Refusing to get derailed

4 weeks ago I started my 12 week fitness and weight loss plan. Then life happened. Life in the form of wisdom teeth removal (not fun, but not such a big setback), bone graft (super lame...took weeks to recover from), mole removal (scary, but trivial), plantar fasciitis (stupid, stupid, stupid...and just won't go away), and throwing my back out (again). So here we are 4 weeks later and I've neither become an athlete nor lost any weight. Sigh.

But I've got 8 weeks left in my original plan and I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet. I've got too many cute pairs of jeans in one size smaller to get derailed so easily.

I'm waffling on whether I want to run the fun run that I was planning on in October. I really like the idea of being a runner. It fits into my frugalista game plan. Running is a heck-of-a-lot cheaper than working out in a gym. There is also something REALLY appealing about lacing up a pair of running shoes and being unavailable for conversation for about an hour. Imagine...nothing but the birds chirping for an entire 60 minutes. But, that plantar fasciitis thing (which is like a swollen muscle beneath my right foot...I think) gets worse when I jog or walk a long way.


So...if I run I risk making the pain worse, but if I don't run it feels like I'm giving up.

Regardless of whether I can make the running-thing work out, I am definitely restarting my calorie-counting. Tomorrow. I mean it. Tomorrow. Dear friend Donita has a bodybugg to lend me (Yeah!) so I'll go pick up that this week and start tracking on the bodybugg website. Until then, it will be calorie counting on livestrong.com.

That's the plan. I hope that 4 weeks from now I'm not listing all the things that derailed me for the last month, but even if that happens...I can always start again. Right? Right!

Summer's over...time to start watching things

Well, summer is over folks. That's it. That's all you get. It has been an AWESOME summer. My friend Estelle says I overuse that word, but I don't care. It was AWESOME. Of course, I'll be paying for the awesomeness for some time to come.

This summer I've been bundling up large amounts of cash, say $200 a week, and lighting it on fire. Yes, folks, I'm talking about my grocery bill. I don't know exactly why I can't seem to get the grocery bill under control this summer, but steak and fresh fruit with Cool-Whip dip apparently adds up.

Another thing that adds up, apparently, is my weight. Don't try to tell me that there is a connection between the grocery bill and the amount of weight I've gained. That's just silly. Those two are entirely unrelated.

Seriously...I've packed it on this summer. It has been 6 months since my last weight managment effort and I've put on 10 lbs since then. That isn't maintenance mode. That is....I don't know...that is just...BAD. Especially when you consider that my last weight managment effort, during January & February of 2010, resulted in about 5 lbs lost.

So now I want to take off 10 lbs in the next three months. September 1st through November 24th...that's 12 weeks...and I get to end my diet the day before Thanksgiving. I usually just do some calorie counting, but this time I gotta step it up a little. I think my exercise effort is going to have to extend beyong my Wii. Running? maybe.

I think the BodyBugg is going to be my new diet "thing". I already calorie count like a champ, so adding the tracking of energy expended seems like a natural extension. Of course, I'm far too cheap to actually buy a new BodyBugg. They are $300, including 6 months of the website subscription. I've seen them on ebay and Craigslist for $75, but that is with no website subscription. I don't need a 6 month subscription though, three months should be plenty.

So, how 'bout you? Anyone else going to join me for some September 1st diet modification?

P.S. My husband is crunching tortilla chips in my ear. Several warning glances have gone unheeded. Someone may want to check to see if he is still living in a few minutes.

What I learned from Wii Fit

For all of my adult life, I've been scared of taking an aerobics class. I know that sounds crazy to most people, but it always seemed beyond me. I know normal women can do aerobics, but somehow I knew down deep in my heart that I could neither keep up with the foot steps nor make it till the end of the class without passing out.

Enter the WiiFit. Hubby bought one for the family last week and we've been having a fabulous, family-centered time playing with it. In a quiet, semi-private moment, I decided to try out the aerobics part. It turns out I was right. I absolutely stink at aerobics. It was so bad that hubby stopped by to watch the sideshow. I shooed him right out of the room. I don't think it would enhance his attraction to me to see me unable to follow simple foot steps.

I've gotten a tad better with practice. I'm fine as long as I'm familiar with the foot steps that are coming, but if I try to follow along with some new steps...I end up walking into a wall. I'm a long way from ever being willing to walk into an actual aerobics classroom. The good thing, I think, in all this is that I no longer feel like I have some weird self-esteem issue about aerobics, where I think I'm lousy for no apparent reason. Turns out my view of myself in this area was entirely accurate.

Another thing that I've found enlightening about the WiiFit program is the avatar you create for yourself in the system. I created my avatar to look like I'm a young, hip mom complete with pigtails. My oldest daughter, whom I affectionately call "Sweetness" but may have to change that as she starts rolling down into the tween years, also created her avatar...but she made herself look older and added a bunch of makeup. The end result? Sweetness looks like a 36 year old mom and I look like her 7 year old daughter. Hmmmmm. I'm sure a psychologist would have something to say about that!

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied. ~Oscar Wilde

Time for a new challenge

My current personal challenge, the daily ab workout, officially ends tomorrow. How did I do? I did quite well for the first 6 weeks of the 9 week challenge. Of those first 6 weeks, I only missed 1 ab workout...which cost me 10 stupid dollars. But, by week 5 I was having serious back pain all the time. I don't know that the few minutes a day of ab exercises can be said to have caused the issue, but I do know that it was exacerbating the problem. By week 6 I had to take "medical leave" from my challenge. This week (week 9) is the first week that I'm not having constant back pain, so I guess it is time for me to restart my challenge. I'm not willing to restart the same set of exercises in case I start having the same back issues, so I'm going to keep up with the isometric (non-repetitive) exercises and add in other exercises that will be easier on my back.

Hubby and I are about to get serious about a diet and exercise plan. We both want to be hot-hot-hot when we go to Maui in March. We plan to start calorie counting on November 1st, stop feeding our faces when we sit on the sofa at night, and exercise. To that end, we bought a Wii!!! We're having fun playing with the Wii tonight and for sure are expending more energy that we usually do sitting on the sofa watching television. We know that the Wii games don't count as exercise, but hopefully we can score some Wii Fit games for Christmas. Those should be actual exercise. I know that Yoga and strength building exercises come with the Wii Fit and I also want to get the Daisy Fuentes Pilates program that just came out for Wii.

Hopefully working together on our weightloss and exercise goals, with our shared trip incentive, will be successful. Anyone who wants to join us should create a profile on livestrong.com. It is a good time of year to focus on eating moderately!!!

It is challenge time again

Tuesday is it.

The day I have committed to start a new exercise program.

I've tried to ignore that the day is coming, but it will be here in 2 days now and I'm gonna have to face reality.

Some of you know that I periodically create or join into challenges...committments to myself or others to force me to do things that I think are good for me but that I won't do except under duress. I think it would be good for me to work off a little of this tummy gush. I'm hoping 2 months of ab exercises will do the trick.

So, here is my latest challenge: For 5 days a week for the months of September and October, I will do 5 minutes of ab workout a day. My friend Melissa created the ab workout for me. If I fail to do 5 days on any given calendar week (Sunday - Saturday), then I pay Melissa $10.

Here's the workout Melissa decided upon:
There is a total of six exercises each done approximately 20 times (reps) so that once completed the whole series takes approximately 3.5 minutes. You do this 2 times through for a grand total of "7 Minutes"... hence the 7 minute abs. I would recommend doing one set before you job/walk and once set afterward or somewhere in the middle. The reason for this is to break it up and make it seem less daunting. 7 minutes doesn't sound like much, but it will burn at first!

20 x Leg Extensions - Lay on your back, hands under hips unless you're strong enough to just have them by your side. Start with your knees bent toward your chest. Push you feet straight out about 6-8 inches off the floor. Bring your knees back toward your chest.

20 x Leg Lifts - On your back with hands beneath your hips, keep your legs straight with your feet 6-8 inches off the floor. Bring your legs straight up perpendicular to the floor and lower back down. Do not let your feet touch or rest on the floor.

24 x Bicycle - See picture. 1 rep = going right/left one time

20 x Straight Arm Crunch - Crunch position on your back (knees bent, feet on floor). Put hands directly above your face, arms straight, in a prayer position so that the palms of your hands are touching. Crunch up so that your hands go straight toward the ceiling (not forward). If this is too difficult at first, keep you hands behind your head for support.

20 x Oblique Crunch - See picture, but keep both hands behind head. 20 each side. To make this more difficult, keep your foot off the floor.

20 x Oblique Twist with weight - See picture, but make suggested adjustments: Sitting up (with or without weight - I use a 10 lb medicine ball, but you can use either lighter weight or a dumbell etc). Put your heels on the floor and push through your lower back so that its straight (don't slump over or slouch). Hold the weight in both hands directly in front of your chest while leaning back in a "V" position. Twist right till your elbow taps the floor, keeping the weight centered in front of you. If you're not using a weight, just clasp your hands in front of you. Repeat going Left. This is done quickly and going R/L is one rep. To make this harder, you can keep your feet lifted off the floor so that you're balancing on your tail-bone.

I would recommend two other super important expercises. Plank and Side-Plank. These are great stabilizing exercises and give you strength and definition without crunching. Check out the two pictures attached to see what they look like. Try holding each one for no less than a minute each. Obviously on the side-plank, you need to do both sides to be equal.

For the record I am only committing to 5 minutes a day. Melissa thought she'd sneak in an extra 2 minutes a day unnoticed...2 minutes plus those silly plank and side plank exercises. We'll see about that. Maybe I'll do them and maybe I won't. But I will do the 5 minutes a day, 'cause I don't like to pay out.

So, anyone want to join me? I won't make you pay Melissa if you fail. =)