Hello 10,000

After about a year of retirement, I have dusted off my trusty pedometer, replaced the dead battery (the real reason it was retired in the first place - who has time to go find a small round battery and a screw driver?) and started tracking my steps once again. Some days, I just don't get enough exercise, plain and simple. Gym days, absolutely, I'm golden on my miles and exercise quota for the day. But those non-gym days? I seriously need a kick in the butt to get moving more often and more regularly.

So, I'm tracking my steps again. Just being aware of how much (or how little) I move, makes me contemplate ways to up my number of steps. Instead of cutting across the field at school, I'll take the longer walk way. Instead of calling someone, walk to their office. Little things add up and I'm aware of how my decisions affect my activity for the day. Plus, if I'm seriously behind in the daily 10,000 steps goal come dinner time, I know to skip out for a quick walk or even just walk in place while I watch one of my shows. Every little bit helps. This will help me keep my body moving, that way even if I don't go out on one of my long walks, I move around enough.

Starting out, Friday was an awesome day, logging 15,000 steps. A bit of a departure from my normal routine, I was in NYC for the day. I was worried that I wouldn't log many steps because I would be in a car, bus or cab for approximately 12 hours that day. But, I managed to do quite a bit of walking. Instead of immediately grabbing a cab, since I had some extra time before my appointment, I walked in the direction of where I was heading. Once I made it into Brooklyn, I walked around to find the place I needed to go, and then checked out the local area, shops, places to eat, etc. The real chunk of my steps that day came after my appointment. I would say half of the 15,000 steps came from walking around Brooklyn attempting to find a cab back to Manhattan. I had to laugh when I realized that the episode of "Sex and the City" in which Samantha discovers that even cabs don't go to Brooklyn was pretty much true. 

Thanks, Brooklyn. You helped me log some major steps!

Swallowing the Brown Rice Loaf

When I stopped following my strict meat and veggies diet about a month ago, I started feeling different. My headaches and dizziness were subsiding, but my body wasn't feeling right. After chatting with a few people, I started to wonder if perhaps my body cannot handle the sugar and carbs properly. I'm still researching this, gluten intolerance being one of my focuses in particular. But, I've decided to run some preliminary tests on my own, just for fun. Don't worry, I'm going to speak with a doctor about this too.

I purchased some gluten free foods as a starting point in my tests. Last night, I was craving a turkey sandwich. We had chicken, so I went for that and made myself a sandwich using Brown Rice Loaf purchased at my local fruit market. At $6 for a small loaf, I had extremely high expectations. Was I in for a major surprise when I could barely get the stuff down. Dry and gritty, this wasn't bread- or cake-like. This was stale bread mixed with majorly dry corn bread, complete with a crumbly texture. My dog even had trouble swallowing the loaf. The fact that it's called "loaf" should have been my first clue to be suspicious.

If I am, in fact, gluten intolerant or something like that, this will be interesting to say the least. I need some suggestions on truly good gluten-free foods.

Inspiration in a cemetery

The past few weeks, I have been battling a respiratory infection which has caused me to significantly cut back on my exercise. OK, I've pretty much stopped exercising. This illness came on just a couple weeks after my doctors told me to end my low-carb diet and introduce carbs back into my meals. Coincidence? I think not, but that's another blog. Any way, this sitting around resting, blowing my nose and coughing, combined with new carbs equals slightly tighter pants. Disappointing. I was getting a bit down on myself, to be honest.

But then this morning, I joined a group of students at the school where I work on an excursion downtown. Our founder's birthday is today, and to celebrate, we visited several historical sites in town to learn some history. The students were broken into three groups, and it was my goal to rotate between the three of them to photograph each group at a different location. I walked with the first group up to the historical building, up a small hill. Save for the need to stop once inside and cough a bit, I didn't think twice about the walk to the site.

Once that talk concluded, I headed off for the furthest location of the excursion to meet a different group. Down the street I went, around a corner, up a slightly bigger hill, up some stairs around the back, find an open door, down a flight of stairs to the lower level to find the group. I was slightly winded, but once I stopped moving, my breath returned to normal. Up a set of stairs, pause for a quick talk and some photographs, up another set of stairs, pause for a quick stop and some more shots. Down the stairs and out the back door, I left the second group to join the third group at the final destination, the cemetery where our founder is buried.

As I walked up another hill, around a bend and down a path, I caught a glimpse of the group still underway, so I paused and snapped a few shots from the distance. Standing in the silence of the cemetery in the early morning, the sunshine illuminating the group standing by the gravestone listening to stories about the past, I realized that I was absolutely fine. While that is usually a good thing, it made me think back to the last time I had been at this cemetery two years ago. Just walking from the bus to the gravestone had me extremely winded, sweating and feeling utterly exhausted. Today, I walked from the car, to a destination up the street, including a hill, back down the street even further this time, up another hill, up and down staircases, more hills, and I was, for the most part, completely unfazed by the excursion. I was keeping pace with the group, wasn't overly exerting myself and I hadn't even considered the fact that a year ago, I couldn't have done what I just did.

To know that I had let myself get to the point where I couldn't do the simplest of things, a quick walk through town for example, well, that's sad and rather unfortunate. To know that I have lost out on several years of enjoying the world around me because it was too much work to get out there and move around is a rather depressing thought.

What happened this morning though reminded me that I have come so far, and that I deserve to keep going down the path of success. I need to stay focused in my personal goals, decide what is best for me and my health, and do what I need to do. No more feeling down, just look forward to what will come.

Sick and Tired of being Sick and Tired

I was on such a roll there for a while. I went an entire year without being sick, then month 13 hits and it hit my immune system hard. I've been down and out for the count for almost a week now.

It started with a tickle in my throat and my voice started to get deep. It was kinda low and growly, you know ... not too shabby ...

But then it went beyond just a fun vocal change. Next thing I knew, I was an exhausted, mute, space cadet who couldn't breathe. There is nothing fun about a respiratory infection. The worst part was, all I wanted to do was take a puff of my inhaler to help me breathe, but one shot of that made my throat tickle more and sent me into another coughing spell. It was a cruel twist in my situation.

Chicken soup, tea with honey, lots of water, rest and a Z-pak finally have me up and about. I made it through an entire day at work today, catching up on what I missed the past two days and getting things back in order. I'm still fighting the exhaustion though - the end of today was rough to say the least.

Here's to getting myself back on track with diet and exercise now that I'm on the mend. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Lost: My inner incredible

Surviving the holidays has always been a challenge for me. I love carbs and sweets, especially sweet carbs. Being under hypnosis definitely helped me through the major holidays. This time, I was on my own for Easter. I was not perfect by any means, but I did well. I watched my portions, limited my treats and did my best to stay away from temptations. I did indulge, but not did over-indulge.

One thing I have noticed is that my attitude has changed since I broke the hypnosis. I'm not taking things as seriously, not viewing one bite as being problematic. The reality is, one bite IS problematic for me. I need to stop my relaxed attitude and start really making a bigger effort to continue improving my life.

I'm starting to wonder just how much hypnosis helped me in my everyday decisions. The amount of willpower I had was incredible, and now left to my own devices, I am far from incredible.

My mission, discover my incredible inner strength once again.

Explain this to me ...

I realized the other day one major reason why certain diet and exercise plans work for me, and others don't. There are, of course, ease of use and convenience factors, but beyond that, it's an explanation. A real one. "Because it works" doesn't cut it for me. I need to know why, I need to see a point other than blind faith and experts said so.

Tell me what happens in my body when I eat certain foods. Tell me why my body reacts to this differently from that. Make me understand, educate me. Then, if I understand and accept the reasoning, the plan should work.

I completely understood my plan under hypnosis, what my goals were and why. Why we had certain tasks, essential foods and no-no foods. I may not have understood WHY the hypnosis part worked exactly, but I understood the why. And, I saw results quickly.

So now what? I'm off hypnosis per the doctor because of my increased exercise, and I'm back into personal training and a clean eating diet. This has been an adjustment after 8 months of no weighing or tracking foods, no reading labels, no carbs at all, no schedule for meals, nothing that tastes sweet.

And I'm realizing that I am not following this plan as closely or seriously as my hypnosis plan, because I don't understand why. I keep hearing the voice of my hypnotist saying, nothing sweet, every time I pick up a protein bar or shake. I remember that we weren't supposed to eat nuts of any kind, but clean eating encourages peanut butter.

So, my goal in the next few days is to research and discover why clean eating works, how it helps my body and see if I can really get myself properly on track with this plan. Feel free to share thoughts and resources on clean eating with me!

Things that weigh 80 pounds

In case you didn't catch my post yesterday, I lost 80 pounds, and I am THRILLED! I'm still going. But, here's a look at things that [may] weigh 80 pounds, so in essence, all the things I have lost.

• 2 four-year-olds
• A large dog
• The World's Largest Ball of Tape (although I read that this record may have been broken and it's now 117 pounds, but I'm going with it)
• Approximately 53 dozen large eggs
• Four tires
• 10-Gallon bottle of water
• A heavy bag for boxing
• Black Rhino Baby
• Rachel Zoe (according to bricksandstonesgossip.com)
• Snooki (according to celebuzz.com)

Any other things that weigh 80 pounds that you can add?

Can I brag for a minute?

I'm sorry, but I just need to stop and brag for a minute. I've lost about 80 pounds in a year, and I think that's awesome! Diet and exercise, who knew? It's a huge feat and an incredible accomplishment. I'm thrilled.

And I'm not done. I still have a ways to go, probably another 80 pounds still to go before I'm at a healthy weight (maybe more, depends on how much muscle I build). But, being half way (or close to half way) to my goal is an awesome feeling.

It wasn't easy. There was NOTHING easy about this. I changed my lifestyle completely.

I changed my diet: No sugar or carbs. I lived on meat, veggies and milk, with Siggi's Yogurt as my one "treat" as long as it was part of a meal with meat. I gave up foods I loved, especially the sugar, man alive do I have a nasty sweet tooth! No birthday cake for me last year though, and that was a first. Slightly disappointing, but I'd rather be healthy than have a cake.

I exercised: Personal training, strength training, cardio. I dragged my butt out of bed at 4:30 in the morning so I could prop myself up on a treadmill or bike at the gym by 5 am. I logged hours at the gym, literally working my butt off. And, I started taking my dog for walks on the beach once the weather started to warm up. I even jogged/walked my first 5K in March 2012, and I wasn't the last one to cross the finish line! I'm moving and shaking.

I got hypnosis: I admitted that I couldn't do this alone and accepted help in many forms, one of which was hypnosis. It helped with willpower and provided clear objectives for accomplishing my goals.

I asked for help: I enlisted my friends and family by telling them what I could and could not eat, so temptations were minimal. And, in moments of weakness, they helped me stay on track. Especially my sister. I think she secretly took pleasure in scolding me when I was tempted to stray.

This has probably been the most challenging project of my life, working to essentially cut my body weight in half. As I type this, moving in my chair to stretch my sore muscles, I think about how far I've come and how proud I am of my accomplishments.

80 pounds gone from my life.

Knee-ding a solution

Monday was my first personal training session after about eight months on my own. I must say, I'm a bit sore. She definitely kicked my butt.

I'm still concerned about my knees though. I stopped personal training last summer because the program they offered at my gym was not truly personal; it was designed to accommodate four women at a time doing essentially the same thing. There were a lot of squats and lunges, things that required using my knees to a large degree in ways that would later trigger a lot of pain.

I had hoped that the 80 pounds I lost would allow me to step back into this program and finish my membership (three months left!), but after day one, I'm not sure this will work. I told my trainer that my knees were an issue, squats and lunges were the biggest culprits for aggravating my knees (I have arthritis and was in a car accident seven years ago). However, she had me try exercises like stair stepping and later, squats. While I could do the exercises without pain at that moment, the pain came later.

Sitting in my car, dripping with sweat, I felt a hot pulsing sensation in my knees. Placing my hands on my knee caps, I felt the heat radiating from them. That can't be good. When I got home, I went to take the three small steps up to my porch and felt that twinge of pain that I used to get after working out. Not a good sign. Later that night, standing up from my chair, I felt that twinge of pain again.

The last thing I want is to damage my knees. I'm just getting healthy and I want to stay that way. I'll be talking with the trainer at my next appointment today. If I keep having trouble with my knees, I may not be able to continue with this kind of personal training program.

Breaking Hypnosis

This past weekend, I wrote about breaking hypnosis. I have, but I'm still in shock. How could I stop doing a program that was working? Well, I was dizzy, tired, weak and unmotivated, and I was apparently not giving my body enough nutrients to survive. My low-carb diet, which had been healthy and helped me lose just over 80 pounds, was no longer cutting it.

But it worked! But, I wasn't feeling well. See, since the beginning of 2012, my exercise increased, working towards 5 miles of walking a day and building up my endurance to run 5K races without walking. I was eating more of the meat and veggies that were part of my low-carb plan, but it turns out my body needed even more. My hypnotist, who also has a background in nutrition, was surprised I was training so hard while on such an intense weight loss program; it was too much for my body to handle at once. My doctors agreed. It's time to reintroduce carbs.

It's scary, and to be honest, I failed at my first week off hypnosis and a low-carb diet. Left to my own devices, I reverted to old habits. But, if I want to keep moving forward, I have to make better decisions and learn how to stay healthy.

So much for my plan to double my efforts and double my losses! In order to stay healthy and safely train, I had to make a change. I made the difficult decision to break hypnosis and change my diet, but I'm also stepping up my training.