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Posts Tagged ‘losing weight’

Continuing Journey to Fitness

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 8, 2018| 6 Comments »


So, I had lost 19 lbs. as of last October. For the past few months, since my mom has been in the nursing home, I haven’t exercised or eaten the way I should. At first, I didn’t gain any weight. But as I started losing muscle mass from stopping my weight workouts, I felt my clothes get a little tighter (when you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories). I had already gone down a size, and I really didn’t want to have to hang my head in shame and go back to the other size. But I was spending so much time at the nursing home that I was just grabbing whatever food I could and not finding time to exercise. And I could really feel my health declining. Things didn’t feel right with my body anymore. When I fell and injured my right knee and pulled my left hip muscle, I went to the gym and froze my membership. I didn’t stop it completely, but I was considering that. Then I started remembering how much better I felt when I was working out.

My hip injury is barely a twinge now, so I went back to the gym yesterday. I decided to focus on cardio right now and maybe take weights back up later. I have a treadmill at home, but it’s too far to go during lunch, and the gym is just about 10 minutes away from work. So for the last two days, I’ve gone to the gym and walked on the treadmill. I might tackle the elliptical when I have more stamina. And then run on the treadmill.

Also, I’ve been looking at a Mediterranean diet lately. Yesterday, I had stuffed grape leaves, olives, and mozzarella balls. Today for lunch I had half a pita stuffed with hummus, feta cheese, and olives and a stuffed grape leaf on the side. It amazes me how few calories these meals have, and most of it is very good for you. I hate diets that completely eliminate certain foods. Eating at least a partial Mediterranean diet is fairly easy for me because I like the food. I need to add some fish to the mix. Does that mean I won’t eat any pizza or burgers ever? Not this girl! I’m not giving up anything. But I can change the frequency I eat these things that aren’t as good for me.

All these foods I ate for lunch were bought from the grocery store, which means I’m saving money compared to eating out. So that’s another plus! 🙂

Anyway, that’s what’s going on with me health wise. What are YOU doing to take charge of your health? Do tell.

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Last ROW80 Update for the round AND Operation Kick the Insulin Week 13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 26, 2015| 7 Comments »

ROW80Badge

I just realized two things. 1) I forgot to do my final round check-in and 2) It’s been three weeks since I posted my Friday Kick the Insulin post. Where does the time go?

I did pretty well this round with writing except for something that threw me way off balance for about a week and halted my writing progress. I was spot on for getting my monthly word count goal in, but this thing really got me down for about six or seven days. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did. I can’t go into it publicly because I don’t want hurt feelings, but I’m okay now due to some other friends talking me down from the precipice. I’m a very upbeat kind of person, so it was really unusual for me to be down. It just goes to show our writing is very important to us. Yeah, this was all about writing. Anyway, I’m going to finish below my word count goal for the month, but I’m okay with it. I needed the time off to regroup.

Since this is Friday, I’ll also touch on my Kick the Insulin thing, although I don’t usually combine it with ROW80. I haven’t been able to cut down my dosage yet, but I’m gradually losing weight. It’s coming off about 1/2 lbs. a week right now, but I’ll take it. The only thing I’ve been doing differently (except a little exercise) is replacing one meal a day with a Shakeology shake. If I can get my other meals under better control, there will be more success. And I need to get back to my PiYo workouts, which came to a standstill while I was teaching Vacation Bible School one week. Then I just didn’t get back to it.

I’m really looking forward to the next round! See you all there!

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ROW80 Round Two 2015 Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 6, 2015| 9 Comments »

I’ve pondered about this round’s goals. I see a lot of people list a LOT of goals. Sometimes it makes me feel inadequate. Then I realized, I have a full time job, a writing job, and a proofreading job. So I’m cutting myself some slack. I’m only going to list goals I think I can accomplish.

So here goes.

1) Write anthology novella

2) Write at least a quarter of the Soul of a Vampire sequel (I already have it plotted out).

3) Plot out the 2nd novella in the series I’m writing under the other pen name.

4) Continue to lose weight toward my “Operation Kick the Insulin” goal for 2015. (I’m not giving specific weight loss goals because some of that isn’t under my control.)

I think that’s enough. Not overwhelming, but enough to keep me on my toes.

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Operation Kick the Insulin – Week 1

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 3, 2015| 10 Comments »

The Dreaded Insulin Pen

The Dreaded Insulin Pen

This post may be long since it’s the first one in this series. I plan on doing an update every Friday.

Diabetes is a very serious disease. It can lead to blindness, kidney disease/failure, neuropathy, and other complications. The key to preventing these complications is to keep blood sugar at the proper levels.

Every night, I give myself an insulin shot. This is an extended release insulin that lasts all day. At this point, I don’t have to take the shots at every meal like many diabetics do. I DON’T want to go there. I also take a medicine called metformin twice a day. In addition to these medicines for diabetes, I take a blood pressure pill and a cholesterol pill every day. This is my life right now. I’m keeping my blood sugar under control, but I hate that shot every night.

So, here’s the deal. My goal is to be completely off insulin by the end of 2015. I plan to do this by losing the weight I need to lose. In doing this, I might also be able to get off the blood pressure meds. Maybe even the cholesterol meds. This is going to take a lot of work. Exercise, self-control when eating, etc. Losing weight is the best way to get your pancreas to start working properly again. And that’s what I’m going to do, if at all possible.

There’s always the possibility that this won’t work. I might be on insulin for the rest of my life. But I’ve seen many people lose the weight and get off insulin. I’m going to try with all my heart.

This hasn’t been a full week because I just started this on Monday. But I want to weigh in on Fridays, so I’m going to have a five day week the first time. That’s okay, because I’ve already lost 6 lbs. 🙂 I know a lot of that is water weight because it’s impossible for someone to lose 6 lbs. of fat in 5 days. But I’ll take it.

If anyone wants to join me, please feel free to comment with your goals and accomplishments. Even if you don’t have diabetes, that’s fine. Many people still want to be healthier. Exercise, eating better, and losing weight can prevent or reverse all kinds of health problems. If you just want to lurk and say nothing, that’s okay, too. But, please, at least click the “like” button, because I want to know you’ve been here. And, if you don’t have any health or weight problems, I would love to have some cheerleaders, especially when I’m feeling down about this whole thing. Because I know that’s going to happen. It’s normal.

So I’m taking the plunge to be a better me both inside and out. Wish me luck! And those of you who pray, I need that, too!

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Fitness Friday – Back in the Saddle

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 5, 2013| 9 Comments »

I’m back in the saddle again…. Okay, so I like Aerosmith. 🙂

I was happy with the scale this morning. After the 2.5 gain last week, I wasn’t sure how this would play out. Honestly, I got back on the scale the day after the weight gain. I had actually lost most of it the next day, so it was definitely water weight.

Anyway, when I’m showing my stats today, I’m pretending last week didn’t happen and going from the week before. Otherwise, I would show a BIG loss this week. And although I would like to brag about that, I chickened out and wouldn’t do my little stats table last week, so I don’t really deserve showing the big weight loss. LOL. We’re just going to pretend last week didn’t happen at all.

Btw, I’m wearing some size 14 jeans that were hanging in my closet. These are a bit smaller than the 14’s that hubby bought me. My new jeans are relaxed fit, but the ones in my closet are more form fitting and more flattering. I’m so glad I can wear those again! 🙂

So here are my stats for this week. Remember…last week didn’t happen. Hee hee.

Stats for this week:
Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 171.5
This week’s loss: 1.5 lbs.
Total loss: 21.5 lbs.

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Fitness Friday – A Disappointing Week

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 29, 2013| 8 Comments »

Okay, first the bad news. I knew this would eventually have to happen. A large weight gain. I got on the scale this morning and was up 2.5 lbs. That’s a lot. And the thing is…I didn’t really eat any differently than usual this week. The only thing I did was start back with my exercise. I hadn’t exercised in about two weeks because of my work schedule, but I got in a couple of days this week. That can be kind of discouraging when you actually do something good and you end up getting not so great results. However, I do know that the weight gain COULD be water weight. Also, I can remember when I was working for Weight Watchers, many of the members had a weight gain the first week or two after starting exercise. Me, too. So I did a little research on this, and I found out that when you start exercising, your muscle cells will hold water. I won’t go into the specifics, but here’s one article on the Weight Watchers website concerning that. Weight Gain With Exercise? So it could be that or just plain old water retention. The main thing to remember is this is an ongoing lifestyle change, not something that can make or break me because of one week or even one month. It’s a lifetime commitment.

Now the fun stuff. When I got home yesterday evening, my husband was cleaning out closets. He had started with the closet in my son’s room, the one who just moved out recently. I had some old clothes in there and my husband wanted to know what to do with them. I told him they were clothes I still loved and just couldn’t wear yet. Then we started in our bedroom closet. I ended up finding about three pairs of jeans in there that I could wear, along with a couple pairs of capris. So we sorted them into clothes I could wear now, clothes that I could probably wear about five lbs. from now. And clothes that I’ll be able to wear sometime down the road. It was really fun because I used to have some really cute clothes. One type of clothing I’m going to be so glad to get rid of is going to be the long, full, “hide-the-fat” skirts. LOL. Some of them are pretty, but not really my style anymore. I used to never wear stuff like that, but as I gained weight, I found myself buying more and more of those big skirts. No more. 🙂

Anyway, that’s my story. I’m disappointed, but not discouraged. And going through the closets showed me I had really made progress. I don’t feel those 2.5 lbs. My clothes didn’t get tighter. So I’m not worried. But I’m not going to post stats this week, because I don’t want to actually SEE the gain and the change in total weight loss. I’ll get back to that next week when I lose weight again. Not if. When. 🙂

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Fitness Friday – Success or Failure?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 22, 2013| 14 Comments »

I hate the word “failure”. HATE IT. When someone feels like they’ve failed, it causes discouragement and makes one wonder if it’s worth it to go on with what they are trying to accomplish. The word failure is a nasty word and really shouldn’t be in one’s vocabulary.

I didn’t lose weight this week. Nada, zero, zilch. Did I fail? Of course I didn’t. I succeeding in finding out what happens when you don’t eat properly. I succeeding in finding out what happens if you let your priorities slide. But I’ve also succeeding in keeping my blood sugar at a normal level. Last night I went to a jewelry party, but it was also someone’s birthday. There was cake. Not the kind with the nasty whipped icing. It had real homemade butter cream, clog your arteries, icing. My favorite kind. The kind where I could just eat the icing, the huge globs shaped like roses with just a tiny bit of actual cake. It’s all about the icing, ya’ll. I resisted…and resisted. Then I thought, you know what? I’m going to have a bite. And oh that bite was good. But that’s all I had. One bite. And my blood sugar was only 122 when I got home. So did I succeed last night? Oh, yeah, I did. Do you know how hard it is to have ONE BITE of your favorite kind of cake?

So, although it wasn’t a week of weight loss, it WAS a week of success. It was a week of learning and reminding. And it was also a week of control, at least in the sweets department. And, hey, at least I didn’t GAIN any weight. 🙂

Stats for this week:
Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 178
This week’s loss: 0 lbs.
Total loss: 15 lbs.

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Sunday Update (Where there’s not much to update)

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 20, 2013| 13 Comments »

I’m not sure why I’m even posting today. There’s really not much to tell. Between being sick and having company every evening, I just haven’t gotten anything done with my WIP. But I feel better now, and the company will be less frequent, so it’s time to get back to work tomorrow. And back to exercise if I can work out without coughing.

Btw, I lost another pound. 🙂

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