Here’s To New Beginnings!

Well it’s been a while since my last blog (approximately 4 weeks) and my weight loss is the same but that’s expected since my food hasn’t been as clean as I would have liked, that being said it sure isn’t like it was at 243lbs. But no fear, I’m continuing to work on it just as I have been for over 2 years. I purchased a book the other day by Geneen Roth called Women Food & God. I’ve heard some amazing things about it so I’m giving it a read and see if I can learn why I turned to food in the first place hopefully it will give me some insight and help me continue to move forward with my new healthy lifestyle. The fear has always been that I will be fat again, I know it won’t happen because of the changes I’ve made but you can’t help but have those thoughts. I will keep you all posted on how the reading is going and discuss it in my blog.

I finished the BDHQ Biggest Winner program and have moved on to my scheduled workouts that I planned out prior to leaving. It’s going great, although last week I didn’t get in my runs with Kristen because I’ve been having issues with our demon dog. Normally I go to Kristen but this week she is coming to me so we are back on track with our 3 day a week runs together…yippee! I’ve been running the lakes with my husband and wow can he sure push me to run faster than my normal pace which is awesome since the goal is to run the half marathon in October in 2 hours FLAT. Tough goal but I’m willing to put in the effort to achieve it. I LOVE the weight training! I feel so strong and love the pump I get in my muscles after a workout. I’m no Oxygen Magazine cover model by no means, but the weight training will definitely transform my body more than cardio alone could’ve ever done, and the bonus is it will eat up all the excess fat and replace it with calorie burning lean muscle, can I get a little whoot whoot.

That’s all for now, I will continue to update on a weekly basis and discuss how I’ve been doing trying to reach my fighting weight - hehe. I laugh sometimes at how much we focus on those last 10lbs. It has taken me sometime to realize that my body may not want to give up those 10lbs and I really am okay with it. I use the last 10lbs to keep me focused on not gaining or slipping up, if they never come off so be it, I’m in a size 8 and/or medium, when was the last time I could say that.

Week 11/12 – 5 days till the end of week 12.

The past week and a half didn’t go so well for me, I stopped working out b/c I just didn’t feel like myself. The weight crept up and as of today I was up to 158.2 from 153.6 one and half weeks ago. I was so close to the 140’s I think I might have gotten a little cocky and went back to old habits. I’ve said it before but it’s a slippery slope. My food choices have been that of the old me when I weighed 243lbs. For example on Sunday I had a craving for cake, yes cake, so my husband and I bought carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It was definitely yummy but as I was eating it I happened to look over and see my before picture that I have posted on my fridge and thought to myself, this is the way that girl ate, I don’t want to be that girl again. So the cake leftovers left our house and went to my husband’s office for the boys to eat.

I’m not going to lie to anyone, I have anxiety about gaining the weight back. The statistics for maintaining weightloss aren’t very good. That’s why I’m always thinking about what’s next and constantly preparing what I’m going to do after BW. Well that time is now for me. I end my 12 week session this upcoming Sunday March 28. I know what I’m doing and have rallied in my fitness buddies for the continued support. So this is what I have planned for my workouts, I will be running approximately 4 – 5 days a week with one of the runs being a long run at Elk Lake and the other runs being a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout. I will be incorporating the Eat Clean Diet Workout as my strength training component and plan on continuing to go to BDHQ for indoor/outdoor sessions. I finally have graduated the BW program, some might say I haven’t reached my goal and should stick with the program for one more session but quite honestly I don’t want to be the girl in the front of the pack anymore, I want to be the one who is challenged and chasing the leader. That is the only way I feel I can improve myself.

I ran Elk Lake this past weekend and remembered how much I love running and the feeling I get after a great run. I had such a great run that I ran Tuesday morning as well and again had such an amazing feeling afterwards, I think I may be addicted again. It is also a great opportunity to run with my girlfriends and catch up with one another because we are all so busy with our lives that we don’t get many opportunities to sit down and chat so we may as well do it while we run.

I feel positive about reaching my 100lbs, I have a plan and am accountable to everyone in my life that has followed me on my journey but most importantly I’m accountable to myself. I’m not going to stop blogging until the goal is reached and even then I don’t know if I would, I love blogging about my week and feel a sense of honesty when I blog. I wasn’t going to blog about week 11 because it wasn’t that great of a week for me but then I decide to be honest and I’ve realized it’s apart of the journey, there will always be ups and downs. This has made me really look at myself and I realize that I’ve done something amazing and it has truly transformed my life. I can’t imagine being that fat girl again. So for the rest of my life I will be an active person who continues to eat clean in order for me to maintain my svelte body ☺

So begins the 5 day countdown! Here is the breakdown of the next 4 days of workouts for me, I have a BW session tonight (Wednesday), Thursday morning I’m running with a friend, a BW session Friday morning, Saturday I’m running Elk Lake (which is 10km), and then the big final weigh in. After Sunday it’s on me to get up and get moving, I’m kinda looking forward to it.

Week 10 – Food for thought

I weighed in on Friday morning because I wasn’t going to be there on Sunday. I lost .8lbs, which I will take happily at this point in my journey.

I was in Vancouver this weekend and thought that I made amazing choices only to come home and find out the scale jumped by 5lbs. I have no idea what is going on, I’ve been having pain in my abdomen and am really bloated. The only thing I can figure is the restaurant food and lack of water intake. I know the weight will drop off once I continue to eat clean and drink my 4 liters of water but I can’t believe how crappy I feel. I use to live on restaurant food and now I can’t have it without feeling bloated and lethargic. It makes me wonder what they are putting in the food. I would rather make my own food that way I know exactly what I’m eating.

It was so nice to get away and see the Canucks play for the first time. I can’t believe I’ve never seen an NHL game live before. It was so much fun watching the Canucks kick some Sens ass. I felt bad for my husband as he is a huge Senators fan but I have to admit it was fun cheering for the winning team. I plan on going and seeing another game next year.

I also got to see the Olympic cauldron and it was lit up because of the Paralympics so that was definitely a bonus.



So I’m back to the grind of eating clean and working out making my way down the scale so I can see the 140’s by the end of the month. I just hope the set back from the weekend doesn’t impede on my goal at the end of the month.

Week 9 – ooh so close I can taste it!

The scale moved by 2.2lbs in the right direction which makes it 10.9lbs to my ultimate goal of 100lb weightloss.

I can’t believe how far I’ve come! I will see the 140’s soon.

I’m very realistic that the 10.9lbs most likely won’t come off in the next 3 weeks without me cutting out complex carbs and working out hard everyday and there is no way I could maintain that kind of training on a weekly basis. So I choose not to do that because I want the weightloss to be permanent. I will continue to eat clean and workout 4-5 days a week and before summer I know I will reach my goal and finally go into the maintenance phase of this fitness/weightloss journey.

I’m going to Vancouver this weekend to see the Canucks play the Senators. I had originally decided to use the Saturday as a cheat day but since I’m so close to my goal, I refuse to sabotage myself. I will make the best food choices available to me, pizza who needs pizza when you can have poached fish and salad.

So begins the last few weeks of the BDHQ Biggest Winner program. I will finally be graduating from the program that started me on this journey. The plan for the next phase of the year is to incorporate more strength training in order to transform my physique and train for the Royal Victoria Half Marathon. Should be a fun year ahead for me.

Week 8 - Scale or not to Scale

Well another .8lbs down with only 13.6lbs to go. It’s so exciting seeing numbers on the scale that I can’t ever remember seeing. I know I saw them once when I was in my late teens early twenties. I saw 154lbs on Saturday, a day before the weigh in but my food choices caused the scale to go up to 156lbs by the time Sunday morning rolled around. I didn’t eat anything crazy just bread (subway and homemade Pizza), which I normally don’t consume on a regular basis.

I missed my workout last night because of a sore throat, the kind that feels like razor blades when you swallow. I thought it was strep but woke up this morning and its not as painful so I’ll just keep sucking on lozenges and hope it goes away soon. If I want to get into the 140’s I can’t be missing anymore workouts, I have to keep reminding myself that every day for the next 4 weeks.

I’m trying not to focus on the scale too much but who’s kidding who. I’m the type of person who steps on the scale probably 5 times a day. To me, it keeps me focused, some might think I’m obsessed but I’m not…honestly. I think the moment I don’t care what it says is when I’ll lose control and revert back to old habits. The scale has become, in some crazy way, my full length mirror. I know the number, it continues to go down with exercise and great food choices. The minute I don’t exercise or eat poorly, it shows on the scale. I have a colleague who’s decided to toss her scale, I can’t even imagine the anxiety I would feel if I couldn’t see what I weighed every morning.

Well maybe I have to be honest with myself and realize it may be a bit of an obsession but it has helped me lose 86lbs and it will continue to help me keep the pounds off. I don’t ever change what I eat because of the scale, I just continue to eat clean and have an indulgence once a month. But I am aware of my food choices and the effect they have on the scale.

So I will continue to eat clean and focus on getting to every workout and giving it 110% for the next 4 weeks and see how close I get to achieving my goal of 100lb weightloss.

Support from loved ones – Week 7

I was sick last week and missed most of my scheduled workouts but I still managed to lose ½ a pound, must have been all the trips to the bathroom. I feel much better and am ready to rev it up for the final five weeks of this 12 week program.

I wanted to share my thoughts on the love and support that I’ve gotten from the most important person in my life, my husband Paul. When I started this journey back in February of 2008 my husband was with me for 2 months before he left for a 6 month deployment to the Gulf, yes I am married to the military. The support I received from him has been the driving force behind my success. I remember the first day of the Biggest Winner program with BDHQ, I stepped on the scale and was mortified with the number it read … 243lbs, I walked through the front door that night to see my husband greeting me with smiles asking “so how was it” my response was a tearful “I weigh 243lbs”, he responded with a sincere “well you won’t weigh that tomorrow”. To this day those words mean everything to me. I can’t say enough about the love and support that my husband has continued to give me. Even the distance between us during his 6 month deployment, he would continue to listen to me vent about the struggles, offer support from a far and cheer me on. The highlight of 2008 was the two of us crossing the finish line at the Seattle half marathon. I had an injury before the race but wasn’t going to let that stop me, from mile 9 on I cried in pain and walked (limped) most of the last 4 miles with my husband beside me telling me I can do it, we ran across the finish line holding hands, that moment will forever be etched in my mind. I want to thank my husband for being there for me from the start of this journey and continuing to be the best husband I could’ve ever asked for. I love you babe, see you soon. (February the month of Love)

You will need all the support you can get from loved ones, friends and family. It’s hard to accomplish it on your own without any support. I am so fortunate to have had amazing support throughout this journey. Losing weight has been the hardest thing I have done and as you can tell it’s still a struggle to get the last pounds off. I know that living a healthy lifestyle will continue to be a struggle but as the saying goes….skinny tastes so much better than cake!

So the final five begins! Clean eating and extra workouts is what the next five weeks will consist of for me in order to kick it up a notch or two…

Booyah! Week 6

Well I must say all the positive thinking of just living and not worry about what the number on the scale is has caused it to move. I am finally in the 150’s, 157.8 to be exact. I weighed in on week 3 at 159.8 but really that’s just a teaser, its not really in the 150’s. Week 4 and 5 I had gains of 1.6lbs and 2.2lbs and yesterday, Week 6, I lost 5.8lbs. I guess changing things up really is what it’s going to take. So I have 15lbs to go to reach 100lb weight loss. I’m not going to stress about timeline, it will take me as long as it takes me, I’m just so glad I’ve moved past the 160’s.

I’ve been eating really clean for the past week and feel fantastic. I cut dairy from my diet a while ago but added cottage cheese back into it last week. I love cottage cheese with celery and cherry tomatoes, its heaven.

This transformation journey that I’ve been on for the past 2 years has been the most life changing experience for me to date. I have become a stronger person both mentally and physically. I am no longer that person who keeps my mouth shut when something is bothering me. My entire life I would internalize my emotions and the only way to numb them was to feed them. I no longer suppress them; I express them and feel so much better because of it.

So another week begins of eating clean and exercising. As long as I continue to do my best at leading a healthy, active lifestyle, I am a winner regardless of what the number on the scale is.