The Tae Bo Story

My niece introduced me to tae bo about seven years ago. She came to my son's going away party when he was going into the Air Force. I commented that she looked great and she told me about tae bo.

A few weeks later I happened to be in Dollar General when a "Tae Bo - Billy Blanks" VCR tape caught my eye. It cost $1.00. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a buck so I took it home.

That night me and my daughter did tae bo for the first time. It was actually fun and you could tell you were working muscles not normally worked. I went back and bought more tapes. My daughter and I kept it up and I lost 26 pounds - quickly. I stopped doing it.

 Then came my daughter's wedding a few years later. OMG - I had gained A LOT - and for some reason I thought I HAD TO BE THE SAME SIZE AS MY DAUGHTER for her wedding. After all, there were going to be pictures taken - I couldn't look FAT. So back to the tae bo I went. I ordered the DVDs and started doing it every night - and it worked. I lost 63 pounds from January to June.

The wedding was over - I slacked up  and slowly put the pounds back on-although not ALL of them :).

Last year at this time I joined a "biggest loser" contest here at work. Did the tae bo - lost 17.5 pounds in 8 weeks.

Quit doing it. - gained some back.

So here I am now doing the Christmas Dress Challenge and I know what I have to do - Plain and simple - the weight will come off if I do the tae bo. And I really don't mind doing it - just need to force myself to make the time.

Yesterday-day 3 of Christmas Dress Challenge

My wt this morning was 167.8 - up a pound from yesterday. I counted 1251 calories yesterday which isn't too bad but my food choices were not so good. Mac & cheese, a bag of peanuts, a glass of wine and a slice of ham - nothing I ate was really good. Granted I didn't eat much of it - but still bad choices. I think my problem was that I gave blood Tue which always leaves me starving and really tired the next day. I also need to start taking a fiber supplement because I'm feeling bloated already - could account for some of the gain.
All in all - the first week is going ok - could be better but could be a lot worse. I love reading everybody's posts and think this will help me in keeping myself on track.

So far - so good

Ok, day 1 of the challenge was ok. I had 2 apples at work, then had to go to Biz's mom's house for dinner but I did ok. I had 1/2 of a pork steak, some brussell sprouts and a few fried potatoes - I turned the pie down. When I got home I had some grapes before bed. This morning I weighed in at 168.4 which is a 1.6 loss from yesterday. That may sound like a lot but it's not. With me, I've found that the first 5 pounds comes off really quick when I stop using salt. I didn't have time to do tae bo last night because of the dinner but I plan on doing it tonight. I've also parked at the far end of the parking lot these past two mornings so I have to walk a litter further to get into work - every little bit helps (I hope).

Still plugging away

Ok, my weight is now 167.4 - not good but I haven't given up yet, nor have I started REALLY trying to lose. But I have a plan - Big news! I'M GOING TO BE A GRANDMA!!!!! My son and his wife are expecting in February. Sadly, daughter still not expecting - I know she really wants a baby and was really upset that her brother "beat her to it". But anyway - son and wife are stationed in England and I have hoped desperately to make the trip over to see them while they are there. Financially not possible at the moment but now that I'm going to have a grandchild, maybe it'll give me the incentive to put money back each payday so I can get there when the baby is born! Not to mention, that falls right at income tax time which would help too.

Haven't done anything else on the house - been too busy in the garden. So far this year I have canned 30 quarts of green beans, frozen broccoli, made blackberry jam, strawberry jam, and put zucchini and summer squash in the freezer. This weekend I will have more beans and probably tomatoes to can. Brussell sprouts are coming on and I should have enough to freeze this weekend also.  Thankfully,everything I have frozen so far has gone into the kitchen freezer because last week my deep freeze somehow got unplugged and I lost everything in it! Just got it cleaned out last night - YUCK, what a job. It is, however, clean but still has a rather bad smell. I put a bowl of charcoal and lots of baking soda in it and will let it sit until the smell is gone before I start re-stocking it.

Going to start teaching my co-workers to crochet next week - that should be interesting! Will let you know how it goes. I've about finished with my "name" wall hangings, just have one more to go before Christmas and am now madly crocheting baby things! Fun! I'll be posting pictures as I finish.

Hummingbirds

Saw my first hummer at the feeder this morning! I was worried that I wouldn't get any in town. Love to watch them! I'll be putting more feeders out tonight.

As far as the scale goes - 166.0 this morning - I really need to stop THINKING about tae bo and start DOING it.

Still trying

Ok, can't keep up with blogging every day and I haven't stepped on the scale since last friday. I was bad over the weekend and am afraid to - but I will - and I am going to get this 15 lbs off!

Hanging in there

I'm still at 163.4 this morning - a bit disappointing as I really didn't eat much yesterday. If my calculations are correct, I stayed under 1200 calories.


On another note, got my over the stove microwave last night and a stainless steel coffee pot. Kitchen is coming along quite nicely!

Back on track

Today I'm back to 163.4! Still haven't got the tae bo tapes out - don't seem to have time. Did work in the garden for a while before it got dark last night. Hoping I can just lose by watching what I eat and being outside. I think I'll give it a couple of weeks.

Bummer

Monday and right back to 166.8 this morning. Must say I wasn't really good this weekend but I didn't think I was that bad. Guess I'm going to have to get out the tae bo tapes.

Day 5

Back to 163.8 - must be as far as I can get without exercise. Going to see how the weekend goes and then might have to have some serious "Billy time."

Day 3

163.8! Good start to the morning. Haven't even started exercising yet - just trying to be conscious of what I eat! Loving it so far.

Day 2

Wt. this morning - 166.0. Off to a relatively good start. Noticed yesterday that I really need to eliminate salt in my diet - my foot (the bad one) was pretty swelled by the end of the day. This is nothing new, I know that salt does not like me but the problem is - I really like salt. No exercise yesterday, just tried to control what I put in my mouth. Today will be a challenge as I didn't bring anything with me to work. If I get through lunch without fast food, the day will be a success.

Here we go

Ok, today is the day - last final at 1 and then it's weight loss time - Starting weight this morning - 166.8:(.

Weight loss

As I sit here at my desk, feeling stuffed from eating lunch, I think I need to start trying to lose weight again. I know I can do it - have proved it before - know what I need to do but just don't seem to have the ambition to actually do it. So I'll send this out into cyberspace and maybe if I actually read it in print, it'll sink in - so:

OK, I'm not fat but I could definitely stand to lose 10 pounds.

Maybe even 15

I admit that I was TOO thin when I was young but I'd like to at least weigh what I did when I was 9 months pregnant.

That would take 20 pounds.

It's really not that hard to lose the first 10.............don't eat lunch at work, or if I must, bring something from home.

Lots of salads - not so much dressing.

Veggies - love em - and just planted all kinds of them - that makes it even easier.

I'd have to give up my coffee creamer to lose the 20 - not so sure it'd be worth it - after all, we all have to have something to indulge in.

I could do the 15 easily enough if I'd start the tae bo again.  Billy is GOOD!

Need to make a plan and stick with it.

Plan it out in excel - daily food logs - weight loss goals and tracking sheets -

Look at it in black and white - EVERY DAY

Set a date to start - ok - Monday - after last final - will give me a couple of weeks to get into a routine before summer classes start. Gonna do it.

I'll let you know how it goes.