Giving Up...

Me? 

No, no, no.  I'm not giving up.  I have less than 2 weeks left of this madness, so no, not me.

I'm hanging tough for these last few days.

But, I've been thinking about what makes a person give up on things.  What makes us give up on good things for us?  And what qualifies as really giving up?

Is giving up waking up one day and realizing you've ballooned to 500 lbs?  Is giving up something that happens before you reach that point? 

What's does the line look like between saying, "I'm perfect just the way I am" and "I just don't care to do anything more, so this will have to do"?  Is it so black and white?  Does it have to be so black and white?

Why do we push or not push ourselves to be better?  What qualifies as better?  Where does giving up fit in to that?

I don't have the answers to these questions.  I'd actually be surprised if anyone does.  But feel free to share your thoughts.  These are just some questions that I ponder for myself, but if you have an answer, I'd love to hear it!

Life is what happens when you're out making plans...

Or something like that.

I like making plans.  I like having a schedule.  I like knowing what my day is going to look like before I go to bed the night before. 

I do not like waking up and feeling terrible.  I do not like being up all night with sick children and rushing them to the doctor first thing in the morning.  It wasn't part of the plan, it wasn't part of my day.

But, being flexible with yourself, especially when it comes to weight loss and any program of diet and nutrition that you undertake is essential to your success.  

Recognizing that on most days you can make time for yourself and do what you need to do to be healthy, exercise, eat right, so on...

BUT...

There are days when little ones need mom or dad and no one else will do.  There are days when you need to take care of yourself by NOT getting on the bike, not going for the run, not doing that one video.  There are days like these in all of our lives and it's important to find a balance.  You can run tomorrow.  You can sweat and burn and push another day, but you're needed elsewhere today and that is what is supposed to be. 

There are bigger things in life than your program, so give them their time and then get right back to doing what you're working so hard to do!

Doing it YOUR way

As I've had the blessed opportunity to drop a significant amount of weight twice now, I seem to get the question a lot, "So, what are you doing to lose weight so fast?"

Maybe it should be, but isn't, an easy question to answer. 

You see, here's the thing that I'm realizing: 

Different things work for different people.

Ground-breaking, right?

But seriously, the biggest obstacle to weight loss is doing the wrong thing for yourself and hoping that it works.  For many people, dropping all carbs (Atkins, South Beach) works magic.  For others, no red meat and only complex carbs works wonders.  Neither of those options work for me.  I LOVE bread and well, Texas Roadhouse is my favorite restaurant of all time, so not gonna work to give up red meat. 

For many, 3 square and balanced meals a day works magic, but for me, breakfast makes me physically ill and I do much better without it.

I once tried the popular 5 small meals a day.  My biggest issue, 5 small meals turned into 5 large meals and I gained a whole lot of weight, learning from that that I do better if I can eat to full and then be done rather than graze a little at a time.

For me, giving up anything totally makes me so focused on the "can't have" that I become obsessed and set myself up for failure, hence this whole sugar struggle.

So, I find myself at odds with most of the popular advice out there for weight loss. 

But it doesn't matter cause I've taken the time to figure out what works for me.

Have you?

Perfection is a Pain

I'm a point nazi..

I really like to have perfect scores on the things that I do.  I blame college for this.  Though not the easiest level of schooling by far, generally speaking, if you put in the time and effort on your work, it is possible to receive full points on at least the assignments you're given. 

So, I've become a perfectionist as much as I possibly can. 

It puts me in an interesting place with this whole point system program.  I fight everyday to do everything on the list to get full points for the day.  Unfortunately, some days it's just not possible to get all my points because of things that come up and throw my schedule off. 

So with this in mind, I'm making a conscious decision today to not worry about perfect points...at least for today. 

See, on Monday, my family got together for dinner and I made dessert.  According to "Ask Heloise" it is rude for a hostess to serve a dessert and not eat some herself, so because I care so much to be perfect in etiquette, I reluctantly had dessert on Monday.  This put me in an awkward situation.  Remember when I said that the no sugar thing was getting easier, yeah, I spoke too soon.  It's been rough again.  So, I wondered to myself if I had it in me to hang on tight for almost two full weeks with zero sugar since I usually save my sugar day for saturdays.  Well, disappointing and uninspirational as I may be, I've decided to have sugar today.  Why?  Because I've had a hard week and I'm rewarding myself, that's why.  No, it's not the greatest reason for giving myself and extra sugar day, but hey, sometimes you just don't have it in you to be perfect and I just don't have it in me today. 

And that's perfectly ok.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I don't know about you, but my weight loss pattern is extremely annoying.  It's been this way everytime I undergo a weight loss regimen.  It looks something like this: 

Lose 1 pound, gain 1 pound.

Lose 2 pounds, gain 1 pound.

Lose 3 pounds, gain 1 pound.

and so on...

Yes, I know overall I am still on the negative side of weight loss.  I do know that of the six potential pounds lost, I do permanently lose 3 pounds, but man it's annoying!  I just wish that I could lose six pounds and not gain any back, you know?  But, like I said.  This is how it's always been so I've been trying really hard not to get to discouraged when that 1 pesky pound keeps coming back.  I'll get there.

Slowly.

Two steps forward, one step back.

A VERY Pleasant Surprise

So, to say I'm shocked is an understatement... I've already explained in my first post about how problematic my sugar addiction has become.  I was not so happy the first week of this program because I couldn't run to my friend (chocolate) when I was feeling stressed or frustrated or tired or overwhelmed or whatever one of a thousand feelings I have on a typical day that makes me want sweets.  But a really funny thing has happened to me...I've been at this for 17 whole days and guess what!?! 

I'm feeling fine without sugar!

I seriously assumed that I'd be just hanging on with white knuckles for the full 8 weeks, not so patiently counting down the days when I could bring my friend back into my life.  But, the other day I watched Brian reach into our candy jar (yeah, I know, not the best thing to have around when trying to be disciplined...) but he grabbed himself a treat and I didn't feel the need to kick him in the shin!  I was so happy (so was Brian)!

It's amazing that habits really can be broken.  What a relief!

What Works For Me

I've had people ask me what's my secret for losing weight so quickly.  I've generally told them that I eat nothing and exercise all the time!  Well, that's only partially true.  I do moderate my food intake quite a bit and I do make sure I'm moving quite a bit too, but obviously I can't be exercising always.  It's a trick, this little weight loss game! 

But, my good friend Alicia asked me what I did for exercise, so I'm gonna tell ya!  I exercise Mon-Fri. after work in the mornings.  On Monday, Wednesday, Friday I get on my elliptical for about 45 minutes.  I run at a moderate pace and moderate tension until the calorie counter reads 450 calories.  Then I spend about another 15 minutes on the floor doing various toning exercises for my arms, abs, butt, and legs.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I spend about 30 minutes on the elliptical (I finish when the calorie counter says 350) and then I do the World's Fastest Workout that I have pinned on my Pinterest account.  It's another 4 minutes long and it's a butt kicker!  Then I spend 15 minutes doing more toning exercises.

So, that's my routine for now.  I try to mix other things in to the workout so to encourage my body to have to adapt to new things.  I'll workout this way for probably another month and then I'll add something.  I make the elliptical my main aerobic workout and then add other stuff to supplement.  I'm especially looking forward to warmer weather, because I will then add a 2-3 mile walk per day onto my routine.