It wasn't that bad!

Back in the middle of March I blogged about some goals I set for myself for the week. One of them being to do the 30 Day Shred 5 times/week. And while I started off strong, completing 3 days in a row, I never actually pulled through and finished.

So the following week I made it a goal again, minus blogging about it. I crashed and burned after completing one day. And since then I've been a huge couch potato.

Until today.

After reading Carolyn's blog yesterday I felt like I was in a V8 commercial where someone bops you on the head saying, "you could've had a V8" only she was saying "you could be active and on the wagon!" And because Carolyn is a runner {a kick ass one too} I was beginning to think about starting to run again.

The Shred just wasn't working for me. Doing the same work out 5 days in a row, and not one that I particularly look forward to completing was becoming torture. And while I know a work out isn't supposed to be easy I also know there is a difference between something being hard but doable and hard but dreadful. So I knew it was time to start looking for another work out.

Finally around 5:30 yesterday I sent out a text to Carolyn and my other favorite running blogger Tammy Jo simply telling them I was thinking about starting to run again. And I'm so glad I sent that text. Those ladies gave me nothing but support and encouragement that I could do it {and should do it}. Carolyn even helped push me to start today instead of Monday {because everything starts on a Monday, right?}.

And even after a 6:30am wake up call, 1.91 miles, and 29:25 minutes later I'm still so glad I sent that text! Thank you, thank you ladies!

It wasn't that bad!

It's Wednesday so that also means that it is time to link up for Weigh In Wednesday.

And oh boy has it been a while since I participated in one of these. But here goes.

Starting Weight {highest recorded weight}: 207.7

Last Weigh In Wed., Feb. 12: 206.8

Today's Weigh In, Apr. 2: 205.5

Loss: 1.3

Overall Loss: 2.2

Heck yes! Seeing that I'm losing some weight, even if it's small amounts here and there, is encouraging! And honestly, I would rather lose it slowly {although frustrating sometimes} and keep it off long term than lose it quickly and see it come back just as quickly.

And that's it. That's all I've got to report this fine Wednesday morning. Can you tell I'm in a good mood? :)

Do you need a push from friends/family to take an idea you're thinking about to something you're actually doing?

The Power of the Buddy System

I'm back again! I didn't celebrate St. Patty's Day so I'm not nursing a hangover but I am down in the dumps that my area of Wisconsin is looking at getting some more snow again today/tonight. As much as I love the winter months when I get to snowmobile I didn't do that at all this winter so I am totally over it and the snow.

Moving on...

I mentioned yesterday in my weekly goals post that I was doing the 30 Day Shred with Tammy Jo {her blog: You Wouldn't Call it a Drinking Problem}. And today I just wanted to take a moment to sing the praises of the buddy system.

This journey to lose weight / make a healthy lifestyle change is hard. I've started this journey many many times before, even saw some success, but it has never really stuck with me for the long haul before. But I'm hoping to put that behind me and make this the time it all sticks with me.

I know that it all starts with me and that I have to want to make the changes and actually put in the hard work. But for me there is another factor to success. Having a buddy, someone who will work out with you and push you to do what you know you should do when you really don't want to do it.

It has worked in the past and it's working again now for me even though Tammy Jo is hundreds of miles away in Texas this time rather than across town.

Yesterday morning I just couldn't get myself out of bed so I decided I would work out after work. But while I was sitting at work for those eight long hours I had changed my mind and decided that I would just skip my work out for the day. I was tired, Dancing with the Stars was premiering and I was already going to miss the first 30 minutes, and honestly who wants to work out before getting to sit down and veg? Not this girl!

Thankfully Tammy Jo pulled through for me with the buddy system. She knocked out day one of the Shred and then proceeded to Instagram it and shared it on Twitter plus she texted me. So when I walked out of work I had all of these notifications waiting for me. How could I skip my work out now? Everyone would know that I was supposed to and then didn't. The answer was simple, I couldn't skip my work out. And I didn't.

This morning I was laying in bed after my alarm went off and was dreading getting out of bed to complete day two. But after talking to Tammy Jo, who was only going to TRY to get her work out done this morning as of last night, I realized I just needed to get up and get it over with. So I did it. And so did she.

While this journey is a very personal one and takes a lot of hard work and determination that can only come from within having a strong support system and a good buddy to help you out is extremely helpful if not necessary. At least for me it is.

2 days down, 3 more to go this week!

Do you use the buddy system?

I'm linking up with Kay from The Best of Intentions and Allie from Tales of a Twenty Something for Tough it out Tuesday.

Long Time No See

Hello blog world! Long time no see huh? It wasn't intentional but apparently I felt the need to take a month off from blogging. And some how that meant taking a month off from weighing in and working on my healthy lifestyle. I'm giving myself the side eye right now for that one...

But the important thing is I'm back, both on the blog and on the wagon. I'm here today to link up with the fabulous Carolyn to chat about my weekly goals. {Be sure to check out her blog if you need some inspiration!}

Since I am essentially starting over {again, for like the 1,000th time} I'm starting small with some basic goals to just get me wading into the shallow end.

1) 30 Day Shred 5 times/week. The goal is to complete the five work outs Monday-Friday with Tammy Jo {she blogs too! Check her out here.} Ideally I would get this done in the morning before work but I do have the option to get it done after work now that I don't have other family members to contend with for the TV time.

2) 64 ounces of water a day. Typically I get 80 ounces in a day when I'm focused on drinking water but I'm okay with getting the recommended 64 ounces {8 glasses}. We'll just see how this goes but the overall goal here is to drink more water {less Mountain Dew}.

3) Sleep at least 7 hours. Thanks to my fancy FitBit Flex tracking my sleep is a breeze! Some nights I struggle to get to bed at a decent time but I know that the more I sleep at night the easier it will be to get up and moving in the mornings.

Three goals for seven days.

I know I can do this, I've done it before. The hardest part will be getting around the mental roadblock that I can't or that it is hard. Yes, it's going to be hard to make changes to my lifestyle. I've been working on perfecting my bad habits for 23 going on 24 years already so they are not going to change overnight or be easy to change. But I know that I can start the changes, I've done that part countless times before. The real challenge will be sustaining those changes over the long haul.

But to prevent becoming overwhelmed with looking at the big picture I'm going to focus on seven days at a time. Or even better, one day at a time.

And that one day begins now!

WIW: 2/12/14

Good  morning! FINALLY we're half way through the week! Sadly it's snowing again here which means I have to get my butt moving so I can make it to an appointment before work so I don't have a lot of blogging time right now.

But I wanted to check in for weigh in Wednesday real quick. Not that it really matters because my weight essentially stayed the same this week again. Which is good, but I'm also sporting a sad face about it because who wouldn't want to see a loss on the scale?

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Week's Weigh In, Feb. 5: 206.6

Today's Weigh In, Feb. 12: 206.8

Gain: 0.2

Overall Loss: 0.9

So another very slight gain that I'm going to just count as staying the same. Because really what is 0.2? Nothing really.

My goals are rough going this week, especially the one about getting up at the time I choose the night before. Last night was especially rough because I could not fall asleep for the life of me. But on the bright side that lack of sleep was due to being completely over the moon excited about something {okay and being a little nervous}. I'm keeping it a "secret" until I can confirm that things are official.

Lazy is my Middle Name

Despite my best intentions to get out of bed on time this morning so I would have plenty of time to write this blog post and pick out some nice clothes to wear for work that's not what happened. It's later than I would like and I'm in jeans and a t-shirt once again and I'm just sitting down to write this post. That being said, I'm going to hurry up and crank this blog post out so I can stay accountable for last week's goals and set some new ones.

Last week's goals:

1. Work out at least three times. I worked out once. Being lazy won out over trying to accomplish this goal with real effort. I have no good reason for why I didn't get two more work outs in last week.

2. Track everything, good or bad. I was doing fantastic with this goal Monday-Friday. Friday night-Sunday being lazy won again. Once again, I have no good reason for why I didn't track those last two days.

3. At least 7 hours of sleep every night. CHECK! I started off strong tracking this early in the week but this weekend that went out the window. Even without tracking I know I accomplished this. Last night my sleep was hard to come by thanks to an afternoon nap. But my delay in getting up this morning made up for it. Not exactly how I want to go about accomplishing 7 hours of sleep but it got the job done.

So this week, while it might not be as exciting, I'm going to stick with some of the same goals.

1. Work out at least three times. Three work outs in seven days is totally doable. I just need to get my shit together and get it done.

2. Track everything, good or bad. If I can do this for most of the week, including a totally out of control day where I would have rather hid the evidence of my crazy eating, then I can do this for a full seven days.

3. Choose a time to get up the night before and actually do it! I know I'm getting enough sleep and that I can get to bed at a decent time to make an "early" wake up time doable. Now it's time to fix this horrible morning habit I have of using the snooze button a hundred times every morning.

And in exciting news, I decided to use some of my tax refund money to purchase a FitBit Flex on Saturday. I am super excited for it to arrive so I can start tracking my sleep better and seeing how active (or inactive) I really am every day. Now if only five to seven days didn't seem like an eternity!

How do you avoid hitting the snooze button in the morning?

My Starting Line

Now that we have that out of the way...

After seeing some sort of miracle {or lucky fluctuation} on the scale last week I was kind of hoping for the same thing this morning. But that would have been expecting a lot after only two days back in the saddle.

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Weigh In, Jan. 22: 207.7

Last Week's Weigh In, Jan. 29: 205.9

Today's Weigh In, Feb. 5: 206.6

Gain: 0.7

Overall Loss: 1.1

I didn't get around to posting last week for Weigh In Wednesday so I threw it in with this week's stats just so I have a record of it on the blog. Like I said, last week was a miracle or some lucky fluctuation because I lost 1.8 pounds in a week. And while the gain on the scale this week wasn't huge it was still a bit of a downer.

I was very much tempted to skip out on my work out this morning after my visit with the scale. Instead I pushed past the mental BS and got it done because I knew I would regret skipping the work out, I wouldn't be able to reach my goal for the week, and because I knew I had friends that would be checking in with me. {Thanks Carolyn & Tammy Jo!}

I might hate the work out today but I'll be glad I did it later on. Whether that's tomorrow, a week from now, or a month from now we'll see. But we've all got to start some where and this is my starting line.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for $75 PayPal Cash!

How do you get yourself going when you really don't want to get up and do a work out?

First Time for Everything

I'm going to keep this short and sweet since I have the strong urge to get to bed and I'm really bummed that Peyton and the Broncos lost to Seattle in the Super Bowl.

I'm going to link up with the lovely Carolyn for the first time to share my goals for the week. Better late than never to get back on track, right?

After getting some good advice about setting my goals for the week from Carolyn I decided to go with three; one related to each of these: food, exercise and an overall good habit.

1. Work out three times this week.

2. Track everything, good or bad.

3. At least 7 hours of sleep every night.

Each of these goals will be a challenge but they are also all attainable if I set my mind to accomplishing them. As I told Carolyn, it will be tough but I want this so I'll make it happen. I'm feeling motivated and am looking forward to reaching that point of being determined as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tammy Jo :: Ashton : Amy :: Aubrey Leigh :: Nina

Valentine's Day Cash Giveaway Details:

*Giveaway will start at midnight on 2/3/14 and will end at 11:59 pm on 2/7/14. 

*All mandatory options must be completed to win the cash. (Once all mandatory options completed you can complete other non-mandatory options to increase your chance of winning.

*Winner will be randomly picked through Rafflecopter once giveaway is over. After confirming the completion of all mandatory entries, winner will be sent $75 PayPal cash to their account from Ashton.

Good Luck!!!!!!