Monthly Archives: September 2011

At least, I’d like to like to move it. The reality is, I don’t like to move it that much. But I want to!  So I’m thinking that since Saturday is October 1st, I’d like to charge head on with a new workout thing…something that will get me into the habit and into a groove. I have the trusty treadmill of course, but that just seems a little to boring, so I thought I could give The Shred a go one more time. My question is…should I try to do 31 consecutive days or would it be better to do just maybe 5 days in a row and then rest on the weekends?

Let’s analyze the possibilites, shall we?

The Pros of doing 31 consecutive days is that hopefully it would establish a habit for me. Plus I could advance through the levels more quickly (assuming I’m able to advance beyond level 1 at all). The Cons of 31 consecutive days is that Dayum…that’s 31 consecutive days…with no breaks!!! Would I burn out before the end of the month?

The Pros of just working out Monday through Friday are – weekends are free. I won’t have to worry about fitting in a workout during the unscheduled, sometimes crazy weekends. Also I am more active on the weekends anyway just because I’m not sitting at a desk for 8 hours like I do during the week.  The cons of working out 5 days on 2 days off would be, how hard will it be to start back up again on Monday? That’s my biggest concern – starting back up again after not doing it for 2 days.

So what say you? Knowing me as some of you do, or if you are a fitness experty-type, what would be the best scenario?  Which one would be the most likely to KEEP me on a fitness path? I eagerly await your responses!!  :)

Eager Beaver is waiting...

Posted by Jill in fitness

It’s finally Autumn!! Hooray!!

I changed the look of my blog so it would look more autumny – you like?  I’m so freaking happy that summer is over!!

So yeah, it’s been a little while since I last posted…sorry bout that. September is a busy month – school activities get into full swing, my daughter’s birthday, plus a host of other “keep me busy” things.  I’ll try to  post a little more regularly from now. Key word being “try”.

Hey! I just realized I think I missed my blog anniversary!  I started blogging September 6, 2007 and have been going ever since. I can’t believe it’s been 4 years!  Wowza!

Okay, so since this is technically a weight loss blog, let’s talk weight loss.  Since I made peace with the process, things have actually been going okay. I had to accept my turtlehood, and even though it took me darn-near 4 years to do it, I am so much more at ease now. Since mid-July, I am down 7.2 pounds, which doesn’t sound like much but a loss is a loss no matter how long it takes to get it. I am very happy. I’ve also lost 2.5 inches in my waist and an inch in my thighs (darn stubborn thigh fat will be the last to go, I’m sure), so I think I’m making great progress! I have a Progress Stats page if you feel so inclined to follow along.

Speaking of following along – you can now follow me! You can have my posts delivered directly to your email inbox – gone are the days of repeatedly clicking on my blog several times a day in anticipation of a new post from me (cause I know that’s what y’all do ).  Look over to the right hand side and click whatever it says about signing up.   Then all of your Sassy Pear dreams will come true!  (Full of myself? Moi?)

Back to the weight loss stuff – I have come to realize that I actually need very little food to be satisfied. I always heard Debs talk about eating cottage cheese/fruit/nuts for lunch and I just never in a million years thought that would be enough to hold me for any length of time. Until I tried it.  There is something very comforting and satisfying about this combo, and for around 300 calories it holds me for several hours. I sometimes also have a few whole wheat crackers or half of a pita bread to go with it, just so ya know. But I’ve been eating this everyday for lunch for the last two weeks and I’m still not tired of it. I change up the fruit so it doesn’t always taste the same, but I find when I have something else (like chicken enchiladas for lunch) I’m not nearly as satisfied, so I say stick with what works. Guess what I’ve got for lunch today?  :)

Also another change I’ve been making is eating a smaller dinner, early in the evening. Dinner used to be where the bulk of my calories were spent everyday, so I would eat light light light all day and then be starving for dinner and overeat. Now I think my calories are more balanced throughout the day, and by going straight to dinner instead of having my “after school work snack, I am eating less calories overall.  I’m sure some of you out there are thinking “well, duh Jill” but I’m a turtle, remember? Takes me a little bit longer than most folks!  :)

As for exercise, well this is one area in which I still struggle. I’ll work out 5 days one week and zero days the next. Guess I need to make peace with working out?

So that’s it in a nutshell. Tonight is a high school football game, tomorrow is watching a high school band competition, Sunday is daughter’s birthday. Busy weekend but full of good stuff! I hope you all have a great weekend too!  :)

Posted by Jill in fitness

One of my favorite things to do lately is to sit on the patio after dinner with my husband and talk and watch the fish swim around in the pond (yes I know this jet set life is going to kill me if I don’t slow down – shut up) and on Sunday night we did just that. We were talking about one of his close friends who is descending into a world of alcoholism and we were talking about how we could help him. Shawn was describing L’s (not his real name, obviously) behavior and the more he talked, the more I realized I can totally identify with some of them. I thought this would be a good time to enlighten my husband about my little problem with food and my weight, since I’ve never really opened up about it to him before (believe it or not, I don’t share IRL like I do here). So I told Shawn that I could understand the feelings  that L was going through, and that lead to us talking about my using food to cope and how I really want to lose all this excess weight. While we were discussing various ways of losing weight, he said “…it doesn’t bother me what you weigh…”

SCREEECH!!!

Wait, what?

I waited for a lull in the conversation and I got super brave and I said “So my weight really doesn’t bother you?”

He shrugged and said “no, not really. What bothers me is that it bothers YOU so much. I’m fine with your body.”

I was stunned. STUNNED, y’all.

He quickly added “I don’t want you gain a whole bunch more weight though, I don’t want you to weigh 250 pounds or anything, but your weight now isn’t a big deal to me.”  This made me laugh a little bit, like maybe he thought I would take it as permission to dive head first into a vat of apple pie and not come up for air until I could only waddle out! I assured him that what I weigh now is the pinnacle of my weight gain, that I surely don’t want to weigh anymore than I do now. I told him I wanted to lose about 40 pounds and that would be good for me. His eyes got wide and he said “FORTY POUNDS?!?”  I said, “yeah, that’s what I would like to lose” and he responded with “why would you want to get that skinny? Why do you want to try to get down to 120?”

Then it hit me. He thinks I only weigh around 160 pounds.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  Oh I had to laugh at that!!! I WISH I only weighed 160!!

Anyway, I told him I knew that I would never be a rail and that if I could get to 150, then I’d stop and reevaluate if I wanted to go further or not. He seemed satisfied with that and then we went on to talk about what kinds of exercises I could do and how we need to clean out the garage so we can get a weight machine in there to go with the treadmill. All in all it was a good discussion and I feel better since I let him take a peek into my weight loss world. And honestly? Even if he is lying about being okay with my weight (which I don’t think he is lying, it’s not his style), just his saying that my weight doesn’t bother him has put a spring in my step and taken some of the pressure off, ya know? Knowing he’s not embarrassed or repulsed by me is a huge confidence booster, which makes it easier to do the things I need to do to lose weight (ironic, no?).

So there ya have it. Apparently I didn’t give my husband enough credit for being the decent guy he is. I’ll try to not make that mistake again.

Posted by Jill in fitness