Year of the Hot Mom: Week 16 Update

Well, guys, this is the date (April 24th) that I wrote about back in January as the date I wanted to lose 18 pounds by.  There were 18 weeks until my trip to Florida, and my goal was to lose one pound per week, right in time for my little vacation. 

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Well right off the bat I should tell you that I added wrong.  THERE WERE ONLY 16 WEEKS.  There’s a reason I don’t pay the bills in this house!

Regardless of my stellar math skills, 18 pounds is still my ideal goal weight, but as of this morning I have lost (drum roll please…….)

9.4 pounds and over 19 1/4 inches!!!  That is almost 38 sticks of butter and well over a foot a foot and a half of fat!  lol

So, yes, I’m a only a little over half-way there.

Is it what I ideally wanted?  Well, no.  But am I happy to say that I’ve lost that much?  Well, what do you think? :)

Here’s what happened:

Weeks 1-10:   I focused on portion control, limiting sweets/treats, and working out 6 days a week.  I lost 5 pounds and a lot of inches.  I also plateaued for about five straight weeks.  Talk about depressing!  I tried everything short of full-on “dieting” and nothing – and I mean NOTHING – worked. 

Weeks 11-16: I started implementing the Weight Watchers Points Plus system and continued to exercise 5-6 nights a week (I added Pilates at this point to build more muscle and add toning).  So far on WWPP I’ve lost an average of 1 pound a week for an additional 4.4 pounds lost.  (This week I am a little behind on the pound-per-week thing but this week is also bad timing if you’re catching my drift…) I love that I can eat super clean on this plan – it’s really no “diet” at all.  I eat whatever I want; I just write it down and make sensible portion choices.  It has been a lifesaver for me!

One thing I know for sure after 16 weeks into this: I AM A CHANGED PERSON. 

I work out 5-6 days a week now (rotating between the elliptical and my Pilates toning dvds).  I eat clean as much as I can (something I was already doing), but I also really watch my portions.  I realize the food will still be there later if I’m really hungry.  I don’t eat until I feel uncomfortable anymore. 

I’ve learned to really analyze my food before I eat it.  I ask, “Is this going to be worth it to me later?”  I enjoy my food more.  I am more intentional.  I slow down. 

4 months ago, I despised exercising and would rather have scrubbed my toilet bowl for an hour than gotten on the elliptical.  I can’t say I love it now, but I can tell you that I honest-to-goodness crave exercise now and there is just this force within me that compels me to exercise every night (mostly because I’m too scared to stop in case my bad habits set in again).  I look at an exercise video online and don’t think “Ugh, that looks horrible.”  Instead I think “Oooh, I should totally try that! It looks fun.” 

FUN, people! Am I crazy?!  lol

I am going to Florida for 4 days this week (wheeee!!) and I’ve already figured out that I’m going to bring my Pilates dvds and my sneakers so I can do some exercise at my aunt’s house and hopefully take walks around the neighborhood, assuming I don’t die of heat stroke down there in the tropics.  Working out is part of my life now – vacation or not. 

I am in this to win it.  Clearly you can see by my sloooooow pace that this was not an overnight thing.  It has been HARD.  I thought for sure I would be at my goal weight by now.  There has been more than one melt-down on my part, sobbing to my husband about how it’s not fair that Gayle King can lose 9 pounds in 10 days on Jenny Craig and I need 15 weeks of hard work to lose that much and blah blah blah blah blah. 

But these changes I’m making are permanent.  Every day, in my head, I remind myself: “There is no going back.  You can only move forward.” 

A few tips I’ve learned that I want to share with you:

1.  If you’re in a plateau (they’re the worst!), don’t despair.  Try something new.  Try anything new.  Try everything new.  Don’t stop, and most importantly, don’t give up!  Repeat after me: The plateau will break. 

2.  Portion control, in my humble opinion, really is the key to weight loss success.  We’ve all heard it before: weight loss is as simple as your calories in must be less than your calories out.  I can’t recommend the Points Plus system enough.  It rocks.  (I don’t go to meetings and I’m not a member online.  I had a friend who gave me her points info, and I also use this awesome Weight Watchers calculator when I need to figure out the points of something not in the material.)

3.  Eat clean, healthy, nourishing foods.  Don’t sacrifice your body’s health for the sake of saving some calories on “sugar-free” or “low-fat” items.  It’s not worth it in the end. 

4.  Make time for exercise.  I had only lost about 3 or so pounds back in the winter but my husband was already noticing and commenting on how toned my upper thighs were getting in the back.  Motivation?  I think so. ;)

5.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to take your measurements!!  Knowing that the inches were dropping, even during my plateau stage, was what kept me going. 

6.  Tell someone about your weight loss plans!  Heck, tell everyone you know!  Then you’ll be too embarrassed to go back.  :)

7.  Tell yourself, like I do everyday, that this is it for you.  There is no return to the old lifestyle of bowls of ice cream on the couch every night (or was that just me?!  lol).  If I can do this, the girl who loves food and who was picked last for every gym-class sports team in elementary school, SO CAN YOU. :) 

Here’s to the final 8.6 pounds! :)

My hope is that those of you who shared in the beginning of the year about your weight loss goals have been able to make 2012 your year, too.  I’d love to hear how you’re doing!!

Year of the Hot Mom {Week 6 Check-In}

Hello lovely readers!  Did you all have a great day yesterday?  Raise your hand if you are sick of seeing what people’s husbands bought them for Valentine’s Day on Facebook!  (Um, meeeeee! hahaha)  My husband did get me something very small and thoughtful but I am purposely NOT putting it on the blog.  You can breathe a sigh of relief!  haha

Anyway, I wanted to check back in with you all about my Year of the Hot Mom Challenge.  Yup, I’m still sticking with it! 

After 6 weeks, here are my stats:

I’ve only lost 4.6 pounds (*sniff*),

BUT

I’ve lost a total of 8 inches all over my body!  Whoo hoo!!!  (I took my first measurements on January 14th, which was about 2 weeks in, so technically I’ve probably lost more inches than that overall.)

Most significant was my (natural) waist – I’ve lost TWO inches!! Isn’t that crazy?! My stomach was a close 2nd (belly-button area) with a total of 1 and 3/4 inches lost. 

Least significant was my arms – a total of ZERO inches lost – not even a quarter of an inch.  Isn’t that crazy?!  And I have been lifting weights and everything!  (Does anyone know a great workout that is guaranteed to give good results on arms?  I was using 2 pound weights and then switched to 8-pounders when a friend let me borrow hers.  I do a variety of arm exercises but clearly they’re not cutting it!  If you have a link online or a video suggestion or really anything at all for arms, I would love the advice!)

Moving forward from here, I’m going to continue working out on my elliptical 6 days most weeks (occasionally it’s 5 depending on how busy I am at night).  I’m going to strive to really streamline my portions and my snacking to keep that weight loss moving forward!  Right now I am 1.4 pounds away from my goal of losing a pound per week.  I’m hoping over the next 6 weeks I can make up the difference!  That would require me to lose 7.4 pounds in 6 weeks.  Sounds like cake for most people, but not for my sloth-like metabolism body. 

But I have nothing to lose except weight, right?! lol 

Three final thoughts:

1.  I strongly recommend taking your measurements if you are going to begin a weight-loss journey.  I would be SO bummed out about a measly 4.6 pounds if it weren’t for the 8 inches I’ve lost in addition!  They’re less than $2 at Wal-Mart and SO worth the investment, in my opinion!

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2.  It’s a crazy, weird, awesome feeling to read any magazine article about exercise and to count myself in with “those people” now.  I work out!  I’m an exerciser!  I get more than the recommended amount of exercise per week!  Whoo hoo!! It’s a crazy new world, baby! lol

3.  This is probably sick and twisted but I always think about weight loss in terms of butter! hahahaha So even though 4.6 pounds in 6 weeks isn’t that awesome, it’s still like losing almost EIGHTEEN STICKS OF BUTTER from my body.  LOL!

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If you’ve been trying to work out or watch what you eat, let me just encourage you to KEEP GOING! You ARE worth it and you DO deserve to feel good about yourself!

(If anyone has any tips about how to help tone my arms, pretty please share in the comments!! :)

YHM: Week 3 {I Will Not Quit!}

Something really exciting happened yesterday. 

I pulled my jeans off the drying rack – those babies were as crispy as could be, since I refuse to put them in the dryer for fear of them getting even tighter. 

And I put them on. 

And zipped. 

They always zip (thank God), so that’s not the miraculous part. 

The miraculous thing was that these extra-crispy, newly-washed jeans, which would usually require Olympic-level lunges to break them in, just……

zipped. 

It was awesome!  (Feel free to laugh at the mental image of me doing lunges to fit into my crispy jeans.  lol)

I still have muffin top – heck I have a whole BAKERY of rolls going on down there in my belly area. 

But it’s progress, people.  And I’ll take it.  :)

My actual weight loss has been slooooooooow.  On Friday I had dropped 2.6 pounds, but then a certain Event happened that makes me gain 3-4 pounds on average so when the Event is over I will be back to weighing myself like normal.  I refuse to weigh myself right now because the water bloat is killer and I refuse to see numbers on the scale that aren’t really true to what’s going on right now and have that messing with my head.  So the fact that no lunges were required to wear the crispy-jeans, especially this week, is even more exciting. 

Because normally I would be throwing on a pair of leggings right now and calling it a day. :)

So I’m just plugging along……watching portions….limiting treats…..working out every single day that I can (which has averaged to be about 6 days a week for the last 3 weeks). 

I took my measurements in week 2 so I can see progress in a month or so.  I read a GREAT post yesterday about NO MORE EXCUSES.  This girl also wrote about how over a 2-month period she hardly lost any weight but she still dropped from a size 10 to a size 8 because she was exercising and things were still toning up.  That was super encouraging to read! 

I’m in this to win this, baby!

 

P.S. My bloggy friend Sarah has a degree in nutritional science and is also a health coach and a trained wellness coach (I hope I got that right, Sarah!). She blogs at Growing on Gettysburg and she wrote a post talking about some of the things she has learned and taught over the years.  There is a great line in her post that she recommends putting on your fridge:  “If you’re not hungry then what you need isn’t in here.”  LOVE IT!  I totally put it on my fridge.  She said she would love to help anyone else who needs a little direction on the weight loss/healthy eating journey and you can reach her at sgh131{at}yahoo{dot}com.  :)

YHM Progress, Week One: The Honest Truth

I am sitting here and seriously dreading the words that my hands are currently typing.  I worked SO hard last week – I worked out 5 days on my elliptical, plus did some light weight lifting each of those 5 days.  I ate much smaller portions than I had been, got back on the clean eating bandwagon (that had derailed a little over the holidays), stopped eating all treats and leftover Christmas candy, and….

I lost .2 pounds.  Yup, that’s right.  POINT TWO.  For real, I could cry. 

Let me give you a little insight into how my week went.  Let’s just pretend, for the sake of argument, that my starting weight was 1 pound (because so help me but I am just not brave enough to post my real weight on the internet yet). 

Tuesday – 1 pound
Wednesday – 2 pounds (????)
Thursday – still 2 pounds
Friday – .4 pounds
Saturday - 1 pound
Sunday – .8 pounds
Monday – .8 pounds
Tuesday – .8 pounds

WHAT THE HECK??!!!

You want to know the crazy thing?  The two days I didn’t exercise at night were Thursday and Saturday.  Not only that, but Saturday I also went out to eat at Olive Garden!  (I ate only until I was satisfied and ate healthier choices, but I thought for sure I would see it in the scale in the morning.)  And those are the only two days I showed a loss! I don’t understand!!

I’ve always known I have a really sluggish metabolism, and clearly this week is evidence of that. Who in the world starts dieting and exercising and loses TWO-TENTHS of a pound?!  I did some research online today and saw a few tips that are supposed to help: like interval training, lifting higher-pound weights, drinking green tea and taking fish oil supplements before working out.  I’m going to implement some of those this week.

Does anyone have any insight for me?? Clean eating is my thing – but exercising and weight loss are definitely NOT my thing.  I need help, people!

Sorry for the downer post – I just needed to vent.  Some of you had mentioned that you were also trying to get your eating and exercising under control.  How are you all doing?  Specifically Kathy, Becky, Tina, and Sarah!  Let me know girls!  E-mail or comment!

2012: The Year of the Hot Mom

Did you just laugh at me through your computer screen?  It’s okay if you did – I promise. :)

Girls, I don’t know about all of you but I am seriously just SICK AND TIRED of lugging around this extra weight!  I am twenty-two pounds heavier than my wedding day five and a half years ago.  TWENTY TWO! Now I don’t ever expect to be that skinny again – I was working out for an hour at the gym five days a week, plus on a strict diet.  I was in the absolute best shape of my life, but that was for a specific time in my life and I don’t expect to come close to that again. 

{August 4, 2006- the night before I got married – with two of my bridesmaids.}

But I will tell you that my lowest weight after Luke was born was only ten pounds higher than that.  I was Somersizing and eating super clean.  I wasn’t really toned, but I could fit into a lot more of my clothes than I can now. 

{July 2010 - about 10-12 pounds higher than my wedding weight.  This is the goal I’m going for now.}

Do you want to know something insane?  Like seriously crazy? I am fifteen pounds heavier than I was in May.  Gross, right?  That means that I have gained fifteen pounds in a little less than eight months.  And what is the reason for this?  Apathy.  I just haven’t been proactive about taking care of myself.  I know for sure that I gained weight about the time that Luke’s food issues started coming to the surface (I am a total stress eater for sure), and then I definitely gained weight over the holidays (because to be honest, I just love food! lol). 

I can’t describe it, really, but all I know is that I have had enough.  I have two weddings to be a part of this June, and I want to look good in those pictures.  I deserve it, my husband definitely deserves it, and even Luke deserves it – he deserves a healthy mom….certainly not one who is gaining fifteen pounds a year. 

It also helps that all my pants are getting too tight and I’m way too cheap to go out and buy new ones.  lol

SO. 

I have declared 2012 The Year of the Hot Mom.  So far my husband knows about this, as does my friend Lindsay.  And now all of you do, too.  Ha!

I have a specific goal to lose one pound a week for the next 18 weeks.  That puts me right at April 24th – with time to adjust a bridesmaid dress, if needed, for the wedding I am in on June 16th. 

I bought an elliptical off of Craigslist right before Christmas.  I used it tonight!!  (It’s the first full day we’ve been back home since traveling over New Year’s).  There is no earthly way I am going to get myself motivated to exercise unless it involves me watching tv or a movie.  In other words, if I actually have to think about the exercise I’m doing, it’s just not going to happen.  I used to work out on the elliptical machine at the gym last year, and I loved it.  I know some people hate them, but I actually enjoy them.  I can’t believe I just said that about exercising.  It feels like I just swore.  haha

I bought a digital scale a few months ago that shows pounds in .2 increments, which also really helps.  Before all I had was a crummy dial one from a flea market and it was super tricky to actually tell if you’d lost weight or not because it always came unbalanced.  I’ll be weighing myself everyday.

As far as eating goes, so far I’m going to just limit my portions and eat as clean as possible.  I know that sugar and carbs are weight triggers for me, so I’ll be trying to stay away from them.  My problem usually isn’t what I’m eating, since I eat very healthy foods overall, but how much of it.  My friend Lindsay lost about 40 pounds through portion control and exercise several years ago, and she is the queen of self-control when it comes to eating.  I try to picture her face when I want to eat.  lol!

 

Some other phrases I’ve heard that are helpful and play in my head:

“You are not a human garbage disposal.”

“Better to go to waste than to waist.”

“Are you really hungry or are you just bored?”

“Let yourself get to a 3 or 4 on the hunger scale (out of 10) before you eat something.  You don’t always need to be at a level 1.”

“Aim to only feel 80% full all of the time – never stuffed.”

“Is this really worth it?”

 

I just wanted you all to know that I am totally willing to help you be accountable if you need help along the way!  You could start your own “Hot Mom” program. (Or hot wife, hot girlfriend, hot nurse, etc. haha)

I am so ready to DO this.

It’s my year.

I’m coming back, baby! 

I’ll check back in next week! :)