Today I got the most unexpected and most amazing news. I am going to be teaching a Zumba class at MY GYM! (The gym I've been taking classes at for 4 years). WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
My mentor, Zumba instructor/personal trainer and good friend, Dee, announced to us recently that she has to cut back on the # of classes she is teaching. This includes her Monday 11:30am Zumba Gold class that I've attended for 2 years now. She was told they would fill in the time slot with something else and I was sad to hear this news.
Then today on my way to her last Monday morning class, she called me. She told me to go to the front desk at the gym when I got there because Melissa (the lady in charge of everything fitness related at the gym) wanted to talk to me about taking over her class. I literally squealed in her ear, poor thing haha. Dee had gone to Melissa and asked what she should tell her class today about the time slot for the future. Melissa was still struggling with what to fill it with. And Dee...being the amazing friend she is...suggested me. She told her that I've been teaching elsewhere and that I've been taking HER class for a long time and the ladies in there know me and like me. I couldn't believe it. Ever since I became a Zumba instructor, my ultimate wish has been to be able to teach at the gym where I fell in love with Zumba fitness. I am so extremely excited that I am finally going to get to do that. Even if it's just once a week!
I'll admit I'm a little nervous about teaching a full hour considering teaching takes so much more energy than just being a participant...but I know I'll adjust. I can't wait to be teaching in a big room (WITH MIRRORS!) and have the music blasting and a room full of people the way Zumba should be :) I love love love Zumba fitness and I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity. I'll still be teaching at Curves as I love it far too much not to, but this will be a great addition to my schedule. Time to work on some new choreo I guess! I start next week! I would absolutely love it if my local friends came :) I promise it will be a blast and I could use the moral support! Hopefully this is just the beginning. I have lots more I want to do in the future :)
Monday, January 4, 2016
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Rebuilding the Wagon
I know that in the 5 years I've been writing this blog, I've written about "falling off the wagon" many times, but that's because this is a lifelong journey. This isn't a diet. This isn't a quick fix. This isn't a race with a finish line. This will last my entire life. And because I'm not perfect, I will occasionally fall off the wagon. Or in this case...fall off the wagon and then burn it down and scatter the ashes :)
It's funny how you can go for 6 weeks with motivation flying high, near perfect eating and lots of good, hard workouts...lose 15lbs and then with one decision come crashing down. 21 day fix got me back on track after several months of zero discipline and horrible eating choices. I rode that motivational pony for 6 good weeks. I lost inches, I lost lbs and I gained confidence. And then it happened.
For the past 6 weeks I'd been really good about allowing myself ONE treat a week. I would go OUT to buy my favorite brownie or fruit bar or whatever I was in the mood for and be done with it. But this week I decided to make one of my all time favorite desserts...at home. BAD IDEA. The problem with making it at home was that it was an entire pan...and it wasn't gone in a day.
I made my Grammy Burningham's chocolate mousse recipe which is essentially a delicious buttery almond crust with cream cheesey, sugary, puddingy, whip creamy goodness layered on top. Having two pieces on my treat day wasn't so bad. Seeing the pan in the fridge the next day completely undid me. The second I gave into day 2 of the craving, it was like someone had cut my brakes and I couldn't stop. I'm pretty sure everyone in my family each had one piece, but I ate the rest (over the course of 3 days). If that had been all I'd done, I'm sure it wouldn't have been so bad...but letting myself give in to sugar on days I wasn't "supposed to", pretty much gave me permission to eat whatever else I wanted too. A late night Whopper, half a bag of chips (WITH dip!), tons of halloween candy, cookies, etc. The proverbial wagon went from being firmly beneath me to being a pile of soot under my butt. Needless to say, I was extremely angry with myself.
I threw a pity party...and ate more in the process...but I knew I couldn't just give up and let this continue. I really didn't want to completely undo what I'd worked so hard for the past 6 weeks. So I grabbed my tools and got to work rebuilding my wagon.
I made my kids hide their halloween candy. If I see it, it's going in the trash. Period. I restarted a new week of 21-day fix and reacquainted myself with my portion containers and food tracking sheets. I kicked my butt in my workouts and I made sure to get in ALL of my fruit and veggie servings every day. And most importantly...I went a whole day without sugar. It's crazy how it seems so easy when you're on a roll and then suddenly you think you're going to JUST DIE!!! if you can't have it RIGHT NOW DAMMIT!!!
I'm grateful that over the years I have learned the tools that I need to get myself back on the wagon when I fall off. It used to be that I'd just give up and go months without even bothering to try. But not this time. I'm determined to finish season 20 of Jilly's Losers this next week with a good loss, but more importantly...self-control. And hopefully, this time the wagon will make it a little further before I go flying off the back again :)
It's funny how you can go for 6 weeks with motivation flying high, near perfect eating and lots of good, hard workouts...lose 15lbs and then with one decision come crashing down. 21 day fix got me back on track after several months of zero discipline and horrible eating choices. I rode that motivational pony for 6 good weeks. I lost inches, I lost lbs and I gained confidence. And then it happened.
For the past 6 weeks I'd been really good about allowing myself ONE treat a week. I would go OUT to buy my favorite brownie or fruit bar or whatever I was in the mood for and be done with it. But this week I decided to make one of my all time favorite desserts...at home. BAD IDEA. The problem with making it at home was that it was an entire pan...and it wasn't gone in a day.
I made my Grammy Burningham's chocolate mousse recipe which is essentially a delicious buttery almond crust with cream cheesey, sugary, puddingy, whip creamy goodness layered on top. Having two pieces on my treat day wasn't so bad. Seeing the pan in the fridge the next day completely undid me. The second I gave into day 2 of the craving, it was like someone had cut my brakes and I couldn't stop. I'm pretty sure everyone in my family each had one piece, but I ate the rest (over the course of 3 days). If that had been all I'd done, I'm sure it wouldn't have been so bad...but letting myself give in to sugar on days I wasn't "supposed to", pretty much gave me permission to eat whatever else I wanted too. A late night Whopper, half a bag of chips (WITH dip!), tons of halloween candy, cookies, etc. The proverbial wagon went from being firmly beneath me to being a pile of soot under my butt. Needless to say, I was extremely angry with myself.
I threw a pity party...and ate more in the process...but I knew I couldn't just give up and let this continue. I really didn't want to completely undo what I'd worked so hard for the past 6 weeks. So I grabbed my tools and got to work rebuilding my wagon.
I made my kids hide their halloween candy. If I see it, it's going in the trash. Period. I restarted a new week of 21-day fix and reacquainted myself with my portion containers and food tracking sheets. I kicked my butt in my workouts and I made sure to get in ALL of my fruit and veggie servings every day. And most importantly...I went a whole day without sugar. It's crazy how it seems so easy when you're on a roll and then suddenly you think you're going to JUST DIE!!! if you can't have it RIGHT NOW DAMMIT!!!
I'm grateful that over the years I have learned the tools that I need to get myself back on the wagon when I fall off. It used to be that I'd just give up and go months without even bothering to try. But not this time. I'm determined to finish season 20 of Jilly's Losers this next week with a good loss, but more importantly...self-control. And hopefully, this time the wagon will make it a little further before I go flying off the back again :)
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Long awaited milestones!!!!
Today was a really good freaking day. I'll make this short because it's late...but I couldn't go to bed without writing it down.
I've been doing really well with my eating and exercise for the past month. It's not the first time or anything, but losing weight is always a roller coaster of good, motivating phases and horrible, binge eating phases. I just try to ride the highs as long as I can and this one's going REALLY WELL!
I spent most of last week sick in bed so it felt good to start up round 2 of 21-day fix with a good total body cardio workout. It also felt pretty amazing to step on the scale today..and here's why:
For the first time since school started, I finally got myself to a Weight Watchers meeting...and reached my 5% goal! It took me a long time to get there, but I'm still excited about it! I was also excited about it because I broke 250 today!! When I was losing weight pre-Cooper, 250 was my worst plateau. I was stuck there for almost a year it seemed like. It took finally trying Zumba to break it and from there it was so much easier. This time around it wasn't quite a year, but it sure felt that way. It took some serious control in the kitchen and learning to deal with my hatred of cooking. Eating out tends to really block my weight loss, even when it's healthier options. So I've cut most of that out. But anyway...you get the picture.
It was a great day. 42 more 4th pregnancy lbs to go lol.
I've been doing really well with my eating and exercise for the past month. It's not the first time or anything, but losing weight is always a roller coaster of good, motivating phases and horrible, binge eating phases. I just try to ride the highs as long as I can and this one's going REALLY WELL!
I spent most of last week sick in bed so it felt good to start up round 2 of 21-day fix with a good total body cardio workout. It also felt pretty amazing to step on the scale today..and here's why:
For the first time since school started, I finally got myself to a Weight Watchers meeting...and reached my 5% goal! It took me a long time to get there, but I'm still excited about it! I was also excited about it because I broke 250 today!! When I was losing weight pre-Cooper, 250 was my worst plateau. I was stuck there for almost a year it seemed like. It took finally trying Zumba to break it and from there it was so much easier. This time around it wasn't quite a year, but it sure felt that way. It took some serious control in the kitchen and learning to deal with my hatred of cooking. Eating out tends to really block my weight loss, even when it's healthier options. So I've cut most of that out. But anyway...you get the picture.
It was a great day. 42 more 4th pregnancy lbs to go lol.
Monday, October 5, 2015
21 Day Fix Complete!
Yesterday was day 21 of my first attempt at the 21-day fix. I...LOVED...IT. It was challenging and it pushed me, but that's what I needed. I thought that the daily 30 minute workouts would be the easiest part for me, with the food plan causing me problems, but it was actually the other way around...at least in the beginning.
There are 7 workouts that you do in order each week with an optional 10 minute "Ab fix" to throw in wherever you want. The best part about these workouts is that they're tabata style which is essentially 1 minute of work, 15 seconds of rest. Each round would have 2 exercises. You would do the first exercise, rest, 2nd exercise rest....then repeat before moving onto the next round.
1) Total Body Cardio Fix - full body cardio with weights (with volleyball at night)
2) Upper Fix - Upper body strength training (always followed by an hour of zumba)
3) Lower Body Fix - Lower body strength training (preceded by teaching zumba and often followed by pilates with my trainer)
4) Pilates Fix (with volleyball at night)
5) Cardio Fix (I HATED THIS ONE! Burpees and mountain climbers suck)
6) Dirty 30 - full body cardio/strength intervals
7) Yoga fix to stretch and re-center...combined occasionally with 10 minute abs
I honestly loved all of these workouts except for the cardio fix on Fridays haha. I would get up in the morning and do them while the girls got ready for school and helped feed Cooper breakfast. He was usually more interested in watching me than in eating though. Some mornings it was hard to force myself to push play on that DVD but I never regretted it. I think the only time I skipped a workout was one Saturday morning when I'd already done a Burn It workout at the gym and just didn't have it in me. The first week I was sore and tired, but the second and third weeks I felt much stronger and found myself able to do more in each workout. It was great! I still had to modify some things, but one day I'll be doing pushups on my toes. One day.
As for the nutrition side of things, it took a little getting used to at first but then I fell in love. There are color coded containers that are perfect portion sizes. Obviously the fruit and veggie ones are the biggest with proteins, carbs and healthy fats getting smaller. Since I'm a bigger girl, I get to eat quite a few of each each day but find myself rarely eating all of them. 6 veggie, 4 fruit, 6 protein, 4 carb, 1 healthy fat and 1 salad dressing container. If it fit in the container, I could eat it. Although there were foods listed in the book, which I stuck to for the most part. I did allow myself one sugary treat/dessert each week so as to avoid feeling so deprived that I'd binge. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had control over my hunger. Controlling my portions of things made a huge difference as did adding veggies to every meal. I didn't feel hungry or frustrated and I got creative with my meals. I even bought Autumn Calabrese's Fixate cookbook to try some new things that would work with the container system.
Now that my 21 days are up, I got back on the scale and retook my measurements. DRUMROLL!
I was hoping for more inches, but honestly...for 21 days of hard work, I'm extremely proud of myself. I plan to take this week off from the daily 30 minute workouts while continuing with the nutrition plan. Then I'll start over with round 2 next Monday. I'm so glad I found this plan. Combining it with my Weight Watchers points (which I now use far less of!) has been a huge help as far as getting myself back on track post pregnancy. Cooper has also now weened himself from breastfeeding, so I'm hoping that will help things along a bit faster as well. I'm dying to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes!!
There are 7 workouts that you do in order each week with an optional 10 minute "Ab fix" to throw in wherever you want. The best part about these workouts is that they're tabata style which is essentially 1 minute of work, 15 seconds of rest. Each round would have 2 exercises. You would do the first exercise, rest, 2nd exercise rest....then repeat before moving onto the next round.
1) Total Body Cardio Fix - full body cardio with weights (with volleyball at night)
2) Upper Fix - Upper body strength training (always followed by an hour of zumba)
3) Lower Body Fix - Lower body strength training (preceded by teaching zumba and often followed by pilates with my trainer)
4) Pilates Fix (with volleyball at night)
6) Dirty 30 - full body cardio/strength intervals
7) Yoga fix to stretch and re-center...combined occasionally with 10 minute abs
I honestly loved all of these workouts except for the cardio fix on Fridays haha. I would get up in the morning and do them while the girls got ready for school and helped feed Cooper breakfast. He was usually more interested in watching me than in eating though. Some mornings it was hard to force myself to push play on that DVD but I never regretted it. I think the only time I skipped a workout was one Saturday morning when I'd already done a Burn It workout at the gym and just didn't have it in me. The first week I was sore and tired, but the second and third weeks I felt much stronger and found myself able to do more in each workout. It was great! I still had to modify some things, but one day I'll be doing pushups on my toes. One day.
As for the nutrition side of things, it took a little getting used to at first but then I fell in love. There are color coded containers that are perfect portion sizes. Obviously the fruit and veggie ones are the biggest with proteins, carbs and healthy fats getting smaller. Since I'm a bigger girl, I get to eat quite a few of each each day but find myself rarely eating all of them. 6 veggie, 4 fruit, 6 protein, 4 carb, 1 healthy fat and 1 salad dressing container. If it fit in the container, I could eat it. Although there were foods listed in the book, which I stuck to for the most part. I did allow myself one sugary treat/dessert each week so as to avoid feeling so deprived that I'd binge. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had control over my hunger. Controlling my portions of things made a huge difference as did adding veggies to every meal. I didn't feel hungry or frustrated and I got creative with my meals. I even bought Autumn Calabrese's Fixate cookbook to try some new things that would work with the container system.
Now that my 21 days are up, I got back on the scale and retook my measurements. DRUMROLL!
I was hoping for more inches, but honestly...for 21 days of hard work, I'm extremely proud of myself. I plan to take this week off from the daily 30 minute workouts while continuing with the nutrition plan. Then I'll start over with round 2 next Monday. I'm so glad I found this plan. Combining it with my Weight Watchers points (which I now use far less of!) has been a huge help as far as getting myself back on track post pregnancy. Cooper has also now weened himself from breastfeeding, so I'm hoping that will help things along a bit faster as well. I'm dying to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes!!
Monday, September 14, 2015
Trying something new....again
In the past when I've felt stuck with my weight loss, I've tried something new. Zumba, pilates, water aerobics, Couch25K.... So this time, I wasn't sure what to try. I already feel like I have a pretty good mixture of things in my workout regimen, but I feel stuck. And I'm tired of it. Add in that I can't seem to get my eating on track no matter what I do...and I needed something that could help with both. (I'm still doing Weight Watchers points though!)
So I decided to try 21-Day Fix by BeachBody. A friend of mine is a coach and I hammered her with questions before purchasing so that I'd feel confident with it. Today...was Day 1.
21 Day Fix is basically that. 21 days that overhaul your workouts and nutrition. There are 7 different "fix" workouts and you follow a specific calendar for those 3 weeks as far as which workout you do. Today was Total Body Cardio Fix. It...kicked...my...butt. I like to think I'm in pretty decent shape for my size, but this reminded me that I still have a lot of work to do. It was a tabata style workout (60 seconds on, 20 seconds off)...which I LOVE...but I still had to modify half of the exercises. It went by fast and I loved it! I definitely feel like jello now though, so that's a good sign I was working hard. I do intend, however, on keeping up with my zumba...so we'll see how THAT goes this morning haha.
On the nutrition end of things, it's all about breaking things down into each of the food groups and really focusing on portion control and eating clean/unprocessed type foods. There are color coded containers for each food group...various sizes. You get to eat a certain number of those filled containers per day based on your calorie goal. The veggie and fruit containers are the largest, then carbs, proteins, healthy fats and seeds/dressings. I think that will take some getting used to, but in the end will hopefully change the way I look at food. I have a very serious food addiction problem and I NEED to get it under control!!!
This morning's breakfast (post workout) was my Premier Protein Shake, 1 carb container of oatmeal and 1 fruit container filled with mixed berries. Already up to 64 oz. of water too! So I'm off to a great start. But I have never had a problem with "starts". It's the late afternoon/evening where I struggle.
So I'm looking forward to the next 3 weeks and seeing the difference it makes. I took my before pictures and measurements and I'm ready to have tunnel vision for the next 21 days. Hopefully it will help make for a great season 20 of Jilly's Losers too! We start tomorrow!
So I decided to try 21-Day Fix by BeachBody. A friend of mine is a coach and I hammered her with questions before purchasing so that I'd feel confident with it. Today...was Day 1.
21 Day Fix is basically that. 21 days that overhaul your workouts and nutrition. There are 7 different "fix" workouts and you follow a specific calendar for those 3 weeks as far as which workout you do. Today was Total Body Cardio Fix. It...kicked...my...butt. I like to think I'm in pretty decent shape for my size, but this reminded me that I still have a lot of work to do. It was a tabata style workout (60 seconds on, 20 seconds off)...which I LOVE...but I still had to modify half of the exercises. It went by fast and I loved it! I definitely feel like jello now though, so that's a good sign I was working hard. I do intend, however, on keeping up with my zumba...so we'll see how THAT goes this morning haha.
On the nutrition end of things, it's all about breaking things down into each of the food groups and really focusing on portion control and eating clean/unprocessed type foods. There are color coded containers for each food group...various sizes. You get to eat a certain number of those filled containers per day based on your calorie goal. The veggie and fruit containers are the largest, then carbs, proteins, healthy fats and seeds/dressings. I think that will take some getting used to, but in the end will hopefully change the way I look at food. I have a very serious food addiction problem and I NEED to get it under control!!!
This morning's breakfast (post workout) was my Premier Protein Shake, 1 carb container of oatmeal and 1 fruit container filled with mixed berries. Already up to 64 oz. of water too! So I'm off to a great start. But I have never had a problem with "starts". It's the late afternoon/evening where I struggle.
So I'm looking forward to the next 3 weeks and seeing the difference it makes. I took my before pictures and measurements and I'm ready to have tunnel vision for the next 21 days. Hopefully it will help make for a great season 20 of Jilly's Losers too! We start tomorrow!
Monday, September 7, 2015
Jilly's Losers Season 20!!! (Rules & Guidelines)
I'm so so excited for our 20th season of Jilly's Losers. It's shaping up to be our biggest ever (70 people so far in the group!!) which means bigger prizes, bigger challenges and hopefully lots of lbs lost and health gained for all! Below are the rules for the upcoming season for anyone interested. Let me know if you'd like to join!
1. Season 20 will begin on Tuesday, September 15. It will last 8 weeks and our final weigh in will be on Tuesday, November 10.
2. The buy-in fee this season will be $25. This is a singles season. Fees should be sent via Paypal to Jillyslosers@gmail.com with the note “Season 20 buyin fee” and your name. All fees MUST be paid by September 22. Make sure to mark your payments as being sent to family and friends to avoid any PayPal fees.
3. This season we’re going to try something a little different. Since we have so many people participating, it will be like we’re actually running multiple competitions at one time. Here’s how it will work! There will be two separate weight loss competitions going on. They will be separated by weight grouping. The final groups will depend on where everyone stands at the starting weigh-in, but ideally they will be something like this:
2. The buy-in fee this season will be $25. This is a singles season. Fees should be sent via Paypal to Jillyslosers@gmail.com with the note “Season 20 buyin fee” and your name. All fees MUST be paid by September 22. Make sure to mark your payments as being sent to family and friends to avoid any PayPal fees.
3. This season we’re going to try something a little different. Since we have so many people participating, it will be like we’re actually running multiple competitions at one time. Here’s how it will work! There will be two separate weight loss competitions going on. They will be separated by weight grouping. The final groups will depend on where everyone stands at the starting weigh-in, but ideally they will be something like this:
Group 1: (Weight 220 and under)
Group 2: (Weight 221 and up)
Group 2: (Weight 221 and up)
If after our starting weigh-in, I find that the groups are severely imbalanced, I’ll adjust accordingly. You will only be competing against those within your own group for weight loss! What this means is that there will be more winners as well! Each group’s prize pot will be equivalent to the # of people in that group. The person with the highest % of weight loss in each group will win 60% of their group’s prize pot. 2nd place will win 30% of their group’s pot. And the remaining 10% will go to a points winner, which will be explained below. (NOTE: All prizes are given after challenge rewards are paid out and 10% is taken out of the pot for myself as insisted upon by you brats a few seasons back *grumbles*. Thank you lol)
NOTE: For those of us who are current group members returning for season 20, there will not be a gain cap between seasons this time. With such a huge group, that will just complicate things too much. HOWEVER, if it seems someone has purposely packed on a lot of weight in the week between seasons in order to make losing weight easier, you will not be allowed to participate. (Anything over 3-4 lbs will be looked at with suspicion, so stay away from the dozen donuts! Haha) Please don’t make me be the bad guy. Gains happen, but please keep things honest and do not pad your starting weight. This group is very much about honesty I know that it can be hard between seasons to keep control over our eating, but let’s all try not to go too crazy!
4. Regarding weigh-ins: We have mandatory weekly weigh-ins every Tuesday. (Why Tuesdays? Because that's the day that The Biggest Loser aired on NBC when I started this group and it's just stuck!) Your weight picture must be posted by midnight MST to count! Please weigh in under the same circumstances every week (morning/night/clothed or not, etc) As for strikes...you are allowed 2 missed weigh-ins per person. That's 1 per month (or 2 in a row). On the 3rd missed weigh-in, you will be disqualified and you will not get your $ refunded. (You may continue to stay in the group and weigh-in but you will not be eligible to win any $ or prizes either from challenges or the final weigh-in) Remember that weigh-ins must be a picture of the # on your scale. Not just a post of your weight. I will also allow a picture of any weight watchers weigh in stickers as I know a few people in our group participate in those weekly weigh-ins and I know they are legit. Just make sure that you use the same scale all season. (At the very least, you MUST use the same scale for your starting and final weights)
5. Before pictures are MANDATORY. The pictures may be with or without a shirt (you'll notice more of a change if you do it without), but they must be full body pictures. If your before picture is not submitted within the first week of competition (by Sept. 22), you will be disqualified. (If you submitted an "after" picture for season 19, that will count as your "before" picture for season 20) Those who win prizes at the end of the season will not receive their prize money until an AFTER picture has been submitted and they must do so within 48 hrs of the winning announcement.
NOTE: Newcomers to this group always worry that their pictures posted in the group will show up for the public to see. This group is secret. As long as you are on the group wall BEFORE posting your pictures, no one will see them but those in the group. Your pictures will show up on your own feed when you view it, but I promise you no one else can see it!
6. Starting and final weights will be confirmed with a KEY WORD. This is to ensure that starting and ending pictures are truly taken on the day of the weigh-in and not before. I will post the KEY WORD in this group the night before the first and last weigh-ins. It should be written on a piece of paper or notecard and placed at your feet in the front of your scale before taking your picture.
7. We will continue doing weekly challenges. I try to come up with new challenges whenever, possible, but for those of you who have been around a while, I'm sorry to say you will see some repeats! Each challenge will have different rewards/prizes that will hopefully help keep people motivated. There will even be a couple big prizes depending on how large a group we have! And it looks like it will be a HUGE one! As this is season 20, there will also be some special prizes that I am working on acquiring…one of which is a free shirt of your choosing from Biggest Loser season 10’s at home winner, Mark Pinhasovich’s new exercise clothing line!! He has graciously agreed to donate that as a prize this season and I’m excited to get my own in the mail soon!
8. POINTS!!! As mentioned above, we will be tracking points this season for various things. If you were here for season 18, it will be just like that.
5. Before pictures are MANDATORY. The pictures may be with or without a shirt (you'll notice more of a change if you do it without), but they must be full body pictures. If your before picture is not submitted within the first week of competition (by Sept. 22), you will be disqualified. (If you submitted an "after" picture for season 19, that will count as your "before" picture for season 20) Those who win prizes at the end of the season will not receive their prize money until an AFTER picture has been submitted and they must do so within 48 hrs of the winning announcement.
NOTE: Newcomers to this group always worry that their pictures posted in the group will show up for the public to see. This group is secret. As long as you are on the group wall BEFORE posting your pictures, no one will see them but those in the group. Your pictures will show up on your own feed when you view it, but I promise you no one else can see it!
6. Starting and final weights will be confirmed with a KEY WORD. This is to ensure that starting and ending pictures are truly taken on the day of the weigh-in and not before. I will post the KEY WORD in this group the night before the first and last weigh-ins. It should be written on a piece of paper or notecard and placed at your feet in the front of your scale before taking your picture.
7. We will continue doing weekly challenges. I try to come up with new challenges whenever, possible, but for those of you who have been around a while, I'm sorry to say you will see some repeats! Each challenge will have different rewards/prizes that will hopefully help keep people motivated. There will even be a couple big prizes depending on how large a group we have! And it looks like it will be a HUGE one! As this is season 20, there will also be some special prizes that I am working on acquiring…one of which is a free shirt of your choosing from Biggest Loser season 10’s at home winner, Mark Pinhasovich’s new exercise clothing line!! He has graciously agreed to donate that as a prize this season and I’m excited to get my own in the mail soon!
8. POINTS!!! As mentioned above, we will be tracking points this season for various things. If you were here for season 18, it will be just like that.
-There is a weekly point calendar for each of the 8 weeks. (It will be posted as a separate document under the “Files” tab on the group page) Print it out and use to track your points and weight loss. If you prefer to use an excel spreadsheet that will do your math for you, Cody Mecham made one 2 seasons ago that I’ve updated and will post as well for you to download.
-Beginning on Week #2 there is a double point challenge (highlighted in yellow)
-You can exercise each day, but you will only receive points for exercising 5 days a week.
-You can choose to not eat sugar/treats each day, but you will only receive points for not eating sugar on 6 days (everyone needs a free day!).
-There is a sample food journal that you can use or you can use your own kind of food journal to keep track of what you eat.
-Daily contact with teammate: It’s amazing the strength that comes from encouragement from your teammates! We said that you could email, call, or text someone in the group to encourage them to have a healthy day. It helps knowing that you are all in this together and makes you accountable for what you do or don’t do. Posting or commenting on the group page also counts. Hitting LIKE does NOT count!
-Example of weight loss points: You will get 5 points for maintaining your lowest previous weight AND 10 points for each whole pound. For instance, if you gained weight, you will report 0 points AND you don’t get any weight loss OR maintenance points in future weeks until you return to the lowest weight you had already achieved. If you maintained your previous lowest weight, you report 5 points. If you lost 1 pound, you would get 5 points for maintaining plus 10 points for that pound, so you would report 15 points.
-Beginning on Week #2 there is a double point challenge (highlighted in yellow)
-You can exercise each day, but you will only receive points for exercising 5 days a week.
-You can choose to not eat sugar/treats each day, but you will only receive points for not eating sugar on 6 days (everyone needs a free day!).
-There is a sample food journal that you can use or you can use your own kind of food journal to keep track of what you eat.
-Daily contact with teammate: It’s amazing the strength that comes from encouragement from your teammates! We said that you could email, call, or text someone in the group to encourage them to have a healthy day. It helps knowing that you are all in this together and makes you accountable for what you do or don’t do. Posting or commenting on the group page also counts. Hitting LIKE does NOT count!
-Example of weight loss points: You will get 5 points for maintaining your lowest previous weight AND 10 points for each whole pound. For instance, if you gained weight, you will report 0 points AND you don’t get any weight loss OR maintenance points in future weeks until you return to the lowest weight you had already achieved. If you maintained your previous lowest weight, you report 5 points. If you lost 1 pound, you would get 5 points for maintaining plus 10 points for that pound, so you would report 15 points.
NOTE!!!!! Points totals MUST be either emailed (jillyslosers@gmail.com) or messaged via Facebook to Jill Tracy by midnight MST each Tuesday in order to be counted. With such a large group, I’m afraid there will be no exceptions. If you forget to tell me one week…they won’t count. I’m sorry!
9. Remember that this group is about gaining health and losing weight through eating right and exercising. Extreme/fad diets are not allowed. Weight Watchers and things like that are fine, but no pills/drops/powders etc.
10. This group is only for those who will be actively participating in the competition this season, so while I hope everyone will stick around, please know that if you choose not to join us this season, you will be removed from the group. You are always welcome to join us in later seasons smile emoticon
9. Remember that this group is about gaining health and losing weight through eating right and exercising. Extreme/fad diets are not allowed. Weight Watchers and things like that are fine, but no pills/drops/powders etc.
10. This group is only for those who will be actively participating in the competition this season, so while I hope everyone will stick around, please know that if you choose not to join us this season, you will be removed from the group. You are always welcome to join us in later seasons smile emoticon
Sunday, August 30, 2015
So...apparently losing weight is hard...
I know when I haven't written a blog entry in a long time it's usually because I'm not making any progress. Time to vent I guess. I'm sure the up and down of my entries gets old, but hey, that's life.
I've been riding the same 10lb roller coaster since June and it's kind of driving me crazy. Okay, not just kind of. I'm not going to blame my beautiful, sweet 8 month old......but okay, I'm going to. Cause it's totally his fault. Well....okay maybe like 80%. Having a new-ish baby is HARD!
Yes, Cooper is my 4th child, but as Nathan likes to tell those who ask, "Is he your first?"....."He's our 2nd first." And it's so true. With a 15 year old, 11 year old and 8 year old....Cooper is like having a first child all over again. The world and our lives are COMPLETELY different with this baby than with Emma back in 2006. But I think the biggest difference, for me anyway, is that with the other 3 babies, I never bothered trying to lose weight after I gave birth. I was severely obese and I had zero hopes of ever changing that...especially with little kids. But now that I've been down that weight loss road and lost 122 of the 150-ish lbs I wanted to lose before I got pregnant...I'm in a very different boat!
I don't want to just be content to stay where I'm at post-baby. And I'm not. But since I've never done this before, I didn't realize just how hard it is. Before Cooper came, I was at the gym for 1-2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Period. It was my ME time...my sanity...my addiction. I was eating under 1500 calories every day without a problem and while I still had my splurges, I was able to keep my eating under control 90% of the time. Now my time isn't mine anymore. I have 3 kids back in school (which is when I'd normally hit the gym without inconveniencing anyone)....and a nursing baby. I'm blessed to have a husband who works at night so he's home during the day, however, it doesn't feel right to just up and leave him with the baby for several hours every day. I'm sure it bothers me more than it would him for me to do that...but at this point in time, I'm lucky if I get to the gym twice in a week.
Twice a week in the gym probably sounds like a lot to some people and it would be great if my eating were in check. HA. My eating. Oh man....I had no idea that this is how it is when you're nursing a baby! I am hungry...ALL...THE...TIME!!! I nursed my other 3 kids, but only for 4 months each and always with supplemental formula bottles. With Cooper, since I have the time to focus on it, I decided to try and nurse him for the entire first year. I'm happy to report we're still going strong! He does take a formula bottle once in a while now when absolutely necessary, but I still nurse him at least 3 times a day on top of all the solids he's eating. That little man is a bottomless pit! Like his mama! But nowadays I'm lucky if I keep my calorie count under 2000! To be fair, I don't count calories anymore since I've switched to Weight Watchers points, but I'm pretty consistent about using up every single point they give me each week. Since I'm nursing I get 14 extra points a day...and yup, I use those too.
Food food food. I know I've written about this before, but it bears repeating. Food addiction is a real thing. And there's no going cold turkey. Ugh. I know this is a roller coaster like everything else, but I'm hoping that a climb is in the near future as it feels like I've been free falling for entirely too long now. Now that school is back in session and Cooper is a little bit more predictable in his schedule, I'm hoping that maybe I can become a bit more predictable in mine. I need to get things under control before the holidays hit and everything becomes another excuse to binge on my favorite foods.
I lost 122lbs before....why is this so hard NOW??? I'm tired of having an entire wardrobe in my closet that I can't fit into. Time to buckle down. Again. (I'm sure I'll be saying this multiple times in my life)
I've been riding the same 10lb roller coaster since June and it's kind of driving me crazy. Okay, not just kind of. I'm not going to blame my beautiful, sweet 8 month old......but okay, I'm going to. Cause it's totally his fault. Well....okay maybe like 80%. Having a new-ish baby is HARD!
Yes, Cooper is my 4th child, but as Nathan likes to tell those who ask, "Is he your first?"....."He's our 2nd first." And it's so true. With a 15 year old, 11 year old and 8 year old....Cooper is like having a first child all over again. The world and our lives are COMPLETELY different with this baby than with Emma back in 2006. But I think the biggest difference, for me anyway, is that with the other 3 babies, I never bothered trying to lose weight after I gave birth. I was severely obese and I had zero hopes of ever changing that...especially with little kids. But now that I've been down that weight loss road and lost 122 of the 150-ish lbs I wanted to lose before I got pregnant...I'm in a very different boat!
I don't want to just be content to stay where I'm at post-baby. And I'm not. But since I've never done this before, I didn't realize just how hard it is. Before Cooper came, I was at the gym for 1-2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. Period. It was my ME time...my sanity...my addiction. I was eating under 1500 calories every day without a problem and while I still had my splurges, I was able to keep my eating under control 90% of the time. Now my time isn't mine anymore. I have 3 kids back in school (which is when I'd normally hit the gym without inconveniencing anyone)....and a nursing baby. I'm blessed to have a husband who works at night so he's home during the day, however, it doesn't feel right to just up and leave him with the baby for several hours every day. I'm sure it bothers me more than it would him for me to do that...but at this point in time, I'm lucky if I get to the gym twice in a week.
Twice a week in the gym probably sounds like a lot to some people and it would be great if my eating were in check. HA. My eating. Oh man....I had no idea that this is how it is when you're nursing a baby! I am hungry...ALL...THE...TIME!!! I nursed my other 3 kids, but only for 4 months each and always with supplemental formula bottles. With Cooper, since I have the time to focus on it, I decided to try and nurse him for the entire first year. I'm happy to report we're still going strong! He does take a formula bottle once in a while now when absolutely necessary, but I still nurse him at least 3 times a day on top of all the solids he's eating. That little man is a bottomless pit! Like his mama! But nowadays I'm lucky if I keep my calorie count under 2000! To be fair, I don't count calories anymore since I've switched to Weight Watchers points, but I'm pretty consistent about using up every single point they give me each week. Since I'm nursing I get 14 extra points a day...and yup, I use those too.
Food food food. I know I've written about this before, but it bears repeating. Food addiction is a real thing. And there's no going cold turkey. Ugh. I know this is a roller coaster like everything else, but I'm hoping that a climb is in the near future as it feels like I've been free falling for entirely too long now. Now that school is back in session and Cooper is a little bit more predictable in his schedule, I'm hoping that maybe I can become a bit more predictable in mine. I need to get things under control before the holidays hit and everything becomes another excuse to binge on my favorite foods.
I lost 122lbs before....why is this so hard NOW??? I'm tired of having an entire wardrobe in my closet that I can't fit into. Time to buckle down. Again. (I'm sure I'll be saying this multiple times in my life)
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