I did it!!!

I exercised through an entire movie!!! Mr. Deeds! They have been playing a lot of dramatic thrillers at the gym. They are long, not light-hearted, and many of them are R! I was waiting for a good one to come along on a day when I had time to see if I could make it all the way through!

Mr. Deeds was perfect! 96 minutes, stupidly funny, and the time flew by! And I have seen it before so if I did not pay total attention to it I did not worry too much! We got there in the middle of the closing scene, so I even worked out through the credits. And this was after my free 1/2 hour personal training session, which was fabulous by the way. So 2 hours today... whew! I did not like my last Personal Training because she just about killed me and was trying to get me into PT services, but this time we did weights and it was perfect!

I have not really lost much weight yet, but it is because I am doing it the healthy way. No more fads dropping 10 lbs in 2 weeks. We are doing the steady and slow :)!

CalorieKing.com

If you are ever wondering how many calories are in something you are eating, go to CalorieKing.com. They basically have just about anything you can think of. And the search is free. And it has all the nutritional info as well.

If you want to keep track of said calories, then go to CalorieKing.com. It is $7 a month and I am trying it out for a week for free, but I am considering doing it until I reach my goal weight.

Why?

Because it is a lot of like weight watchers. Instead of points, they keep track of calories. But they also include other things like fat, carbs, fiber, and protein in everything you eat. There is a bar at the top that shows how many calories you ate and how much you have left for the day. Then at the bottom you can see where you are at as far as fat, carbs, fiber, and protein and you can set a target that you want to stay in the middle of. It also calculates the calories you burned doing exercises and that gets added on to your total number of calories. Kind of like WW points. So, if you exercise, you get to eat more. Just like in WW. There is also a place you click on glasses of water to keep track of your water.

The web site is set up to be really easy and does not take long to do. Basically I pull up the site in the morning and keep it up all day and whenever I eat something I put it in. It takes less time then writing it down since my computer is in my kitchen/desk at work. It takes no time at all.

Then instead of meetings, you go through different phases of the plan. Bronze, Silver, and Gold. You start in bronze and work your way up. For each level it has articles you read and little quizzes you do to make you understand your nutrition and exercise. You can do it at your own pace. And you set a goal for each level. The goal for the bronze level is to just lose 5 lbs. A lot of the things in the articles I already know, but every once in awhile there is some helpful information that I did not think about.

The one thing it really helps me with is not eating too little. I have a tendency to eat too little when I am trying to lose weight because I am choosing all the low-cal foods, but not getting enough of them. So now I make sure I eat all my calories so I do not go into "starvation mode" and end up in a plateau, frustrated, and end up binging. I am good at that and I am very aware I do it.

So, my calorie intake because of my weight, age, gender, etc. is at 1550, but I exercised today, 500 calories worth, so I have 2050 today to eat. Which is hard to meet without throwing a little ice cream in there... darn ;).

So... we shall see how long I stick with it! But so far I like it! It is like having a meeting, a calorie counter, an exercise plan, all in one!

Cardio Cardio Cardio... and a movie!

I got to the gym before Levi and the machine I like is out on the regular floor, but the TVs are broken on them and I forgot to bring my MP3 player, so I went into the Cardio Cinema because Taken was on (PG-13 Action type movie). Levi watched it and said it was good, I was really not that into watching it, but decided I might as well watch some of it. Turns out, it was a good movie. Just since it is in rotation I saw the ending before the beginning, but Levi had already told me the primise before. So, I ended up watching the ending, the beginning, and skipping the middle. I knew I did not have enough time to finish, and I wanted to do weights, and my legs felt like jelly. According to the machines I burned 600 calories. Whew! Then I did 20 minutes of machine weights after that! I was so stinkin' sweaty, but it felt good!

So far, down 2 lbs! Woo-hoo! I am going to try to go back tomorrow and then Friday.

The thing is, when I exercize, my heart rate goes up dangerously high. Now that it has been a week, already my heart rate is not spiking so high and I am feeling better.... hooray for fitness!

I also had a personal training session which comes with signing up for the gym. Basically they want to sell you personal training sessions, but $30 a half hour is crazy just to have this teenie woman spike my heart rate for 30 min. and then immediately have me sit down to discuss goals. No cool down... nothing. Then she acts offended that I do not want to sign up to have her be my personal trainer all the time.

Maybe tomorrow I will tell you about Calorie King... which I am not very much in love with and do not know how I ever did it without this wonderful little on-line doo-hickey!

Oh, and I tripped in the cinema while moving to a different machine but not taking my eyes off the movie. Now I got a big ol bruise. It hurts... and Levi and two other people saw me do it! I was on the front row. It will be purple tomorrow.

Running with the Fast Ones...

Yesterday I went to the gym again! Did 20 min. on my favorite machine! It is like an eliptical, stair stepper, and arc trainer in one. The Precor AMT! Love that machine! Great range of motion. It even has TV screens attached, but they are broken, so I must bug gym manager to fix it! (He told me to). The machine said I burned 225 calories. Then hopped off and did an upper body circuit and am nice and tight feeling now. Then I hopped back on for 75 more calories worth to give myself and even 300! Wanted to spend time in the sauna. Maybe next time!

Did really good about not over-eating ice cream yesterday. My only real downfall was when I started making something and the customer changed her mind so I had a bitty bit inch and a half of ice cream in the bottom of cup. I ate that. With some chocolate chips and oreos and whipped cream. I know... I know. But, that was it, and considering that I was surrounded by ice cream all day I think that is pretty good! I also watched what I ate and had a smoothie from the gym for lunch and a healthy choice meal for dinner. I snacked on Raspberries. Go me! I know what you mean about the thinking about food thing though Ashley... because I do the same thing! The more strict I am the more I think and dream about food.

Today I did not have time for the gym this morning, so instead I went for a jog/run/walk with Yonas. My stride is SO SHORT and his is SO LONG! So he is hopping, skipping, jumping, long-jumping, swerving in front of me and just looking like a regular olympian making fun of his out-of-shape momma. And when I said something like, "You are going to have to be patient with your momma, I am a little slow right now!" He just chipperly says, "All you have to do is practice! The more you practice the faster you will get!" That is my boy giving me the pep talk. We finished the "cirlce" where we take the walking path in the neighborhood and come out on the road and come back. It took awhile. I will time us and see if we can improve. I am going to go with more kids next time! I need someone to run with me that will actually run with me and not 20 paces ahead and leaving me in the dust ;)! And it will be good for them!

Slowly but surely....

So far I've lost a total of 8lbs on WW. But, the thing is, I'm not so much doing the WW program. I actually canceled my membership but I have the rest of the month paid for. The thing about counting points is that I'm constantly thinking about food. All day. So this week I'm trying to just make good decisions and eat the way I know I should eat and see what happens. I know what I need to do and I'm going to just do it. I know the portions I should be eating and the right foods to eat, I don't need to know how many points they are - I already know what is healthy and what isn't. I'm putting the 40 bucks I would spend on WW towards a jogging stroller and after the weight is off I'll buy myself some new clothes. I learned a lot from WW and I like the group support, but it's just too much money, and too much work. I'm still drinking one or two Slim Fasts everyday, depending on my mood and how busy I am. I'm going to stop thinking about it all so much and just take it one day at a time doing my best and eating the things that make me feel good and healthy. So, that's it...should work, right? :) I'll let ya know!

So Excited...

When I lived in Richmond I had a gym I LOVED! I mean... TOTALLY LOVED!!! The best gym ever! It was not even in the most populated part of the city, so when I moved to Charlotte I figured that I should have no problem finding a comprable gym here...

I was SO wrong!

My last gym completely spoiled me: 2 Stories, AWESOME kids zone with classes and an outdoor playground, Seperate exericse rooms for Group Exercize, Mind/Body, and Cycle, 3 Raquetball courts, 2 Basketball Courts, A pool with 3 seperate areas (one for aquatics, one for a big huge slide, and one for laps), A circuit class on the cardio floor, A ton of cardio equiptment with a lot of TV screens to watch, a Smoothie Bar, Tanning, and 1 free personal training session, and they had classes going on all day, most of the time 2-3 at a time!

So... I moved here and was preggo, then had Jovie and Callie and decided to join a local gym I shall not mention. I felt like I was throwing my kids into the Pit of Despair. It was dark, dingy, the workers seemed bored to be there, and I would make all the effort to get the babies dressed, bring 2 baby carriers into the gym, just to be told 10 min into the class that one was sad and I needed to leave. All that effort for nothing.

But... now that Levi and I work in the afternoons and the babies are aching to get out of the house on a regular basis, we decided to find a gym.

First we went to the "Y". It was nice. A lot of programs for older kids as well, but although I would be well-intentioned, I doubt I would pack up 7 kids at 4:15 to run to a 4:45 kids Zumba class. But there was an indoor and outdoor pool, a small exercise room, and the kiddie watch seemed nice enough.

The we went to Lifestyle. It was nice enough. A LOT of cardio and weight equipment and a cycle room, a group exercise class, and the kids area was bright, colorful, and the girls seemed to like it... but... Cha-ching... EXPENSIVE! And of course we did not know this until we took 1 hour to get through the "tour".

Then... running out of time... we went to Energy Sports and Fitness. I remember seeing the putting up the sign a little over a year ago. I look through the front windows and see the cutest kids playground ever. So, I think, this place is going to be expensive. I go in and find the tour guy and end up with the manager and I said, "My husband and kids are in the car. Bottom Line! That is what I want! Bottom line for 2 adults, 2 kids in kid watch... THEN if it is something we can do I will bring them in, but I am not doing the tour until I know if we can afford it." Turns out the price was great, and when we got in to see the gym I found that in a lot of ways it is like the gym in Richmond that I have missed and loved:

1 Story, but with a raised platform for stretching, AWESOME kids zone no classes but an awesome indoor playground and the babies loved it, Separate exercise rooms for Group Exercise, Mind/Body, and Cycle, 1 Raquetball court, 1 Basketball Court, No pool- oh well, A ton of cardio equipment with individual screens on each piece of equipment, a Smoothie Bar, Tanning, and 3 free personal training sessions, and they have classes going on most of the day, and they have a cardio theater room. It is a dark room with all the same cardio that is out of the floor, but they constantly run a movie throughout the day and you can go and do your cardio and watch a movie. It is the coolest thing!

We went for our first day and I did Kickboxing and loved the class. Levi did the weights with the manager who gave him the run-down of how they work. I tried out a Precore machine I never used before and I love it! So, I am excited to finally find a gym I love again and the babies are at the age where they like to get out and socialize and there are a lot of kids there when we come!

So... I AM BACK! I hope it lasts, but with Levi doing this with me it should! It is like a date! I wish I had pictures so you could see how cool this place is. All the have is a digital model, but you can check it out here if you want:

http://www.energysportsandfitness.com/trainerfinder/websites/60061/charlotte/index.html

Doing it

I started WW 2 weeks ago. I've lost 4.2 pounds so far. It could have been more but I wasn't as strict as I should have been the first two weeks. But I'm really committed to it now. I found some Slim Fast on clearance at Walmart yesterday, so I'm going to use that too. We have to be out the door by 7:45 to get Rae to school, so I plan to just drink a slim fast (3 points for strawberry, 4 points for chocolate) in the car and then have some fruit (1-2 points) when I get home. And then I'll drink another one when I go to pick her up so that I'm not starving for lunch when we get home (because then I eat whatever it is I'm fixing for them) and I'll have a sandwich or some salad. I'll have some kind of snack in the late afternoon and then I'll have plenty of points left for a nice big dinner and maybe even a little dessert. I need to be strict and specific about my diet or I won't succeed. I can't say "oh, I'll throw something together" - I have to know exactly what I'm going to eat and how much of it I'm going to eat. Some people can't diet like this, but I've gotta do it this way for at least the first month or two. Roy is doing Atkins right now, so I can cook whatever I want and he does his own thing.

Anyway, I wanted to get my plan in writing because then I'm more likely to follow it. I'm at 190lbs right now and my goal weight is 155 (but I'd like to get even lower than that). I'd like to be in the 160s by Christmas. I'm excited to be thin again!