Starting Over

Today is Monday which is a great day to start over I think! I had a not surprising gain on Saturday. I was upset and tweeted (if interested I am @mzkmkr123)about my frustration and lack of success. She is an amazing fount of positive encouragement for many (@laughitoff) who has a GREAT blog! She said for me to step back from the big picture and just aim for something small like losing 5 lbs and keeping it off. I know I have said this before but sometimes it takes another person saying it to make it hit home with me.

So today I start again and simpler. Sid I am sorry I let you down by failing at my 40 day challenge. You continue to inspire me with your dedication and success. You do not lose sight of what you want and how to get there!!

In keeping with starting over and keeping it simple I went back to something basic. I cooked dinner for the first time in a week. I made the Cashew Chicken with Rice recipe. We left off the cashews but it was amazing! (Leftovers tonight) A great way to have a Chinese dish without the 5 lb sodium bloat the next day. My daughter had complained about rice and celery but wound up liking it. And it was music to my ears to hear "Mom have you tried the bamboo shoots? They're great!".

We cleaned house top to bottom yesterday and I reconnected with a "simple" exercise. My daughter washed the floor and I dried it with a towel afterwards. Place the towel on the floor, step on towel and duck walk(quacking optional!)entire area to be dried. Simple pilates all!!

So I am happy this Monday to be recommitting to myself (I feel like a broken record) and I am asking all of you for a favor. If you don't hear from me how things are going please kick me ok?

Hoping this Monday finds you all relaxed and ready for a fantastic week!

I May Stumbe, But I Won't Stay Down

Finally this week I have gotten back on track! I lost the last 2.5 lbs of what I had gained and lost some of the inches that had come back. So as of today I have lost 27 lbs, and importantly for me 5 inches each in my waist and hips. The thighs are coming along slower but all in time.

Since 2/1 I have struggled with a gain that kinda knocked me off course. I stopped doing basically everything I know I should. I am still looking at this as a learning experience and not a bad thing. There are setbacks in life and I will plateau or fall again but I will not give up. I have determination and I have Sid and all of you!

I will be doing day 4 out of 40 on pilates and journaling shortly here. I feel so energized again and I noticed yesteday that I was really happy. When I was eating not well and not doing what I was supposed to do I was quite moody. Doesn't really surprise me.

Today in the mail my Zumba kit is coming. It is latin inspired dance exercise. It sounds like loads of fun and it has toning weights which I love! I can't wait to see 6 weeks from now what a difference the pilates has made.

Nothing deep this week, just sharing my joy. I hope you all are feeling happy too!

I Like to Move it, Move it!

So in effort to get past this hump in my journey I am recommitting to exercise in any way I can. I do enjoy exercise but if I stop for more than a day I find I have trouble getting started again. Saturday I posted how I was committing to doing Pilates every day for a week. I am proud to say I am on day three now and remembering why I loved it!

I have had a dvd for 7 years and blew the dust of it on Saturday. It is by Crunch and called "Pick Your Spot Pilates". It is three 10 minute segments for your belly, butt and thighs. How can I NOT find 10 minutes a day? Pilates will really whittle the inches away and tone if you keep at it. The only down side to Pilates is that if you stop doing them then the results go away. I don't know why I am always surprised at this.

My recommendation for people starting Pilates is only do a section at a time. When I first started doing them 7 years ago I made the mistake of doing all three sections for three days in a row. I was practically paralyzed! It shouldn't surprise me as I am not very good at an exercise that will utilize your whole body all at once. I do better when I can focus my attention and work in one area and then rotate areas.

I also want to recommend for those of you who have Wii a new game called "Just Dance". You hold your Wii remote in your right hand and follow the moves on the screen to different songs. It will judge you on your accuracy sensed by the remote. It is loads of fun and after 30 minutes I was drenched in sweat! You can't beat a combo like that.

What is your go to way to get or keep moving?

Weekend Windown

There were some good things this week and some not so good things. That's what life is made of so I refuse to let anything send me in the dumps emotionally although it is harder to stay positive this week than last.

I lost a pound this week and a small measurement in my hips and thighs. YAY! I had gained 3 lbs last week and no gain is a good thing. I walked every day but one last week due to the cold.

Now the not so good things. As of yesterday morning I had lost all 3 lbs. Then I made a not so bright move. I had a group of people over and they were kind and brought bags of chips including my favorite! Had I asked them they would not have brought them but I need to learn to be around food that I do not eat. If I live in a bubble that will restrict me quite a bit. Needless to say I decided to have just one chip. I am sure you can guess that I didn't stop with just one. I didn't eat the whole bag (Yay!) but I ate enough that my enemy sodium changed the scales.

I had mentioned before that I am struggling with a mental challenge as well. It is like a mental plateau and still hanging in there. I feel like a cranky kid sometimes.

"I don't want to write what I eat, I don't want to exercise, I want to eat chocolate and chips and other things. They get to do it.. I want to also!"

If I was my child I would being given a time out right about now. (My daughter would get a big kick out of that!) I went back again to my journals that I have kept and yes right about this weight I went through the same thing about 7 years ago at the same weight. I kept with it then and was able to go on and be successful losing over 100 lbs so I will keep with it now. It may mean that I plateau a little for awhile but the end result and my health is the important part so time is nothing.

I almost didn't blog this morning as I was embarrassed that I had screwed up again but hiding things is never good. So if you see me being really quiet and hiding...pin me down and ask me what is going on! Thank you for sharing this journey with Sid and I and for allowing me to be "Debbie Downer" today.

Here's my commitment to myself this week: I will do 10 minutes of pilates daily this week.

Is there something you can commit to this week? What is it?