SKNYMOMWANNABE's SparkPeople Blog

Witchy Mom

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:29:10 EST

Sometimes I am a witch because everything goes south and I've said the same things 10,000 times already and the 10,000th and first time I LOSE it! Sometimes people, strangers included, push and push and push and then whammy, I will get your little dog too.

I wish I wasn't this way but at the same time sometimes I am the good witch. Currently Stretch has had issues with homework, grades and all things middle school including the she-beasts known as 12 yo girls which he seems to be ...

2013 and the beginning of the end...

Wed, 2 Jan 2013 11:32:33 EST

So if you have followed my adventures you've seen my ups and downs both on the scale and in real life. I momentarily got to my lowest weight in May and about 4 pounds from my "finish weight" when I started feeling bunk, packing on the pounds and losing my hair. I wasn't sure if it was depression, my marriage is rocky, physical fatigue or some weird ailment. I slogged through a few races, a couple scheduled duathalons with my race buddies and was heading into the fall as a part of a BLC challe...

Sometimes it's all about the other guy...

Mon, 1 Oct 2012 00:34:26 EST

Every mom has felt buried in her families lives at one point or another and thought, will there ever be ANY "me" time?I almost had a nervous breakdown when my now 12 yo was 3, he wrote "everyone's name in the sand." He had Roger(dh) Jake(little bro) Reece(himself and...MOM. Yes apparently anything in the first 38 years of my life was out the window and I was just "mom."Being in that exhausted state that is common with toddlers and new borns on opposing hips I think I started crying on the bea...

Better event, still not feeling great but rocked the bike ride!

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 18:03:37 EST

I think there is a light at the end of the feeling bad tunnel, it's name is gluten and apparently it's not my friend. I'm going to try and go gluten free and see if that's the culprit to the fatigue, weight gain, hair loss. (really what else could happen, right?)

Today was SEE JANE TRI or in my case SEE SYDNEY DU.I opted out of the swim thing and went for a 1mile run/10 mile bike/3mile run.The race had a twitchy start and started really late, by an hour. Then they held the duathal...

tough run..even with the tutu...

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 19:14:49 EST

So today was the title9 nineK-apparently the race organizers decided that since they advertised it as such , it really should only be a 9K instead of the last two years that found us running a 10K! I however was thinking I had to run every single grueling mile so today was a nice surprise! This body of mine has been in fail mode for the last 5-6 weeks and I have been sluggish, gaining weight and a case of the blahs...My doctor ran a full panel and pronounced me healthy as a horse, even if my ...

BLC 20-THE Mustang PLAN!

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:31:41 EST

At 46 I've finally accepted that many things are beyond my control. My kids can get sick, I can catch a cold, my body can be injured, stress can de-rail me, my husband can derail me etcetera. I can control what I eat. I do not live in the middle of nowhere, if my entire day implodes I'm within walking distance of any number of places that sell a reasonable chicken salad that would keep me within my calorie range. Frozen yogurt is NOT MY ONLY OPTION.

I've also decided that while it ...

BLC 20-The before stats, the good, the bad and the ugly...

Mon, 3 Sep 2012 01:56:31 EST

Finally, in writing my goals for the BLC 20 challenge.

Figure out what is wrong with my body. My thyroid seems to be off kilter, hormones are equally whacked and hair is falling out in clumps so first and foremost, to the doctor's I will go THIS WEEK! I dislike doctors and avoid them but vanity prevails, I really can't deal with being BALD!

Lose 15 pounds and 5 inches off my waist. I'm pretty sure my waist is hormonal/thyroid related but I'm 3 pounds heavier than my tic...

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID...and use that fear!

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:25:48 EST

So Sunday morning I plunged into the Pacific Ocean at 8:25 as the third wave of the women's only portion of the Santa Barbara Triathalon, sprint course. Everything I'm afraid of was waiting in that first plunge. I'm freaked about swimming in the ocean especially in an area that is part of the RED TRIANGLE, not a fan of the fish with teeth. Not really a cold water fan, the sea was a "balmy" 65 degrees and finally I suck at swimming. I took swimming lessons, probably didn't put in nearly enough...

Waiting to Feel Good??? Pffbt!

Tue, 7 Aug 2012 13:49:27 EST

I read other's blogs and often the sentiment is "I can't wait to lose all this weight and feel good at "Y" pounds." Here's the secret we don't share, it's great to have a goal weight, truly but the feeling good thing? It kicks in LOOONG before you hit your goal weight!

I felt better as the pounds came off but as my fitness improved I felt remarkable. It was great to lose 10 pounds but it was cooler to not be out of breath after a mile or two with my kids or dogs. Dropping a size?...

Not Getting on the TRAIN! How to avoid de-railing yourself?!

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:11:10 EST

One of my BFF's here on Spark and I use the word trainwreck to describe a day that is completely derailed. You've had those days? The kind that finds you mindlessly eating, only to track later and realize your "snack" was 1200 calories. Really, of dried cranberries?

Weekend have historically been our doomsday. Schedules are tossed to the winds, kids and grandkids show up or Stretch has back to back games out in a suburb who's only dining option, for 12 hours, is the Golden Arches. ...

"NO MATTER HOW SLOW YOU ARE, you're still lapping EVERYONE on the Couch!"

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 06:37:09 EST

So this is my new favorite mantra courtesy of my husband's place of employment, the county hospital. They have these posters up everywhere which is good because so many of the employees are roly poly, not really modeling that "healthly BMI thing?" Don't get me wrong, I get being heavy. I get being tired, overworked and even at the hospital : it's SO EASY to make bad food choices! Vending machines with King Size Snicker bars are everywhere and the salad bar in the employee cafeteria, iceberg l...

Having Fun! aka SLOW FAT TRIATHLETE!

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:52:07 EST

Just finished a booK called, THE SLOW FAT TRIATHLETE" by Jayne williams. It chronicles her move into racing, when she was still about 240 pounds. It's a step by step guide for anyone to finish their first Sprint distance TRi. It came in the mail the day after I would have finished my first TRI, a bout of walking pneumonia took me out of the water and found me doing a duathalon, instead while impersonating the 8th dwarf, WHEEZY! I had a blast regardless and even wheezed into my first PR for th...

Why you should "TRI" or at least just "DU" it....

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 12:03:23 EST

So yesterday was supposed to be my first Sprint Triathlon. It became my first du-athalon. I ran for 1.5 miles, biked 12 and ran for 2.5 miles instead of swimming, biking and running. This is a blog about WHY you should step out of your comfort zone and TRI or DU something you deemed impossible. The sense of accomplishment is HUGE. The swim leg started stressing me out even though I had taken some swim lessons and hit the pool. It was open water in the SF Bay swimming and I just wasn't WANTING...

First you have to climb a tree...

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:38:41 EST

Funny, right? Climb a tree, like a small tree? Maybe use a ladder, hmm, no? Climb THIS tree?
Oh NO, no way, no how! My feet are bigger than these metal spikes. This is how I spent part of last Saturday, climbing a big tree and doing stuff that I really had no interest in doing and was scared stupid to do it.

I went to family camp, for Gold Rush weekend, at Camp Auguata in Nevada City. With Shorty, Stretch and my DH I set out to sleep in the dirt and find out things about my...

...not your best picture!

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:20:05 EST

As we go along on our our respective journeys back to health and fitness we have successes(smaller clothes), setbacks(weight gain) and then life(bumpy marriages, injuries, work). To truly make "this time different" you have to find the place where you can stay on some version of the course, regardless of the immediate outcome and challenges that arise.

The basic principle of weight loss is eating a well balanced diet in reasonable quantities that equal fewer calories than you exe...

Celebrate your NSV like it's 1999!

Tue, 1 May 2012 18:12:54 EST

We are all here to lose weight & re-gain our health. For some it's a speedy journey, for others like myself, it's slow going. Whether you are a hare or a turtle in this weightloss adventure your scale may sputter to a stop. It may even frustrate you and jump around. Most of us have made gains outside of the scale moving. It's these times when we need to remeber our Non-Scale Victories or NSV if you will. Not only remember them but celebrate them!

For some folks the simple act of w...

Putting it Altogether or Connecting the Dots with Turtle Girl!

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:50:08 EST

Everyone has a different set of obstacles that impedes them from regaining their health and getting fit. So this is a blog to cheer on those struggling to find their Spark, whether it's AWOL today or it's been missing for a while.

As anyone who has peeked at my blogs knows, this has not been a fast journey, there's a reason I call myself Turtle Girl! It's not just my running speed! Somehow as you take this trip to re-gaining your health you will make changes: from tracking your foo...

If This Was Easy...There Would Be no FAT people!

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:13:24 EST

Everyday we make decisions that hopefully will help us make this journey back to health. Sometimes our choices are not good, we derail, sputter and even fall down. This isn't a diet, this is a FOREVER thing. I'm ZEN with needing to work out 4-5 times a WEEK for the REST of MY LIFE. This is why I've slowly unloaded a little over 60 pounds in two years. I CAN'T do a NO FAT or NO CARB or only liquid diet because I need to relearn how to do this forever. Personally, I don't think God would have a...

Losing Weight in Lilliput

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:43:42 EST

I'm incredibly lucky to live where I live, a small town of 10,000 smack in the middle of the Bay Area-part of Northern California. We moved here because they have great schools and I have Stretch and Shorty currently underfoot. We also have skinny women everywhere, yes women over 40 who wear a 2 a 4 or even the incredible ZERO....This is not the first time I've lived in Lilliput, the home of diminutive people from Gulliver's Travels.
Spending four years in France after routinely travel...

What does fifty pounds look like?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 01:17:41 EST

I don't have a wheelbarrow full of fat like Oprah. I do have my almost 46 yo knees(one is about 85) still going, not fast but going. There are a lot less aches. There are many more smiles. Sneakers have been worn out, work out clothes pitched because they are too big! This journey back to health will never end for me. This is simply the way I need to live to enjoy my life, have fun and feel good. I'm green with envy of those who shed 100 pounds in 6 months. For many reasons that hasn't been m...

Rewarding Yourself

Fri, 6 Apr 2012 21:29:43 EST

Many of us use rewards for our weight loss. Yes, those are smaller clothes recently purchased and hanging in my closet. This reward system is left over from our childhood, a gold star if you will for "good work." I'm all about rewarding yourself, in fact I just rewarded my loss. Not a recent loss, the scale's been stuck recently and I'm still not at goal weight. I'm down about 53 pounds from the start of this journey. While that may seem a random number to celebrate it represents so much mor...

The Danger of the 100% plan aka, the all or nothing plan!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:09:16 EST

Back in a different life and a different body I subscribed to the theory of "lift heavy or go home."
Actually I wasn't too concerned about where you went as long as it wasn't in front of me..on leg day! Being that it was a different body and a younger version I could do the all or nothing plan with decent results. That meant I could go, go, go and then slack for a couple days and once dare I say it, I ate my way through the South of France for 8 weeks and worked on my tan...fork to mouth...

Scale Addicts Anonymous!

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:50:19 EST

I happily jumped on the scale this morning. I had done a 72 hour back on track eating program through Saturday, I have been vigilante with my work-outs and burning 600-800 calories in sweat equity daily. All good, right? So I gained! THREE pound difference from Saturday to today was +3. I got on and off the scale about 20 times. I took my socks off. I moved the scale. I fooled around with the zero set point. The verdict, PLUS 3 POUNDS! No, it's not a cycle thing.
I almost sat down and ...

How Not to Worry...about having the "talk"

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 10:40:52 EST

So this mom thing offers up plenty of excuses to not take care of yourself? My kids need me, what if something happens? I can worry myself right on into a bag of HoHo's and blow off the gym. Truly a double whammy, if ever! Everyone has talked about putting yourself first, nuturing the nuturer if you will. It sounds easy, right? Truly one of the hardest things I've ever done was having the "talk"with my kids and husband. You know the one? Mine was like yours...

"So guys, have you no...

Changing 4 letter words...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:35:48 EST

So everyone knows 4 letter words, you might have had your mouth washed out as a kid, been paddled and sent to the principals office for uttering them. As an adult you most likely let them FLOW out of your mouth. Really I'm not accusing you of swearing like a sailor but I know you say them. I know you have said CAN'T or WON'T or DON'T and believe me, at our age these are big four letter words!

I DON'T HAVE TIME TO EXERCISE
I DON"T HAVE TIME TO SHOP FOR OR COOK HEALTHY STUFF

OK, OK, OK already, I'm off the couch!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:50:42 EST

So this has been a crazy week, or a crazy two weeks. Throw in a little foot gimpiness, a dash of lame knee and well you can see where this has gone. Yes, Stretch turned 12 and we partied. Yes, I've tucked into a few bowls of shredded wheat. Business taxes are due, receipts are everywhere, the husband is stressed, the children are trying their best to kill me, one set of renters is giving me the run around, bills are piling up. Wait, this is at your house too? Hmmm, maybe it's catching? Maybe ...

Success is so many things...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:48:53 EST

Sometimes when we have a goal such as losing 25 pounds, my current one, it becomes THE GOAL and we forget that there are so many other things we want to do and most likely even if the weight doesn't fall off, we will be successful at something on our worst days.

The week has been a challenge parenting-wise with both Stretch and Shorty having big projects due. Shorty works harder than his brother to keep up in school whereas Stretch can do the minimum and still do remarkably well. ...

If not today, when?

Wed, 8 Feb 2012 16:20:14 EST

When I worked M-F today, Wednesday meant I was a little closer to the weekend, "me" time was just around the corner. To be fair, "me" time was after work as well which often found me at the gym. Then at 34 I added a baby to the mix as a single mom. For the first six months there was no "me" and very little time. My work outs were thrwarted by sheer exhaustion. Having worked out hard during my entire pregnancy(up until I delivered) I hit the gym 2 weeks post partum. I laid down on the ab mat ...

1/12th of 2012 is over....how's it going?

Sun, 5 Feb 2012 20:36:04 EST

January was stressful, chaotic and all crazy things I didn't forsee when I made my goals for 2012. When I joined the 15 pounds by Valentine's Day challenge, I thought...this should be easy...a couple of pounds a week. I should know by now as soon as I think it's easy, karma is going to give me a swift kick to the backside. So from the 4th through the 15th I toiled away at a rental property, ate randomly and didn't make it to the gym but once or twice. I didn't gain weight but I didn't lose t...

Day one of Tri training....meet my nemesis.

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:57:11 EST

Being a bit of a wimp I thought I'd do a mock-up of the tri-I signed up for in June...at the gym. In the event that I keeled over on the spot they'd at least call my husband. The bike was a breeze, in fact it kept telling me I was pedaling too fast for my age, next time I'll tell it I'm 19. The interval run, hill climb was a challenge but doable. Who knew my nemesis was in the sparkling blue water??? I grew up swimmimg, played many summers on a lake, have been in a pool for years...and got wh...

Christmas Came Early This Year!

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:25:55 EST

The boxes from Santa(aka amazon) started arriving in the last few weeks. Yesterday I got one that actually was for me. Inside were two pair of jeans I had ordered as the only pair I had were getting unfashionably baggy. The baggy ones were a size 18, they had been WAAAY too tight not long ago as had the 20's...I lived dangerously and ordered 14's. My husband who has been supportive of my bootcamp addiction and weight loss looked at them skeptically. He then said, "you should be in those in no...

The year is wrapping up nicely...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:34:53 EST

Wow, December is here, I'm about a month shy of my join date for SP. My heaviest was 253. I'm sitting at about 205 today. I have another 15 pounds to lose to hit my Spark goal which given my rate of weight loss might be tough by that one year anniversary. However as much as I may have fallen short of my goal I'm enjoying what I have accomplished!
We had a fitness test yesterday at bootcamp. My team was comprised of two, lighter, leaner 20 somethings and myself. I had each of them by 20 ...

Enjoying Success, even if I'd hoped for more!

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:22:09 EST

I realized today as I was being measured, pinched and weighed that I had achieved a lot even if ORIGINALLY I thought I would have achieved more by this date. It is successful to have to go buy new workout clothes because my current ones are so baggy. Was it a size tiny, definitely not. It was however a size smaller than my previous size in January and they were TIGHT then. Instead of comparing myself to everyone else I'm simply going to keep on the path of sweat equity+ clean eating=strong, t...