Week 2

Today is offically the end of my second perfect food week and I'm so excited to announce that the scale says I lost 6.8 lbs this week. Woohoo!!!!!!!

It's also been a fabulouse weekend! I feel like I accomplished a ton and still had plenty of downtime to relax and recharge for the week to come.

Last night I managed to stay on the elliptical for a full 60 minutes. I seriously hit the wall at 27 minutes and thought I would die trying to make it to 30 minutes but Lori was still going at it on the treadmill so I kept hanging in there and all of a sudden I realized I had broken through the wall and was feeling pretty good so I just kept going.

Then today, it was such a gorgeous day, Lori suggested we head over to Bunker Lake Regional Park because she read on their website that they rent snowshoes and with a little explanation that anyone can snowshoe. So we got all dressed up in our warmest snow garb and drove to the ski/snowshoe rental office to find out that the whole "with a little explanation" phrase was a very hypothetical concept because no one in the office had the ability to provide that little bit of explanation. First of all, I have warn snowshoes before and what he brought out of the back room looked NOTHING like what they strapped on my feet at snow camp. They looked more like something you would see on the wall of a rustic mountain lodge and after spending several minutes trying to figure out how to attach them to our feet, I gave up in utter frustration!!! However, we were not to be broken.....because we still had THOUSANDS of steps needing to be stepped. So remembering a small park up the road that has a walking trail, we decided to check and see if that trail was by any stroke of luck groomed for the winter and ahh.....sweet success. We walked the loop twice to get all our steps in and it was fabulous!!!!! Blue sky! Sunshine! Fresh air! It was spectacular to be outside for that hour and a little bit.

So week 3 here I come!

Almost the end of Week 2

So Week 2 doesn't end until tomorrow but so far it's been another perfect week of eating. The really cool thing was the epiphany I had earlier this week: I feel GREAT!!!!! The thing is I don't recall feeling really bad before.....that is other than feeling bad about being FAT!

I've hit the targets I set on my GoWear fit every day and last night I even decided to increase my daily step target from 5000 steps a day to 7000 steps a day. With my current schedule, I will need to continue walking on each of my work breaks to meet this goal each day which is good. Yesterday I actually hit 11,515 steps because every month we are allowed to take 59 minutes of Admin Leave to do something physical so Lori, Carrie and I went to the Mall of American and walked 3 full floors which equals about a mile and a half. Partway I through that walk I hit my moderate activity and step targets. I've found that I get really excited every time my watch starts beeping to announce I've met one of my daily targets. Sometimes I feel a little embarrassed at exactly how excited I get, but I'll take every little accomplishment that comes my way.

This morning when I got on the scale I was extremely excited because as of today I lost 5.4 lbs this week. My official weigh in isn't until tomorrow so that gives me great motivation to remain focused today. I would be REALLY disappointed if my official weigh in tomorrow is a step backward.....but we'll just have to wait and see.

So I'm off to get my errands done and get my steps in!!!!!!

Week 1

First week of my office Biggest Loser challenge is in the books and I'm proud to report it was a PERFECT week. I lost 3 lbs. I would have rather lost more but my actual goal was 2 lbs so I can't really be upset. The Body Bug makes a huge difference!!!! It's constant feedback telling you if you've taken enough steps, been active enough and burned enough calories which is HUGE! I had a couple days where I was a bit short on my activity but I was still able to reach my calorie deficit goal. It also felt nice to get back on the elliptical this weekend. The biggest accomplishment though was the fact that I had a perfect week of eating and it wasn't even painful. Oh and I haven't drank a soda pop since Friday and that hasn't been hard either....WEIRD!!!! Week 2 here I come! :-)

A step forward

Lori and I managed to get the workout room totally put back together this evening. A huge step in the right direction. A couple months ago we had to empty the room and jam everthing in the next room in order to get the carpet cleaned. Unfortunately, with our current crazy schedule we had not managed to get around to putting it back to rights.....it feels so good to get it done!!! I even jumped on the elliptical for a few minutes just for good measure.

The day started off with having to take Diane to the airport for her flight home so I feel even better having managed this accomplishment today.

I'm looking forward to getting a full workout in tomorrow. I will also weigh in tomorrow morning for my official start weight for both competitions.....so that will be fun....not! But I guess I have to start somewhere so here goes......

No hiding now!

I am now hooked up to my Go Wear Fit machine and denial is a thing of the past. I'm really looking forward to having it "get to know" me so I can see all the scary numbers in black and white. Eek!

I have now joined two different groups. Group one is a bunch of co-workers. We each will be putting $25 into the pot and the winner takes all. That one runs until 5.3,10. Group two is actually being run by the Dept of Human Resources Management. For this group there will be prizes for the most weight lost in 8 weeks but they have not said what the prizes are..... plus this is a national contest so the prizes will likely be significant BUT they will be difficult to win as well.

It all officially starts Monday morning but I'm glad to say I have not had a huge list of things I needed to eat before the "diet" starts.

To reach my goal I will need to git a calorie deficit of 1000 calories each day....no small goal!!!

So clearly the whole country is on a BL wave....today I found out that the government's Human Resources Management department is running a "Biggest Winner" program for the next couple months. I figure I might as well join that one too, since there are prizes involved. Of course they don't tell you what the prizes are. My luck they will be something like a lifetime supply of celery and cottage cheese or the like. Anyway, I figure I can use all the motivation I can get so I might as well go for it. Besides, how many people will sign up and not finish?! Let's be honest, the only reason I say that is because historically I've proven that could be me.

I probably need to go back and read Ali Vincent's book again and write down all the things she said that I found so motivating. One thing I remember was how she started the habit of saying her mantra to herself "believe it, be it". Funny thing, that's the same thing my "Slow Fat Triathlete" lady kept saying (BTW, fun book). She said she felt really stupid saying positive affirmations outloud, until she realized that they were helping her stay focused and succeed at her goals.

So what is my personal mantra?

Any suggestions? Do you have one that works for you? Just curious....

Well......I'm finally back at it! I have experienced several false starts over the past year but have not been good about sharing my experiences here, an oversight I plan to remedy this year.



Unfortunately, I begin this year heavier than I have ever been. A major contributing factor has been the fact that I finally was given full clearance on my background investigation and began my career as a federal employee but kept my previous job for 5hrs each day Monday through Friday. The resulting schedule along with having access to a full service cafeteria a short elevator ride away have been "successful" in adding 20lbs to my frame over the past 5 months. UGH!!!! NOT the success I set out to achieve.



So here I sit, beginning again ......... AGAIN!!!



I just heard from a friend at work who has decided to start an office Biggest Loser competition beginning Jan 18th that will run until sometime in May. So I will join the adventure and use it as a little extra lift in my adventures to become a successful loser. :-)



1st Goal: Lose enough to get back the weight I was when I started this blog!!