Healthy You Challenge Check In Week 26, 2009

Week 26, half way through the year, how has the first half been? Are you ready to push for a good finish? We have Canada Day this week and Independence Day in the States, lots of parties and BBQ's and temptation. I plan on staying close to the grilled chicken, veggie tray and fruit salad. How about you? What are your plans for this weekend and the rest of the year?

WELCOME

The Sunny Side of Life
http://sunnygee.blogspot.com/


If you'd like to join the HYC please read about it HERE and then email me at healthyyouchallenge at gmail dot com with your blog name and blog URL.

For the rest of us, lets sign in below!

Good guard dogs

It was raining quite hard and the thunder was shaking the windows, lightning was flashing all around the house. Then came this crashing BOOOOOM that shook the whole house and with that booooom the power went out for what would be five long hours.

I wasn't home alone, my guard dogs Sadie and Max were here to protect me. When they heard the BOOOOM they immediately ran to the back patio door to investigate. There were pawing at the door demanding to go out and protect me and protect their yard. 

It was raining so hard I could barely see the neighbors house just 20 feet away, the wind had blown the patio door open and I knew if I opend the sliding glass doors Sadie and Max would go out on the patio, realize it was raining and then come back in. They don't go out in the rain. Sadie will sit on the patio and cry because she has to pee so badly but she won't go out in the rain. She will run through the sprinklers, dive in the Gulf of Mexico and a swimming pool, but she won't go out in the rain. I have a large golf umbrella that I keep on hand for those occasions.

The were quite insistent that they investigate the source of the BOOOOM so I opened the sliding door and they went charging out on to the patio and much to my surprise they went running into the back yard and the pouring rain! They got about 10 feet out the door and then quickly put on the brakes, realized it wasn't just raining it was pouring and they came charging back in the house and they made a beeline to my bed.

By the time I caught up with them with towels, they were jumping up and down on the bed like a couple of kids, they had managed to completely wreck the bed and toss all of the pillows on to the floor. I'm certain they were celebrating their victory over the back yard beast because whatever made the noise took off when Sadie and Max showed up..they are good guard dogs, its just a pity they don't know how to do laundry.

The things I do for handbags

Handbags have always been a favorite splurge item of mine. I think a lot of overweight women compensate in the area of shoes or handbags when it comes to shopping because they its easier to find something stylish that works for you, not always the case when it comes to clothes.

I wasn't looking for an expensive handbag, in fact I had set a strict budget and I promised myself (and Ken) that I wouldn't exceed that amount. After all we're still trying to get back on our feet financially and a high priced designer handbag was out of the question. I had a minimum standard I was looking for. It needed to be: a lighter color for summer, medium sized and handles for carrying it down by my side but they had to be long enough to fit over my shoulder.

It was on this quest that I realized that even handbags don't always fit. In one store a helpful clerk asked me what I was looking for and she proceeded to point me in the direction of some very cute handbags however I quickly realized that the size of my arm hinders the ability to put most of the bags out on the market now over my shoulder. This sweet cute clerk had upper arms the size of my wrist, she just didn't get it.

Did I mention it was a super hot day? Temperatures in the mid 90's with heat index warnings of 105 to 110. I was drinking bottle after bottle of water but I was still feeling the effects of the heat. But I had a mission. I was going to find a new handbag!

Store 1: LOVE the bag but its four times more than I had allotted.
Ken called, and asked how my quest was going. He was hoping I'd find one because if I didn't he know I'd drag him to all of the shops with me on his day off and make him help me find the right bag. I told him the price and he said: HOW MUCH?..... FOR A HANDBAG???
Store 2: Who shops here and why? Ugly and over priced.
Store 3 and 4: ugly ugly ugly
Store 5: I nearly buy a handbag exactly like my winter handbag but in lighter colors. Hide it on bottom shelf just in case I want to come back for it.
Store 6: cute, close but not perfect, 20% higher than my allotted budget.
Store 7: ugly, over priced, ugly, over priced, ugly

I decided to go back to store 6 and get the handbag and when I get back there...its GONE!

Store 8: give up already, there just isn't a hand bag out there for you.

On my way home, exhausted, dehydrated and a little bit delirious, I remember there is a little department store that I rarely go just a few miles my house, determined to push on, I stop there on my way home

Store 9: See the same handbag from store 6 but its not on sale. I remind myself that its not perfect and its a tight fit around the arm and tell myself that maybe it will be on sale in a few weeks. Maybe my arm will be smaller in a few weeks too. There just wasn't a handbag here for me. Right about then all of those bottles of water caught up with me and I had to wander back to the bathroom.

I thought I'd take one more look around the handbag department but first I'd check out the clothes that were on clearance. It was then and there I saw the mannequin and on her arm was this handbag. Hello there handbag, well, well, well, now aren't you just the cutest thing?  I hadn't seen it in the handbag section or in any other store. It looked like the arm straps were long enough...it could be THE ONE. I looked around for a sales clerk but didn't see one so I decided to take matters into my own hands. The mannequin was on a platform about a foot off the ground and the hand bag was hanging from her bicep as she held a fake cell phone to her ear. I just had to get it up over the elbow and past the fake cell phone and it was mine. No problem!

Just about then Ken called. He asked how it was going and I told him that I was hot, tired, pretty sure I smelled bad and oh yeah I'm trying to steal a handbag from a mannequin display. I had the cell phone between my shoulder and ear, standing on my tippy toes with my arms trying to reach up, one hand steadying the mannequin the other trying to get the handbag up over the fake cell phone...while talking on the phone to Ken...ahhhh YES! I've got it!!

Just about then I hear a voice behind me: MAY I HELP YOU?  No thanks I've got it now, I just wanted this handbag. The clerk sort of snickered and then said: Can I see that for just a minute?

I thought to myself oh NO you can't see it, you might like it, its my bag, its the perfect bag and I'm not giving it up now, not without a fight!!  I told Ken I was going to have to call him back. I told her I've been to NINE stores today and its HOT and the AC in my car isn't working that good and yes I'm kind of delirious but this is MY HANDBAG and I WANT IT and there isn't another one in the handbag department I've been there I've looked, I just...MAAAM...did she just call me maaaam? Don't you call old people Maam?....Maam, I just want the mannequins hair. The MANNEQUINS HAIR!!! Yes it was dangling from the strap of the handbag. Oh yes, of course you can have her hair.

I just kept saying I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, over and over again, I'm so sorry. I give that young clerk credit, she did a great job holding back her laughter.

And the best part? The handbag was on sale for 40% OFF!!

Healthy You Challenge Check In Week 25, 2009

Can you believe we're nearly to the half way through the year mark? I like to think of the mid year point as a second chance for the New Years Resolution people. If you're looking for a benchmark to jumpstart your fitness goals, weight loss goals or just up your game a notch, today is a great day to do that.

Have a great week everyone!

MOVED!
Fit, Healthy Hips has a new URL, please find Rosie at http://fithealthyhips.blogspot.com/

WELCOME!

Fat Chick's Journey
http://www.fatchicksjourney.com/

Choosing to Live a Healthy Life
http://hissweetgypsyrose.wordpress.com/

Dragon Haven
http://haven4dragon.blogspot.com/

The Seemingly Endless Plateau
http://seeminglyendlessplateau.blogspot.com/

Unorganized Mom
http://www.incredibleunorganizedmom.blogspot.com/

If you'd like to join the HYC please read about it HERE and then email me at healthyyouchallenge at gmail dot com with your blog name and blog URL.

The rest of us can check in below.

Isn't it ironic

We were sitting in a restaurant having breakfast this morning and there was a table with two couples sitting behind me. The party of four was very loud..very loud..and every thing they said was funny, very funny...at least in their minds. Had it been dinner time I would have thought they had one too many cocktails with their meal...but it was 9am.

One of them did tell a story that made me lean across the table and say to Ken: If I had a video camera I'd point it over my shoulder and they'd SO be on youtube before the end of the day. But since I didn't, blogging about it is the next best thing.

The one woman decided to tell her companions about the time her friend misunderstood the lyrics to a song and when her friend sang along at a party to those wrong lyrics she was beyond embarrassed...she was MORTIFIED! She went on and on about how humiliated she was that her friend had been so stupid.

She loudly told her friends the song was from the 80's band Banarama called Venus except her friend thought they were saying penis instead of venus.  She said she was just so embarrassed to be seen with her friend she pretended she didn't know her.

So what does she proceed to do? You guessed it! She treated us to a little concert singing the song with the WRONG lyrics...and if I had a video camera you'd be watching HER sing instead of Banarama below...oh if only!!

Motivating Upbeat Workout Mix

Last year I got this ipod thing and I've yet to load a single song onto it. Ken is threatening to borrow it and never give it back or worse, sell it on ebay. I have to admit that singing in my head while I walk is getting sort of boring and I think the guppers are embarrased by my singing so its time to load up the ipod with a good mix of fast paced or motivating workout songs.

Please please please share your favorites!

It can be old or new, any genre. Bring it on! 

Healthy You Challenge Check In Week 24, 2009

Hi everyone! Its summer time in the Northern Hemisphere and the weather here in Florida has been HOT and HUMID! I'm still trying to get out there and walk every day and I'm focused on reaching my goals for the year. How about you? How is June in your corner of the world?

WELCOME!!

Pieces of who I am
http://www.piecesofwhoiam.blogspot.com/

My Weight Loss Journey
http://loseweightwithdeanna.blogspot.com/

Junk In My Trunk
http://byebyetomybigbutt.blogspot.com/

Re[Boot]: When All Else Fails
http://dani31608.blogspot.com/

Losing it in Vegas
http://www.losingitinvegas.blogspot.com/

If you'd like to join the HYC please read about it HERE and then email me at healthyyouchallenge at gmail dot com with your blog name and blog URL.

The rest of us can check in below.

new pounds old pounds crazy pounds

As you might have heard, I am called Scale Junkie because I was the woman who would get on and off the scale a dozen times a day. It got so bad my husband had to hide the scale from me and only bring it out once a month for me to weigh in. That finally broke my addiction but it didn't change the way I look at the numbers on the scale.

The other day I talked about how much weight I've lost and gained over the past three years but I didn't tell you that I decided to resign from my position as human yoyo. Thats right, this former Scale Junkie decided that she's done with the  up and down of the scale. Of course I realize that everyone has some fluctuation on the scale but lets face it 5 pounds is a fluctuation, even 10 pounds could be called a fluctuation...20, 30, 40 pounds? Not so much. That means one of two things. I can either just go up and up and up or down and down and down. Clearly up isn't an option so down is the choice.

At the beginning of the year I said I would announce how many pounds I had lost for the week, then how many for the year and how much from my all time high and then I did what I tend to do when I do these sorts of things, the scale went up and I quit. So then I'd get back on plan and drop a few pounds but were those "real" pounds since I had already lost those pounds and they were part of a regain? Should I only count new pounds? What was my starting weight for the year again? I couldn't remember.

I asked a friend of mine recently how her weight loss efforts were going because she told me daily of her strict menu. She said she was three pounds away from her lowest point from her beginning of the year weight loss so she hadn't lost anything yet. She went on to explain that she was still 18 pounds over her lowest weight from last year and 40 more pounds from her goal.  I asked her how many this time around and she said 30 pounds. I thought WOW 30 pounds is great! She told me that they don't count though because they were old pounds.. As soon as I heard it coming out of her mouth I saw the insanity of it all. Her method of counting pounds lost and gained matched MY way of counting too but it took hearing it from another persons mouth for me to realize that the past is the past and there is no such thing as new pounds and old pounds. I weighed 6 pounds and a few ounce when I was born, those are the orginal pounds, anything over that is what? New pounds? Old Pounds? Crazy pounds?I vote for crazy pounds.

I've come to a decision that I'm sick and tired of counting the pounds as new pounds, old pounds, this years pounds, blah blah blah. I'm counting from my all time high to where I am at the MOMENT. It doesn't matter that I was at 40 pounds lost at some point or that I was at 70 pounds lost last year, the yoyo is gone and I'm just saying from today....59 pounds gone as of today.

learning to use my resiliency

Mizfit had a post the other day where she asked people for their one word mantra and I read through over 100 comments with really awesome responses but I didn't see my word. You can (and should) read the post but like me, you missed out on the giveaway of a very cool bracelet made by none other than the sister of my coffee buddy and good friend Natalia.

Anyhow I gave it some thought and I had two words. Believe because as you all know its a word near and dear to my heart but when I really thought about the word that stands out the most as my one word mantra has to be RESILIENCE because it was when I realized how resilient I was that I connected the dots on my eating disorder and realized just how much I use food to fill the voids in my life.

I've had to call on my resilience more than ever lately, I've been bent and twisted and pulled in different directions but you know what? I bounced back and I did it without binge eating! For the very first time in my life I faced crisis and didn't use food to numb myself. Yes it sucks to just feel all of that emotion but instead of letting it consume it I sat with it for a while and then let it go. I pulled my head out of the sand and tackled the problem head on. Here I am 10 months after writing that post on resilience and I've come so far in dealing with my eating disorder. I've learned so much. Its been huge.

If I can share one thing with all of you is that you shouldn't compare where you are in your journey to others. The person who is running a marathon didn't just wake up yesterday having never put on running shoes and go out there and run, they put in countless hours training for that run. We all have different levels of fitness, different levels of emotional baggage, different learning curves. If you beat yourself up because another person is doing better than you are you really aren't being fair to yourself. Its taken several years of hard work to get to where I am with my eating disorder. Some might get there quicker, others might take longer but its important to note that its a process that is very individual.

The whole time I was doing the work I kept fighting with myself. The selfish child in me wanted results NOW. Results take time. Things worth having are worth working for. Through it all one crisis after another kept happening and through it all I kept bouncing back. I've learned to bounce back without food and that is the biggest victory and biggest step in the right direction that I've had in this entire journey. I credit my ability to be resilient. I've learned that no amount of food will ever fill the voids in my life and no amount of food will ever take away pain permanently. When I face crisis I allow myself to feel the pain of the moment for a little bit but then I force myself to get back up again and face it in a healthy and productive way.

Healthy You Challenge Check In Week 23, 2009

Hi everyone and welcome to week 23! We're nearly to the half way mark for 2009, a great time to get started again and a great time to push forward towards your goals.

Check in went a LOT smoother last week didn't it? Hopefully this continues to work for us.

I hope everyone has a great week.

WELCOME!

Adventures of a Wanna Be Runner
http://losingweight4life.blogspot.com/

Little Miss Fatty Pants
http://littlemissfattypants.blogspot.com/



If you'd like to join the HYC please read about it HERE and then email me at healthyyouchallenge at gmail dot com with your blog name and blog URL.

The rest of us can check in below.

fear and sucks

I've been on the roller coaster for two years now, lose a few, gain a few, lose a few gain a few, I've basically been losing and gaining the same 30 pounds over and over again for the past three years which really sucks.

I guess I could beat myself up over that but seriously, I've done enough of that in the past. I will take away from the past three years instead and say, at least I've kept within those same 30 pounds. Had I not been trying where would my weight be today? 400? 450? 500? More? I've seen people who started blogging when I did lose a lot of weight, some have kept it off, others have disappeared from blog land and some like me have been on the roller coaster ride.

I've called rock bottom before. I've said this is it I've had enough and all of those other clever catch phrase people use when they are really determined. I can't even bring myself to say those this time around but I wanted to share a few things I've learned about myself along the way.

Everything in moderation: In theory this is a great concept but in the hands of a binge eater its a license to eat. When I tell myself "everything" in moderation then suddenly that piece of cake becomes okay to eat every single night of the week and quite frankly my body just doesn't work like that. Everything in moderation isn't for me because I'm way too easy on myself, I'm far too generous with myself and that needs to stop. I need rules and guidelines. I have to tell myself NO and mean it because if moderation is on my table then control goes out the window. For those of you who can do moderation, I applaud you and think its a great thing but I need boot camp 24/7 with no weekend passes.

That sounds harsh doesn't it? Its good to cheat once in a while isn't it? You should plan a cheat shouldn't you? For me the answer is YES and NO at the same time. Confused? So is my body. When I eat sugar, my body will convince me to jump off a bridge if it thought sugar would be waiting at the bottom. Its THAT powerful. My body hurts and aches and I feel like giant pile of donkey dung and its not fun. I love the sugar high but the crash and burn is ugly. Very ugly. So sugar can't really play too much in my body. But if I take it off the menu and say it isn't allowed then I want it all the more so I basically have to play these mind games with myself so if you see me don't mention to me that sugar isn't my friend anymore because the other me is holding out hopes that me and sugar can be bff's again and I just don't have the heart to tell me that it isn't going to happen. Did you follow that? Good, you're just as crazy as I am :-)

Which brings me to artificial sweeteners. As most of you know, I posted that I quit using them a few weeks ago. I transitioned by using raw sugar and it worked quite well. I haven't had artificial sweetener in weeks and I have no intention of starting again. I'm also slowly converting everything in my kitchen over to organic when possible. I'm using up the foods in my freezer and pantry and as I run out I'm replacing them with organic foods. I can hear the cries of BUT ORGANIC FOOD IS SO EXPENSIVE but I haven't had to adjust my food budget at all because the money I was spending on so called healthy snacks and foods with artificial sweeteners has gone towards my organic food budget and its all balanced out. No I'm not fanatical about it. If I can't find something in organic I make the best choice possible for my body.

So with all of these changes I should be super skinny by now right? Honestly I haven't been on the scale in a few weeks. I'm not really sure what it will say. I'm planning to weigh in on Sunday but I'm not sure if I'll share those results or not. I may go back to posting my weight on Fridays. Maybe we'll vote on it. I've seen several summer weight loss challenges but I've decided against joining one because I'm a competitive person when I want to be and as a person who is recovering from an eating disorder I don't want to put that kind of pressure on myself.

I know I'm pretty much babbling. I guess I could tell you this was all brought on by a health scare a while ago but then you'd want to know the details and I'm not quite ready to go public with that. I think I was in denial for a while but after a recent kick in the ass I'm back on track again...I said I wasn't going to use one of those catch phrases didn't I? 

Anyhow fear is a very powerful motivator and it sucks to be morbidly obese. Thats where I am right now but its not where I want to be in the future. 

a journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step

and thats how I spent my early morning hours

I was feeling ambitious this morning. I thought I'd start with a 1 mile walk around the neighborhood to warm up and make Sadie and Max happy, after that I'd come home, have a light breakfast, put the laundry in, empty the dishwasher and do a workout DVD.

Our walk went great! I really pushed it and even with countless peestops and three poo breaks we walked the mile in just under 17 minutes. A great way to start my busy morning. I was feeling pumped up and ready to tackle the rest of the tasks but there was just one problem....I had forgotten the house keys and I was locked out.

We've never hidden a key because lets face it, crooks know to look for hidden keys. At least I had my phone. I called Ken...no answer. I called my sister and after six rings she picked up. She was at work and I knew she got off at around 8am and it would take her 45 minutes to get to the house.

Sooo here it was 7am and I was stuck on the back patio for 95 minutes. CRAP! I found a glass bowl under the planting stand and filled it with water for Sadie and Max. But I was thirsty and I had to pee. DARN DARN DARN! How could I have forgotten my keys?

If you know anything about Florida during this time of the year you know that being outside means little swarms of gnats. Add in one very sweaty human and two hot and sweaty dogs and you have big old swarm of gnats. We waited on the back patio but a lot of them seemed to swarm in with us and they kept buzzing our heads.

Have I ever mentioned how much Sadie despises any flying bug? Yes my big 60 pound black Labrasomething is afraid of flies and gnats. I'm aware that this poses a serious problem in the evolutionary chain and that a 60 pound dog shouldn't be afraid of bugs the size of pin heads but she is. I'm thinking she needs a doggie shrink. And so I'm sitting out there trying to cool down and swatting away gnats and trying not to think about needing to pee. Lets check the time...

7:15am, yes I've just spent the past 15 minutes wondering why so many gnats were swarming us.

7:16am pacing the back yard, do wall push ups

7:23am back on patio and thinking I really have to pee, Sadie is whimpering by the sliding door and pawing at it asking to be let in, DARN GNATS! CHOMP Max just ate a gnat. CHOMP he ate another. He looked at me as if to say: Hey don't worry, I'm going to defeat this army of gnats, they'll know not to mess with Max CHOMP CHOMP

swinging at gnats, another walk around the back yard and still thinking, I really have to pee. I often play chase the ball in the evening in the back yard with the dogs. There was no ball to play with either, they were all in the house. Sadie started running up and down the back yard like a lunatic, charging as fast as she could. After about a minute of this she went running to the sliding door as if to say HEY HUMAN I'm so over playing outside, lets go in now.

7:30am WOW a whole 7 minutes have passed, back on patio and I decide to do squats, DARN GNATS

7:34am enough of the squats , surveying back yard looking for suitable place to pee, can't find one, DARN DARN DARN

7:35am discover my 11 pound hand weights are under the patio table, I'll do squats and then push the weights up over my head and shoulder presses.

7:40am jogging in place on the patio, breath through my nose and inhale gnats, try breathing through my mouth and inhale gnats, DARN DARN GNATS!!

7:45am feeling freakishly full after a breakfast of snorted gnats, enough jogging, I still have to pee and now I'm even sweatier and attracting more gnats. Sadie is whimpering by the sliding door and pawing at it asking to be let in. More squats

7:46am spot a bottle of windex on the planting station and wonder if windex kills gnats...better not try it.

7:47am Ken finally calls back and says he can be there in 45 minutes, I tell him not to bother because my sister will be here around then too, I didn't want to make him late to his morning job. I love you too, have a great day, talk to you later. Phew, I'm thankful he doesn't tease me about forgetting the keys, me the OCD one who has a check list when we leave the house: phone, poo bags, keys....why didn't I do that this morning I wonder. STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP. Wall push ups, inhale down, exhale up, inhale down, exhale up, inhale down GNAT, exhale COUGH SPUTTER up GNAT

7:50am notice that new neighbors have piled debris behind our shed on our property. They haven't officially moved in yet they are still fixing the place up. Oh yeah I'm so banging on their door next time they are home and getting them to clear that crap out of there. I mean come on! There is no mistaking its OUR SIDE of the property line.....OK ENOUGH RANTING about STUPID NEW NEIGHBORS, its just a bunch of branches and crap, they are nice they'll move it would you just CHILL already! CHOMP CHOMP, Max appears to have taught Sadie to CHOMP at the gnats. Oh How I hate gnats. Jog in place, jog in place, the gnats can't catch me if I jog in place...

7:55am really...is that all? have I mentioned I still have to pee and we have another 45 minutes to wait. Sadie is still pawing at the glass asking to be let in and Max has joined her, he looked at me as if to say: enough of this already, we're indoor doggies.

8:00am is that a car door? SHES HERE!!! She must have left work right after I called. Sadie and Max go nutso, my sister comes in through the front door, unlocks the back slider to let us in and I quickly run to turn off the house alarm oh but I have to pee, house alarm, pee, house alarm pee, which one which one which one first....too late!! The alarm is ringing, might as well pee. Run from the bathroom to turn off the alarm and answer the phone: Hello, yessss, sorry false alarm, everything is ok here. I just couldn't get to the keypad quick enough. Have a nice day.

8:05am Max is standing next to the treat jar and looking at me as if to say: I totally deserve one of those for fighting off the army of gnats, I'm a hero. I totally agree and give them each a treat.

1 mile walk followed by assorted exercises and gnat battles...and thats how I spent my morning.

Healthy You Challenge Week 22, 2009

Welcome to week 22! 

Thanks for all of your patience while Mister Linky had "issues" last week. As it turns out, the freebie version of Mister Linky that we've been using isn't available any more so I've upgraded us to a paid account that I hope will be very reliable for us for the rest of this year and beyond. I think its worth the investment because it really suits our needs for this group. 

WELCOME!

Dumb Belle
http://dumb-belle.blogspot.com/

MelissasWeightIsOver
http://melissasweightisover.blogspot.com/

I'm Just Saying
http://megjustsaying.blogspot.com/

140 For His Glory
http://140forhisglory.blogspot.com/

If you'd like to join the HYC please read about it HERE and then email me at healthyyouchallenge at gmail dot com with your blog name and blog URL.


For the rest of us, lets sign in below!

I MUST teach Sadie and Max to do this

How funny is that? I wonder if MizFit's dog does this?