Thanksgiving was spectacular and delicious! Today I went to the gym and did a long weight workout with my trainer, Kathi, followed my 30 min. of hot cardio. It was GREAT! I also had 3 protein shakes - I like Jay Robb's powder - today. I had pink beans and brown rice for dinner tonight.....yummy and full of fiber!

It was important for me to get right back into program...."get back on the hoorse"!

My favorite part of Thanksgiving was talking to my wonderful nephew who shared that he has become healthier this year to the tune of 48 pounds gone! I am SO PROUD of him! He said he is walking more and replacing processed carbs with lean protein. I told him we were nothing but a couple of big losers! We cracked up!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed however you celebrated!

Tomorrow is yoga - one of my favorite workouts of the week because it allows me the time to really go inside and reflect and meditate. Everyone should practice yoga!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Great news! I am completely healthy! I had a meeting with my doctor yesterday afternoon to reveiw recent blood work. He said that I am "too healthy" for him-YAY! All of my blood chemistry markers are super healthy. Prior to beginning my journey, a few of my blood chemistry markers had inched higher, still within the normal range but on the high side of normal. My cholesterol and blood sugar had inched higher as well as my blood pressure.

Yesterday, Doc said I had the health picture of a 35 year old, which is AWESOME, seeing as how I am 54!

This is what I was striving for when I began my journey....a healthier me, not a skinnier me. The smaller body is a nice side effect of all the work on the health picture, but for me, the true value is increased overall health! The doctor warned me that since I was so much smaller that my rate of weight loss would begin to slow. He said it is inevitable. Not having that happen would "simply deny the rules of thermodynamics"-whatever that means! I will need continued support from all family and friends to keep my desire high, my dedication strong and my discipline firmly in place!

Still, I reamin very motivated to continue reducing and building lean muscle mass.

To celebrate the wonderful news from the doctor's appointment, I went for a long walk with Allen at sunset yesterday. The horizon stayed a brilliant orange glow long after the sun had set. It was a fantastic way to celebrate good news!

Happy Tuesday...and it is a happy day for me! I finally broke through a 2 week plateau. I weighed in one pound less this morning and I was very happy to see my progress...slow and steady wins the race!

My trainer, Kathi - who is awesome - convinced me that I needed to add a few more calories to my input in order to metabolize more efficiently. Imagine that .....eat more lose more! I like it!

I am rushing today so I don't have much time. I'll share more tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Week

So, here we are at the start of Thanksgiving week! I definitely invest time in reflecting on the amazing abundance in my life, for which I give thanks regularly!

However, for those of us on a quest for a healthier smaller body, Thanksgiving week also represents a minefield of calories and unhealthy choices. So, I resolve to approach this week with a desire to enjoy it and all it brings to me, with dedication to my fitness (even doubling up on workouts the day before and the day after) goals and with the discipline to define when I can have special treats. I am allowing myself a "free" day on Thanksgiving day and a "free" day on Saturday when we celebrate Allen's birthday.

For me, loving myself enough to be disciplined about when to flex and not going "hog wild is an important component of my success.

What are your strategies for success through Thanksgiving week?

Happy Sunday! I love Sunday's for so many reasons, but mostly because I can take as long as I want at the gym and not feel time pressure. Sunday's I do an hour of weight training and 45 minutes of cardio. It feels luxurious to invest all that time in me!

Sunday is also the day I think about food the most...the marketing, food prep for snacks for the week and what will the evening meals probably be????

For me, this journey has had a dominant focus on food and eating. I have always been a healthy eater. I just had to focus on portion control and planning. For instance, right now, I am roasting a leg of lamb for dinner tonight. We will probably have a lamb stir-fry for dinner tomorrow and a lamb bean soup on Tuesday. I also chopped up celery and carrots and put them into zip lock baggies for my snack bag this week, enough for sharing!

I find that if I have good choices available to me that it is (almost) easy to resist all of the temptation that presents itself throughout the day. Believe it or not, if I have sliced red bell pepppers and carrots to crunch on, I literally don't want the cookies and candy that flood the office on a regular basis.

I imagine that my biggest challenge to reaching my next goal will be sugar.....it is like crack cocaine to me....so bad for you and so hard to resist. Of course, my ultimate goal is lifetime maintenance.....for sure it will be an ongoing journey.

A woman came up to me in the gym today to compliment me. She said..."You are wasting away to nothing!"...which isn't true but sure is fun to hear! We chatted for a few minutes and she said I had inspired her to attack her stubborn 10 pounds. In turn, she shared one of her favorite exercises which I added to my workout today. I love the sharing and give and take!

I am plateauing right now. My weight hasn't changed in 2 weeks. My positive rational brain says.....it's good to learn how to maintain....my emotional brain is very frustrated. If you have any ideas on how to break a plateau, please let me know!

So I am off to enjoy dinner with Allen. Yummy roast lamb, roasted butternut squash and carrots and a big mixed green salad with evoo and lemon juice. Yummmmy in my tummmmy!

C u 2mrw!

Hello Blog World!

I now know how other people feel when they post their first blog! It is exciting and fun! I am doing this because so many friends have told me what an inspiration I am to them. You see, I have been on a journey to improved health since the beginning of 2009. So far I have lowered my cholesterol by 60 points, achieved a very healthy blood pressure reading and shed 54 pounds! I have reached my initial goal of 50 and am on my way to my stretch goal to shed 20 more. I've been achieving this success the old fashioned way - move more and eat less!

I invite you to read my blog and share your thoughts too. There are so many of us who are on this same journey!
I will post daily with updates, frustrations and successes! I hope my thoughts will be a positive addition to your journey!

C u 2mrw!