Scale Day v30.0

***Dad Update (see Monday’s post): today is the end of the road for my dad in the hospital. Today he either comes home or he will be admitted into a rehab facility. I’m praying they have room for him today!! If he comes home for any stretch of time I’m certain this bad situation will get incredibly worse. One bit of good news, the cardiologist told us he didn’t have a heart attack, of course next time he might not be so lucky. My dad has been pretty nice these couple of days while he was in the hospital, that is until his drinking buddy visited him yesterday. Jeez-O-Petes! Please give us all strength!!***

When life blows up it is hard to stay vigilant in your journey, ain’t that the truth!! This week I’ve hit and missed my goals. I need to make a decision. Am I going to let the situation with my dad, which may go on as it is for months, derail me from my goals? I’ve been letting his situation consume me, which is not shocking, he’s in a bad way. But you know what is making me feel worse, not sticking to my goals, not paying any attention to my needs, how I feel, what my family needs. Living life at half attention waiting for a shoe to drop is no way to live.

My goal this week was to workout for 400 minutes, I got in 230. On average I was almost 200 calories over my limit every day. I did great on water and sleep, whoop-de-do, NO, STOP that right now!! I did work out this week, I didn’t completely forget about the hunger scale (although I willingly let it slip my mind for a few minutes here and there) and I did lose a little bit of weight!! Hey, now there is some good news. I lost 0.4 pounds this week.

Challenge time, time to get my head in the journey and nothing does that better than a challenge. I have 4.2 more pounds to hit my goal weight and 5 more scale days before my birthday. 4.2 pounds in 5-weeks, on yeah, game is ON!!

How am I going to do it? 5-weeks of getting in my daily workouts, water, sleep and HUNGER SCALE whispering.

I can do this. In the last 30 weeks I’ve lost 30.9 pounds, I can do this. I want it, I can do it.

No Random Thoughts, just…detox

The last couple of days have been inevitable. When you grow up with an alcoholic father who is the life of the party you know some day is going to come.

My father recently turned 70 and he turned into the Grinch this Christmas. The five days we spent with them were not fun with his attempt to ruin every happy moment. In the days since Christmas, when he finally had a chance to realize all that he had ruined, there were harsh realities to face and he had a choice. He could continue to ignore his problem or he could choose to face reality.

I’m happy to report that he has decided to get sober. Relief sure, but now the real work begins.

How long has he been an alcoholic, that’s a good question that I can not answer. My dad was never been a mean drunk until this past year. Unfortunately his problems with the drink were ignored for many years. Of course I was probably pretty young when he started to really have a problem, I probably wasn’t even born yet.

So what do you do with a man who wants to get sober, decision made, but the really good programs near him put him on a wait list until March? Ouch! The doctor put him on a medication, one that helps with withdrawals, but you can not drink while on the medication. Sure, a man who has been drinking daily for probably 40+ years is going to stop cold turkey…

My father was rushed to the ER on Saturday and yesterday for low blood pressure. Thank goodness my mother is strong and is handling things well. The good news, the program he wanted is working on making space for him today. Hallelujah!

My  brother/sister-in-law/mom and I are riding the texting train, we have our fingers firmly crossed. Of course this is the beginning of a very long road. I am extremely thankful he has finally made the hard decision, for that he has re-earned some respect, not just mine, but his as well.

In times like this it is hard to live on the opposite side of the state, but I am trying not to let this craziness consume me, but it is difficult, can anybody say Al-Anon.

Scale Day v29.0

Back in the saddle again, oh boy, oh boy. I’ve been back to working out now for 9-days, 9-days since my neck started to feel better. I’m so happy that I snapped right back into my routine. Well, snap might be largely over stating things. After a week of sleeping in an extra hour everyday I was spoiled rotten!!! In those 9 days, only 6 were morning workouts and only 1 was a full 55-minute workout. Only one!! Yes, so snap does not quite cover what I did, BUT I did get in some kind of work out every day and for that I am ecstatic!!! My goal last week was not to get right back into my 400-minute a week goal, but to hit 300 minutes and that I accomplished, Woot, Woot!!!

Food choices and water I did pretty good on too.  My daily calorie average was right on point and I averaged just 1/2 a glass shy of my water goal. Even through my neck issues I stayed on top of my food goals, but it’s been 3 weeks since I lost at least 1 pound, the last three weeks gave me, -0.3, -0.1 &, -0.6.

This morning I felt like I had lost touch with what it takes to lose weight, like I really no longer knew what it takes. To my surprise the scale had some happy news for me. Can you say trust the process? I’ve been doing this journey thing consistently now for 29 weeks. It doesn’t totally feel like a struggle any more, because goals have become habits! I lost 1.2 pounds this week!!! Bringing my current 4-week total to -2.2 :(, but it brought my BMI down to 24.6!! I have 4.6 pounds to go before and I’ll hit my goal weight!!

My plan was to go right down stairs this morning and reward my loss with one of my hardest workouts, which requires using my 3-pound weights. I got downstairs just in time to finish the workout in its entirety, but my weights were missing, I still have not found them. The dear husband and the kiddos have so splainin to do!! No on hides my weights, NO ONE!! 😀

Ok, anyways…

I’m pushing my weekly workout-minute goal back up to 400!! I’ll let you know how it goes.

Trust the process and keep moving forward, it works!!!

Random Thoughts Monday v18.0

Last week was on of the fastest weeks in my life. I’ve been attempting to increase my evil day job hours and at the same time give Nia and my book editing daily attention. I might be pushing myself a ton, but I don’t see any other way at the moment. I’d love to give the evil day job the boot, but until Nia and gosh one day my book is sold that just aint going to happen. We solder on, don’t we, yes, we do, with a big smile, because my neck is pretty much all the way healed!!!

I have a few random thoughts…

• Several months ago I shared one of my favorite ever links: What Woman Look Like. I like this site so much, because you can look at your height/weight/paint size & even shape type. If you are like me you may look at yourself and say, you need to lose a few (and I do, but just a few). If I would have found this site a decade ago (when I was 15 pounds lighter than I am now and I thought I was very over weight) I would have seen other woman, whose shape and size were similar to mine and would not have been able to call them over weight. So what would what mean about me…you got it, truth can feel really good sometimes!! Are you being truthful to yourself about your weight and how you feel? What can you do right this minute to make you feel better about yourself? I do not have to remind you to go do what ever you thought of, right?
• ‘Most runway models meet the BMI criteria for anorexia,’ I believe it and so does a plus size model magazine as reported here. The article gives an interesting photo of a “plus-size” model and a “straight-size” model and goes on to say ‘Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less.” Wow, something is very wrong here. Wonder when or if they will ever get a clue?
• Author Jeaniene Frost wrote a very interesting post on January 7th, entitled New year, no resolutions. Jeaniene is an amazing author, I really enjoy her books. She is a New York Times best-selling author, so why would she have self-doubt? Very interesting read, please check it out!!! 
• Nia
  • Sanjana (the routine I’m currently learning): I made minimal progress this past week, however I did the movement several times as I worked my way back from injury.  This week I will continue to practice teaching the first 5 songs and begin the bars for the 6th song and 7th songs.  There are 8 songs in the routine.
  • 52 Moves in 52 Weeks: There are 52 moves in the Nia dictionary and what a great way to better know your craft than to spend 1 week with each move!!
    • “A” Stance. Stand with feet wider than hip width. Keep your knees spring-loaded and relaxed. Start with your weight centered, shift your weight back and forth and return to center to feel your balance.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. day. He was such an inspiration. One of my favorite quotes of his:

“A right delayed is a right denied”

Yes, he was brilliant!! My great friend over at www.ThirtyThreeandCounting.com  created an inspirational post today in honor of Dr. King: This is How We Change the World, she had some help from her friends and I’m honored to be on the list. Please check it out!!!

Have a great week everyone!!

~Do you want to start or re-start your health journey? I’ve created a list of things that worked for me, see the last page listed at the very top of this page and Create Your Own Healthy Journey today!

Scale Day v28.0

Oh joy, the scale, after a week dealing with neck pain I was not looking forward to getting on the scale. But it had to be done, if I’m going to move forward from that terrible week.

Last Wednesday started with a lot of pain in my neck that didn’t really start to go away until Sunday.  I didn’t workout at all until Monday and Tuesday for a grand total of 70 minutes. Wow 70, when my goal is 400. I probably could have lowered my daily calories a little since I was not working out, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen so I didn’t even try. I simply tried to stick to my mindful eating, not over eating and making good food choices. Over all I did really pretty well on food choices and my average calories for the week were on the mark. My water in take was fantastic, I met my goal everyday. Although I got a lot of sleep in the last week it wasn’t always restful since I often woke up in a lot of pain.

I was hoping that I didn’t gain any weight of course, but I knew that today was also a measuring day and that can often bring better news than the scale. I lost a 1/2 inch on my upper thighs, hips, & waist in the last 4-weeks!!! I also lost a whole inch on my bust, yow. Now here is the really good news, somehow I lost 0.6 pounds this past week. I’m really not sure how that happened. I was almost positive my BMI was going to go right back up into the overweight category, but nope. I guess the weight god took pity on me.

My neck is doing better and I did work out this morning, yeah for the normal routine!! I’m still not all the way back though and I wont be doing my more strenuous routines this week. I certainly don’t want to over push myself and get hurt all over again. I’m going to lower my workout minute goal for the week to 300, which is still a vast improvement over the minutes I got over last 3 weeks.  I drove yesterday for the first time in over a week, accidentally cracked my neck a few times, but I did well.

I hope we all really listen to our bodies this week and feel great!!

~Do you want to start or re-start your health journey? I’ve created a list of things that worked for me, see the last page listed at the very top of this page and Create Your Own Healthy Journey today!

Random Thoughts Monday v17.0

This past week has been spent getting to know the ins and outs of neck pain. I did not start this research project randomly, no, I woke early last week with terrible pain in my neck. Apparently I’m getting old. A good friend, who did have good advice, told me that when we are younger our muscles have an easier time at bouncing back. Well I’m still in my 30s, I’m NOT old 🙂 but apparently my neck thinks otherwise 😀

• Neck Info
  • I’m not a doctor!! This is just things that I have learned and have worked for me.  Take the following with a grain of salt and if you have neck problems for several days you should probably seek advice from a doctor.
  • Our neck should have a natural arch, like a backward c shape, arching forward from our spine and then back to our head. When you force your neck flat you CAN strain those muscles. When you squish that c shape in half you CAN strain those muscles.
  • When muscles are swollen enough they will pinch and put strain on your tendons. Not only do I need to heal my muscles but I also need to heal the tendons too, lovely, because they can take a long time to heal.
  • When muscles are swollen you should not do heat therapy.  Simply ice on and off all day until the day comes that the swelling is down.
  • Once swelling is down you can start to heat the muscles up, do some stretches and then cool them back down with some ice, then repeat over and over
  • You should change out your bed pillow frequently, hmm, really? You should consider changing the shape of your pillow, what? They make different shaped pillows like this and this. It is the memory touch pillow that has finally given me some good nights of sleep and the healing is well on its way!! Yeah!!
  • Don’t neglect your neck, treat it well, you use it more than you know!!!
• Is there one part of your day that is a pain in your– hmm tempted to say neck but I can’t tempt the neck god again, ok so I’ll say pain in your- butt, because you are disorganized? Maybe it’s the junk drawer, maybe it’s your car or your desk? For me it’s the place in my kitchen where new mail, bills, deposits, cameras, iPods, iPad, phones collect. I’ve made improvements to this area over the years.  We now have a charging station here, all the cords are tucked behind this cute- but expensive, because it was from pottery barn- wood bin and there is a little drawer underneath that is put to good use.  Right in front of this pretty piece is everything else that we frequently need. My Kitchen is not large so there is not a lot of options, but I’ve found one that I am trying out this week, basically it is just a linen pouch that I can hang on the wall behind the docking station. Oh man if this works I’m going to be so happy!! Is there something in your life that could be made a little easier if you changed one little thing?
• Nia
  • Sanjana (the routine I’m currently learning): I made absolutely no progress this past week.  I could have worked on my bars (learning the patterns in the music), but my neck hurt so much for most of the week my heart just was not in it at all.  Today I’m just getting back into working out.  This week I hope to begin practice teaching the first 5 songs and begin the bars for the 6th song and 7th songs.  There are 8 songs in the routine.
  • 52 Moves in 52 Weeks: There are 52 moves in the Nia dictionary and what a great way to better know your craft than to spend 1 week with each move!!
    • Open Stance. Standing tall with my feet hip width apart, my toes pointing directly forward, my knees are flexible and spring-loaded.  I imagine standing on two railroad tracks.  My left and right sides are balanced.  I sense my feet from underneath as they give me support and provide me with foundation.
  • Reality TV is interesting to say the least, some of it is a train wreck, others are educational and some you can’t look away from. I enjoy some reality tv, I try to stay away from the shows where the people are just so outrageous it is a bit ridiculous. While Hulu was trying to provide me with something I might like, something I’d like to say I only checked out because I was feeling so sad about my neck, I got sucked into a “reality show.” In my defense I thought it might be interesting to see how young folks lived in Essex, England and I could work on understanding their accents. The show is called The only way is Essex and it is The Hills (I know this because, yes I’ll admit, I watched The Hills) but Essex style. It is a total train wreck and I can not stop watching, somebody help me!! 😀
  • My Lions played their wild card game on Saturday night. Well we lost and our season is over. I just have to say that my boys played some really magical football on Saturday night!! Our Quarterback,  Matthew Stafford (who is only 23-yrs-old!!! He threw 380 yards, including 3 touchdowns in Saturday’s game) and our Wide Receiver, Calvin Johnson (had 211 receiving yards and 12 receptions in Saturday’s game) are really something to see!! I can not wait to see them play again next Fall!!!

I hope our week is filled with proper neck alignment, some new organization, our feet providing us with a comfortable foundation, no train wrechs, some magic and that I find a way to continue to enjoy the football playoffs.

~Do you want to start or re-start your health journey? I’ve created a list of things that worked for me, see the link or the last page listed at the very top of this page and Create Your Own Healthy Journey today!

Scale Day v27.0

We are in the middle of the first week of 2012, yow that went fast!!  I wish I had some good news to share, but the last two days have been filled with the pain in my neck. Seriously I have a shark pain in my neck that really is putting me in an ugly mood.  After doing some reasearch I’ve learned the first two days you need to concentrate on getting the swelling down, so I’m on day two of ICE. Today is a little better than yesterday.  I hope my neck is ready tomorrow for step #2, because I am really ready to bring on the heat and the stretching!!

I’ve learned several things over the last couple of days, we use our neck muscles a LOT!!  We use them when we swallow, blow our nose, lean forward or back, rolling in or out of bed, rolling over in bed and of course when you look around.  Here’s to hoping my kids choose to do things today that do NOT require my quick attention, ouch!!

Needless to say I have not done any physical activity today or yesterday.  I have been making good food choices, I’ve been getting all my daily water (20-days in a row now, YOW!!) and I did get in 180 minutes of exercise in this week pre-injury. I almost did not get on the scale this am, getting dressed and undressed is not a happy chore with the pain in my neck.  I got on the scale because it is a truth that seems to be helping me push forward, and with daily exercise out of the question until my neck begins to heal, I needed some truth!! I’m happy to report that my weight has not changed since last Thursday when I entered a new BMI category, Normal Weight!!

I hope your New Year has started on the right foot and not the wrong neck!!

Do you want to start or re-start your health journey? I’ve created a list of things that worked for me, see the link or the last page listed at the very top of this page and Create Your Own Healthy Journey today!

Random Thoughts Monday v16.0

We started a new year yesterday, now what are we going to do today? Are we moving forward with those goals we’ve set? Do we still need to create some goals?

I set my goals during the year last year and I’m starting this year on the same path. Full steam ahead!! I may have just over six pounds to lose to get to my goal weight, but my healthy journey wont be ending there.  My healthy journey will continue withOUT end. I’m continuing to learn my first Nia routine and promise to look for a teaching job as soon as the routine is in my body, see more info below. 2011 not only brought me weight loss, it also brought me in touch with my writing genes.  I not only started this blog last year, but I also started my first book (see my progress on the side bar). I’m sad to say that I didn’t make much progress on the book during the holidays.  I started a couple of challenges yesterday to help me with my goals and you’ll find information on all of them below…

• Life is about spending time with the people you love. That time can be spent in person, or phone or Skype or the zillion other ways we can stay connected. I think the key is to stay connected. I don’t get to see much of my family during the year due to the distance between us, but that does NOT mean I should cut off the connection. This year I’m going to work on staying more connected to the people I love.
• New Years Resolutions, goals, to do lists, wish list…It is daunting to think about changing your life.  I’ve seen many of my friends write on Facebook over the last couple of days that they would not be making any resolutions this year, because they never live up to them anyways. Interesting that once you meet one goal, the next goal seems a little more possible. Maybe we tend to reach to high when we reach out for a new goal, one of the reasons I’ve become a fan of short-term goals.
• Shrink Yo’Self in 2012– I’ve started a new challenge by the brilliant Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jean The challenge is simple and straightforward, I like simple. The assignment: What do you hope to accomplish during the next 8 weeks? Think of ways that you will make these goals reality. Easy, I want to lose the last hand full of pounds and get to my goal weight.  How will I make it a reality: follow all the goals on my Weight Loss Journey Goals page.
• A Round of Words in 80 Days– it is the writing challenge that knows you have a life.  I’ve been wanting to join this challenge for a while. When I realized my book was suffering from neglect, and I WANTED to do something about it, it was the first thing I thought about.  Most folks who participant have a nice list of goals, mine is simple.  For the next 80 days I will spend 1 hour EVERY day with my characters.  I may be writing, editing, re-plotting, developing characters, anything, as long as I spend 1 hour EVERY day doing something to push my book forward.
• Nia– this year is going to be about discipline and my Nia journey has two paths right now
  • Sanjana (the routine I’m currently learning): yesterday I finished drawing the bars and writing notes for the 5th song in the routine.  Today I will be practice teaching the first 5 songs and begin the bars for the 6th song.  There are 8 songs in the routine, I’ve past the 1/2 way point!!!
  • 52 Moves in 52 Weeks: There are 52 moves in the Nia dictionary and what a great way to better know your craft than to spend 1 week with each move!!
    • Closed Stance. Standing tall with my toes together and my heels comfortably apart, I sense my entire skeleton, my arms hang naturally, I lengthen up and sense the space above and the earth that is touching my feet.
• My Lions are headed to the playoffs!! I wont be talking about the amazing game they played yesterday and how they got cheated by a bad call or how that bad call cost them the game, oh well, that was yesterday. My Lions are in the playoffs, it has been a long time, but this year you very much deserve to be there!!  Come on Lions, march all over those Saints!!

2012 is going to be amzing, because I’m going to make it amazing!!! How are you going to make 2012 amazing?

Do you want to start or re-start your health journey? I’ve created a list of things that worked for me, see the link or the last page listed at the very top of this page and Create Your Own Healthy Journey today!