Losing Weight

Is always great!!! In 2.5 weeks I have lost 6lbs. I am so excited! A lot of my family have been doing the Medifast Diet and they are seeing great results and have been pretty excited about that. My mom has urged me to try Medifast. While I am super excited for them, I worry about myself on Medifast. But, to be fair, here is a pro/con list:

Pro's:

Very quick weight loss

Pre-prepared meals (or little preparation)

Opportunity to sell / be a coach

Con's:

Can weight loss be healthy?

Not supposed to exercise 1st month

Can I keep it off?

Super expensive ($250-$300/month)

Not able to improvise my own meals

Honest thoughts? I do not think Medifast is healthy. I cannot spend $250 on food for just me (that almost feeds my family of 3 for a month!) and I have a problem doing something that does not endorse exercise or that people take instead of exercising... How can that be healthy for your heart? And, as a mom with flabby skin, what happens to the excess skin?!? This is pure me thinking (I have done no research to back this up) but it seems that since your skin stretches when you gain weight (hello baby!) that when you lose weight, it takes time for that skin to go back. I mean, I know skin is elastic to a point, but look at a rubber band. If it is stretched out it will always be slightly bigger than it's original, unstretched size. If you are losing weight at crazy speeds your skin doesn't have time to lose the extra stretched-out parts. Does that sound crazy?

My hubby was reading in a magazine that a doctor had a 3 tier/step guaranteed weight loss program.

1: Eat less

2: Exercise

3: Do it forever

It is also healthier to lose weight slowly and at a constant rate. People who do that are more likely to keep the weight off. 6 lbs in 2.5 weeks is a little less than 3lbs a week. I am very happy with that. At this rate, I will lose the 50lbs I need to lose in 17 weeks. Roughly 4 months. That is good enough for me.

Blisters Stink!

As do bad knees. I got a blister under my right toe from running Tues/Wed. So, I decided to take a brake Thurs & Fri. Today - definitely needing a run to make sure I keep up! Probably after my hubby gets home from the Priesthood session of General Conference (I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints... General Conference is a bi-yearly meeting where we receive instructions and direction from our church leaders. It is always amazing. If you would like to know more, let me know or go to www.lds.org to find out how you can learn more. :)

In June my aunt (who is my age - very fun!) and I plan on running a 5k in Alaska called "Running With the Waves". We can't figure out exactly why the race is called this. Although the trail is on a portion of what is called the "Coastal Trail" because it follows the coast of Anchorage, Alaska does not typically have what you would call 'waves' crashing on the shores. Maybe it's named after the waves we will receive from those happy they are not actually running in the race? Not quite sure. We figure, though, that if something happens and we can't do the race, we'll just design our own t-shirts, run our own route, and then head to Taco Bell and Coldstone Ice Cream. (I think those are on our agenda regardless...) In any case, it will be fun to run with Tirzah. She's the best!

Sprinting

Today is not my usual day for running. For the past 3-4 weeks I have established my routine as Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday for running and either resting or cross training on the other days. Except Sunday. Sunday is my church and family day, no exceptions. So today was quite a shock when, after putting my daughter down for her nap and dashing to the store for some essentials (don't call child social services - my husband works from home so our daughter was not left unattended), I had the urge to run. Weird. I figured I should go ahead and give in to the craving since I am a fledgling runner and probably need all the help and experience I can get. Not to mention that the hips will be better off for it in the long run (every pun intended there...)

I decided to do a quick 1 mile run. After discussing with my husband yesterday, I decided to try my new plan. I have a bad right knee (from volleyball, cheerleading and basketball during jr. high and high school - I didn't always used to be fat :) so usually jogging makes it sore after awhile. I decided, though, to try sprinting and taking longer strides so my body was doing a more forward motion than the up and down associated with jogging. I also decided that I would walk, sprint, walk, sprint.

I donned my coat and gloves (it was snowing/raining = slushing) and set out. I decided not to set time limits for each leg of the journey. I would sprint when I was ready and then walk when I needed. As I walked up to my front door I reflected on the experience today. Conclusions:

It went pretty well. Instead of an 18 minute-ish mile I did a 15 minute-ish mile. My knee feels pretty good and I feel great about my run. Am I skipping tomorrow? Absolutely not. I may have to push myself out the door but I'll worry about that tomorrow. For today, I feel great.

Me and Running...

Haven't always been friends. In fact, I'm not sure we are yet! We're working on it though. Relationships take time to build, right? Well, me and running are getting there.

I've decided to start a blog just for me. One of my vices in my life has been eating and exercising. I love to eat junk and lots of it. I do not love to exercise. When I got married though, things started to change. For starters, my husband (and his family) are very health conscious. I don't mean in a granola-tree hugger, tofu all the time way. (sorry if you are reading this and that is you - I applaud your discipline). I mean in a sensible, realistic, healthy cooking with occasional sweets and regular, moderate exercise with goals in mind kind of way. Not that my family doesn't exercise or try to eat healthy. But, we kind of don't. At least we didn't when I was growing up. But it wasn't usually a problem because everyone played a sport or played sporty-type games with cousins and such. So everyone got their exercise in some form. Anyways, I digress. The point is, Jer and I got married and we started having conversations about health and fitness.

So. I began working on becoming healthier. Things were going great. I even took a 4 month fast from sweets and worked hard to lose about 20 lbs. I looked the best I have ever looked in my entire life. Then... I got pregnant.

Pregnancy = good idea / bad idea

Good Idea:
Having a beautiful and healthy child

Bad Idea:
Not eating right or exercising while pregnant

To make a long story short - I got fat.

So I am now the happy mother of a 14 month old who is working to change her mindset and bodyset. (Is that even a word? Well, it is now.) My conclusions regarding these changes are:

(1) It is hard to lose weight.
(2) I really like sweets
(3) Goals make all the difference in weight loss
(4) Talking with my husband about this process is helpful
(5) I can include my 14 month old in the process
(6) Weight loss takes a combination of eating healthy & exercise - I just can't see the value of fad diets... (and paying MONEY for those things!)*

My purpose in this blog is to allow myself a place where I can just blab about my progress. I like to have goals in mind and I like to be able to talk about those goals. So my husband doesn't go crazy with me continually telling him every single little thought in my head regarding healthy lifestyles, I am going write everything down so I can drive any readers who have nothing else to do and are bored, crazy. :)

So enjoy reading and have a healthy day!

*Diet Disclaimer: It works for some people. What it all boils down to is self-discipline and continuing healthy lifestyle patterns AFTER the diet is over...