Weekly Workout Thread 24th Sept till 30th Sept

[marcy]

Kimberly, thank you for being blown away by my pictures. It sure freaks me out to see how much I''ve changed. So, if you don’t mind sharing; what was your wake up moment? The Broncos are loosing so I am watching Monk. As long as the comforter looks nice in your room; then I’d say it’s a keeper.
Skippy, thank you so much for being excited with me. I am very proud that I did it all by myself. I am sure seeing diabetics in your family and how much it changes their life, is a very good reason to live a healthy life. I am glad you decided living that way was important to you. I agree, a hernia is far more preferable than a heart attack – both would hopefully wake you up but one is a lot easier to get over and a great deal less dangerous. I actually feel fortunate to be as healthy as I am considering how unhealthy I lived for years. If I can inspire anyone to loose one more pound, to stay on a diet one more day or decide to start a diet; then I am very happy to be able to help someone else begin or continue the journey I started over a year ago.

 

[Mara]

marcy your story is awesome!! you really should be so proud of yourself. you probably can thank that ole bothersome hernia because it sounds like it was the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of what you knew you had to do. i just find it so amazing that you just decided one day to do it and have been doing it ever since. isn't it amazing what motivation can really do?? your body was probably crying out to you for years with different things, and it finally got you to listen. your pictures are so inspiring, look how tiny you are now compared to the original picture!!

what you said about small goals IS very important. i could easily imagine how intimidating losing 175 lbs would be or even 100!! i have a friend who really needs to lose about 50-75 but she finds it SO daunting of a number...she never even really starts. i told her to do small goals. lose 10 lbs. then another 10. then 20. i think once people set 'realistic' expectations for themselves it's easier to follow. thanks for sharing your story...i don't think it's too much information at all.

so today's been a great day. our chair and ottoman was delivered and it looks amazing in our front room!! YAY. and i'm glad i didn't get an end table for it because there's really no extra room. i am on the hunt for a big arching kind of floor lamp to go next to or behind it for reading and will have to figure out what to do for like holding a drink or something, maybe a really tiny tea table or something could work. we could also move this bookcase next to the chair a bit i think. but for now it looks great. the room looks so different with the ficus tree gone and the chair and ottoman. i def thinking of ways to make the house look nicer right now...it's kind of funny how i get in these phases. i think i'm nesting in preparation for the winter! i just FINALLY got some artwork for over our bed in the master...it's been naked walls for 4 years...it's the LAST ROOM to really decorate! and i am about to order a set of silver and gray botanical giclees from ballard for our master bathroom wall over the tub. and we decided to get rid of the wide wood blinds we have in our master as they have not held up well, and just get dual cellular shades...we have them downstairs in our french doors and windows and they are the ones you can drop from the top or bottom and they are affordable, versatile and quite modern looking too so we figure for the next year or however long we stay in the house, they will be fine and look nice and be way better than the wood blinds.

so, after the chair came we finally were able to leave, and we headed to the preserve and walked. it was pretty warm today and we walked around 2:30pm so it was quite hot, we ended up doing about 4.25 miles rather than our typical 5+ but i just really wanted us to get out and do something today so that was fine. tomorrow greg is rowing and i have my trainer anyway so we didn't want to do anything super grueling today.

greg ate my leftover pasta for snack and i had a grilled cheese sammy with low cal high fiber/protein bread and 2% sharp cheddar slices. 190 cals, 14g protein and 5g fiber...yum! so that will def tide me over til dinner in about 2 hours.

anyhow, hope everyone is enjoying a great sunday afternoon/evening!!

 

[mrssalvo]

Marcy, thanks so much for taking the time to write out your story. It really is amazing how dedicated you are and the difference is just wonderful, you look incredible and it''s so fun to be able to be along with you as you continue to head toward your goal.

mara, your hike sounds fun. you go a lot further than we do when we do the magic mountian. it''s around 3-3.5 miles I think. There is a longer trail we''ve been talking about trying out soon and i think we should try to do the little extra, especially with winter coming and it''s seems easier to hang onto those few lbs.

hey skippy and kimberly...

hope everyone enjoys the rest of their sunday...

 

[Rod]

Evening Everyone!!

What an absolutely beautiful day it was. The first cool front of the season did come through yesterday and it was breezy, lower humidity and in the low to mid 80''s the entire day. It will get hot again I''m sure, but the blistering heat of the summer is pretty much over now and we''ll gradually settle into the kind of weather Chamber''s of Commerce advertise about. By the 3rd week of October the winds shift to the north and stay that way pretty much through the end of May. Count on your buddy Rod picking on you folks who live in Chicago (Here me Monnie and DeeJay??) as soon as I hear the snow is flying your way and we''re basking in glorious weather.......LOL

Yay for a 6 mile walk Skippy. That''s a great accomplishment and I''m proud of you!!

Marcy.... First, your story is inspiring beyond belief. And those pictures. Girl, you should be SO PROUD of yourself. Your WWT family is surely proud of you and everything you''ve accomplished!!! I laughed about the sin of not cleaning your bling last night. It''s my job to clean our rings and I do it religiously every night, plus I use JewelJet Steamer once a week. We can''t have dull looking diamonds, now can we?? Of course we can''t.

Had to laugh about John laughing at you Kimberly. Hope the comforter grows on you and the planting projects sound like fun, only I don''t miss planting things, that''s why we sold our house and bought a condo. Let the gardner''s and pool people take care of anything outside!!

Monnie, BMW''s are designed to go a few hundred thousand miles. While this is our first foray into Bimmer terriftory, we have several friends who have BMW''s and they tend to last a long long time. If you buy a used BMW, get it from a BMW dealer and get an extended warranty, because higher end German cars aren''t necessarily cheap to fix if they break. Just go with whichever car puts a smile on your face and brings pleasure everytime you put the key in the ignition.

Basil, thanks for the compliment on our lifestyle. We are very fortunate to have the life we have. I still think about how we almost gave this life up and am so so so grateful we were able to come home and not miss a beat!! Even out kitties are supremely happy to be home. Especially Sakai, who almost died when we took her from her sunny Florida home.

Lorelei, so sorry for the treadmill frustration. Hopefully the company can get it sorted out and you''ll have access to your friend again really soon. Since they messed up on the parts, they should express the correct part to you at no additional charge. Make sure they do that.

Mara, I haven''t run since last spring. It has just been too darn hot and I just couldn''t handle running in such heat. Now that the weather is beginning to cool, I plan to start running again in the next few weeks. Only this time, I won''t make the same mistake I did when we came home last spring. And that was to run too many miles too quickly. I did a 3 mile run my first time out. The next day I did a 5 mile run, then an 8 mile run the next day. That caused shin splints supreme, so I''ll take it a bit easier this time for sure. I hope the chair arrived and you are both really happy with it!!

Today was the last day of the art festival and we couldn''t park anywhere near our gym. So we actually parked a mile away and walked with our gym bags on our shoulders and it was very nice. Then we put our bags in the lockers and strolled around the festival. Nothing jumped out at us as must haves, so we were pleased to keep our money in our pockets. The gym itself was even less crowded than yesterday. It was just great having any machine we wanted when we wanted it. We were able to pace ourselves a little better as a result. We still pushed, but got a bit more inbetween time from set to set.

For dinner we had a nice big salad and just sat out on the terrace and drank wine and enjoyed the breezes. I''m looking forward to the start of Desperate Housewives tonight. That show always cracks me up. I saw Terri Hatcher on Jay Leno last week and she said a gay couple moves to their street and her character in her whacky way, while trying to welcome them to the neighborhood says just aboue everything wrong imaginable. Should be funny when that episode runs.

I guess that''s all the news from our side of the globe. I hope you all had wonderful Sundays for sure!!

 

[KimberlyH]

Marcy, I don''t mind sharing at all. I started gaining weight when I was 20, I was extremely active until a series of life events (work schedule, school, and a boyfriend, who I always exercised with, got into a major accident that left him incapacitated for a long period of time) got in the way; then I moved to finish college, didn''t know anyone, was bored and ate to fill a void; I met some friends and led the typical college life, beer and fast food at 3am, you know, the good stuff in life. I stopped weighing myself when I hit 150 lbs., which occured not long after I moved. I didn''t get on the scale for a very long time after (like 2 years). I went for to the dr. for a physical and the nurse demanded I get on the scale; it read 199 pounds. I knew I was heavy, but not that heavy! At about the same time I called off an engagement (thank goodness!) and took a trip back "home" to visit family and friends. I attended a party to see a group of friends I hadn''t since I''d moved 3 years earlier. They were astonished by my size, I could see it in their eyes, but no one said a word. I was so ashamed and the combination of those three things made me determined to change things around.

I went to Weight Watchers shortly after and my first weigh in was 201 lbs. I attended for a while but it wasn''t my thing, it was too food focused and I was trying to get away from that. So after 4 months of attending meetings I figured I could just do it on my own. I started losing in August and was down 68 pounds when I plateaued about 7 months later. I remained between 132-138 pounds for 5 years. During that time I started to run, at 171 lbs. I participated in a 5k. My body doesn''t enjoy running nearly as much as my heart does so I don''t do it often. I started participating in this thread last fall, started calorie counting in January and went from 138 lbs. to 125 lbs. I now sit, fairly happily at about 127. I''d like to get back to 125, but am not going to sweat it if I don''t. Part of me hates what I did to my body, the stretch marks, the extra skin, etc. They gross me out. But they are also physical badges of my journey.

Some people don''t believe me when I say I was fat, I''m so sorry those people disbelieve you, and your own amazing will power, it really is a phenomenal thing. I get a lot of "you''re skinny you don''t have to worry about what you eat" or "you''re too regimented" or "a little bit won''t hurt you" which makes me laugh. If I''m comfortable I''ll share my story, or say "I am the way I am because I work at it," if not I just ignore the comments. I find it odd that people feel they have the right to comment on such personal things about others.

So that''s my story.

We''re keeping the bed spread, It''s growing on me.

John is making pasta with brocolli raab for dinner, yummy!

 

[KimberlyH]

Rod, I forgot to respond to you! John doesn''t think our 2+ acres is enough. He loves to garden, it''s one of his escapes...I just get to reap the benefits! Fresh fruits and veggies and lots of beautiful flowers. I''m very lucky. It''s a lot of work for him.

 

[Skippy123]

Yay Rod for a beautiful cool day in Tampa and whooo hooo for the hike Mara; thanks for the kudos

. Hey Mrs. Salvo!!! Hey Kimi!

Sweet dreams all!

 

[marcy]

Mara, I so agree facing the prospect of loosing a lot of weight is overwhelming. When I started I couldn''t even focus on weight; it was to get my BP to drop. The scale became a way to measure my progress. Motivation is an incredible thing and health is a great motivator. I ignored my body and everyone else’s concerns about me for years. I can assure you both my DH and my family are absolutely delighted I found the determination to do this. Maybe take my story and my picture in for your friend to see. I get comments all the time I inspired someone to start a diet. I am glad you like your new chair and ottoman. We were talking this morning about doing some things in our house soon. Weekend projects on cold days; at least I won’t mind them anymore – it’s all a good way to burn an extra calorie or two. Grilled cheese sandwiches are delicious! We tried the slow churned mint cc tonight; it is awesome!
MrsSalvo, thank you for the kind words about me. I am delighted to have you and the rest of the WWT’rs come along with me on my journey.
Rod, we got in the 60’s here today but the breeze was coming off some cold mountain top. I was grateful to have my Land’s End fleece on – it does block wind as described online. Woo hoo! Thank you so very much for your support and saying you are proud of me. I am pretty proud of myself. I dig out my JJ cleaner on the weekends too. Hubby even cleaned his wring today and was impressed at how much better it looked. He has a band with 3 rows of different colored gold; they each have patterns and you can spin each row making different patterns. It was so mucky (is that a word?) that they weren’t spinning any more. Maybe he’ll let me clean it when I offer now. I so agree we must have totally sparkling clean diamonds. Strolling around the art festival sounds fun and I’m glad the gym wasn’t busy again. What a treat that is!
Kimberly, thank you so much for telling your story. Congratulations for loosing 74 pounds. I know those looks and the feelings you get when you can tell what someone is nonverbally commenting about your size. I am glad you found the program that worked for you. And you lost it all by yourself – yeah! It’s also obvious you are determined to stay focused on your healthy lifestyle. I honestly feel like you about my flabby skin; I worked very hard to get that way and I’m very proud of it. It does make me sigh when I see it. I just am not going to let it bother me. You did a great job maintaining your weight for over 5 years and that is wonderful you then decided to loose more weight. I know people mean well but they do say some insensitive things. We both know we can’t ever let ourselves indulge to excess ever again. That is awesome John loves to garden so much. Fresh fruits and vegetables plus gorgeous flowers, wow; you are lucky there!
Hi Skippy. You have sweet dreams too.

 

[KimberlyH]

Marcy, it was my pleasure to share. It''s one of the things that defines me, who I am and who I strive to be. May sound a bit dramatic or silly, but being overweight had such an impact on every aspect of my life, and losing weight did so much to change who I am and how I feel about myself that I would place it in my top 5 defining moments of my life.

 

[tdiddy]

Marcy - I loved reading your story. Talk about a "super-woman"!

 

[tdiddy]

Well, I tried another long 14 miler today on my lower cal "diet" and bonked yet again. All of my shorter and medium runs during the week were ok, but I guess 1400-1600 cals while training for this event just isn''t cutting it. On the way home from my run I had made the decision to work on losing the weight and to let go of the late fall marathon this year. I''ve done marathons before, but running the marathon won''t make me as happy as losing the weight and I can start training again in Dec. for the Cincinnati marathon anyway.

Ironically, I ran into my nutritionist at Panera an hour after this all happened when I went to "refuel" and let him in on the happenings. He gave me a few ideas to rework my diet the day before and day of my long run. Long story short, I have decided to give it one more shot on my long run next weekend. If the tips he gave me work, then great....I''ll continue through the last month of training and do the race. If not, then I can accept that I just wasn''t meant to do this one and I''ll use the time to work on strength training and speed work. Hopefully next weekend will go better.

Skippy: so cool that you got to see hot air balloons! We see them here maybe once every five years....not nearly enough.

Rod and Mara: sounds like you both had a fab weekend!

Kimberly: another very cool story. congratulations on making such a positive change in your life, too!

 

[Rod]

Date: 9/30/2007 8:38:55 PM
Author: KimberlyH
Marcy, I don''t mind sharing at all. I started gaining weight when I was 20, I was extremely active until a series of life events (work schedule, school, and a boyfriend, who I always exercised with, got into a major accident that left him incapacitated for a long period of time) got in the way; then I moved to finish college, didn''t know anyone, was bored and ate to fill a void; I met some friends and led the typical college life, beer and fast food at 3am, you know, the good stuff in life. I stopped weighing myself when I hit 150 lbs., which occured not long after I moved. I didn''t get on the scale for a very long time after (like 2 years). I went for to the dr. for a physical and the nurse demanded I get on the scale; it read 199 pounds. I knew I was heavy, but not that heavy! At about the same time I called off an engagement (thank goodness!) and took a trip back ''home'' to visit family and friends. I attended a party to see a group of friends I hadn''t since I''d moved 3 years earlier. They were astonished by my size, I could see it in their eyes, but no one said a word. I was so ashamed and the combination of those three things made me determined to change things around.

I went to Weight Watchers shortly after and my first weigh in was 201 lbs. I attended for a while but it wasn''t my thing, it was too food focused and I was trying to get away from that. So after 4 months of attending meetings I figured I could just do it on my own. I started losing in August and was down 68 pounds when I plateaued about 7 months later. I remained between 132-138 pounds for 5 years. During that time I started to run, at 171 lbs. I participated in a 5k. My body doesn''t enjoy running nearly as much as my heart does so I don''t do it often. I started participating in this thread last fall, started calorie counting in January and went from 138 lbs. to 125 lbs. I now sit, fairly happily at about 127. I''d like to get back to 125, but am not going to sweat it if I don''t. Part of me hates what I did to my body, the stretch marks, the extra skin, etc. They gross me out. But they are also physical badges of my journey.

Some people don''t believe me when I say I was fat, I''m so sorry those people disbelieve you, and your own amazing will power, it really is a phenomenal thing. I get a lot of ''you''re skinny you don''t have to worry about what you eat'' or ''you''re too regimented'' or ''a little bit won''t hurt you'' which makes me laugh. If I''m comfortable I''ll share my story, or say ''I am the way I am because I work at it,'' if not I just ignore the comments. I find it odd that people feel they have the right to comment on such personal things about others.

So that''s my story.

We''re keeping the bed spread, It''s growing on me.

John is making pasta with brocolli raab for dinner, yummy!

You''re a very special person Kimberly and your story makes you even more special in my book. Thank you for sharing this. You rock Kimberly. John is a very lucky man to have you. Two acres, huh? Oh my, that''s way way way too much property to take care of. Better him than me, that''s for sure. Hugs to you.........

 

[marcy]

Kimberly, that is so awesome that your new life so dramatically changed you forever. I would certainly have to say that like you this is will easily be in my top 5 defining moments of my life. As you so eloquently expressed; this defines who you are and who you strive to be. I couldn’t put it any better myself. Being overweight has been a big factor in my entire life and I want to make sure it becomes a memory, no longer a fact of life.
Tdiddy, thank you loving my story and thinking I’m super woman. I hope the tips your nutritionist gave you will help you have the energy and strength you need for your big run. Running that much on 1400 to 1600 calories probably really zaps your body. Good luck.