makeover.

So...I thought I'd show you some of the images the girls took of me at Love Affair. 

They totally made my day when I walked out of the airport and they made a huge deal about how skinny I looked and how they could tell that I had lost a lot of weight.  When I got there I was down 15 pounds from the last time that I had seen them.

Before I had arrived Kelly had said that we would have to go clothes shopping because we had both lost weight.  (Kelly has lost more than I have at being down over 20 pounds!  She's also the one that inspired me to get with the program....I'm getting old and I'd like to be around a while.)

Kelly and Brandi talked me into a total makeover.   We went and got my hair cut...short...really short in the back and a tiny bit longer in the front.  I love how easy it is.

Then we went shopping for something cute (not just comfortable).  When I arrived in San Diego the girls said I was wearing jeans that were way too big for me.  Now I'm wearing a size that I had no idea that I'd fit into!  Kelly and Brandi made me swear that I wouldn't wear my lumberjack jeans and shoes ever again.  I did promise but I had planned to keep my comfortable 'lumberjack' shoes because they are perfectly wonderful to wear!  But, I think I accidentally left them in the new shoes box...that I threw away at the W....bummer.

When I got home and had a chance to look at these pictures I was surprised at how thin I look.  I'm so excited.  I'm hoping to go down another 20 pounds but we'll see as I go.  My mom keeps telling me that when you get older (like me) you can't be too skinny or you look even older.  So...I'll be keeping that in mine. :)

How are you doing?  We need to get our monthly contests started again....hmmm...what should the next prize be?

good.  LIFE.

how did this happen?

I gained weight over the holiday.  I thought that I had been pretty careful about how much I was eating.  I also walked everyday.  I ate and exercised but I obviously ate too much and didn't exercise enough!  I've got to get back to the basics tomorrow morning!

How about you?  It's not too late!  We can lose weight through the holidays...I just know it!

real. LIFE.

Love Affair Workshop.

When I'm on a trip I'm always in the dark as to what my weight is doing while I'm gone unless I can find a scale the first morning that I'm there.

This time...I was in the dark.  I didn't get to a scale the first morning that I was at Love Affair so I was completely unsure about whether or not my weight was fluctuating.

I tried to eat half of what I ordered or share my plate with someone else.  Anything that you order at a restaurant is at least 2 servings worth of food.  I also passed on dessert as much as possible and when I ordered dessert I shared it with someone else or only ate 1/2 of it.

I also got up every morning and went to the sweat room at the W Hotel and then sat by the pool to write in my journal and meditate. 

I've gotten to the point where I have to have this routine in the morning.  It's not something that I try to fit in or that feels like a drugery...I really want it and notice a difference in my day when I don't get to have that personal time to start the day. 

Well...it paid off.  I am down a pound even though I was around all kinds of delicious food and a crazy schedule.  I'm thrilled!

I've now lost 15 pounds.  Just one day at a time...one healthy decision at a time.

How is your healthy life coming along?  What one healthy decision did you make this week?

healthy. LIFE.

your metabolism.

Sleep, what you eat, and how you exercise totally affect your metabolism...which helps you to burn fat and calories.  I think a combination of these things are what have helped me to lose weight this time around. (I'm officially in the 130s this week!  yay!)

Did you know that not getting enough sleep lowers your metabolism?

Not eating breakfast will slow your metabolism down?

And doing the same exercise over and over again with no changes doesn't get your metabolism going like spiking your exercise?

Eating:

I just read an article in "Healthy Style" that talks about all of these points.  Eating sugar doesn't make your body work very hard.  It breaks down sugar quickly and immediately stores it as fat.  Fiber takes longer to break down and slows sugar from entering the bloodstream.  That's why it's so important to increase your fiber (and I thought it was just a natural laxative). 

Also, eating breakfast is super important to the way you eat the rest of the day.  Skipping breakfast is just like getting up on the wrong side of the bed.  It takes a long time to get over it, if you ever do, through out the day.  Consider having some protein at breakfast to help last you longer in the morning...your body takes a lot longer to digest it so it gives you energy longer.  And get this!  You "increase post-meal calorie burn by as much as 35%"!  Burning calories sounds good to me...

Sleeping:

I also read that when your body is sleep-deprived your body produces huge quanities of a hunger hormone and makes you crave MORE sugar and carbohydrates!!  Hello!  I've gotten to bed late all weekend.  Not one early night to bed!  I've been craving chocolate and sugar like I never have in the last few months of trying to maintain a healthier life.  No sleep totally explains it...and I must say, I gave into that chocolate craving on Friday night and had some chocolate icecream.  It was soooo good...now I know why I wanted it so badly.

Exercise:

This is another reason I think that my weight loss is working this time.  I go to a track on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I do a very brisk walk the first 5 times around.  On the 6th time I sprint around the first end of the track then do a speed walk to the next bend in the track.  At the next bend I sprint around the curve.  I do this for four laps around the track.  I then do a very brisk walk for 2-3 laps and then do a cool down lap around the track.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I take a brisk walk around my neighborhood for 20 minutes.  I come back to my house and do weight training for about 40 minutes.  I do 12 reps on each of my arm exercises then I go straight to my legs and do 20 reps on each of my leg exercises.  As soon as I'm done with my legs I start all over again.  I do a total of 3 run throughs of training my whole body.  I then do 15 army pushups and try to increase by at least one pushup each week.  I do situps 30 to the middle and 30 to each side.  I repeat that three times.  I end by doing the cool down that I mentioned on my blog post here to reduce stress). 

When I read in Healthy Style I was excited to find out that I was doing the best type of exercise I could do for my metabolism: Interval Training.  On MWF I do sprints that spike my heart rate and so that increases my metabolisms power to burn.  "When you exercise this way, your mitochondria, the little engines in your cells that burn calories, run hotter all day."

So...I think I've found some of the keys that make my body burn calories and fat.  I definitely need to get to bed earlier tonight!

healthy. LIFE.

thirteen. pounds.

I've passed the 10 pound mark and I'm so excited that I'm about to get back into the 130s!  I honestly thought that I would see a much bigger, more dramatic difference having lost 13 pounds...that I would magically be in a smaller size, that my current clothes would be falling off of me, and that I would see a major difference in the mirror. 

It could be that I live with myself all of the time and so it's harder for me to see the progress.  Even though I'm not in jeans a size skinnier, I do think my face may be looking a little less pudgy and I think my back fat (you know, the stuff that accents that you really are wearing a bra) is melting away.  I think I may also be getting a waist again.  All of this is good news.  I'm very excited that my scale shows progress every week.  I know 13 pounds has to have come from somewhere!

I read that it takes 21 days to break a habit but 15 months to really change your life.  I have no idea where I heard that...I have no proof and no research to back me up but I'll go ahead and give my philosophy on the idea anyway! :) 

Here it is:

In order to really change your life you have to have been through all of the seasons of the year and figured out how you are going to react to the way a year changes you day to day and week to week. 

In order to stick to what you're doing through the cider mill donuts in the fall, the trick-or-treat candy at Halloween, Thanksgiving dinner, the entire month of December with parties and good food at every festivity of the holiday season, the sometimes dreary month of January, candy for breakfast at Valentine's, spring when strawberry shortcake is irresistible, and the summer when there is a whole new schedule for your kids and for you and vacations and ice cream that tastes really good everyday for at least 3 months.

You have to get through all of that and really be on the path to doing it all over again to truly be able to say you've made a change...a life change.

That's my plan.  A life change. 

I'm already thinking ahead.  I've got a great schedule now.  I take it day to day.  I make one healthy decision at a time.  When I don't want to exercise, I go anyway and tell myself I'm ony going for 20 minutes.  Once I get out there I talk myself into doing at the very least what I did the day before.

Then, there's the summer...when I won't be taking Gracie to preschool anymore and that's going to mess up my perfect routine I've got going.  Right now, I'm thinking that I need to start considering what I'll do when I get to that point because it's going to come...that day.  A plan will help me to not miss that day. 

Life is always changing.

If you're not exercising...get out today.  Get up from your computer.  Right now.  Go walk around your house or your office or your studio...up your street and back...down the hallway...up the stairs.  It makes a difference...not just on your body...but on everything.

change. LIFE.