Dumping The Fat

Okay, I am really neglecting my blogs.  I haven’t updated my weight loss blog with any weight loss news since November!  I just have too much on my plate, I think.  Plus, with spring coming and my daughters getting back into sports activities, something has got to give.  I am thinking it’s one of my websites.  I was mulling it over last night, and I am just going to have to give one of them up.  It won’t be this one because this is my personal one.  It’s not here to make me any money, so I feel no pressure to keep it up to date.

Anyway, so I decided in the midst of all this fat loss madness to stop smoking.  What was I thinking?  Fat loss and not smoking, I’m thinking, aren’t going to mix.  Before I started my Chantix prescription last week, my BF % was down another .2%.  Yeah, not a lot, but for someone who isn’t working out intensely, I thought that was good.  Well, I started my prescription, and even though I am still smoking a bit, my weight has increased 2 lbs. already!  It was actually three, but I’m down a pound today, so it’s only 2 for now.  I am walking on the treadmill every day for at least 17 minutes (1 mile for now), but evidently my metabolism is starting to slow down because I’m not smoking anywhere near as much as I was.  I imagine I will be completely done smoking by the end of this week since the smokes are bringing me NO pleasure whatsoever.

This whole experience brings me to the question - why did I ever start smoking?  I don’t know.  I was very young.  I have smoked for over half of my short life.  Stupid I know.  I guess I started smoking because I just wanted to try it because both of my parents smoked.  However, why did I continue?  I don’t know.  There are lots of psychological reasons I have been reading about lately.  They would make no sense to a non-smoker, so I won’t go into them here, but they make perfect sense to me.  A lot of it has to do with the way I grew up, and today just isn’t the day to bare my soul, I don’t think.  I’ll save that for another day.

There is some good news - I am officially a paid writer!  I took on 2 new gigs in the past few weeks, and one of them happens to be as a writer at Suite 101.  I’ve been writing for years, but to actually be paid - wow!  Anyway, that’s where I’ve been - busy, busy, busy.

I did talk to my chiropractor about my sick/weight training issue, and will post the tips he gave me in another post, so be on the lookout for those.  I have been following his advice and so far so good!

It’s becoming more and more clear that P90X is just too much for my body at this point.  One would think I would have realized that sooner, right?   I mean I started the program 4 times and 4 times I became sick with one illness or another.  How much clearer could it have been?  I did find a really interesting article on overtraining and I think that is exactly what happened to me.  So, much to my disappointment, I am giving up on P90X…for now. 

I am not giving up on weight training.  I love, love, love weight training.  It is one of my most favorite things to do and so I have a new plan for myself.  I am going to design my own program and go from there.  I’ve been weight training since 1998, so I know what to do.  I will post my exact routine and schedule some time later today or tomorrow morning.

My clean eating is going pretty well.  When I first started it a couple weeks ago, the first three days were…well, I’ll just be honest - they were hell!  I had sugar withdrawal from not having any soda.  Needless to say, I was miserable and I made sure that everyone around me knew exactly how miserable I was.  But after those first three days, I can’t explain how much better I felt both mentally and physically.  It’s like some type of mental fog lifted and I could think clearly.  I could stay focused on whatever I was doing.  It was just amazing what eating nothing but good-for-you food can do for a body.  The sad part is - I went through something extremely stressful two weeks ago and I drank some soda and wasn’t eating at all.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t eating well (aside from drinking soda), I just wasn’t eating period.  That isn’t a good thing.

Anyway, I’m moving forward.  I refuse to beat myself up over it.  My next project is coming up with a plan for what I can do during stressful times so that I don’t stop eating and/or reach for a soda.  If anyone has any advice on how to handle stress without self-destructing, please feel free to let me know.

Well, it looks like, even though
I just restarted P90X for the fourth time this past Monday, that I will again be starting over.  Starting this program over frustrates me to no end!
I started P90X over on Monday, the 7th.  On Thursday morning, just a mere 4 days later, I started feeling just….blah, like I was starting to get a cold.  I started taking Echinacea, thinking I would head off this funk, whatever it was.  Nope, by Thursday afternoon, I could barely move, and by Friday morning, I was in really bad shape.  My husband got home from work Friday morning, took one look at me and said, “You’re going to the doctor.”  Needless to say, I have pneumonia (or so the doctor thought because he heard wheezing in my lungs, but didn’t send me for an x-ray) and an ear infection and had to be put on a “strong” (doc’s word) antibiotic.  Blech!  So I’ve spent much of the last few days on the couch (i.e., no working out).

Since I had only gotten in 3 workouts, I have decided just to start over again - for the fourth time since last summer.  Last summer and early fall, every time I started P90X, I got sick about 5 weeks in and would have to stop for a couple weeks and then restart.  When I had my sinus surgery this past November, I thought these issues were over.  Well, I guess the sinus issues are over, just not the getting sick part.  *sigh*  This really, really frustrates me.  I am now researching to see if there is some connection between weight training (stress on the body) weakening the immune system and what I can do about.  In just doing a cursory search, I have found that “over training” does, in fact, weaken the immune system.  I need to find some way to get around that issue.

Other than that, my eating is going well.  I’m really proud of myself.  I stopped eating all junk/processed foods last Monday and also quit drinking soda on the same day.  The first three days I was pretty miserable, and definitely horrible to be around, but it got easier.  I didn’t miss the junk food at all, but I sure did miss having a Pepsi every day….at first.  Now I don’t even think about it, so I guess that’s something to be grateful about.

If anyone knows of a good way to keep myself from getting sick every time I start an intense weight training program such as P90X, please let me know.

Wow!  Time flies!  (Like who didn’t know that?)

So I’ve been MIA.  I had surgery in November, then had to recuperate from that, and I just got cleared to start weight training again just 2 weeks ago.  Woo-hoo!  P90x, here I come!  I had decided to wait until after the holidays to start, though, so Monday, January 7th will be day 1 of my 90 days to a new bod!

Over the holidays, I gained a little weight.  Not surprising since I ate like a pig and ate all the wrong foods.  Well, I didn’t gain just “a little.”  I gained 9 lbs.  I didn’t freak out, though, like most women would.  Starting a couple days ago (I am thinking it was Tuesday, but not sure now), I just got rid of the junk and started eating better.  As of this morning, I have lost 5 lbs. of it, so only 4 more to go and I’m sure that won’t take long.  Oh, and I had gained 0.9% body fat as well.  That upset me a tad bit more than the weight gain, which I knew was a lot of water/fluid, so I’m happy to see and report it’s back down and only 0.3% to go in that area.

In the meantime, a dear friend of mine (she’s a Jennifer too!) received the new
Eat Clean Diet book authored by Tosca Reno.  I had wanted to get the book a while back, but didn’t for whatever reason.  So, anyway, since I was wanting to learn more about eating 100% clean, I decided to get it after such rave reviews from Jennifer.  What an awesome book!  Since Jennifer and I have decided to start our ‘new way of life’ together, we are going to “officially start” our new lives on Monday, January 7th as well.  So while I do intend to read the whole book, page for page, I had to read it really quickly and skip certain sections since I just got the book yesterday and had to do some grocery shopping today.  I intend to finish reading it with the rest of my free weekend. I’m sure some people would be surprised to hear that I am going on a “diet” since I am definitely anti-diet in regards to myself.  But I’m not going on a “diet.”  The Eat Clean Diet is a misleading name because it’s not a diet at all.  It’s a healthy way of life.  It’s not restrictive, I don’t have to count calories, I am not deprived, I am not hungry, and no food groups are off limits (unless you count Doritos as a food group!).  It’s a lifestyle and incorporates principles that can be followed for life.   It’s so easy that I have already kind of started by weaning off the junk and putting better things in my body.

So that’s how I’m going to change my body:  eating clean + P90X = perfect combo! There will be stats posted tomorrow or early Monday morning, and a before pic as soon as I get my digital camera back.  It died a week or two before Christmas, but it’s been repaired and is on its way back to me. 

Get ready fat because you’re about to be dumped!

For those wanting to lose weight, my first suggestion usually is to determine a why.  A “why” will keep us going during those times of temptation when the situation would otherwise call for us being chained to wild horses to drag us away from foods that we know are not going to help us lose weight or may even make us gain weight.

So how did I determine my why when I’m not overweight anymore, met my ‘weight loss’ goal, and have been walking around feeling pretty “all that” for a while now?  Well…I happened to be talking to a friend recently who said that her body is one of those that looks good standing up, but doesn’t look so great when she sits down.  Huh?  Honestly, I don’t really look at myself sitting down.  I mean I look at myself in the mirror and I have to say, I think I look pretty damned good.  Anyway, after speaking to her, I rushed home, undressed, and plopped down on the couch.  Whoa!  Are you kidding me?  Was I ever horrified!  Where did that spread come from?  I never noticed that before!  Did I just see all of my hard work over the past year go down the drain?

I didn’t start crying, nor did I make myself a stiff drink.  I sat there for a while and after the horror and shock wore off, I realized:

1. I’ve come a long way since this time last year.  I just lost another 11 lbs. 2 months ago and have maintained that (surprisingly with the way I have been eating), so that makes my total weight loss since December of last year a whopping 27 lbs.  That is nothing to sneeze at!  Plus, I’ve lost tons of inches.  I just don’t know how many right now off the top of my head.   I’m also wearing sizes that I never thought I’d see again.  So my hard work definitely paid off in that respect.
2. That I have rock hard abs; they’re just covered in a layer of fat is all.  I have muscular legs.  They’re just covered in a layer of fat is all.  I have a firm butt.  It’s just covered in a layer of fat.
3. The most important thing I realized is that this is not a no-win situation.  It’s not like I have to be stuck with this layer of fat.  The great news is - fat can be shred!  It can be gotten rid of just like garbage!  It can be….dumped!

Does the above really explain my why?  Kind of.  My biggest why is because I want to have the best body I can and know that I have put forth all the effort I have inside myself to give.  I want to have a healthy body fat percentage.  Yeah, people can lose all the weight they want and while they may look better, if they still have a high percentage of body fat, they’re not all that healthy.  What does it matter how good we look if we’re not really healthy too?  Contrary to popular belief, looks aren’t everything.

Okay, okay, so I also want to be able to sit down without clothes on and not be traumatized.  I want to be toned and firm, not jiggly.  Hey, I never said I wasn’t human.

So in order to find and see that hard body underneath, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve got to dump the fat.

Hi and thanks for stopping by my blog!  I’m Jennifer, a work-at-home-aholic, wife and mother of 2 wonderful little girls.

What is Dumping The Fat?  It’s my personal blog about my journey in fat loss.  I’m quite content with my weight and the way my clothes feel and look, but I have decided I want my “old” body back - you know that body that we women have before having children and that body that most of us do not get back after children no matter how hard we try?  Yeah, that one.  It’s been lost for 7 years now - I miss it and I want it back.  It doesn’t help that I am over 30 (don’t let anyone lie to you - things DO change after 30…like childbirth wasn’t enough!), but I haven’t lost hope that my body can be molded and shaped at least back to what it used to be, if not better! 

What this blog is not about - this blog will not be about weight loss.  I already have one of those and it’s pretty good too!  If you’re looking for weight loss tips, you can visit Weight Loss Info Center.  You can read my weight loss story over there.  I know how to successfully lose weight - I’ve done it after two pregnancies and through a bout of grief over the loss of my father, and shortly thereafter my brother, that was not only devastating to my mind and spirit, but my body as well.  I’ve kept the weight off, but I want fat loss.  There is a difference.