January 2016 in review:

It was a good month:

I worked out 24 days out of 31 (including a couple of doubles)

I lost 14.8 lbs

I lost a couple of inches from my waist, hips, thighs

I lost an inch from my chest

I lost 1/2 inch from my wrist and my calf

 for some reason my arm did not lose anything

Success!!

Girly troubles

Sometimes I can't wait for menopause.    I know it brings its own problems, but I've never been comfortable with the bleeding.  For years it didn't bother me too much because my body was so messed up from my binge eating that I would go 6 months or more without a period.   But when I eat right, I ovulate normally and am more like clockwork.

I am emotional and want to binge, but I've been in control...

Working out is never fun for me on my period.  And today my worst fear realized.  We were doing some ab work where we did leg extensions, and I felt it...knew it had leaked.  I turned over, saw the blood on the white white towel, and promptly got up and ran to the ladies....  Grrr....

Sure this is TMI  - but this blog is for that...for stuff I don't always say out loud, but think.  About the embarrassing moments..the trials, tribulations and all that...

I'm doing well....will give the stats on February 1st.

Swimming is exhausting

There is nothing as exhausting to me in exercising than swimming.  Not muscle aching tired, just a sweeping lethargy that comes over my whole body a couple of hours after a swim.  A "I want to take a nap" kind of tiredness.

It's Oscar Season which is kind of my favorite time of the year.  Yesterday I watched 4 of the 8 Best Picture nominations. 
Room:  Disturbing and Sad but very very well acted
Brooklyn:  A lovely lovely film.
Spotlight:  It's fantastic, but I wonder if I would love it as much if I didn't live near Boston at the time
Revenant:  Worthy of the praise it's getting.  I LOVED seeing Leo in a movie like this. 

The other two I've seen

Mad Maxx: Fury Road:  At first I was like, "What the heck IS this movie", but then I really did appreciate it as a film. 

The Martian:  I love Matt Damon.  I prefer him as Jason Bourne to anything else, but he puts a good turn in here.  I was underwhelmed, but I did enjoy the movie.,

So I have two left to see for Best Picture:  Bridge of Spies and the Big Short

Then I also want to see:
Trumbo
Steve Jobs (on video Feb 2)
The Danish Girl
Carol

I am seeing all the Oscar Shorts on Feb 20th.    I'm hosting an Oscar viewing party this year.  I have attended one for the past 3 years but for some reason I didn't make the cut for invitation this year.  I was sad for a bit, but then I said to myself "Just throw your own".  So I am.  And I think for the first time in my life, every person I've invited has said yes!    I'm excited!!

I'm still maintaining my streak of losing weight...I'm due for Aunt Flo any day now, so that might start to creep again. 

Diagnosis

So apparently I have something wrong with my patella femoral muscle.  Like I thought, I was overcompensating and also might have been having my knee cave in while working out putting pressure on that muscle.

It hurts, but I can mostly work out okay. 

I'm doing well with food and I've cut out Diet Coke again.  I haven't even really thought about diet coke in 3 weeks which is a good thing.  I have always believed in the connection between my binge eating and drinking Diet Coke.  When I lost weight the first time, I was off Diet Coke for a year.  Then my dad got sick, I got tired and needed a caffeine boost....then I gained weight because I started binge eating again.

Past is past though and I need to look forward to the future...

Knee Deep in Trouble...

I'm going for a consult today regarding my knee, which has been in a lot of pain since I started working out a few weeks ago.  One of the trainers think I may have been overcompensating for my ankle (that I broke over a year ago and still baby), but it's still hurting.  My friend is a physical therapist, so before I go into ortho to take xrays, I'm going to see her to see what she thinks.

It doesn't impede my workouts too much, but sometime stretching is impossible if I have to kneel on the ground to do it.

Otherwise everything is pretty great.  Feeling motivated still.  Trying to encourage my other friends who are wanting to be healthier this year. 

I just wish it weren't so darn cold!!!!

On a Roll...

I've been on a pretty good roll...I've exercised 14 out of 17 days so far this month.  I've been eating well and some pounds are coming off.  I'll do a monthly recap on the 1st of February with all the stats of numbers. 

I don't find it hard when my head is in the game.  In fact it's pretty easy.  Keep a routine, keep the pattern..it works.  It's when I deviate. even in a small way, that I have problems.  Eating later than usual, or something different than usual.  Somehow that messes me up.   I need predictability to do the best I can.

Are curveballs going to come?  Of course.  Will I slip up?  Probably - the likelihood is great.  But I'm going to embrace the moment right now when my head IS in the game and I AM doing well.  One day at a time is the only way to get through this.

I know EXACTLY what to do!

So in August I was 11 weeks into my weight loss had loss 31 lbs and then something derailed me.  We had a lot of stress.  We were potentially moving back to the east coast and there were realtors and painters and research into towns and schools, and then....we weren't.    We turned down an offer that should have been better than what it was.  The company my husband was going to move back to wouldn't budge on salary.  It would have moved us closer to family which is worth a lot, but after a lot of back and forth, we decided to stay in Illinois.  A state I have never loved, but for better or worse, in the last 8 years has become my home.

Anyhow I derailed, and gained back the 31 lbs that I had lost.  11 weeks of hard work done.  Oh well..

It's a new year and I've started off with a bang.  The first few days of January were rough, but I'm in it now, my heads in the game and I'm down 7.5 lbs so far. 

I quit my job to stay home with my daughter.  When I went back to work over a year ago, I NEEDED to.  I had such depression after my father passed combined with probably some post partum, and I really needed to be out doing something.  But, work got more miserable and it just wasn't worth it.  I wasn't getting to the gym enough.  My husband was traveling a lot more and it just became impossible for the kids to do any extra curricular activities.  So when it looked like we were moving, I quit, and except for a few projects I have been working on from home, I am staying quit.

So I'm back to the grind.  Working out, eating well...doing EXACTLY what I did before.  Because when you lose 100 lbs, you know exactly what to do.  So I just need to do it!  Blogger becomes less important because I've kind of experienced it all before.  All the first time ouches and amazements, but I'll still check in, because blogging was a BIG part of the first 100 lbs. 

I'm still in contact with all the amazing gym friends I made and have been this whole time.  They are huge supporters.  In fact, my one friend Judy, when I didn';t make it to the gym in time to get a pass, (because I was in another class) went up to the instructor (who is also my friend) and said she couldn't kick me out, and that she would leave before I was kicked out!!  That's having my back.  I wouldn't have let her, because I would have felt terrible, but still what a great thought!!

Anyhow, that's an update on life!  Here's a recent snapshot at us at Disneyworld, my favorite happy place!