"Please, sir, may I have another?"

Hi, I hope everybody who was interested enjoyed the SuperBowl. I'm strictly Anti-SuperBowl. I was just anxiously awaiting the return of Glee after the SuperBowl. If you don't watch Glee, you should. It's more fun than football!

 I've had some exciting things happen this week. First, there is a new man in my life. His name is Anthony and I'll be seeing him twice a week at the gym so that he can kick my ass. Week 1 was kinda hard. To start with we are mostly working on strengthening my core using my own body weight. Looking forward to our session tomorrow.  Today was my first ever Zumba class! OMG! It was so fun! Can't wait to go back! I feel like I have been adequately trained to shake my ass. Crazy dancing fun I tell ya!

I also wanted to share the recipes below, just follow the links.  These are from Eatingwell.com. The Turkey Mini Meatloaves are awesome and I've made them for the second time today. Love them. I'm just trying out the Yukon Gold & Sweet Potato Mash this week. I tend to have marathon cooking sessions on Sunday's to prep for the week. So, after Zumba and cooking I'm wiped out. Hope everyone has a good week.

Turkey Mini Meatloaves

Yukon Gold & Sweet Potato Mash

Jaime:)

A Year in Review

Hello out there! I know it's been a while and I'm sorry about that. My intention for this blog was to make myself accountable to all of you in the hopes that it would push me to reach my goal. This was a hard year. Now, I have a general facebook/blog policy of not talking about work or the people I work with but I feel like I need to examine what went down at my place of employment. About this time last year I was left in a difficult work situation. There was a parting of the ways so to speak and I was left some very large shoes to fill. So, I went from working 40hrs a week to working 50 or 60. Working on Saturdays,Sundays and late at night. It felt like everything was on fire and I put alot of pressure on myself to do a good job. Also going on this past year, my sister Melanie is no longer in Atlanta and is going through a tough time with something I can't help her with. I miss them being so close and the fact that I can't help makes me frustrated and angry.

So, I sacrificed the time I spent at the gym and running for work. My eating went totally out of control. Ben & Jerry was my BFF and we spent many a night together. So after a year of hard work what do I have to show for it? A 40lb weight gain, a one year prescription for anti-depressants, my blood-pressure is under surveillance, and a raise. Now that I've written it all down, it doesn't really seem like a fair exchange. I didn't handle the stress well. I just went into panic mode and freaked out. What can I learn from this so I don't make the same mistakes again? I mean the stress of my job isn't going anywhere so I've got to learn to cope with it better. I think that is Lesson #1. Stress Management.

I plan to make 2011 a better year. More to come...

That's what I call a weigh-in!!!

So, this week I had a loss worthy of Biggest Loser. I knew I had a good week, but this was almost crazy. Drum roll please.....

Oh yeah!! 7.6 lbs loss!!

Starting Weight - 272.4 lbs

Week 1 -264.8 lbs  

No, I didn't starve myself. I use CalorieKing.com to log my food. My daily net calories are 1900. I didn't hit my net everyday, but I averaged about a 1500 net. Net Calories, meaning: Calories from Food - Calories lost from exercise = net calories. I know it sounds counter intuitive to eat back the calories you are burning from exercise, but it makes sense mathematically. I'll have to explain it more later or feel free to use the power of the internet. I'm almost falling asleep as I sit here. Anyway, I also drank more water this week and made it back to the gym. I still can't seem to get the diet soda monkey off my back. It's so hard when it is so readily available for free at work. 

So, I'm at the start of the dreaded week two. If any of you watch the Biggest Loser then you know what I'm talking about.  I didn't make it to the gym today. I was all packed to go to spinning and my back was killing me at work. I think I need a different chair. So, I decided to take it easy tonight. I'll kick some asphalt tomorrow though, back pain or no back pain! 

RJ & Rachel, that is so awesome. I had no idea you had lost so much. Keep up the good work. I need pictures!!

Oh, everybody should watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Totally shocking. Friday night's on ABC 9/8 Central. Also, Sign Jamie's petition to save cooking skills and improve school food. http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution/petition

I hope everybody has a great weekend. 

Starting Over

I hope everybody had a great Easter holiday. I know I did. Lots of food and family and the scale proves just how good a time I had. Sometimes you have to start over and forgive yourself for failed past attempts. Learn what you can and try again. So, here is my starting weight from my weekly weigh in at my TOPS meeting.

Not pretty...

So there it is, 272.4. My plan this week is to get back to the basics and the good habits that got me to a 50lbs loss. I'm off to a good start. I made it to the gym this week for the first time in ages. I made a shocking 5am appearance on Wednesday and put in some time on the treadmill, also took the 2.5 mile loop around Chastain Park after work. Today I made it back to spinning class!!! It's a unique form of torture, but I like it. It felt good to be back fighting for a bike & breaking a sweat. I want to make the 5am gym time a habit. Less traffic, less people and I get to work earlier. Also, it will give me a chance to check out the weights without to many bulging biceps around, which I find a little intimidating. 

I'm looking forward to getting back to running with North Gwinnett Galloway this Saturday. It feels like forever, but its only been three weeks. I'm taking a break from the Galloway Getting Started program this session. I really need some more flexibility with my schedule and a little variety. Running the same routes get old after a while and Chastain gets so crowded in the spring and summer. Also, I feel like I'm not as strong a runner as I was going into the fall. I'm sure my lack of gym time has much to do with it, but I can't push the pace to much when I'm leading a group. I will miss my GS peeps and I'll be sure to visit. I'll still be getting my two weekday runs in, they'll just be later in the day and where they fit best in my schedule. 

I'll be checking back in next week after Tuesday nights weigh in. Hope you all have a great weekend. 

Jaime5

Stuck in a Rut

Welcome to my first ever blog!! I'm kinda nervous about it. Why a blog? Well, I'm going to do something kinda crazy. I will be doing my first full marathon in December 2010. That's 26.2 miles!! We start training this month and I'm going take you all with me.

The other reason for this blog is that I'm stuck. I started a weight loss journey in June 2008. I made good steady progress up until February 2009 losing a total of 50lbs. Unfortunately I've been recycling the same 10 pounds ever since that time and I have another 97 pounds to go.  I've gone to great lengths to try to continue to drag myself down the path, because I don't want to go back. I've joined a gym and I joined my local TOPS chapter. Dunwoody 531!!! TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) is a great weight loss support organization. My chapter is the best!! They keep me accountable and I would probably be recycling more than 10 pounds if it wasn't for them. However, I feel that it's time for the gloves to come off. If I'm going to run this race and still be standing at the end, the rest of the weight has to come off.

Hope to see you all at the finish line.
Jaime5