Now for the growing...

Writing this entry is almost like coming home past curfew. You can try to avoid all you want, but eventually, you have to suck it up and go for it, despite the "And where have you been, young lady?".

So, where have I been? Here, and not, all at the same time.

Anyone who's read my sprouting blog knows that there are many things I love - my husband and family, cooking, trying new things, cupcakes, photography, etc. For the benefit of some, I've had to rework others, and I wasn't sure how well it would translate here. Yes, that's right, I decided to...LOSE WEIGHT! But no, I couldn't be satisfied just going to the gym now and then, eating a lot of salads; I had to join a TV show chronicling me and E (and about 35 other people) doing so.

Believe it or no, I still think of myself as shy.

Crazy, but shy nonetheless.

Anyway, I've shared a good bit about my living and laughing around here, so I figured I owed y'all a bit of growing (or shrinking) for good measure. There's still going to be some recipes, stories and such, but they'll have a bit of a different turn. I don't like using the term 'healthy' too much, because personally, find it feels a little depriving. My goal here is to share what E and I are eating - the successes that we've loved, and that we think you'd love and love feeding to your families. I'll also be sharing some of the behind-the-scenes on the whole 'eat less, do more' plan, along with some photos. I'm going to try my best to be open with the process, and to make this fun for the both of us.

So, here's where we start.

The beginning of this whole process was about 2 months ago. Since then, I lost about 21 pounds, and while part of me feels like I should be losing way more, I'm still happy that I've lost something. Right now, I'm eating between 1450 and 1800 calories per day, and going to the gym five days a week. I do 5 days of 45-60 minutes cardio, which varies between the treadmill, recumbent bike, tread climber and water aerobics, 3 days of strength training (about 14 nautilus machines, 3 sets of 8-12 reps apiece), and 1 day of yoga. I'm shockingly not a yoga person, it seems, but I'm willing to give it another chance. I'm going tonight, so we'll see how I feel about it tomorrow. Also, E and I go bowling once a week, and take dance class once a week (last session was Rumba and Cha-Cha, this session is Tango and Jitterbug).

I feel like I spend my whole life exercising right now. But in a fun-kind-of-way.

Sort of.

There are also several things that I'm doing and sites that I'm using to help me along the way.

1- SparkPeople: A sort-of MySpace for dieters, I love SP because it makes it really easy to track my food, water and fitness, which really encourages me to stick to it. There are also teams and message boards to join, which are great for finding out new tips and tricks, and getting some encouragement and motivation for when you're having a rough day. One of my favorite features is SparkRecipes, which not only has a recipe database, it also has a recipe calculator which allows you to calculate the nutritional content per serving for all of your own recipes. Genius!

From their website:
"SparkPeople is the world's largest healthy living community with a free online diet and fitness program. SparkPeople is helping millions of people achieve their goals every single day! Whether you want to lose weight, tone up, live a healthier lifestyle or reach other goals, SparkPeople can help--and it's 100% FREE! SparkPeople is free because REAL people like you, are getting REAL results and spreading the word to their friends and families!

By Joining SparkPeople You Get:
- Calorie Counter & Meal Plans: Take the guesswork out of what to eat with these powerful customizable tools.
- Personalized Fitness Plan & Exercise Demos: Burn calories and tone your muscles with routines you can do at home or at the gym, plus online exercise videos.
- Active Support Message Boards: Get help from thousands of other people like you who are losing weight with SparkPeople.
- Advice From Our Experts: Our programs are designed by registered dietitians and personal trainers, who are also there to answer your questions.
- Member Created Goal Teams: Find others with similar goals and work towards success together.
- Recipes, Articles, Tips and More: Thousands of articles and over 60,000 recipes to learn more about eating right, staying active, and sticking to your program."

2- Eat Better, America: Their healthified recipes are hit-or-miss, but they have a great site, which contains coupons for good-for-you products.

3- Fitlinxx: If you are a member of the YMCA which uses this program, you're halfway there! Fitlinxx is a system that allows you to log onto certain equipment, keeping track of every second of exercise you're doing, and allows you to manually log anything you do outside of the gym. My favorite feature? Having the nautilus circuit plugged in! It shows me where to start and stop on each machine, how many sets and reps I'm doing, what weight I'm pushing, and even where the seat needs to be adjusted to. Anything that helps eliminate me having to remember something is a good things in my eyes!

The one place I seem to be getting discouraged in is that I can't see a difference in my appearance, which is pretty frustrating. Case in point?

December 24th, 2008

February 24th, 2008

Hopefully, by the next set I post, the change will be a little more noticeable!