Weight loss, exercise, toning muscles, trying to get into shape….have all gone out the window in the past 7 mos.

‘Had to drop my horseback riding lessons back in Jan 2008 due to A- a 3 wk case of bronchitous, then B- just not having the money to continue anymore…

Since the last job ended in Dec 2007, i’ve mostly spent my days hanging around the apartment, looking thru Monster.com postings & the like…so i’m not longer getting even the mild activity that having a regular job provides

I located a dance studio with a really great monthly rate: $85.oo for all the classes you want to take,,,,but yet each month i cant scrape up enough to sign up with them

i SHOULD at least take some daily / weekly walks….my knees and one hip hurt alot due to the weight i’m carrying,,,,but then my knees hurt and the humidity gets so oppressive that i dont feel like venturing out at all…

Thus from all this inactivity, my weight is starting to inch up abit. Not much, maybe between 6-8 lbs. But enough to sqeeze me back out of some of the clothes i’d been wearing; enough to put me back on the size 16W/18 fence, where is next to impossible to find cheap clothes that fit.

Arrggh! i hate it, i hate my current weight, i hate how i look in photos, because i can no longer blame the weight-inducing drugs that got me here—its up to me now to get this damned weight off

too bad i’m a mostly lazy, fat slob
:P

just cuz i’m spending time this evening, switching over my calendar’s,,,i thot i’d jot down all my notations of weight loss this year… It’s not strictly progress toward the “tone muscles & exercise heart” goal, but it IS moving towards health. And, besides, after four years of having no control over the GAINING, i’m going to truly relish the last 8mos of LOSING

_{wheeeeeeeee !!!}

Meds Change: April 14 2006

initial weight: somewhere over 250lbs

_{(honestly, i’d stopped looking…)}

• july 10 2006: 228lbs

• july 31 2006: 224lbs

• august 13 2006: 221lbs

• october 26 2006: 219lbs

• november 22 2006: 210lbs

• december 26 2006: 205lbs

...i was a TAD vain in hoping i’d clear the 200lbs mark by the end of 2006,,,but all & all…thats about 50lbs lost. Not bad at’tall. ‘Cant wait to see where i’ll be a year from now!

without any real effort on my part, but because of medication changes in apr 2006,,,,,i have, as of this week, officially dropped 40+ lbs woo hoo!

i was somewhere over 250lbs (kinda just stopped looking after hitting 250lb, because there wasnt much i could do about it) Now that i’ve been taken off the “Weight-Inducing” meds, and put again on a “weight neutral” med, the artifical weight has been steadily coming off. I dont have any set routine about checking my weight, just whenever i happen to have the time and am ‘sans clothing’, i’ll check the scale. Yesterday’s read-out:210lbs

yay yay yay!

if things continue as it has in the past, i should drop down to 180lbs w/o any effort. Then’s when i’ll have start mindfully whittling off the additional 30lbs. I think being a 5’6” woman medium build woman in her 40’s, that weighing in the 150lbs’ would be a pretty healthy weight for me. I’ll never be “buff”; just want to focus on maintaining health… I have gotten horseback riding and walking back into my weekly life—perhaps then i could add back the strength training and dance lessons….

if for no other reason, i’ve Got To get this weight off to salvage my KNEES! Theyre being pulverized by carrying all this poundage around….
;D

required to maintain health…

• Walking—ideally, 10,000 steps per day

• Strength Training—30mins per week, to increase metabolic rate

• Cardio—a sweating workout for 60mins/week, can be broken up into 20minute workouts

• Stretching—5mins worth each day

• schedule the time necessary to exercise daily

Go away, extra pounds! Run! Be free!

Made it to the gym tonight, for the 2nd time in a month (this is an improvement; before it’d been since xmas & my illness) I not only got on 8 of my 10 assigned strength training machines (about 9800 lbs lifted), did 17 mins on the treadmill, and 6 laps in the pool,,,,,,but the scale in the gym said i was 203 lbs – - when i last weighed in at 231 lbs! i couldnt quite believe it, & checked it again After my workout, & it read 195lbs (loss of fluids). I’ve been doing accupuncture treatments for a digestive disorder since June, & had not realized that my food absorption & metabolism had improved that much (tho i’ve been feeling Much better..!)

So yea!! Progress on Two Fronts!!

In no particular order

the things i try to do to exercise

• Walking, either around my block or my fav locale called Gaslight, for 20 mins

• Pilates, register for, take classes

• Swimming, do as many laps/breaststroke as can at my gym
  (was up to 22 laps, then lost my routine due to illness, am starting back over at 2-3)

• biking, Loveland bike trail, as much as possible
  (used to do 9 mils, but have lost my bike-buddy & my bike has a broken wheel, that i havent had $$$ to fix yet)

• Horseback Riding (see get pony goal)

• Strength Training, had established a 10 machine regime with a trainer at my gym, and was up about 11,000lbs/workout, then same illness as w/ swimming & am starting over AGAIN

• Treadmill, same as above, had built up to 27 mins at 2.9 speed, now starting over at 11 mins at 1.9 rate (if i go fster it puts me out of the “correct cardio/metabolism increase” range)(i.e. heart rate jumps up too high / out of ‘healthy-advised workout range)

• free weights (at home with TV)

• yoga (got this apartment just for the carpeted floors to do workouts)

• jump rope (horribly unco-ordinated, but up to about 4-5 loops before tripping up) ;)

• dancing ~Probably what i do the most. All the time, at home, whenver i get a chance out, whenver…i dance till breathless, 4-7 mins, sit down down, catch breath, (like i said, being a wimp sucks!) then jump up & dance again. i Love to dance, & if i had the $$$ would sign up for every kind of dance training i could….

tis an ever tougher aspiration, and especially harder since i never was an “athlete” in any sense of the word. I did only what liked just doing… But, of course, time marches on, gravity marches downward, one’s metabolism goes to nil & its ever tougher to stay healthy….Which is my main goal. I dont care so much about the weight as much as the health associated w/ weight gain… (Besides, its annoying to be such a wimp!) I keep trying to find ways to “trick” myself into such: walking with friends, parking my car on the farthest side of the lot, buying a jump rope & small hand-weights to do at home while watching TV, etc…Ah, such mental mind games ;)

...and 2 major medical problems, along with 3 minor ones (heart murmur, hypotension, borderline anemia) doesnt help with the resolve & stamina…i’m hoping the “getting my pony” goal will be another help to getting in shape (a one trick pony ??)
:)