Exercise or else

The funny thing about writing a blog, is that if you write that you will do something, well, then gosh darn it, you better do it. So out of fear of being ridiculed by those folks nice enough to have read my last post...

Yes.

I did it.

I got up early today and exercised. (can I get a "woo hoo" from the crowd?)

Granted, it wasn't a lot. But I did manage to squeeze in 20 minutes of vigorous kick boxing this morning before racing into the shower. (still waitin' on that "woo hoo").

It was one of those workouts-on-demand on cable and to be honest, I wasn't all that thrilled with it because the "instructor" was more than a tad annoying but...Gotta start somewhere, right?

I will try something else tomorrow.

Stay tuned for less of me.

Making slow and steady progress on Weight Watchers

First a thanks to Miz Fit for the little kick in the butt this week for not updating in a while.

It wasn't intentional. I swear.

I'm a little frustrated with the slow pace of Weight Watchers despite knowing that it's better to lose it this way.

Five weeks in and I've lost 5 pounds. (Hurray for me ???)

The funny thing about weight loss programs though is that in order for them to work, you have to work them. Profound, I know.

Some days I'm better at it than others. I find it impossible to stay on program every day and I know that I am my own worst enemy if I fail to write stuff down.

Some slip ups are obvious....like the piece of cheesecake I HAD to have to celebrate my friend's birthday. What kind of friend would I be to go to Cheesecake Factory with him and not have "something"...right? Yea, Yea, I know.

In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny... "what a maroon!"

Other slip ups are not so obvious or maybe just unavoidable. Weekends are just deadly for me lately as I have found myself in social situations where food I shouldn't be eating in ANY quantity has found itself in my gullet. And of course, I'm instantly sorry and kicking myself clear into the next day.

But aside from the obvious and not so obvious stated above, my biggest challenge continues to be...exercise. It's not the how, or even the what (since, like most everyone I know, I have a plethora of bands, balls, weights and dvds to get the job done). Instead it's just the WHEN?

Every day, my alarm clock goes off at 5:30. Every day I have the intention of getting up and doing some form of exercise before I have to start getting myself and two 7 year olds ready to start the day. And more times than not, I find myself hitting the snooze enough times to make those intentions worthless.

So if any of you have any great suggestions of how I can get over this hurdle, please speak up. I KNOW that if I can figure out a way to make exercise a regular and permanent part of my daily routine, that the weight will melt away.

Stay tuned for less of me.

Watching the Scale Go Down-Week 2 on Weight Watchers

This week, I lost another 1.5 pounds for my second week on Weight Watchers. Slow and steady wins the race.

This week I was a little concerned though. My regular routine was disrupted by having to attend two days of training in NYC. I knew this was going to mean having to make some hard food choices since these things are never an opportunity to eat well...just to eat whatever is handy. I did better than I thought I would, though. I skipped the bagels they provided in the morning and the cookies they set out in the afternoon. Ate breakfast before I left and made sure I had some fruit handy. But maybe because it was weighing so heavily (no pun intended ) on my mind, I felt like I was STARVING the whole day. It could be because my day started so much earlier. I had to eat breakfast at 6:30 before leaving the house to catch the train instead of my usual 8:30 (at my desk) And I'm certain that I drank a lot more coffee than I usually do (It was not what you'd call a "sit on the edge of your seat" kind of training so I needed a little help.) The good news is that it forced me to do a lot more walking that I typically do in my suburban life.

I've been wearing a pedometer lately so I can tell you that from my house to the World Trade Center where I got off the train... it was 1700 steps. But between walking to the building where my training was down near Wall Street and getting a little turned around on the first day trying to find the entrance to the train on the way back...I logged over 10,000 steps each day.

I guess that's one of the pitfalls of living a "get-in-your-car-to-go-everywhere" kind of life. When we lived in the city, I wouldn't have given it a second thought to walk anywhere. Now, it's a different story completely.

I also found this week that if I'm really good about eating the right things, drinking water and overall, staying on plan 95% of the time, then when I'm faced with those situations that cause me to stray, I don't have to feel like I just sabotaged my entire week.

This week could have been MUCH worse if I had just given in to temptation and convenience. But I am really proud of my restraint in choosing bananas over cookies and a hot pretzel (in the train station on the way home) over a Haagen Daz ice cream pop.

Happy 4th of July and stay tuned for less of me.