Day Three

FIRST: Please go check out my new writing blog at my own little domain name :)

I had my first substitute teaching job of the year today. Fifth grade. It went well, I think.

I ate a decent breakfast and packed my snack and lunch according to my BLC plan. Yay me!

I have come of the conclusion that I can not have cookies in my house. Ever. I can't stop eating them. I bought some oatmeal cookies because they were called for on my plan (I swear!) and in three days I've eaten about the whole package.

I weighed myself at the school, because my scale needs a new battery. According to that scale, I lost two pounds this week. I'm calling it four though because I weighed myself after lunch and wearing my shoes and a ankle-length denim skirt instead of being nakies.

I feel good. I think that's the most important thing. I feel strong.

Except my arms. I did 150 wall-ups yesterday and my arms hurt so bad it's making me sick to my stomach.

Day Two

So yesterday I did pretty well with my BLC menu plan. Until the evening. I ate several oatmeal cookies and some cheezits. Not because I was terribly hungry, but because--ugh, my brain is broke I swear. If I'm not super full I get this panicky, horrible feeling. It's the worst.

I don't know how to get rid of that feeling. Why do I sabatoge myself? I'm not beating myself up--today is another day, and my challenge doesn't really start until Sept. 16 when the show starts.

I decided to do a card deck exercise challenge I found on the BLC website.

Diamonds: Jumping jacks
Clubs: Crunches/bicep curls
Spades: Wall-ups
Hearts: squats/lunges

You pick a card and times the number on the card by 10 with jokers being 20, aces 15, kings 13, queens 12, jacks 11.

I decided on five cards a day, here are mine for today:

3 and 8 of hearts: 110 squats
ace and queen of spades: 270 wall-ups (!)
king of diamonds: 130 jumping jacks

So far I've done 50 wall-ups. LOL I'll be at this all day, which might be the point.

Day One

I don't think I'll do a daily post about the BLC (Biggest Loser Club) from now until Christmas. But you know, you just never know!

Today was the first full day on the program. It's amazing how much 1900 calories is, when you're actually eating food and not Ding Dongs and Salt & Vinegar Lays. I mean really. I had three meals and a huge snack...and I can still eat another snack tonight if I want to.

Here's what my day one looked like. I followed the BLC meal plan pretty closely, making minor adjustments according to what I had at home or could afford to buy at the grocery store.

Breakfast:

Two slices of whole wheat toast
1 T of blackberry jam
1 egg
2 slices of thick bacon (I know! But it was on the menu, I swear!)
1/2 of a tomato

I could have had a snack here. But I went to the store, and by the time I got back it was lunch time.

Lunch:

A huge bowl of cabbage soup
1 cup of strawberry yogurt
1 ounce of yummy cherry-flavored prunes (Gross sounding...but scrumptious like candy)
.5 ounce of Cheezits

Snack:

I combined the morning and afternoon snacks and had 3/4 cottage cheese, pineapple, 1 ounce of walnuts and a little handful of raisins. Mmmmm...best snack ever!

Dinner:

Baked Tilapia with zuccini and tomatos
1 cup mashed potatoes

I also did ten minutes on my trampoline. My goal is to build up to at least 20 by the time Biggest Loser starts.

So one day down. Whoo!

Time to Take Control

My life has been insane this summer.

I sold two books. Two manuscripts that I wrote, to publishers. I am an author.

I went to San Francisco to meet with agents and publishers at the huge and amazing Romance Writer's of America national conference. It was the most insanely wonderful experience.

Nicholas, my son who has Asperger's Syndrom, has started high school. Stress leading up to it, but so far so good as far as the actual experience goes. Both he and Adrienne are working their hearts out.

I'm finishing up a 9 month long class in advocacy for people with disabilities that required a once a month weekend away from home.

And I weigh 330 pounds today.

So something has to give.

I don't need to hide anymore. That's my mantra. I don't need to hide. I can give up the extra 150 or so pounds. They've done their job. I don't need the insulation against the world anymore. I'm ready to meet it head on.

So I've signed up for the Biggest Loser Club. I'm not sure how long term I'll do it. But I really need strong help cutting back my calories. I'm eating 3500 to 4000 a day. Those are such huge numbers, and I don't even feel like I'm eating that much. Biggest Loser Club, based on my weight, put me on about 1800 to 2000 a day. That's half. Or a defect of about 14000 a week...that's four pounds a week, just in uneaten calories.

The program recommends five days of cardio and three of strength training a week. I figure that's good for another two pounds a week. Kevin gave me a little trampoline for Christmas last year. I really like it, because it's freaking freezing up here a good part of the year, starting pretty darn soon. It gives the kids and me a chance to get some indoor exercise. I've been jumping on it everyday for the last week. I can go for about ten minutes right now (two songs.) I do it several times throughout the day. My goal is to be able to jump for an hour straight (twelve songs) by Christmas.

So I'm not holding my breath for six pounds lost a week. That's silly. But there are 17 weeks until Christmas. I think I can lose 30 pounds by then and go to my next major family gathering weighing less than 300 pounds. That's my goal.

So that's it. I'm a huge Biggest Loser fan. I'll be following along with them for the rest of this year. The show starts Sept. 16. I start today.