Finally Posting December Pics

Well this will be the last of the pics that are in this particular style.  I am going to post both of the sets, Jan to June and July to December (both have Jan on them as a comparison).  I think I am going to start doing my pictures from here out focusing on a few things that I really want to tone.  Will definitely be giving it some thought so I can come up with something reasonably early in January.

So here they are. As always click the picture to see the full sized version.

On the sideways one I figured I would hold the shirt out (and I am not even stretching it).  That shirt was very tight on me back at the start and all I can say is that I am glad since even the sleeves aren't nearly as tight anymore.

Wow sometimes I just need a comfort bubble

Ever since I was young one of my things for comfort has been to hide out near a heat register while the furnace was running.  The best is when I have a sheet positioned just right to make a little hot air bubble with me in the middle of it.  I need a nice little hot air bubble right now.  I am freezing cold and having a really rather not great day.

But thankfully despite my PMS making my brain jump to the worst possible outcomes and then blowing them up massively out of proportion to their true importance I think I am am perhaps through the very worst of it.  I thought for a while today that I was going to lose all of the data and information I had entered into the WW system and was having a very difficult time getting in touch with anyone.  But thankfully all was figured out and nothing was lost.  Whew because I wasn't looking forward to how that would change how I am doing things (as I would have had to enact a boycott ;-).

November pics

Well here are the comparative pictures for November - better late than never I guess! As always click the pic to see a full size view of the picture.

I got such a boost today, I admit I am a total compliment hound and love getting them.  Well today at pilates class one of the women I take class with told me that my legs have gotten a lot trimmer since the summer.  That really made my day.  I admit I had been thinking lately that I was pretty happy with how my legs have been shaping up, during some of the things in my fitness classes I think they look pretty good!

But it wasn't all happy news today, I forgot that I had an appointment today and so I had to miss my piloxing class today - boooooooooooooooo to that I say.  Especially since this morning I woke up with the piloxing song running through my brain and it wouldn't let me go back to sleep even though I really wanted to.  It was a sad day for that!  But thankfully I get to make it up on Saturday (since this Saturday I don't have a class to run).

The Great Cookie Crisis of November 2011

Thought I would post this here as well as on the WW site.  And of course the meteor theme is a nod to the meteorite that passed nice and close to earth yesterday.

Thankfully this crisis was pretty much averted - the cookies just skimmed me instead of slamming in like a giant meteorite the size of Texas. And here is the story of the crisis that almost was:


In the morning, the cold, frosty, snow covered morning I prepared to leave for my Pilates followed by Essentrics double shot workout. And I was looking forward to it. Then as I prepared to go I could not find my toque (and I find I am feeling the cold outside even more now than I have in the past - probably due to the reduced padding!). And I knew I left my spare at work the other day. So I phoned the husband to see if he "organized" it away to a different location, only to discover that he had worn it. This despite the presence of his own goofy teddybear covered old fashioned sleeping hat style one sitting right there. Now despite the entire and complete goofiness of his I considered wearing it, until I realized it just reeked of cigarette smoke. So in the end I used a second scarf and wrapped it around my head like a babushka.


Sadly the scarf left me with one rather cold ear! And I found myself wanting to steal the very warm earflap style hat one kid on the bus had. But alas my style does not run to bullying and stealing from children, so I had to settle with what I had!


Mostly I was okay with all of this for the rest of the day as I had treated myself to a nice warming bowl of tom yum soup at lunch time.


But, having had enough workout and walking in my heavy winter boots I had thought to opt for a ride home. But alas no answer when I called, so on went the scarf and along I trudged. Only to arrive home to a husband, sound asleep and a tummy rumbling with hungry. I had been hoping that some plans for supper might be in the works when I arrived.


So I sat and thought about stuffing my face with all that was left in the cookie bag (oh probably only 15 cookies or so since thankfully the bag was not actually full). But then a flash of brilliance startled me, actually it was just the light from my computer monitor when I turned it on, but there the answer was right in front of me. I posted a note about my desire to revenge myself on my hubby and his toque stealing ways by eating a whole bunch of cookies. Boy wouldn't that just show him LOL. Sometimes the mind is a wonderful landscape of the irrational!


The support rolled in, including a wonderful suggestion to starch his shorts which made me laugh - now if I just actually had any idea of how to do that I might just consider it! Thanks to all the words of encouragement I was able to avoid the cookies at the height of my irrationality!


Now this is not to say that I had no cookies, I had my 2 "dessert" cookies a little later as I was trying to find something to make for supper (it was cook something bold day yesterday apparently so I thought I should make something bold!). So while eating a couple cookies while preparing for supper is not a fantastic choice, it wasn't the full meteor strike bag full (and for that matter it wasn't the walk to the store and buy 2 family size bags of chips and a couple large chocolate bars meteor strike it might have been in the past). 


So thanks to all those who helped me dodge that cookie shaped meteor!

My Fitness Schedule Through December

Day	Time	Class
Next Week At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Tue 08/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Tue 08/11/2011	10:30 AM	Essentrics
Thu 10/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 10/11/2011	10:30 AM	Piloxing
13/11/2011 - 19/11/2011 At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Mon 14/11/2011	10:30 AM	JumpStart
Tue 15/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 17/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 17/11/2011	10:30 AM	Piloxing
20/11/2011 - 26/11/2011 At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Mon 21/11/2011	9:30 AM	Beginner Group Mat Class
Mon 21/11/2011	10:30 AM	JumpStart
Tue 22/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 24/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 24/11/2011	10:30 AM	Piloxing
27/11/2011 - 03/12/2011 At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Mon 28/11/2011	9:30 AM	Beginner Group Mat Class
Mon 28/11/2011	10:30 AM	JumpStart
Tue 29/11/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 01/12/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 01/12/2011	10:30 AM	Piloxing
04/12/2011 - 10/12/2011 At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Mon 05/12/2011	9:30 AM	Beginner Group Mat Class
Mon 05/12/2011	10:30 AM	JumpStart
Tue 06/12/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 08/12/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 08/12/2011	10:30 AM	Piloxing
Sat 10/12/2011	9:30 AM	TRX & REstore
11/12/2011 - 17/12/2011 At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Mon 12/12/2011	10:30 AM	JumpStart
Tue 13/12/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 15/12/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Thu 15/12/2011	10:30 AM	Piloxing
18/12/2011 - 24/12/2011 At Lead Pilates & Wellness
Tue 20/12/2011	9:30 AM	Intermediate Group Mat Class
Tue 20/12/2011	10:30 AM	Essentrics

As you can see I have it packed in pretty good over the next several weeks. Really needed to get things back to a higher level and so glad I will have the chance to do so before the session is over!  Am going to be working on also getting in some time at home, renewing my commitment to getting up in the mornings and doing at least a short workout.  I think Sundays are going to be the main day at home for working out and then once I am free again on Saturdays I will try to get them into the rotation.

I am really looking forward to the jumpstart classes since it gives me a nice chance to get back on the equipment at the studio.  I really miss that part of things it is just so different yet it has the same great mind/body connection, just feels more strength building to me.

I am even looking forward to doing a few beginner mat classes.  I was having a hard time figuring out how to fit my classes in but then I thought, hey they will be late in the beginner session so it will have enough going on to be interesting.  Plus it will give me time to work on some of my basics where I need to work on them.  It never hurts to get back to them and explore the basics with a different mindset.  And it will actually be a different instructor as well so that should be quite interesting too.

Yay for just about 2 months worth of extra hard work!

Also I will be posting new pics, but I have decided to change what I am wearing so I can see continuing progress.  But I tried to take the pics and need to adjust my positioning as they didn't turn out well.  Will hopefully get the pics taken tomorrow and posted the day after. In case there is anyone out there who cares to see them!

Off to the Pink Pilates Party

So the Lead Pilates studio are putting on a Pink Pilates Party today to raise money for cancer research.  So I am off to go do a number of classes and also to "pink" the instructors.  I am looking forward to making some of them do some of the things that are the worst to do!  I am trying to customize it so that they are things that I feel they particularly make hard in their classes LOL.  Plus I am making one of them do something that I haven't seen before (the full repertoire on the equipment).  I think this is going to be pretty fun to watch. I am definitely looking forward to it!

I am also very much looking forward to getting to do a couple of equipment sessions.  I really do miss doing equipment sessions.  So I am going to eat my lunch here pretty soon, and then I am going to head off and see if I can get some of them "pink", I am sure I will be after my classes I am participating in!

October Pictures and Thanksgiving Thoughts

This Thanksgiving was really great even if I didn't get in as much activity as I should have.  I did get in a good morning workout on Saturday and I "raced" with my little nephew up and down the block a few times on Sunday until we were both "pooped" out.  So while it could have been better activity wise it certainly could have been much worse.

Food wise it was reasonable. Some choices I don't make every day were in the mix.  And not really enough veggies.  But I was accountable for all the choices I made and for the most part they were not terrible.

What was great is that I had quite a lot of fun and got to spend time with my family and with friends.  So that is something well worth giving thanks for.  I am filled with the very real recognition of how blessed I am to have what I have and who I have in my life.

Now on to the pictures that I am tardy once again in getting posted.  The pink shorts are not present in the pictures.  I would like to say I just really chose not to wear them but in actuality I didn't see them anywhere and really didn't want to look for them.  So I guess I made the choice to not look.  I think I will be going with the black shorts for the next while but continuing with my grey shirt that I just can't seem to get that stain out of (but since I only wear it for these pictures it really doesn't get washed very often).  And as a bonus in this picture you can see my new haircut which is not that different from the old except for a few inches shorter and with slightly different bangs.  But I like it! As always click the picture to see a full sized version of it.

Last set of goals

Can't really say I did very well at all at my last set of mini goals.  So here is my review of them:

Fitness Goals

Goal	Improve my Arms!
Target Date	Sept 30
Progress/ Comments	I am hoping the piloxing will help tone them up some **** Didn't do well at this at all unfortunately.  I certainly need to be working on this but I was a bit on the lax side in all my workouts and activity during September so now that October is here I am looking forward to getting myself back on track and really getting things going again.  It is just about one full year now since I started getting myself back to a healthy state of being so time for some freshening up of the commitment and getting back to some of the great things that got me started in the first place!

---

Food/Eating Goals

Goal	Savour my food
Target Date	Sept 30
Progress/ Comments	Going to slow it down and savour each bite!******* I still definitely struggle with this, the eating without really appreciating it.  Sometimes just eating whatever it is pretty mindlessly.  But at least the what I am eating is tending to be better choices far more often now than a year ago, so at least there is that!  But will continue to think about this on a regular basis and keep trying to work on it!

Sicky

I am a pretty big complainer most of the time when I am sick.  Have been pretty good this time and have mostly not complained.  But here is what I do want to complain about - it is about how I let myself sometimes turn into a giant lump when I am sick.  A single day of taking it easy to recover leads into a second day of no activity even if I am feeling a bit better.  So today I got myself out for a short walk (and got myself scared half to death by a big dog).  So I am glad I got myself moving at least a little bit today. Although I do admit that now it just makes me want to take a nap - I think I will go and do that.

Delicious Veggie Supper

I admit I am a pretty dedicated carnivore.  I love to have meat with my supper especially.  But last night I was feeling a bit vegetarian.  I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up ingredients - but then once home wasn't feeling like cooking.  But thankfully nothing in the phone book to order looked appealing to me (guess I didn't want to undo my super workout from the morning - pilates followed by piloxing and preceded by a 20 minute walk).

So I used some olive oil and cooked up some onions, then I added in some red lentils and some little tiny black lentils that I had only had time to soak briefly.  Then some chickpeas and a lot of curry powder and one bouillon cube (which was even vegetarian).  I cooked that up adding more water as necessary for about 20 minutes or so until the black lentils were mostly cooked.  Then I scooped that mix into the two halves of a spaghetti squash and baked it for a half an hour.  It was delicious and very reasonable in the points department.

Strange Days!

So the last couple days my brain is all over the place.  Whether it is comparing my day to being a pirate on talk like a pirate day, or today speculating on what draws people to the vampire concept.  But it is funny, this whole process of being on Weight Watchers and working on building up my fitness means that even when I am wondering about odd things like that the recurring part of the theme is always either food or fitness LOL.  Guess it just goes to show where my head is at - all over the place in one respect, but firmly anchored in another respect.  I like that little bit of paradox!

So I just heard from some people that they want to start a WW meeting at work.  That would be great since I am just about at that point where I was thinking of joining up for meetings so I could get a few of the goodies and the lifetime thing!  If it ends up going ahead I suspect it will mean some degree of change in my way of approaching this, and hopefully a good one.  Hopefully it will mean an opportunity for me to share this journey first hand with people and see them on theirs in person. Who knows maybe it will mean I will have a real chance to make a difference in the journey for someone else!

Realization

I am just doing a little reflecting back on my post from yesterday and I see that whole line of thinking being so dominant in my mind yesterday was probably a protection mechanism.  I know this week I have been making pretty poor choices food wise and was expecting it to come back at me when it was time for the scale.  So I suspect all that extra thinking about not wanting to lose was an insulation method.  Protecting myself against what I expected was coming.

Now with that said, I do still want to slow my loss rate down in order to give my skin time to catch up. And I do still think I am going to slightly up my number of points I am using regularly in a week (probably with some protein shakes or something like that for after workouts).  But I am going to still aim for overall a continued loss pattern.

Thoughts and fears about just maintaining

So the last little while I have really started to see a big change in some parts of my body.  I am not terribly happy with how my skin is doing.  I feel like it is just looking not great and I worry that is a result of losing more quickly than the skin can handle. Which has had me seriously contemplating pausing in maintenance mode for a month or so.  But I worry a little bit that if I do take a pause in the weight loss process that I will have troubles getting back on track once I have given myself that bit of time.  I have seen too many great people I have met on the WW site who seem to have had something that got them off track and I never saw them again.

It is not that I am proposing stopping the program all together and I would definitely still be working out and getting in lots of activity and still be active on the site, but I just wouldn't be aiming at weight loss during the time period.  To me it sounds fine in theory, but I am concerned there is some nefarious deep subconscious saboteur lurking in there somewhere.  Maybe I should tweak my idea a bit and aim for slowed losses - I think I could easily do that just by regularly getting through all of my weekly points a bit more regularly (adding in a protein shake after a workout would get me through some of them for sure while also doing some good for my muscles).

Okay so you see the odd discussion process that goes on in my brain LOL.  There it is in action, talking myself into and out of a plan and instead looking for something that might compromise between the current and a significant change.  Will have to see whether that strategy does a good job at steadying out my pace a little bit.

Tardy Pictures and Piloxing

Well here is the latest picture.  I am finding it harder to post them now LOL - I actually find myself more critical now and not seeing as much month to month change as I used to see.  But no more excuses - here is the pic (please ignore the stains on the shirt - I just can't seem to get them out of the darn thing!). Click the picture to see a full sized version of it.

So enough about the picture.  Today I went to piloxing class (second time).  I love having the gloves - I thought it would make it harder but it doesn't really and definitely does add a bit of crispness to the moves for me.  I am sure looking forward to doing it weekly!  Yay to Lead Pilates for offering this and all their other fantastic classes! 

Okay adding this pic in here because I can't figure out how else to make it available for another purpose LOL.

Back on here!

Well I have been severely slacking on keeping up this blog.  With blogging on the Lead Pilates site and the WW message boards I have been neglecting this.  But there is also another worse time waster that has raised it's head - an online game.  They really are such a big weakness of mine.  And I will just sit and play one for hours and hours.  Hours I could certainly be spending much more productively!  But I am in the process of weaning myself off the one I am currently playing.  I will play one more round of it with a couple folks I met while playing a different round.  Thankfully on this game the rounds are relatively quick at around a 2 to 3 week turn around time.  This is great compared to some other games I have played with much longer play times.

So I have been getting back into Pilates after having been out of town for most of a three weeks and missing it quite a bit.  This upcoming week I am trying out a bunch of different stuff at the studio -should be quite interesting to see how some of them go since I haven't done one of the classes before, and the others it has been a while.

Now just a small bit of good news - my wii fit has finally signalled to me that I am out of the obese category and into the overweight category.  But I have been wondering if my height is actually correct in there since I didn't have a measuring tape at the time I entered it.  So perhaps I was out of that category a while ago and just didn't realize it. Or maybe I am a long ways away from it if the height I entered was too tall LOL.  Regardless though I definitely feel like I haven't been obese for a while now!

Oh here are my last set of short term goals and how I did - so I can put up some new ones!

Fitness Goals

Goal	Improve my Cardio Ability
Target Date	August 11
Progress/ Comments	I am going to work on getting to 6 minutes out of 20 on the treadmill at running speed (4.7) *** I did better than this doing closer to 9 minutes at 4.8 to 5 so I did pretty good I think!

---

Food/Eating Goals

Goal	Try new things
Target Date	August 11
Progress/ Comments	Just going to try to get in some new things into the routine - try something I haven't tried before at least a couple times each week. ***Didn't do great on this, surprised at myself at how little I innovated!

Glumness thy remedy is Activity

So I am feeling a bit blah today.  Not really down but not really up or enthusiastic either.  And, I have to say that I suspect the bulk of that feeling is a few days in a row without any real activity.  I walked and even danced a bit yesterday/last night but didn't really feel like I got a workout at all.  The great thing I guess is that what I did yesterday would have felt more like a workout not that terribly long ago.  So I guess it is great that I have improved my fitness.  And I am sooooooo looking forward to getting back to the pilates tomorrow.  Can't say how much I have missed it.  Now I just have to figure out how I can get to the stuff I want to get to at the pilates studio next session and I will be very happy indeed.

Dressing Up

Well I felt pretty good today - finished up a program of courses I had to take for work (today was our "grad").  So I was more dressed up than normal and thought hey I should document this on the old blog - and there were people on the weight watchers site who asked me to post pictures.  So here it is.

New Pics - August Edition

I am headed out of town tomorrow so I am jumping the gun just by a day (well technically by about 10 minutes).  Here are the new pics, ignore the blotches on my shirt I have no idea what I got all over it grrrr. Definitely not seeing the big changes anymore.  I expect to stay around this same look for a while here especially since my amount of activity has declined the last little while.  I know I am still losing weight but the body changes will need more activity if I want them to keep pace.  So onto the treadmill while I am away for the next little while - hopefully it helps to keep things going in the change department. (Click to see a larger version).

Short Term Goal Results

Well here were the short term goals I posted - lets see how I have done on them:

Fitness Goals

Goal	Work on my pilates rollover I will get it down this month!
Target Date	July 30th
Progress/ Comments	With not being able to get to pilates class as much for the next little while I chose this goal to give me a reason to do some home pilates!

---

Food/Eating Goals

Goal	Veggies - at least 3 servings per day and try to have more veggies than fruit
Target Date	July 30
Progress/ Comments

Well I would say that overall I feel like I did well on these short term goals.  While I was away I did just a few pilates things several days and I was always getting my rollover over and really working on the down section of the rollover as Jana at Lead Pilates has said how important that portion of the rollover is for building ab strength.  I think the big thing for me was using my arms - definitely noticed how important that was.

Veggies I have done pretty good as well.  There were a couple days over the month where I had almost all fruit and limited or no veggies but those days were rare in the mix.  And there were quite a few days where I ate lots and lots of veggies and relatively little fruit.  But overall it was balanced pretty well between the two.

I guess that means it is getting time to set some new short term goals.  Will probably post them later as I don't know exactly what I want for goals just yet.

Stupid scale

Now many would probably expect with that title that I was about to rant and rave about a gain.  But not me, I am going to rant and rave about even having to use a scale and I am going to rant and rave about having a loss that was bigger than I wanted.  I really want my loss rate to settle down a little bit and while I know I am almost always likely to have a bigger than average loss on the week following my gain week I just don't want it.  I want to give my body time to bounce back to shape slowly but surely.  I don't want the weight to fall off too fast because all I hear are the stories of people who lost fast and then turned around and gained fast.  I don't see that happening to me because I do feel like I have the right frame of mind to maintain for life once I reach my goal.  Because I recognize that I will need to do this on an ongoing basis.

Anyhow on to a rant about the darned scale.  I hate the amount I still care about what it says, the number it spits out at me and how disappointed it can make me feel - and the expectations and hopes I still tie to it.  I step on it hoping for a loss when I know really I shouldn't care that much about what it does in a single week.  And after the fact I am able to balance out that thinking and those feelings but it is that tiny bit of time standing on there waiting for that wii fit little measurement bar to settle on it's stopping point as it goes up that is the really hard part.  It is the bated breath as I can't help but hope it stops short of the last weigh in's little bar.

I suppose what it comes down to is that I almost always have some goal or target in mind and it seems like so rarely do I ever seem to hit it.  Today I would have been really happy with losing the half pound I went up last week and maybe dropping an extra half pound after that.  That would have been great.  So maybe it doesn't matter what the scale does when it doesn't meet our expectations.  I guess I can really see why one scale result that is deemed bad by the person sometimes throws them completely off track.  I am grateful that I am able to put my feelings into perspective after the fact because I am focused on the big picture of what I am doing - but I think I have a new appreciation for how this can go for others.

Getting Back on Pace

Funny how easy it was for me to encourage people who would express difficulty getting in exercise when I was going so great at getting mine in.  Do it in the morning I usually would say.  But low and behold once my schedule got a bit more hectic I certainly let some of my own routine slide. Not entirely since I still was doing a fair bit of walking etc - but definitely not in top form.  But I finally feel like I am a bit back into stride.  This week I was able to make it to 2 pilates classes and I went swimming once (plus today I had quite a large amount of walking into the mix as well!).  So all in all it feels like it was a reasonably good week.

I posted something from one of Covey's books (Principle Centered Leadership) on the WW message boards the other day.  And I just want to say it speaks very deeply to me about what this whole process of change has meant to me so far.  The first part of the quote was about how we often self identify ourselves based on our habits - we let those habits become our identity.  Later he also goes on to talk about how we often let how we think others perceive us become our own self perception as well.  Both those things just really speak to me.  The idea that we need to get to know ourselves so that when we want to change our habits we don't threaten our own identity.  And we need to get to know ourselves and be confident in our selves so that we don't let the perceptions (or our thoughts of the perceptions of others) become our own self definition - that we define ourselves as we are.

The other thing that really spoke to me is that we are not victims of our circumstances and that when we let ourselves be victims of our conditions or conditioning that we are not reaching our potential.  We are not doing the self reflective work of understanding ourselves and gaining the control that we have but sometimes let get away from us.  There are no quick fixes for this - when we search for the quick fix we simply set ourselves up for some condition or circumstance to interfere with our progress.  As he says it isn't just about being simply "psyched up" about doing something good for ourselves and then once that initial thrill is over just abandoning it.  It is about digging deep and getting into ourselves and understanding how we are able to carry on with what we want because we really and truly and deeply understand what it is that we want.

Feelin' Hot

It is very, very hot here today - but the feeling hot I am talking about is not related to the weather.  This weekend I had company here and then we all went to a wedding on Saturday.  Friday night I went with my friend and her girls over to the Value Village to do a spot of shopping (I had nothing really to wear for the wedding).  I tried on dresses from the 13/14 section and pretty much all of the ones I picked out fit no problem. So woohoo number one went by and I was very happy with that.  Plus I really liked two of them - so I got the one I liked most out of the two.  And I have to say it looked darned good on me.  I would venture to say that I looked pretty darned hot!  With my hair done and a little bit of make up on I really felt like I looked so fantastic.  I haven't looked in a mirror and seen my face look this good in a really long time.  The dress was flattering and everything but the real bonus was that I finally feel like my "skinny" face is finally coming back!

Tabata - up one interval!

Back a while ago I first wrote about tabatas.  I did one and then hadn't really come back around to doing them again until today.  I did my second one today and actually did one more interval than I had done the first time I tried it out.  To anyone who might actually read this and doesn't know a tabata is a 20 second interval of super high intensity aerobic activity (I run in place) that should get you panting level of work, followed by 10 seconds of low activity. Repeat this 8 times for a tabata. The first time I was only able to do 3 intervals.  This time I thought I was going to have to stop after 3 but I kept going and did the 4th one although the last 3 or 4 seconds of it I was slowing down already.

It is funny I know how silly it sounds to find what amounts to 2 minutes of exercise really hard - but I suggest that you try it out to see!  The benefit they say is the anaerobic burning of calories after this type of workout is done.  And honestly I feel like I can feel it.  There is a sensation in my core that feels like my body is continuing to work.  Maybe I am just imagining it - but I don't think so, I actually believe it has stimulated something to keep going on in there!

Will have to see how long it will take me to improve to another full interval!

Clarifying and shaping the language and understanding of this journey

On the WW site there is a general trend to calling this process a journey.  I do believe it is a journey, but not to a fixed destination - rather it is a lifelong journey of self exploration and improvement.

The term journey got me thinking.  When I think of a journey - I think of great things like holidays or vacations where I get to see new sights, explore new things, and generally have a great time.  And I think to some degree I was thinking of that kind of thing with this fitness and health journey but hadn't really captured it in words.  So, this journey it strikes me is like a lifelong vacation from my old unhealthy lifestyle that I didn't enjoy, and that was making me unhappy and unhealthy.

This journey is one of new sights - I have been seeing more places in my walking ventures as well as seeing a lot more of a few places that are good for me (fitness studios etc).  Other sites include the site seeing of the changes to my body (as evidenced by my pictures and that I see when I look at myself in the mirror).

Exploring new things is definitely a big part of this.  The biggest exploration is my own internal exploration - really getting into my own brain and my feelings and exploring my motivations, my challenges and what things work and don't work for me.  The exploration of new and different foods has been a part of it.  It has been an exploration of a strong, positive, and inspired and maybe even occasionally inspiring part of myself.  I have been loving the process of building connections with people in the online community and really love exploring my role in it as supporter and support seeker.

Having a great time is definitely part of it.  I love doing my pilates and really and truly enjoy it.  I enjoy the great and delicious foods I get to eat each and every day. I really enjoy the new energy levels my healthy eating has given me.  Those are all parts of having a great time on this journey and I really look forward to many more of them.  But I am really enjoying the slow but steady transformation of me and my outlook, and appreciating that I am a person who can look at my target ahead with an absolute and positive confidence in my ability to reach it.  I enjoy seeing myself as that person and that is the best time ever!

First one, still 2 more to go!

So I was really tired this morning so I didn't get in a workout.  Really need to try to do one tomorrow morning because my body is definitely telling me it needs it.  I am much more sore than I should be for what I have been doing the last few days.

Well it will be the short routine tomorrow morning and I am planning to do the full repertoire on Saturday morning.

Connections

Well someone on the Weight Watchers boards made a comment that just made some lights and buzzers go off in my little old brain.  I love when other people have these fantastic insights and share them - sure makes this journey sooooo much easier when you don't have to make all the discoveries on your own!  Some of them you just get to take to heart and use!

Well what she said is that her body seems to crave the healthy food when she is getting in the activity, but she craves the more junky stuff when she isn't getting in the activity.  I have to say I think that exact same thing goes on with me as well.  I can see how this past two weeks or so while I have been more busy and getting in less formal activity it has really seen me feeling much more inclined to cravings and especially for snack types of stuff.

So, even if I didn't already realize how vitally important activity is to my success in getting fit and healthy this would just provide additional reinforcement of that fact.  The challenge then is for this next week is to get in that activity despite having a busy week!  My goal will be to do the short pilates workout at least twice and try to get the full repertoire in at least once.

Will try to update on here with my progress in getting that activity in!

Fundamentals

Well I did a home pilates fundamentals workout this morning.  Although now I am just realizing I didn't do a roll over during it.  So I am going to take a pause in writing this and go give it a shot and see if I can get over today.

I managed 3 and a half of them. And definitely recognized a breath problem on one of them.  Think I was holding my breath and not using it properly to give myself the push I needed. But I am pretty happy with how I did on it.  Now to just keep working on it so that I can start doing it all the time - including when I am at class!

New Pics - Decision time

Well it would usually be around now that I would post new pictures for the start of the month.  And I took them yesterday.  But the shirt is starting to get to the stage where it is a little bit loose and so it doesn't really show the changes that are happening now (since the changes are getting less noticeable).  Plus it is also getting to the stage where I can't show all the pictures in a row.  So I need to decide what I am going to start doing now.  I think I am going to just show my start and my previous month and my current month from here on.  Plus I am thinking that I need to pick a different outfit to start up some new ones (am thinking my workout outfit will work well).

Well here is the new one - I am not happy with it especially because the shirt is all crinkly but decided to just go with it anyway.  Click the pic to see a bigger version.

------------

Here is a copy of my goals from the side bar.  Really did quite poorly on these.  Wasn't really focused on them.  Well I guess I will revisit both of these soon in the hopes of doing better on them next time around.

Fitness Goals

Goal	Get back to daily workouts - actual workouts not just walking on my non-pilates days
Target Date	Through to June 25th
Progress/ Comments	One down! Not doing terribly great on this, still getting in lots of walking but have been spotty on the actual workouts. Tomorrow morning I commit to doing one!

---

Food/Eating Goals

Goal	Eat only to satisfaction - not to full, and definitely not until I feel stuffed.
Target Date	Focus on this until June 4th - carrying this over until the end of June since it isn't going that great and I need more time to focus on it.
Progress/ Comments	Have to mention a bit of a victory - free things like fruit and veggies I find especially hard to stop with - but I did the other day. I left the last strawberry or two in the bowl because I recognized that I was satisfied!