Well, Mom and I both met our initial goals by last week.  As of this week, we've both lost more than 10% of our overall long-term goal.  Not too shabby!  But we hadn't updated our goals to reflect something, so today we added a new goal each.  We intend to lose ten more pounds each by the end of March.  That gives us six weeks.  We may very well meet that goal before then, which would be great.  But we want to do it at least by that point.

 

Mom's still sick, so she isn't working out or really eating the way she normally does.  But she still managed to lose about 1/2 a pound this week.  Not too bad!  Especially considering that she lost 4 pounds last week.  This week, I've lost 4 pounds.  I'm feeling really good.  I've got so much more energy these days, and I'm really not finding it hard to stick to my plan anymore for the most part.  Do I have a cookie every now and then?  Sure I do.  But I make sure that I am not going over my calorie range when I do it.  That's the key.

 

I'm also working out more, and finding that I enjoy it.  It's not such a chore anymore.  I just wish that I could get to where I could work out for a much longer amount of time, or at a higher intensity.  Then I think I would really start to see a difference.

 

More soon!

~Mindy

Mom went back to the doctor today.  She's been fighting sinus stuff all week long, and it really escalated today.  The doctor said she's got an upper respiratory infection, a sinus infection, and she still has an infection in her kidneys.  Not a good combination.  When you combine all of that with her ongoing back pain, she is in really bad shape right now.  Needless to say, she hasn't been working out with me this week, and it doesn't look like she will be for at least several more days.

 

I've been trying to get my workouts in anyways though.  I haven't gone to the gym this week...instead, I've been doing some step aerobics in my living room while watching TV.  It's been a good change of pace for me, to do something other than just walking on the treadmill.

 

I'm planning to do some work on an elliptical trainer at the gym once Mom is feeling better and wants to go back.  I'll do some treadmill too.  But I think it is a good idea for me to add some variety to my workouts instead of just doing the same thing over and over again.  I don't want to get bored with my workouts and then just stop doing them all together.  I want to see results!

 

We'll weigh in again on Sunday morning.  Who knows what will happen with Mom's weight.  She could wind up losing quite a bit from lack of appetite, or she could gain some from not working out and not eating enough, or she could be about the same.  Only time will tell.  I have a feeling that I'm going to have a good week this week.  I just feel good, so I'm hoping that is an indication of what is going to happen.

 

More soon!

~Mindy

Yay!!!  I realized that yesterday, for the first time.  In fact, they are so loose that I can pull them up and down without unfastening them.  It has been a very, very long time since that has happened.  After I get home this evening, I'm going to see if I can get into some of the smaller clothes that I have, just for fun.  I've got so many clothes in my closet, from all different points in my life when I've been different sizes.  It'll be good to have to switch out the clothes that are too big.

 

~Mindy

So this week, Mom lost four pounds (!!!!!) and I lost another pound and a half.  Not too shabby.  Not at all.

 

I've managed to get to where I'm able to control my portion sizes really well, and I'm staying within my calorie range almost every day.  A couple of times I've gone a little over, mainly when eating out, but even then I haven't gone too far over.  So now, my new goal is to be sure that I'm eating the right things within that calorie range.

 

I think I mentioned before that I'm using sparkpeople.com to track my food intake each day.  I discovered this week that I could use it to track an awful lot more than just calories, fat, carbs, and protein.  It will track calcium, dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and just about anything else you want it to track.  So, I set it up to start tracking those things for me...and I discovered that I wasn't getting enough of most of those things in my diet.

 

In addition to making changes to the things that I eat, I'm also taking a multivitamin, a potassium supplement, and a combination of calcium, magnesium, and zinc.  Between those things, I'm now getting the recommended amounts of those things every day.  But I was still low on dietary fiber more often than not.  So, I've done a little research on where to get the dietary fiber from, and I'm starting to make some changes.

 

A lot of times, I'll make a pasta salad on the weekends and take it with me for my lunch during the week.  I am doing that again today, but I am using a multi-grain pasta that has 6 grams of dietary fiber per serving.  I'm also going to include some lentils in the pasta salad, for some added protein and fiber.  I've also bought some multi-grain tortillas, that I'll have for breakfast some days with turkey bacon or sausage and Egg Beaters, with low-fat cheese.  It's a low-fat, high-protein, high-fiber breakfast, and it's pretty easy!  Also, did you know that Yoplait makes a low calorie, fat free, high fiber yogurt?  It's called Fiber One, and each 4 oz. yogurt has 80 calories, 0 fat, 5 grams of dietary fiber, and 4 grams of protein.  I've bought those to take with me for snacks this week instead of the traditional Yoplait Light yogurts that I've been taking recently.

 

With these changes, in addition to the changes that I've already made, I think I'm taking the right steps towards becoming really, really healthy, not just towards losing weight.  Yes, losing weight is one goal...but it is only part of the process.  I want to change my life, not just how I look!  And now I'm going to be able to do it.  These are just small changes, but they are going to make a big difference.

 

More soon!

~Mindy

Well, Mom and I weighed in again this morning, and we've lost another 2 pounds, combined.  That brings our total weight loss up to a combined total of 22 pounds, and we're both at more than 10 pounds!  Not too bad.  We've both been feeling a little bit of disappointment lately, with seeing such small numbers each week since the first week.  I reminded Mom though, that we're not working out at anywhere near the level of the contestants on the show are, so we can't expect to see numbers like they do each week!  It would be unreasonable to expect that of ourselves, and we would be setting ourselves up for failure.  We have to keep looking at the positives.

 

We've lost a combined total of 22 pounds.  We've both lost more than 10 pounds...which is more than an average of 2.5 pounds a week.  Not too shabby.  We're eating better.  We're learning good habits.  We're working out.  We're both getting stronger and gaining endurance in our workouts.  We're fitting into our clothes better.  These are all good things, and there is no reason whatsoever that we should feel bad about our progress!

 

Now if we can only both believe that.  It's easier to say it than it is to really, truly feel that way deep down.  But we're working on it.

 

More soon.

 

~Mindy

Well, a lot has been going on lately.  I was a little frustrated last week with gaining back a 1/2 pound that I had previously lost, but I know that is part of how it all goes.  Mom's back has still been giving her a lot of problems, but she had an MRI earlier this week, and the doctor said she does not need surgery at this point!  Yay!  That is very good news.  He has referred her to the Texas Back Institute, and she has an appointment with them on Monday morning.  She may be going through some physical therapy, some pain management, and maybe some other things.  Hopefully, they will be able to help her out quite a bit.  I hate seeing her in so much pain.

 

My little brother (and Mom's youngest son) is home for a brief stay from Iraq.  He serves in the Army National Guard, and we haven't seen him since May of last year.  It is really good to spend some time with him while we can, because he'll be going back in a week.

 

Mom and I went and worked out together again today...and we both are feeling really good about it!  I think we are finally starting to see some pay-off from all of the workouts.  We both kept up a pretty decent pace on the treadmill the whole time we were on it, and we both walked for longer than we have been!  Not only that, but we felt like we were walking slower than we usually do, even though we were going our normal pace.  That is an excellent sign.  We worked out together yesterday evening, and we've got plans to work out together again tomorrow.  Week nights give us a few more complications than on the weekends, so we aren't getting to do it every day, but we have been working out about as often as our plan.  We're now talking about trying to bump our workouts up some...not only in intensity like today, but in frequency.  We want this to become a habit, not a chore.

 

I've been doing a lot more walking around on campus than I typically have in previous semesters.  I figure that on a typical class day, I'm walking between a half a mile and a mile, just getting around between classes and work.  At this point, I'm trying to make myself take the stairs too, as long as it is only 1 or 2 flights.  I have one class that is on the fourth floor, and I hope to be taking the stairs for that class by the end of the semester.

 

The indoor pool up at my school has just reopened (they were doing some construction), so Mom and I are planning on adding some water work to our workouts on the weekends.  I've just got to find out all of the details, and then we're going to get started with that, likely by next weekend.

 

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks again to everyone for your support, and y'all keep up the good work too!  Tomorrow is another weigh-in day for us, so I'll post the results once I've got them.

 

~Mindy