March updates

 

I suppose you know I celebrated my birthday yesterday, right? Yep, I turned 56 yesterday.  It was a great day!

I haven’t updated here lately.  There’s really not much to say.  I am still doing Walk Away The Pounds every day.  I bought a new DVD that I really like a lot.  It’s the Ultimate 5 Day Walk Plan.

I really like this dvd because it has a workout for each day or you can “create your own workout” by choosing whichever miles and workouts you want to do.  Each mile is color coded (green, yellow, blue, red, purple)  In addition there are workouts for your arms, abs, legs, chest & back.  There is a warm up session and a cool down session.

I bought mine at my local Meijer.  I generally do two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the evening.  I always do at least 3 miles today, but sometimes 4 or 5 miles a day.

So here are the latest pictures.  The good news is I can tell a difference in my clothes. The bad news is I’ve lost very little weight.  My weight fluctuates a lot, so one time I was down a whopping 3 pounds, but most days I’m only down one or two pounds from my beginning weight. However, that being said, I’m not giving up.  I can tell I have a lot more muscle definition.

There are a lot of arm motions/movements in Leslie’s workouts. I’m still modifying them because of my shoulder, but I’m having a few more “good” days. 

If you remember, I told you that I have never really dieted.  No fad diets or anything like that. I believe in eat less move more. But, I heard about a diet last week on GMA and I’m going to give it a go.  It’s called the Fast Diet.

It’s about fasting, but not totally fasting.  Women get 500 calories a day while men get 600 calories.  That’s two days a week. I am going to give this a try.  I haven’t read the book, I’m sort of winging it.  lol  Today is my first day.  I hope to do this two days a week for the month of March to kick start my metabolism.  Something has to change, and I don’t really want to diet (give up the foods I love).  I want to change my eating habits. I want to continue to eat those foods I love in moderation.   I clearly have learned to maintain my weight, I just need to drop these 20 pounds that are nagging me.

I hope YOU are moving more and eating less!

gail

hellooo is anybody there?

It’s been a busy week.  I had a couple of social get togethers with friends, that’s always fun!

I still haven’t finished the kitchen floor.  It’s so hard to do around the doorways with the critters in the way. I’ll get there.

I haven’t been to home depot to get the light fixture yet, nor have I painted the kitchen wall, but I WILL! 

What I want to tell you about today is that I’m still walking away the pounds with Leslie Sansone. BUT, Rose (confessions of a curbshopaholic) told me on the phone last week that she does it from youtube on her ipad.  huh what?  ONLINE?  youtube?  sign me up!

so, this is the one I’ve been doing all week:

 

 

Someone mentioned to me that walking isn’t a good way to lose weight.  Well, she may be right.  I still am only down a couple of pounds after 6 weeks.  BUT I can tell a difference in my stomach.  Muscle weighs more than fat, right?  Muscle helps burn calories, right?

I’ve done 5 miles every day.  Generally I do 2 or 3 in the morning, and then finish it in the evening.  If I’m unable to do it in the evening, then I do ALL FIVE miles in the morning.

So, if you’ve been wondering who Leslie Sansone is, or IF you want to invest in a new workout routine, now you can try before you buy—watch some of her videos on youtube.    For now I’ll stick with this 5 mile routine.  I do have to modify the arm stuff because of the shoulder.  BUT, I’m hoping I can gain some strength in the muscle and help it overall.

 

So, I’m 6 weeks in, and I might have a head start on you but if you are a better eater than me, you will probably see some weight loss.

I’m still enjoying a couple of pieces of chocolate each day and a coke.  I’m drinking a LOT of water.

here’s to a better me!

see ya,

gail

same ole same ole

I’m not much for catchy titles, am I?

Just wanted to let you know what I’ve been up to.     I’ve really been done with the amount of chocolate and cokes.  Some days it’s harder than others.  I’m definitely a “stress” eater.  Seriously, why do I think a Herhey’s nugget is going to make getting the scanner up and running any easier?  hahaha  That was today’s catastrophe.  I’ve needed to sign some papers and email them, and ever since I got the new computer with Windows 8, the scanner hasn’t worked.  I was about reduced to tears—wait!  Who am I kidding, I did shed some tears over that one.  I hate it when I just can’t seem to conquer something in a certain allotted time.  I figure most things deserve about 15-20 minutes NOT over an hour.  So, to be honest, I did bake me some warm cookies.  I felt better.  lol   I bought one of those tubs of Nestle on clearance, and I needed to use it or freeze it by one day next week.  So, I took a little while to scoop the dough into balls to pop them into the freezer.

Some would say that you shouldn’t give in to such things, but I’m trying to make lifestyle changes.  I do not plan to go the rest of my life without eating cookies.

I’ve still been doing walk away the pounds 6-7 days a week.  No weight loss, but I can tell a difference in my clothes.

Shoulder still hurts, I go to the Chiropractor tomorrow.  They will be doing a reassessment.

I worked on a project friday and saturday for a “maybe” opportunity coming my way.  A video tutorial.  I fill you in as soon as I know something.

I only have a few more squares to do on the kitchen floor.  I found a fun light fixture at Home Depot that I’m 99% sure I’m going to install over the kitchen table.  I took the old one apart to take down, but I’ve left it in that state for over a year!  woe is me.

you like?

speaking of my kitchen, I need to paint the blue accent wall gray.  It’s those tongue and groove boards, so I have to be careful painting them. I’m hoping to use my CommandMAX.  My nephew and his wife have all my tools.  They bought a new house, and I figured if I didn’t have any tools laying around I wouldn’t take a chance on working on something and hurting my shoulder.  I’ll be getting it all back very soon.

Oh, the housecleaning  comes and goes in spurts. I do try to remember that it does only take 10 minutes to do those tasks that I like to put off. Last week, I took about 30 minutes to clean out the drawers and the “knee” hole of the kitchen island/craft station.   It was long overdue.   I hope to blog on MRL with the updated pictures of the kitchen floor this week.

Besides working my brains out on the scanner problem, I’ve been working on gathering all my tax stuff.  I know nothing about taxes, let alone BLOG taxes.  I’ve hired some CPA company that knows all about bloggers.  Hopefully it will all work out.

I suppose that’s about it. 

see ya,

gail

1 Month down (update)

Wow, can you believe January is already “in the books”?  It went by so fast.

So, one month has come and gone and I’m pretty happy with my progress.  I’ve worked really hard on eating less, and moving more!  I’ve seriously done better than I thought I would.  It’s been a month of less coke and less chocolate, and lots of moving.  I started with 15 minutes a day of Walk Away The Pounds, quickly upping it to 30 minutes.  In recent weeks, I upped it again to 45 minutes.  The last few days I have done 1 hour.  Leslie Sansone basically says that the 45 minutes is 3 miles.  I think I will start doing 30 mins maybe twice a day.  Or at least 30, and then 15.  I think breaking it up will hopefully make a difference.   With that being said, are you ready for the BIG number?  I can’t believe how much weight I have NOT lost!  hahaha   I don’t have a digital scale, so it’s a little difficult to say an exact number, but it’s about 2 pounds!  :)   Yep, that’s not a typo.  TWO pounds.  To keep it real, I will tell you that I don’t eat right.  I don’t like fruits and vegetables.  I KNOW, I KNOW!  I’ve heard it all my life.  It is was it is.  Rose (Confessions of a Curbshopaholic) told me yesterday about a site. MapMyFitness.com I logged on today and created a profile.  I’ve never been one to count calories, so I may be a little ignorant of how many calories I’m eating.  My downfall is sweets. I love donuts.  I eat HoneyNut Cheerios 5 days a week, and on the weekends I treat myself to my favorite donuts.  I’m not dieting, I’m trying to make life changes.  I know there is no way I’ll live the rest of my life without sweets. (OR cokes)   I’m trying to do everything in moderation.

Now, for the bad news.  I have been horrible about my cleaning schedule.  I have really backslid with that.  I’ve been very busy with Etsy orders this month, thankfully!  Currently the kitchen looks like it always has, partly because I’ve been painting the floor all week. I’ve been scrubbing, sanding, and taping about 4 large squares each day.  I’ve got a couple of days left on round one. At the moment, it is tri-colored.  I will have to see how I like that.  If I decide to paint ALL of the blue squares a dark gray, I will have to make sure the paint is cured well enough to tape.

The blue wall will also be updated someday soon. I’ll be painting it light gray.

 

Last but not least an update on the shoulder.  I did a little work last week helping an elderly lady put some shelves up in her garage. I took it easy and it went well. They were those white wire shelves, so they weren’t really heavy.  I faired pretty well after drilling and hanging them. She wanted to add some extra support, and went the cheaper route of using PVC pipes.  I drilled a bunch of holes in 4 pipes.  My shoulder hurt a little, but was fine the next day.  NOW, when I say fine, I mean the pain was bearable. I’ve had very few days of limited pain over the last 6-7 months.  I’m still going to the Chiropractor about every 10 days, and hopeful I can avoid surgery.   I plan to work on a couple of smaller projects in the next couple of weeks—but working only a little each day.  That’s difficult for me to do.  Usually when I jump in and start something, I want it done NOW.

Oh, one more thing!  I got my hair cut!  It was getting really long, and looking pretty gray.  So, I used a gift certificate to get a little mini makeover.

You can see how short it is in my Feb 1 “little black dress” picture.  I have this dress that still has the tags on it.  I don’t even know when I bought it.  Last summer I took some pics. (I’ll show those later this summer when I’m done)  I should have taken some on January 1, but I didn’t think about it.  I plan (there’s that word!) to take one on the first of every month. Feel free to hold me to it down the road.  :)  The picture shows a lot more than my weight….you can see the bathroom is still unpainted.  (from last FALL)  You can also see my therabands and a pulley hanging on the door (for shoulder exercises) Too bad the shoulder exercises haven’t helped those fat arms!

I hope your year is off to a great start!

see ya,

gail

Catching you up on …..

….what I’ve been up to, and how things are going.

I’ve worked so hard on eating less and moving more only to see no weight loss at all after 22 days!  It’s more than discouraging—it’s disappointing.  I wish I could say I feel better, but I don’t.  I can tell a difference in how bloated I feel, but that’s it.  I’ve done so well with drinking only 1 coke a day, and enjoying a LOT less chocolate.  I’ve been drinking more water. That being said, the last few days have not been ideal!   I went to Nashville on Sunday morning and returned on Monday evening.  I was BAD there.   I drank 2 cokes each day, and more chocolate than I should have.  But honestly, it didn’t seemed like it mattered. 

I’ve been very busy since I came home. I got 4 Etsy orders while I was out of town.  The kitchen became craft central again, but I’ve been very diligent about picking up after myself.  I’ve loved having a tidy home, and I want to keep it up.

However, the cleaning list I was following—I haven’t looked at it in days.  I’m not a good traveler.  I don’t sleep well out of town, and it takes me a couple of days to recover when I return.

Isn’t it funny how gung-ho I was on January 1st….so full of hope.  

Shoulder update?  No difference.

BUT!  I have been doing WATP (walk away the pounds) faithfully!   15 minutes for the first few days of January, then upped it to 30 minutes, and for the few days before I went to Nashville—45 minutes.  Yesterday, I was back to 30 minutes, but was on my feet so much doing those Etsy orders. Today’s goal is 45 again.

Okay, I am off to make this a good day!   I’m back on the wagon….

see ya,

gail

Day 22 of 31 Days

source

Day 22 - Take Your Medicine: Today I want you to tackle your medicine cabinet. Pull everything out. Wipe down the shelves. Group like things together. Collect out-of-date medications together for return to your pharmacy (don't flush or put them in the trash!) Use plastic containers to keep like items together. Already done? Use your ten minutes elsewhere ..... no day off today!

 

On facebook, I said I do this later in the evening.  Keeping it real, I haven’t done it yet.  I hope to do it today when I take my morning meds.  I keep my meds in the kitchen cabinet, not the bathroom.  How about you?  Where do you store yours? Are they in need of some TLC?

see ya,

gail

Day 21 of 31 Days

  Day 21 - Conquering Your Kids' Toys: You all knew this was coming! Watch the video. Remember to focus ONLY on those toys that are no longer age appropriate for your kids. Don't think too much. Conquer this challenge!! For those without kids or toys, watch the video .... there's a challenge in there for you too!
#31Days2GetOrganized

hahaha  easy for me!  No TOYS in this house.   :)    uh oh—he said if you don’t have toys, tackle luggage.  Hmmm not really a problem around here.

So, if you have toys, or luggage, get busy!

see ya,

gail