Day 11 of 730 (Feeling The Pain And The Gain)

My body hurts. Specifically, the top of my thighs and my upper arms and parts of my back muscles are feeling the burn from this weeks workout. I can only imagine how shocked my body is with what it's been through this week. Afterall, I haven't exercised in months, or maybe not in over a year, but who's counting.

But you know what? I feel great. Through all the pain I can feel the gaain too. The real back pain I always felt feels so much better. I feel so much more flexible already. It's like I've loosened up.

This weekend is one of rest from my workout but I am pumped for my workout on Monday. My plan next week is to work out each day Monday to Friday. I will still be doing my 25 minute treadmill routine plus light weights and other exercises.

Day 10 of 730 (Small Victories)

Yesterday marked the 5th day on a row I did a workout routine. Today will make 6 consecutive days of working out. This is a very big deal for me because my body has never in all it's 28 years worked out that many times in a row. I feel so good about this accomplishment. I didn't quit. I didn't cheat. I just did the work and now I just want to keep going.

I will not be working out this weekend as I have quite a few parties to attend (for work). It's going to be a challenging weekend because my schedule is very messy and I will be rushing around from city to city which often leads to fast food. I'm thinking I will pack my own lunch on Saturday and then we'll have subway for dinner. I will pack snacks to avoid bad choices throughout the day. Sunday it not as bad and all I need again is to pack a few snacks.

I am feeling very pumped about this whole routine and anxious to weigh in on the first of the month. I want nothing more than to make changes that I will stick with and be successful with.

Day 9 of 730 (Making It Fun)

It's been 9 days thus far on my personal journey to lose this weight once and for all. It feels so much longer though. I am already feeling changes within my self. I am tired earlier, I wake up more refreshed and STARVING! Breakfast is becoming something my body asks for and waiting until lunch to eat is becoming a thing of the past.

I have found a wonderful group to share this blog with to support me and make me feel less alone in my mission. I appreciate everyone so very much for reading, commenting and tweeting with me. The benefits of a support system like this are priceless.

However I realize this is only the beginning and continuing to do well will take a lot of commitment and hard work. As someone who does not enjoy exercising at all I can easily see myself growing bored with the whole routine and giving up as history shows this to be true. However I started this journey telling myself I know why I fail so lets address each issue early and not let failure be an option.

Conclusion: I need to make this fun. I was thinking about maybe trying a yoga class or Pilates or perhaps start going swimming again. I also wanted to either get a wii fit or kinect shape for xbox. These things wouldn't replace my daily workout routine but instead add to it and keep things fresh and new and not always about getting on the treadmill.

I would love to hear ideas about how you keep things fun in your exercise routine or classes you have tried.

Day 8 of 730 (New Inspiration)

Last night I was looking for people to follow on twitter who might be trying to lose weight. I started with a general search "trying to lose weight" and between the multiple spammers in the search feed were some real people who were in fact trying to lose weight. I followed them all. Then I saw that some tweets had the hashtag #fitblog and I thought they must be people who write blogs on weight loss. I changed my search to "#fitblog" and followed everyone I could find. Turns out they were just ending their twitter party which was all about sharing weight loss information etc. I quickly followed everyone I could find. I think I followed at least 50 new people. I hope to be apart of the twitter party next time.

Some of those people did in fact have blogs (beautiful ones I might add) and they were jammed packed with information. I also found some women who are right in the middle or near the end of their weight loss goals. Some even posted pictures of their progress.

Taking pictures had never even crossed my mind until last night. Looking at the miraculous transformations left me in awe. These are real women with real before and after pictures and they look amazing. I decided that today will be picture day and I will then take one picture each month in the same outfit for my records. When I am ready someday, I will share them with you all, but right now I will keep them for my eyes only.

Say Cheese!

Day 7 of 730 (Groceries)

Last night we went grocery shopping for the first time since I decided to start this blog and this mission. I remembered to not shop hungry and have a list with me. However my list only had a few items on it. I wasn't sure what else to write. If we wouldn't be snacking on things like chips, cookies or ice cream, what would we be snacking on instead? I needed to look around and see all the options we always over look.

The goal was to buy more items around the perimeter of the store and less from the aisles. This makes sense as all the processed foods are kept in the aisles and the fresh stuff encircles the store.

A few changes I had planned were whole grain bread instead of white (yes I still haven't let go of my white bread all these years) and milk in my coffee instead of cream. Hubby agreed to join me in my bread selection, but isn't ready to give up his coffee cream. We didn't buy any chips, cookies, or ice cream...for the kids or us. We actually didn't buy many of the snacks the kids usually get. It's not that I am trying to put them on a diet along with me, it's that my will power is not quite there yet and I need to remove some temptation, as selfish as that may be.

We bought a lot of fruits and veggies, boneless skinless chicken breasts and extra lean ground beef. None of which are new to our list. We didn't eat all bad ya know. In fact I realized just how many good choices we already make in our day to day lives. The real issue is snacking choices, portion sizes and a few small changes to everyday foods.

I am on a mission to try one new recipe each week to keep from getting bored. This week we are trying this lemon basil chicken recipe that I stumbled upon. It sounds and looks delicious.

If you have any ideas of things I should add to my list for next week please leave me a comment.

Day 6 of 730 (Why Now?)

No one asks out loud but I am sure the question is there...why now? Why are you all of a sudden trying to lose weight? It's not the first of the year so it can't be a new year's resolution or anything. Well, one thing I've learned is that waiting for a magical day before you start something wastes a lot of valuable time. The moment your mind is right is the exact moment you have to act upon that good energy.

My weight is on my mind at least 100 times a day. I think about it the minute I wake up, when I take a shower, when I'm getting dressed, every time I eat something, every time my husband touches me, when my kids ask me if there is a baby in my tummy, when I catch friends looking at me in disgust, every time I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror or in a photograph and when I am laying down to go to sleep. I have come to realize too, that my life revolves around my weight. For example, I avoid swimming even though I love it. It really is rather depressing to not love yourself or your life the way it is. As I said in a previous post, I have tried to battle this many times throughout my life and failed and the more I fail the more hopeless I feel.

So why am I setting myself up to fail again? Why bother trying? Well, my new motivation comes from my decision to go back to school. I haven't been in school for 10 years. I will be in a classroom full of under 21 year old girls and not only will be I be the 'old' one I'll also be the 'fat' one. The thought of it makes me so nervous I feel sick to my stomach if I think about it too long. But that is why I am doing this. I am tired of avoiding situations because I am uncomfortable in my own skin. And I realize I will still be the old fat one on the first day of school no matter what, but maybe I'll be a new person in time for graduation.

Day 5 of 730 (Week in Review)

I decided that each week Sunday's blog will be a reflection of the past week. Did I stick with my workout? Did I make good food choices? How do I feel etc. So that said, lets get to it.

Number of workouts this week: 4
Workout length: 25minutes cardio + weights, crunches etc.

This week I stuck with my goal of 4 workouts and for that I feel great. During the workouts themselves I have been able to control my dizziness but have found I start cramping mid workout even though I eat hours before working out.

My eating habits haven't completely changed and I know part of that is because we need to go grocery shopping still for my new menu. However with what we do have I have tried to eat smaller portions and snack less often. For a first week I think I did ok, but this area has a long way to go.

My hubby has agreed to make some changes with me and he wants to eat healthier too. This will help me so much because it removes temptation when he is eating some of my favourite things that I 'can't' have.

I have decided to weigh in once a month so you can look for a pounds lost update the first of each month.