OUCH! MY THIGHS!

So I still hurt. If it's possible I hurt more today than yesterday! I guess that means I'm not swinging bells today, unless I want to be crippled! But, the good news is that I am down again - 223.2. YES! That rocks.

Last night was the auction dinner. I has 3 glasses of wine, which was over, and I had cheese, which I'm allergic to and is not allowed in the plan. But I still showed a loss this morning. Not in the eczema department, though. There I'm showing a GAIN (rash on my leg this morning - ugh). Food allergies drive me crazy! It's something you've eaten all your life until one day..... your skin looks horrible and they point to the food you love the most. Suckage. Well, I'll just keep on keeping on.

I have one more weigh in before cheat day. Very excited. Going to do a good job of tracking protein grams and water today - this ALWAYS helps produce a loss for me. I do wish I could work out today, but I believe more harm than good would come of that. Although I should stretch. Yep - need to stretch.

That's it for now. Hope you guys are rockin' it!

Hells Bells!

So, for the update - 224.0. Officially .4 pounds lighter than last week and two more weigh in day before cheat day. I may lose, but I may gain, too, because I am starting to pump myself up with kettle bell swings. YOWZA!! I did 85 of those little swings yesterday and I thought, "This can't be it. I mean really?" I was sure that I wouldn't be sore today. WRONG! Totally sore, but not crippled by it - not deterred. I will definitely do another set when the pain subsides. It's supposed to only take two sets of 75 swings a week to get buff! There was a lady in that pdf manual I sent around yesterday who was heavier than me and lost 45 pounds in 12 weeks and 100+ pounds overall and all she did was those kettle bell swings!! Can you believe that?!? I guess it all comes down to having more muscle to burn the calories and all that. But since muscle weighs more than fat I may gain again before I lose. Can definitely tell that I did something for sure!

I have to go to an auction for my kids' school tonight at an ITALIAN RESTAURANT!! Guess who's going to be filling up on antipasto? Moi, of course. AND and my two glasses of red (: That I can have.

I'm glad this is working. I'm glad the workouts are that easy and all I have to do is eat certain foods during the week and work out only twice if I want to and that's it. I love cheat day (just two short days away - sigh), and I never pig out on those days. I really don't. I have all these fantastic ideas about pigging and and then I get there and it's like it takes awhile for my stomach to want to sign onto that. Last week I bought Mighty O doughnuts for cheat day and I didn't really enjoy them. I did, however, promise the girls that we'd have pie for breakfast on Saturday, since I had to make a pie for their school auction and none of us got to eat it. I think Dutch apple pie - always my super favorite!

OK - gotta clean and get dolled up. Bye bye!

Results Totally Typical?!?

I have stayed @ 225.4 for 2 days, but this is not shocking at all. I think that the cheat day does good things for me psychologically and physically and it takes at least two days for the effects to subside. Then I lose weight. Last week I lost over 2 pounds - almost three. That was after a 7 pound loss on the first week. I haven't heard of anyone continuing that for weeks, and it seems like even under doctor supervision to be a bad idea to lose that much weight that fast.

I'm reading the pdf document of the prescribed workout in this plan. I'm not seeing any cardio here. I'm only seeing strength exercises - mostly Russian kettle bells (we have those - THANKS ANDREA!!). That jives with how I have experienced weight loss post-babies. Cardio alone definitely doesn't work. Even doing cardio plus circuit training was not having an effect on calorie counting for me. But this is working. And now with careful planning I will add another layer to my efforts for an added effect! I'm excited. I know I can do what he's asking here. If anyone wants a copy of the prescribed workout write me and I'll shoot you a pdf copy. I have never worked 1 on 1 with a personal trainer before but what he's describing seems simple and effective. And not necessarily easy - just short and to the point. That's encouraging.

I put on a pair of pants today that I haven't been able to wear for MONTHS! They were so ugly when I put them on it was totally live putting toothpaste back in the tube and it was oozing out the top everywhere - icky. Now I'm sitting comfortably in these pants just writing an email and they are not cutting into me at all! I think my measurements are going down faster than my weight. Tim, the author, says many times that this would be the case often. I need to remeasure myself. I did a waist measurement at the beginning of the Mind Body Program that I started at Jole's work and I know that my waist has gone down at least 2 inches since I started. Pretty cool.

OK - have SO MUCH work to do (always) so I have to go. Love you guys!

No blog = good blog

I haven't been writing since a) we've been very busy in a very good way, and b) I hit a 10 pound loss on Saturday morning - what a great way to start cheat day (224.4). This morning it's obvious that I'm still carrying quite a bit of retained water from cheat day (227.4), but this is predicted and expected in the 4 Hour Body. Some people retain as much as 8 pounds of water for 48 hours after your prescribed cheat. But MAN do I feel better already. My clothes fit better, I'm feeling more slender and have increased..... energy. That it, energy (:

Today is busy. The HOT TUB GUY IS HERE!!!! And he's designing a more efficient way to bring the hot tub back into all our lives, sports fans!!! YIPPEE!!!!! Thanks, honey, for making that possible (that's to Jole). I'm very excited. That tub has been closed up for over a year, so I'm ready for the hot tubbing to commence!

Now, for my next psychological barrier - 220. I said at the beginning that I won't believe it's real until I'm under 220. And I also have a goal on top of that to reach 218 (which is the 16 pound loss that I wanted to reach before the climb). Things are moving so fast I feel like that might be only 2 weeks away!

I may also pick up the Amen Solution, which is an approach to weight loss and overall health which was developed by Dr. Daniel Amen, and for someone like me who has issues with brain function anyway (diagnosed ADD) then this makes a lot of sense to me. I have to say that since I've started overall taking better care of myself mentally, physically, and spiritually, things have improved a lot! And I hope to keep the good times rolling - so proud of myself, no matter what happens to my weight.

One of the tips that I'm already using from the Amen Solution are the supplements that increase brain function. Must note that my mom already told me these were effective before I even saw Dr Amen's brain research (my mom is so smart):

B Complex 50mg
DHEA - I'm taking 25mg but my mom only takes 10mg in time release
Omega 3 fish oil 1000mg
A daily multivitamin (I'm taking a Safeway prenatal which is working for me right now)

Now, here's the disclaimer - DON'T DO ANYTHING UNLESS YOU TALK TO A DOCTOR! I'm not a friggin' doctor, people. So if you want to use any of these supplements you should talk to a doctor first. Also note that DHEA SHOULD NOT be taken by pregnant women or women who are trying to become pregnant or breastfeeding women, so don't do eeet!!!

OK - I think I've filled your heads with enough useless information for now (: See ya later!

LOVE IT!!

So many good things!! First, 225.8 - yip yip!! SO CLOSE to my 10 pound goal - SO CLOSE! Next, had a kick butt guided meditation yesterday that flipped me upside down and shook out my pockets. Truly - I came up and felt like I had been filled with warm goodness from the bottom to the top for the very first time in my life. No kidding. Totally amazing. So many revelations and so much joy. It is just outstanding. And I obviously STILL feel that way this morning. I am very blessed. Didn't get to do my stretches this morning. Nut I will get to it.

The whole family is going to the Elks Club tonight - so so excited to go out as a family on a Friday night. It's been ions since we've got to do that.

Can I just say that I am uncomfortable with being so happy. Grin.

Gotta get ready to go to school with the kids, but one thing I wanted to pass to folks - if you're into "whoo whoo" spirituality you should check out this series of speakers. It's FREE and it's where I got my guided meditation yesterday. Truly exciting stuff from the whoo whoo crowd: www.healingwiththemasters.com. It rocked me yesterday - no kidding whatsoever.

xoxo,

Benni

Still going down

226.4 - down .4 pounds from yesterday. Still that's not like last week at all. I know there are two things that I did yesterday that could have cause me to plateau - I worked out and I had more than two glasses of red wine @ Top Model with my friends. But, I'm back on it and more determined than ever to keep it going. At LEAST the scale is going down. That is good. Still, Saturday is my cheat day and I would like to maybe get to my first goal before then. Today is Thursday so we have time.

I am feeling better about the other stuff, too. Turning more over to the universe to solve, being more positive, taking care of myself. This stuff is all important. Talking to my friends and my sponsor helps a lot! And gives me perspective on my journey as a whole. I love hanging out with my friends, but it makes for a longgg night. Yawn.

Anyway, hope everyone is set to have a wonderful day! You're my peeps!

Getting My Emotional Ass Handed to Me and Other Wonders...

There is stuff that just sets me off. I have an itchy trigger finger in certain areas in my life - still. I have been working on cranking down this itchy trigger finger for years and years and years, and every time I have a moment where I am less than perfect at controlling it, I get really down. "This will never change." "I'm an emotional cripple." "It will always be like this." I always wanna eat when that stuff happens. Eating is so friendly and grounding.

Well, my trigger finger went off last night. And when I went for spiritual guidance, it went like this: "You have some choices to make about how you wanna react to shit and that's about the size of it. Now get out there and get busy."

It sucks being reactive. It's such a hard thing to shake. It literally takes practice, which I am going to have to commit to. I need to commit to practicing control over my reactions, or once this thing is over, I will turn to high carb foods to ward off the sadness that comes from being so fricking human.

I know exactly where I get it from, and that doesn't keep me from doing it. So I am just going to have to practice not doing that!!!! Ugh. to be continued....

Also - DON'T EAT YAMS if you are on this diet, says the woman who just ate about a 1/2 cup of yams with her meal. I'm sure it will be OK in the broad spectrum of things and I won't notice a huge hit to my weight loss, but I wondered if those sweet little boogers weren't verboten, and it turns out they are. Strike 2 for the day.....

BTW - weigh in today = 228.6, a whole .2 pounds loss from yesterday. NO YAMS!

Also, I thought that this might be a good place to put the rules of what to look at when you plateau on this plan. If you look at these things and address them you are supposed to continue losing weight:

- not eating within a 1/2 of waking.

- not eating enough protein.

- Not drinking enough water.

- Not strictly adhering to the diet.

- Changes with your cycle

- Domino foods

– Artificial sweeteners

- Over exercising

The things that might be an issue for me are the YAMS, I need new salsa because mine has fruit in it (must have subconsciously wanted fruit when I picked it up, although I put on just enough for flavor - a very small amount), and the water thing. I could also eat a bit more food. I haven't been very hungry so I have been eating my three meals a day and that's it. No snacks or anything.

Well, tomorrow is another day. I will be working out today but nothing too strenuous.

See ya.