ten miles but no magic

Yesterday I went TEN MILES on the stationary bike at the YMCA. Wow. I wow myself.

I did the Dragon Chase game, my favorite thing to do these days [work out wise, I mean. Hee-hee]. I went 5.85 miles on the bike while playing the game. [It is a simple concept; you collect a green coin and then find a green dragon. Each color is a different amount of points. The more dragons you collect, the higher your points. And, consequently, you end up bicycling miles and miles.]

After pushing myself to go 5.85 miles in 20 minutes, I decided to try another one of the "bike trails" program the preppy new bike offers. I did a route that was four miles. Made it just under 20 minutes. [Then, just to hit ten miles total, I biked about .15th of a mile.]

I can hardly believe that ME, the fat girl, can accomplish such a feat. Heck, I weigh 264 pounds!! [Last we checked, hopefully, it's less than that now.... We'll find out Monday!!]

After riding for 10 miles, I felt like a skinny girl. A fit girl. A sexy girl.

Then, I looked in the mirror. Not a skinny girl. Not a fit girl. Still fat. Still flabby. Still have a huge belly.

It feels like that ten mile ride should transform me into skinny girl. Sigh.

It's not magic. Just hard, hard work.

hoping for an un-fat day on the healthy train

I actually had one full day on the healthy train yesterday. One. Full. Day. [You know I have a serious problem when I celebrate being on the program 100% for one day.]

I decided to start journaling my food and keep track of points. I did WW for about two years in my pre-marriage life, so points are what I know. Don't ask me how many calories or fat grams are in a dish, I have no idea! But I can look down a buffet line and have a pretty exact knowledge of how many points each item adds to the menu. Yeah, I'm that good. Wink-wink.

I do have one question for you.... If I am up at midnight with a baby.... And I have a [healthy] snack...... Do I count that as yesterday or today? Hummm... Good question, isn't it?

Alicia commented that it is "hard to follow through" and that rang so true inside of me. Ever since I was a fat teenager, I would lie in bed at night and make promises to myself about the following day. Promising myself I would eat healthy and do some sort of exercise tomorrow. You know, I am an honest person and I don't break my promises. Except to myself. I have broken so many. It is hard to follow through.

But, I do not want to sink into a melancholy mood this early in the morning. So, I'm going to focus on the good stuff.

I worked out twice yesterday. There is an added challenge to the YMCA challenge; how far can you go in a week? I went three miles on the elliptical [aka the killer machine] and six miles on the bike. Not bad for one day. Not bad for a fat girl.

Now, let's go and have an un-fat day!

four things i like and one i don't

Instructor Mike's assignment:

Name four things you like about yourself. [Or if you don't like anything, name the four you dislike the least.] Second, name only ONE thing you want to change about yourself. [Yes, you must narrow it down to only ONE.]

Here goes.

Four things I like about myself. Oh, gosh, well, [blush-blush] I love my gorgeous curly hair. Everyone who knows me [in real life] always goes on and on about my curls. Oh, they're so beautiful. Tee-hee. OK. Next.

Number Two. Well......... Maybe my boobs. I mean, not everyone can have boobs as big as mine. I don't know if I would have picked out ginormous boobs if I was the one picking out boobs, but since those are the ones I got... well, I'd rather have humongo boobs than no boobs at all. So. Number Two: my boobs.

Number Three. My teeth. I have nice teeth, what can I say? They are naturally straight and only slightly off white. Not bad for a girl whose parent rarely afforded dental care. Not bad at all.

And last, but not least... I guess I like my pinkie toe. Just kidding. Ha, ha, ha. OK. For real. [Wow, four things. This is harder than I thought... what else? what else?? Could I say I like my uterus? I mean, it has carried four babies and that totally rocks, right? No, I don't think that counts. It has to be something on the outside... think, think...] OK. Got it. My eyes. I do get compliments on my eyes. Seriously. They are rather pretty. [Can you see me? I'm batting my eyes at you right now. Bat. Bat.]

Now for the easy part. What I don't like. Narrowing the list. Narrowing... Ah-ha! My top "don't like feature" would have to be my stomach. Ick. Yuck. Gross. And Ick again.

Instructor Mike insists we now make an action plan to fix the one thing we don't like [the most] about ourselves. He says, "Now that we know you don't like your ____, it's time to get off your butt and do something about it!" Yeah, yeah.

OK. So, Flabby Belly, we're onto YOU!! Here's the plan of attack. Keep going to the YMCA. I'm going to start doing daily abs work outs. [Even as I write that... I'm not sure I'll really do that... but it's a good idea.] I am not even, necessarily, going for flat abs. Just less flabby ones. Really.

OK. Did Instructor Mike's weekly assignment. Check that off the "to-do" list.

a goal for the fat girl [who is rocking the challenge]

The Challenge is ON!

It was incredibly scary to walk into the room Monday evening. But as soon as I walked in and saw the other wonderful fat people, I felt myself relaxing. They were nervous, just like me. They were fat, just like me. Well, most of them. I was a little surprised to see several skinny women. Goes to show you that even the skinny girls want to improve their body, too.

Last night was my first Challenge work out with the trainer. It was so fun, you guys!! I'm shocked at how much fun I had with the other women. I was the crazy one, cheering when it was time to stretch... Yep, that was ME. Hee-hee.

There are probably about 45 women and 5 men in the challenge. There will be a female winner and a male winner. I probably won't win. I heard some women talking about how they plan to work out two to three time A DAY! Um, I will not be able to do that. Plus, I want this to be a realistic part of my life. I have four kids. There is no way I will be working out three times a day. Heck, I will be doing phenomenal to work out ONCE A DAY! So, that is my goal. I want to do some sort of cardio work out six times a week. Sundays will be my day off.

My other goal is... deep breath here... to loose 29 pounds by the end of the Challenge. I weighed in [on the YMCA scales] at 269 pounds. [Although my home scales showed me at 266 pounds. But, whatever. We'll follow the YMCA scales through out this challenge and then revert back to my scales after the ten weeks are up.] Ten weeks to loose 29 pounds; I wan to weight 240 by the first week in June. That's roughly 3 pounds a week. I can do it!

off with TW and on with the challenge

It begins. Tonight is the beginning of The Challenge. Wow. Why does it make me so nervous? You know how many times I have "started over"? Oh, way too many. And here we are, again.

I have spent the past week binging on the "no-no list" of foods. Not that we've been given a list of foods. Yet. I am assuming we'll receive nutrition info at the meeting tonight. I have enjoyed bon-bons, brownies, shakes, pizza, burgers, fries, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Oh, did I mention chocolate?

My cheer leading for Thin Within program has dwindled down to nothingness. I don't want to discourage anyone taking that approach, but.... I have a few things I just disagree with. I'll leave it at that. To each his own. You do what you want to do; I'll do it the way I want to do. Okay-doke?

Off I go. [I know you'll all be anxious to read how things went... I'll try to get with it and post sometime soon....-ish.]

PS Thanks for your amazing support. So great of you all.