Atleast I can do...

I haven't lost any weight in a month.  :( But I can run 3 to 4 miles, without dying!


Except after 2 days of Disneyland...then I want to die after running this:



But I looked at the beach for 2 miles, and that's ok!

My Body is a Temple

As members of the LDS church, I grew up always being told that phrase, "My body is a temple." I always understood the basis behind the words. Treat your body with respect. Only put healthy things into it. Don't defile your body in anyway. Our Heavenly Father gave us this body, a pure creation from him, and just like a temple, we should take care of it as such. But for some reason, I always only thought of the physical aspects my body encounters. Food, exercise, abstaining from harmful drugs, etc.. I never really considered things that would be mentally harmful to me, and yet looking back at when I was my heaviest, it was at times when I was under true mental stress. I've been watching a documentary entitled, "Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America's Greatest Threat." I watch these kinds of shows as I work out to scare the fat off of me. It works. I yell at the computer screen and kickbox a little hard as I watch. In the movie they discussed a study that was done concerning stress and weight gain. In the early days of man, if the body of a hunter or gatherer experienced stress, it was most likely due to not being able to obtain food. These people had to work very hard for their food, and so if they weren't able to obtain it, the body would go into a stressed state and turn on its own survival mode. While in the survival mode, the body's metabolism slowed down, and fat burned more slowly, allowing the body to save its energy due to the lack of food. But now in this day and age, the factors that cause stress to our bodies isn't usually about lack of food. Stress is now caused by other factors such as over-powering bad news on the tv, or money issues, or traffic, or family members. And, just like the cave man, when our bodies become stressed, they go into survival mode, and our bodies stop burning the amount of fat as before. But what do we do? We keep eating. And not just good stuff. What do I crave when I'm stressed? A quarter-pounder with cheese, fries and large sweet tea.
About a week ago, I found myself in a very stressful, very confrontation situation. It has taken me close to a full week to recover from it. During that week, my energy was low, my desire to eat properly diminished, and my will power to exercise was near non-existent. My body shut down. I wasn't sad and moping all over the house in my pjs for a week. I got up every morning with the intention to do my workouts and eat good food. I was able to speak with good friends that could help to uplift me. I still managed to get other obligations done and did them with joy in my heart. But that stressful moment had a negative impact on my body and I could feel it.
It wasn't until today, however, that I really thought about what was happening to my body. I have seen the Lord send blessings my way this week, especially through supportive friends, to help me cope with my stress. Today, however, he sent a lightening bolt of a blessing my way. I was sitting down at the kitchen table preparing our family home evening lesson. I decided that Byron and I would talk to Wyatt about respecting our bodies through nutrition and exercise, since its been something we've really been focusing on, and I don't really remember learning much about it as a child. We now live in a time where our children's generation is not expected to have the same life expectancy as our own, it is to be less than our own, and I'm hoping I can prepare Wyatt to defy that statistic. I sat at the table cutting out these cute little pictures. Some pictures were of bad things such as cigarettes and alcohol that were to be glued on a trash can. And others were good things like healthy foods and exercise that were to be glued on these cute little kids. Then I saw a picture that stopped me in my tracks. "Kind words." I looked at it and pondered the statement, "I can treat my body as a temple by saying kind words." And then I said to myself, "I can treat my body as a temple by hearing kind words." All this time, I tried to be around people who were positive and happy, just because it made me feel good. But I realized today, that by being around people who make negative statements, who treat others poorly, who criticize me, and who cause me stress are preventing me from treating my body as a temple. Is it their job to change what they say just for my benefit? No. But it is my job to create an atmosphere for myself and my husband and child that is positive and full of kind words. It is my job to say kind words to everyone around me. Negative statements were doing more than just making me sad, they were hurting my body, my temple.

I urge you to take care of your temple. Eat good food, go exercise, and say kind words. And try to surround yourself with kind words! It is your right to protect your temple!

Why am I finding it hard to actually follow through with a reward, a promise, that I made to myself. I'm actually second guessing my Dinsey Annual Passes. What is wrong with me?

Your Work's Not Done Yet!

No more whining. No more excuses. You reached your really big goal, but you're not done yet. Byron's back in town, can't use that as an excuse anymore. You ate like crap last week, time to do better. Put the chocolate and tortilla chips away, and go do your cardio workout. Your work's not done yet! :P

100 WORKOUTS!

I did it! I celebrated my 100th workout today by jogging (and a little walking, shhh!) 3 miles today! I knew it was going to be a great day when I weighed myself and saw that I had lost another pound. 22 pounds total! I decided this workout needed to be bigger than the rest. Something that would push me just a bit more than usual. I have had a 3 mile running route in mind, but never had the time or the guts to try it. Today was the day. When I run, I either have one dog with me, or two, or a stroller with a kid, or all three. It felt weird, but today, I had none of them. Duke was limping from swimming yesterday, Da Vinci is just an old fart, and Wyatt was sleeping. I also needed to do this run for just myself. There's always an excuse behind my other runs. "The dogs need exercise...Wyatt gets to feed the chipmunks at the park...we need to get out of the house." But this was just for me. And to be honest, I didn't like it. It was a foreign feeling. Those dogs and that great kid of mine are always with me...and I like it that way. If I'm going to be alone, I'd rather be getting a pedicure.

Though my Disneyland goal got tweaked a bit, my other rewards have stayed the same. Looks like I've earned a new dress and just a couple pounds from calling a photographer!

My work is still not done yet. Deep down, I've still hung on to the goal of losing 30 pounds, and since I'm only 8 pounds away, I want to keep trying. And I'm actually thinking about buying the "Insanity" workout to get me there. Heaven help me. The infomercials makes me want to cry. But its time to push on to the next goal and try something new!

Men's Workouts are From Mars, Women's Workouts are from Venus

I am getting very close to my 100 workouts goal and I'm very excited. When I get very excited about something, I talk about it...a lot. So Disneyland has been the topic of discussion lately. When should I go? Show I try to go next week? Should we just wait? Blah Blah Blah! A basic conversation with Byron goes like this:

Me: I'm thinking about going to Disneyland in the next little bit.
Byron: You could do that.
Me: But I'm not quite to my goal of 100 workouts yet. But if I pushed and did 3 to 4 workouts a day I could make it.
Byron: (chuckle chuckle)
Me: What was that? Why are you laughing?
Byron: Nothing!
Me: Tell me why you're laughing!
Byron: Because to me, a workout is a workout. I go to the gym, and everything I do that day is consider A workout.
Me: So you think if I set a goal of 100 workouts, that should be the same as 100 days? That would take me forever to get to Disneyland.
Byron: I'm not saying that. Go to Disneyland. I just think its weird that you divide up your workouts.

Bleh!!!!! So what do you think? Am I the crazy one? (Nevermind, don't answer that.) But honestly, as a mom, there are really hectic, bad days when all I have for myself is 30 little minutes, and 9 times out of 10, they are spent pushing a kid in a stroller. But I'm still being a mom, doing something that I love, and yet still trying to find time to take care of my body. Why then, should I be penialized for that? Should a 30 minute jog be counted as the same as a 90 minute run/cardio/abs combo?