Well, this week wasn't as *WOW* as last week.  It seems that Mom's scale had a bad battery in it, so we aren't entirely sure how accurate her previous weigh-ins are.  But she has a new battery in it, and the weight from today is the correct weight.  We do know that she has lost weight, because she was able to get into some jeans this week that she hasn't been able to wear in a long time!  So that is a good sign.  I only lost a pound this week, which is somewhat frustrating.  But oh well...a pound is a pound, so I will take it.

 

Mom is still having a lot of pain in her back, but we are trying to work out together in spite of it.  We still haven't managed to have our workouts as often as we are planning, but we are getting closer to that goal.  I twisted my ankle in the middle of the week, which put me a little behind where I would like to be.  I've got an ankle brace that I am going to try to wear most of the time, and hopefully that will give me the extra support that I need.

 

Food-wise, I think we are both doing really well.  This week, I met my water and calorie goals every day.  I've remembered to pack my lunch, snacks, and water to take with me to campus every day, and have been eating breakfast and dinner.  Mom has been finding healthy alternatives, even on the days that she forgets to take a lunch with her.  She's discovered a few fast food places that serve healthy options near her, and that have websites with all of the nutritional content posted with easy access.

 

I'm experimenting with the calorie counter on Sparkpeople.com to see which of my traditional meals I can make and what they will do to my numbers for the day.  I'm discovering that most of what I eat really isn't all that bad, it's just that I tend to eat to much of it at once.  But since I've been eating snacks throughout the day, I'm not as hungry at meal time, so I can't eat that much anyways.  I am doing better than I typically do with portion control.  Hopefully I will manage to continue that.

 

More soon.  Keep up the good work you all are doing too!  And thank you all for your encouragement.

 

~Mindy

Today was my first day back to school for the semester.  I packed my water, snacks, and lunch to take with me, so food was not an issue today.  I worked at my part time job in the morning, went to class, worked at my job again this afternoon for a few hours, and then met Mom at the gym on campus to work out.  I did about a 45 minute workout with weights and cardio.  Then I stopped at Subway to pick up my dinner and headed home.  It was a good day...a productive day...but an exhausting one.  And the whole week is going to be like this.

 

Mom's back is not doing so well.  She did join me at the gym this evening for a little while, but she was in so much pain that she wasn't able to do as intense a workout as she would have liked, nor as long as she would have wanted.  I don't know how well she is going to be able to do with this.  Hopefully she can keep coming at least some.

 

~Mindy

Well, we are a week in to our new lifestyles, and so far, so good!  Mom has managed to lose a total of 9.5 pounds and I have managed to lose 8.5 pounds.  We weren't able to work out together the way that we had hoped, due to some medical issues with Mom.  She is continuing to have back pain that is often severe.  She went back to the doctor earlier in the week, and they did some x-rays...and it turns out that she has several discs in her spine that are rapidly deteriorating.  Right now, they are just treating it with pain meds and the like, but eventually she may need disc replacement surgery.  Exercise will be good for her though, so we are planning to work out together this week as we have planned to do.

 

I'm starting back to school tomorrow, and starting a job on campus as well.  This first week will likely be stressful, just getting the schedule down.  But I'm planning to combat the stress by packing a lunch, water, and snacks to take with me to campus each day, and working out before going home at least a few days.  Hopefully that will help.  I just need to do some pre-planning, so that I have everything I need for my lunches all ready to go.

 

I've added a new list with our weights, where we can track our progress as we go.  I'm pleased to see that we've both lost close to our short term goal amount within the first week, and without including as much exercise as we planned to include.  Hopefully with adding more exercise, we can keep it up.

 

I've stuck within my calorie goal range every day but one, and that is even with eating out on multiple occasions!  The one day that I went over my calorie range, it was only by about 100 calories.  Not too bad.  I've had at least 64 oz of water every day since starting.  I just have to keep it up.  But I'm already starting to notice that my body is adjusting to the eating schedule that I've set for it.  I start to get a little bit hungry right around the time that I will be eating a snack or a meal.  My meals have sometimes been more food than I can actually eat.  It's a good feeling to know that I can have that much, but I don't necessarily need that much.  I'm trying to plan my meals to have a serving of protein, a small serving of carbohydrates, and two servings of fruits or vegetables.  So far, so good.

 

Thanks to everyone for all of the encouragement!  We're working on it!

 

~Mindy

Well, today Mom and I are getting started.  We've been discussing this for a few days, figuring out how we are going to go about losing all of this weight.  Between the two of us, we've got a LOT to lose.  One of the hardest things for me is portion control...only eating the amount of food that I should eat.

 

I have a bad tendency to only eat about two times a day, and then when I do eat, I typically go way overboard.  So I am going to try to eat 3 meals and a snack or two a day.  That way, I'll eat less at a time, and likely less overall.  And I know from past experience that I have to keep track of what I put into my mouth.  If I don't write it down somewhere, I can tell myself that it didn't count.  The problem is that it does count!  So I've started tracking my food consumption on Sparkpeople.com.  They keep track for me of the calories, fat, carbs, and protein in the things that I eat for me, so all I have to remember to do is get online and enter the information.

 

One of Mom's biggest problems is that she works very long hours pretty often.  Sometimes, she skips lunch because she gets so busy and doesn't want to take the time to go get lunch.  And then by the time she gets home from work in the evenings, she is exhausted and doesn't want to work out or cook something to eat.  She often winds up getting take out and plopping down on the couch.  She is going to the store today to buy some things she can take with her this week so that she will have a lunch with her and ready to eat, eliminating that excuse.  And we are going to the gym at my university together either Monday or Tuesday evening when she gets off work.  She is going to get a membership there so that we can go together and work out after she gets off work at least a couple of nights a week and on the weekends.  She can use the gym at her apartment complex for free also, so if there are times that we can't get together for whatever reason, she is still going to be able to go and workout.

 

So far, today has been a pretty good day for me.  I've eaten two meals and a snack, and had 6 glasses of water.  I've got another snack planned, as well as dinner, and I'm about to do some step aerobics in my house.  Mom has not done so well so far today though.  She had breakfast, but hasn't eaten since then.  After talking to her this afternoon, she is now getting some lunch prepared.

 

So...that's how it is going so far.  I'm sure that we'll have plenty of ups and downs along the way, but hopefully we can get the ball rolling quickly this week, and really get ourselves on the path to being much healthier.

 

Mindy