Trans4mation---

Trans4ming my eating as I’m trans4ming my body,

trans4ming my mind, and trans4ming my life

Diet vs  exercise---bottom line: 

No exercise or diet program = 0 pounds lost/probably gain 
Exercise only programs = 4.4 pounds lost
Diet only program = 15.8 pounds lost
Both programs combined= 19.8 pounds lost

It may look like exercise is not as important as diet in weight loss.  However, there’s a lot more to the story than that! 

I affirmed the usual statistics way back when I tried to lose weight for my daughters’ weddings. I exercised my tail off—not exactly the right kind of exercise I realize now---- but I worked hard on it at the gym every day! My big mistake?  Not changing my eating habits. Thus, I put on muscle under the layers of fat and my body just got bigger!! Not what I had hoped!  Pretty discouraging at the time trying to fit into my mother of the bride dresses!

The other side of the coin---all diet and no exercise has resulted in baggy saggy skin or lots of wiggle-jiggle for some of those who have lost the weight! --- Not to mention lack of muscle tone, strength, and stamina to name only a few missing results. I've heard it called the skinny-fat!  When someone is thin and looks great in clothes, but is all flabby underneath.

For me, the diet was critical, but I do not discount  exercise at all. Both the diet AND the exercise SHOCKED my body those first few months. Over the past 10 months as I have taken off over 60 pounds, the shape of my body has changed dramatically. I’ve never had narrow hips and thighs even at my smallest. I had this very small waist---23” when I got married, but hips that were way out of proportion to it! I believe they call it a pear shape! lol

Best boot camp ever!!

Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance

1222 Bronson Way N, Suite 250

I am much more proportional now and that change I credit to the exercise.  They work hand in hand! The diet has taken off the pounds, but the exercise has kicked up my metabolism—internal fat burning machine, burning calories, as well as ‘sculpting’ and transforming  my shape!! The boot camp work outs that we do with trainer Luka Hocevar at Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance provide successful results that no standard run-of-the-mill fitness center with its machines and rubberstamp classes can even come close to doing! There is absolutely no comparison.  The workouts even 11 months later continue to have a shock factor for my body every session! Never ever the same-old-same-old workout  any of the 4+ days I go each week!

I mention all of this because my focus in this blog is on diet and I don’t want to minimize the importance of the boot camp workouts. That said, we will get to the point of Trans4ming our eating!

I followed a plan called ‘green faces’—a high protein/low carbohydrate eating plan. NOTE: This is not an easy eating plan because of the difficulty of compliance. It worked for me, but I am now branching out to add more carbs and even more variety to my eating. What really worked for me at the time is that it is simple and easy for me to use. It was trial and error for me when I started.  I had a list of foods to eat and ones to avoid. I had the verbal and a bit of written instructions concerning some of the how-to’s, but for the most part I had to figure out how to get it to work for me.

My daughter Rebekah was helpful in making some suggestions and others I just had to find out for myself.  This trial and error process helped me learn how to personalize the plan for my needs and my lifestyle. Following are four key factors that after 3 different Transformation Weight Loss challenges have made a big difference for me. You can learn from my mistakes & successes and avoid some of the struggles I experienced!

The biggest challenge for many in following ‘green faces’ is that of  being 100% compliant during the first 21 days of the plan.  There is such a mind shift needed and the potential for slip ups that totally cancel the good of those 21 days.  Some of the instructions I read told me to start over on the 21 days if I didn’t stay 100% compliant. 100%--not even a single bite outside the plan! Can you imagine getting to day 15 and having to start over???? That in itself was pretty motivating to do it right!

I had to be a bit gentle on myself since that first 21 days I unwittingly included items not allowed! But I did my best staying very compliant even while on a 2 ½ week trip.  The next time I did the 21 days a couple of months later, I was totally compliant!

I have heard it said that if you do not see results in those 21 days you are not doing it right!  You may swear up and down you were 100% compliant and you feel that you just happen to be the exception to the rule! We all want to be special don’t we??? !!! LOL  The following suggestions will work for any good eating plan. They are basic to what we should be doing anyway!

One big question:  “Did you write down EVERYTHING you ate??? Usually not. Did you ask someone who would tell you the truth to hold you accountable?  I’ve been told “I can’t journal—I can’t write it down.”  My response? Then you’re not serious about regaining your health and fitness—you’re not desperate enough yet. Sorry—but that’s just the hard truth!   You needed to hear that!!  And, by the way,  just how has doing it your own way worked for you so far?

By this time in my life, I was desperate. I didn’t have much hope left and if this didn’t work, I felt like I was relegated to a life of obesity! Yes obesity!  That is a hard word for me, but my weight, even with my tall stature had crossed over into OBESITY. Yes, I was desperate!  And I was willing to do whatever was required to make it work whether it was convenient or not; whether I liked it or not; whether it made sense to me or not!

So here are  4 Trans4ming factors that helped me start my new way of eating--the diet component of loosing weight:

1. I learned that frequency of eating is as important as what I eat. In the first days of adjusting to my new way of eating, I set a timer so I would eat every 3 hours. If  I didn't, it would be 5 hours later and I was busy doing something else! This is a total deal breaker in  resetting the metabolism and getting on track to take off pounds! Once my stomach got used to regular eating, it now tells me when it's 3 hrs! 

2.  I make a point of eating something within the first hour of getting up. Since I need to take a thyroid med on an empty stomach, I have those set out with water in the bathroom so that when I get up I take those meds. This makes it possible for me to eat pretty quickly upon rising for the day.



Glass of water ready on the window sill

 3. I drink LOTS of water. I started with at least 8/10 cups daily and this last weight loss challenge I kicked it up to 16 cups—I keep track with a check off system in my food journal. 

·       To get these in, I drink a quart of water first thing in the morning. On boot camp days--M-W-F and Sat.  I drink my 3 cup water bottle during and right after boot camp as well.
·        I drink 2 cups before each meal/snack!  Limit my water after 8 pm to not have myself up all night!! LOL--NOT funny at 12, 2 or 3 AM ! 

·       I keep a full 17 oz. glass on the kitchen window sill. It’s easier for me to drink a filled glass than to stop and fill it first. As soon as I empty the glass I refill it immediately!  Leave it full last thing at night as well.

·       I use glass. There’s something about plastic that just makes it hard to drink all the water I need.

4.  Plan, Plan, Plan!  I have been most successful when I have written out my menu for the week.  For me, simple is better.

·      I develop my shopping list from the menus. These menus can be repeated every other week or so. I shop one day and cook the next day, packaging everything for easy access. When I'm hungry, I might grab whatever is handy whether it’s healthy or not!

·       I zip loc package a peeled hard boiled egg with some cucumber slices or snap pea pods and store in the frig. I can grab it very fast if I have to run out the door quickly.  It's amazing what can suddenly require me to go someplace on the spur of the moment and derail my plan!

·       I always have my water bottle full for the same reason.

·       During a contest I record my food intake. It’s good for me to do this whether in a contest or not because I find it pretty easy to lose track of what I'm eating if I don’t record.  My journal is very visible on the kitchen counter!

                                                                       

Water bottle ready to go!!

I hope these first  4  points will make a difference in your success.

Next time I will share the following:

• What do I actually eat?  
• What's on my grocery list?
• How do I shop?  
• What recipes work for me?
• What are my steps of preparation? 

On second thought,  I probably won’t be able to share quite all this at once!!! But keep checking back in and I will continue showing you  how this baby boomer grandma is making it work. Until next time, may God richly bless YOU!

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!!

40^th anniversaries are something special to commemorate especially in the times we are living when commitment seems to have a different definition than when we exchanged our wedding vows:  "in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, ‘til death us do part."

So did we take a trip or go some place really nice to celebrate? To understand our practical mentality I’ll take you back to our first year of marriage. We got married on the Saturday of Memorial Day week end—it was convenient with 3 days off! We spent the night at my grandmother’s beach home on the ocean. Went back to work the next Tuesday!

In August we had a ‘honeymoon’ trip to visit friends and see the sites. We drove to San Francisco and back to Seattle in 117 degree weather with no AC in our car! 



Day after our wedding



One of the sites: Alcatraz!
!



Trees of mystery



Fisherman's Warf

Could we have taken a deluxe honeymoon trip to Jamaica? Sure could have! My husband had money in the bank BEFORE he married me!  LOL      
But instead, we decided to use that money as a down payment on the home we bought five months after our wedding and that we still live in today! With our nice neighborhood, convenient location, view of Lake Washington, five bedroom house and big yard, with an increase in value of 15X+, I’d say that was a very good investment wouldn’t you?  Plus, everyday we know and appreciate the fact that we live in the home that “honeymoon” money bought!

So being practical people what would we do to celebrate 40?  Take trip to Jamaica? Go to some week end luxury place? Go out on the town? Take a cruise? You guessed it---none of the above!!

We went to REI and purchased matching Novara Jaunt comfort bikes! We are looking forward to exploring the Cedar River Trail’s 11 miles to Maple Valley and many of the other cycling paths in our area. We will get great exercise and fresh air, doing something fun together, exploring new places and meeting new people. It is the gift that will keep on giving! 



Novara Jaunt Comfort Bike

Our first venture out was to the Boeing parking lot near Renton Stadium. This is so hilarious because that’s where my husband took each of our daughters for their first practice drives after getting their learner’s permits!  Now it’s us doing the practice driving----on bicycles!

We were relieved to find that we could still balance a bike and not fall off! In fact we got so comfortable that we took a quick spin along the trail that ends where Cedar River empties into Lake Washington!

Our next venture will be to tackle part of the Cedar River Trail with our grandchildren. Last time they were on bikes and we walked/ran to keep up with them. This time we will all have wheels!!!

This is baby boomer grandma—hoping you too will reward yourself with a “gift that keeps on giving!”  Until next time-----May God richly bless YOU.

WHEN I STUMBLE

I didn’t say if because being a human being I will not do it all right all the time!

This morning I was looking over my journal entries from the beginning of my weight loss challenges. It was very encouraging and motivating for me! I need to faithfully journal because it is one more tool to help me be consistent as I chronicle my progress.  It also reminds me ‘from whence I’ve come!”

So I begin today (June 27^th, 2011) with my struggles of yesterday. I was not prepared for the day with an eating plan. The failure to plan is a plan to fail and I proved it. In fact this whole week has not been very good for me.

My side tracked eating has included a couple of pints of ice cream, 6 ice cream bars, a dozen or more home made cookies as well as half a dozen large Safeway chocolate (3)  and snicker doodle (3) cookies!  And I don't even like them that much!! Chocolate covered raisins finished off my binge! What I thought was for one day has lasted a week!  And where did it all go?  To my belly!!!

So what do I do? Wallow in my self-pity? Keep it going? Beat myself up? Spiral down into a cycle of regret and what ifs? Or “look what you’ve done now, Susan, maybe you’d better give up??? Lots of possibilities, but only one good choice:

“Today is the first day of the rest of my life"---so what am I going to do with it?

Yup, my donkey cart fell off the road this week. In fact it probably lost a wheel and broke an axel, BUT I’m getting back up on the road, repairing what needs repaired and continuing this journey. The negative alternatives listed above are not a choice I will make. I’ve come too far to turn back now. I’m right around the corner from a big break through and I can’t give up when I’ve got so much to attain by persevering!

As wonderful as this journey has been so far, there’s always going to be a few bumps in the road. That’s called life! It’s what I do with the obstacles or the bumps in the road that matters. Do I let then totally derail my journey? Do I let them turn me around and head me in the wrong direction? Do I go back to my old ways?

Or do I recognize that getting back up and dusting myself off is part of the growing process that makes me stronger—makes me MORE not less successful in the long run. We need both the rain and the sunshine! They work together.  Too much of either can be bad, so in the process of this journey I am learning balance! I’m not proud of myself for choosing to eat such unhealthy foods. I’m not happy with what others might think of me for losing control either! But then haven’t I been learning to “Be secure without the approval of people”? That’s why I’ve been reading John Bevere’s book “Breaking Intimidation”!!

So what am I to do? This is a new day, an opportunity for me to start fresh and new. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning and His compassions do not fail!  Great is HIS faithfulness! As I get up and get going I put my plan into action. It is 8:30 AM and I have 3 ½ hours before I need to leave for church. I have most of my meals cooked and will finish up the rest of them. I will get those menus up and working, leaving NOTHING to my imagination. I believe that the indulgences of this past week and especially yesterday will help keep me on track in the future. I don’t like going to bed feeling bloated and gassy!

I’m choosing to forget those things that are behind me and press on to the goal—to learn from this past week, but not dwell there in my mind. I choose to jump off that spiraling, vicious cycle of regret. I affirm that I am more than a conqueror and that I CAN DO all things through Christ who strengthens me! When I am weak He is strong in me. I will not try to do this all on my own, but I will stop and call out to Him for help. Knowing what I can do on my own and what I need help with is a sign of strength, not weakness! “I look to the hills for my help. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth! (From Psalm 121—The Bible)

Once again this  is "Babyboomergrandma" trusting that my honesty and vulnerability has helped you. Thanks for visiting with me!  It is indeed a life-time journey taken one day at a time!  Until next time, may God richly bless YOUR life.

WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE???

I was recently asked “What made you come back to boot camp the second time?” I had just explained to this person how hard my first boot camp was for me. (I have given a blow by blow account of this in a previous blog!—Boot Camp Here I come!) The fact I’d even completed the 40 minutes and lived to tell about it was motivation in itself! But the other major factor was desperation!  This had to work for me!

For most of my adult life I’ve tried to lose weight. I’d tried most everything out there to no avail. It would work temporarily—lose a few pounds and then put it back on with more.


So why has this time been different?  Though I’m sure there are more, I’ve identified a dozen important factors I believe have contributed to my current success:

1.     Desperation—if this didn’t work, I knew of no other place to go or anything else to do.  My "last chance" work out!

2.     Support system—family, fellow boot campers, staff, and friends. There were people who actually thought I could do this on the Renton Results Boot Camp staff

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=hp#!/pages/Renton-Results-Boot-Camp/131962520198761

My daughter Rebekah knew I could. In fact she and her husband put their money on my success by helping pay for the first transformation contest at the beginning of my journey 10 months ago. These are all positive people who encouraged me in my goals.

3.     Eating plan with accountability with a green faces quick start plan that showed me it was possible to eat well and lose weight.

4.     Exercise like I’d NEVER done before!

5.     Mind set—I was going to do all I could to make it work. Approached from a position of

“can do”—“will do”— Instead of

I hope it will work L   

to I KNOW it will work! J

6.     110% compliance and faithfulness to be at boot camp and follow the eating plan. I have not missed a day of boot camp when I’ve been in town. – out of a total of 156 M/W/F boot camp session in a year I’ve missed less than 10 and that was because I was out of town for 2 ½ weeks. Even then I took boot camp with me doing a work out 16 of the 18 days I was gone!

7.     Overcoming obstacles—I turned obstacles into opportunities to be creative, to ask for help, to learn how to deal with situations that will always come up trying to derail or side track my progress.  You know there’s always going to be SOMETHANG!

8.     Quick start of green faces plan showed me it was possible to eat well and lose weight.

9.     I learned to “trust” the program. To eat all the meals and follow the protocol. To do as much of an exercise as I could, and know I’d do it better and have more results each time. And ask questions!!! That’s what the trainers are there for!!  I had to trust that I would see the results they said were possible even when I couldn’t wrap my brain around the idea of wearing jeans half the size I was then wearing!

10.  My body actually craves exercise now! This is a first. I see that extra trip down the stairs to retrieve something as an opportunity for more exercise! I'll take two stairs at a time or even three coming back up! I’m more likely to be the one to jump up and get it—its not the chore it used to be.

11.  Focus and structure for success—5:45 AM M/W/F are set in cement!  I don’t have to wonder the night before what I will be doing in the morning! Gives some focus and structure to my week. Gets me up, out of bed, and energized for the day!

12.  Celebrating the small steps along the way---one more push up that day! Getting new clothes that fit---Again, thanks to my daughter Rebekah—for new clothes along the way!

In what now feels like a rapid accomplishment, but in fact has taken months, I realize that my body has been transformed to a level of health and fitness that I’ve never experienced. At the beginning it seemed to be taking forever, but now in retrospect, it was really such a short time in which those 60 pounds have come off! And actually it is a very short time considering the previous unsuccessful years of fruitless attempts!

I’m reminded of the Bible verse that tells me “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

Thanks for listening once again to this baby boomer grandma gettin’ fit & healthy!  Until next time-----May God richly bless YOU.

IF I CAN HELP SOMEBODY. . . .

I believe that if I had a theme song for my life it might be one from way back:

If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
If I can cheer somebody, with a word or song,
If I can show somebody, how they're travelling wrong,
Then my living shall not be in vain.

Chorus:
My living shall not be in vain,
Then my living shall not be in vain
If I can help somebody, as I pass along,
Then my living shall not be in vain.

If I can do my duty, as a good man ought,
If I can bring back beauty, to a world up wrought,
If I can spread love's message, as the Master taught,
Then my living shall not be in vain.

Here's a couple of U-tube renditions of the song. Both are very different and very inspirational! Enjoy if you like!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73xatTlWmDw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QE8bVPgB2E&NR=1

So what made my day at boot camp this week?  The  work out was great. I pushed myself to go farther. I did the progressions of everything I could. I felt good about what I accomplished in the work out,  but that was not what made my day!

As I arrived at boot camp a new friend Jackie greeted me with  “My friend Donna came today and she needs your encouragement.”

So now I have another new friend Donna!  Donna came to the boot camp orientation a couple of weeks ago and was so blown away by the intensity of the 8 minute workout that she just knew she couldn’t do boot camp. I met Jackie the previous week at her first time to boot camp. She was the first of a group of friends who were going to be coming. One of those friends is Donna.  I encouraged her to get Donna to just try it.  I was in the same place that Donna is back 10 months ago. I could hardly do a thing but try to hold a plank from my knees and a couple of push ups!! I was worn out by the 5 minute warm up BEFORE we even began! 

I just happened to have my before to present sequence of pictures in my gym bag and that’s all it took for Jackie to talk Donna into coming.

I was so pleasantly surprised to see Donna there!  She had all kinds of questions. One that really struck me was "What made you come back after the first time?"  I'd never been asked that. I guess I just didn't consider any other possibility.  I was desperate and knew that this was my last hope to lose weight and get into shape. I encouraged her to do what she could do and go to my tried and true "hold the plank" routine that carried me through a lot of the first boot camps I attended!


Donna and I stuck together for the boot camp work out. I think Luka picked up on the fact she and I needed to be in the same group---perceptive guy!!! J And guess what!!!! Donna made it through the entire 40 minutes, did VERY WELL, and is coming back on Wednesday!!! YEH!!! I’m so happy for her, because I know she’s now on the right track to regaining her health and fitness!

So what DOES make my day?

• When a complete stranger comes up to me at boot camp and tells me I am their inspiration for being there!  ME??????? Thank You Jesus! 
• When some of the much younger boot campers tell me they try harder because they see what I am doing! 
• When some of those younger ones tell me they are motivated by the fact that they don’t want to be “beat” by “mom”! 
• When some of the younger members bring their moms,  because if a baby boomer grandma like me can do this boot camp,  so can their moms!
• When someone asks me to hold them accountable!
• When someone reads this blog and is encouraged, challenged, and motivated to do better in their life and with their health and fitness!!

Yes, it does make my day when I can help, when I can cheer, when I can show somebody as I pass along…….then my living has not been in vain! 

Thanks for listening once again to this baby boomer grandma gettin’ fit & healthy!  Until next time-----May God richly bless YOU-----your day, your life, and all you do AND make you a blessing to others as well.

PERFECT TIMING



May 1, 2011 I started my third weight loss challenge at Renton Results Boot camp. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=678245124#!/pages/Renton-Results-Boot-Camp/131962520198761?sk=app_4949752878

It is called “Get sexy for summer challenge”! The idea being to target those people who want to look good at the beach a bikini! Now I want to look good at the beach, 

Here's the exception --15 years ago on
our 25th Wedding anniversary
Still trying to hide in the water!
In Jamaica!!!!

but you won’t find me in a bikini or even in a swim suit unless its on a beach in Jamaica. In fact most of my bathing suit pix are from Jamaica and my one and only bikini picture too! It was 1969 and I was 22 years old! Rebekah tells me that these photo album pix were quite intriguing to her as some of them I had covered up with a piece of paper. It was her delight, I found out in more recent years, to show her friends these ‘forbidden’ pictures of her very conservative mother’s ‘wild’ days! The reason I had covered up the pix is one of them was me lying on the beach face covered with a towel from the sun looking like a cooked lobster—I was so sun burned.

Her current assessment? You looked really good, Mom. You weren’t real toned, but you were young so you looked pretty fit! Enough of this discussion!

So this challenge came at a perfect time when I was lagging in motivation and needing a challenge. I had actually put back on some of what I had lost! :0 My daughter, Rebekah,  recognized that fact and as part of our 40th wedding anniversary gift she and her husband, Keith, paid for me to do the challenge as well as another month of boot camp! Thanks so much Rebekah for being sensitive to my needs!

I saw this 3^rd challenge as an opportunity to get within very close range to my weight loss goal. This being my third time around I’m more aware of what works and what doesn’t. I immediately knew to go right back to phase one of Green faces, eating plan which in a sentence or two looks like this:

For most beginners we put them on a “green faces” diet. Which means—the food has to have had, or going to have, a face or grow out of the ground green or you can’t eat it.

Yes it is that simple, but there IS more to it! Along with green faces, I had renewed accountability to drink more water. We were given a suggested list of training to do on our own along with the boot camp sessions. This challenge included once a week small group boot camp sessions with about 6 of us in the group. These small groups really kick up the intensity to another more challenging level providing more personalized training, form corrections, and motivation.

My weekly work out during this challenge looked like:

Sunday: Rest

Monday:  AM Bootcamp; PM intervals—I jumped rope

Tuesday: AM Small group; PM body weight complex

Wednesday: Same as Monday

Thursday: AM Speed walking with my husband on our neighborhood hills/PM 4 minutes of push ups

Friday:  Same as Monday

Saturday: AM Boot camp/PM 3 minutes of V-sits

This was my most successful time of doing exercises on my own. It is so helpful for me to have a definite schedule of exercises. A big difference with this challenge is that I’m now at a fitness and experience level where I know a lot more of what to do and can actually do it!

Even with all this knowledge and motivation I had now been into this weight loss thing for 8 months and taken off 44#’s. But, for about a month now I’d been struggling, not eating really bad, but not really clean either. I was dreading the weigh in for the beginning of this challenge. I didn’t realize it was the morning we were to weigh in, so I’d drunk my quart of water and part of my work out shake before boot camp. I was not feeling good about stepping on the scales. On top of that, the gym scales always weigh me heavier than mine at home!  Well, I did NOT like the number on the scales—204#’s. That was back up from the end of the past challenge when I came in second place with a 15# weight loss. Pam, one of the trainers, encouraged me that it was O.K.. This is a new beginning so this is good!  

I reminded myself of “THE SCALES” and how fickle they can be. I reminded myself that the number on the scales is not who I am. I chose to celebrate once again how far I had come and how the timing of this challenge is just what I needed to keep going in the right direction. So once again I was off and running!  This time it was only 6 weeks, so I had to hop right on it with all I had learned and really make it work!

I looked in my journal and noted on the first day of the challenge this assortment of entries: 

“I have continued my journey to health and fitness. Even though I didn’t feel that I did as well as I should have, I still came in second in the weight loss challenge ending in March." My rambling thoughts continued: "I’m going to hit the gate running this time and take off some early pounds as I do this next challenge! I’ve been able to work through some minor 'injuries' and maintain most of my current achievements in weight loss. I’m working on that positive attitude! I’m having trouble with motivation for some of my projects and home front activities. Maybe a bit depressed or burned out. My blog has helped me to look at things once avoided and process various times and events in my life. I need to not let things bother me, but turn them over to the Lord. I’m learning strategies along the way that will help me maintain my fitness and health as a permanent life style. My mind is gradually doing a paradigm shift from fat and hopeless failure to fit, focused and flourishing!”   Wow, this was really an assortment of thoughts coming from all directions!!!

I set these goals for the 6 week challenge:

ÿ    Reach the 180’s from starting weight of 204.6

ÿ    Fit into size 10 jeans

ÿ    Increase my strength and stamina

ÿ    Do 20 burpees non-stop

ÿ    Reduce my muffin top

ÿ    Take life-time charge of my eating to make better choices

ÿ    Have my blog totally up to date

ÿ    Plan and shop for every meal at start of week

ÿ    Cook ahead as many of those meals as possible

ÿ    Record everything I eat and drink

ÿ    Get 7 hours of sleep

ÿ    Look for exercise opportunities:  Shoot baskets with my grandkids; take the stairs 2 at a time; walk with husband in neighborhood;

ÿ    Put more into each work out

ÿ    Win the transformation contest J

My experience with small groups began in January when I participated in a weekly group for 8 weeks. At that time I felt like I was back at the start of boot camp again. Even though I could do most things to some degree, it was all new and I was exhausted. We started with warm ups the length of the gym instead of standing in one place. Because there were only 6 of us rather than the 20 to 30 at boot camp, we could utilize all the gym! Over the 8 weeks, my strength increased significantly!

As I began small group in May, I found that I was the “pro”---Would you believe it!  Everyone else was there for the first time. I could do the work outs, so now was the time to push myself and take it to a new level! I began to back off the number of repetitions in favor of a more challenging progression and/or weight! There’s never a time I--or should I say Luka, Albert, or Pam--can’t find a way to challenge my body. This is a continual journey of arriving to a destination, a brief stop along the way, but then continuing the journey in maintaining, increasing, and improving!  I love small groups. I love getting to know the people in them. We become a team working together encouraging and challenging each other.

As Albert, small group trainer, was explaining the first work out of this new small group, I’m thinking about the regression he gave me last time for the bear crawls. He had mercy on me and had me do knees to elbows. Can you imagine my surprise when I found I was able to do bear crawls the length of the gym!!! Hooray!!   However, the other day at boot camp we were to do bear crawls forward and backward the width of the gym. Forward is fine, but backward??? Another mountain for me to conquer and more practice at home!!

Another first for me was two semi-private sessions with Luka. These were part of the 2nd place prize from the last challenge and included 3 or 4 participants. It was also an EXPERIENCE! I found out that I could step up and over a box--a tall box for me--back and forth for 30 seconds with 30 second break and repeat it 4 times; that I could push the prowler with 50 pounds on it the length of the gym and back several times; that I could do kettle bell swings with the correct form and increase the weight form 35 to 45 pounds! 

The second semi-private session I did was called Hurricanes. I've never been in a hurricane. My husband has and if our work out is anything like a real hurricane, I don't ever want to be in one!  Basically we did three sets of 4 different exercise and sprinted a LONG way down the street between each set:  It went something like this:  12 kettle bell swings--sprint; (do this 3 sets)  12 squat and thrust with 18 pound kettle bell--sprint (3 sets)--then do other arm(repeat), 15 band pull backs/sprint (3 sets) AND to end it? 12 burpees/sprint---do a total of 3 times!  I finished last, but I did finish and Rebekah though finished already, ran the last sprint with me to keep me going!  It was HARD!  Then we did a similar version of it on Saturday boot camp 2 days later as well as something with a lot of sprinting at Friday boot camp!  I loved it Luka because I know it pushed me beyond my limits at the time! And I was so happy that I finished!!! You didn't let me off easy!

The 6 weeks sailed by and soon it was time to weigh in again!  This time I had lost 16 pounds in 6 weeks. I think that was pretty good. Don’t know what placing that is yet, but hope its good enough to reach my 1^st place goal!! We shall see.

Oh, by the way---my goals?  Yes I am in the 180’s now, I can still breathe when I put on a pair of size 10 jeans! And tghey are getting looser and more comfortable all the time!! lol I kept my journal faithfully and turned in a report of every thing eaten to Luka; planned ahead and prepared all my meals; found exercise opportunities in everyday life; caught up my blog; Have done 20 straight burpees and reached a new high of 16 in 1 minute; doing better at getting that needed sleep---in fact I reached all my goals—that muffin top is GREATLY reduced PTL, so 1^st place must be in there some place too! LOL  

        [ 244# 9/6/2010]          [222# 11/11/2010]      [204# 3/18/2011]   [188# 6/13/2011]
My progression of weight loss

AND a side note!! I just recently bought a swim suit. No it is not a bikini, but a swim suit none the less and I plan to wear it at a swimsuit friendly lake where an understanding friend lives!!

Thanks for visiting with this  "Babyboomergrandma".  It is indeed a life-time journey!! Until next time, and a report on the weight loss challenge, may God richly bless YOUR life.