Thanks Todd

I love the idea of the links to other health sites. I haven't added because I haven't been doing as well as I hoped. I did great until I went back to work on Monday. I have still been drinking more . That helps me feel less tired and less hungry. I have been better at taking my meds but I need to be better still. My arthritus (probably more tendonitus) has been really bad this spring so I am less likely to move if I don't take my meds. It is the exercise that I am still struggling with. I have done more than usual, but I have a long way to go. My one good addition is that I am walking to people's houses when I go visiting teaching and to meetings. This time of year is pretty stressful at school and I feel really swamped, so I kind of shut down. I think April is right on track, though. When you exercise well you usually do find you have more energy and umph for other things. Thanks for posting. It keeps me thinking and moving in the right direction (even if it is ever so slowly.)

Hi

Well, I never did get an invitation, so I just logged in with Auntie Ann's password and invited myself! Hope you guys don't mind. And, since I was in there, I changed the links on the sidebar from "Edit-me" to a couple of health sites that I like. On one you can read articles about health, on another, you can look up info about nutrition and on the last, you can watch some videos about nutrition and health.

I am having an OK food and exercise week. I couldn't go to the gym Monday or Tuesday because I had to stay with the kids because D wasn't feeling well. Wednesday I went to the gym. Thursday I played basketball and today I spent a long time hiking down to a park and back with Alia strapped to my back. If I'm lucky, tomorrow I can go play ultimate frisbee in the AM.

Hopefully next week will be back to a "normal" routine and I can get to the gym more. Keep up the exercising everyone!

I have to agree with April and Tammy; one of the hardest things in this whole process is that I LOVE food! I can eat a lot more than I should and I have to consciously stop. One thing that has helped me in this area is a book Deanna read about "calorie density." Some of you may have heard of it. It's based on the idea that you choose foods that have a lower calorie density whenever possible. In other words, a pound of carrots has a lot less calories than a pound of ice cream. So, if you absolutely have to have chips, have some salsa with them because the salsa has a lower calorie density and hopefully you will be full on less calories. For me this has helped with breakfast. I used to eat as much Golden Grahams and Cocoa Pebbles as Gma and Gpa could fit in their shelves (with a little help from Steve) and I just can't eat pure fiber for breakfast, so I go with something in between - Frosted Mini Wheats! Still tasty, but with a far lower calorie density and higher fiber density (making me feel fuller) than those sugar cereals. Now, whenever I have a snack, I try and think along these lines. Of course, I'm not always successful, but it helps.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Well, I am slowly gaining back my motivation. I managed to exercise three times this week. It's kind of weird, but all this exercising is helping me to clean more. I guess getting motivation to exercise is helping me to motivate myself in other ways.

Good luck Tammy with the diet. That is probably the hardest thing for me because I love food so much! Right now I try to stay away from the obvious, like soda and candy, but I do still get cravings for desserts. At least I'm not eating junk food every day. I hope every one's doing well with their goals. Just use Grandma for inspiration!

Where is everyone?

Well, I just thought I would check in and see how everyone is doing. I have been doing really good with my little breakfast. Sometimes I think I am less hungry if I don't eat breakfast though. I haven't lost any weight though. I know that I need to add more exercise to my life. We are currently looking for an inexpensive treadmill. I am hoping to get one soon. I have also been much more moderate in my portion sizes for lunch, and even dinner, but I feel so------ hungry all the time. I wish that feeling would go away. It makes me crave bad things just to fill my belly. I am going to stick with it though. I really like the Change One plan, and hope to add some strengthening exercises to my life soon. Lunch is the next diet move.

I need to do more of what Steven Covey says (which I read on Todd's blog) and begin with the end in mind. I always have these nebulous sort of goals, and don't take time to hash things out specifically. I will work on that. Hope you are doing well with your goals.

A thought I had last night (not sure if I can explain very well, but will try). I was reading some more of my Change One book, and they suggest you do strength training everyday. It seems that so many things come down to doing them everyday. Eating right, exercising, praying, reading your scriptures, etc., etc. I know that they are hard, but maybe they are a blessing in disguise. After all the Lord is unchanging, the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. These things that are required of us each and everyday will make us more like Him. Gifts, or tools, at least to shape us into who he wants us to be. Just a thought. It helped me at least.

water

I had a very nice day with Mom today as we worked to take more than 4 inches out of some of her clothes. We talked about what I think my weight loss problems are and aren't.
I decided that I will add a new goal this week. I will keep exercising 5 times a week (this week I have only missed Thur.) and I will add 2 things.
I will drink at least 48 oz. of water every day. I am terrible at drinking water consistently. I have gotten so that I enjoy water but I don't make a conscience effort to measure what I drink.
I will also make sure that I take my pills every day. I recently ran out of Thyroid and it took me 5 days to get more. Then I get tired and don't work as hard as I would otherwise.
I'll be sure to report again next week.
Good luck to all!

It gets easier

After six months of watching carefully I can say that in most ways it is easier.I can't eat as much as I use to and all the steamed vegetables taste really good as does the fruit. We found we could live with the occasional pasta and three glasses of milk a day instead of every meal. Thanks Ann for doing this and also for taking in all my clothes. Love G'ma

Comparison Photos

Thought this might be a good start for your project.

A Mini Goal

I, too, am going to go out in the open with a goal to try to help motivate me a little bit more. I'm starting out with just a mini goal because I know that the next couple of months are going to be quite busy and stressful for us. I would like to lose 5 pounds by Graduation (May 22). I've got about a month, which should be plenty of time to reach that goal - so I'm going to do it!

Slacker

I have been slacking off you guys. I had been getting up early in the morning to work out, but I stopped. Hopefully I can gain the motivation back so that I can keep it up. On the bright side, I have been practicing organ regularly. I've never had this much motivation to practice before. I guess it's because I'm doing it because I really want to with no pressure from any one else! Good luck everyone with their goals.

Some thoughts and goals

Okay, this is big people! I am ready to go. I am about to officially announe one of my weight loss goals. I have a tendency not to even write some goals down because I don't want to fail. However, I think it will help to be accountable to people. Here it goes: I would like to lose 20 pounds by July 24. Why? Well, we are planning a trip out west about that time, and we are going to be spending a couple of days with Greg's family. You guessed it. I am the heaviest of them all!! Perhaps, one of Greg's sisters husband is heavier than me, but we haven't seen him in over 5 years, so I don't really know. Anyway, it stinks! It would be nice to at least weigh less than my own husband! Wish me luck.

How I am going to do this is still a bit fuzzy in my head, but I am working on it. I have been reading the Reader's Digest Change One diet book, which seems really reasonable. They want you to change one thing a week instead of jumping right in to every major change. The first week is eating breakfast. First they want you to eat breakfast. Second it should be reasonable portion sizes. 1 serving of fruit, about the size of 2 golf balls (or a whole apple or orange). 1 serving of dairy, milk about 1 cup. One grain or whatever that has at least 3 grams of fiber (I've been eating a lot of english muffins). Cereal about the size of a baseball. Protein is optional at breakfast, but they say if you are getting hungry really soon to add a serving of that. It really puts into perspective serving sizes as they include pictures of everyday items in their actual size to gauge portions by. Anyway, enough from me. GO TAMMY GO!!

Fitness Fun!

Well, actually I don't find it all that fun, but I would sure like to. I'm so glad you sent the invite for us all to join separately so we can tell who is posting what.

Here's my update. I'm celebrating the fact that I did NOT gain any weight during out 3 week vacation! Hooray! This is definitely worth celebrating considering that I gained about 8 or more pounds on our 5 week jaunt to the midwest for Todd's rotation at Mayo.

I also finally hopped on our treadmill yesterday, and am hoping to continue that. Here's to hoping... Good luck everyone!

Adding Members

Tammy taught me how to add members to the fitness blog so you can add under your own user names and password. I have added Tammy, April, Deanna and Todd, and Sarah. I don't know if I have used everyone's current email addresses. I don't have a current address for G'ma and G'pa. If you want to be added to the member list than leave a message here or email me at Mobymel@gmail.com.
Love, Me

Day one

I did back exercises this morning. I still need to do something aerobic, but I am going to try to do back strenthening things every day. My back goes in cycles and it will be good for a while and then really bad. My goal this week is to work on my back every day. If I do extra things that will be a bonus. I am off for spring break so I have no excuse.

Welcome

Here is our new page. Feel free to add here as you have triumphs and setbacks.

My news today is that you can be proud of me for our food choices on vacation. We usually take lots of junk food. This time we took lots of fruit and carrots. It is just as easy to snack on those, I just don't usually think about it. I have gotten so that I buy little carrots because I like to eat those as finger foods and I never do that with big carrots. It is worth the extra price for me. My weight didn't go down after our trip, but we'll see what the next week brings.