My new Bike and other NSV's

The picture above is just for your viewing pleasure. I got some new fake eyelashes that I ordered online. Erik was at the store and after I got them on I texted him and said "OMG, just put some falsies on and I look like Mimi!" He came home and took one look and busted out laughing. Trust me, they look much better in pictures. In reality, I looked like a drag queen from the eyes up! Seriously...it looked like two spiders decided to camp out on my face...not the look I was going for, but I guess I can save them for a special occasion...say Halloween maybe?

Now for the rest of the story (mind you, I meant to post this on Sunday, so this all refers to events that occurred Saturday)

Yesterday, we all took a trip to Ride Away Bicycles and I put some money down on my bike. All Erik could do is laugh as I gushed about how beautiful it was! “Look! Even the treads on the tires are flowers!!!” They only had three of the really decorative bikes left, they’ve been so popular and two of them were ones I was interested in; The Fleur and the Blanc et Noir. I finally decided on the Fleur because, as I told Erik in my best Shelby (of steel magnolias) impression, “Red is my signature culah!” He is putting some money toward it for my Christmas present and we put it on lay-a-way so hopefully I’ll have it paid off in a few months. I can’t wait to ride it! Of course, I told erik it has been at least 20 years since I rode a bike so I’m going to have to get up at 3am to practice so that nobody sees me make an ass of myself while I’m re-learning to ride!

We are getting Tanner his adult trike for Christmas using some money from my grandfather and as part of our gift to him. We thought about giving him the money my grandfather had sent, but knew he would spend it on junk so I talked with him (and being the master manipulator I am) managed to talk him into putting the money toward his trike. When we were at the bike shop yesterday, he was cracking us up talking about how he needed a red helmet with a skull on the front and flames along the sides. Then, when he saw these “camelbak” bags he announced that he had to have one of them as well. If you’ve never seen these, they are most likely for people who bike long distances and have a reservoir in the bag that you can fill with water. When you need a drink, you just grab the tube thing and take a sip. Cool yes, for a neighborhood cycling trip, not so cool. Then he found the gloves, so of course he added those to the list of things he NEEDS and the more he added, the more my mind began to put together this hilarious picture of this uncoordinated kid outfitted in this badass helmet, riding gloves, and camel pack on this enormous adult tricycle taking a leisurely ride through our neighborhood. I will definitely get pictures for you guys if it happens!

I left the store on a high, but still kind of going back and forth about putting that kind of money into a bike. On the practical side, it is completely designed to be ergonomic and easy on the joints and back which I need. I also told myself that after losing almost 150 pounds, I deserved a little sum’n sum’n and since this was also going to be contributing to a more active lifestyle the better. I think I just have trouble spending money on myself, especially when we have been so strapped the last few months. This month we actually ended up much better off than I expected. I have no idea how it happened, but it’s been nice not to have to sweat about paying the bills over the holidays.

From there, we went to the cinema to see Harry Potter’s new movie. Loved it! The best part about it? I could walk down the aisle without needing to walk sideways AND I could sit in the chair without raising the arms! It was a great day!

Another activity idea Tanner and I are exploring...

Ok, so most of you know I have been brainstorming lots of ways to remain active. I know that the only way I’m going to continue to lose weight and, more importantly, keep it off is to not only incorporate exercise into my daily life, but to change my LIFESTYLE. I am also trying to have enough variability that Tanner doesn’t get bored with what we are doing. I mentioned that we are looking at the Kinect and the adult trikes, but we have also talked about taking Karate lessons together (there is a karate place right up the road that we could easily bike to).

Out of all the sports, I’ve probably always had a little more interest in baseball, both as a spectator and as a player. Not that I’ve ever really played all that much outside of PE, but I got to wondering about getting some equipment (a bat, mitt, etc) so that we might brush up on our skillz. I was thinking if we could improve Tanner’s maybe we could see about having him join a local deaf league.

I think I’ve mentioned my love for “fantasy shopping” before and I recently discovered www.become.com and it has become a favorite for that sort of thing for sure! They have everything lol. Tanner and I started doing a little fantasy shopping of our own and decided to see what sort of bats they recommended. We found the Easton SV2 first and as we started looking around that particular website, never realized how many different kinds of bats there are; tee ball bats, fast pitch bats, etc. Not sure what is different about them all as they all seem to look the same, but I’m sure there must be a difference.

We have a great backyard so I wouldn’t have to worry so much about Tanner sending a rogue ball flying into the next door neighbor’s window. Of course now that I’ve said that, he’ll find a way to damage something lol. I should probably outfit him in something like these youth catchers gear outfits to keep him from braining himself lol! I think I’ll do myself a favor though and skip the nike baseball cleats , those just seem like asking for trouble to place a pair on Tanner’s feet. He gets his coordination from his momma!

Workout yesterday and Yesterday's food log

Just in case any of you missed it. I did end up losing on my weigh in Monday. I won't say how much because of the competition, but It was in excess of that little gain I had over the weekend...whatever that was. I lost that, plus more :)

My eating and workouts have been a casulty of being sick earlier in the week. I didn't track on Monday and Tuesday, but trust me... I wasn't eating much. I also didn't workout on those days. I did manage to get to the pool yesterday and had a good workout. Sometimes I'm floundering around in the pool and I just feel like I'm not really doing anything. I guess because I'm not sweating or breathing extremely hard so I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere, but I know that any activity is good for me right now. It is all strength training too and I need that most.

Here is my workout in the pool so far. If any of you have any suggestions, let me know. I found a good water workout somewhere, I just need to find it again.

First 5 minutes I spend doing "steps" in the pool, basically stepping up and down off a fairly good sized step they have in the pool. I don't know if that is what it is there for, but that's what I use it for. Again, feels way too easy, but I have faith its doing *something* for me. I usually average about 30 steps for each leg. I may start doing some other combinations as I get more comfortable.

Once I'm warmed up, I grab the noodle and start paddling away. Lord the images that must be going through your minds right now. It's kind of like running in place underwater, but I don't let my feet touch the bottom of the pool (It's too hard on my joints). I actually started to cramp up a bit last night so maybe I better try to stretch a bit after the steps? I do this for about 20 minutes.

When I'm done doing my running in place/trying not to drown/holding onto the wet noodle for dear life phase of my routine, I move on to other strength training exercises. I do about 5 minutes training with dumbells on my arms and about 5 more doing leg lifts. Then the REAL workout starts.

I haul my dimple-ridden carc-ass out of the pool and head to the showers. Seriously, this last bit is the most difficult. Gravity is so unforgiving. By the time I walk out to my car, I'm completely and thoroughly exhausted. The kind of exhausted I feel when I have to give myself a few minutes to catch my breath before starting to drive. I HATE this part, I guess because it just reminds me of how limited I am right now. The good thing is, there is a deep satisfaction in knowing that despite the difficulty and humiliation of donning that sparkly black swimsuit, I did it!

I seriously did NOT want to go yesterday, but I talked my way out of the morning by saying I'd go in the afternoon and as I started to dream up excuses for why I couldn't go that afternoon, I just verbally slapped myself upside the head and reminded myself that reasoning like that is exactly how I got to 465 lbs to begin with. The deal I made with myself is that I can change my mind about WHEN I'm going to workout, but it HAS to be done that day. If it doesn't happen in the morning, then I WILL go in the afternoon, no other compromises.

With that said, I can't use the pool today and tomorrow and they aren't open on weekends. I was thinking that the pool being closed got me out of doing cardio until next week and then I remembered that I can use the hand bike there. Thank god most of the people there are seriously overweight as well because there is just NO way to use a handbike and look like anything other than a gigantic goofball. Haha! Maybe I'll have tanner take a picture so we can all have a good laugh. Oh shoot! I just remembered, Im getting that good rate just for using the pool...Oh well, maybe Tanner and I can dance around the living room or something....even goofier images of that come to mind. I WON'T be recording that for posterity, sorry guys.

Here's what I ate Yesterday

Want to leave a comment? Click on the word "comment" below.

By My Calculations...I'm still Fat!

Ok, the last two days have not been the best. I can feel myself sinking in kind of a rut. It could be the rain, it could be the fact that my very gorgeous childhood friend is now dating the very sweet guy we both had a crush on in high school, maybe I'm just losing a little momentum, I'm not sure. I do know that it isn't going to derail me.

I partly think it might be that I have yet to start my fitness regime. I have the treadmill upstairs, it just needs a little vacuum and then its good to go. Erik was supposed to bring the vacuum upstairs for me since I do good getting myself upstairs, much less myself and a household appliance up the stairs. I even ordered some exercise stuff this week so that I could do that seated full body workout justice. I have the box from amazon sitting right next to me this very moment, but I haven't opened it up. Ok, well now I opened it up. It wasn't everything, but enough. I ordered three different exercise bands, a weighted medicine ball and a tape measure. You know what the tape measure means right? Humiliating measurements on the way...God I dread sharing those, but I will.

I kind of think it might have been the fact that I only lost a little over a pound this week. I know I have been saying the mantras and they help, but deep inside I'm thinking "I have 300 lbs to lose and I only lost ONE this week; its going to take forever!!" One of the lovely side effects of PCOS is that it makes it very easy for you to gain weight, but very difficult to get the weight off. At my size, my BMR is 2730 so my body burns that many calories just to stay alive. If I'm eating under 1800 calories a day, shouldn't i be losing a little more than that? Let me see...

DISCLAIMER: these calculations were done with the aid of a calculator. Do not attempt these calculations without the aid of a calculator as I can personally attest to the fact that you will burn more brain cells than fat cells.

1lb. of body fat = 3500 calories
2730 (my BMR) - 1800 calories (my daily intake) = 930 cal deficit a day
930 X 7 = 6510 deficit for week
6510/3500 = 1.86 lb loss for the week

Hmm, well I guess thats about right. I guess If I want to lose more, I'm going to have to get with it and get moving.

Starting tomorrow, I promise to put everything in my food diary and to do something to increase my activity. Those are my two goals. Maybe for now I just need to work on it a day at a time, at least until I get over this hump or whatever it is.

Want to leave a comment? Click on the word "comment" below.