THE END OF THE YEAR - BUT NOT THE END

I read a quote by someone about the fact that we worry about what we are going to eat during the holidays when what we should really worry about is what we are eating the other 50 weeks of the year. So true. We do get very concerned about the opportunities to overindulge over the holidays and there is talk about being unwilling to give up the pleasures of the traditional meals, cookies and cocktails versus all the many ways we can avoid adding calories and pounds and still enjoy ourselves.


In truth, if we have been paying attention the rest of the year - is it really such a big deal to indulge during these special occasions? Beyond the question of forbidden foods and falling off the wagon and all the other ways we label our behavior around food, I think the fear is that we just plain will not stop eating once we start!

In a way this is true of me. There are so many foods I can ignore all around me much of the time. I can eat out in a restaurant and not reach for the bread basket or the chips and salsa. I can say no to dessert without a qualm, I can cheerfully choose the scrambled eggs over the french toast and navigate a buffet spread selecting the healthy items. However...if I have made monkey bread for my family for Christmas morning, I will pick at it all day until the tiny portion I served myself at breakfast has ballooned into hundreds of calories. I will not even consider eating a single cookie from the huge tin delivered to us a week before Christmas, but put a little box of See's peanut brittle in my stocking and I am fixated on it until I can eat it all in one sitting.

So, yes, I indulged. I did the dreaded holiday eating. I only ate 1 roll with dinner and skipped dessert, but came home and ate some of my own homemade cookies while I stuffed the stockings. But guess what? I didn't instantly return to my old ways. I got back on track and within a couple of days I was counting my calories and back to the gym (I admit I did not go to the gym on the Monday after Christmas - I have done that before and it is sooo crowded with guilty people working off their own splurges that it is not worth fighting over the equipment!)

And the bottom line on the No Gain Holiday Challenge so far - I am still in minus territory,  having lost weight since Thanksgiving.  I'll do my weigh in for my January post on the new site.

My new calendar is up in the kitchen, my new blog site is up and I am ready for a successful 2011.  Looking forward to spending it with my bloggy friends.  Happy New Year to us all.

MARCHING TOWARD THE HOLIDAYS

I am finally finished with my training on my new job, so my weekdays are again my own.  I got over to the storage unit and lugged all our holiday decorations home and today I started putting things up (and cleaning while I went.)  No excuses, but I skipped the gym knowing that I would get my exercise going up and down the stepladder, hauling boxes around and moving furniture. 

My weigh in at the gym on Sunday shows I am remaining steady at my 2 pounds a week weight loss.  The next two weeks will be critical because I am going to do some baking.  As I mentioned before, I am going to be making some biscotti to send to friends.  I am also going to share that recipe on Cammy's Potluck.  It is such a cute idea - we all share our recipes in a post on our own site which is linked in to her potluck page!

My recipe is not a low cal recipe - it is very rich and yummy:  Macadamia Nut Biscotti made with lots of butter and Myers rum.  I found macadamia nuts at Trader Joe's so I am ready to bake - photos and recipe soon.  Wish me massive amounts of willpower to get through this!!

MY HOLIDAY PLEDGE

Sarah over at Low Stress Weight Loss is hosting another "No Gain Holidays Pledge Group" for this holiday season and I have joined up!  She and I are both hoping to not only not gain - but to lose during the next 7 weeks of merry making. 

My Goals

1.)  I have already determined that I am going to minimize my usual Christmas cookie baking frenzy.  I am going to make some biscotti to give as gifts and make only a couple of single recipes for my family at home.  (When I am being honest - my daughter and I are the ones who eat most of the cookies and the ones who need them the least!  No gingerbread this year...)

2.)  I am going to forgo treats at events I attend.  So far that will be a work party and my family gatherings and they understand and support my efforts.  My allowed treat will be the cocktails I will drink with my family.  Usually champagne!

3.)  I will increase my gym attendance and start taking some classes.

The info is on Sarah's blog.  Basic rules :


No Gain Holidays is a commitment to yourself to hold the line on your weight from before Thanksgiving until after New Year’s Eve.


Runs 7 weeks (November 22nd – January 3rd)


You can join anytime


This is self-reported : you can post your weight or your weight loss or keep it totally to yourself. Your pants will know even if we don’t.


Join by linking up your blog (or leave a comment) on Sarah's blog!

Come on - join up we will feel so good in January when everyone else is trying to get the holiday weight off and we are ahead of the game!

UPDATING MY STATS

I realized that in addition to neglecting my blog I have been neglecting my statistics.  So I had to post that weight gain.  I am not a math person, but even I know that was a statistically significant amount to have gained back.

Today, though,  I could post the loss (again) of some of it. 

I have not been particularly diligent with my food journal.  I have been spotty at best in my gym attendance.  I am headed in the right direction and with additional effort I will pick up steam and be back to where I was in the next three weeks and then I will just have to hold on through the holiday season - as we all do.

My extra incentive is that I have a uniform to wear for my new job at a small hotel front desk.  (A blouse and vest with my own black pants or skirt.)  The blouse fits fine but the XL vest they had does not button.  It is fine to wear it open, but with my big tummy, I would look better with it closed - so...that 10 pounds I put back on would have made a difference.  Actually I am  just soo relieved that the XL blouse fit! 

HUNGRY ALL THE TIME

I had a good weekend.  Ally was out of school for a long holiday  break and we went to the gym together a couple of times and went  grocery shopping one afternoon.  Ally is also trying to drop some weight.  She is confused about how to approach it.

 She is a bit resistant to making an effort to become educated about nutrition and different approaches to weight loss.  She just wants to know what is "good' and "bad" and gets mad when I won't labels things that way.  Ally is like me, she is carb carb sensitive and more of an emotional eater.  Unlike me, she has a limited palate.  (Or perhaps she still needs to grow into it.)  With her limited likes and stubborn nature, it is hard to direct her easily to a good weight loss plan. 

We went through the grocery store aisle by aisle talking about options and choosing foods to buy and how to fit them into her schedule and not look weird at school and if she should try to count calories or cut out fat or carbs or what to do.

And she said to me "But eating this is not going to make me full, I am going to be hungry.  So I am just going to have to be hungry all the time?"  That made me think of those actresses who talk about being hungry all the time to stay thin.  It made me feel so sad and helpless because, yes, we can alter our appetites.  Our stomachs can "shrink" and we will feel full with less. I know that there is a difference between mouth hunger and stomach hunger.  Between wanting to eat and needing to eat.

 But really?  During most of this year that I have been losing weight, I have been hungry.  I have done things to distract myself because I don't think I should be hungry.  I ignore the feeling.  I try to embrace the feeling . But I am hungry.

So how do I tell my child she has to feel hungry to get healthy?

SOME POSITIVE RESULTS



A woman can dream...

 I have been noticing some little differences in my life that I must add up and say are a nice list of positives from my weight loss so far.  I tend to see how far I need to go and lately I have had the opportunity to notice how far I have come.

I no longer have to worry if I am going to fit into a booth when we go out.  For a while I asked for a table because, if I could even slide into the booth the table was usually pressing into me.

When I took my daughter to the doctor, I noticed that the arms of the chair no longer touch my hips when I sit down.  There was a time that I shimmied in and out of those chairs or sat on the edge so I wouldn't be wedged in.

I am now ordering 1X size tops.  That means I got 6 new tops on clearance for between $6.-10.00 each.  In the past my size was rarely available on clearance.  Even better, this puts me really close to shopping in the regular sized stores.

When we were on our trip and had to climb up the hill from the beach to the bluffs, I didn't have to stop to rest or catch my breath. 

The towels at the gym almost cover me when I wrap them around me coming out of the shower. I admit that the first time I noticed this I thought they must have gotten bigger towels!  Then it dawned on me that I am actually getting smaller...

Sothere are some of the little positives in my life - how about yours?

RULES RULE

I know a lot of people hate rules.  I happen to be okay with rules.  I like knowing what is expected of me in social situations (etiquette) and having an understanding of what to do at a flashing red light (rules of the road) and having little ditties to remind myself of things (righty tighty-lefty loosey).

So I am okay with the idea when the author of The End of Overeating said to make rules for myself to help navigate past the foods that are all around me which are speaking directly to the depths of my brain.  Studies show that there is a  cycle of "cue-urge-reward-habit" which is imprinted on the brain.   It is highly automated and below the level of conscious awareness.  We must rely on other levels of the brain, the frontal cortex which makes conscious decisions, to override the strong emotional/repetitive behavior.  They say the frontal cortex has  Executive Control over our actions and that is where the rules come in.

So one of my rules is Whole Grains only.  I am eating low carb because I am a carb lover - love the bread and pasta.  So when I am dining out, this rule saves me.  For instance, the other night, I got out the door to go to work without my dinner.  When the staff was putting together an order at about 7 pm and I was hungry, I was tempted.  They were going to the Mexican place.  I looked at the menu and thought I could order a chicken quesadilla with just a little cheese.  But they didn't have whole wheat tortillas (I don't like corn) so I did not order.  I was hungry, but I ate a snack when I got home.

I was saved by my rules.  The other part of this, according to author David Kessler, is that the response must be automatic.  The minute you start bargaining or thinking about it you lose the upper hand.  It must be a rigid response to "rewire" the brain. 

There are more "food rehab" tips I will write about lateer in the week.  What are your rules that help your "rehab"?

APPROACHES TO WEIGHT LOSS

There was an interesting show on TV last night about the efforts of people to fight their obesity and some of the new scientific knowledge about appetite and the brain.  In many ways the information was not new, but it was interesting to see the combination of stories that they chose to tell.

One woman who had "done it all" including stomach stapling and was still over 300 pounds had electrodes implanted in her  brain to simulate the feeling of fullness.  One man did the whole diet and exercise route, one woman ate huge amounts of food while sleep walking.  They had interviews of other people including David Kessler, author of  The End of Overeating.

The woman with the electrodes was very hopeful at the end of the story, but I am not sure what a feeling of fullness will do to decrease cravings or eating when not hungry which many of us do.  She was saying that she did not have her usual cravings and was eating healthier - so far.  I hope they learn a lot from her willingness to try this experimental surgery.

The thing I frequently think about when seeing these stories, or when reading some of the weight loss forums (not so much the blogs) is that the focus remains so much on the food.  What I can have, what I can't have.  What I can substitute?  Making mock versions of things that people love.  It bothers me.  It is like changing one addiction (unhealthy eating) for another (substitutions/mock food).  When I tried a low fat diet many years ago, I did a lot of those things and the minute I tried real food again - I was a goner!  Back to the real thing!!

I would really like to make my continued weight loss focused on how I am going to eat going forward.  Make it about changing  my awareness and habits and expanding my real food choices - including and all those things we are trying so hard to "mock up" in reasonable amounts and on occasion.

Something I did get out of the program; I am going to read Dr. Kessler's book - I keep hearing such positive things about it.  So I am off to the library!

GYM HOLIDAY CROWDS

It was very interesting today at the gym.  With the holiday it was a whole different crowd of people.  I don't exactly stick to a super regular schedule, but going today made me realize how many familiar faces I usually see.

And the people were behaving differently, too.  At one point I looked up from the rowing machine and I saw groups of men in twos and threes, leaning on equipment, talking together.  Everywhere I looked, there they were - an image from the movie "The Birds" popped into my mind.  After a bit they began to go their separate ways and the image of  something being plotted faded away.

It was crowded and I gave up on using the weight equipment and went to another area to do my knee, back and ab exercises.  I usually take my iPod off for this but there was a young woman speaking a a loud voice to a man while running on the treadmill so I kept it on.  I could not turn it up loud enough to drown out all of what she was saying.  I especially could not miss that the F word was one of her favorites.  So - is it just me?  I think it is unattractive and rude to speak that way in public.  I know some people think words are just words, but in  public I still think there should be some restraint.

Anyway, I moved on and did a little people watching while I was stretching out and cooling down.  There were some older men wearing short shorts.  My girls get very upset by the sight of men in short shorts.  They don't realize that was what men wore on the basketball and tennis courts 20 years ago - it was the style all the guys wore.  Recently I heard a young person say a  rude name for speedo swim suits (banana hammock, if you must know)  but I was a timer for my high school swim team and have fond memories of those speedos and the boys wearing them! 

We may have used more ladylike language, but we knew not to complain about the opportunity to take a good look at athletic young men.

GETTING UP TO SPEED

  I still have a cough and some nasal congestion so I am slowly getting back up to speed at the gym.  (And I am wiping the equipment down after I am done so I don't pass it on!)  I was happy to see that I still lost 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks since I weighed in.

I have not written a lot about my unemployment and job search woes on this side of my blog - but I did finally get a job!  It comes after I decided I was unemployable and started working on a new business with my sister...but I applied for it because it was a weekends only position  working for an animal emergency clinic and I thought I could do both.  Now it turns  out that they want more hours on the new job, but it is night time hours plus the weekends which would make me a full time employee.  My husband is thrilled because it means I can bring home the benefit package (he is self-employed.) 

So this is going to add many new elements for me to deal with.  I will not be home to make dinner some nights.  I will be away from home for some of my meal times.  I will be working late into the night some nights.  I will be sleeping through my usual workout times on some days.  My schedule is going to vary wildly  - where now I am very steady about when I go to bed and get up.  So this will be an interesting set of adjustments.  The good thing is that my scheduled work days will be limited to Saturday-Sunday-Monday.  The rest of the week will depend on what is happening with the business with my sister and will be flexible.

Interesting times to come!!

FEELING BETTER - A FRESH START

Last week I had a bad cold.  I joked that I went outside my usual little routine of home, gym and grocery shopping and ventured to the mall with my daughter and exposed myself to the big bad world of germs! 

I didn't go to the gym or the store or even to the mailbox for 5 days.  I was miserable.  I didn't concern myself with my diet plan and overate carbs and calories.  I will see the damage tomorrow when I go back to the gym.  I am not going to beat myself up over it.  I see today as a new start.  I have been struggling all summer trying to find my way, trying to find my "plan."

I lost the first 50 pounds or so using products from Lifestyle.  I was so determined and I stuck with it even though I was hungry most of the time.  Then I wanted to go off the products and maintain the calories at the same 1200 level on good foods.  I know I am triggered by carbs, so the plan was low carb ( whole grain only, no sugar, fruit ok.)  To stay in the 1200 range carbs are not a good choice, anyway.  As I said, this has been a struggle.  I have had trouble with foods I overate - like peanut butter and oatmeal/granola.  I have had trouble with my family being bored by my repetitive meals. 

And I don't like that it has been so 2 pounds off, 1 pound back, no loss for two weeks.  It is frustrating and I just don't care to always feel like I should be berating myself .  So - what to do?

I need a more specific plan.  Not back to the products, although I have some left and will use them as snacks and meal subs when appropriate.  No Atkins style low carb because that is not how I want to live the rest of my life, but I must be aware of how very sensitive I seem to be to bread/pasta/carbs (have some - want more, more, more!)

I like Cammy's plan of 5-7 fruits and veggies daily, low fat proteins and whole grains.  I will need more specifics, just winging it day by day has not been working for me - so I am going to work out a list of meal plans and calorie counts to keep myself in the 1200-1500 range.

Any other input?

SIZE ALWAYS MATTERS

Reading the nutrition labels is something I have done for a long time.  Looking for the sugars, the types of fat, the protein and the whole grains all in turn depending on whether I am concerned about weight or bulking up my picky daughter's nutrition.  I have long known to check out the serving sizes in relation to the calorie counts.  That has save me from many a foolish purchase!

I have been entering my recipes into a program which gives me the nutritional analysis and calorie counts and I have realized that I need to pay more attention to those serving sizes.  Especially for side dishes.  For example, I made a dish the other night which called for 2 pounds of Swiss chard.  So the fact that it was  4 servings seemed fine - until I saw what it looked like when it was cooked...it was minuscule.  If I placed 1 serving on my husband's plate he would wonder why I was giving him serving like those chi-chi restaurants! 

He doesn't care about how many servings his dinner actually is, but I certainly do - so this was a good lesson for me because a serving is 147 calories - now double that!

KNEE CLASS

Just a quick post about my OA knee class today.  I learned a few things and have some new exercises and stretches to add to my routine.  The others in the class seem to be affected in only 1 knee, but 2 were more hampered by their pain and one is a trainer and spin instructor who just keeps going through her day and is in pain at night when she stops.  So I feel lucky that mine has become more work-out related with occasional flare ups and aches at night.

Anyway, my big question was: do I keep doing things if they hurt?  The physical therapist said if the pain stays at about a 3-4 and doesn't get worse, then it is okay.  So I can do most of my old routine at that level - just keep going through the discomfort.

I also realized that I am getting more of my range of motion back, so the exercises are working.  Hurray.

I have also been using the stationary bike which I find boring, but if I bring my book the time goes by pretty fast.  I put the book down every so often and do a speed interval.  I have been keeping my heart rate up in the fat burning range even while I am reading - which came as a surprise that I wasn't bouncing around too much to focus!

So for the time being I will avoid the water classes.  I can get over being the youngest in the class by 20 years or so,  I just don't want to deal with getting wet and showering and all that rigmarole.

EMOTIONAL EATING REARS IT'S UGLY HEAD

So this will not turn into a tell-all or a tirade.  I will say that I am not married to one of those super wonderful guys that I so often hear other women writing about when they describe their husbands.  Mine is a difficult man.  He is extremely intelligent, occasionally funny and charming, a good dad but not always a nice or patient man.  After 27 years I am still stung by him, still hurt and sent off my even keel by his words.  (I will say that he never says anything negative about my weight or appearance.)

I don't blame him for my weight issues.  Those started with puberty.  It was much easier to manage my weight when I was single - not cooking for others.  I could shop and cook to my tastes and needs.  I've liked whole grains and natural foods since the 70's and changed my cooking for my family...more irony.

Anyway.  Because I have been out of sorts for the past couple of weeks, so has my eating.  As usual, it isn't like I have gone out and gotten "bad food" to binge on.  I have just eaten too much and not lost any weight.  I have been going up and down a couple of pounds for a few weeks.

I have been thinking about those groups like Overeaters Anonymous where you get support and learn to deal with emotional eating.  I have read the blogs of some women who have attended those groups and I just don't think that approach would work for me.  The structure and higher power thing chafes.  I did attend a few sessions of a Eating Disorders group at my local Kaiser office. The women seemed nice but they had been together for a while an I felt so outside all the inside stuff.  The therapist was very condescending to me when I spoke - it just didn't give me a good feeling. 

I have done some therapy work around these issues. I think I know what they stem from but knowing them doesn't resolve them.  So I need to get myself to that next level where I am stronger against the impulses to soothe/smother my feelings with food.

So, ladies, have any of you with these issues gotten to that level?  How have you managed it?  Advice?

WISHFUL THINKING

I don't think I am alone in occasionally indulging in wishful thinking.  I have done this since I was a kid.  Something about Samantha Stevens on Bewitched wiggling her nose and being able to make things happen was very appealing and I spent time thinking about all the things I would like to change that easily.

In the past few months I have been thinking about how I want to go back to before my knees started to hurt.  It has just put such a damper on my enthusiasm for exercise. 

It's ironic, too.  Most people with my family history of osteoarthritis and knee replacements have knee pain and so they exercise and diet to relieve the pain.  I was pain free until I started to diet and exercise in earnest.  Add that to your song,  Alanis Morrisette.

Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that continuing to lose weight and exercise will help the pain and ease the symptoms and put off the surgery.  The knee already takes on a force of 3 to 6 times our body weight with each step while walking!  So reducing the amount of weight it is bearing is the best thing that can be done to help it!

I am going to a "knee class" next week, I have given in and changed up my gym routine to include what I find more boring, but less painful. 

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

My two slim sisters each have a daughter who tends to the heavy side - we call it the "Bradbury Gene" because that side of the family (which I take after so completely I shouldn't have changed my name when I got married!) struggles with obesity.  They have both asked me for advice about how to help their daughters.  Mostly I tell them to be honest with them that they have gotten a bad deal.  They will have to work harder and pay more attention to their diet than most of their friends.  The good news is that more is known about these things now than when I was a kid.  In those days everyone just assumed I was a sneak eater with no will power.

Research in the July 2010 edition of Genetics discloses that, in fact  some people seem to eat anything they want and never gain a pound, while others seem to gain weight just by looking at fattening foods!  This is because genes interacting with diet, rather than diet alone, are the main cause of variation in metabolic traits. This helps explain why some diets work better for some people than others, and suggests that future diets should be tailored to an individuals genes.  What works for me, may not work for you. 

"There is no one-size-fits all solution to the diseases of obesity and type-2 diabetes," said Laura K. Reed, Ph.D, a researcher from the Department of Genetics at North Carolina State University, the lead investigator in the work. "Each person has a unique set of genetic and environmental factors contributing to his or her metabolic health, and as a society, we should stop looking for a panacea and start accepting that this is a complex problem that may have a different solution for each individual."  (Emphasis mine and something I have been saying all my adult life.)

In short, the study with 146 genetic lines of fruit flies and 4 different diets  (nutritionally balanced, low calorie, high sugar, and high fat) showed that diet alone made small metabolic changes, including iweight, while genotype and genotype interactions with diet made very large changes. "This study strongly suggests that some individuals can achieve benefits from altering their dietary habits, while the same changes for others will have virtually no effect."

So, for my little nieces and others - hang on, science is coming and may just have more answers to the puzzle to make your life with food easier than mine has been!

WILL VANITY BE THE NEW MOTVATION?

I have long said that I am over vanity.  Those days are past me now.  But perhaps that is not true.  I find that I am not willing to post a picture of myself on my blog - and it has little to do with maintaining anonymity.  Now that my sister and I are starting a business, we are deciding if we will put our pictures on our website and business cards.  Skinny and younger, she said no.  Thank goodness.

But really, I need to get to the point that I am will to be photographed and published.  The photo I put on Facebook is about 8 years old and  not that great to begin with.  I have never been that photogenic - my eyes go squinchy when I smile and now that I am older that just means the wrinkles are really pronounced.

HOWEVER - I have decided that by the end of August I will post a picture of myself on my blog.  I hope that the waddle under my chin which replaced the double chin I used to have will be reduced by then...but even if it is still there, I will post it!

SCIENTIFIC PROOF LIFE IS NOT FAIR!

I loved the twists in the article I read in the NY Times about diet and exercise.  There has been some question about just how valuable exercise is when dieting.  Mostly because exercise at the level most of us actually participate, we just doesn't burn that many calories.

“In general, exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss,” says Eric Ravussin, a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and an expert on weight loss. It’s especially useless because people often end up consuming more calories when they exercise.

“The body aims for homeostasis,”wrote Barry Braun, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in the American College of Sports Medicine’s February newsletter. It likes to remain at whatever weight it’s used to. So even small changes in energy balance can produce rapid changes in certain hormones associated with appetite, particularly acylated ghrelin, which is known to increase the desire for food, as well as insulin and leptin, hormones that affect how the body burns fuel."

Here's where it gets unfair:

In physiological terms, the results of one study “are consistent with the paradigm that mechanisms to maintain body fat are more effective in women,” Braun and his colleagues wrote. In practical terms, the results are scientific proof that life is unfair. Female bodies, inspired almost certainly “by a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction,” Braun says, fight hard to hold on to every ounce of fat.

On the other hand, if you can somehow pry off the pounds, exercise may be the most important element in keeping the weight off. “When you look at the results in the National Weight Control Registry,” Braun says, “you see over and over that exercise is one constant among people who’ve maintained their weight loss.”


At least the very latest science about exercise and weight loss has a gentler tone and a more achievable goal that the study that came out suggesting women needed vigorous exercise an hour a day, every day to maintain weight. “Emerging evidence suggests that ­unlike bouts of moderate-vigorous activity, low-intensity ambulation, standing, etc., may contribute to daily energy expenditure without triggering the caloric compensation effect,” Braun wrote in the American College of Sports Medicine newsletter.

In a study Braun just completed in his energy/metabolism lab, volunteers spent a day sitting and then a day standing.  The volunteers who stood all day not doing anything in particular, metabolised  a significant number of calories without triggering their appetite hormones.  So you don't necessarily have to get on a treadmill, just get off the chair more!

A NEW LIFE?

Since I started this effort to get fit early this year, I have lost 61 pounds. I was watching a commercial for Jenny Craig (or one of those diet programs) and a woman who had lost about that much weight and looked to be about a size 4 was talking about how she loves her "new life."

Those of us who are very much larger and have a lot more than 60 pounds to lose to get to a healthy weight can look at that commercial and think - well, a lot of things!! One thing would be that we wish we had gotten started on the weight loss when we only had 60 pounds to lose!

My thought was that the commercial is misleading when it suggests that you get a new life if you lose weight. It is really unfair to advertise that way. You get a lot of fabulous benefits, not the least of which is better health and the ability to shop in the 12 fashion departments of the stores and not the tiny little 5 rack Plus Size section hidden in the far reaches of the store next to the Maternity Shop by the Ladies Room.

The reality is that your life goes right along with you on your journey to fitness and a better BMI. Hopefully you will be more energetic and take advantage of more opportunities. You will enjoy the benefits of better health and attractiveness. Spend more money on cute workout clothes and less on take out food. Go on long walks and hikes and bike rides instead of hanging out on the couch.

So the first 60 pounds lost has not given me a new life - but it has shown me how to go about living the life I am living better.

SWEATY SUNDAY

I had my highly anticipated meeting with a trainer on Sunday morning and boy did I get a workout! I learned a lot and I will be saving my pennies for another session with her.

Just a few tweaks to my position on the NuStep machine and my workout was kicked up like crazy. It wasn't that I was doing it wrong, just that I had been doing it the same way, in the same position on the machine for so long that I had adjusted to it and was no longer getting a real benefit from my workouts. She had me move the seat up and wow! It was so much harder to do again! I had thought the seat position had to do with my height, but in fact, the position is part of arranging how and which muscles are used. By adding in the variations, I am changing up the workout and hopefully I'll be able to avoid another plateau like the one I have been on.

I also have some changes for my lower body weight workouts and an entirely new upper body weight routine using a cable machine. So I am very happy that I stopped that trainer to ask a question and that she was so generous with her time. I Can tell it is really going to make a difference!