LIFT!!!!!

I did some weight lifting tonight and I FEEL SO GREAT!!!!! Oh man I needed that. Nearly seven weeks it's been. My arms have been needing it. I worked my shoulders, biceps and triceps pretty well, I have that wonderful warm from the inside feeling, it's just fantastic. The lifting does not bother me one bit; I'm sure that it's OK to resume by now. What does feel a little uncomfortable is actually cardio and the weight of gravity from bouncing. That's what I've had to modify in my Shred workout; I am doing the cardio but keeping my arms close to my body for now. The area that still has some tenderness is the back of my arms where the lipo was. The incision is fine and healing very well. My neighbor worked in pharma sales for awhile in dermatology. She says the scar treatment I'm using is DEFINITELY helping the healing. She says no way would I look this good at this point without it! Kelo-Cote. Expensive and well worth it.

I woke up this morning and could not be motivated to do the SHRED. I had SO much on my mind it was insane. Today was the year's biggest agricultural report from the USDA. And I was launching a preview of a new website. I was stressin' and I really needed to be at the office way early to get focused and established while I had my office to myself. I knew I'd get home to watch Biggest Loser so I was right back to my usual Tuesday night of working out through the whole show and I loved every minute of it! Also ate correctly today. A breakfast, a lunch, a dinner, a protein drink. I actually got it all in. My BodyBugg stats today are 1250 calories consumed, 1900 projected to be burned by midnight. I had some off-body time to give the Bugg a recharge.

I'm very, very tired. 4:30 will be here quick.

Oh *Sigh*

Not a great day in some respects. Working out first thing in the morning is not working for me! I do it OK but I know I would be able to work SO MUCH HARDER later in the day! But good grief people I AM JUST NOW GETTING HOME when on earth do I have time??? I just have to follow my own advice and PERSIST and hope I will improve.

My eating plan did not work out today either! I barely ate! I get up at 4:15 and take my iron supplement first thing. I try to have a protein drink by 8am when I'm at work as I rarely feel any sort of hunger before then but LIKE TODAY time just went by and by and by.... I forgot my lunch at home on the kitchen counter so I bought lunch at a place across the street from my office. I eat the same thing there every time: I get a side of black beans and a side of brown rice and have them mix it up together. They start making it the second they see me at the door because they're super awesome.

Then I got an idea. And you know what happens when I get ideas. I was crazy busy the next few hours which pushed back everything else I wanted to do today. I didn't get on a bus until 8:00 and now I'm home, eating the lunch that defrosted on the counter today (a mix of simmered and seasoned kidney and navy beans I make on the weekends and freeze in portions).

My day tomorrow is already booked solid. The biggest agricultural report of the year is released tomorrow and my clients are set up with options in the grains which my boss and I will be watching all day. I will be launching a "sneak preview" of sorts of my current project: A webpage that broadcasts live grain commentary from our analyst at the Chicago Board of Trade. I can only hope nothing goes wrong all day, it will be stressful to be sure. Fortunately the grains trading session is only 9:30am until 1:15pm. It's going to be a huge day; I will try to be on the first bus tomorrow at 5:45.

I'd better not forget my lunch tomorrow.

Get Outta Bed

Get outta the frickin' bed! Do the frickin' workout! Just get it done!

Done. Get to work.

Back on The Shred

All shredded for today and listening to Jillian Michaels' radio show while eating lunch. Her program today is excellent, I urge you to check it out. Today's program will be available to play or download by Tuesday or Wednesday at KFI640.

Jillian discussed the "several small meals" concept that we hear so often. She claims there's no real physiological reason for it but it can have psychological benefits for helping you feel sated throughout the day. It's a perfectly fine idea to take your calorie allotment for the day and space it out evenly. She does advise keeping the carbs lower later in the day and into the evening. Just listen to her show!

I am sure I do not eat enough. I should probably eat on a more specific regular schedule. I need to determine what is a good nutritional regimen and stick to it whether I want to or not! And by that I actually mean eating when I may not want to! I often have no appetite and besides that I can get busy and put off eating for long periods of time. Not good.

I feel really good back at The Shred this weekend. I can definitely do more when I work out later than first thing in the morning! But my schedule needs me to get it done before I start the day so I am going to keep at it. I will work very hard every day to not let my work kick me off schedule. I need my sleep and I need to get a workout in every single day.

My Trainer's New Website

Check out my trainer's new website, she includes a video of her own training: SaranDunmore.com I WILL give her shit for closing her video in front of the BATHROOM!! Oh Saran!

Order her DVD!!

Very Intense Week!

My week actually fell apart and I am working now to pull it back together! It's a good thing I did the SHRED in the morning on Wednesday because I ended up staying at the office until about 10. After having gotten there around 7am-ish. I came home Wednesday night, got up at 4:30 on Thursday and went right back. I started feeling off balance on Thursday. I was very tired all day, had some weird dizzy feelings and started eating crap.

While this is going on, everything at work is getting well...intense. I love my job. I have the greatest job in the whole great big wide world. Because it's the best possible job for me and how my brain works and what I like/want to do. Just about everything I do is my own idea, done in my way, on my schedule. Sounds great, right? Yeah but here are the problems with that: Everytime I get a new idea I find myself with a new job. And I get a LOT of ideas. So the list keeps getting longer. As should be obvious, I always want to do everything PERFECTLY. Especially if I thought of it! So my list of things to do that I will push myself to do in fastidiously perfect detail keeps growing and growing. Yes, I get overwhelmed by own perfectionism!

So Thursday I came home and collapsed into bed at 6pm. I woke up at 1:45am. And couldn't get back to sleep. It probably would have been the perfect thing to have done a Shred workout but I got it in my head that it was terrible I'd been awake since 1:45am. Without realizing I'd actually slept eight hours! I felt REALLY off balance all day Friday! I kept eating all wrong, the day FLEW past me as requests from my boss derailed my own various plans for what I was going to do, about three million things churned around in my head and I just struggled to get myself home at some point, and crash into bed with the TV on. At some point, cupcakes made their way into my mouth.

So today I am picking up the pieces! I slept as late as I wanted. I'm having a slow morning. I'll do a workout when I'm ready to. My cleaning lady was here this week, my laundry is done. I have nothing to do but whatever I want so I will get focused, eat correctly which will make me feel good, get in a workout when my body feels ready to do it, and get some work done!

Staying Accountable

Up a little before 4:30. DONE with Day Four of the Shred. Strange, feels like I just did it hours ago....

Definitely not as strong as I was last night.

DONE of Course!

Done with my SHRED for the day and listening to the President. If Biggest Loser doesn't make it to air tonight it's repeated a zillion times a week on FLN.

Realized this evening that I can work out much harder later in the day than first thing in the morning. I have never been a morning person but I am so motivated to get to the office that I happily leap out of bed and into the shower way before dawn. In fact, I've been working at getting in earlier and earlier. Today I got on the first run of the bus I take.

I will be very interested to see how my ability in the early morning might change over the coming weeks and how today will compare with where I am by the last day. Individually, none of the exercises would be a challenge for me but I have not trained in a circuit style like this with a mix of combo sets. It's interesting! As inexpensive as this DVD is, you really should give it a try!

Getting the Ab Work Right

Third day of the 30 Day Shred. I was actually a little sore yesterday from the squats and lunges! I want to be at the office really early this morning because I'm crazy excited about what I'm working on right now so I will do my workout tonight while I watch BIGGEST LOSER!! Oh I won't miss a day! How about you?

Jillian says something in the course of the workout that I want to bring out. I have a weird fetish for exercise and weight loss infomercials and I saw one recently for the "Ab Lounge." Nevermind that the word "lounge" should never be applied to a piece of exercise equipment as it is.... The people in the infomercial often mention how they hadn't previously done abs exercises because they had neck problems. ok WHAT? And your neck issues have to do with...um, what exactly when we're talking about working your ABS????

I think a big part of the problem comes from a common assumption that is easily altered. When people do abs work of any kind, they often lace their fingers behind their head and they try to pull up from their neck. NO NO NO. And may I say. NO!

When I exercise, I focus on the part of my body that is supposed to be doing the work. I concentrate very hard on putting a great amount of stress on that area and making it do all the work. In fact, with each repetition, I try to make it hurt more and more as if I am focusing with increasing precision on the part of my body I want to work HARD.

Here's an easy trick to try: Use the "Boxer" form. Instead of putting your hands behind your head, hold your arms with fists at shoulder height like a boxer in the ready stance. Keep your shoulders stable and look straight ahead. DON'T MOVE YOUR NECK AND SHOULDERS AT ALL!!! Concentrate on rotating and bending FROM YOUR CORE! Do this. Sit up straight in your chair right now. Back very straight, sit straight up! Do the Boxer, hold up your arms. Look straight ahead and imagine you CANNOT move your neck or even your eyes!! Look to the side by twisting from your waist and back again. It's as simple as that. The next time you do any abs exercise, think about not even moving your eyes and turning and bending yourself from your core ONLY! You will feel a difference.

So what does Jillian say in the DVD that I like so much? Remember this and imagine hearing her say it to you when you are working your abs:

"Your neck isn't invited to this party."

Got Your Plans Lined Up?

OK peeps my alarm went off at 4:15am, I hit the snooze just once. I got my still-too-ample butt out of bed, turned on the DVD and did my workout for today. I laid out my clothes the night before and had everything ready. I just got out of bed and DID IT. It's going to be a nice day, I will walk at least a mile after work. How about you? Do you have a plan for today? Get going!!!

Change Up the Change

It's always a good idea to mix up your workout routine. Your body will adapt to whatever you do, even intense activity, so it's necessary to change your workouts.

My weight has been completely stable for three years now but I've always wanted to be leaner. I've seen my musculature change as I've worked with weights and kettlebells but my weight stays stuck to the same numbers! Low 170s by the way. When I went for the initial consultation with the plastic surgeon, I stood there COMPLETELY NEKKID for almost two hours while she examined me all over. I'll never forget when she made the observation, "You're very muscular, we just need to remove the layer of fat." Oh yeah, let's do that! It's tough at my age and as a woman to push my body fat percentage down but given that I need to change up my workout routine anyway, I'll give something new a try!

I have to be very careful what I do with my upper body for a few weeks more but I've got to get started! I LOVE JILLIAN MICHAELS so I'm going to do her "30 Day Shred" for the next 30 days. It's a DVD workout, complete with atrocious porn-quality disco music but it's an efficient 20 minute cardio/strenth/abs combination workout that can be done every day. There are three levels so I will give each level 10 days. You can find it on Amazon. Less than $9, check it out!

I started today and it's a really great workout! I won't do the pushups or use weights. I'll keep the arms work conservative for now. I will be accountable to you and update my progress here.

I WILL DO THIS WORKOUT EVERY SINGLE DAY UNTIL APRIL 19!

Something that Jillian often talks about is the difference between working to lose 20lbs or less and trying to lose much more. Your body will respond in different ways to your weight loss attempts depending on how much "energy" you're carrying around in the form of fat. A strategy she has recommended for those last 20lbs is to eat up to your BMR and let exercise create the calorie deficit. There IS a big difference in how you cause the calorie deficit! Cutting way back on your calories won't always work and in fact can work against you!

This is where the BodyBugg will be an extremely valuable tool for me. My BMR is about 1500 calories a day. Check yours here. This is a BIG challenge for me. First, I often eat less than 1500 calories in a day. And I only burn about 2000-ish so I really need to get highly efficient with my calorie usage!! Now that the weather is above zero every day I need to put a lot more walking into my daily routine and that should help.

I've taken my measurements and I'm ready to do something different for the next month! Why don't you do something with me! Just pick SOMETHING and do it CONSISTENTLY. I'm going to be accountable here and update my progress. Put this blog in your reader/aggregator and keep up with me! You can do it!!!

Healing Itches

I am healing really well; my doctor is very pleased. I give her a lot of credit for skill! I have done everything she's told me to do as well as use an EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE scar treatment spray! I found it online for $81 a can. This first can seems like it's going to last about three and a half weeks. It's recommended to use it about three months. It's very necessary. I am using Kelo Cote spray.

It DOES still hurt somewhat. I am still swollen all along the back of my arms where I had the liposuction. The recovery from which, by the way, hurts a LOT more than an incision! That puffy look along the bottom of my arm in the photo should go away and my skin will be tighter. I have healed rapidly. The day after my upper arms were completely purple. The bruises were turning yellow within a few days. I've maintained a high daily intake of clean protein and all my supplements of course.

So by request, here's a photo from this morning, five weeks out: Click here to see it

I have seen one other person who had this surgery and her incision looked like a thick, snagged hosiery seam so I am very relieved I don't look that way! My incision is completely flat. Given the look of other scars I have this should fade to practically nothing over time. I have other injury and surgical scars that have all but disappeared so I am not concerned; I am fortunate to have good skin. That's a slight impression in my skin from the BodyBugg strap, nothing weird.

I am walking a lot since we've had some decent weather here in Chicago but I am getting that weird antsy feeling for a really good hard workout. Too bad! Can't be lifting anything too heavy for a while longer. I don't want to until I feel pretty close to normal. I continue to have healing sensations and that numb, sore feeling mostly along the back of my arms. It mostly itches in places where the numbness won't let the itch be relieved! I've decided the healing sensations feel like having thick tight rubber bands around my arm. Ow.

Get Some Ideas!

Check out this insane shit with the Bosu!



I love the guy jumping rope! Damn! Steve Cotter is in a lot of these scenes. He's the guy on all fours, jumping around on four Bosus. You can also catch him doing a jumping split on two Bosus.

This brief video clip is practically famous. Watch as Steve does repeated pistol jumps! When I watch stuff like this, it makes me want to work harder and harder. I love it when my trainer wants me to do something really SICK! Watch this, it's AWESOME!!!!!

Go to YouTube for more Steve. Damn I love Steve Cotter.

Save the best for last. Here's MY TRAINER SARAN DUNMORE at the gym where we have our sessions. Saran is a talented broadcaster and video producer and she does reports for the Chicago NBC affiliate. She's great! At the end of the clip, she's on the actual bench where she's working with me to eventually benchpress 130lbs or maybe MORE!!!


It's making me SO CRAZY that I can't lift right now. But I WILL NOT deviate from my doctor's instructions!!!

My Bucket of Cold Water

I always notice when people talk a lot about fabulous dreams while giving little to no thought about what would be involved in making those dreams become reality.

I knew someone who believed for several years that he had a product idea he'd be paid millions for. He never even got this product successfully into a single store. But he did have lots of plans for how he was going to spend his millions. I used to catch a lot of shit for never showing support for all these "plans."

I met a woman who had created a character for children's books she believed would launch a branded-products empire. She even had ideas for spin-off characters. What she didn't have were the story ideas for the books. But she was certain that Nordstrom was the best choice to award exclusive rights to the clothing product lines.

Back when I lived in Atlanta, I had a neighbor come over all excited to tell me something. He was starting his own business! And it was going to be great! He breathlessly related to me how easily he was going to make a huge amount of money with a minimal time investment, as so many people involved in this business had done. By the time he caught his breath, I knew he had bought into the scam of a multi-level marketing company. He even had to pay for the products himself, up front. He had plans for how he was going to borrow the money to do that. He also had plans for the multitude of ways his life was going to change when he was in a whole new income bracket. When I started to ask him a series of due-diligence-type questions about the company and its products, he got very angry with me. I wasn't happy and excited for him. I was belittling and negative and mean! I don't know if he actually bought all the products and attempted to sell them because we never spoke again. He was THAT furious at me.

My boss has started me working on a new project. When he presented the idea to me, he had a goal for it that I immediately knew was unrealistic. I wrote him a report and laid out the statistics that define the project's near-term potential. But I also outlined what I think we'd need to do to reach further and work toward his loftier goal. I estimated time and cost investments and outlined the decisions that would have to be made along the way and the obstacles we'll likely have to deal with.

Do you have realistic goals? Have you determined what's really going to be necessary to achieve them? Or do you just talk about it? And think about how great it will all be? Talking about something can make some people believe they are working toward a goal. The more they talk, often it seems like the dream itself starts to become ever-more grandiose.

Talking about something will NEVER get it done! Planning, making up a notebook or blog to write about it, bargaining (I'll start Monday!), it's all just avoidance and procrastination. Maybe you have an all-or-nothing attitude about getting started. Get that out of your head! Do something TODAY that would be part of a lifestyle change for you. Then do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And then add in something else. If it takes steps to get you kickstarted and going, then take steps. JUST STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!!! Try this. It's Sunday. Go buy an inexpensive piece of equipment then come home and USE IT. Maybe push up stands or a Swiss ball. If you live in Chicago, go check out Fitness Factory. It's fantastic! Just don't be looking at huge expensive equipment you won't really use! It's almost Spring, you'll be able to walk OUTSIDE, you don't need a treadmill!

Go do something positive today. DOING IS REALITY.

Why I Love the BodyBugg

I got my first BodyBugg last September and recently upgraded to their new model which is MUCH thinner and smaller. You wear the BodyBugg on your upper arm so I haven't been able to use mine since my arm surgery. I'm looking forward to getting it back on! Check it out at BodyBugg.com.

The BodyBugg has been a wonderful tool for me to understand the patterns I am living and the cycles I get into. It's also a great way to feel more connected to how your body really works and to be able to focus on what you're REALLY doing day to day.

The BodyBugg includes a login to an online program for keeping your stats and logging your food. I have NEVER logged my food! I hate doing that!! But this program made it really easy. It calculates all the nutritional values from everything. And I came up with a great tip! Instead of logging what you ate, post your meal plan for the day and THEN EAT IT!!

I was able to get a complete picture of what I was and wasn't eating. I learned that I really was eating too little too often and that I didn't schedule my food consumption well. I ate too randomly instead of in a good consistent pattern that would be more nutritionally-sound. I became more mindful of WHEN I ate. Since I don't often feel actually hungry, I can get busy and let too much time go by without giving my body any nourishment. Then it gets later and later and I'm taking in the bulk of my day's nutrients and calories too late in the day and not sufficiently spaced out over time.

The BodyBugg purports to calculate how many calories you're burning. And WOW does it chart and graph out every little thing you do! I can look at the graph of my day and be able to tell the exact minute I stopped walking and got on the bus! I can see which activities burn calories the most efficiently and that has been of great benefit. I learned that SIMPLE WALKING at a nice brisk pace actually burns the most calories per minute for me! I've used that information to work at getting more walking into my day whenever I can.

It was a sobering reality to discover that I only burn about 2000-ish calories a day. Even on my hard workout days! I checked with my doctor and she said that would be normal for me. I couldn't believe it! The highest per-minute calorie burn I ever achieved was about 7 cals/min. Working a desk job has a lot to do with it. I could see how I actually burned a lot more calories on weekend days that I spent all day running errands and keeping busy on my feet.

You can really get focused when you put all this information together and see what each thing you eat will "cost" in terms of calories consumed and what it's going to take to use them up. Learning the calorie and nutritional value of what I consume regularly got me thinking very intentionally about my choices!

Working to lose weight, get fit, and follow positive nutritional habits can feel very passive. Days and days go by and you really don't know how well you're doing. When you're working at losing weight especially: It can be so difficult to keep working at it, waiting for when you're going to be able to get on the scale and hopefully get good news that all your work has paid off. The patience that demands can be very difficult to maintain! The BodyBugg can make you feel more actively involved in the process. You don't have to wonder if you're doing well; you can feel successful when you upload the BodyBugg stats with your food logging and see your nutritional consumption and calorie expenditure for the day. You'll start to think twice about deviating from your nutritional plan when you start looking at what you eat in terms of what it will REALLY cost you!

The BodyBugg isn't cheap! But it can be well-worth the cost for how it puts you in control and keeps you on track. Like anything else, it's a tool and works only as well as you use it. With the recent introduction of the new design, you're sure to see many of the previous model on eBay for significant savings. A new BodyBugg is about $250. If you can find the previous model for about $150, that's a darn good deal. The BodyBugg uses a velcro strap to wear it so if you buy a used one, plan on purchasing yourself a new strap from the BodyBugg website. Please write me if you have questions!

Scam-tastic

I don't think I can stand much more of "I cut down 9 pounds of belly fat every 11 days by following this one simple rule" "I cut down 42lbs in one month by following this one simple rule" and all variations thereof. You can't actually find the "one simple rule." The various versions of this totally inescapable advertising campaign are selling Chinese tea, acai berry capsules, and "colon cleanse" products through the use of fake blogs, "Hi I'm Jenny a working mom and I started this blog to share with you how I lost 25lbs in one month with my two step formula!" See, that's not "one simple rule."

There's some new TV commercial where it's said over and over "If you want to drop fat (slight pause) and weight..." OK you want to lose fat AND weight. Not one or the other? Just so we're clear on that.

I get a lot of hits to my site from searches for "Kettlenetics," an infomercial for an exercise program that uses an extremely light kettlebell. I wrote about "Kettlenetics" in this blog entry. Through referral links I found this video which explains a few things:



Essentially, the program is an aerobics-style dance routine using the equivalent of heavy hands weights. In that respect, you might consider it somewhat legitimate for what it is. But is it a kettlebell program? NOT ON ANY LEVEL. "Kettlenetics" and "KBell" are completely made up words so I guess this woman can claim she's an expert in those subjects since she invented them.

I think of wussy infomercial-style exercise products and programs as "Suburban Mom" exercise. There are always certain common denominators:

Liberal use of the words "sculpt" and "tone"

Heavy emphasis put on sexiness instead of health, endurance, or strength

Requires very little time commitment per session and overall. That's usually a big selling point (Ten minutes a day! Drop a jeans size in the first week!)

Touted as easy enough for anyone to do with low effort requirements overall

Makes it a point to say you won't get big and bulky. Oh there's definitely no chance of that!

Comes with all manner of DVDs and journals and posters and often something completely unrelated, like some multi-purpose gadget or an interchangeable handbag

Often features some ordinary-looking person insisting that if they can do it, ANYONE can!

If all the claims were true and all the products worked, we wouldn't be a society with more overweight and obese people than there's ever been. We are so gullible when it comes to weight loss and exercise claims. Will people never learn that there is no magic pill or magic tea or magic berry or magic super-simple exercise that will circumvent basic human physiology? I think it's like angels and heaven. Everybody just wants so much for it to be true that they keep telling themselves it is.

You know, there IS one simple rule. To work your ass off, YOU HAVE TO WORK YOUR ASS OFF.

Better to Have Loved and Lost Doesn't Apply!

This past weekend was my birthday. In the days before my birthday I experienced very strange conflicting feelings: I felt an obligation to do celebratory eating while also realizing that I didn't really want to. Further, I felt like I would regret it if I didn't "celebrate" with special food. Yeah that was a dilemma alright! I ended up overeating and not really enjoying it. Now, of course I regret the overeating part. But I am also sensing a feeling I am grateful for: I now experience a sense of relief when I let go of a negative behavior and comply with the positive.

I never would have imagined there'd come a day when I really-truly-honestly-in my heart of hearts DID NOT want to stuff my face with indulgently delicious food!!! Wow. How did I get here?

To be successful at anything I think it's necessary to find meaningful motivation. WHY do you want what you want? To keep going day after day...to be able to do an end run around obstacles that spring up in your way...to persist despite the difficult work the results will require...what will mean enough to you to be able to make that necessary daily investment?

I love what I have earned so much. My physical abilities now and the way I look, I just love it. Even though I'm still not at my ultimate goals, I love everything I have now. These changes have brought so many positive things into my life that I do not feel I could have achieved and acquired otherwise. Quite simply, I don't want to lose any of it! I think it all means so much to me that I have come to a place where even subconsciously I reject anything that will take it away from me.

Being greedy, territorial, and protective of your success can be leveraged to your advantage. It is what will keep you going. But of course, you have to achieve it first! And that will take pushing HARD through the initial effort and work it takes to reach a point where you are seeing and feeling measurable results. Plus, there's another truth that will be at work here and it's tough to face: Losing results gained would be FAR more painful and difficult to deal with than what you have to go through to earn them in the first place. Going back? Oh no, you do NOT want to go there. It would feel like a much greater failure than never having achieved any measure of your goal. To have loved and lost might be better, but to have achieved weight loss and only to become fat again? I can't even entertain thoughts of how that would make me feel. It's too depressing.

So identify your goals and give all your strength and effort to achieve them because once you taste that first success you'll want more. And more and more. And you'll never want to go back again.