I opened my weekly discovery health email to find this quote:

"I have a washboard stomach. It's just that mine has about two months' laundry
on top of it."
- Shawn Burr

I really think it sums up how I feel about my body. I know under these layers of fat lies an undiscovered 6 pack, now I just have to find a way to bring it out.

Update

I'd like to be able to report that I am still bike riding, but sadly no. We have a lot of puncture vine around here and the tot trailer just couldn't handle it. I put that green goop in them and aired the tires back up and less than 12 hours later the tires were flat again. I think I am going to have to by new tires, perhaps those no flat kind if I can find them in the right size. Then again I may just hold off since in about 3 weeks my father will be staying with us for the winter and I will have my live in babysitter once again....then I can just ride my bike or walk to work. Right now I drive my son to daycare and then drive to work. At lunch I've been walking home for a bite and then walking back to work. So I am still getting in some exercise, just not as much as before.

AF showed up on Friday, so I am retaining some water. Yuck but at least I have a valid reason for some weight gain. I'm hoping in a few days it will be gone and I will get to see some actual weight loss. I've been eyeballing the local 24/7 gym. They have a special going on where I can join for less than $1/day. Is that good? I've only peered through the windows as I drive by, but they seem to have a lot of equipment but I don't know if they have any trainers. It would be nice to splurge the first month and hire a trainer. My hair salon is also offering aerobics classes now, I've got to check on the price for that too. With having my dad as a sitter until March that's $200+ a month that I will have for other things, why not something for myself? It would be nice to get some bills paid off early too though....we'll see what hubby has to say.

Ditching the Car

I watched all week as my gas tank slowly dwindled down to nothing. My gas light came on once but then went out, so that means I still have some gas, though I couldn't tell you how much. I was contemplating parking the car and riding my bike for the rest of the month, or to go get $5 of gas....I don't really have $5 but I figured I could make it work. Lovely hubby suggests yesterday that I try out the bike and trailer for a little while since our big hunting trip is coming up and I need to work up my stamina for that. He takes the trailer attachment off his bike and puts it on mine. After a few adjustments and getting our son situated in the trailer we were off. It is said, "you never forget how to ride a bike" but there is nothing said about how to shift the gears. I don't know why I always have problems with this, I can handle a standard vehicle with ease but is it up, down what when I want to go to a lower or higher gear on a bike. After a little coaching (ie. nagging) from my husband I was getting back into the swing of things and started to enjoy my ride.

My goal now is to leave the car parked and I will only go and get fuel when I have to go get major groceries or go out of town, which ever comes first. I left the house around 7:30 am to get my son to daycare on time and showed up there 15 minutes later. Not to shabby. Realizing I didn't have the bike lock and even in my small town I still feel I need to lock my bike up when out in public I decided to take it back home. The trip home only took 10 minutes and then it was a nice 5 minute walk to my office. I just love being in a small town.

Motivation to Exercise

I was so excited yesterday. The collars I bought for my dogs came in the mail!! Now I have two out of control, drag you down the road, bull-headed dogs. I was looking online for training aids and came across some head leads. After reading the reviews at 3 different sites I decided to order them. I took the first one out of the package, read the directions/advice booklet and set off to see if it would work. OMG, it was unbelievable!! She shook her head for a little while and pawed at her face and really gave me a fit once we took off, she practically rolled like a crocodile. After perhaps 10-15 minutes though I finally had a dog walking at my side with no pulling! I went back and tried the other dog, same results. I am so happy I can finally walk my dogs...together even. I took a chance and put my son in the stroller and strapped them to it and felt such joy to have a dog at each side and to be able to talk my son along. We are still far from perfect, but I think now I will be getting out more to walk. Last night I think we walked for a total of an hour between the 3 trips out.

Now I have the motivation to get out and exercise.

I made it through my first week of my weightloss challenge. Whew, that wasn't to bad. This week I focused on eating right and even though a couple brownies passed my lips and a huge plate of nachos ( hey I added tomatoes and lettuce) I lost 1.2 pounds! At this moment I am exceeding my first goal of 1 pound of week. I think for this week I will continue to focus on watching what I eat, as well as adding at least 1 day of jogging to my 2 days of walking. Now to just chose the day.

I stumbled upon the links to the side and just had to add them to this site. I love the "Skinny Songs" They are upbeat and very inspirational. I just may need to break down and by the CD. Check it out. The lyrist also created a line of inspirational/motivational shirts. These could be worn to the gym or to a picnic. The "do not feed" shirt is expecially funny and the mirror shirt is something I am considering buying once I find the time to go to a gym.

I found the site above thanks to a blogger who has a blog jam packed with information...so check her out as well. If you have any motivational products you would like seen here let me know, as well as any interesting blogs.

New inspiration?

I have feeling like mush lately and completely exhausted. My eating overall has been better, but I've been snacking more then I should. On Monday, I got on a scale AFTER having a doughnut with breakfast and I was 202, this is 2 to 3 lbs. less then I have been for the past few monthes...
Kind of a nice reminder that the weight can come off. I am really trying to up my exercise and a co-worker is helping me with that. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we are going for a swim or a walk.

A couple things I've been doing differently in the past few weeks and eating a bowl of grapenuts with a low fat yogurt for breakfast. I've also started drinking a large bottle of milk on the way to work, this seems to help curb the munchies:)

Shannon

Food Pyramid

So one of my goals is to start eating a more balanced diet. I'm a meat fanatic! I feel bad when I serve something without meat to my family, I feel protein is such a major building block that going without it horrible. I will try to make it up by serving some sort of bean, but it just doesn't seem the same. I'm also big on vegetables, mostly the frozen variety. I've been trying to get in more fresh stuff now that the harvest is going on, but it seems to much easier to just grab a can of corn. Fruit on the other hand normally is wrapped in bread, as in a nutrigrain bar. Can I even call that fruit? Again since the harvest has been going on I have been trying to get in more fresh fruit like peaches, nectarines, etc.
What is there that you have been trying to change in your diet?

I participate in a weight loss forum and they have a biggest loser challenge every 6 weeks. There a two different challenges you can participate in. The is the points/team challenge which I have been doing for the past 18 weeks, and then there is the weight loss/individual challenge which I opted to do this time. The points challenge basically helps you to learn to eat right and get yourself motivated. You can achieve a total of 30 points daily. Here's how the points work out:

• 12 points for exercise - 1 point per 10 minutes for a total of 2 hours
• 12 points for water - 1 point per 8 oz for a total of 96oz
• 1 point for checking in/supporting your team members
• 5 points for sticking to your food plan

I did well on this for awhile. I've definately changed my habits, but now I need more motivation. With the weight loss challenge I am on my own. It is with hope because of the things I have learned/changed while participating in the points challenge that I will be able to motivate myself. I am "competing" against other people to see who can lose the most weight in 6 weeks. Therotically I could lose 2 pounds a week, we'll see what happens. Now to try and exercise, that is the golden ticket right there.