Ok, I admit, the last few weeks have not been great. Heck, some days they have not even been good. But, I’m still here, still working at this and I’m still committed to making it to the end.
So, today I had a great day. Worked out this morning with my new circuit routine. It went well and to top it off I did a 5 minute all-out sprint to top my heartrateup to 17. Add that to eating well all day and logging all of my food and I say that was pretty good. Also, I biked to work, 4 miles total and took the kids swimming this afternoon. I’m tired, but got plenty of exercise today.

Tomorrow, I’m going to start the day off well and take care of myself all day.

What are you planning on doing to take care of yourself today? Let me know!

-Littlekathy

The past few weeks have not been easy. Despite my best intentions to get in every workout and eat every meal on plan, my life has been a little uncooperative lately. First, a short trip to visit family by myself with my two small kids interrupted my workouts. My saving grace was my eating was pretty good, despite family stress.

Then, an old ankle injury popped up on my best workout week yet. After babying it for a few days, I’m now back on track with workouts, but find my eating slipping this week.

Now I’m also battling another sinus infection. I seem to be getting them monthly this year. Unfortunately, my asthma kicks in every time I get one and I end up on an inhaled steroid. Not only is that going to cause me temporary water weight gain, but it increases my appetite. As if I need that!

My strategy this week is to have the best workouts I can, try to cut out any extra food that is not written in my weekly plan and just continue on through this not-so-perfect period. I know that if I keep watching my food and keep up my exercise, in the end I’ll come out with a good weight loss this month, despite my challenges.

This month I only lost 5lbs. It’s not the 10lbs I was planning, but it’s still 5lbs off my body forever. I’m proud of that and my total since starting to train with Pete is 15lbs and another 5lbs I lost on my own before starting this program. All in all, I’m down 20lbs in about 3 months. Not stellar in terms of pounds per week, but still great for me.

I hope all of you are handling your challenges well. I guess this is the difference between quitting and making it to our ultimate goal. I’m sure we’ll all stick to it!

-Little Kathy

When I started running this year, I thought I would never make it 5 minutes. My asthma was terrible and I literally couldn’t run for more than a minute.

Now, I can easily run a mile. In fact, it’s usually my last 15 minutes of my 1.5 hour workouts.

Today, Pete challenged me to run for a whole hour. At first, I thought he was insane. After all, even though I’ve lost some weight I am certainly too fat and out of shape to run for an hour. Then, I thought about it. I can work out for 2 hours, no problem. I keep my heart rate high for over an hour, so running that long shouldn’t be too bad. I might even make it to my July 4 goal of running a 5k.

You’ll be happy to know that I made it. I ran for over an hour, and I ran 3.16 miles, which is just a little more than a 5k (3.1miles)!

It just goes to show that you can do things you set your mind to. However, now I know that my next goal needs to be even bigger. I want to be able to run a half marathon (13.1 miles) by Christmas. With all the training I am doing, I have no doubt that I can make that goal.

Who’s with me? What are your next goals?

-LittleKathy

Ok, I bought the bikini. The bikini, however, is not my “real” ultimate goal. It’s not the reason I want to lose weight.

The truth is, at 32, I’m never going to be a supermodel. My career in film is probably not going to take off when I drop this weight. Instead, my weight loss is for personal and health reasons. First, I want to be the best mother I can be. I want to ride bikes with my kids and win the race sometimes. I want to take my baby down the slide, so she’s not so scared. I want to be healthy so I live long enough to see them flourish. I want to be the best mother I can be.

This weekend, when I was on “vacation” I got a taste of my goal. I was able to fit into a very tiny tunnel at the top of a very small slide, with my 2 year old on my lap. I not only was able to fit, but I had fun sliding down that slide. Now when I have a tough day, I’m going to ask if the person that can fit down the slide would make that decision and the choice should be simple.

We may not all be supermodels, but we all do have a “real” reason for losing weight. Lets all try to remember them on good days and certainly on bad.

-LittleKathy

Pete let the cat out of the bag. Now I know the truth. There are many of you that read this blog, and Pete’s, yet you never comment. How can we tailor our blogs to what you’re interested in if you don’t comment? Time is up folks, so let us know how you’re doing. Tell us what you’re thinking. Fess up!

Enough about you. Unfortunately, it’s my turn to “fess up.”

This week was my first, “vacation” since starting the Lose It Fast, Lose It Forever personal coaching program with Pete. I thought I planned well and “thought” is certainly the right word. Also, vacation might be a bit of a stretch. What I did was take my two kids, ages 4 and almost 2 across the state to visit my family in Buffalo, NY. My husband, unfortunately, couldn’t make it so I was solo this trip. If you’ve ever traveled with little ones, you know that no sane person calls a five-hour ride with two pre-schooler/toddlers in the car anywhere close to a vacation!

We did have a nice time, but I realized when I am on the road with the two of them I don’t have a second to think, much less take time out for myself to exercise and eat exactly on my meal plan. I ended up doing my best, which is certainly better than I would have done on my own, but not as good as I plan on doing in the future when I take a “vacation” with my kids.

Tomorrow is a new day and I welcome the opportunity to start a fresh new week with my meal plan in place, workouts scheduled (although my gym cancelled babysitting this week, which is not good news for me). I don’t know about you, but this week I am looking forward to it being Monday. With Monday starts a new chance for anyone of you that needs to fess up about your week.

I am now hearing confessions, but Pete gets to hand out penance.

Have a great week!

LittleKathy

ScienceDaily (2008-06-17) — Exercise does not suppress appetite in obese women, as it does in lean women, according to a new study. Obese women claimed they were less hungry than lean women before meals and reported no appetite suppression during exercise.

I heard about this study released by U of M researchers here in Ann Arbor.  I have tons of comments.  Not comments about the obvious results of the study (Garry Taubes discussed this somewhat in his recent book and those of us in the battle of the bulge have firsthand experience) but that people actually spend time and tons of money continually researching this basic stuff instead of solutions.

They could have simply come down the road in Ann Arbor to my classes where I dedicate a whole section on Hormones.  I would have explained in nice simple laymen’s terms about Ghrelin, Leptin, Insulin and more.  I actually try to convince people to drop my class in week 1 as I explain how hormones effectively ‘prime’ the body to put weight back on should you start a weight loss program and give up on it.

Anyway, read this article and I will try to keep my comments to a minimum.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, I bought a bikini. Am I ready to wear it? Considering I won’t wear a bathing suit that does not include shorts to hide my thighs, the answer is definitely no right now. However, buy purchasing the size 10 mini-garment, I am committing to finishing this weight loss effort this time. I will not quit until that suit fits on this body. Considering that I may have a LOT of excess skin when all is said and done, I may not show that many people how I look in that suit, but the reality is, without Pete and this coaching, I would never have considered the possibility.

This is not a possibility. This time, losing ALL of my weight is a reality. I am going to lose over 100lbs. I am going to do it this year and I am going to enjoy being a much smaller size.

So, here’s to my new, beautiful brown and blue, beaded bikini. May you make me look like a babe in June of 2009. I’ll be waiting!

Happy Goal Setting Everyone!

-LittleKathy

Tonight, I was watching Sesame Street with my two-year old daughter and the word on the street was practice. The characters then interview people on the street and ask them what the word meant. As they described practice, I began to see myself in the little boy learning to bat. I, instead, am learning to lose weight and keep it off. I swing my bat over and over, and I may even strike out once in a while, but as long as I keep practicing each and every day, I will get better. Hopefully, someday, this will be something I am good at. It is obviously a skill I need to practice over and over.

I am reminding myself of this because this week my life got in the way of my weight loss goals. Kids sick, stressful house and other factors lead to less workouts and a little stress eating. I have been back in control for a while, and never really went off the deep end calorie-wise, so the setback shouldn’t be too big. However, the lesson was big. I need to plan for the unexpected. I need backup plans for eating and workouts if my life goes haywire.

To help combat those life-changes, I finished my first personalized meal plan for the week. I am hoping this will be the start of a great system of planning ahead. It was painful, I have to admit, to take away the  instant-gratification of choosing what I want to eat at that moment. It seemed difficult to me to admit that I could plan ahead and be satisfied. We’ll see how this week goes, but I feel armed and ready to make good, conscious choices.

Here’s to finding out that practice does make perfect!

Thanks Pete!

LittleKathy

It’s taken me 32 years of being overweight to realize that just because I have a bad moment, doesn’t mean I have failed at dieting. I may have a bad moment here or there, but I try to remind myself that they very next bite I take could be right back on track. The sooner I realize that, the better my days go.

That means if I don’t get the best workout today, I know tomorrow’s can be terrific. If I didn’t have the choices I wanted for dinner, breakfast tomorrow can be exactly what I planned. Each and every piece of the puzzle can mean keeping myself mostly on track, most of the time. Hopefully that will mean the difference between quitting (like I have in the past) or continuing until I lose all of this weight (only 113 to go!). Thanks for the lessons Pete.

-LittleKathy

After weeks and weeks of working out, my daily workouts have not been giving me the high heart rate I have come to expect. I hate to say my workouts have become easy. I don’t think anyone would really think 1-2 hours per day, 6 days a week is easy, but they have become easier for me lately.

After my weekly discussion with Pete, we decided that it’s time to push my workouts to the next level. Pete suggested one of his “straight off the ranch” workouts from Jillian for the elliptical machine.

Before today, I thought I was an elliptical queen. I can stay on the elliptical forever. However, this “ranch” workout combines high incline, high resistance and high stride rate. After half an hour, I was truly sweating up a storm and more than meeting my target heart rate.  Thanks to Pete, I burned over 1650 calories in an hour and a half. Considering that number is more calories than I eat in one day, I would say that’s not too shabby!

I guess it’s time to change it up! Tomorrow is running, so this week I’m striving for longer time, not faster pace. Anyone think I can make it 40 straight minutes tomorrow?

Tune in to see!  As Pete says, stay slim!

LittleKathy