Don't give up!

Hey there so just a little quick one!
I'm going to post links to articles I've read that are inspiring and can help to change your way of thinking so as to change the way you view yourself! After all we are (or become) what we think! So think of yourself as the beautiful person you are and your body will follow suit!
This article is about children and how we can learn from them a few things about exercising! As I mentioned before, I have 2 kids and they Never. Stop. Moving!! So I've adapted that a little. I try to move as much as I can through out the day. Whether it is playing the Wii or running safely inside the house with them. I try jogging in place during commercials or even during the show I'm watching. I'll try to park further from the store entrance and walk fast or sometimes jog to the entrance. You might think this is silly but it must be working because since starting this I have dropped 3 lbs! Not a whole lot but 3 lbs is 3 lbs!!

The next article is 5 ways to love your body! I think that is important to love yourself the way you are! Be happy with the beautiful gift you have been given! It might not be as perfect as you once knew or you may not the size you dream of but it's beautiful! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! We must learn to love who we are right now and be okay with the size we are and then changes will happen! If we are constantly bringing ourselves down that just leads to diet sabotage and unhealthy habits! Which brings me to my next two articles!
Drop the fatitude! and Improve your mood without food! These two articles talk about unhealthy attitudes we may have towards ourselves and the unhealthy way we try to deal with it. I for one am an emotional eater! I eat/snack when I'm bored, stressed, happy, bored, and did a mention stressed! I will grab for the chocolate, the cookie anything sweet, quick and appealing to try and take care of my feelings of depression and boredom. I have counter acted this at work by having a 20 oz bottle of water handy and I mix a powerade packet with it. It gives me the sweet taste I'm craving without the calories and it is liquid refreshment! Which we all know we should be drinking more water! I try to stay away from the ones that contain aspertame as it isn't the most healthy thing to put in your body. I figure that a sip of water with drink mix is more healthy than downing a 250 calorie candy bar on a shift and then craving more!

These articles are from a site called Sparkpeople.com . I like their site. It has use full articles, weight trackers, meal trackers, exercise trackers and workouts. It is a whole community of people helping people to lose weight and feel great! Best part is it's FREE!!! Yeah it is!! Go check it out! I use it for meal ideas and keep track of my weight loss goals and my weight! They also have one called babyfit.com which is geared towards women who are or may become pregnant and those who are nursing. Women have different nutritional needs when participating in this most important work of baring and caring for the future generation! I found this article on that site about how we need to take care of ourselves first in order to take care of anyone else. It's not selfishness its part of the caring properly. How can you help someone if you yourself are laid up in bed because of poor health due to lack of exercise and healthy eating? So take some time to replenish your stores of energy and you will find more to help those around you and to actually "be" with those around you instead of just there. Enjoy life! Enjoy yourself! Create a healthier and happier future!
Jess

Jess here! I haven't been too consecutive with exercising. I have however tried to continue to watch what I eat and keep moving! I keep moving by running in circles with my kids inside the house. Parking a little ways from the store front and walking fast to the door. I try to do something little each day and sit less. I am maintaining and hope to be losing a few more lbs in the coming weeks!
I have found some good articles on the web and will post soon!
Good luck!

Hello all;

I am nowhere close to being fit for the trip.  I am about 130 lbs over my ideal weight. even if I could drop about 50 lbs I'm sure that this would improve my health significantly. So my next step is to develop a workable plan and then work the plan.

I will provide updates periodically

Kevin  

So this exercising thing is hard stuff. I'm just not motivated. I know, I know, action leads to motivation. I know I need to get up and exercise and then I'll become motivated to do it. It's hard when a child gets you up twice in the middle of the night because of  a scary dream. By the time all is settled and the alarm goes off the bed feels too nice to leave once again! (I turned off the alarm and rolled over that morning!)
I did however get up this morning and do a little exercising and stretching. I kind of cheated. I put in Jillian Michaels 30 day shred and put it on fast forward, the slower setting. I make it through the video in half the time! Only down side is, you only get half the work out, but a little is better than no workout right!
I know that eating healthy is a major part of shedding pounds and feeling better so I try to make better choices. I really need to stop the snacking and that will help tons! Board? Eat a snack. Tired? Eat a snack. Happy? Munch on something! Stressed cause the kids wont leave me alone? Eat a snack! You get the picture, I snack. Not the healthy stuff either. My favorite snack is a bag of chocolate chips. I dump a few out in my hand for every snack. And we all know that you can't just stop at a few chocolate chips so I get more. Sometimes I even add a spoon of  peanut butter!!! Don't gasp I know you do it too with your favorite snack!

So my new favorite thing to do is Leslie Sansone videos. Look her up! She does these walk off the pound video's. They are easy but still get you sweating. I rent them from the local library! I love to put one in and do that while I watch biggest loser on Hulu! Since hers are simple I turn the volume down on the video so I can hear biggest loser. I don't know about you but I've never felt right about watching those people work till they drop and not working out myself.

So back to the eating healthy part and less calories. I made myself a breakfast smoothie! Not as good as my husbands but it was alright. My youngest insisted on having some as well and she liked it! It's super easy! I'll post a pic of what goes in it!

So I just noticed that the milk isn't in the picture. You will need some kind of liquid, usually milk to make it creamy. It's easy and quick to fix and tastes great! Make it and take it on your way to class or work and you've eaten breakfast.  They say the common most thing among over weight people is they skip breakfast. Not a good thing. It'll make you more hungry and you'll snack more throughout the day. A good breakfast, however simple, is key to keeping you on track for the rest of the day! Don't skip breakfast!!
Happy exercising!
Jess

Full Time School + Part-time Job = hard to be healthy

Hello there, so it is me, Jen. I have struggled with my weight since the 9th grade. While I am more secure in who I am today, I wasn't back then. I was a girl who wanted to be popular and who wanted a boyfriend like my friends. My self worth was linked directly to my weight and how I looked. Today, my self worth is still linked to my weight and I look, but it is not directly linked and I am much more confident in who I am as a person rather than the weight I am or think I should be at. Why this is one reason I am going on this journey, the main reason is because I want to be healthy and I want to be the person I used to be and still am but just can't or won't be because of my weight. I love sports and I love playing them and did so when I was younger and I want to play them again. Also, I want to get married and have kids and, yes, I believe that my weight is keeping me from doing this. Whether it be the special someone not having a physical attraction to me or me not putting myself out there, or both. While that sounds like I am looking for someone shallow, I am not, but we can't fool ourselves and pretend that physical attraction is not part of a relationship.

Another reason is because I want to be a good example to my adorable nieces. I want them to have a healthy aunt that will play with them, chase them around the yard and not get tired after 5 minutes. 

And lastly, the title of this page, fit for the trip. I will be graduating in May 2014 and I have planned a family vacation to Disneyland for my graduation present. I want to be fit for the trip, plus who doesn't want to look good when they go to the beach? And we will be going to the beach, because I love me some beach. 

I don't know when I will get time to exercise or how I am going to eat healthy being on campus all day long, but I will find a way or make a way. I need to do this, I have a lot of weight I need to lose. With the encouragement from my sister, I think I can do it. 

Let's do this!!!

Jen

Adventures in Weight Loss

Hey Jen,
So here is our blog. We can post anything we want but mostly encouragement on our weight loss goals.
I'd like to start by posting what I am doing to get "Fit For The Trip"! I made a goal to lose 30 lbs. I then sat down and wrote a simple schedule because I'm lazy I took pictures of it and I'll post it!! I also have been keeping track of exercises I do and the date. I took a picture of that too and will post it!

One thing that keeps going through my mind is what that dietitian told AJ at the class he did for his job. He said you don't have to change what you eat to lose weight just eat less of it. He made the suggestion that if you go out to eat, remove a portion of the hamburger or platter before eating it. Remove it and toss it. If you can't toss it give it to someone or save it for later or have someone else toss it for you. Instead of drinking the whole can of soda, dump some of it out. Instead of eating the whole snickers bar cut a portion off and toss it or give it to someone. You'd be surprised at how many calories you cut simply by "cutting" a portion of the food you take in.

I have my alarm set to wake me up early for exercise and maybe one of these days I'll actually turn it off and get out of bed. So far I've been making myself exercise when I find time. Instead of sitting to watch a show I'll march in place and do other steps or walk on the treadmill at a fast pace, on an incline until the show is over. I get tired of walking so I occasionally will bump the speed up so I'm jogging for a bit (can't do that for very long). It feels like a break for my tired walking muscles when I do that.

Well kids are getting hungry and time to start dinner here's those pictures and I'll talk to ya later!

Jess

This is my simple schedule. I don't follow it exactly but it leaves options open.

This is my exercise log. Chicken scratch but helps me keep track of what and when and how many.

So there you have it.