Thinking This

Well, I had to stop my blog every day for 30 days challenge. I was going to bed way too late because blogging would be left for nighttime after all of my other obligations were met. This of course made it really hard to get up early enough to exercise. At this point it is more important for me to hone this exercise habit until it’s second nature because it is so important for my mental and physical health.

Another reason the challenge wasn’t working for me was that my blog posts can get quite long which means that substantive posts will take about 3 to 4 hours to write. This translates of course to taking three days to write a whole post. Which coincidentally happened on Day 11 of the challenge, when I wrote a book review about Enzymes for Autism: and Other Neurological Conditions. I worked on it for an hour each day so it wasn’t completed until Day 13.

Anyway, I finally got around to taking “After Weight-loss” pictures on Saturday. So here it is: Before and After.

Down 29 pounds.

I’ve lost a total of 31 pounds since I started taking fitness seriously.

* My right thigh was always slightly bigger than my left however, exercise has made them measure the same.

Day 10:

I reached my goal weight of 145 today. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to go to the gym tomorrow. My focus now will be on toning and reaching my fitness goals. With the pushups, my arms are looking really nice. I had the beginnings of cellulite on my triceps when I began this weight loss journey, now it’s gone. My plan is to complete the hundred pushups challenge and then do 100 pushups once a week.

At some point this month I will try the exhaustion test for the two hundred squats challenge. I have a feeling that I’ll be able to do 200 in one shot already. A few weeks ago I made it to 150 and I could’ve kept going. Once I can do those, I’ll do 200 squats once a week.

I will continue to train on the treadmill to increase my speed and incline. Once I get to running 20 minutes at 6.0mph I’ll start utilizing the other equipment at the gym like the stair master, elliptical and bike. I’ll also be using the weight machines once or twice a week.

In terms of diet, my plan is to transition to a diet of mostly whole grains (I don’t plan on giving up that occasional cup of white rice) and setting goals like getting my daily 8 cups of water and 5 servings of fruits and vegetables.

A fellow pear shaped friend asked me if I’d found any interesting diet information specific to pears and I’ve decided to mention it here.

I also want to share some of atypical things I did to improve my likelihood of reaching my goal.

Since I haven’t had time to measure myself or take a final “after” photo, I’ll have to share those final stats later on this week.

I’ve been extremely busy this weekend with updates for the Joven website. It’s finished for the most part but there’s always something more to do for a website so it’s never really ever finished.

I did blog, even though I didn’t update here.

Day 8: Crocheted Butterfly Purse at Joven’s blog.

Day 9: Another Joven blog post advertising Joven’s major sale.

Day 7:

My air conditioner is working again. I am so happy and grateful for air conditioning in the summer.

I spent a lot of time today adding a new product to Joven.

I’ll be writing a post about some diet and exercise strategies that I found when developing my weight-loss plan for pear shaped women this weekend.

Day 8:

I wrote short post at Renegade Scholar that links to an article by Holly Robinson Peete.

Day 6:

It’s too hot to write anything coherent. My air conditioner is broken. It’s hampering my productivity significantly. Having a gym membership has saved my workouts this week. My husband bought fans today so tomorrow should be better. It’s bathroom cleaning day tomorrow and I’m going to have the fan pointed directly at me.

A friend of mine wrote an interesting blog entry (I never promised myself a rose garden) about parenting. It is sort of the opposite sentiment of the one I wrote earlier this week. It’s really well written and a nice dose of reality for the childless.

Speaking of parenting I’ve realized that I have some unresolved Daddy issues. I’m glad to be able to pinpoint the origination of some of my thought patterns. I literally laughed out loud when I realized it. I’ll write more about it in the future.

Tonight we watched Star Trek VIII: First Contact.

Day 6:

Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
– Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.

When I read Frank Herbert’s Dune I knew I was hooked once I read the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear. I was fascinated by this world that incorporated all of the mysterious abilities human beings can cultivate. There’s a part of me that knows that I came from a place like this.

Anyway, what’s cool is that tonight I watched the Dune movie with my eldest. It obviously pales in comparison to the book but it served as a tool to get him interested in the novels. He seemed to like the concept of the super-being. Little does he know that there’s nothing super about it. He couldn’t believe me when I tell him that there are people who are telepathic and whatnot. I explained to him that in order to achieve this you need to learn to shut off your mind chatter so that you can listen to the world around you.

I’ll be teaching him how to mediate- first through movement (he’s very kinesthetic) then later through stillness. This is one of those things that will be so cool to explore together. We’ll be starting with Tai Chi.

Here’s another great quote:

Many have marked the speed with which Muad’Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It’s shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson. –from “The Humanity of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan

Day 5:

A friend told me that I inspired her to try the 100 pushups challenge. Well, she inspired me to try it again. I only made it to Week 2 last time with a max of 16. Today I started with Week 1, Day 1 for a total of 51 pushups.

I spent the day getting Joven ready for a huge sale. I hope to announce it this later this week.

I would like to write posts that are significantly more substantial than the ones I’ve written in the challenge so far. I have a lot of topics that I can cover. However, I’m going to have to start blogging early in the day for that to happen. I need to get to bed early so that I can have the juice I need at the gym.

I actually haven’t been to the gym in three weeks. I was sick for a while with a virus that knocked me down. Right before I got sick I got up to my previous speed of 16 minutes at 6.0mph. I hope that I’ll be able to manage it again tomorrow.

Day 4:

I weighed myself this morning and found that I weighed 147 pounds. I only have 2 pounds left to lose in order to reach my goal.

Here’s a photo of me (taken today) feeling pretty good about myself. We hiked over 4 miles today.

Me hiking.

I forgot to mention that I made some diet changes that seemed to really speed up my weight loss. Based on the recommendations in The Metabolic Typing Diet: Customize Your Diet to Your Own Unique Body Chemistry by William Wolcott, I’ve started snacking on almonds. I’ve also been taking digestive enzymes.

Day 3:

I blogged at Renegade Scholar about Nathan Sawaya, a Lego artist.