New Blog Updated: Allan's "Math" Challenge: Eating at "160 x 11" Calories for 2 Weeks

Please read the new entry at the new blog :

Allan's "Math" Challenge: Eating at "160 x 11" Calories for 2 Weeks

 

If you want to join the challenge, please go to Allan's blog to do so (see link at entry on other blog).

New Blog Updated: Face the Truth Fridays: Met Goal at Week 7 (weekly and overall) and Learned I Can Overcome Urges for "Comfort Food" Self-Medication When Sick

Read the new entry at the new blog:

Face the Truth Fridays: Met Goal at Week 7 (weekly and overall) and Learned I Can Overcome Urges for "Comfort Food" Self-Medication When Sick

 

Have a fit Friday!

New Blog Updated: "Just Ten" Challenge: Where Would A "Just Ten" Pound Loss Take You?

Please read the new entry at the new blog:

"Just Ten" Challenge: Where Would A "Just Ten" Pound Loss Take You?

 

And please update your links/follows. THANKS.

New Blog Updated: Face the Truth Friday: Met Goal, Back on Track, & the Portion Thing

Read the new entry at the new blog:

Face The Truth Fridays: Met Goal, Back on Track, and The Portion Thing...

Please update your links/follows. Thanks...

Happy and Fit Friday to you!

New Blog Updated: Nice extra downtick today...Some Food From Yesterday...Pics from After Workout (front, side)

Please visit the new blog to read the update, and please update your links/follows to:

Two Years to Happy Weight After

New post: Nice extra downtick today...Some Food From Yesterday...Pics from After Workout (front, side)

Have a healthy weekend!

~~~

New Blog Updated: FACE THE TRUTH FRIDAYS: Made This Week's Goal...surprisingly..and seeking iron resolve!

Please read it at the new blog. Please change your links/follows to TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER:



FACE THE TRUTH FRIDAYS: Made this Week's Goal...Surprisingly..and seeking iron resolve!

Have a beautiful weekend, you fatfighters!!

New Blog Updated: Restarting the Organic Co-Op and Planning for a New Life

Read it at TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER

Sorry, that one goes off on something of a rumination/rant/whatever. I don't even know what the heck happened mid-post.


Please change your links/follows to the new blog. THANKS.

~~~~~~

Face Up To It Fridays: Met Loss Goal, Didn't Meet Activity or Intrinsic Motivation Goals, Hubby noticed shrinkage, and Thoughts after watching THINTERVENTION...

New blog has been updated: Two Years to Happy Weight After

If you haven't changed my addy/follows, please do so. THANKs.

UPDATE: 
Face Up To It Fridays: Met Loss Goal, Didn't Meet Activity or Intrinsic Motivation Goals, Hubby noticed shrinkage, and Thoughts after watching THINTERVENTION...
~~~~

How to Set Goals For Weight Loss--or so they say... :)

New blog updated.

I've moved, so please change links/follows. THANKS.


How to Set Goals for Weight Loss--or so they say...

~~~

Reminder: My Blog Has Moved...Please follow me at new site for TWO YEARS TO HAPPY WEIGHT AFTER

I updated my new blog:


Two Years to Happy Weight After

A Rocky Start to Summer Slimmin' Week 3 --Plus Belly Pic, Food Pics, Pilates Pics

Man, the weekend really threw me off. Not just the overload of cheese at the anime con, but the overload of salty-dippy crap (on tortilla chips) at my brother's house. I have yet to be at my calorie level since Saturday. Yesterday's eating was better, but still not at target.

Today, so far, so good. I'm really hungry right NOW, so I'll be having lunch after posting.

I will add that I am nonetheless not feeling that weird mired, hopelessness I've felt in the past. I'm more feeling analytical and pretty calm. I haven't had an all-out binge and I haven't felt like giving up. In fact, I have this feeling of , "My groove is coming. My groove is just around the corner." I kinda like that.

Anyway, I did start my new medication regimen, so I have fingers crossed that won't be an issue/obstacle. I continue to feel pretty chipper, like some epiphany is on its way. Hope so. :D

So, here's a pic for continuing motivation mojo--my appley body's belly that I wanna reduce to keep diabetes away from my door:

And here's the sparkly "goal dress" that now fits, but I haven't worn out yet (too fricken hot for this fabric):

I bought a goal shirt that will fit when I'm down another 7 pounds or so. I decided to get goal stuff I can wear sooner. Heh. I had that dress in the back of the closet for years.

And some meals I've had, including today's breakfast:

Above is a Spanish Omelette (potatoes, onions, eggs, olive oil), a soy sausage, tomatoes, a whole wheat roll with lowfat pimento cheese spread (I didn't eat the angel food cake and tossed it). Water, lovely Brazilian coffee.

Had the above on Monday for lunch. It's mixed greens (including my fave arugula) with gorgonzola crumbles and onions and a balsamic vinaigrette. Fresh pineapple chunks. Coconut Water. Water.

This is a Diet-To-Go breakfast option--the Egg and Broccoli pie (essentially a lowfat quiche with a whole grain crust). I sauteed mushrooms and had a baby arugula and baby spinach salad (tomatoes and a bit of EVOO). Coffee. Lime water. An orange and a nectarine.

Here are some exercises I did Monday at my Pilates session (ignore the uberdorky hair that I hastily clipped up and off my face), and I left out a bunch, but I wasn't gonna upload the one with a crotch shot. HAH! I got that new active top at Lane Bryant last week. On sale, very comfy:

Man, why is it so much of my weight has to go and just sit in my dang middle. I'm so unbalanced. Ah, well.

Okay, so now back to my regularly scheduled water consumption and lunch-making. It's lowfat eggplant parmesan with steamed veggies today. While the scale is, yes,  glaring at me with an uptick (oh, salt, why do I long so after thee?) after Sunday's indulgences, I am not stressing. Our Lady of Weight Loss has told me, "All is forgiven. Move on."

Happy Wednesday to all you fatfighting folks!

185 --The Magic Number Where I'd Stop Being Obese

I was fiddling with the NIH's BMI Calculator. I know I'd done this before--trying to figure out where I stopped being obese, etc, but I'd forgotten.

So, I did it again.

The WHO's classification for obesity is this:

BMI	Classification
< 18.5	underweight
18.5–24.9	normal weight
25.0–29.9	overweight
30.0–34.9	class I obesity
35.0–39.9	class II obesity
≥ 40.0	class III obesity

Well, at my highest, my BMI--as approximated using the NIH calculator-- was 48.3. That means that at 299, I was in a subset of Class III obesity called super obese.

When I started this blog at 289 lbs in 2007, my BMI was 46.6. Still super obese.  Today, I was a scosh over 263, which has my BMI at 42.4. No longer in the worst category, but still in Class III. This is morbidly obese.

To leave Class III, I'd have to get down to 246, at which weight my BMI would be 39.9 and Class II Obesity, and I'd be considered severely obese.  At 216, I'd have a BMI of 24.9 and be in Class I--plain old obese. No scary modifiers.

But 186 lbs is THE magic number: No longer obese at all. Merely categorized as overweight. BMI of 29.9.

The SUPER MAGIC NUMBER: 154. This was my weight on my wedding day. My weight at my first gynecological exam. My weight when I was 23. It was all UPscale from then...  This was normal weight for my height, right on the border.

Which is funny, cause in the back of my mind, I've always wanted to be that poundage again. Not cause of the weight charts.  Not cause I looked slim. That was the upper end of my doctor's weight chart numbers for me, for my height. I clearly felt a bit chubby. I couldn't shop at "normal" stores, cause they didn't have my size. I still was not slender. I even had hubby take pics of me in a bathing suit and hated the sight of my pudge. (I wish I was that pudgy now, dangit.)  BUT...I was "normal weight."

154. Wedding Day Weight. Normal Weight. Youth weight.

Yeah. It's a very significant number.

I don't expect to get there. I'd love to, but I think the caloric sacrifice would be too much to even KEEP me there, if I got there. Big if. I choose to be realistic these days, and I don't know if I could be happy with that sort of caloric restriction. Shoot, just staying under 2000 is hard.

But 185. I can dream that without an immense twinge of disbelief at impossibilities. I can be "just overweight."

After two decades plus of obesity, merely overweight sounds really, really good. I can aim for that. I can dream of that.

It's not a bad dream.

If you want to fiddle with your numbers, HERE.

Funky 5 MeMe, Princess Dieter Style

Felipa of I'M GETTING FIT blog tagged me. Normally, I avoid memes like zee big bad plagues. But I like the name Felipa, so here goes:

Where were you 5 years ago?

Ever since my thyroid died, my memory went with it. Lemme see...2005, June...2005... Hmm..okay, I was getting back into writing, as it was a year after my mother died, and I suffered a 3.5 year long depression over it. I was still very depressed, but struggling to overcome by keeping busy..  I had joined some writing associations and I was working hard to learn the art of novel writing. Later that  year, I won a contest--which began a string of some good writing and some nice acknowledgments, contest wins, etc. In fact, I want to get back to writing. That's part of what getting healthy is for. I was also freaking out, I'm sure, as that was a bad summer full of storms.

Where would you like to be 5 years from now?

A published novelist who is at goal weight and has won an outrageous lotto jackpot. :D

5 things on your to do list today

Pilates

Wild monkey whoopsies with hubby

Pedicure and manicure (preferably before item 2)

Prepping clothes for the weekend events (anime convention, Father's Day)

Shopping and menu list for what I'm gonna do for Father's Day.

5 snacks you enjoy

mangoes

cheddar cheese with Fiber Gourmet cheese crackers

D'Lites frozen dessert in German Chocolate Cake

Kashi Cocoa Beach granola with milk

cherries

(Basically, if it's got cheese, fruit, or chocolate, or a combo thereof, I like it.)

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?

~Have the world's most kick-butt library EVER!

~Have the world's most kick-butt music room EVER!

~Be a patroness of struggling female fantasy artists

~Start a mentorship and scholarship foundation in my parents' names that helps the children of impoverished legal immigrants reach their educational and career goals

~Open a comprehensive, residential, non-profit weight loss and fitness re-educational center that offers a holistic (body, mind, spirit) approach to getting healthy, situated in the most beautiful locale I can find, and offer scholarships for selected needy residents or families to stay as long as needed to get healthy--with the program paying their bills for the months of stay. In turn, they will be expected to pay it forward in their own communities by becoming volunteers in their communities' health outreaches upon return to normal life.

~~~

So here's the 5 I'm tagging:

I'm not tagging 5 of you. I'm tagging ANY and ALL  of you reading post who wanna play along. Personally, if you're totally wild and crazy and promise to give wacky and unexpected answers, kindly comment with a link so I can go read it. And yeah, link me up to your MeMe if you saw it here first and are gonna do it. Yes, this means YOU. Link me.

Starting Weigh-In for SUMMER SLIMMIN' Challenge, Goals, and Preparatory Actions...

Got on the scale to document my starting weight for the Summer Slimmin' Challenge. (You still can join, so click on that badge to the left at the top of my sidebar.)

And here is the kick-off poundage:

267.6

I can see the crap I had Saturday--chorizo tapas, rolls with cheese butter, fried chicken, fried green plantains--took its toll. It was a lollapalooza of bad choices at a mediocre restaurant. That's 1.6 lbs up from last time I weighed.

My goal for how many pounds I wanna lose by August 6: 17.6

That should take me to 250, a weight I haven't been at since, like 2001--I'd have to check old records, but I know I was 254 after my appendectomy, and I had lost some weight, so I'm assuming I was 250 the year before (as I tended to gain about 10 pounds a year, give or take, and by 2003 I was 266.)

Well okay, so I started off fine this AM with a breakfast nearly half my usual breakfasty caloric level: 437

I'm aiming for 1800 a day the first week, 1700 the second, and then 1600 for the remainer of the challenge.

If I feel too hungry at the lower level of 1600, I'll let myself move up again to 1700 and then 1800, the latter being where I want to set the upper bar. I haven't been able to eat that few calories consistently for two months at a time in years and years, and I could NEVER keep it up, so let's see what the challenge can do to my mindset. If I am to sustain a lower weight--and my goal is to get to 175 one day--then I have to learn to eat less. I am hopeful. Ever hopeful.

One of the things I learned in the last couple weeks is that 2300 calories more or less is maintenance for me. I had weigh-ins that never moved more than a pound up or down on days I tracked my calories at around 2300.

So, if I eat more I will gain (and when I don't restrain myself, I naturally gravitate to eating about 4000 to 4500 calories, and yes, that's how you get to 300 lbs, peops!) So, if I eat 1800, that's 500 less than maintenance. Times 7 days means I will lose at least a pound  week--add in the water losses that come with dieting and I might make 2 lbs a week. Add in more exercise and I might make it to 3 lbs a week. Hence, I aim for the middlish ground, 2 lbs per week.

So, here's to getting to a size 22 by August 6 (or at least that's my estimate. I'm a bit snug in 24, and sometimes loose in 26 and sometimes perfect, so it seems to me that 17.6 lbs off should take me down to a 22 with some comfort in the fit, yes? At my highest I wore a 30/32, so this will be a nice change.

Other goals:

~~to blog daily and be accountable to my challenge-mates and readers

~~to post encouragement to other challenge participants (at least two a day)

~~to drink 8+ glasses of water (fruit essenced or plain)

~~to add 20 mins of exercise on non-Pilates days (I normally do an hour of trainer-supervised Pilates 2x a week), meaning pop in a DVD and do it or dance around the living room or march in place or whatever. Just move my butt for 20 mins on 3 other non-Pilates days for a total of 5 days with exercise.

~~to eat at least 6 fruits /veggies a day (the challenge only asks for a minimum of 5, but I want to set a wee bit higher bar for myself)

~~to eat/cook/prepare most of my meals at home (not to be tempted in restaurants, with the exceptions being, certainly, my anniversary on the 11th and my husband's birthday on the 26th)

~~to be more scrupulous with my food tracking/journaling. I am going to do it at Sparkpeople (where I have only been sporadic and non-comprehensive). My aim is to document EVERY SPECK of food or beverage that goes into my mouth and down to my tummy.

~~to blog my weigh-in on Sundays (although I may weigh-in for my own purposes more often.

I already requested delivery of vegetarian meals (I'll receive it sometime next Thursday) in order to simplify the caloric-watch for a few weeks, then I'll begin making my meals myself. I want someone else to portion it for me, as I really tend to just go nuts with portions. 3 to 4 weeks of pre-portioned meals should help get me in the mindset of "this much is the correct amount".

After that, I will weigh/measure at home to keep things calorically tidy.

Since the meal delivery won't start for several days, I will be shopping today to restock on fresh produce, skim milk, lowfat cheese, and whatever I need to make healthful meals for me and hubby until I get my pre-portioned vegetarian lowfat meals. I am going to make my shopping list as soon as I get off blogging this.

Z of Bottomless blog, who is hosting the challenge and created our cool badges, has already done her challenge-friendly shopping. Go see.

I will happily accept any encouraging remarks and rah-rahs to keep me on target. And I hope I can encourage you, too. It's a long haul and a tough fight, so let's be pillars for each other.

Let's do it! Onward and DOWNward!

Other measures to track for the challenge:
starting waist: 44.5
starting hips:   54.5

How Committed Am I...Are You?

The clock in my soul  is ticking furiously, inexorably...and it sounds like it's saying. HURRY, HURRY. Are you gonna commit?

Am I committed enough to my goals? My weight goal in particular, I'm asked, which, if I don't meet will shorten my life and impede my other goals...

I can't help but be honest. Not much. Some. Some, that's all. I am watchful for parts of the day, but not all. I focus on other things easily. I don't keep up the strategies.

Some. A bit.

Some days, utterly minimally.

It's bothersome to me to be that uncommitted. It's a lack of a certain virtue I desire: perseverance. 

Perseverance is such a lovely word, such a beautiful character attribute. But I really lack it. In more areas than just diet. It goes hand in hand with its virtuous sibling: commitment.

I have several goals that have sat curbside while I dither, while I sink into blues, rise up a bit, sink down, while I fritter, while I dream, while I don't fully commit, while I don't work hourly, by the minute, on persevering in that commitment.. Dreaming is of no use if the action necessary to realize the dream is missing.

I'm missing in ACTION, so literally it's not at all funny. It's tragic.

My "I'm 50" midlife crisis has me really having alternating attacks of regret, nostalgia, anxiety, futurefear, wishing, more nostalgia, frenzied pep talks, depressed naps, more anxiety, self-berating, etc. I'm ridiculous, frankly. It's embarrassing to be so out of it and unfocused and unproductive and NOT MEET GOALS. 

Geesh.

So, why is this question of commitment suddenly on my mind. I got a mail message from  Sparkpeople with it's "Healthy Reflections." Here's it is in case it helps you, makes you think:

Are You Giving Your Goals Your Best Effort?

Your dreams deserve better than a half-hearted effort. Meet your goals with a weak handshake and they'll soon be waving you goodbye. Since you probably don't want to look back on a life full of "almost made it" memories, it's time for total commitment. Leave it all on the field, don't hold anything back. Is there anything more satisfying than pouring out your entire being, straddling the cliff, reaching your total limit, then looking up and realizing that oh-my-gosh-I-can't-believe-I-really-did-it? And is there anything more tragic than failing and realizing you could have done more? If you feel "tuned out" of your current life, that's okay. Make your first goal to build a life that you can get "in"-to. Then don't look back. Make every day count and live purposefully, live energetically, live completely. 

I don't have enough time left to keep wasting it, ya know. I don't wanna die FAT.

I. Do. Not. Want. To. Die. FAT!

I do not want to die having unrealized four other dreams of mine besides the weight thing.

And the clock keeps ticking....

The Only You that YOU Can Control Is the You of Today--But That Could Save the You of Tomorrow...

Diana, the Scale Junkie, left a comment in a previous post where I mentioned how HARD HARD HARD it was to make the scale budge since I entered the perimenopausal stage:

I'm swimming in the premenopause pool and if I could go back and rip the fork from my 30something hand I would.

Oh, yeah. If only at 20-something and 30-something we could get a visit from out older selves and not only hear what we need to hear but SEE what we become.

The last time I was "normal weight"--ie, a weight inside that medical chart for my height, I was getting married. I would crawl on the floor to beg my younger self, that new bride, to be vigilant, disciplined, and know that health issues would derail her life at age 30, so do something NOW to keep the immune system and health as good as possible. And should it all go kaplooie anyhow, to not gain the 10 pounds a year as a stay-at-home chronic sickie, or I'd do more damage.

I'd crawl on my face to ger her/me to avoid the future of morbid obesity.

But we can only rip the fork out the hand of the self that is the exact age we are today. That's all we have.

And our next-decade-of-years self will thank us if we do it now. We can only change the future for HER, the me-yet to-be, the you-yet-to-be. The me that was, well, she went along obliviously and, here I am. Stuck with her lousy choices.

Here WE are.

If you are still a woman well before "the change," CHANGE NOW. Learn by my mistake, Diana's mistake, the mistake of every woman who only tries her hardest to change when she's facing the big 40 or big 50 or big 60.

Do it while your body is at its peak. Learn new habits of healthy eating and movement when your metabolism is revving along. If you're 20 and obese, do it now. Look at older obese women and BE VERY AFRAID. Do it noww, while you have healthy joints and can exercise harder and longer. Do it while your hormones are on your side. Do it now that so many books and blogs offer wisdom and help. Don't spend the money on frivolous things like cute clothes or shoes or a beach vacation, that will not change your health: pay for that gym membership, that training, that nutritionist.

Do it when you have all those years stretching before you...full of potential for vitality.

It only gets harder. It only gets worse if you wait. Your joints start to wear, and exercise becomes tricky. Habits become ingrained even deeper the longer you have them--lose the overeating, non-exercising habits NOW.

You don't wanna be in our shoes--middle-aged and struggling.

Can't fight the past. Can't bring back our youth.

Can only change the now and hope that makes for a better future.

A healthy week of future-creation to us all!
~~

Messy Monday and Pilates Wunda Chair and Listing of To-Year's-End Goals

My gosh. My place is a dump. I've neglected basic chores too long in my sleeping-too-much weird-hours phase.

Gotta get to it. Ugh.

Well, I haven't weighed myself in more than a week, and it looks like I'm gonna assign either Friday or Saturday as a regular weigh-in day. I need to get back to the weigh-in thing. Been slacking. If I have a goal of 255 by year's end, then I really need to know if I'm making progress or not!

Okay, went to Pilates today. I felt myself having a near out-of-body experience trying to focus on so many thing at once and trying NOT to feel the agony of effort. Tough, tough, tough. But I got to do new things--that's always a mixture of teeny bit scary and good bit interesting and a wee exciting. We worked the legs on the Wunda Chair (instead of Reformer), with the same sort of positions (high heels, flex, etc), but sitting and pushing down and up, arms like a genie sorta.


Then ...side bends on the Wunda Chair (OMIGOSH, I felt like a whale trying to be graceful out of the water, balancing on a stone. We finally accomplished it. I was proud of myself.) The stretches on the chair were WONDERFUL. I loved how they felt. After some rollbacks on the chair, we moved into cat/rounding down/arching up/rounding down stuff.

Then the big silver ball came out for some rollbacks with twists and then some standing side bends (oh, my shoulders tire so fast!)

I was relieved when we did something really familiar after that: the roll down-roll back up on the Cadillac. Then we did something on my stomach where I'm face down, lifting my upper torso, while keeping the lower flat. Then we did leg extension/lifts on all fours (or all threes, given one leg had to go up).

I felt very floaty and loose after all that and some ladder barrel stretches.

So, goals for the coming next months:

1. Get house tidied up so it doesn't look like the Apocalypse hit
2. Eat 1600 to 1800 calories per day, but no more.
3. Keep doing exercise 3x a week (and maybe add some non-Pilates cardio work 2x a week).
4. Weigh weekly (on Saturday, prolly)
5. Begin writing again--1,000 words per day goal.
6. Work to get on a daytime schedule, with regular sleeping hours (instead of the insanity of no schedule I have now)


As I figure it, if I get to 255--when I get, when I get, WHEN I get--I'll have earned $640 in my reward per pound kitty. I'll use that for nice new clothes!!!!

A Near-Year's-End Goal Assessment

There are 65 days left to 2008, and that's 9.28 weeks left in the year. That's all. Then...a whole new year.

I have not been happy with how I've handled goals this year. I've not met as many as I wished. A look at the good and the not so good:

I have made progress in a couple areas this year. One: I'm exercising regularly, strenuously, and am getting stronger and more flexible. Two: I am consciously eating more whole, unprocessed foods and organic foods. Three: I'm eating out less. Four: I'm maintaining a sound mood, with fewer dips into the dark cloud. Five: My thyroid has not gotten worse (ie, requiring an increase in dosage).

On the bad side are some key things. One: I am still not mastering portion control. Two: I still am not being consistent about water intake. Three: I've slipped back into giving into more than the occasional/rare sweets temptation. Four: I am still keeping a wacky and unhealthy sleeping schedule.

I feel better. I walk with more spring. Good.

I sleep erratically. I let myself get dehydrated. I buy cookies. Bad.

As it stands, I need to assiduously attack the weaknesses in order to end the year with a loss, and not a maintain (or, Heaven forbid, a gain).

65 days. 9 1/4 weeks. If I were to be a very good Princess starting TODAY, I could end the year with an 18 to 20 pound loss.

That's my goal. As of today. End 2008 at or under 255.

Cause time is always, always, always running out on this body. And your body.

What are your goals for the rest of this year. The end cometh...of 2008.

Onward and DOWNWARD!

The Damage Done, The Challenge(s) Ahead, and an Award

Okay, so I step on the scale after an absence from weighing-in and from regular posting: 272.0 lbs.

So, lower than my last official weigh-in of 272.4, less than what I started the challenge (which was almost 274.) But not as low as I should be, sure. (Slaps self.)

I thought it was gonna be worse, honestly. After weeks of being lax with the eating plan. It's 2 lbs over the lowest weigh-in (post-challenge at the end of August 270.2, which I never posted).

So...I have made no weight loss progress THIS year. I'm at the weight I waas 1/28/08.

Ah, well.

I didn't get back in th e 280's, which I would be, or higher, if I hadn't been vigilant. I totally understand how hard it is to maintain now. I'm nowhere near goal, but maintaining a 27 lb loss has been work, all the same. NOT gaining is hard. Not as hard as losing for me, but still hard.

Wow. No wonder even folks who have had gastric bypass have trouble keeping to their lowest weights, no wonder there is some regain. This is tough stuff.

Anyway...

I want to be in the 260's so bad, I'm even tempted to join Angie's no-wimps challenge. But my inner wuss hesitates.

I do want to join CCs Christmas challenge. I can't believe the year is almost over and Christmas looms! It would be lovely to be in the 250s (okay, 250 period) for Christmas and to start the New Year with less than 100 lbs to lose.

I want to get a new phone (Blackberry or iPhone) and learn to take and upload phone pics. I love when folks take pics of their healthful meals and upload them. I'd like to learn to do that (tech-idiot that I am). Check out Diana's "no name" tortilla lasagna-ish one. The Incredible Shrinking Katschi does this photomeal thing wonderfully!

I also really need to find a workable aerobics regimen. I'm doing the stretching and the toning (and my very sore abdominals--all of them, lower, upper, obliques-- and achey muscles under my armpits and in my upper back are proof that I worked hard yesterday at Pilates), but the good-for-the-heart work has been non-existent. I have no excuse other than two crappy knees for not doing it. I can find something low-impact and put up with the boredom. Yes, I could.

Yes, I can.
Yes, I can.
Yes, I can.

Just trying to get positive there.

I'm not feeling the motivation mojo, but I'm gonna be talking to myself a lot today as I make my meals and do some household chores.

So, 272 lbs. Goal for September 30: 268. I need to get out of the '70s. :)

I'd like to thank Chubby Chick for a nifty new award. I don't know how deserving I am (given how "in absentia" I've been of late). She named good encouragers, some of whom are encouragers right here, to me; so I won't be redundant. And really, those of you who post here and give me a boost up, you're my encouragers, and I thank you all. I will pick a few names to carry on the bloggy awardiness vibe (ie, to pass it on to their encourages)--

Zanitta
Lyn
Shanna
Chrissie


As we enter a new season next week, may the excess fat "fall" off our bodies and may the holidays be bright, shiny carrots in front of our faces, urging us eagerly on to better ways of eating and moving and thinking and living.

Onward and Downward!

New Month, New Beginning: Historical Notes for The Princess'August Fatfighting Tournament

It's a new month in our domain.

Time for a renewal...or just "newal."

What happened in the past in August, and what can happen today in order to make future Augusts so much better?

Let's see what we get with a little help from Wikipedia:


* Some of Ireland's most famous battles have been fought in this month. They include: the Second Battle of Athenry (1316); the battle of Knockdoe (1504); the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1596); the First Battle of Curlew Pass (1599); the Battle of Dungans Hill (1647); the Battle of Castlebar (1798), and the Battle of the Bogside (1969).

Today: Let August be the month of your most famous battles against whatever is holding you back from your best self. Fight against those double-cheeseburger cravings and send them packing. Overcome an addiction to sugary soda. Fight against inertia, and get moving. Take up your sword against the emotional blocks that are keeping you (and me) fat, and finally bury them for good. Your good. Become a warrior this month. Emerge victorious.

* August 6, 1806 Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire lays down the Roman Imperial Crown and renounces all claims on this throne.

Today: Renounce all right to eat what you want, when you want, and abdicate your couch potato status. That's the way to win the crown, ultimately. The fatfighter's crown.


* In 1945 the end of the Second World War was brought about following the August 6 bombing of Hiroshima and August 9 bombing of Nagasaki in the first and only use of nuclear weapons against people. Emperor Hirohito declared Japan's unconditional surrender on August 15.

Today: Bad habits war against your desire to become healthy. Imagine those harmful habits as the collective enemy. Use every weapon you have to win the war. Don't give up until those bad habits surrender, unconditionally, and you get slim and fit.

* August 10, 1822 Ecuador became an independent country.
* August 15, 1945 Korea became an independent country.
* August 15, 1947 India became an independent country.
* August 17, 1945 Indonesia became an independent country.
* August 25, 1825 Uruguay became independent from Brazil.
* August 31, 1957 Malaysia became an independent country.

Become independent of excess fat. Declare that independence today. Make AUGUST 1st the day you recommit to freedom, freedom from obesity. You are your own country, and you need to take care of state business, its general welfare, its defense, it's pursuit of healthful happiness. Does anything taste as good as liberty from fat feels?

* August 14, 2003 United States the Northeast Blackout of 2003 occurred.

* In the United States, August is National Back to School month. Some US School districts and systems return to school in August.

Don't stay in the dark. Get educated about food, about exercise, about your medical conditions. It all starts in the mind and heart, before it moves to the body. Get illuminated. Get smart. LEARN. GROW. If you want to get in shape, you gotta go back to "school."


* August 15, Catholic, Feast of the Assumption

Mary was an exceptional woman, and I can't imagine her getting fat and lazy on some couch. She had too much to do and was too self-controlled. Our Catholic friends believe her body and soul--as one--rose up to heaven, intact, unseparated; that her purity allowed her to rise up and never experience decomposition. While we can't stop aging, we can improve the quality of our lives by virtuous eating and faithful exercise. We can aim to be fatfighting saints. Even if we lapse into sin--sedentary ways, binges--we can accept mercy, forgiveness, and rise up, higher and higher, to a place of wholeness--flexible, strong, unencumbered by rolls of fat. Wouldn't that be heaven of sorts?

If we want to "rise up, intact" , then we need to struggle against the desires of the flesh in the here and now.


* August 15, 1769 Corsica, birth of Napoleon Bonaparte

Let your inner conqueror of obesity be born this August. Subjugate your food cravings. March over your inertia. Charge mightily into your inner fortress and beat down your emotional demons. Conquer everything in your path to good health. Be your own Empress of Exercise and Monarch of Clean Eating.


* August is Women's Small Business Month

Losing weight and getting fit is pretty much like running a business, isn't it? Working constantly, responsible for the results.

It pays off, too, just not always immediately in $$$, rather in feeling good and looking better. (Although studies have shown that thin folks have a job advantage over fat ones, so it does pay off in moolah to lose weight.)

Think of fatfighting as a business: Write down your business goals and objectives. Plot a strategy, both short-term and long-term for success. Monitor the activities of the business with a keen eye, ready to intervene at once when something goes off plan. Make corrections as necessary. Offer rewards for excellent performance. Track revenue and expenditures (what goes in, what goes out, be it calories or money, since some expenditures are tax-deductible for those for whom losing weight and exercising are mandated by a doctor due to a medical condition.) Set money aside for emergencies. Hire staff as needed to fulfill the objectives and maximize profit. Tweak the plan if results are lagging. Be accountable to investors (ie, spouse, parents, friends). Seek support from experts. With time, enjoy a smooth-running operation that, if continuing to be successful, will add to your emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, and financial riches.

* In many European countries, August is the holiday month for most workers.

No holidays for fatfighters. Work, work, work. Sorry. Days off must be few and judicious.


* In common years, no other month begins on the same day of the week as August. In leap years, however, February does.

August starts today. A Friday. Fridays are supposed to be unlucky for beginning sea voyages. Fridays have been associated with "quashed dreams."

Know what? Screw superstition. Friday's are days we say, "thank God!" We should mean it. Thank God for this day, every day. The weekend begins for many on Friday, and that's great. The Sabbath begins with sundown on modern Fridays, and that's a blessing, introducing rest to our lives. We get to do fun things starting Friday night--going to the movies or a play, eating out with pals.

I say Fridays rule! Make this a truly auspicious Friday. A lucky one. Your dream won't be quashed, squashed, or washed away. If you've been putting off your lifestyle change, do it today. A good, good, good Friday. First of the month. A new beginning.

Let's make August fabulous. Let's challenge ourselves. At least ONE pound a week...or more if your body can handle it. Let's be 4 or 8 or 15 pounds lighter come August 31st.

My goals: I'm aiming for six pounds of loss. About 1.5 a week. I figure that since I'm actively building muscle, I gotta allow for a slower scale descent. I"m also aiming for more consistent aerobic work to add to my 3x a week Pilates training.

So, are any of you in for the Royal Fatfighting Tournament for health here at Once Upon a Diet? You won't be challenging other dieters, like knights against knights. No. You're gonna challenge yourself. I'm gonna challenge myself.

Every fairy tale needs a good beginning....or a good beginning again after a lapse...before it can have a happy ending.

Why not comment on what you plan to do and to overcome in order to meet an August fitness goal? And why not pledge to blog at least 4x a week on your progress. It's a good way to keep the motivation mojo going, and it forces accountability. Right?

Ready, set...(straighten that armor)...begin....

~~~

NOTE: My starting weight for the tournament is 272.4

Yours?

~