Black Belt Living

Seven Charms

It's been a long time since I've given you an update of any kind, never mind an update on how my weight loss efforts are going.  I don't expect you to remember, but on the first Monday of January, I re-committed myself to finally getting this extra lard off of my ass for the last time.  Failing was not going to be an option this time...so that means that complacency wasn't an option either. 

I was pretty good at giving monthly updates for quite a while, but then I slacked off. I didn't slack off my weight loss efforts, but I was so focused on my new job of losing weight and getting back into shape, that blogging kind of fell off the radar. I have also been putting a serious effort into learning how to play golf this summer as well, and you know what a time hog that can be. 

Anyhow, things are going well.  As of last Wednesday, I am down 38 pounds. My Pandora weight loss bracelet now has seven charms on it.  The bracelet and charm #1 were for my first ten pounds. Every five pounds after that have earned another charm. The sparkly charm is for being half way to goal. My last charm was the golf bag. 

I'm not going to lie, it's been a roller coaster. The first 20 pounds came off quickly. The last 18, not so much. It took me nearly three months to earn my 35 pound charm. I haven'tt really done anything differently than I was doing earlier, but the longer you go, the slower it comes off. There just doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to it with me.  I never know what I'm going to get...unless I overdo the drinks and snacks during the week and then I definitely know what I'm going to get. 

So here it is. 

My bracelet is getting heavier. I'm getting lighter. That's the way it's supposed to be. Hopefully by the time school starts again in a few weeks, I can add #8. 

28 Days

Well, it's been about 28 days since I updated, give or take a few. 

In those 28 days, I haven't done much of the following:

• take pictures
• digital scrapbooking
• internetting and Facebooking
• time wasting

So what does this mean? It means that I've not been sitting around, I've been moving.... and moving a lot. 

January did kick off "The Great Family Room Makeover of 2011" that seemed to be a natural progression from "The Great Kitchen Pick Me Up of November 2010", but that's a post for another day. 

Basically I decided somewhere towards the end of December that I was just freaking tired of being overweight and out of shape. I was pretty darned fit when I was doing my taekwondo training, but since being retired for a year and having to battle some nerve problems in my lower back, I felt like my body had transformed itself into very a large pile of Silly Putty. Really, the only difference between my body between my knees and my shoulders and Silly Putty is that my body doesn't bounce and you can't make a print of the Sunday comics if you press my flab into the newspaper. I've just had enough. I not diabetic, but it runs in the family and I do NOT want to go there. I'm sick of looking awful, feeling awful, and frankly, I'm completely sick and tired of ugly fat chick fashion.

So with motivation and a bit of inspiration from fellow scrapper and blogger, Cathy Zielske, I decided to just basically eat less and move more. I started back with Weight Watchers. That was four weeks ago today, January 3rd, 28 days ago. 

On January 3rd, I kicked off my move more efforts by trying to do a kickboxing video at home. I thought I would die within the first five minutes. I had to switch over to do something targeted more for the fat instead of the fit. That was a real kick in the shorts for me, Miss Badass Black Belt. I used to be pretty hard core, and now a hard core is just something that was once a pleasant memory and I feared that I was destined for the Richard Simmons set if I didn't change my ways. But I managed to move my body for an hour and work up a sweat. Progress, even with baby steps. The next day, I hopped on our elliptical machine and could barely make it 15 minutes on level one. The third day, I went to the gym to check it out, and went to a Zumba class later in the day and brought Shannon. I didn't die, and we both thought it was fun. I figure if the lady who looks 90 years old could get through it, then so could I. On day four, I joined the gym with my Christmas money and I was off to the races. That was a GREAT move. 

Since that first week, I have been working out consistently six out of seven days/week. I've been doing different things every day so I don't get bored, including snow shoveling. I've also gotten to like watching Dexter episodes while on the ARC trainer or elliptical machine at the gym. I won't let myself quit before the episode is over (about 55 minutes) and I only let myself watch it while working out. Thanks to the iPad, wi-fi, and Netflix streaming for letting me Dexter-out at the gym! 

If you want to know how much you can improve in a month, I'll tell you. Last Friday, I was on the elliptical at the gym for 90 minutes at a level 5 resistance and a 6 incline. That's coming a LONG WAY from where I was on week one. Today I took a new class. I had a clue at the difficulty when the people walking in to take the class all looked like Olympic athletes and fitness models.  Yikes. I'm not going to lie, that class is one of the hardest things I've ever done in 65 mintues. It kicked my ass. It was as hard as any taekwondo workout or P90X DVD that I had ever done and then some. But I kept telling myself that I can do ANYTHING for an hour. And I did do it. I finished it all and I didn't wimp out on anything. I was the only one at the end of the class who looked like they had just come out of the pool.  I'm quite proud of myself. 

As for my weight, I'm normally what I consider a slow loser, losing about a half to one pound/week. In 28 days, according to my scale this morning, I'm down 14.5 pounds. In my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have expected to be where I'm at in four weeks. If the improvement in my fitness level isn't motivating enough, the weight loss sure is!  

When I started in January, I took a bit of my Christmas money (in addition to joining the gym) and told myself that when I lost 10 pounds, I'd buy myself a Pandora bracelet and a starter charm, and then every five pounds that I lost after that I'd buy a new charm.  I'm almost ready for charm #2!  I like wearing it to remind myself of how well I'm doing and that I'm worth the investment. My first charm is a clock, because this road takes time. 

So that's the scoop. I"m excited to think about where I'll be in another 28 days. That's Monday, February 28th, and I promise that I'll post again with my status and hopefully more charms on my bracelet!