Post 50 - And Another thing!

Hello, everyone!

I know, I know, "What's this? Two days of blogging in a row?" Sorry about that - I left out so much good information in that ridiculously long blog of mine last night and I didn't want to let another day go by without writing it down and sharing it with all of you. I'm sending out a special "hello" to all of my friends at Yelp for inspiring this blog post today!

I've - once again - received so many wonderfully encouraging words from SO many of you. And with those words of encouragement, I've also been asked many questions. Hopefully, this blog post will answer some of them.

To begin with, I want to share the following changes I've made to my daily living:

Exercise

1. Zumba - two or three times per week at Dance SPA, depending on my work schedule.
2. I walk home from work (three miles) on the days I don't go to Zumba.
3. Ab Lab twice per week.
4. Strengthening/toning every other day.

Food

• For the most part (there are a few exceptions), I try not to buy anything with ingredients I can't pronounce.
• I plan my snacks. I spend part of my day cooking for others. It's been too easy to just pop a taste of whatever I'm cooking into my mouth. New rule - if it isn't a calorie I can and will track accurately, I won't eat it.
• NO MORE BUYING POTATO CHIPS. I am addicted to them. ADDICTED, I tell you. When I eat potato chips, forget portion control. I literally zone out and then suddenly come back to reality with absolutely no clue how this empty potato chip bag got in my hands. The nutritionist I met with said this "zoning out" I described is VERY common, even among people who aren't overweight. Well, that's simply not acceptable. I'm through with this zoning out business! I won't eliminate them from my diet completely but I will keep my exposure to them at a minimum.
  
• When I eat at a restaurant, I do eat fries. I won't stop eating fries. Not completely anyway. So here's what I've started doing instead. As soon as my plate comes, I remove 1/2 to 2/3 of the fries and hide them so I don't even see them. This has a dual effect. First, I do tend to be "out of sight, out of mind" about them. However, even if I still find myself wanting them... they've been removed from the warm plate and hidden in a napkin somewhere. This makes them cool off faster and everyone knows cold french fries are just nasty.
• I've also cut my bread intake (which wasn't terribly huge to begin with) in half. No white bread (except the occasional restaurant burger bun if there are no other options).
  
• And one of the biggest changes I'm just now learning to make is that I'm increasing my water intake by, like, a million oz. Okay, not really a million but, after a lifetime of NEVER drinking water (I've hated it my whole life), I'm learning to be friends with H2O. No, drinking coffee doesn't count, darn it. Water is one of the most important gifts I can give my body and, I think, this must be especially true for those of us in the "over 40" crowd. So I'm on my third 12 oz glass of agua as I write. Cheers, everyone!

This week, I'm going to learn about the food pyramid. I mean, we all learned about it in grammar school but I'm 99.9999999% sure I've been doing it wrong most of my life. So I'm going to see where I went wrong and figure out some fun options for getting myself back on track. I also want to post some sort of exercise/calorie tracker and a food chart here on the blog. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do about that. On the one hand, I do want to post this information because I think it's important. On the other hand, I don't want this blog to start looking too cluttered. So if you have any cool widgets you can share with me, please let me know!

Last but not least, I forgot to mention yesterday that Joe and I have started recording our vlogs. Our approaches are going to be a bit different - like our personalities - and I think that's PERFECT! His, of course, is going to be artistic, fun, and focused on what his body looks like and moves like as he dances his way down to where he wants to be. Mine is more focused on the information I'll be providing. Imagine me actually talking to you and saying everything in my blogs instead of writing it all down. Yeah. Like that. Once we're ready to start posting our vlogs (not for another couple of months, I think), I'll share them with you -- I'm so excited about that!!!

That's it for now -- and don't forget to watch our friends Michael, Adamme, LaToya, Corey and Stephanie on Dance Your Ass Off tonight; it's Vegas night as the contestants travel to Sin City! Can't wait to see what transpires - I'll see you all at the Live Chat; tonight's hosts are LaToya for the east coast chat and Stephanie on the west coast!


Thank you all for keeping me accountable, my virtual friends and family!!

Kelley
xoxo

Post 49 - The Big Beginning

It's been a few days since I've given an update so this one's going to be a little long (sorry sorry!!).

Let's see, what's been up? LOTS of exercise! Lots of being aware of everything I'm eating and how I'm tracking it, one (sort of) "oops" meal and what I did about it.

I can hear you now. "Lots of exercise, Kelley? Details, please!" and here it comes. I went to Zumba last Tuesday as planned. I wanted to go to Zumba on Thursday, too, but my client family didn't get home until nearly 6:00pm. Class starts at 5:30. So I decided to take Jilly Bean for a two mile long walk when I got home instead. Not bad! I intended to go to Zumba on Friday but you know what? I decided I was going to sleep in for the first time in more than two weeks. And I'm glad I did. When I woke up on Friday, I felt SO rested! I relaxed, enjoyed a cup of coffee, and then took the dog for another long walk.

So Saturday came....

Now, if you've been reading my blog, you know how my Saturdays usually work. I wake up, swear at my alarm clock, lie in bed until Joe texts me and tells me to get my ass in gear and then (still swearing), I clean up and run out the door for Zumba. Well guess what! After sleeping in on Friday, this Saturday morning was a little different. Now, I'm not going to lie and say I bounced out of bed, excited to be up and out but here's what happened:

[7:05] My eyes open.
[7:05:30] After I focus a moment, I panick and wonder if I overslept
[7:05:45] I look at the clock - the alarm isn't set to go off for another 40 minutes
[7:05:55] Me: Well, #%&*!! I woke up before the alarm? %^#@! How about that?"

I got up by myself! No text from Joe. No Skype with Marc. I did it. Me! I got to the bus in plenty of time, got to class several minutes early and only looked at the clock every 7 minutes or so and, wonder of wonders, I even found myself getting excited about a couple of the songs (I never thought I'd see the day....). A certain somebody who shall remain nameless (but who usually sends me ingratiatingly perky text messages on Saturday mornings) went out drinking Friday night and missed class! The good news in this is that I learned something that's kind of a big deal: I can actually motivate myself to get up and go to class! *squeeee* Anyhoo! I went to Zumba, made it through the whole class and afterward, did an Ab Lab with Christa. Huzzah!

When I got home, I had to run a couple of errands (hang on, this is relevant). While I was out, I decided I was really in the mood to eat at a sit down restaurant so I stopped in at a cute little deli and ordered a grilled and blackened chicken breast sandwich (hold the cheese, please and thank you). It came with french fries and coleslaw. Can I just say this? I was SO proud of myself! I requested to not have cheese on my sammich and I sectioned out 1/3 of the fries to eat. Coleslaw was no problem. I just didn't touch it.

That sandwich was DELICIOUS! Afterward, I decided, rather than take the bus, I was going to walk. So I did. Two miles!!! Zumba, Ab Lab and a two mile walk all in one day? YES!

Today was Dance SPA's weight loss challenge kick-off!! This was another monumental day for me because I did something I haven't done in more than 16 years - I finally weighed myself. I'm not quite ready to share how much I weigh but suffice it to say that I now know exactly what my starting point is and exactly what I need to do to reach my goal. Never fear - I *will* share my starting weight with you but owning up to my actual weight was an emotional, personal thing for me and I just want to absorb it for a little while before I go public with my current size. You know, I can't say it enough. Knowing where I'm at, knowing where I'm going and knowing what I have to do to get there is a hugely emotional experience. And by saying it was a hugely emotional experience, feel free to imagine that I cried again. Because I did. Ugh, I hate that! Except they weren't tears of sadness or shame. There is just this sense of... I don't know how to explain it. Just an overwhelming feeling of "Oh my God. I'm finally really, really making these changes in my life!"

I also learned something interesting - I have low water weight for my size. That's not a good thing. I am on my way and doing much better about my water intake but I'm still at least 5% under where I should be. So guess what I've been doing all day. Drinking water, water and more water! I've had two litres so far and I'm drinking a third litre as I write. I hope that helps put me on the right track with this water business.

Today, we also had another Zumba class. I couldn't quite make it through the whole class without taking a mini-break but, all in all, I was really proud of myself. Would you believe I actually only looked at the clock four times??? It's a new record for me and yes I am patting myself on the back for it. So yeah! I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I'm doing it!

After the kick-off party and class today, Joe, our fellow classmate, Katie, and I went to lunch at Belly Shack, a super-cool little minimalist place with an awesome, industrial theme. I selected lemongrass chicken. When it arrived, there were two slices of accompanying bread (it's supposed to be a sandwich but I left it deconstructed and only ate one piece). The food was delicious, flavourful and filling without being "oof." See?



And then we blew it. Well, sort of.

We decided we couldn't stand it - we had to have ice cream from Margie's and we had to have it right then and there. On that note, off we went. Now, you have to understand: there IS no simple single scoop of plain ice cream at Margie's so, keeping that in mind, I opted for something relatively low-key. I chose two scoops of vanilla and praline. It comes with a too-good-to-say-no-to wafer and a saucer of chocolate sauce. Oh, and whipped cream and the requisite cherry. So how did I do? Not toooooooooooooo bad, I think! I did eat the a scoop of my ice cream and the wafer (I couldn't help it. I just... couldn't help it). Oh, and the whipped cream and requisite cherry. However! I passed on the chocolate sauce and I left one scoop of ice cream in the bowl. Yay me - I AM doing it!

By the time we were done, I was feeling "oooooooooof," so I decided to walk home. Three miles. And I did it!!! After plugging my information into a calculator, I discovered that I burned another 400 calories by walking home so, hmpf! Yep, I'm doing it!

And now? I am finished for the weekend, ha! I'm exhausted, my leg muscles are killing me.... and I feel GOOD. I think, now that I know I can do it without killing myself, I'm going to start walking home from work every day. 400 calories! Woooo! Oh! One more thing before I end this entry; don't forget: tomorrow night is DYAO night. I can't wait to watch my friends dance their asses off another week - it's Vegas week, baby!!!


Love and exercises,

Kelley
xoxo