Being "Spurred" On...

Yesterday as I got up from my desk for probably the millionth time ever, I felt 2-3 sharp pin pricks in my heal.

I slowly walked a little ways and then thought to myself, oh geez...is this heel spurs??

For the last couple months I have been having more and more aches and pains. Last year I started with lower back pain. In the past few months this lower back pain has returned along with pain in my arches.

And now this.

Of course I googled and on WebMD one of the causes of these symptoms is being overweight.

UGH!!!!

Yes, God I know I am overweight! Is this how you are convincing me to take it seriously? Because it's working!

It occurred to me that being overweight makes me feel so much older than I should be right now. So I decided to see if I could find a quiz to PROOVE that I am physically older in years than I actually am. (gluten for punishment??) Pun intended...


And here are the results according to the lengthy quiz on the Dr. Oz website:

So now that you all know my birthday...

Honestly these results are MUCH better than I thought they would be. I think the fact I don't smoke and rarely drink has a lot of barring in this case. However, the quiz was seriously detailed. I mean it asked me the emotional state of my marriage! haha

The fact that according to this quiz I have already lost 4.8 years of my life due to my own lack of self-discipline is mind opening. So basically I am shortening my own life by half a decade thus far.

I can say this definitively because I am really on paper, pretty healthy. I have all the right numbers (except on the scale) and my doctor(s) have always pointed that out to me...almost as if they are shocked (I don't blame them).

All in all, I just really want to be HEALTHY. 

If you have never been 50 lbs or more overweight, can I just say....as a warning....IT SUCKS!

I can't imagine being over 100 lbs over weight. It would be exhausting!!

It's way more painful and difficult than you imagine. You can't do things. It's harder.

Life is more of a struggle.

In the end, all of this has helped me to realize that physically I can't ignore these bad habits anymore. It has got to stop. My back is killing me right now and there is NOTHING I can do about it until I lose this extra weight and gain muscle to support my core. 

I have no other choice.

BTW you can take the quiz here: Dr.Oz Real Age

Joining A Gym!

Last week, we joined a gym. Planet Fitness to be exact.

The first gym I ever joined was right after high school. I had just dropped out of college (I had been there 2 months) and had decided to take time off, get a "Real" job and figure things out. On my way to work there was a women's gym called "Lady Fitness." This appealed to me because at the time I was extremely shy and insecure (I still am, but way less so) and I just wanted to workout and get healthy without the idea of any boys being around to see me sweat and look awful with no make-up.

I signed a 2 year contract. $25 a month. I thought my mom would kill me.

I went to this gym a handful of times.

The next gym I joined was Planet Fitness. I joined with a group of work friends almost 10 years later (from the first gym membership) and mainly joined because it was cheap and there was no contract. I went more regularly to this gym. I canceled and rejoined a couple times as I saw fit.

Fast forward 2 years later (I got married and moved to another city) and I am now the heaviest I have EVER been. I bought the largest size jeans I have ever bought only a few weeks ago. As I sat in the dressing room I thought, I gotta DO something! Anything!

So here I am, rejoining Planet Fitness, this time with husband in tow.

The first week I went twice, Thursday and Friday (I joined Wednesday).

Now it is Monday and I forgot my gym bag (the bag I packed the night before) at home. I realized this as I was driving into work. My gym is close-by work and 30-45 minutes from home. So I have a conundrum.

Do I drive the 30-45 minutes home and get my gym bag and come back? Spending an outrageous amount on gas doesn't sound appealing. OR do I skip Monday and make it up later (like going in on a Saturday)?

These are the little obstacles that can make or break a new fitness plan, particularly for someone like me.

I am 100 lbs overweight. I like food. I like sleep. If anything stands in my way of that gym, I am done for. (So says the gremlins in my head) Google gremlins and Brene Brown for more info.

And here is another thing....I AM 100 lbs overweight! I tell people this and they look at me like that's impossible! Maybe because I'm taller I carry weight differently?

I am 230 lbs and I should weigh 130-150 lbs. I have been 130-150 lbs much longer than I have been overweight and I KNOW that that is my healthiest.

I am not trying to be model thin.

I want to be able to pick things up off the ground without hurting.

I want to be able to walk up stairs without feeling light headed or out of breathe.

Anyway, I have to figure out how to get in a workout today without the gym. I have to learn to adapt to any obstacle and not get upset when I can't do what's "comfortable".

I mean lets face it. I am anything but comfortable 24/7, what's a little more in order to get to where I need to be?

Thanks for reading! I would love your thoughts!

Reboot

I know I haven't written in a while...We have had a hard time sticking to the menu plans and grocery shopping for the clean eating diet. My husband loves to cook and loves being creative in his cooking. He has done well in changing ingredients and making our food healthier, but we have eaten out and been slack on proportions which makes a big difference!

The other night Husband looked over at me and said "I dunno about this diet....I've gained like 5 pounds..." lol

So Yesterday I decided to take control over what I can while I am away from home. Hubby likes to give me as much as he eats and doesn't realize I could eat 1/4 of that and feel replenished. So I am restricting my calories during the work day and then when I get home I plan to only eat a portion of what's on my plate. Hopefully this will work out haha

For me portion control is a big deal and exercise. I know what foods are my achilles heal...like pizza and ice cream. So if those things aren't around I do pretty well for the most part. (also cookies...I love cookies) haha

So I am focusing on fruits, veggies, and whole grains. I plan on taking advantage of meal replacement shakes for a little while and adding v8 fusion to my diet (1 serving of fruits and veggies per glass).

I want to slowly add in exercise this week too. I plan on taking the dogs for a walk this afternoon for 30 minutes. (Fast paced of course, no strolling for me) My goal is to add this in once a day for 2 weeks. So really it's about maintaining exercise (walking) for 2 weeks straight.

Wish me luck!!

The First Week

This first week has been interesting. We love the meals and food, but attempting to cook all 3 meals everyday is a little of a hassle. Neither of us are morning people so cooking breakfast is a bigger deal than it should be.

So far we have been eating the cereal we purchased (see meal plan) and fruit in the mornings. Simple lunches such as turkey pita's and veggies. The meal that I found the best was oddly the turkey slices, cheese slices, nuts and carrots. I convinced hubby I couldn't eat carrots naked, so he took some greek yogurt and added some spices to make a delicious non-ranch dip. I was surprisingly full after this meal too. I was totally satisfied.

Drinking water has completely gone down hill. I am back to diet cokes and coffee. I get so little sleep most nights that I need that pick me up or I can't get through. The idea was to go to bed early and get up early with 8 hours, but my design work has picked up and I spend late nights working all this week.

The soda's are keeping me from falling asleep at my day job!! It's a vicious cycle! :/ Do you have issues with this? It's like a snowball it just keeps rolling in the wrong direction with every choice.

We did cheat Tuesday and grab Chilis for dinner. I had chicken crispers (aka fried heaven) and he had cajun pasta. We both devoured it like we were starving which we most assuredly ARE NOT.

Lately I have been listening to old cd's and it has been reminding me of my past issues with weight and how I overcame it before. Typically after a bad break up I would shed tones of weight only to meet the next boyfriend and gain it all back and then some. :/ Another vicious cycle...Although now happily married I have the opportunity to actually choose a healthy lifestyle versus diving head first into bad habits to cope. Thats life...

Today we made the strawberry smoothies for breakfast (see meal plan) and I really liked it. It wasn't very sweet, but still good. The hubs has reconfigured the recipe to be sweeter for future smoothies. He agrees it's awesome and we need to make these all the time. I like the idea of having the protein whey mixed in. Which if you don't know anything about that you can read more HERE  or  HERE.
We have the chocolate flavor...so no complaints!! lol

I am going to focus on praying and working on the water/soda issue. I will let you know!

The Wonders of Water

Since I am attempting to drink more water, I thought I would do some research on the advantages to help me achieve this goal.

1) Stay slimmer with water.
Water revs of your metabolism AND helps you stay full. Seeing as how we are mostly water, it seems reasonable that it would help us metabolically. The being full thing...we will see ;)

2) Water Boosts your energy.
I often think that the reason I feel so crappy and tired is because I'm dehydrated. I get headaches and feel sluggish all the time. Especially if I am exerted or its hot. So duh...this will obviously help!

3) Lower Stress with water.
This is new to me...I would love this of course, who wouldn't? But apparently because our brains are 70-80% water if we stay hydrated we will be less stressed.

4) Build Muscle Tone with water.
Again I could use this and it makes sense. Drinking water helps prevent muscle cramping and lubricates joints in the body.

5) Nourish Your skin.

Fine lines and wrinkles are deeper when you're dehydrated. Water is nature's own beauty cream. Drinking water hydrates skin cells and plumps them up, making your face look younger. It also flushes out impurities and improves circulation and blood flow, helping your skin glow. I in particular could use the clearing effects. I have a little bit of adult acne that could use all the help it can get.

6) Stay regular with water. 

Along with fiber, water is important for good digestion. This also makes sense and I could see how this would help a lot of other functions as well. Just feeling over all better.

7) Water Reduces Kidney Stones.

Ummm...Yes please. No one wants that!

Check out this info and more here.

Beginning Our Clean Eating!

So excited to say that I have started my clean eating meal plan with my husband and managed to roll out of bed at 6 am! I am so not a morning person, but I set my alarm for 5:30, 5:45, and 6:00. By doing this, it sort of helps me warm up to the idea it's about time to get up. I can't do snooze...I don't know why but I can't make make myself use it. haha Weird right?

Anyway, I woke up at 6am made my coffee with alabama honey and alabama organic milk and sat down to read a chapter in Deuteronomy. I had my health breakfast and then started getting ready for work. I love it! I felt so responsible, I even took a multi-vitamin! :)

I know all of that sounds so silly, but for me these are huge steps. This is just 1 day though, my goal is 30 days.

You can see my meal plan for the week here: Meal Plan Week 1
We are planning to stick with Week 2 as well, but we only bought groceries for week 1. We found that there is a great possibility that we will have left over fruit etc. that we can carry over into next week, so we wanted to take it 1 week at a time.

We also found that we could substitute more budget friendly items for this meal plan as well. For instance, my husband flipped when he saw they were using beef tenderloin for cheese steak. He said we might as well use filet mignon. So we traded that for Sirloin (I think). So check it out and see what you think, we found we love most of this food and ingredients so we will be satisfied.

The other issue (especially for my husband) will be portions. This meal plan sticks with 1600-1800 calories depending. Which this is kinda low for a grown man that is used to 2500 + calories. So we will see if he can manage with out being a grouchy pants. I personally know I will be a little hungry but within a week I will get used to the lower calories.

This week is also my official swaring off diet soda's soooo...hopefully we don't get too fussy. I am drinking coffee however, so it shouldn't be too awful in the morning.

Check how much water you should drink every day here. Mine said:

"113 ounces or 3.4 liters

If you eat a healthy diet, about 20 percent of your water may come from the foods you eat. If you eat a healthy diet you can drink 90.4 ounces of water today, or 2.7 liters.

Water is an obvious source for your daily fluid needs. Other good beverages include milk, herbal teas, low-sodium broth, or 100-percent fruit and vegetable juices. Soft drinks will also count toward your daily total of fluid, just remember that sugar sweetened soft drinks add extra calories to you daily diet that you don't need, while drinking water may help you lose weight."

This is 14-11 glasses a day...I will be in the bathroom if you need me...

Daily schedule ideas

So part of getting healthy is planning to exercise. To find the time and implement it.

Most folks say get up and do it first thing in the morning, but anyone who knows me knows that that's an almost impossible task! I'm a complete morning zombie till 9am.

My current schedule is something like this:
7:30 get up and get ready
8:00 head to work
8:30-5:30 work
6:00 get home
6:00-7:00 rest have dinner
7:00-12:00 work
12:30 bedtime

This schedule has no room and leaves me exhausted!! Mostly because of my business evening hours. I am working on better time managment as far as that goes.

What I want my schedule to be:
6:00 get up and spend time w God
6:15-7:00 get ready (not rushing)
7:30-4:00 work (short lunch)
4:30 get home/go walk-run (take Duch)
5:30-6:30 rest/dinner
6:30-9:30 work
10:00 bedtime (may read before sleep)

This helps me fit in a few healthy lifestyle things such as...bible study, not rushed, exercise, Duch gets a walk, decent bedtime, and I can read a little. All great things...even better traffic because of different work hours.

It looks so good, but can I make this happen? I want to pray about it and believe in it. Oh the things I could do!!