Motivation To Move Community

Beks78 2010 Pregnancy Journal

2010-01-13T16:51:45-05:00

I’m 5’3” @ 127 lbs, I’ve been an MTMer for the last 2 years and have lost 10 lbs and 2 pant sizes. I’m at the gym 4-5x per week and my eating has steadily improved as my fitness has. It’s been an incredible journey and my husband has taken the cue and lost 20 lbs!

Just before Christmas I found out I’m pregnant! WooHoo! We couldn’t be more psyched - it’s taken 1 miscarriage and 2 years to get to this point. We’re definitely excited and blessed.

The week of Christmas I was at the gym 4 times - my heart rate was really high so I just scaled the cardio back some but I thought - “yah man, I can do this pregnancy thing! I rock!”

I’m 8 weeks now though and I could use some encouragement. I made it to the gym 2x last week and had great workouts but I was exhausted the next day. And the “morning” (it happens multiple times throughout the day) sickness is bad. I eat a little bit every hour but I’m having to use a timer this week to keep me moving just a tiny bit. Like, set the timer and do some chores - set the timer and sit - repeat.

I know that this is completely normal and that this stage should pass soon but I’m a “get up at go” and “pull my bootstraps up” kinda gal so it’s been tough not beating myself up not getting to the gym or eating enough calories.

So, I thought I’d make a commitment to post here to remind myself of the difference that Scott talked about this week between focus and energy. My focus is to be a fit, happy, healthy, pregnant wife yet my energy is going into making a baby. As long as I keep my focus my energy will return and I’ll get back on track in no time.

Today I walked the dog for 10 minutes.
I’ve kept down: 1 slice Ezekiel bread with 1 Tbsp almond butter and 1 tsp. honey, 1 cup tea with milk and 1 tsp. sugar, 1/3 c. cottage cheese, 1 package apple-cinnamon oatmeal, 1 mug peppermint tea, small spinach salad, 1/2 chicken breast

Judy’s Journey Away from Decay

2009-02-26T10:08:14-05:00

Okay, so I figured it was time to jump in here and start my own little accountability journal to log my progress on this journey which has taken me a great portion of my adult life to even begin. I figure if I have a place to keep up with my journey, it may give me more of a reason to stick with it this time. Oh yes, there have been many failed attempts along my path, but thanks to MTM, I am beginning to really find the motivation that I have lacked for so long. Lacked? Heck, I couldn’t even FIND it—much less use it.

In my younger days, I was pretty athletic and active. Except for a year-long stint in the gym around 15 years ago, I haven’t been active since my childhood, and I’m beginning to feel the effects.

Today is Thursday, February 26, 2009. I have been listening to the iTunes MTM podcasts for a few weeks and decided to take the plunge into premium membership about a week ago. As I mentioned in my intro post, I just turned 50 in January and have packed on 30 extra pounds due to my sedentary lifestyle, my crummy eating habits, the menopause monster, and my two failed attempts to quit smoking (made it 8 months once and 3 months another time). I am 5 feet 2 inches and feel every single extra pound like it was five.

I feel yucky, am losing my flexibility, balance, and zest for life. My body hurts, and I have no energy. It has become a struggle to get through the day, and I don’t like who I have become at all. While people tell me all the time that I “look great for 50,” I maintain that clothes are a wonderful thing, and I know I could look and feel much better. I have dreamed of it off and on for years. I don’t want to feel this way any longer, so here I am.

So, where am I today in this journey? I downloaded the Start Moving-Stay Moving program and have been listening to it for a few days to get an idea of where I’m heading. (Yep. Listening without moving right now—mostly in the car while driving). Last night, I started designing and putting into a Word document a workout routine for the resistance part of my workouts. That’s going to take a little bit of time, as I’m building in alternate methods (i.e., weights, resistance band, Swiss ball—as well as pictures showing each actual exercise). In all actuality, this will probably be a work in progress as I move through different fitness levels, but I wanted to get a start so I had something to look at until it becomes natural to me.

I have a Tony Little Gazelle at home, and I crawled on it yesterday morning. I stayed on it for 10 minutes, mostly just in warm-up phase. But, for me, that was a big step. I have spent many a morning saying I was going to crawl on the Gazelle (or the “Beast” as I affectionately call it) and have never done it. While I could have done more (I’m actually in fairly good health surprisingly), I wanted to take a few days to ease into this whole thing. This morning, I got on again and stayed on for a little over 20 minutes—going through my warm-up phase and actually feeling my body go into fat burning mode. While that is probably very routine for most of you, it surely isn’t for me, and it was actually kind of cool.

So, for right now, I’m in prep mode. My plan is to really start the SMSM program this upcoming Monday—beginning to re-listen to the first program and listen as the program as laid out daily.

It’s now time for me to go to work (my job that pays). But, here’s my first entry on my Journey Away from Decay!

So, here I am. That’s my story and my plan.

Paula’s 9 Lives in Cat Years

2007-02-22T00:32:41-05:00

I’ve never had much luck with journals (I know, luck has nothing to do with it) but I’m finally going to start one here. It’s not so much a daily journal, that’s over on the 100 day exercise forum, but it will be a place for me to share ‘Ah ha’ Moments, thoughts, and times of confusion.

I had an Ah Ha moment today - It was a realization that the laws of attraction really work.

I rent half of a duplex in Lafayette California. I’ve really been grateful to live in a place that is convenient, light, and essentially perfect for me. Last December I was told that the property was for sale. There was no way I could afford to buy the property (real estate prices are out of sight here), so what do do? Of course I went through the spin cycle - what’s going to happen, where do I go - AAK!! I could be difficult, make it hard to show the property, but what would that accomplish. Probably more stress for me, certainly more stress for B_.

My choice was to help my land lady show and sell the property to a new owner who would continue to rent to me. It was inconvenient at times to have people walking through, but I was also selling myself as a tenant so why not. I cleaned and kept the place looking great, stayed positive, grateful for the view, my orchid corner and the time I had here. The real estate agent was amazed and said he never had as much cooperation from a tenant in a sale before. Today, I got the news, I have a new landlady - the property was sold and I will be able to stay. Was the outcome influenced by my attitude - I think it was. The laws of attraction, gratitude, positive attitude, and getting what you give at work.

B_ gave me a gift card for the Gratitude Cafe - yes there really is such a place, in Berkeley California - as a thank you for helping her with the sale. How fitting.

Here is a picture of my living room and orchid corner. Home

Feeling Old for the first time and hating it

2010-01-04T21:39:09-05:00

I was skiing in Colorado with my son this past week. Even though I have been working out regularly for the past year the 40+ extra pounds I have been carrying have really caught up with me. I am 54 and for the first time in my life my age / fitness level I had to admit to my 15 year old that I could not keep up. I HATED THAT. I failed my son by forcing him to scale back his skiing to keep back with the old man.

I won’t do this again. I lost almost 40 pounds in the past 18 months and put 24 back in the past 8. Things need to change. I will not be a drag on my son again (at least not for a while).

I’ll let you all know how I am doing.

Jeff

Joan’s Journal

2007-12-02T01:04:59-05:00

I’ve been resisting creating a journal because for me it seemed easier to put everything in one place but I didn’t want to put my ramblings about our vacation in the middle of the 100 Days of Exercise, so here’s the journal. We’ll see what comes of this split.

Our trip to Israel and Jordan was incredible. I experienced a “click” many times, some of them embarrassing because they were things I should have known ahead of time.

We never would have gone except for my desire to see a woman I’ve been talking to on the phone for 3 years and her son’s encouragement when he was here last December. When he called from Boston on his way home and told me “next year in Jerusalem is not just a saying” I decided I would take him seriously.

My husband was less enthusiastic about the trip beforehand but he’s been telling everyone what a great trip it was. And many have asked me if I felt safe. I did although I was aware of the part of the world we were in.

We flew EL AL, the Israeli airline because of it’s reputation for security and we did get questioned multiple times. The flight was uneventful.

Our first night was in Tel Aviv so we could decompress. The evening temperature was in the high 60s to mid 70s so we had a delightful walk a few blocks from our hotel on the Mediterranean coast to a business district. We ended up having sandwiches for dinner at an outdoor cafe. That was quite a change from the 35 degree weather we experienced on our way to the Newark airport. The fashions in the store windows were “high” fashion. I don’t know who would wear them. . . .

Click #1: With all the news about the conflicts in Israel, it never dawned on me that it bordered the Mediterranean just like Italy, Greece, etc. Duh. There was a marina filled with sail boats directly behind our hotel.

Our second two nights were spent on a kibbutz visiting the woman I had been talking to. Her husband was a relative of my elderly colleague whose condition made my husband and me get more serious about our physical fitness. Anyway, I knew that the settlers in the various kibbutz around Israel had made remarkable changes in the environment and that they had a communal way of life but neither of those concepts was really real to me. The woman who got there around 1949 showed me a barren patch of ground and said that that was the way the whole place looked to begin with. Now there are all sorts of plants and she has a small garden around her house. They use underground drip lines to make the best use of the sparse rainfall. They discovered that one of the better crops for them was bananas. In the long run the experimental communal living didn’t work because of the lack of incentive so now the system has been modified.

When the kibbutz was built, the residents were glad for the protection of its being next to an air force base. Now some complain about the noise. I jumped the first time that two jets took off overhead because I worried that something was happening. The woman said if it was routine, there would be two more jets--and there were. We heard the jets multiple times while we were there. This kibbutz is not that far from the Gaza Strip.

Click #2: How different it must be to have the noise from fighter pilots be a comfort as well as a concern and how hard it must be to be on alert 24/7 for decade after decade.

However, at least one inhabitant of the kibbutz seemed totally undisturbed by the jet noise!

to be continued. . . .

LJ’s Journey 2010

2010-01-02T13:11:02-05:00

Today is January 2, 2010. Happy New Year.

I will journal my food intake for all to see. It is currently 11:15 am - I haven’t eaten anything yet because the lazy bones just woke up. I love Saturday’s and I think I have finally converted to standard time. Monday morning is going to be UGLY!

I’m getting married!! OMG!

2010-01-04T15:17:44-05:00

I got engaged on Christmas Eve and we’ve set the date for March 12th, 2011! That leaves me about 14 months to get to my perfect wedding body, well actually 12-13 months because of alterations and whatnot
Today was the first day so far and I’m going to try to post things here but I’m trying to track the details here: http://somesitophobia.blogspot.com/ because it seemed to work for me the first time I tried to lose the weight!
From looking back on my old posts on that site (first posts were in February of 2005), I noticed that I tended to be really hard on myself and since doing the Mastermind program with Scott, I’m going to try to be much more positive this time around!

Every morning (and probably throughout the days in the beginning!), I will remind myself WHY I am doing what I am doing and that is:
-I am a joyful, athletic, confident, intelligent person (it spells Jaci, which is my name!)
-At my wedding, I will be all those things and it will show in every picture from every angle!
-After the wedding, I will be all those things with my husband (It still tickles when I say that word in reference to myself! Cool!) in a bikini on our honeymoon and beyond!

If I keep myself focused on those goals, I know I can get back into shape!
So far (this being day 1) it’s been tough because I’m really sick (really bad cold) and I have no voice so I’m just concentrating on what I’m eating today and planning meals for the rest of the week.

Wish me luck! I’ll try to post pictures and stuff when I can!

-Jaci

Stuck in a good place?

2009-11-11T11:49:05-05:00

I am stuck, stuck, stuck! But in a kind of good place. I have listened to MTM for long enough to begin to guess why, but it doesn’t seem to be getting me from realization to change.

I lost 20 lbs over a year ago and really upped both the intensity and amount of my exercise. I have built a lot of muscle, feel strong. Not bad for a 58 year old. I’ve learned to recover after “life gets in the way” and simply carry on, both eating well and getting back to the exercise. I have managed to pretty easily maintain my weight over the year, not regaining anything.

This is all good. But, I still have another 20 lbs to lose. (Trying to get off the cholesterol med and keep from taking blood pressure meds...have a lousy family history). And I can’t seem to get anywhere. I weigh myself every morning and I am gaining and losing the same two pounds...forever.

Something’s gotta give! I know that part of the problem might be that I feel pretty good where I am. I try to keep tweaking here and there and changing things up. I dutifully track what I eat. I have a sneaking suspicion that lots more cardio might help...bleh. Get rid of all carbs? Stop drinking any alcohol? Don’t eat anything after dinner? It seems I have all the answers, but how do I get myself to move?

Josette’s Journal - 2009

2008-09-23T08:30:04-05:00

Yeah, I know it’s almost over… but I was updating 2007, which seems silly in retrospect.

Hello 2008 Journal (and MTM land),

I’m sorry I haven’t visited you quite so often as I should
And that I ate anything and everything that didn’t taste like wood

Stress eating is a crutch that I know too well
I was on the health wagon, and boom! Yep, I fell

My pants they got tighter, my shirts - they did too
I had to go up a size (boo-hoo!)

But luckily I didn’t toss them all away
(I guess I was subconsciously anticipating this day)

My closet is bulging, with many a different size
My pride is wounded, my private demise

A child even asked if I was expecting the stork!
(No sweetheart, she did that with a knife and fork)

But I am not grounded, just following old patterns
and once upon a time, they served me well
It’s time to get moving, clean out my mind caverns
and fill them with something besides sight and smell

A sixty-pound loss seemed so small at the time
when I thought of the weight that I had left to lose
But it’s not about when - or how much - but why (nope, no rhyme)
And that every outcome I experience is the one that I choose

I’m moving…
I’m 305.4 pounds… dang it!
And I choose to stand up, take a step, and repeat…
And I will reach my destination…

Not worried about when… or how… but why I want this to happen…

What I want
Why I want it
Who I want it for (me!)

Let’s see what’s around the bend. There’s a pair of pants that I fit a year ago that are too tight now… and now, that’s my goal.

Till then - thank goodness for SPANX!!!

Have a good one!

Deb’s Journey

2006-04-17T17:02:57-05:00

This last week I’ve had two breakthroughs, so I thought I’d start my journal to keep track of both breakthroughs and regular run-of-the-mill progress.

My first breakthrough, a physical one, came on Wednesday. I had just finished my yoga and was resting in corpse pose. After finishing I rolled over to my hands and knees and proceeded to get up, which is, generally, well, just plain hard work. This time I could feel muscles in both my arms and legs answering my call and being stronger than usual, and it was easier to rise. It was like I was remembering that getting up off the floor wasn’t that big of a deal! I was happy in the moment, and even more hopeful that this ease is going to become the norm rather than the exception as I continue strengthening my muscles and losing weight.

My second breakthrough, a psychological one, came on Easter. We went to a friend’s house and our host, who knew of my “diet” must have asked me a dozen times if I wanted any dessert. I simply said, “No, thank you.”, and I really meant it! There was also a bowl of chocolate on the table, and not once did I even think about taking a piece! I found this incredible! Last year I probably would have had 2 or 3 desserts and more than several pieces of candy. It was a mindblowing and freeing experience. Once again, I am hopeful this is now my normal behavior.

I’ve lost 9 pounds so far and I am energized and motivated to continue on.