The Selfish Monster Rears It's Ugly Head

Last week when Jason was running with me, I shared with him that the selfish monster was rearing its ugly head again. I was feeling so guilty for the countless hours of working out. I was feeling like I never see my children. I was feeling like I was losing the balance I had found. Jason was silent for a few moments and then shared with me that he feels I was more selfish before I started this journey. That puzzled me. Before I started this journey, I was a stay at home mom. My entire focus was he and the children. I asked him what he meant by that. He shared with me that before I started the journey I was never completely with them. I was with them physically but not emotionally. I was tired all this time so all I wanted to do was sit and watch TV so I could zone out. After the kiddos were in bed, I would head for the ice cream and sit on the couch eating and watching TV. He shared with me that he was hurt more than once because he just wished I cared as much about him as I did my food and TV. I was SHOCKED! I had no idea this is how he felt most of our marriage and I had no idea this is how I was treating my family. He shared with me that now when I am with them, I am with them. Jason is with me for most of my workouts now so we engage in conversation, joke, work through issues, talk about our day, etc. When I am not working out, working, or taking care of responsibilities I am playing with the kids, talking with them, going places with them, being active with them, etc. I am so glad Jason shared this with me. It made me even more determined never to go back to my old ways. Once I have completed the extreme weight loss season I will be able to embark on a more balanced way of life. I am looking forward to it!

Weigh Day!!

I weighed in at 194.5 lbs yesterday morning! I was excited to see weight loss because of the little vacation in between weigh ins. The last time I reported my weight to you, I weighed 197 lbs on June 6th. When I weighed on June 11th, before leaving for Vegas, I weighed 196 lbs. I am only 4.5 lbs away from being overweight instead of obese. I am excited about that!

I ran another 8 miles yesterday morning. Next week I am on to 10 miles. I am going to sign up for the Sunriver Half Marathon held on September 4th. I am very nervous about signing up for an official race. I have been going over why that is and I am sure it is a fear of failure. If I run an unofficial race and cannot finish it, then no one is the wiser. I have decided to face that fear head on and sign up for an official race. It may seem silly to some, but this area of my life has always held me back. I am staring it in the face and conquering it!

Feeling Good

This was in my inbox this morning from Jillian Michaels. So many of you have been asking me how I've lost the weight but more importantly how I've stayed motivated. There are so many pieces to the puzzle and this one's a big one.

How To Improve Your Attitude

Do you have what it takes to reach your weight-loss goals? If you think it's all about diet and exercise, you're wrong.

It sounds crazy, I know. Exercise and a proper diet are crucial to all weight-loss and fitness programs. But to reach any long-term goal — especially one that requires a major lifestyle change — you need to improve your attitude too. You can have all the external support in the world, but if your self-esteem is in the toilet, you'll never have long-term success.

Having the right attitude is so important because thought is behavior. The power of the mind is total — the way you think about yourself manifests as your reality. We all know how easily negative thoughts can lead to lack of confidence, hopelessness, and depression. You've heard about self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Well, if you tell yourself that you'll always be fat or you'll never find happiness, chances are you'll end up fat and unhappy. Hey, it makes sense.

Okay then, let's turn that scenario around. Tell yourself that you can get fit and you will be happy. It's that simple. You can master your own fate with positive thinking!

JILLIAN'S TIP OF THE DAY

Test Yourself
To see whether your thoughts are predominantly positive or negative, test yourself. It sounds extreme, but you only need to do it once: Carry a small notebook around for an entire day. Each time a thought about yourself pops into your head, write it down and assess whether it's positive or negative. At the end of the day, tally your positive and negative thoughts. Even if you already suspect you lean toward the negative, seeing those thoughts on paper might give you the kick you need! When you change your attitude, you'll change your life.

Vegas!!!

Vegas was AWESOME!!! We had no agenda, which was amazing in itself, so we relaxed, saw amazing shows, ate incredible food, slept, window shopped, exercised, played some slots, drank some super yummy drinks and more. I felt like a star! Thank you so much for this wonderful gift Sarah Miller! You are one amazing woman!

Sarah & I flying First Class.

First Class Baby!!! The plane out of Redmond had maintenance issues that caused us to miss our connecting flight. The flight they switched us to only had First Class seats available. It made the queen in me very happy!!!

The last time I flew I had to ask for a seat belt extender. This time I had to tighten my seat belt!!! Yes!!!

Playing the slots. My dear friend Kelli Shelton bought me that dress. I LOVE it!! (That's my sis-in-law in the background. She was serious about her slots! LOL!)

In front of our hotel. We stayed at the Belagio. WOW!



At dinner before we went to see The Lion King.

At The Lion King. I LOVED IT! Such creativity and the music was incredible. If you ever have a chance to see it, GO!

Raising the roof at M&M World.

The trip was fantastic! Now back to reality. I have just a little over 3 weeks until my 1 year anniversary. I'll be on the big push to see what I can lose by that date. Then I'm on to running my first half marathon. I'll let you know that date so you can come run with me. :) After that I'll be training for a full marathon. OMGosh! I can't believe I just said that. So many goals to reach & now I know I can reach for them. Keep the support coming. I couldn't do it with out all of the amazing encouragement I get from family & friends.



Eugene Half Marathon

I said I would post Jason's pictures from the half marathon & I'm just now getting to it.  My brother Martin also ran the half so I've included some pics of him too.  I'm so proud of these two.  They will both be running on the same Hood to Coast team in August this year.  They're running monsters.



Jason's in the red shirt.




Martin's the super tall one.




Martin & Jason showing off their medals.



BMR - Base Metabolic Rate

Base Metabolic Rate


This is something I began to grasp a few months ago. The BMR is the rate at which your body burns calories if you were to lay on the couch and never get up. Knowing this number can change your weight loss results almost instantly.

The way it works: If you want to lose 1 lb, you have to burn 3500 calories. If you want to lose 2 lbs then you have to burn 7000 calories and so on. It can seem complicated and overwhelming, but once you get it, you get it!

Here's an example:

My BMR is 1662.35.

My activity level during the day is low because I have a sedentary job. Since this is the case, I multiply my BMR times 1.1. If I was a stay at home mom or had a job where I moved around quite a bit during the day I would multiply my BMR by 1.2. If I was a construction worker, for example, or had a very active job, I would multiply my BMR by 1.3 and so on and so forth.

My BMR times my activity level is 1828.59. (This is the number of calories I burn every day, not including my workouts.)

I choose to eat approx. 1300 calories per day, which means I have a deficit of 528.59 calories. (Based on those numbers, if I did not work out, it would take me 6.62 days to burn 1 lb of fat.) Since I want to lose weight at a faster pace, I have to increase my activity level. I try to burn 1200 calories per day, 5 days per week through exercise. Now I multiply 528.59 times 7 days, 1200 times 5 days and add the two answers together. Then I divide the sum by 3500 calories and that gives me the approximate lbs I should lose that week, which is 2.77 lbs.

Of course, I have had weeks that have been lower and weeks that have been higher but this gets me close.

Knowing my BMR will help me maintain my weight loss. Knowing my BMR will tell me how many calories I can eat per day without putting weight on. It will be interesting to see how that works out.

Here is a link to a BMR calculator that will give you your base number. Multiply the answer by your activity level. Then figure out how much you need to work out that week based on your desired outcome.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Weigh Day!!

Wow!  What a weekend!  I'm just now posting my weigh in results because of the insanity of it all.  Anyway, I weighed in at 197 lbs.  YES!! YES!! YES!! I'm hoping for 2 more lbs this week before we leave for Vegas.

I ran 8 miles this weekend for the first time ever. Thank you Jill for staying by my side through it all. I'm going to plot my own half marathon and pick a weekend to run it. I'll post the time and date, just in case you want to run it with me or join me for a portion. 

One week until we leave for Vegas!!  I started to have some anxiety about the flight tonight. I just have to face my fear and get on the plane. Once I'm there I'm sure I'll think it was worth it! Maybe I should have a mojito or two before we leave?!?!