March . . . .

March started off with a visit to the Doctor. Only because my Sister and Mother were asking me what my blood pressure and sugar levels were.

I have to say one of my least favorite things to do is visit the doctor. Usually there is some comment about weight, reminding me that I need to loose weight and exercise. But I felt good about this visit, because I had been loosing weight.

However that balloon popped as soon as the doctor walked in. Seems I didn't take into consideration that it had been more then a year since my last visit, and my weight loss was just a pound or two below were I was last time I was in. So no "GOOD GOING GIRL" for me.

As a matter of fact EKG's and blood work were ordered as blood pressure was a little high at 170/95. Luckily my EKG came back good.

So meds were started for blood pressure and cholesterol, as if my blood pressure is that hi so must my cholesterol. I go back in 30 days to double check the status of both and see where we go from there.

While momentarily discouraged, it actually helped to instill my belief that NOW is the time for my Life Sytle Change!

March 12 268.4

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Aches and Pains . . . .

Those Aches and Pains that you experience after exercising are the result of little tears in the muscles that need time to heal.

Exercise is an important part of a successful transition to a New Life Style. At least for me it's been important, however it's the morning after the day after that hit's me hard with aches and pains.

I read a lot in an attempt to keep informed, and one of the questions in my mind was does everyone hurt like this, am I doing something wrong, or am I just this out of shape. More then one resourse shared the above bit of information and it does make sense.

Numerous resources agree that . . .

you work out one day and rest the next.

If you do not, focus on working different muscle groups.

February . . . .

February continued on with little triumphs, some actually bigger then others.

I have noticed that the need to snack is gone (well almost, I still get the urge, especially when Hubby is there snacking every evening). But when I absolutely have to give in I have a meat snack.

The acid reflux is all but gone. I had been having a major problem with that, especially during the Holiday's and in January. I believe that I've only had one bout with it since starting my "Life Style" Change, and that was during the day after eating Thai.

My pants are getting looser and the scale is slowly moving, with a big 4 pound jump during the last week of the month.

We made a point to work out at the Gym on weekends and I've worked at increasing my "walking steps". Even snuck in some pizza. . . .

Water seems to be a continued problem for me. . . not drinking enough of it.

Weight Feb 26 273

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Yet Another Challenge

February brought with it another exciting challenge. Vacation with my Mom.

Don't get me wrong, I was very excited to be going on a vacation "alone" with Mom. Having 4 sisters growing up, someone was always around. As I got older I was working in the family business, and then as the business owner I was the one to stay behind to take care of things.

So I've missed trips with my Mom and Sisters, I've missed a few out of town family weddings and so forth. But when I looked back at things, I've never had a trip alone with my Mom. Excited Oh yes! Wondering how I was going to deal with maintaining the start of my "Life Style" was the challenge. Especially in Las Vegas!

Mom was wonderful. She supported me in attempting to eat healthy while on vacation, even helped me find things on the menu that fit what I had laid out in my plan.

Did I stray? YES. . . . But I did much better then I thought I would.

Let me point out that while most people focus a lot on salads, I have to be very careful on the amount of and type of salads that I eat because of a food allergy.

Had a great time with Mom, found out that she's not like other 70+ year olds . . . that woman was hard to keep up with. It renewed my belief that if I wanted to "Grow up to be like Mom" I needed to get this weight off, and keep it off.

See my weight gain battle definately comes from my Father's side of the family.

Weight Feb 9 -- 278

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Little Shrimp, Big Flavor . . .

I receive emails from Denise Austin with some great tips. . . the following is a "QUICK and EASY" receipe that I've tried and it's wonderful. www.deniseaustin.com You might want to check out the available newsletter subscriptions for GREAT information and receipes

This dish is fun to eat and easy to make. I bet you already have most of the ingredients in your pantry! You can buy the shrimp already peeled and deveined, or you can buy them fresh at the fishmonger and set one of your kids up to do the dirty work. If you're using frozen shrimp, which is perfectly okay, thaw them in a bowl of cool water, drain them, and pat them dry. Using a premade coleslaw mix is another time-saver. And if you're really feeling pressed for time, you can use bottled cocktail sauce instead of making it fresh.


Shrimp Shack Special

Ingredients
For the shrimp:
1 pound peeled and deveined medium shrimp, thawed if frozen
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon hot-pepper sauce
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)

For the slaw:
2 tablespoons reduced–fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot-pepper sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups prepared coleslaw mix
1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, drained and rinsed

For the shrimp sauce:
1/4 cup ketchup
1–2 tablespoons prepared white horseradish
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preparation
To make the shrimp: Coat a rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray. Place the shrimp in a mound on the pan and mix with the lemon juice, pepper sauce, oil, and salt (if using). Spread out on the pan. Let stand for 10 minutes while you prepare the slaw and the sauce.

To make the slaw: In a salad bowl, mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, vinegar, chili powder, pepper sauce, and salt. Add the cole slaw mix and beans and toss to mix well.

To make the sauce: In a small bowl, mix the ketchup, horseradish, and lemon juice.
Preheat the broiler.

Broil the shrimp 3 to 4 inches from the heat until pink and just opaque in the thickest part, about 5 minutes.

Serve the shrimp with the sauce and the slaw.

Makes 4 servings
Per serving: 240 calories, 23 g carbohydrates, 25 g protein, 6 g total fat, 155 mg cholesterol, 5 g dietary fiber, 660 mg sodium

Next Big Step . . .


Ok, maybe not a big step for most, but it was for me. I purchased a Pedometer, one that was a beginner model, without all the confusing stuff. . . Sport Line had a great one with the extra clip to keep it in place and not falling off your ever loosening waste band.


There was this label on it saying "Perfect for the 10,000 Step Programs". Thought it would be cool to keep track of how much I was walking. I walk a lot in the office, but sit quite a bit when I get home. Thought it would be a piece of cake.


I was certain that the pedometer was lying. I was averaging 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day. Way below what I was expecting.


Everything that I have been reading tells me that 10,000 Step Programs cover about 5 miles and you need to walk 5 miles a day to help you really begin to loose weight.


So I have started my "Life Style Change" by making sure that I get up more often during the day to walk down the hall, to check on things out in the shop and so forth. My numbers are getting up, but still way short of the expected 10,000 steps per day.

Footnote: I believe that I've now reached 10,000 Steps on 5 different days since I began monitoring this. Definately not as easy as I have thought it would be. . .

Breakfast . . who me?

Everything that I have ever read says that breakfast should be your biggest meal of the day, or at least eaten. It is one that I have always had to fight, as I just don't feel like eating in the morning.

So my "Life Style Change" meant eating breakfast. Eating Grilled Breakfast sausage, was easy, but eating anything else at 6am in the morning was not acceptable to me. So I had to figure out how to over come my "Life Style" of skipping breakfast.

I now keep fruit in the fridge at the office and fix some when I get in. After the first week of meat, I've been pretty much keeping to melon, strawberrys, blueberrys and such. Sometimes I find it's an hour after I get here that I eat, but at least I'm now eating something for breakfast.

After the first week of meat I started to eat regular foods but No White Potatoes, No White Rice, No White Bread, no fried foods, and cut back big time on the sauces and condiments.

This was not easy as Potatoes have been a mainstay in my life ever since I could remember.

I was worried about how David was going to handle no Potatoes, however I was saved by the 69 and 90 second flavored Microwave Rice. . . they're a great side dish for him.

For my side dish I've been eating Tomatoes and/or cucumbers with vingarette dressing

Weight Feb 5 279.9 9 pounds lost . . . .

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Back at home . . .

Ready to leave the "D" word out of my life and start focusing on "Life Style Change". Well it was not Thursday, but Tuesday, after of weekend of friends, laughing, touring and of course, eating.

Thought that even though I made a promise to hubby that I really ought to weigh myself so that I have a starting point for my "Life Style Change" adventure. Well, sure enough I had gained weight and was now up another 1 1/2 pounds.

So Pat and I started our Challenge on the Morning of the 27th of January. Our game plan was MEAT ONLY the entire first week. Three meals a day and any snacks would be meat.

First I had not been grocery shopping and the only meat I had in the fridge was Salami. NOT a good choice, but at least it was meat. Raided mom's fridge and ate some left over pork roast for lunch and went out to eat with hubby on the way to the grocery store, and had some fish.

The rest of the week went much easier eating meat. By Thursday AM, I not only lost the 1 1/2 pounds that I put back on but lost 2 additional pounds.

Usually when I have used the "D" word before, I would fall off my "D" after days of craving a "fried balogna sandwich". By Friday I was having cravings, however they were for Cucumbers and tomatoes! Definately a first step in my "Life Style Change"

Weight 283

Top Ten Weekend Finally Here!

WOW, I was excited to see the "Ladies" again. In 2003 we each received a National award from American Business Women's Assocation, we're scattered from across the country and we get together for a weekend trip in January. We've been from Coast to Coast.

This year we were going to Calloway Gardens in Georga and had a villa rented. Only 6 of us were able to make it this year (it varies year to year). But had to run to the office, so no breakfast, did what I needed to do before heading to the airport at 11 am. Grabbed a burger at the airport, was proud of myself because I didn't get the fries.

Got on the plane, ate the munchies and craneberry juice. The word "Diet" did not seem to be on my mind . . . just seeing the rest of these wonderful ladies and having a relaxing weekend catching up on things.

Several of us met at the airport and drove to the Villa. . . what a wonderful time. . . catching up, laughing and just plain relaxing. No one commented on my weight gain so once again "diet" for the weekend did not crop into my mind.

We get to the Villa where two of the ladies arrived early and laid in the food and beverages for the weekend. I had a real shocker . . . .Darlene, one of the ladies was a NEW Woman . . . come to find out during our late night catch up talks that she had lost over 50 pounds since May.

That hit a button . . but not only for me but for one of the other ladies, while not my size, definately felt that she had some weight to loose too.

While our conversations were filled with wonderful things, diet and exercise kept cropping in. Before the weekend was over two of us had made a contest about who could loose 85 pounds first. So Pat and I were on and Darlene promised to be our moral support.

One of our ladies is always exercising, running marathons and so forth, asked a very HARD HITTING QUESTION: WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS. I was taken aback, as everyone always said to do it, but no one every really asked me WHY I WANT TO DO THIS. I then realized that the answer was always there, that I just didn't admit to myself that I needed to do this, that I needed to Change my Life Style, not just a 4 week diet. That I wanted to be around for January's to come to enjoy these wonderful weekends.

This was the start of my change in thinking. I don't want a Diet, I want and need a Life Style Change.

Before leaving pictures were taken so that Pat and I had Before Lifestyle Change pictures

The First three Weeks of January . . ..

January started of with exercising weekends at Ballys, and when time allowed after work, maybe 20 to 30 minutes on the "reclining bike".

Purchased a new scale, and one of the hardest things for me was to promise myself that I would only weigh once a week. Something that my husband was very insistant on, or he would not let the scale in the house.

Seems that when I'm dieting, the scale rules my emotions. If it shows that I gained I was not in the best of moods. Not giving any thought that everyone goes up and down on a daily basis. But I had to give thought to the best day for me to choose to weigh.

First I knew that I had a lot of meetings on Thursday evengings with dinner out, so Friday AM was out. Monday AM was out, as I new that we eat out both Saturday and Sunday . . . so no Monday . . weighing would not be a good way to start the work week out. So I settled on Thursdays.

Changing eating habits was something that I was trying to do, had cut back on snacking, but not much else. I had really wanted to take off some weight, as my Annual Top Ten Trip was coming up and I was still upset about that picture and the weight gain that had snuck up on me.

Worse yet I had only lost 3 pounds with almost 4 weeks of exercising and cutting back on my snacking.

Weight on Thursday Jan 22 . . . . 285

Shocking Reality.

Yes it's a shocking reality when your best friend posts a picture on her "facebook page" for the world to see. I'm really very excited for her, but knowing that everyone would see that person on the far right side was shocking to me.

This picture was taken in December and I had the opportunity to see it when they were sharing the pictures.

First thought through my mind was OMG, am I really that big?

The very next thought was, why do all the skinny mini's group together and put the fat people on the end. It always happens that way.

A few tears later and my husband sat down and talked about this and we renewed our Membership to Bally's on January 1. Then started to slowly work in exercise.

I really should have started this blog then, but the fear of falling flat on my face, as I have with every other diet was not something that I wanted to share with the world.

The next few posts will bring you up to date on my progress.

Begining Weight: 288 pounds (excuse me while I bury my head in the sand)