Do you find

that you only have enough willpower to tackle one challenge at a time?  I started my big triathlon training plan last week and then woke up to 7 feverish children the next day.  By the time they started to turn a corner, Bill and I were up to our necks in a talk of the sacrament of matrimony for the converts at church.  The talk went well, but there is always a lot of debate and discussion and disagreement on that topic which causes me so much internal turmoil that Sunday afternoon I didn't have the oomph to get to the gym.  And so it has continued.....my body is filled with nervous energy and excess adrenelien, my spirit depleted and spent. 

How does one strength train one's will?

New Years Resolutions?

Rachel asked about fitness related New Years resolutions.

Some of my thoughts?

I have been working on motivation, by keeping up with workouts and reading health and fitness related books.

And I have actually been better at eating this week...just thinking and planning a bit more...resisting eating away sadness yesterday and today.

A little cry in the bank's carpark and two calorie counted glasses of wine helped!

New Years fitness resolutions?

I tend to do mottoes or themes rather than resolutions..the looseness of a motto guides me without stressing me.

What one word comes to to your mind, when you think of your fitness life? That can be your fitness motto for 2020!

My fitness motto may just be STOP AND THINK ( before eating and this leads to planning meals better).My life motto for 2010 may just be COPING..but that will be another post, on my Living Without School blog!

What are you doing for motivation?

Today I did Taebo Amped Live in LA. A 43 minute workout, one of a set that we gave son Greg for his birthday on December 9. My arms are really feeling the work of the weighted bar!

I just don't have time for hour long workouts right now....

Trying also to re-read some fitness and health books, amid the busyness of late Advent and almost-Christmas rush. Wanting to remain motivated to lose weight and get healthier and fitter. Although my weight is kind of the same...

What are you doing for motivation , for weight loss or maintenance, for fitness and health, this Advent?

Isn't This Better Than Dieting?

A quote from the old classic FIRM workout Volume 1.


Such an 80s workout classic. Yet so effective. Cardio and weights. You can do the whole 70 minutes or break it up into parts. I'm addicted to the high impact cardio, the push ups on the dumb bells, the killer legwork, the chest work, the abs....I don't often do the whole workout but have been doing parts since Wed of last week, every day, after I heard of the untimely death of the workout's creator.

The FIRM used to promise visible results in ten workouts. And it is kind of true. I've done six days of the FIRM Volume 1 in a row and people have already asked me if I have lost weight.



It is more fun than dieting..I find I need tough-ish workouts to help me lose weight, to keep that waist line in shape...And I need to watch what I eat...That is the tricky part right now!

I am reading the book I mentioned a few posts back - Finally Thin.

At first, I didn't feel the book was helpful for me. She lost a lot of weight, as I did, but she looks thin and gorgeous while I look...fat and ugly.

The author raves about never having to worry do I look fat in this? But I worry about that most days.

Amd she doesn't do a lot of talk about emotional eating. Eating to cover up emotions.

But then, I gave myself a mental shake up. A mental slap. Come on, girl!

I realised that maybe I was just being way too negative and that this negativity was attributing to my inability to lose a few more kilograms.

Now, I am reading the book with a positive frame of mind. I might be old. I might be fat. But I am not as fat as I was. I might never be as thin as the author. I might never rejoice at what I see in photos. But I can learn some more positive food habits .

Like - thinking, really thinking, before I eat.

And returning to my own, personalised sort of food plan..meals and calorie allowances that suit me. Not someone else.

Knowing there is never just one way.

And learning that it is okay to take care of myself, too.

Ouch!

Forgiveness

Listening to Jeff Cavin's talk called The Hidden Power of Forgiveness as I straigten up and prep the house today.

He is talking about how Jesus said we all will face trouble in the world. Trouble means worry, strife, pressure.

Then he explains how when we are faced with trouble often that is caused by feeling offended. We have all been offended many times.. by things other people did or said, didn't say, didn't do.

Often, Jeff says, we feel offended and hold that in and it can lead to us... using excessive amounts of alcohol, food,... work, hobbies.... etc.

I saw this in real terms of eating. Feeling offended.. then finding refuge in food.

I continue to ponder the relationship between stress and eating. Could definitely relate to the feeling of being 'offended'.. and do see his connection.



Here are some notes I am taking as listening..

Being offended- is a carefully laid trap by the evil one.
To be offended is to be 'scandalized'. Our pride. It is a trap-which means:

1. We don't see it as it is hidden.
2. It immobilzes us.
3. It is stronger than us

When we are offended.. we are trapped.

When we are offended...when something happens to offend us... what do we do?
When I am hurt, or gossips about me or my friend, child, family.. or my spouse or someone ticks me off... I get offended- angry. I shut down.

Wall goes up.

Enemy wants that.

Trap can cause obsessive behavior.

Forgiveness means release. Releasing someone from what they owe you. They owe us in our minds because they offended us. We want to pay them back, by building walls, or other behavoir. Make them pay with emotional weapons.

Jesus shows us new way. Absolve them. Release them of what they owe us.

Matthew chapter 18- best story of forgiveness.
Matthew 18:15

Hummm.. what do you all think?








God bless you all this Thanksgiving-- Cindy

What is your holiday goal?

We're heading into that season of foody delights and every pre-Thanksgiving WW meeting I've been to always emphasized holiday goals.  Where do you want to be on New Year's?  How are you going to get there? 

This week when I stepped on the scale, I saw that I was very close to my goal.  I haven't changed my eating dramatically despite my efforts, but I have increased my exercise to 5 days/35 min each.  With that in mind, I decided that this year's holiday goal will be for me to maintain my weight through maintaining/increasing my workouts. 

Have you set goals? 

Accountability is my middle name (not)

Hi all--

I wrote a really long comment to Leonie's comment about helping each other with accountabilty. You all may have disucssed this aleady, as I have not read all the back posts yet.. but I would love to have help.. and maybe we can post here what we want to be held accountable for?

I would like to focus on just staying on the Weight Watchers plan for a few weeks to see if I can get some portion control back in my life.

Here are my comments from the other post. Please post anything you want acccountability on.. and we can help each other.
-------------------------------------------------------------
My comments on previous post:

Yes, let's hold each other accountable... but in a very positive way.. which I know you are.. but I used to have a friend I asked to yell at me if I messed up. lol I am getting too old for that.

I thinking today about your post about standing up eating M&Ms etc. Oh I could relate. I do 80% of my mindless eating on my feet, at the island of my kitchen with the news on.

lol

I thought today... next time I start do to that (my nemesis is usually chips..) I am going to think of Leonie. (or anyone else here who struggles with this) and think.. what would I want Leonie to do right now? I want the best for her-- she is so sweet and must be feeling down or tired or stressed.

I am going to hope she stops.. gives herself a hug and maybe even take a moment to sit and have a cup of tea and be kind to herself. Just like I would be kind to her if I were there.

I found it so much easier to thinking these things for others than for myself! For myself I just think.. 'you dummy! Why did you eat? You should be cleaining the house or working... you blew it again!"

lol

I would never say that to one of you.. so, maybe my virtual support of you when *I* am about to mess up will train me to also be kind to myself.

Does this make any sense? But I will hold you accountable and want to hear your succeses and challenges.

One thing I have done since starting WW is stocked my fridge with lots of good stuff.

I found I would be STARVING and no time- eating on the fly and no good choices. So I got tons of great stuff.

Also cleand out the fridge (it was packed adn a mess) so I can find everything.

The first week went pretty well until a dinner party we were invited to Fri night. I budgeted pretty well.. but then had some wine.. and when I got home ate half a bag of chips. How embarrasing?

Oh well, I am what I am!

So ate light today.. tomorrow is my first weigh in at WW.. lol.. silly but now my Monday mornings will be my little benchmarks....

Let me know what kind of support you need.. maybe we can all post?

I will make a new post for that.

hugs,
Cindy

The Good, the Bad and the APFRI

A month ago I had an opporunity to participate in an Executive Wellness Assessment by the Army Physical Fitness Research Institute (APFRI) which has been offered to the students and spouses at Bill's school.  Bill is a Major and the soldiers at this school are all in their mid-30s, and already APFRI has found plenty of people who need to improve their overall health and fitness.  The amazing thing to me is that soldiers must pass weight and physical fitness tests to retain their jobs.  If these are the fittest Americans, what must everyone else be like?  (You can tell I don't get out much.)

The preservation of the Soldier's health should be the commander's first and greatest care.

--George Washington

APFRI's slogan is printed on the front of the packet I received after my 3 hour assessment which included an Army body-fat tape test, a bod pod trip, a treadmill test, a flexibility test, a weight lifting test for leg and arm strength, nutritional analysis, and blood work.  Inside were all sorts of helpful sheets on how to improve in the areas I needed to work on, namely upper body strength, body fat, weight, and aerobic fitness.  A staff member talked me through my results in a judgement neutral way.  What I loved about the whole thing was that it felt really thorough and somebody took the time to show you how you did on each result.  They didn't just summarize like the doctor does; they explained the reasons for and the ranges of results for each of the tests and showed me where I fell in a green/yellow/red spectrum.  And for the areas where I'm not in the green, they set up consultations for me with a personal trainer or a nutritionist.  Now I just have to do  what they say. 

Here are some of my results:

blood pressure--green range

Glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol--green, and with the risk factors I have, I could take up smoking and still be risk free (Bill argues that is my own interpretation of the results)

Army body-fat tape test--green

BUT:  Bod Pod body fat test puts me in the red with 31.60% body fat.  I should be below 23.9% 

Weight: yellow at 138.61 lbs

Upper body strength: yellow

Nutritional Analysis:  I eat my entire caloric allowance in starches/grains every day, and I still eat from all the other food groups!

So why share all this? A little to have it recorded in a place I can come back to, but also because I thought it was a great idea to have a benchmark, a real snapshot of my health and wellness at 36.  I would love to have something to compare this to from when I was 25 and 35 pounds overweight and just starting this whole healthy lifestyle journey.  And I think that most of it would be replicable without APRFI.  A trip to the doctor with an appointement to discuss results, a tape measure, a heart monitor, a scale, and a few minutes assessing my eating and workout habits would cover 90% of what APFRI did.   Have you ever done something like this?

From the comments

My check in...and looking for help in dealing with that stress eating. That picking at food here and there...Any ideas?

Rachel and Niamh - looking forward to updates!
Today I did a new workout - Tracy Mallett's Sexy in Six - terrible name but a good mix of cardio, light weights, yoga, pilates. Nice for me cos lately I've been doing more walking/jogging.

Eating not so great - stress eating, you know? But I am determined to get there - lose those pesky 10 kg!!

A book

Rachel's recent checking in post came at the right time for me.

Awhile ago, someone who cares for me shared their wish that I would lose more weight. More weight? Well, I lost about 38 kg over a four-five year period. Have kept that weight off for about a year or so . Have a healthy BMI but it is still a weight that is at the higher end of the healthy BMI.This pic was from 38 kg ago....

After Easter, this year, I tried stepping up workouts and eating mostly healthy. I lost 1 kg over the last three months. My doctor was pleased -she said most people who lose weight regain it and I hadn't. But that person-who-cares and myself weren't happy.

Could I deny myself a little, lose another ten kg,?

I bought some Weight Watchers magazines.And thought - - if they can do it, so can I. For my even better health; for fitness; for another; to learn even more self control and self discipline; and, yes, vanity prevailing, to look better.

Walking, jogging, instead of Taebo. Counting WW points. I lost a kg this week. Only nine more to go!

And I've ordered this book - from a lifetime Weight Watchers member. Looks good!

New goal weight, here I come!

Anyone going to join me?

Checking in

We survived our military move and are loving life in a more laid back place. Almost every day I'm able to go running alone or biking with 2 boys in the trailer behind me. I'm not losing weight, but I'm learning to appreciate being fit and out of doors as their own enjoyable benefits and not a means to a weight loss end. One thing I will say after biking all over post today....no matter what you've heard, Kansas is NOT flat! Or not where we are anyway.

The FIRM

Having a week of FIRM workouts - aerobic weight training. Some step work. Makes a nice change.

Most people know that exercise can help beat type 2 diabetes, but one type of fitness regimen might work best, a new study shows.
Specifically, workouts that combine aerobic and resistance training exercises appear better at controlling blood sugar than either type of activity alone, researchers say. Find the article
here.

Read more about the FIRM workout DVDs.

How is everyone? Anyone out there??

Log

Workouts - a week of Jillian Michaels, the trainer from The Biggest Loser. Half hour workouts that are tough, intense cardio and weights, plyometrics or jump training, intervals and circuits. Did Cardio Kickbox, Shape up Frontside and Backside, 30 Day Shred Levels 1, 2,3. They pack a punch in 30 minutes and the change from my usual 60 minute Taebo saw me lose a kilogram on the scales - even though I didn't change my diet at all. It is said that one should change things up wrt workouts and I guess my body needed that change! Three more kg for goal number 1.

Food - Well, I have goals and thoughts.

Fill half the plate with veggies and/or fruit.

Choose fresh, natural, good quality foods from several different food groups - as much as possible, that is!

Give my eating some thought, some planning, some structure.

Try not to skip meals.

Don't ban any food or drink. Allow treat foods in small but regular quantities.

Stop obsessing over the calories in food.Choose wholesome natural foods ( where I can) , food that I know will make me feel good.

Look for other ways of dealing with my emotions. It's not all about the food, you know!

Don't pick or snack, especially when tired. Stick to fruit, crackers, tea. Okay?

GET THE BALANCE RIGHT!

Change One

Sounds sensible...Still working on those 5-10 kg here!

The Change One Diet is a weight loss program from prolific publisher Reader’s Digest. The content is authored by some of their leading health and nutrition writers.

The plan originally appeared in the book Change One: Lose Weight Simply, Safely, and Forever: The Breakthrough 12-Week Eating Plan from Reader’s Digest, and received very favorable reviews (typically 5/5). Reader’s Digest have now come up with a complete on-line format containing all the advice from the book plus additional tools.

The name “Change One” comes from the idea that you make a single change to your lifestyle and diet each week.

Start out by altering breakfast habits, then lunch, then dinner and so on. Each week gradual changes are made towards a 12 week goal. There are no restricted food groups as such, and the diet is simply a balanced plan based on an “optimal” caloric intake for weight loss. It’s a refreshing break away from the “bad/naughty” foods point-of-view that causes so many dieters to binge or fail.

Losing another kilogram..

...makes me feel the self control is good, I am happy, I am mostly eating better, the scale has moved in the right direction..yet I am also scared lest I lose control and put that kilogram ( 2.2 lbs) back on. Weird. Even in success, there is fear and trepidation...

A Reminder

Feeling fat and ugly recently..did a Taebo Advanced Live Workout today..and Billy Blanks, the instructor, reminded me of why I do this..it is not all about looks but also about health..and fitness..and energy..and who I am and how I feel..and learning self control and disciplibe..and smiling ( those endorphins!).

One of Billy Blanks' maxims ~

Get Fit
Be Strong
Have Fun
And put the losing weight part last...

The power of words.

Short workouts

What workouts do you do, when you have little time but still want an effective and not easy workout?

Like today - I had exactly one half hour to workout after early mass ( Our Lady of Fatima) and before I had to go to work meetings. I chose Jillian Michaels' Biggest Winner Cardio Kickbox - fats paced kickbox and calisthenics, bootcamp in feel.

So my list of short but not easy workouts are ~

Jillian Michaels' Biggest Winner series - Cardio Kickbox, Shape Up Frontside, Shape Up Backside - all bootcamp style
Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred - any level but especially levels 2 and 3 - circuit training
Turbo Jam Fat Blaster - four turbos, each done low impact then high impact.
Turbo Jam Cardio Party Remix - fun music, high impact danbce and kickbox, two turbo drills.
Cindy Crawford's Shape Your Body Workouts 1 and 2 - weights, low weight, high repetition, great music, great production.
Turbo Jam Kickin' Core - just the 30 minute high impact cardio section...
Taebo Cardio Circuit 1, with light weights
Taebo Original Bootcamp 1
Taebo Abs and Glutes ( ouch, is all I can say!).
Joyce Vedral's book workouts, to my own music - Definition or The College Dorm Workout or The Fatburning Workout ( all weight workouts).

A Loss!

I may be exhausted ( busy week, bad day yesterday..) but..trumpets please ..at least I lost a kilogram...2.2lbs for my US friends.

My eating hasn't been great but I have tried to watch portions and continue to workout. Obviously with some success.

A loss of weight, good news on the scales, can make up for a multitude of bad days and for an exhausted TGIF grumpiness..

Agree?

Log

Monday - Taebo Advanced Live 1 60 minutes - a great combo to Duran Duran's Rio!

Tuesday - Tabeo Advanced Live -the DVD - love the crane and the wax on/wax off moves- 60 minutes

Wednesday - 40 minutes Cindy Crawford Shape Your Body Workout 1 - fun ab work

Thursday - 40 minutes Cindy Crawford Shape Your Body Workout 2 - killer upper body with weights

Friday - Taebo Advanced Live 6 - nice standing ab work - almost 60 minutes

Saturday - the Express workout from the FIRM High Definition Sculpt - 25 minutes - then the strength and ab sections from Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred - about another ten minutes or so. Wow, I'm feeling it today!

Sunday - off to deliver junk mail with the kids ( walking!) and then probably a FIRM cardio and sculpt workout.

Eating log? Don't bother! It hasn't been great! Skipping meals or eating sweets!

Here's my log - where's yours? :-)

Workouts

Been doing Taebo this week.

Yesterday was Taebo Cardio Live Bootcamp ( 30 mins) followed by Taebo Elite Bootcamp Abs ( 30 minutes, with weights and some capoeira moves. Challenging!).

Today was Taebo Ultimate Lower Body - great workout, no equipment needed, only 45 minutes with cardio that has a focus on the lower body.

Love my kickboxing!