Wagon Jumpers - September 14-20th, 2008 (Closed, Waiting List Available)
Welcome
(Sorry we are currently closed to new members until our numbers are under 30, please read below if you are interested in our waiting list)
Welcome to the Wagon Jumpers weekly thread. We are a group of CC members who have identified that one of our main challenges with achieving our weight loss, maintenance or general health goals is consistency.
This thread is designed to encourage long term commitment to our goals by publicly declaring them and asking the other members of this thread to hold us accountable.
Each member on this thread (listed below) has agreed to check into the thread at least once per week. If any member does not check in by the end of the week, we ask all members to politely and positively PM that member and encourage them to make a post and stay on track (or get back on track).
If you would like to be a member of this thread please see the guidelines below and send me a PM if you are still interested (there may be a waiting list).
Why is the participation capped?
The original idea of Wagon Jumpers was to create a close community where participants could get to know each other and hopefully form virtual-life and perhaps even physical-life bonds to create a support network as they attempted long term weight loss.
Over the first few weeks we experimented with an "open to all" concept and found that the thread became too long and confusing and as a result no one got to know each other and it became too much work for many members.
With a mid sized group (30) I am hoping to maintain the community and supportive goals of the original thread, and have enough people that if we are not all daily posters (as the only requirement is a weekly post) that the thread is still motivational and has new content day to day.
Interested in Joining?
General Guidelines for Joining
1. Are you a wagon jumper?
Do you know how to loose weight, you often have success but then you find yourself loosing interest in your plan, or sabotaging your plan. It's not the "how" to loose weight that is the problem, it's the "how" to stay motivated.
2. Do you have a long way to go?
This group is designed so that members can get to know each other and support each other. Ideally you are planning to be a CC member and part of this forum for at least 6 months or more to achieve your goals and hopefully stay in motivation for a further 6 months or more.
Yes. This is, a long term plan.
Still interested? Send Supersized a PM.
Wagon Jumpers Participants
Week 19 Riders:
Supersized (myself)
Week 18 Riders:
Defrog3 - Injured, may not post - Check in Sep 27, 08
Week 16 Riders - Congratulations on 4 Months!:
Week 15 Riders:
Week 14 Riders:
Week 13 Riders:
Week 12 Riders - Congratulations on 3 Months!:
Week 10 Riders:
Week 9 Riders:
Week 4 Riders - Congratulations on 1 Month!:
Week 3 Riders:
Week 2 Riders:
Week 1 Riders:
New:
Missing In Action:
Missing In Action - 1 Week:
Missing In Action - 2 Weeks:
Current Membership:30
Current Waiting List: 0
Outstanding Wait List Invites: 0
12 WEEK CONSISTENCY GOALS
(as set w/o July 27th, 2008)
By October 19th, I will be...
2/3 of the way through phase II of my plan. That is have 4 weeks left until I can say that I have been eating at 1500 cal & exercising 4x/week at 2hrs/day for 12 consecutive weeks.
Drinking 100oz fluid daily, at least 3 trips a week to the gym and 2 trips will include strength training!
Running 3 times a week consistently. I will also be drinking 4 500ml bottles of water every day in 12 weeks.
Doing 30+ minutes of cardio 3-4x a week and weights 2-3x and not hating it or ending up sore every single day. I'm also going to try to be drinking 64-100oz of water or crystal light daily. Last but not least, I'm going to save up for a new pair of workout shoes and some new comfy exercise socks, which I will hopefully be using by then.
20 weeks pregnant, so hopefully I'll be feeling a lot better. My goals by then are to be eating the whole 2300 I need per day, and taking a 30 minute walk at least 3 times a week.
Or be on course to meet each of my monthly biking goals (August 240 miles, September 350 miles, and October 280 miles), and I will have done the 60 mile course of the NYC MS Bike Tour on 10/5/08, despite the nasty 2 mile hill that's right in the middle of the course!
Going to the gym for 1 1/2 hours 5x per week. Cardio for 45 min and strength training for 45 min.
I plan to have made going to the gym 3 times a week a habit.
Sticking with this thread, maintain a regular 3-4 times/week workout schedule, and eat at least one serving of raw veggies with my dinner every night.
I will be working out 3 evenings a week.
Working out 5 days a week.
Journaling my food intake daily and drinking a quart of water a day.
I will update my logs accurately and consistently, and exercise regularly; cardio 3x/week and strength training 3x/week
Working out 5x week. These exercise will include biking, running, dance lessons, weights, etc. I will be eating 24 grams of fiber consistent 1500-2000.
Previous Threads:
Wagon Jumpers September 7-13th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 31 - September 6th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 24 - 30th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 17 - 23rd, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 10 - 16th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers August 2 - 9th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers July 27 - August 2nd, 2008
Wagon Jumpers July 20 - 26th, 2008
Wagon Jumpers July 6 - July 21st, 2008 (another, two week special!)
Wagon Jumpers June 22 - July 5th, 2008 (two week special!)
Wagon Jumpers June 15-21, 2008
Wagon Jumpers May 25 - 31, 2008
Wagon Jumpers May 18 - 24, 2008
Wagon Jumpers Week 1 (May 4 - 10)
Wagon Jumpers - Anyone Need a Lift? (initial thread)
As always all members are encouraged to tag this thread so that it is easy to find.
THIS WEEK'S TOPIC
We are back to basics this week for our topic. In the past month especially as we feel the 'back to school' change regardless of if we ourselves, our kids are going back or if we're a few years removed many of us have struggled to maintain our goals and schedules.
Wagon Jumping is a cycle. All of us here KNOW how to loose weight. Our challenge is not the knowledge needed to loose the weight it's consistently motivating ourself across a long term period to loose and then maintain the weight loss.
The essential difference between a diet and a lifestyle change is the ability to comfortably develop new habits across a long term that you will be happy with going forward. By comparison a diet is something that you do for a few weeks, or a few months and then thing that you will be FREE to go back to eating whatever you want. Diets don't work because they have an end point, a point where we don't need to care or think anymore. Lifestyle changes work because we are happy and energized by our choices and want to continue to make good healthy choices not just for today, tomorrow and the next 50 lbs, but for life.
What is your Wagon Jumping cycle? When is the diet or lifestyle change too much? How can you make it easy and fun for yourself so that you can sustain this change across the long term, through busy times at work/school, hard times with family/friends, and down times when you feel low?
Weekly Check-In
This past week was a turn-around week for me. I've now been at this for 30 weeks (beginning today) and since week 25 (Week ended August 16th, 2008), I've been slipping, sliding, crashing and having a lot of trouble getting back on track.
What happened? On Week 25 I finished phase I of my plan.
For those of you who haven't been bored to death with my plan here it is:
Phase I: Complete
Reduce my calories from 3,000 cal/day average to 1,500 cal/day average. To do this I needed to reduce my cal/day average each week by 100 calories until I was eating a daily average of 1,500 cal/day
Also, increase my exercise from nothing to speak of to 4 days/week and 2 hrs/day. I had to do this by starting with 30 min 1x/week. I slowly increased this until I was doing 30 min 4x/week and then I increased the time until I reached my goal.
RESULTS: Lost 6 sizes (size 20 to size 14)
Phase II: In progress
This phase is all about consistency. I need to keep my goal of eating a daily average of 1,500 cal/day each week and going to the gym 4x/week for 2hrs/day for 12 weeks. If I miss a week then I need to deduct half of the weeks already completed.
REWARD: Finally get to look at the numbers on the scale
Phase III: Not Started
This Phase is much like phase II except that I will weight and measure myself each week for 12 weeks without making any changes to my daily calories or exercise program. I am working on consistency while benchmarking results to see if I do need to make changes. At the end of 12 weeks I can decide if I need to make changes.
REWARD: TBD
On Week 25 I finished my plan and discovered that I'm really scared of building consistency. I'm not good at it. It is not exciting like getting to reduce my calories each week.
Part of me thinks I need to come up with a reward system for completing each week. Part of me thinks, this is something I need to be able to maintain across the long term so I need to be able to do this eventually without paying too much attention to it.
I think I need to acknowledge the fear. I have lost a significant amount of size. I am at my lowest size in probably 5 years. I've been here before but have not been successful at going lower than this and maintaining it for any more than a couple of months. I can feel the self sabotage when I 'just decide' to get take-away instead of cooking.
Then I need to acknowledge that I do feel better, energized, in control, more powerful and all around better when I go for it. It's okay for me not to be the fat girl anymore. It's okay for me to be fit, to look successful. It's okay to let me have this and to be proud of what I am doing for myself. Changing my health and my body does not mean that I am rejecting myself it means I am embracing and freeing myself.
So there's my self-pseudo-psychology for today. Time to go to the farmers market.
THIS WEEK'S TOPIC
I'm a slow jumper. I don't dive off the wagon into a tub of ice cream or cake. I've learned how to manage that and work it into a weekly average. This is part of my set up to make sure that I don't deprive myself at social functions or when I really have a craving. I can be over on my calories a day or two a week and compensate for it the rest of the week. It's about moderation for me not strict rules that will only feed my 'all or nothing' mentality.
The problem for me is consciously not scheduling. I'll know I have an exceptionally busy week and I'll think I will magically fit in the gym and cooking. Inevitably I miss a day, get some take-away when I'm totally stressed and slowly let it creep up.
I can handle a bad week, it's when I keep letting it slide. I miss the gym entirely I start to consciously choose not to go, get worse take away and let myself free fall into an all out slide.
I'm still working on how to avoid the slow jump.
I think part of it is being honest about when I am sliding and why. Part of it is reminding myself how much better I do feel when I am cooking and exercising. Part of it is forgiving myself for the slides.
The Photo Diet was a great tool that I think I will use again if I end up in an all out slide. I simply didn't want to post the crap I was eating, and even when I did slip up on the photo diet it was much less than when I wasn't using it.
I also think that trying on a set of clothes that doesn't quite fit yet will also be motivational when I feel like slipping. Every time I don't fit into something then I'm super motivated to keep at it.
I could use some more tools in my tool box, so I look forward to hearing everyone else's responses.
I have actually decided that I am going to try not counting calories at all, or restricting myself. the only restriction will be that I only eat when I am hungry, until I stop being hungry. No more boredom or punishment eating. So far I am about a day and half in and it has been interesting. I went home last night for the first time in a week and didn't just mindlessly eat everything in sight. I had a thing of chocolate mousse, was no longer hungry and stopped eating.
Hope you are all having good weekends!
I am definately a diver. I jump off the wagon and usually stay off for two weeks at a time....
The biggest thing i am having trouble with is thinking about the fact that I might not ever be "allowed" to have many of the things that i enjoyed before - hamburgers, nachos, pizza etc. I get discouraged and totally binge over and over again.
It usually starts with me eating something i haven't planned, when i'm not even hungry. Then i think "I've gone and ruined it again" and throw in the towel for the day and try to do better the next, and then when i slip up the next day it starts a vicious cycle.
I think i need to start living by the 90% rule... I need to realize that I don't have to be good 100% of the time. I have 35 occasions a week where i am eating either a meal or a snack... As long as i can eat right 31 of those times, i should be successful and proud of myself. I think it leaves me the little bit of wiggle room that i need.
I also seem to have a serious craving for carbs lately that is worse than normal... I don't know what could be causing that...
My workouts have been great. I'm showing some great tone in my upper body and i think if i can keep it up my lower body will be there in a few months. I know i probably need to have a cleaner diet, but its so hard for me to get so many different pieces together at one time... This is usually when i end up messing up and throwing in the towel.
I go through phases. Either I'm super-pumped and into it, or just can't get myself to care. I'm trying towork through that by having longer term things to keep my interest, like my ballroom dancing class. I've also created a system for my food so that I don't get bored with it. I bring a different Smart Ones or similar frozen meal to school for dinner, and leftovers from my family's dinner the night before as lunch. Plus, a couple snacks to eat throughout the day. My goal for this week is to not hit the vending machines (soda OR food) more than 3 times this week. This way I can save my money, save calories, and get myself off caffeine.
I definitely used to be a diver off the wagon. Once I would eat one bad thing in a day, I would just throw away the rest of the day and binge like there was no tomorrow. And then the day after, I would try to not eat anything, but then I would just end up binging again. It was reallyyy bad! So, since I've started my longterm lifestyle change, I have been a slow jumper. I started changing my habits July 7th and I started pretty basically, only eating 3 meals a day and 2 snacks and trying to eat healthier options, but not counting calories. Then after that, I started counting calories and building up an exercise routine that I added to each week. I stuck to it for the whole summer without any dive-offs except for maybe 1 or 2 days when I didn't feel like exercising or eating way too much at a restaurant.
But now that school has started, I have started to slowly slip off. I told myself that instead of spending time strength training my arms and legs each day, I would switch off every other day while still doing abs and cardio 6 days a week. But then I slipped off more from there, and told myself I didn't have to exercise everyday, I could just do it a few times a week. And now, I'm at the point where I haven't exercised AT ALL in the last 2 weeks.
So from here, I need to slowly work it back in to my daily/weekly plans. I'm not expecting to just start up again with the snap of a finger. This week, my goal is to do 30 minutes of cardio 3 days this week, and strength training my arms and legs (and abs) 2 days this week. I need to have the mindset that even 10 minutes of exercise is better than none and if I eat one bad thing in a day, it doesn't necessarily ruin that whole day or week.
Good luck to everyone this week!
Jane I like the idea of trying to listen to your body. I've been reading a site on intermittent fasting. It brings the same idea that when we put so much junk into our bodies combined with the daily media messagings around food and junk food and diets that it's hard to reset our bodies to really know when we are and are not hungry. They don't suggest a long fast maybe 18-19 hours, and then after that doing precisely what you are doing. Not logging calories or trying to stick to 'should eats' but discover our natural 'want to eats' and finding our own bodies natural cravings and working from there.
Let us know what you learn.
MsMeg I don't know that you can 'never' have the foods that you used to enjoy. I'm a big believer in never saying never as that's a great way to jump into a binge. I use a couple of methods to get around this. Number one is using the week to average my daily calories. This means if I go out one night and have some pizza, nachos or burger and my calories are up for that day I rarely feel guilty or like I've been bad because one day like that can easily be absorbed into a weekly average. I think this goes into your 90% rule, because it gives you permission to live and eat social which you need if this is going to be long term.
Next, I try to 'healthy it up'. I find a lot of my junk foods can be made healthier and lower cal at home when I'm craving them. The best surprise is that for the most part now that I'm eating healthy the 'healthy it up' version now tastes MUCH better to me than the junk food version. I'm constantly surprised how much I'm disappointed by junk foods that I thought that I loved now taste kind of blah.
FantasyFlight Have you thought about why you don't care, what are your triggers for demoting your health and fitness goals in your priority list? I like the idea of long term activities to keep the interest level up.
Sarah I read a great blog on "winning the mental battle" my challenges are always around a busier schedule or a change in schedule. I don't jump off the wagon immediately, but I slowly wind back and then slowly fall and then wonder when the wagon left me in the dust. Like you I then have to work my way up.
The one line that really stuck out for me in this article was:
"At some point most everyone has been lean and then maybe life took over, things became busy, emotions were more important, things happened….who knows. But that’s life….things are supposed to happen. Nothing stays the same, it never does. "
His second point in the article is to not blame anyone or myself. I don't tend to blame people, but events. Work got busy, there was an election, my mum got sick, I took too much on my volunteer schedule, the holidays came around.
I need to be aware that life will always be hectic, it is my choice how I deal with that and my goals for myself in the course of what is life.
Hi, all,
I was riding my bike this weekend and was hit by a car. Due to the concussion I received, I am finding it very difficult to read a lot of text, so no personal replies this week.
I wanted to share, though, that if you are biking, WEAR A HELMET. My helmet saved my life, and I am not kidding. The cops and EMTs find it amazing that I am even walking:
I was riding at a 20mph pace on a straight road when a car pulled along side me and suddenly made a right hand turn. I had no time to react, I only remember the front passenger-side door of the vehicle coming at me, then waking up in the ambulance (and the 8 hours in the ER afterward!).
As a result of the impact, my helmet has 5 cracks on the right hand side. My bike has no damage. I also have something wrong w/my left peroneal nerve (can't move my foot very well!). I'm bruised and have pain in my head and neck. All of this should go away in a week or so, according to the doctors, so I should be OK. But everyone, please, remember, WEAR A HELMET. I'm amazed at how many people I see on bikes w/o helmets. Its just crazy; something so simple can really save a life!
Be well,
Denise
Anyway just wanted to say we are all thinking of you, and I will check in later with my report on my new approach later.
Have good (and safe) days.
What is your Wagon Jumping cycle? When is the diet or lifestyle change too much? How can you make it easy and fun for yourself so that you can sustain this change across the long term, through busy times at work/school, hard times with family/friends, and down times when you feel low?
I am not a wagon jumper per se because this is the first time in my life that I am following a diet. But I have noticed that I cycle through skinny times and heavier times. I think this is relatable to my lifestyle in general. When I have fun things to do and people to do them with, I am active and skinnier. And vice versa. The only weird part is now, because in the last year, I gained weight - about 3 sizes. While I was training for a marathon. So I don't understand why I was gaining during a time of increased activity. I have decided to "make it easy and fun" by getting a bike and taking a bike trip in the evening after work a few times a week. I don't know how this will translate into the winter, but I have a few months to try this new exercise masked as fun activity. I have also found this to be a fun thing to do with friends, so my two ace girls and I have started a little bike gang. It is a nice way to connect without food, booze or shopping. My goal this week is to get into the pool a couple of times. I love swimming and I find it very buoying (pun intended) of the soul and need to focus on making time for this.
What I fall off of is eating. I eat well (by American standards), but simply not in any rational way. Some days I will eat 500 calories, and some days 3000. There is no rhyme or reason. Working on meal planning, making time to go to the grocer and cooking is all necessary if I am to make this lifestyle change.
and hi! I'm new. I'm Kc. Looking to improve my health by changing my lifestyle. And hoping to shed a few pounds along the way.
DeFrog3 I am so sorry you had an accident, and so glad that you are well enough to come here and let us know. I've put a note by your name for the next couple of weeks, because I don't want you stressing out your eyes trying to keep up.
I second Always Wear A Helmet it saved my life as well. I gained weight after my accident which was almost 7 years ago now. I would have been dead without the helmet. I was on one of our busier streets, a cab had pulled over but not very far onto the shoulder. I went to pass the cab and it was raining, we have street car tracks here (metal rails in the middle of the streets for the street cars that get slippery when wet). When the passenger of the cab threw the door open and I tried to dodge the bike slipped and I went over the door of the cab and landed on my shoulder and head. There is no way I would have survived without the helmet.
Today, thanks mainly to yoga you'd never know I had several broken bones etc...
Take all of the time you need to recover. Get back on the bike. That was one of the hardest things for me after my accident was feeling confident enough to ride again. Did they catch the car? Please tell me he's been charged.
Kcerveny Well I have to admit that this being a Wagon Jumpers group I do tend to keep the focus pretty much on Wagon Jumping and how to manage it as much as possible. Cycling weight is a normal human thing, many of us tend to do it seasonally. Also, as you get older your body will hit metabolic walls where it needs less food. This may be the case during your marathon training.
I find the biggest reason people 'fall of the wagon' is the challenge in internalizing the difference between a life style change and a diet. The word diet is in our face, minds and mouth so much that it is second nature to say it and to think of any food changes as a 'diet'. It does however have very specific imagery that goes with it, most of which is the imagery of a temporary state. Something you will do for awhile and then when you've met goals that you will no longer need. It is a tool.
For most of us here what we need is a lifestyle change. The difference being that without changing what we eat and how much we exercise we will continue to gain weight and have deteriorating health. This needs to be a permanent change that is not only manageable and achievable but also fun, exiting and energizing.
Welcome to the group.
Blog Alert
For anyone looking for more reading... hehehe.... one of my favourite blogs HealthHabits is doing a series on the common stumbling blocks of weight loss and why average people who seem to be doing the right thing fail over and over and over... and how to succeed. It's called: Why Can't I Loose This Fat?
Here's a bit of the first entry:
Angela is a forty-something year old woman, with two kids and an executive position at an insurance company.
Angela is 5′6″ and weighs approximately 170 lbs. Angela doesn’t want to weigh approximately 170 lbs. She has read every diet book. She has exercised like an Olympic athlete. She has cleansed. She has popped dietary supplements. She has joined and quit three different diet programs. Nothing works anymore. So she asks me, “Why can’t I lose this fat”? The diet industry promises you easy weight loss. But when you fail, it is always due to your lack of will-power. So why don’t the diet gurus help you generate that will power? Why don’t they give you a complete weight loss program involving: Well, over the next several posts, I will attempt to do that.
Stay tuned.
I am definitely a diver! In the past I have let myself get so deprived, and hungry that the littlest irratation would set me to the nearest Frozen Food section at the nearest store and buying the 1st half gallon of Ice cream I could reach, then once I had eaten most of that I would say well this isn't going anywhere anyway and I need a pizza so off to the phone I went and that was the end of either a diet or cutting down/watching what I ate.
I am really liking the challenge now of planning my meals, day and even though it is a bit more challenging trying to get more healthy calories in so my body doesn't think it is starvation mode time...I like the accountability that I have on myself now too.
I also didn't have the knowledge the last time I really tried to lose weight, or get healthy. I didn't know about the starvation mode, basal metobolic rate, etc.. I think the internet is a wonderful help with that kind of education.
I do not exclude anything from my new lifestyle change. I just try really hard to listen to my inner self if I want an ice cream I try to get the healthiest I can find...and eat a smaller helping, and so far working. The main trouble is exercise..I have written it before and probably will do so again (thank you beforehand for your patience! ) I HATE TO EXERCISE!! I am so uncoordinated and clumsy it would make the Home Funniest Video's if I would allow my family to tape me...I even trip on the treadmill! usually when trying to wipe sweat from my upper lip I HATE THAT!!!!
I carry around a little tablet with me if my hubby and I go out so I can write down what I did eat..if we went for a walk for exercise ...and I really try hard not to reward myself with food..I still do sometimes but then I think this really doesn't make sense...i lost a 2 inches from my hips so I reward myself with my favorite pizza??
anyway...all i can do is keep trying.
Thank you Sara for making me think...
Rpete I have SOOOOO been there, done that. The rewards system is still very hard for me. I think food is so ingrained in all human cultures as a celebratory device that I have trouble thinking of celebrating a success without food or drink of some sort. Tiegurl (hopefully she's back soon) has some of the most creative rewards I've seen.
As for the exercise, I'm right there with you as well. I really have to keep at it, as I know that I feel great when I do, but as soon as I slip it's the absolute last thing I want to find time for. I'm also somewhat scared of the treadmill. In fact, I'm pretty terrified of flying off the end of it into the back wall, falling on my face and getting rubber-burn all over it as the rubber mat continues to spin as I can't peel myself off the ground because I managed to break both my legs in my fall... I'm not sure that this has quite reached a phobia level yet... it's getting there.
The key is figuring out what you can do. I started with the eliptical thing, I don't know why, I like it. The recline bike was also an option that I liked as well. I start real small, just 30 min (you can start at 5 or 10 if that helps).
Then I took some good advice from a trainer. If' I'm aiming to burn fat, and do it over the long term I don't need to be sweating buckets when I'm doing cardio. I need endurance. I need to build up my cardiovascular system not to sweat for 15 min really hard, but to be able to run for 30 min to an hour. His rule of thumb was that if I couldn't carry on a conversation with relative ease then I was working too hard for fat burning (well high intensity will build muscle, which is also good, but I also do strength training now that I'm a few months in). If you have a heart rate monitor then you probably don't need to be much above 130 bpm.
Just some thoughts.
Good luck.
Just checking in for the week.
- I feel like I am still on track to lose some weight, but I won't know until I weigh in on the 23rd.
- I have gotten pretty close to running 25 mins straight without stopping. I am also decreasing my time and increasing my distance in running.
- I updated my http://kumanokodoguides.blogspot.com/ ; site. I'm pretty proud of that as I haven't put much effort into it lately.
- I bought a pair of medium size stretchy exercise pants. They are snug, but I can wear them. I lost 10 cm (about 4 inches) here there and everywhere off my body in the last two weeks.
- I've only had a couple of people compliment me on looking good. That's not much encouragement, but I am continuing to work hard toward my goals.
It's been a good week in terms of meeting my goals. I have a lot of opportunities to get some exercise in over the next few weeks. I hope that keeps my momentum going.
Kyashiis Sounds like you are doing well with our goals, running 25 mins straight is a great accomplishment. I am no where near that yet, I haven't actually started running, I'm still working out my fear with the treadmill. The like to your blog above didn't work, I hope you don't mind me re-posting it here:
http://kumanokodoguides.blogspot.com
I took a quick skim through as it's a busy morning here, but it looks like a great blog. I spent some time (6 weeks) in Itabashi when I was 17 on a Student Exchange, and we have a large Japanese community in the area of Toronto that I live in. I'm looking forward to reading your bit about Buddhism in Japan and the Pilgrimage Routes. We're lucky here in Ontario that so many of our historical trade routes have been preserved as part of our Bruce Trail a wonderful hiking trail running all of Ontario.
I made it out to the gym for the first time this week. Sunday and Monday were just too busy and I need to remember that unless I go first thing in the morning it's really not going to happen. I need to make it three more days which I'm confident I can do as long as I keep getting up.
The happy enzymes or whatever they are that are released when you exercise are kicking in this morning. Which is great, I need them, today is going to be a long day.
I'm drawing some support from the candidate that I'm helping. He was our candidate two years ago in the last Federal election and I haven't really seen him in person since. I would guess he was around 300+ lbs last time I saw him. Well flash forward to last Saturday when we opened the office! He's lost easily 100+ lbs. He's fit and in shape and running marathons!
I've never really been able to draw much inspiration from magazine articles that show people who've lost 50 - 100+ lbs. They are people I don't know and my cynical side always suspects that it's two different people in the before and after shots. However, seeing someone in real life who has done it, someone who I know, is a tremendous inspiration. There's really a "if he can do it, I can do it" boost that I'm getting. Look real change is possible, is sinking into my mind.
Anyways, long story short, today's a good day, I'm feeling very back on track.
KC great to have you in the group. I have also been meaning to make it to the pool, but somehow just haven't lately. I wish I could take my mp3 player in there though. Unfortunatley it isn't water proof.
rpete, the only exercise I do is walking, (alot actually, around 7-10 km a day). I think walking is actually really good exercise and has the added benefit of being a method of transportation. mapmyrun.com is great for seeing how far you are walking and it works all over the world, (well Germany and small town Finland are the only places I have tried to use it so far).
kyashiis, way to go on the running, I can't run to save my life, even as a kid I didn't like to run. Walk for miles, even race walking in little athletics, but running and I are not friends. Also congrats on the medium pants. I know complements from others can be great, but remember why you are doing this, whihc is for you. Keep on working towards your goals, and that is all that matters.
sara, thanks for the links to yours, and others blogs. It is really interesting to see what others think. Also good for your for making it to the gym today! well done. glad to hear you are back on track!
My update for today is kind of good, although for some reason I feel completely exhausted, I don't know if I am getting a cold, or if it my Doctor changing my b/c pill, but today I have felt tired all day.
My intuative eating experiment is now just at the end of day four, and I would say it is going reasonably well. Today I did eat a couple of things before I was actually really hungry, especially dinner which I really should have waited another hour to eat, but I had been thinking about eating this meal for 3 days (today was the first day I left uni early enough to go to the supermarket, (they are closed on Sunday and at 8 or 10pm here). so when I left early I went shopping and then made dinner early. I also ate a banana when I wasn't really hungry.
THe interesting thing so far is realising that you really don't need to eat that much food to stop being hungry. And although I have had a bit of a cheesecake fixation (they had these prepaked 70g bars at the supermarket on special, last and this week) otherwise most of the food i have wanted to eat has been pretty healthy. I am kind of enjoying it, and so far the scale isn't going the wrong direction, and maybe even the right one, so I think I will continue it.
anyway hope you are all doing well, Jane
Jane:
Lilypods are cases to swim your mp3 players!
Will I lose weight if I eat the same food over and over?
You can lose weight despite eating the same food day-after-day as long as you eat fewer calories than you burn. In fact, eating the... Read more