting him.
I have freaking defined collarbones! Not the scary kind, but defined and I love them.
I fit into EVERY chair, usually with room to set my purse next to me.. This is sometimes not the case.
I think by the time I hit goal and have my plastics, my measurements will be very, VERY close to 36-24-36.
Men ask for my number in bars and clubs.
I get carded more often.
Doors are opened more often.
I am 110% more confident at work.
Well, (in the words of Forrest, Forrest Gump) That's all I have to say about that! Thank you for reading and viewing and (possibly) commenting.
I love you guys,
xxoo,
Heather
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