Ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges!....

Man, my face is so much thinner than when I started this journey. Wow.
I also have a neck now. I once had a high school English teacher who made fun of me. She used to say I was like Mike Tyson in that I had no neck. I suppose I went right from shoulders to head. Now I actually have a neck. Heh.
My muscles are becoming pretty well-developed.

Good stuff.

Next week's workouts....

I have three strikes against me for workouts next week:

First, my trainer will be on vacation next week, so I'll be on my own for workouts.
Second, they're re-finishing the gym floor, so that means no Tuesday and Thursday classes.
Third, they're closed on Friday due to Independence Day, so no Friday class nor a workout at all.


When I work out next week, I'll have to listen to music on my iPhone so I can concentrate on music whereas normally I listen to the TV and my trainer talk. I think finding some good music will get me thru. I want to try to up my jogging to 30 minutes straight at some point next week.

I could just work on jogging Tuesday and Thursday since I don't do weights those days anyway. Abby will be there those days, and she's a runner and is encouraging me to run a 1/2 marathon in August. She could give me some pointers, I'm sure.

Friday I could either skip working out that day or possibly go for a walk or jog on the bike trail. We'll see....

I forgot that we're thinking of playing Wally Ball a couple of times next week. We'll see how that goes!

Last night's weigh-in....

I weighed-in last night. I GAINED a pound. Yeah. I'm working out harder than before. Jogging more and more each time. Eating the same. It seems like when I come back to the gym on Monday after having the weekend off, I 've lost more weight and as the week goes on, the weight goes up. They're telling me that I need to eat more, like 100 calories more. I understand the logic, but it's hard. I don't know where to add the food. I'm full at dinner. I could stand to eat more for lunch or maybe my afternoon snack. But what do I add? I can already barely afford to eat what I'm eating now. In fact, I really CAN'T afford to eat what I eat now. It comes down to food or gas sometimes. Ugh.
It's only a pound.
Back to 213, I think. I forget.
Blah.

Today's workout....

So last Wednesday my trainer wanted me to better my time as far as jogging. My old longest time for jogging continuously at 6.5mph was 12 minutes. I decided to jog for 20 minutes last Wednesday and did so!
So today she wanted me to better my 20 minutes from last Wednesday. I decided to jog for 25 minutes today non-stop at 6.5mph. I warmed up with a three minute walk. I then put a towel over the display so I wouldn't fixate on the time and psych myself out. I looked at the time at about 22 minutes, not realizing that I didn't have 3 minutes to go, but instead 6 minutes to go due to my 3 minute warmup! My trainer told me I had a minute left before we realized I had 4 minutes left! Arg!
Oh well. I ended up making it 25 minutes without a problem! Hell yeah! I'm close to running a 5K!
Go me!

Last Thursday's weigh-in....

So I tried to blog at one point last week after the weigh-in Thursday, but Blogspot was down.
Anyway, I lost 1 pound last week. I have 12 more to go.

Eating more....

So I'm trying to increase my calories by a little bit this week. I think that with my jogging that I need to eat a bit more as I'm expending more energy and burning more calories. I also think it might help with my weight loss numbers (not that they're bad).
I'm adding the calories it in a healthy manner, of course. I also decided I should really try to eat more fruit as I only eat an apple a day, so I'm combining efforts. I've added half of a banana to my meal plan. That should increase my calories by 50 or so. I might even try to eat the other half of the banana in the evening when I have my almonds.
I ate the 1/2 banana with my lunch yesterday and was full after lunch. Bananas are very filling.

Today's workout yields new record....

So my trainer today wanted me to jog for longer than I have before. Meaning a longer continuous jog rather than those days where she has me do like 6 minutes then walk 1 and 5 and walk 1, etc. My old continuous jogging record was 12 minutes at 6.5mph. Today I decided I'd jog for 15 minutes to beat the old record. Part of me felt that 15 minutes wasn't enough. I covered the screen on the treadmill with my towel and told my trainer she could look at the screen occasionally to check my time. Once I hit 15 minutes, I decided to keep going.
I jogged for 20 minutes straight at 6.5mph the whole time!!! Not bad! 8 minutes longer than my previous best.
After about 30 seconds or less of walking at 3.5mph after the jogging, my heart rate was around 146 and dropping steadily. After 3 minutes of walking I checked it and my heart rate was all the way down at 116. My conditioning is really good right now. My heart rate drops fast as soon as I walk.
I'm really proud of my accomplishment! Who knew 103 pounds and 9 or so months ago that I'd be jogging for 20 minutes straight?!

Bye Bye Beardy....

I did it.
Yup.
No more beard.
I cut it off this morning before going to the gym.
I figured it was about time.
There will be some separation anxiety, sure, but it needed to go.
Please help me by telling me you like it if you see me....

Gifts from my aerobics class!....

So I got to the gym this morning and started jogging on the treadmill for 10 minutes after doing a warmup walk of 2 minutes. After the jogging I did a cool-down walk of 2 minutes.

While I was jogging, I noticed that some of my classmates were going behind the desk 2 at a time, but I could just see their heads from my vantage point. I had a quick thought that something was up but didn't give it much thought.

I then walked to the gym and there was a table w/ a giant card in an envelope with my name on it and a big bag. It then hit me that they had all gotten me gifts. I was a little embarrassed by it -- well, not embarrassed but surprised and had a feeling of 'they didn't need to do this!!!'.

I asked what the deal w/ the table was and they all gathered 'round and said that due to my losing 100 pounds, they each got me a gift having to do with '100'.

I got 100 calorie packs of Cheetos and of Oreo Candy Bites. I got 100 ounces of Propel Fitness Water w/ Lemon. A giant card. Some awesome dried fruit and 100 quarters!!! That's $25.00!!!

How awesome?!?!

Here's a pic:

Last night's weigh-in results....

So I weighed-in last night after work.
I lost 2.5 pounds. I'm now down 103 pounds total with 13 to go!

I think not having class Thursday was responsible for 1/2 pound or so. I could have worked harder on my own that day but didn't.

Saw a great play last night!

My friend Carrie Hardisty is in a play at the Des Moines Playhouse. It's called 'Leading Ladies'. Thank God for comp tickets! Thanks, Carrie!
I had no real idea what the show was about until I went to see it, but I'm glad I saw it. I laughed A LOT during the show! Her Marlon Brando impression was really funny!
It was a great cast, too!
If you have some time, go see it!

Today's workout....

Got to the gym today and our instructor for Tuesday and Thursday classes was gone. :(
No class today. I jogged for 10 minutes straight then walked for 2 then jogged for a couple more then walked another 7 or so.
I did some curls, too.
I wish we'd had class! Oh well.

We'll see how tonight's weigh-in goes....

New measurements....

My trainer, Deb, did my measurements today. Here they are:




I have lost 29.25" since the end of October. Imagine what that number would be had we done measurements when I was 316 (before the program started). Man am I proud! It's amazing what I've accomplished without surgery or fad diets. Just plain hard work and eating well! That's all it takes, people!!!

Need clothes sooo bad....

I need new clothes so bad. The new clothes that I bought recently still work, but they're getting too big now. I bought just like 3 or 4 shirts recently and a couple pairs of shorts. I bought them maybe 3 weeks ago or so. The timer motor on my washing machine broke recently and my roommate bought the new part. That was $50 (just my half) that I didn't have. My car insurance is due. My cell bill is due. My water bill is due. Gas/electricity is due the 20th. My car payment is due the 15th. I have about $50 in my account right now and I still need to buy gas and some groceries. I've been putting off getting a haircut because I can't really afford it.
UGH. It's the gas that's killing me. I really don't buy myself anything, so it's not that I'm being careless with my money. I don't buy needless groceries or junk food. I buy just what I eat daily and nothing extra. I wish I had money for some clothes. I need clothes. :(

Today's workout....

I jogged on the treadmill before step aerobics class today. I did 10 minutes straight of jogging with a 1 minute warmup walk before and about a one minute cool-down walk after. We then did 30 minutes of step and some abs and stretching.
Great workout. I was SOAKED when we were done. Part of it, I'm sure, was the humidity and part of it was working my a$$ off.

Ran in to some old friends over the weekend....

I ran into some old friends over the weekend. They all commented on how much weight I've lost and how I look like a different person. It's really flattering hearing things like that. It really makes you take stock and realize just how far you've come. You don't realize it because you see yourself daily and you look at how far you still have to go and you can tend to lose sight of how far you've come. I have really come a long way.

So I only had 4 beers over the weekend: 2 on Saturday night and 2 on Sunday. We'll see if this translates to the scale.

Today's workout....

I jogged for 5 minutes, walked 1, jogged 4, walked 1, jogged 3, walked 1, jogged 2, walked 1, and jogged faster for the last minute. The last minute I jogged at 8mph when I normally go 6.5mph. Total, I jogged 15 minutes. I then did 20 minutes on the cross-trainer before hitting the weights and then doing abs. That's about 42 minutes of cardio for the day. Pretty good!

Almost cut my beard off Saturday night....

I almost did the deed Saturday night.

This weekend I had a theatre competition (711 Theatre Project). My team was a non-compete as we were performing under the sponsoring theatre company and didn't think it'd be fair if we could win. Anyway, after the show (which we did really well) our cast was meeting up at Buzzard Billy's after showering. I went home, took a shower, grabbed a pair of scissors and my beard and almost cut it off but I couldn't do it. I called a friend and he talked me down. LOL

We'll see... maybe soon...

I weighed-in over lunch....

So due to having rehearsal right after work for the 711 Theatre Project, I weighed-in over lunch.
I'm back on track with my weightloss!

I lost 3 1/2 pounds this week!
I'm now down a total of 100 1/2 pounds!!!
I have another 15 1/2 pounds to go to get to my goal!

When I started this journey, I originally wanted to lose 100 pounds. As I started gathering speed, I realized I could really lose 100 pounds so I decided to lose 116 pounds so I could get down to 200 pounds. Well, I see I can easily do that now, so I'm about to dial in my next goal. I'm thinking getting down to 180 pounds would be good for my frame. We'll see....

Go me!

More old pics of me....

So here are some more old pics of me. The last ones were from 2006. These are from sometime in the 2004-2005 season of Theater for a Change when I was Daisy Dingleberry in 'Baby With The Bathwater'. God I was huge. Now you know WHY I grew the beard! That's an ugly mug!!!

Man, I never want to be that big ever again!

Might cut my beard off soon....

So I've been growing my beard since the end of December 2006. I played Milt Fields in the Neil Simon play 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor' and couldn't have a beard. I had to grow a mustache and slick my hair back.

Here are some publicity photos for the show. I was massive! I was probably at my heaviest here -- 316 pounds:

I started growing my beard back the day of the last show. I haven't trimmed the length any since then. It's probably 9+ inches long. It used to be useful for covering up the chins, but I think they're all gone now. I think it's about time to get rid of the beard. I'm not sure if Channel 13 is still working on the makeover or not. I want to wait to cut it off for if/when they do a makeover segment. It'd make it that much more dramatic.

I'm not going to go completely sans beard, I don't think. I'll probably trim the beard down to one short length like the rest of the beard is. We'll see... I'm kinda antsy to do it, really. Maybe I'll donate it to Locks of Love for children who can't grow beards! HA :)

What do you think? Beard or no beard?? Leave me some cooments....

Today's workout....

Thursday is always body-sculpting class (dumbbells).
Today I did the majority of the exercises with the 10lb dumbbells. Like I said last time, that doesn't sound like much, but we're doing so many reps that it ends up feeling like a LOT. The 10's are the heaviest that we have for body-sculpting. Abby, our instructor, didn't seem to think I was going to be able to do it, but I did!
Some of the exercises you double up both weights in one hand, such as with curls. I was able to curl with 20lbs w/out any trouble.

Weigh-in later today. Stay tuned for results....

Compliment today at the gym....

So I was lifting weights today at the gym after doing my cardio. This guy whom I normally see Monday mornings whom works at the hospital came up to me and said, "Hey. I can really see a huge difference in you. Not just in your weightloss, but in your muscle definition; you can really see all of the hard work paying off!"
Those little comments from strangers help keep me going! Those and the ones from friends as well!
He's right, too. I can really see muscle definition coming thru. :)