Finishing

So I have decided that for my new years resolution (a few weeks late) I am making this the year of finishing.  Finishing projects that I started years ago and finishing this weight loss journey so I can transition into maintenance.  I have several craft projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to finish them.  I have my cross stitch stocking for Lily to finish.  I have worked on that a fair amount since I last posted so here is a new picture of the progress I've made on that.

Then there is the scarf that I started four and a half years ago.  I've been working on that more and it is about half way done now.  It's a cable pattern and I've had to start and stop so many times because I keep getting frustrated.  I think I have it down now though.

Then there is the baby blanket that I started when I was pregnant with Lily and never finished.  I have about 12 squares out of 100 done

And lastly a second cross stitch project I started three years ago.

The last thing I can think of is my Wedding Scrapbook.  I've been working on that for almost 7 years.  I just have a few more pages to do and it will be done.  I think I have four more pages.  I can't wait to get that project completed.  That's five crafting projects and my weight loss journey.  If I could complete all that this year then I would say it was a wildly successful year.  I will post when I complete each one.  It also gives me something to do besides sit around all day and eat food.  Yesterday when I was knitting Lily said she wanted to knit as well, so I got her some needles (she picked the purple ones out of my stash) and I got some yarn.  I forgot that I had donated all my old yarn to a church project last year so I had to give her some of my good yarn and she was engaged in learning how to knit for all of one minute then she said "Mommy, I will do it by myself, you go knit your scarf and Lily will do Lily's scarf".  And then I watched in horror as she proceeded to tangle up all the yarn.  I managed to restrain myself from freaking out though.  I didn't want to squash her interest in knitting over a skein of yarn.

I have been doing well with my eating for the past two days and I plan on staying on track.  It's time to kick this into high gear and finish this up.

Lose to Win Challenge

So I picked this up today at the gym.

And I think this is exactly what I need.  When I broke my plateau last year I was in a facebook competition and this would be even better.  It's the prospect that by the end of this I could be at my goal weight and transition into maintenance that excites me.  I just wish we were starting right away.  But with a little over two weeks until it starts I am going to try to get down to 150 before it starts.

Now I have something to look forward to and something to kick me into gear come mid February.  I could be in a very good place when this is over for my 10k and my triathlon training. 

Mid-Week analysis

I like to have a mid week weigh in to see how I'm doing and to keep myself on track.  My mid week weigh in showed 152.8.  Exactly what I was on Monday.  I was a little discouraged since I have been working out a ton this week.  But then again, I haven't been eating the best this week.  Someone gave us a giant tin of Royal Dansk Butter Cookies for Christmas and we just opened them up last week.  So I have been into those.  Plus my parents brought over Ice Cream for Chloe's birthday and then left it at our house, so I've been into that.  Plus we have all the Christmas Candy sitting in the pantry... and I've been into that. 

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So when you think about it, it's pretty good that I haven't gained anything.  But I certainly don't want to have to exercise as hard as I am just to maintain my weight.  Once I get to maintenance I wouldn't mind so much but right now, that is not the goal.  So I need to tighten up my eating and the only way to do that... is tracking.  I haven't been doing very well tracking this past week.  At best I will track breakfast and then stop which leads to excess snacking in the afternoon.  Yesterday I fought hard.  I wanted to snack so badly but I knew that I had to stop.  Excessive snacking in the afternoon is one of my biggest weaknesses.  I don't know exactly why I have the urge to eat so much in the afternoon (around 2-4pm) but it kills me every day.  Yesterday I painted my nails, and Lily's nails. 

My jewels came in and Lily absolutely loved getting them put on her fingers.  She chose the exact same design as she had last time:  The Yin Yang symbol.  She calls it "black and white" since that is what they call it in Kung Fu Panda 2 and The second Mulan Movie

Then at 3:30 when I thought I was about to die I wanted to snack so bad, I bundled up the girls and we went for a walk.  It was 25 degrees outside, but the kids didn't seem to care.  Lily tromped through the snow on the side of the sidewalk, and Chloe held onto Pippin's leash.  It was the same time that all the middle school kids were walking home so Pippin loved meeting new people who wanted to pet him.  It took us about 40 minutes to walk the small circle around our house.  It usually takes us 15 minutes to walk it in the summertime but Lily was going extremely slow since she was tromping through snow up to her knees, and Chloe fell down a few times because Pippin was too excited and was pulling the leash too hard.  Despite that, it was definitely a success.  We all needed to get out of the house.  When we got home Lily kept begging to go to gym school until I finally said ok (it was my rest day).  So I packed up the kids and at 6:00pm dropped them off.  I went and walked on the treadmill for about 40 minutes.  I was tired, and achy and it was my rest day so I didn't want to do anything extreme.  After that I chilled in the lounge and watched "The Biggest Looser" since that was what was on TV.  It's been a long time since I've seen an episode of that show.  They were down to the final 4 contestants so everyone had lost a huge amount of weight.  I was amazed at how skinny some of the contestants were after only 17 weeks.  Definitely not my weight loss style.

Today my sister is coming over and we are doing Fire 45 from Turbo Fire.  Hopefully knowing that I have to do that workout at 3:30 will keep me from snacking on junk.  I'm taking the kids to the pool this morning as well, so today should be pretty fun. 

I hope everyone is still working on their New Years Resolutions.   This can be the year when you reach your goals, it's up to you.  Chart your own future, take control of your life and be the best version of you that you can be!

Digging up Emotions by the Roots

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The past few days have been pretty good.  I have definitely eaten more than I should have, but on Monday I went to Body Pump and on Tuesday I went to Body Attack and today I went to Zumba.  After Body Attack yesterday I collapsed in the chairs in the locker room for about 30 minutes.  I was so exhausted I had to take a break before I could go shower.  On Monday we had a guest teacher for Pump and I loved her, so I am going to be going to her class Tuesday mornings which means Body Attack is out for now, and I'm okay with that.  I am thinking of going to Body Flow, which is a yoga type class.  It's got meditation and flexibility training and it's supposed to be the easiest of all the yoga classes.  Thinking of trying that, or maybe I will just skip Mondays.  I'm exhausted today, I've only been getting about 6 hours of sleep the past few days.  I haven't been able to fall asleep, and I've had a really hard time yesterday and today staying out of the snack food.  I know I'm not hungry, but I want to eat so bad.  Of course it's nothing good that I want to eat.  I want comfort food: cookies, chips, etc.  I've tried to steer away but I gave in a little.  The victory here is that I didn't binge eat, and I ate moderate meals.  I was thinking today and trying to figure out why I've had such strong urges over the past few days to eat and I realized that it's emotional.  I've been digging out my deep emotions, perseverating on them actually.  I've been writing a letter, and it hasn't been pretty.  I spent a few hours on it Monday night and spent a few hours crying, and then I tried to sleep last night but couldn't so I revised the whole thing (My husband told me that if I were to ever deliver this letter that it contained too much raw emotion.  Since he is the psychologist I figured he knew what he was talking about.)  It's still not perfect, things need to be added, removed, words changed.  It's my attempt to deal with my emotional reasons for eating. 

People don't just get obese.  We are obese for a reason.  Most of us use food to comfort ourselves, to hide our feelings.  In my experience, everyone who has been obese has something in their past they are covering up with food and until you resolve those issues, until you make peace with them, you cannot find true happiness and peace with your body.  I'm trying to forgive, but I'm also tired of pretending.  I'm tired of pretending everything is okay and there are no problems.  I'm a very non confrontational person so just the thought of doing something like this mortifies me, and maybe I will chicken out and never deliver the letter, but I am afraid that if I don't then I will never be able to fully heal.  After my first attempt, I'm trying to put more good in the letter, to use more logic and appeal to their better nature, to help them understand.  There are two outcomes that I see if I were ever brave enough to deliver this letter (my husband said it would be a bad idea to be there when they were reading it due to their personality type and they need to process it for a day or so before talking to me.)  Either it will help, or it will make things worse between us.  But I think it needs to be done because I have come to realize that my happiness cannot depend on my past, and I need to put my past behind me, I need to clear the air and if they cannot accept my feelings then at least I can start to heal, and stop pretending.  I can start focusing on the future, and stop fearing the past. 

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I share this (without actually sharing any specific details) because in each individual journey, every person has their own inner demons they must deal with.  It is not easy to deal with these issues, but it is important to.  If you listen to the Half Size Me show, Heather talks a lot about relationships.  Which relationships are toxic to your health and which relationships will help you.  You are influenced by those around you, by those you listen to, by those close to you.  It's important that those close to you support you, and build you up, not tear you down. 

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I don't know a single person that enjoys digging up unpleasant feelings, but it is apart of change.  We are transforming our whole lives when we embark on a weight loss journey.  Maybe someone who has just 10 pounds to lose won't change so dramatically.  Maybe they just went through the holidays and they don't really have any issues they need to resolve.  This post isn't for that person.  It's for all of us who are or who have been obese and have struggled with our weight our whole life. 

In order to change my internal dialog, I had to change my beliefs about myself.  Negative self talk doesn't just suddenly appear.  It started somewhere, but wherever it came from YOU are in charge of your life now.  YOU are in charge of your decisions.  I spent a long time waiting around for some miracle cure, waiting for someone to come and save me but the truth was, I was the only person who could save me.  I am responsible for my own health, for my own weight.  No matter what happened in the past, I am in control now and it's up to me and no one else to do what needs to be done.

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Monday Weigh In

Terrified, I gazed down at the small square box that would compute my efforts over the last week.  Passing judgement with one swift flash of numbers across the screen.  Almost unwilling to look lest I messed up, I hopped onto the scale, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and looked............

Why does the scale hold so much power over us?  It's because we so desperately want to be thin and the easiest way to measure our success is to see the numbers go down.  It shouldn't matter so much, I wish I were free from caring what the scale said, but I'm not there yet.  The scale showed my weight at 152.8.  That is a 1.8 pound loss!  I had a great day, but there is a nagging voice in the back of my head that is saying "I bet you would have been depressed all day if the scale had been up".  And I think it is true although I hate to admit it.  As I work to build more muscle I hope to move away from the scale as a means of measuring my success, as I get closer to my goal weight will the tension get stronger or smaller?  I don't know, but for now I am happy and I finally feel like I am gaining control of my food choices.  I no longer feel adrift and so vulnerable to whatever food may be lying around.  I have remembered that I am in control of my life, I am in control of my food.  I'm definitely more on the loose side of eating right now and I'm fine with that.  I would rather allow myself a little more food now, and a little more treats than binge later and face the feelings that binging induces.  Perhaps I haven't lost the war against binging yet after all.  There is still hope for me.  I can do this.

Ski Trip

This weekend was really fun.  We went up to Crested Butte in the mountains for a ski trip.  We left Thursday afternoon and stopped at a Thai restaurant that we love to eat at on the way out there.  It is this authentic Thai place in the middle of no where and it is amazing!  Matt surprised me by ordering some Spring Rolls for an appetizer and they were awesome.  I tried to keep my eating to a minimum on this trip, we will see how I did tomorrow.  I still had some chips and several small cookies, so hopefully the energy I expended this weekend will make up for it. 

On Friday it was just us, so Matt went skiing by himself and I took the kids to the Children's Museum they have at the base.  They loved that place!  We spent the whole day there.  There were two floors and we spent the whole day upstairs because it was for younger kids.  They had fake food, farm animals, an art center, building blocks, a dig pit, shopping center, pizza shop, baby area, and a little playground.

Lily buried in the dig pit

Chloe buried in the dig pit

Chloe pushing around the shopping cart

It made the day much more fun for everyone.  My Inlaws arrived that night and I had made steak fajitas for dinner in the crock pot.  It was nice and simple, Fajitas are iffy when it comes to weight loss because the actual meat isn't very high in calories, it's all the extra you put on it and a huge contributor is the tortilla.  I tried to limit my tortilla intake this weekend.  Friday night I had three (the really small fajita size ones are about 110 calories each.  I filled it with meat (which just had beef broth, garlic and tomatoes in it) some salsa (which is virtually free of calories) some cheese (careful on the cheese!) and avocado (great food, but unfortunately also high in calories.  I probably had a fourth of an avocado).  I was so incredibly hungry by the time dinner came around.  We ate late since my Inlaws arrived late (we ate around 6:30-7pm, I usually eat dinner around 5-5:30pm).  But it had been a very busy day.  On Friday, without any official exercise I got in 17,076 steps, climbed 54 flights of stairs had 79 active minutes and burned an estimated 2,679 calories.  I got in plenty of exercise without any official exercise.  Matt took Lily skiing in the morning before the Children's Museum opened up and when I went to go watch her she came down the bunny slopes she saw me and decided that she wanted to come back with me and Chloe.  Well, the bunny slope was down this big hill and Lily absolutely refused to go back up the lift with Matt and ski down to a higher location and meet me there.  I didn't know what I was getting myself when I said that I was fine and I could take them both back.  Chloe was exhausted from the trip out and not sleeping well the night before.  Lily was exhausted from skiing and not sleeping well the night before and as soon as Matt left Chloe starts up "Daddy!" and all crying and she wants to be carried and refused to walk.  As soon as Lily sees me carrying Chloe she starts crying and wants to be carried.  So I have Lily (in ski boots) and Chloe, and Lily's skis and my purse.  So I carried Chloe, the skis and my purse up a little way, set them all down, ran back and got Lily and carried her up and past Chloe and up the hill a little farther then set her down.  Then ran back down and got Chloe, the skis, and my purse and carried them up the hill, past Lily and up a little farther, then set her down...... And back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until we got all the way back up the hill and to the cobblestones.  Then I carried Chloe up three flights of stairs to the Condo and went back down and carried Lily up three flights of stairs to the condo..... That was my exercise for Friday.  Craziness!  But it was much better once I got the kids to the Children's museum around 10:45am, the rest of the day went well.

Saturday was my turn to ski!  I was dreading putting my boots on and I was talking with my Father In Law about switching to snowboarding.  I could tell Matt was not happy in the least that I was entertaining the idea of switching.  What ended up happening is I skied until my feet were burning too much for me to keep going, about an hour and a half. Then we went back to the Condo, Matt took Lily skiing and I went and rented boots to see if I could simply fix the problem with getting a different pair of boots.  And it worked!  I got some boots with a bigger toe box and they didn't hurt nearly as much as my boots.  It was a bittersweet victory because we had bought my boots specifically because I was having pain skiing, and obviously the salesman didn't know what he was doing and sold me the wrong boot for my foot.  My boots cost $400 too.  So the plan is to sell my current boots on Craigslist and put that money into buying yet another pair of boots.  Not sure when we will buy them, maybe next year.  After my boot problem was solved I skied one run with Lily

And then Matt and I skied the rest of the day!  It was the best skiing I've experienced in years.  My old boots have only been worn about 6 times and usually only a half day because I couldn't stand to wear them longer than an hour and a half. 

Saturday night we had lasagna which I tried to eat sparingly.  Surprisingly my biggest cravings came today when we were driving home.  About half way through I had the strongest urge to snack like crazy.  I did my best to refrain and we will see how everything went this week when I step on the scale tomorrow for my weigh in. 

Discouraged

Have you noticed how much easier it is to be discouraged during weight loss than encouraged and feeling good?  It feels like pretty much anything can come along and pop your fragile bubble that holds you together.  Just one little tap in the wrong direction and your motivation crumbles leaving you feeling deflated and like a pile of bricks on the floor. 

Last week I got in over 100,000 steps despite being sick and dealing with sick kids.  I had hoped that I would be lower this week but it seems that birthday parties tend to sabotage weight loss, especially when you are in charge of making the cake (and the frosting).  Monday I weighed in at 154.6 and today I was 155.6.  I tried to stay more on track with my eating today and to be very careful with what I ate today, but I didn't get in any exercise so we will see where I end up tomorrow. 

We had Chloe's 2nd birthday party last Saturday even though the kids were sick.  They still managed to have a good time.  Chloe ate a bunch of ice cream and Lily was trying very hard not to open all of Chloe's presents.  She mostly succeeded.

I of course ate entirely too much ice cream and cake.  Mostly cake.  Being in charge of making cake from scratch and frosting from scratch.... well it was too much for me and I caved... a lot. Still, with getting in so much exercise I had hoped for a little better outcome, although my exercise and my curbed eating is probably the reason why I didn't gain three pounds this week like I have been the past two months-ish. 

I'm still practicing with doing my nails.  I have the hardest time keeping the polish off of my cuticles and the sides of my fingers making my cleanup take forever, and even then I still get it all over my cuticles.  Oh well, more practice.  Even though it's not perfect I love how they came out this time.  Red and Silver are my two favorite colors together (dark red and sparkley silver- probably the reason why I chose those as my wedding colors :-)

You can definitely tell I'm no professional ha!  But that is not the point.  The point is that I am really enjoying my new hobby and it is helping me to think about something other than food.  I found that pattern on Pinterest, I am not very good at coming up with these things by myself. 

This weekend we are headed up to the mountains to go skiing.  I used to love skiing until I turned 18 and my feet started to go numb.  I'm not sure if that is because I have poor circulation in my feet or if it is because at age 18 I crossed the threshold to being overweight.  But either way, I can only ski for about two hours before the pain is too much and I have to take my boots off.  Makes for a less than spectacular experience and with how expensive a lift ticket is, I just end up feeling guilty for even trying.  My father in law switched to snowboarding for his hips, and my sister switched to snowboarding for her knees.  I'm thinking about switching for my feet, the only problem being that I have all the ski equipment and I don't have any snowboarding equipment.  Also you can't really do moguls on a snowboard like you can on skis.  I want to try getting back into my healthy weight range and then go skiing to see if it helps my feet.  (Which is why I'm kicking myself in the butt for allowing myself to gain that weight, this could be my test run but as it is I am ten pounds away from my healthy weight range once again.)  Which I suppose brings this post full circle: back to feeling discouraged.  I'm trying not to focus too much on where I was but it is very hard not to have feelings of regret, and feelings of frustration that I have to do this yet again.  Keep plodding away, I'll get there eventually.

It's Too Hard

Such were the thoughts running through my head this morning.  I was thinking of how hard this past week has been.  It's been harder than I thought getting back into the routine of exercise and healthy eating.  I was having an imaginary conversation in my head with my husband in which he had asked me to clean the bathrooms today (which he had) and I just broke down and started sobbing.  I felt overwhelmed and exhausted.  I had spent 2 hours cleaning the kitchen and floors yesterday, I've been sick for over a week, the kids have been sick for over a week, we are all feeling cooped up, and I feel so stressed trying to not eat all the time, trying to eat good foods and not too much unhealthy foods.  Exercising is so hard right now, and I am sore everywhere.  In my head I broke down and cried "It's too hard!  Losing weight is too hard!"

How many of us have had this thought?  Probably daily if your anything like me.  Well guess what.  Weight Loss Is HARD!  It's mentally and physically exhausting.  Sometimes I just want to break down and cry, sometimes I want to scream in frustration.  Weight loss is hard, it's unfair, it's brutal, but it is possible for those who want it bad enough and the rewards outweigh the difficulties and trials of going through the process.  It's a trial by fire.  I'm not talking about the rewards of seeing a number on the scale or fitting into those size 2 jeans.  I'm talking about building confidence, character and self esteem.  I'm talking about having the energy to get through the day, improving your health, and really living your life.  In my imaginary conversation I was having after my desperate wail of "it's too hard" I started thinking of life before weight loss.  All I wanted to do was lie down on the couch.  I would take every opportunity to sit.  Every task was hard to do because I was tired all the time.  We have all been there.  We know what the before picture looks like.  Do you want to continue living that way?  What is more important to you?  Eating whatever you want whenever you want, or feeling better, feeling confident, and being proud of yourself for accomplishing something amazing. 

When I thought of where I used to be, my thoughts went from "It's too hard" to, "It's hard but it's worth it.  It's hard but I have to do it."  I may have had a hiccup in my weight loss journey, a phase I went through where I gained some weight back, but that doesn't make me a failure, that doesn't mean that I can't continue on and reach my goals.  It was a challenge that I had to overcome, an experience that has become a part of my weight loss journey, and many lessons learned.  Just because you have a setback doesn't mean you are out of the game.  We all think that as soon as we have a minor weight gain it's all over, but that is just not true.  We are in charge of our own lives, we choose what we will and will not do. 

Weight loss is not too hard, it's possible, and it's worth fighting for.

Week 1

This last week has been incredibly difficult for me.  Both of the girls have been sick with fevers and coughs.  They started getting sick last Sunday (a week ago) and they have gotten worse every single day.  I think Thursday and Friday were the worst, I wish I could say we are coming out of it now, but I am not sure, the kids seem as sick as ever today.  Chloe has it worse than Lily, Chloe sounds like a toad when she talks.  My flu shot last Monday made me feel horrible for the next three days.  My joints ached, my muscles had shooting pains throughout them, I felt weak and tired.  Ugh, totally not worth it.  If I'm going to feel awful for three days I might as well take my chances against the flu.  I have given the flu shot three tries and every single time I have felt horrible for several days afterwards.  Not worth it in my opinion.  So on Thursday when my flu shot after effects wore off, my body decided to get sick and I've been suffering with a head cold probably contracted from the kids.  At least no fever, but my throat was so sore two nights ago that I couldn't sleep.  I had to get up and drink some Chamomile tea.  Despite all this, I have been very active.  My weekly steps are 101,156 which is an average of about 15,000 steps per day!  I wasn't able to go the gym this last week because of the kids.  I did turbo fire a few times which worked my back and shoulder muscles and sent me into a new round of soreness.  I missed both of my planned body pump classes and I was planning on doing Chalean Extreme at home yesterday since I was going to miss body pump yet again but I didn't have the time or energy.  Yesterday we celebrated Chloe's 2nd birthday.  Not the best timing, but the kids still had a lot of fun even though they were not feeling the best.  Yesterday, without exercising, I got in over 17,000 steps which gives you a little insight to how busy I was.  I had to put up decorations, make a birthday cake, and frosting, clean the kitchen, sweep the floors, take down the Christmas tree, help put away the outside Christmas lights, play outside with Lily (it was sunny and it's supposed to be cold again for the next several days), and in the evening go to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for my Mother-In-Law since we are going to her birthday party today.  (her birthday is two days before Chloe's).  By the time I got home I felt simply awful and went right to bed.

I'm weighing in tomorrow morning.  Today is day 7 and the final day of the week.  I changed my weigh in day to Monday because when I weighed in on Sunday I always way overate on Sunday, so weighing in on Monday gives me some motivation to eat normally on Sunday, which is especially good since I move around the least on Sunday. I rarely hit 10k steps on Sunday.  Most of the time my steps are somewhere around 5k which is pretty pathetic.  So I'm redefining Sunday as not a junk food day.

My manicure stuff for my new hobby has started to arrive and I've been super excited about that this week.  I did my nails on Thursday:

and Mom's nails on Friday:

I'm doing my sister's nails on Monday.  I think they turned out great!  It's super fun, and social!  Well, I have to get back to my sick kids now, I've already pushed my time limit away from them writing this.  Cheers!

Day 3 and counting

Did anyone else have a hard time getting back on track for the new year?  I tried to start the week after Christmas and I did great all the way up until New Years Day and then the rest of the week was shot.  So Monday started day one again and now, I am so incredibly sore that I can't move without hurting.  I did a body pump class on Saturday and that was very difficult, and left me hardly able to move.  The kids got sick Sunday and were sick through today.  So I did my favorite Turbo Fire video (Fire 45) on Tuesday and my back is incredibly sore from that, adding to all the soreness from body pump and today I went to a CX core class followed by Zumba.  My weight was 158.6 at the beginning of the week (food weight), and now it is 155.6.  Hopefully for the last time.  I wish I could lose three pounds every week!  Not likely though.

I got a flu shot on Monday and have felt tired and weak ever since, although the weakness could be due to body pump.... but I fell asleep Monday night at 8pm and woke up at 7am and was groggy most of Tuesday.  I have been taking Emergen-C twice a day to boost my immune system since the kids have been sick and getting the flu shot leaves you vulnerable for the next few days until your immune system can catch up and process it.  The last thing I need is to get the flu.

Food has been going alright.  It has been hard to pull myself out of the funk I've been in the past three months.  It's so easy to just sit around and eat, and so much more effort to make myself actually go do something in the afternoon.  But I am determined to take my life back and get down to my goal weight.  My goal for this month is to get to 150 by Feb 1st.  That means I have a lot of work to do, and less time to do it in since I got off to a late start.  But I remain optimistic.

I have set up a three month exercise schedule for myself.  I seem to do better when I have a plan.  My father in law is buying me a wet suit for Christmas for our triathlon we are going to do together, so I definitely can't back out now.  I am supposed to do the running leg of the full triathlon we will be doing together in June (?) not sure of date.  He will do the swim, my husband the bike, and me the running.  Well that's just perfect, the running part of a full triathlon is a 10K.  I've never run more than a 5K, so I have a lot of work to do in that department.  I think the triathlon we will be doing together will be in August, which works great for me.  For the next three months I will be doing a 5 day workout: Monday-Body Pump, Tuesday- Body Attack (HIIT, Strength and cardio), Wednesday- CX and Zumba, Thursday-Rest, Friday-Zumba, Saturday- Body Pump, Sunday-Rest
Once the middle of April hits I will switch over to training for the 10K and adding some triathlon training in as well, I don't have all the details figured out yet.  But no later than May I have to start my three month training program for the triathlon.  Again, not figured out but we will get there.  The strength training and cardio will help a lot for the triathlon training, and once I run a 10K, doing the 5K for the sprint triathlon will be easy peasy, so I will be just focusing on swimming and biking instead of all three and that is a little more manageable.

I will have to get some running shoes as the shoes I have are cross training for Zumba and such.  I was reading on Katie's Blog about a shoe called Altra Zero Drop shoes which supposedly allows you to run in a more natural position, and it strengthens the muscles in your feet and lower legs preventing injuries.   I think I will get some of those shoes when I start my running training in three months.  They are expensive but then again, all good shoes are, and after hurting my foot last year at this time I don't mess around or complain about the price of good shoes anymore. 

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20 pounds to goal

So the damage is in: 155 pounds.  The holiday damage comes to a total of 12 pounds, three pounds under the national average of 15 pounds gained during the holiday season.  I have been thinking at where I would be happy staying at, and I have finally let go of being super thin.  I no longer feel a drive to become super skinny, I want to be happy, satisfied and strong.  My new goal is 135 pounds and around a size 6 instead of 121 and a size 4.  My goal this year is to go to Body Pump twice a week and then Zumba twice a week with CX (a 30 minute ab class) thrown in there before Zumba class on Wednesdays.  That is a well balanced workout schedule.  Two cardio and two weight lifting with an ab class as well.  As long as I can get my eating under control I should be set.  20 pounds to goal, lets finish this!

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