Squat Thrusts and All that Jazz!

I'm still teetering on that 10-lb mark - just can't quite hit that mark. I figured it's time to pull out all the stops and hit the gym with some of the exercises that have made me sweat the most and be sore the longest. So, I did SQUAT THRUSTS! (See "Kill the Trainer" on 6/19/08).

Yep. You heard me right. On my own, without the paid coaching of a Personal Trainer, I embarked on 3 sets of 8 SQUAT THRUSTS! If I want that 10th pound, I'm going to work for it - DARN IT! I'm willing to work for it. I'm not expecting it to be handed to me, but it shouldn't be this difficult! I'm lunging, lifting and squatting - working, pushing and praying for that blasted 10th pound.

IT WILL BE MINE!

I want that 10th SMILEY! (I send a smiley to my trainer for every pound I've lost). I've gotten as close as : , but no )!

This will be the week! Today, I plan on tackling my "favorite" cardio machine - THE TREADMILL! I can't stand the treadmill. It's just so ... BORING! I'd rather run outside with grass and trees or even asphalt. Not like a hamster, running in place. But, it has to be done. If I want to burn the calories (and hopefully that last pound), then I need to push myself to do things I don't like to do. Today, that would be the treadmill.

So, in just a few short hours (I'll let you know how it goes), I'll head off to the gym and hit the treadmill in hopes of losing that elusive 10th pound.

Wish me luck...

A new week...

It's another week in the weight-loss saga of my life.

Yesterday, at the gym, I was teetering between that 9-10 lb mark on the scale. Blasted! I'm a fraction of a pound away from that elusive 10-lb mark. I know that the slower I lose the weight, the more likely it will stay off, but this fraction of a pound is just killing me. It's like I should strip off just one more piece of clothing and maybe, just maybe, I'll hit the goal.

But alas, it's another day of hard work, sweating and making good choices that will eventually get me to that goal. I'm pushing - pushing hard. I've been pushing myself at the gym harder in both the cardio and strength training. I'm burning more calories...I'm eating well...

That elusive 10-lb mark is mine - it's in my sites! I'm focused on it - I'm going to find it. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but it's mine!

A Weekend of Football, Family and FOOD!

It's one of those beautiful fall days. It's a little warmer than normal. The sun is brightly shining. The colors of autumn are springing forth. It's just beautiful!

I will be headed to NY this weekend for a weekend of Homecoming Football. My nephew plays football for his high school and tonight is their homecoming game. He's been asking for weeks if I would come. Why not - it's the perfect weekend for that. Some of my other siblings had heard and were planning on a visit over the weekend too. It makes for a time of football, family, and of course, food.

This is where trickery mocks me. I try not to stick-up my nose and say no thank you, eating what is placed before me. But this is what has been my downfall for nearly my entire life. What is a help is that my niece is a very particular eater - so, I find it easier to follow her lead. That's the plan for tonight and tomorrow.

I also like visiting this sibling in that the high school track is less than a mile from their home. I have ran on this track practically everytime I have visited them. So, Saturday morning will be no exception. Plus, the nephews like to run with their auntie - even though she's practically a foot shorter and runs like a slug.

So off I go on a car ride through the Poconos - enjoying the beautiful autumal splendor and a weekend of football, family and food!

Where's my Peeps?

It hasn't been that bad, but it's been bad enough. I haven't fallen off the bandwagon just yet, but I am hanging on the side railings.

Ok - so, where am I at?

I have been hitting the gym pretty much daily during the week. I haven't slowed on that, yet I've missed at least one day over the past 3 weeks. I haven't gone at all on the weekends, but I'm not a couch-potato either.

Where I have been slipping is in the food choice department. I have, on the most part, been sticking to cereal and oatmeal with fruit for breakfast, nuts, fruit or yogurt for mid-morning and soup and bread for lunch. But from there, it just slowly is going downhill.

I don't like that I've started drinking Diet Coke again. So far, just one a day (hopefully, we can stop that altogether). I've been drinking coffee in the morning. That makes me feel like I'm slipping...maybe that's my issue. By mid-afternoon, I've been wanting chocolate again. I haven't been eating it, but I REALLY want too...

I have eaten too many jelly donuts in the past 3 weeks - at least one a week. This place ALWAYS has donuts somewhere. I don't like it. I'm better off without the option. I won't seek them out, but somehow they find me. So, don't bring or buy me donuts! I love you, but don't bring me donuts...try an apple or a banana...those are good.

I forgot my lunch yesterday so I was forced to do the fast-food thing. Let's just say I didn't make a good choice. Maybe I should eat the straw in the wagon that I'm hanging off of...

Granted, I've been lucky and haven't gained any weight, but then again, I haven't lost any either...maybe it's time to pull myself up, swing my leg over the railing and fall back into that wagon!

But I need some help! Where my peeps?!?!

I haven't been doing half bad all on my own, but I have only been doing half-good on my own. Some accountability helps...cheering from the sidelines...

Rules are there for a reason...

OK. So maybe this is out of sorts for a weight loss blog, but I'm fed-up.

I like rules. I know rules are there for a reason - to keep things right and fair. I like the 10 commandments - they show me the right way to live and to follow what is moral and ethical. I like laws - like speed limits. They are designed to keep me and others safe on the roads.

But what I don't like is when the rules are changed or are more like a moving target! It just really peeves me! Tell me what is expected and then I will follow in that direction. Don't decide later to change the rule, contradicting yourself, to fit your need at that time.

Let's talk about work. We set up rules and consequences for a reason. When we say something to a vendor, shouldn't we abide by it? I think my word is worth something. I don't just go off spouting my mouth on things because it sounds good at the moment. If I say I'm going to do something, then I'm going to do it. I'm not going to find a loophole or a bypass to get around it, I'M GOING TO FOLLOW MY WORD. No matter what it will cost me.

Let's be clear - your word means something to me. If you say it, shouldn't you mean it? Why would you go back on it later?

Alright - let's turn this the purpose of this blog. This pent-up frustration will be taken out today - not in verbal jousting or an irate email or ranting - it will be taken out at the gym.

The equipment is made for that kind of beating. So, I'm going to serve a beating to those weights today. Just watch out for the floor space around me. I just might be tossing, dropping or sweating my frustrations within a 5-foot radius of my very being!

Back in the Day...

Years ago, when I was a mere child, I used to jump-rope. It would be fun. I would do a casual double-hop while singing some children's nursery rhyme:

"down by the banks of the hanky-panky

where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky

with a hip...hop...hip...hop...hop..."

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Nowadays - there's No double-hopping - it's one single hop as fast as I can until I jump 75 times. My heart is racing so fast, my face is draining of all the blood-flow, my lungs are screaming - wheezing, gasping for air... There are no nursery rhymes for children in my head - just the screaming rhythm of my heart beat throbbing through my brain and the sound of my breathe wheezing from my lungs...

.

I did 3 sets of these. I was sweating. I was panting. I was EXHAUSTED!

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I ended up only working out for 30 minutes due to my exhaustion. I completed some medicine ball tossing/catching squats, push-ups and bicep curls before finishing it all off with 3 sets of crunches and reverse crunches.

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I still am exhausted and it has been almost 4 hours!

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I think it's time to go home and lay my weary head on my pillow and wait for tonights debate.

Feeling kinda lazy...

Maybe it's the coolness of the fall air or the lack of sleep I've been experiencing in recent days, but I'm just feeling kinda lazy! Not necessarily lazy in the gym department - more like, lazy in the food department.

I've been drinking coffee in the morning - more days than not. I've drank a few cokes in the past week. I've eaten pumpkin pie maybe once or twice - ok, twice. I've had a donut (only one though). I've skipped meals and ate more than I should have at others. It's been one heck of a lazy two weeks of eating.

It's time to get back on that wagon and start strategizing my meals again. Yes, I said strategizing in reference to my consumption of food. You have to. If you don't plan, you're left floundering on those nights when you don't feel like cooking or arranging anything, you just grab what's easy and filling - whatever that might be.

So, I will take some time this Saturday to strategize (there's that word again) for the next week. That will probably include some homemade soups and bread. I will dust-off that crock-pot (it is now officially fall) and start some all day meals (yummy chili in my tummy). I also plan on dusting-off that $700 investment (the dreaded treadmill) and start using it to walk in the evenings whilst watching my favorite fall programming (usually "The Biggest Loser" and reruns of "Everybody Loves Raymond" or "King of Queens"). I can add that 30 minutes of walking to my lunch routine at the gym.

Speaking of routine at the gym - today is strength training day. I don't know what it is, but I've been dreaming up ways to do ab-work. I have had these visions of medicine balls and crunches and how to incorporate them together...something's wrong with me!