some motivation

I love this quote.

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."
~Robert Collier

Now go make it a good day.

Moving along

It's Tuesday November 1st and I went to the gym tonight! Yeehaw! It was awesome and I burned almost 500 calories according to the treadmill (which isn't always accurate, but I did put my weight and age in so maybe it was more accurate than not).  :)

I also finally tried on the size 10 jeans that I want to fit into last night. I got them up and of course they were super tight, but I could not even zip them in the slightest. So that's how they fit. I don't know how I'm supposed to take a picture though, there's no way that I'll be able to put on a pair of shorts underneath them to show you how they fit. I guess I could make a drawing for you.... Hmmm. Maybe I can just keep telling you how they fit for now.

Alyson, did you find your smaller jeans yet? Are you going to share any recipes with us yet? What strides have you made so far? Please fill us in. :)

Jenn*

Day 3!!

I went again! Man I feel powerful! I almost didn't go because some friends stopped by and the kids needed stuff, but Brett told me I needed to go. So I did! :) I feel great plus I burned 500+ calories. Not too shabby, eh? :)

What healthy strides have you made today?

Jenn!

I went!

I made it to the gym for the second night in a row! Wahoo! I'm seriously thinking of putting up a counter to keep track of many days in a row I work out. That would be sweet! (on Sunday's I stretch and do crunches and pushups.

See you tomorrow. Need to start posting menus and my before pics still. :)

Jenn!

The Eat-Clean Diet and a Revelation

Yesterday I went to the bookstore. I had five minutes to find the book I wanted and check out, or I would be late picking up Logan from school. I ran in and because I tend to go overboard, I bought four books; all of them by Tosca Reno.

Now, you may be asking "Alyson, I thought you were a Body-For-Lifer?" but I have recently come to the following conclusion: Body For Life gives too much leniency. It substitutes margarine for butter, and other things that I am ready to take out of my diet (pudding, bread). I have done research on this subject, and realized that I want to be a clean eater. A clean eater is someone who still eats lean meat, but there is absolutely NO processed foods involved. AWESOME! I am no vegan.

Now for the revelation. In the past I have let myself believe that I only would have to eat this way and exercise for 12 weeks, at which point I would go into maintenance mode/aka: not exercising and cheating all I wanted.

Whoah! It hit me that I should probably just make a life-style change and incorporate all this stuff into my normal daily routines. Duh! I have to ask myself why would I want to go to all that work, only to let myself get out of shape all over again. The point is to get healthy and STAY healthy! Why would I want to buy all new clothes (Come on size 4!) only to grow out of them in six months. HAHA! Okay, I really see my silliness now.

And the books? AWESOME! I am so overly motivated right now!

Alyson

I did it!

I went to the gym tonite at 8:00 like I said I would! Wahooo! I stayed on the treadmill doing inclines and varying speeds for one hour! Yes I did! Woot woot! :) I feel awesome and can't wait to go back tomorrow night at 8:00. :)

Jenn!

One more quick thing

I just wanted to say that although I previously have written longer posts that's not the idea. I will try to keep my posts short and sweet and to the point; unless I feel a need to go longer. Just thought I'd let you know. :)

Jenn!

Hello again!

It's Sunday. It's late afternoon. The kids are doing the dishes. I just finished helping my son make homemade Oreos for a fireside treat (quick because they use a cake mix) but really unhealthy because they have shortening in them.

I admit that I didn't come back on Saturday to report in for my workout. Let's just say that the mind was willing but the flesh was weak. Haha I didn't get my workout in. That's bad. I did try to drink lots of water. And I worked on photography a bit. That's good.

Today I sang with the primary kids all of the songs we are singing in our program. My voice was hoarse after both sessions of that. That's a lot of singing! Plus I bet I burned a lot of calories. :) That's good. Then I came home and
made cookies and didn't have any . . . Until I was all done. That's bad.

You wanna the positive side of this? There's always tomorrow! I am glad that I can even make good choices the rest of the day.

I sure hope Alyson reports in here soon. I am waiting for her to update herself in the pages above. And for her to make any changes to our blog that she needs to. This is a blog for both of us. Well I will be posting tomorrow with awesome news. I am excited to get my workout groove on this week. :) also I will be posting before and after pics soon (today or tomorrow) watch for all of that! :)

Jenn!

Possibilities

I heart possibilities. This week I told my husband that I wanted to give him my weight loss as my Christmas present to him. I thought he'd roll his eyes or say "no way, I have something else I really want", but he agreed. Okay I'll be honest, first I told him the only thing I want this year for Christmas was for him to reach his goal weight. I just thought that it would be really motivating for him, plus I figured the fact that I would get really close to, if not reach, my goal weight would be an awesome Christmas present for him. His eyes lit up and he got all excited for a minute, then he reached over and put his arms around me and said, "Wow! Yeah, that would be great!" I'm not sure, but he could be more excited for how I will look than for my health, but whatever. :) I am excited for both, so I can't be too hard on him.

The humor:
I am really great at coming up with motivational ideas for weight loss. It's just the following through that gets to me. It's kind of funny if you think about it.

Once I recorded workouts on a calendar and paid myself a dollar a day to work out. Every day I worked out I earned a dollar, but if I missed a day then I lost all the money I had made to that point. I could only get paid for it every 3 months. Genius huh?! Until we didn't have any extra money to "pay me" and then I lost my motivation. I worked out I think over 100 days in a row. Pretty awesome huh? I was excited that I had been so consistent and besides that I felt great!

The reality:Working out gives you such a great feeling of euphoria though. But as a mom of 5 sometimes the confusion and business of the day gets to me and I just don't make time to exercise. My husband has even told me to go to the gym after we get the kids in bed and I have once or twice. But by the time I get home it's time to go to bed and I'm extra tired and don't have a lot of time for my husband. And then I'm up later than I would be if I hadn't gone to the gym and yet I still have to get all the kids up at 6:00. And then I think: is it worth it? And my tired body wins out. Why? I know it's worth it, I need to just get to the gym anyway, or even go for a walk around the neighborhood, or do p90x. There are no excuses!

And yet it seems I have lots of them. Does that mean I am the Queen of Excuses? Yes! Finally I am the official Queen of something. haha

So though it's late at night I promise that tomorrow I will not have any excuses to not workout. I will just go do it and then I will check in here. See you tomorrow! Can't wait!

Jenn