Day 13: Day off?

I may give myself a day off from working out today. I didn't get up at my usual early morning hour. We'll see, I think my body needs the rest, but I also don't want to skip a day. I may do a short workout later this morning after I help out in my daughter's preschool class.

Last night I found a personal trainer that I may use to help me lose "those last 10 pounds." It's kind of pricey, but I figure if I get down to 129/130 again, then I'll need someone to help push me for those last 10 pounds. According to the scale, I only have about 6.5 pounds to go.

I will update later to report whether I worked out or not today.

Updated: I did do a quickie workout. I did Level 2 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred. It's funny how now I consider this workout for my "day off." There was a time not so long ago when this workout kicked my butt. I still don't think it's an easy workout; I sweat like a damn pig, but I'm able to get through it a lot easier than her other two workouts, No More Trouble Zones and Boost Your Metabolism. So, I'm happy with what I did for today. My plan is to get up early tomorrow and go back to my 1.5 hour workout consisting of 45 minutes of cardio and 30 plus minutes of yoga and pilates.

Day 12: Good workout

I slept in again this morning. K is gone, and as predicted, I stayed up too late last night after I did yoga. But, I did get a great workout in this morning. I did Jillian's "Boost Your Metabolism" workout from Exercise TV "On Demand." This workout lasts a little over 50 minutes. I've done this workout a handful of times before, sometimes I'm not able to make it all the way through, but today I made myself push through to the end. The only move that I did not do is the "jumping scissor kicks." I substituted squats.

I thought about wrapping up this morning with about 20 minutes of yoga, but I couldn't find a routine that I liked, and my daughter was at the end of her tolerance for waiting for me to be done. I'm happy with what I did because I think this particular workout is really hard.

Current weight: It's that time of the month, so I'm giving myself a few days off from the scale. I find that I retain water and weigh a pound or 2 more during my period, so I'll shoot for a weigh in on Friday.

Updated to add: I did about 40 minutes of Wii Fit last night. I did 8 minutes of boxing and several coordinating yoga and strength training exercises. I also took a body test and matched my previous low Wii Fit age of 29!!! Not bad for someone who will be 40 in a few short years.

Day 11: Half a workout, so far...

Today, K had to wake up at 4:30 to catch an early flight to Boston. I never really fell back to sleep and was really tired when the alarm went off at 5:45. I made a "deal" with myself that I would do part of my workout this morning and then do the rest of it later.

This morning I did Level 2 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred (about 20 minutes) and followed that up with 10 minutes of Pilates Abs. I was pretty happy with that workout, I even tried to incorporate some of Jillian's Level 3 cardio and ab work. However, I won't consider it a successful day until I do my yoga. Right now, my plan is to do it after the kids go to bed. I have told myself that I can't watch the Biggest Loser until I do my 45 minute Yoga routine. The flaw with my plan that I can already see is that I won't get to bed until 11 or so, and then I'll be tired again in the morning. I lament about this all the time, I thought exercise was supposed to increase energy... I have not felt the affects of that at all.

I will upddate later to confirm that I did my Yoga.

Updated: I did my 45 minute Yoga routine last night after the kids went to sleep.

Day 10: Low Energy

I woke up today with very little energy. The alarm was set for 5:45, but I woke up at 5:25. I really had to give myself a pep talk to get out of bed. I decided to do 45 minutes of Yoga followed by 10 minutes of Pilates Abs. I know I need some cardio, I'll either try to get some in this afternoon, or I'll for sure have to do some tomorrow morning.

I don't know what is wrong with me. I go to bed tired, and I wake up tired. I thought exercising was supposed to give you more energy, but I certainly haven't seen the benefits of that.

Day 9: A bit of a binge last night

It's Sunday, so again, the alarm didn't go off early in the morning, but I did have to set it for 7:15 because we have a few things to take care of this morning.

I haven't weighed myself, and I most likely won't as I binged a little bit last night. We went to our neighbors' house. I took a veggie platter with fat free dip and that's mostly what I ate last night, but I did have a few Doritos and some pretzels with a cheese dip. I stayed away from the cookies, so at least that was good. I did, however, have 3 glasses of wine, which is one more than I had planned to drink.

Today's workout was a quickie. I did Level 2 of Jillian's 30 Day Shred which was about 25 minutes long, and then I did a "new to me" 20 minute Yoga routine. I didn't really care for the yoga program, but at least I did it.

Day 8: Lost Weight

I only have a minute or two before I must leave for a much needed massage, but I wanted to file a quick report.

First, I finally stepped on the scale. I still don't like the number, 140 lbs, but at least it's progress downward. So, I was relieved.

Today is Saturday, so the alarm did not go off as early as it normally does. I got myself out of bed at 8:15 and did 38 minutes of Jillian Micheals' "Boost Your Metabolism" routine which I found "On Demand" on Exercise TV. I followed that up with 30 minutes of Yoga.

A note about my diet: Last night we went to the Piston's game and had the club seats that allow you access to a full buffet. I tried really hard to make healthy choices, it was a Friday during Lent, so I had to choose fish anyway. I stayed away from the desserts, except I did have 4 chocolate covered strawberries... I should have stopped at 2, but I've never seen them bring out so many helpings, I just couldn't help myself. I also only had 3 Cap't and Diets which are pretty low in caloric content by my calculations.

Another word about my weight

I just went back and read a few of my posts from last fall when I challenged myself to do 30 days straight of Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. I talked a lot about my weight, and it looks like at one point in October I was "a large piece of chocolate cake" away from 129 lbs. I never made it into the coveted 120s, and in fact I gained 3 pounds "virtually overnight."

Now, I'm essentially right back where I was when I first started to lose weight last July, but as I mentioned in a previous post, I don't feel anywhere near as "fat" as I did before. I feel strong, actually. I still wear a size 8, and I've noticed in the past few days that my pants are fitting better/looser. So, why does the scale say that my weight is increasing? Am I doing something wrong? Am I "over-training?" which is a term I recently heard Jillian say to Tara on Biggest Loser. Am I not drinking enough water? Should I even care about the number on the scale?

I know that I have body fat that I need to get rid of. Most of the body fat that concerns me is around my middle. Special K cereal used to have an ad campaign asking "can you pinch an inch?" Well, I can grab a fist full of disgusting fat from around both of my sides. This is where I need to lose most of my weight. I used to be worried about my "chunky" thighs, but those are really further down on my list of worries.

Hopefully I can sustain this latest effort to lose weight, and if I do, I hope that the weight starts falling off as well. I'm afraid I'll get discouraged if I don't start seeing the scale move down.