WI Fail, Gym Success, Gwynnie Bee

So, I gained this week.  Mid-week weigh in was right.  This prompted me to think, when I lost a bunch of weight before, despite advice telling me to do otherwise, I did weigh myself daily.  And tracked it.  So I might try that.  I don't always have time in the morning to weigh myself, or am awake enough to remember during "prime weighing time" (which means before I do anything except pee and rub sleep crust from my eyes).  So.  We'll see.  Friday I did join a game at DietBet.  The pot is currently at $300 with 20 players.  According to the game, I only have to lose 4.5 lbs in the next 25 days.  I think I can do that!  I started to get anxious about whether I would win, then I realized that if I lose the weight, I win at least some money.  That's what is so cool about DietBet!  Check it out!!

Yesterday I made it through a WHOLE Saturday morning Zumba class!  I am quite happy with myself.  I am also sore in my abs and shoulders today.  Well, no pain, no gain!  I'm going to another class tonight too.

I'm also pretty pumped because I signed up for Gwynnie Bee, after reading about the new service on one of the blogs I follow.  This service is just plain genuis, it's like Netflix for clothes sizes 10-26.  Fan.freaking.awesome!!!  If you sign up this month, you get a free 30 day trial.  Check it out, and let them know I referred you!


Current weight - 208.0


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

Mini Challenges

Today I was reading my current guilty pleasure chick lit, Confessions of a Failed Anorexic.  The lead character is struggling with her weight and internally wonders if she's so overweight that even if she loses 20 pounds, will anyone notice?  Will her husband notice?  I think exactly the same things.  With almost 80 pounds to lose before I reach my ultimate goal, it feels like it will be forever before anyone (or even myself) starts noticing any weight loss.  So, my very very dear friend and fellow blogger suggested I set mini-challenges for myself.  I've thought about doing mini-challenges before, but I never know what goal to set.  I know what my ultimate goal is, so having mini-goals seems anti-climatic.  This time though, maybe I need to try something different.

Having reached my highest weight ever, I'm going to set my first goal as getting back into ONEderland.  Now, I really hate that phrase.  Alas, getting back to "ONEderland" is what I need to do first.  I'm adding a new ticker to my blog to track my current mini-challenges.  The ultimate loss ticker and chart just seem too depressing to me, too far fetched.  I'll keep those, but I need to see some sliding action happen faster than the ticker for my ultimate goal.

Hooray to my friend for suggesting it!! xo

Never Weigh Yourself in the Middle of the Week!

Last night Hubs and I went to the gym, and I swam for about 20 minutes.  Now, I'm not the strongest swimmer, so I acknowledge that this doesn't burn a whole lot of calories for me.  However, since I power-housed through (almost) three classes over the weekend, and plan to go again this weekend, last night's swim was more of a bonus workout than anything.  I feel like I didn't do well on my calories yesterday, but I still had a deficit of 547.  Actually, that could be my lowest deficit since tracking, now that I think about it.  Anyway, this morning I felt like I have been doing fairly well overall so I wanted to weigh myself to see how progress is going.  I never log mid-week weigh ins since they are not "official" but sometimes it's nice to have that encouragement.  Somehow, I just never learn.  Whenever I do this I either see a great number, but a not as great number on my official weigh in day, OR, I weigh in even higher than my last weigh in.  This morning was a SCARY high number.

My friend has this pic on her blog, I think it's hilarious.

Now I am doubting myself.  Are my deficits too low?  Did my body somehow absorb pool water which made the scale lie to me?  Will I ever be able to shed this unwanted weight?  Time will only tell.

Raspberry Ketones

I'm going to say it, I think Dr. Oz is full of crap.  I think he promotes items that are not actually proven to be effective and gets a slice of the profits once a product's sales have skyrocketed after being on his show.

~HOWEVER~

I also think that there are some more controversial diets and/or products that are judged before a person looks into them for themselves.

Last night I received a bottle of raspberry ketones to try out.  Before I ordered the supplement, I did some online research and a lot of it revolved around the hype that Dr. Oz produced.

~AGAIN, HOWEVER~

Based on my very own thoughts, I decided to try out a raspberry ketones product anyway.  In the past I found a company called Creative Bioscience.  I found this company when I was trying to find HCG*** drops that weren't full of fake crap.  It was their Facebook page that ultimately made me go with their HCG product.  Their Facebook page had a lot of helpful information, but more importantly, had an active following.  Fans posted on the page and Creative Bioscience would actually respond!  They didn't delete that hard questions, they didn't avoid them, they answered anything.  I really, really liked that.  To me that shows that they back up their product, they're not just in it to sell a false product and reap the benefits.  So, back to raspberry ketones, I was looking for a product that wasn't from a company only looking to make profits off people who are lead to believe that raspberry ketones are a miracle pill.  What do I expect out of them?  I expect that they boost my existing diet and exercise plan.  Not that they will magically make my weight drop off.  Since I had already used a product by Creative Bioscience, I thought I would see if they had a raspberry ketone product available.  And they do!  Their product also contains green tea extract, african mango extract, and acai berry.  All of these ingredients have at least been rumored to promote weight loss, so it seems like a good mix to me.  I started taking them last night because I wanted a diet boost ASAP.  We'll see how this goes!

***The HCG diet (at least in this part of the country) is considered a scam.  Most people in this area only think the diet is to eat 500 calories a day, which most people also know is unhealthy.  After doing my own research, I found that an HCG diet is actually supposed to be supplemented by HCG drops which counter the fact that you're not consuming enough calories.  They essentially release extra calories that you're already storing, so you're really not starving yourself.  I did lose weight on this diet but ultimately it was too restrictive for me to follow.


*Please note all opinions expressed are entirely my own, and I was neither asked nor compensated for them.

A Fantastic Weekend

I had a freaking blast at Zumba last night.  My BFF has a few weeks left of membership at the same gym as me, and she came down from her too far away house to shake it with me.  I went to a class lead by one of the top Zumba instructors in the state.  I loved it.  I'm actually looking forward to going again.  After a weekend of THREE aerobics classes, I am pretty sore today.  My calves and my shoulders are yelling at me.  I can also feel it in my inner thighs when I walk.  PAIN IS GOOD!  Let's keep this up!

I found out about this cool site today - http://dietbet.com/  In a nutshell, you sign up and can either join a game or start your own with friends.  People in the game place bets and have 4 weeks to lose 4% of their weight.  Everyone's money goes into the game's "pot" and at the end, whoever has lost at least 4% wins a slice of the pot.  There are several open games with varied amounts you need to bet, and have a varied amount of players which of course means a bigger pot to win from.  I'm not sure yet if it's something I want to do, because if I'm honest with myself I'm not sure if I can lose 4% in 4 weeks, but I really like the idea of it.  I really, really like the idea of it.  After looking through the website it looks pretty freaking cool!

Yesterday I ate out for lunch, AND had fondue for dinner with Hubs.  Since I burned 665 calories during Zumba, I came out with a deficit of 701 calories.  Not too shabby considering those two meals!  I am looking forward to this week because I am starting to pick up work lunch and snacks in the lower calorie range, helping me out with staying in range of my daily calorie goal.  Last week I tracked, but the snacks I had were still fairly high calorie.  This should be a good week!  I also brought in my gigantor water bottle today, so I'll start drinking from it and peeing a lot.  Back when I lost a bunch of weight several years ago, I had the most success when I drank 60oz water per day.  I can't remember how many ounces this has, but it's massive!

Maybe I should bet on myself.  Hmmm....

Yesterday's totals
Calories consumed - 2018
Calories burned - 2719
Deficit - 701

Weigh In & Partial Success at the Gym!

This morning I burned approximately 750 calories at the gym.  Woohoo!  I completed the water aerobics class, but I left the Zumba class 20 minutes early.  I went to the gym on an empty stomach so I stopped in the cafe to have breakfast.  I had a smoothie before water aerobics, and I bought a protein bar for between classes.  Well, I ate the protein bar before I went to Zumba and I don't think it agreed with me.  My stomach was all sorts of swishy during class and there were a few times I had to pause and linger over my water to let my stomach settle back down.  I was also developing a massive headache, which didn't help.  I tried to stick it out but Zumba was getting too jumpy for me.  So I used the time at the Member Services desk to finish adding Hubs to my account.  Then I went to Caribou to pick up some real food (since I don't really have any at home) and coffee to help both my head and my stomach.  Even though I left Zumba early, I am proud of myself for making it to the class in the first place.  During water aerobics I just wanted to leave, but I kept thinking to myself that I HAD to go otherwise I would be disappointed with myself. 

I also had a successful weigh in, down 1.2 pounds from October 20th.  I am annoyed that I forgot to weigh myself last week to get an actual number of pounds lost in one week.  But ... I guess down is down, right?  So, woohoo for me again.

I did feel good about being at the gym on a Saturday morning and burning calories during a time I would usually be lying in bed or just lounging in my house.  Maybe I'll add Saturdays to my routine too, but let's take it one at a time, shall we?

Weigh in - 207.4
Lost 1.2 lbs

Finally, some success!

Yesterday actually ended as a good day.  Woohoo!  I was under calories a bit, so I had a pretty good deficit.  Tomorrow will be my first weigh in day after logging and tracking again.  Also, since the class I was going to the other night was canceled, I plan on going to water aerobics at 9am, then Zumba at 10:30am.  Phew!  Wish me luck on that.  To help keep up my motivation, after Zumba I get to sit in the eucalyptus steam room after I'm all done.  Ahhhh, peace.  Feels so good in there.  I'm debating whether I should buy new shoes for Zumba because when I did Zumba before, my shoes were hard to Zumba in.  I couldn't move or turn quickly because my shoes stuck to the floor, and as a result it always hurt my ankles.  I've been googling shoes to wear to Zumba and I could get dance sneakers, but there are also less obvious but still good for dancing sneakers available.  I want something with a low profile and that isn't too bulky.  Something I can move well in.  Something that's not too obvious to me that I'm wearing shoes.  Decisions, decisions.

Yesterdays totals:
Calories consumed - 1361
Calories burned - 2156
Deficit - 795