I’ve been tracking/logging my food with Sparkpeople for eleven days now. I’m keeping track of tracking my food with HabitForge. So I bet your smartypants next question is – How are you keeping track of Habit Forge? LOL (That reminds me of something I read {totally OFF topic} in a magazine yesterday. You know the awesome online data back up services? They really are great – and usually free or very low cost. But – but ….who’s backing up their data? Hmm….) Yeah, so …anyhoo – back to fitness and getting healthy crap. I’m working hard on it and it is so hard!!!! Hubby’s helping out, though – he did not buy me any candy for Valentine’s Day! Wooohooo! Thank goodness! He bought me gorgeous flowers, a balloon, and a singing card with one of my favorite singers.

I’ve been pretty pepped up the last few days, over the weekend really, since we had a snow day on Friday. It’s just been a pumped up, kind of exciting weekend. Give a southerner a little snow and they go coo-coo! Ha! So I’ve really wanted to exercise and I’m slowly jumping into a little of this and a little of that. One of my favorite things to do is listen to some of my favorite podcasts and ‘do my thing’. What is ‘my thing’? Well, I’d say you could call it “Mrs. Klutzy Cardio”. Yep, that’s what you can call it, for sure.

You know, I don’t do any of those flirty girl fitness moves. You know the ones I’m talking about. You go to the health club and take an aerobics class and the girls in the front couple of rows look so cute. They are rockin’ this aerobics/cardio thing. You know? And there is clunky ol’ me in the back row, looking a little more like a chick with concrete shoes on, trying her best to keep up without tripping herself! Well, and that is just what I do while listening to my favorite internet marketing podcasts.

I get some grapevines in – and oooh, are they graceful. And I get some marching in place in. And I do all kinds of things to just get myself moving. Hey – “Mrs. Klutzy Cardio” with concrete shoes is a lot better than doing nothing. And who knows – with enough practice, I might just look a little less klutzy. Now wouldn’t that be cool?

I am now six days in with my food logging. Wow – this time it has been really hard to get ‘back on track’. What I do over there is make note (log) every single thing that I eat. So when I’ve become a gluttonous fool and I’m just getting back in there, this is how I ‘handle’ myself. I say, “You can eat whatever you want, as long as you make note of it. And it generally takes me about three days to get back within my suggested calorie range. When I’m seeing all the food listed there, it becomes a fun challenge to get to that magic calorie range that I know is good for me.

For some reason this time, it is not going quite so smoothly. I mean, I guess I am doing well – now that I look at the days all together in the reports, but, it does usually seem faster and easier for me. I did lose two pounds, though, so that’s definitely cool.

The one thing that I’m not able to do, is exercise. Which is rather frustrating, as I’ve joined up with an amazing online marketer who happens to be a personal trainer and does virtual personal training. His name is Scott Tousignant and his business is called Fat Loss Quickie. I had started working with him back in August of last year, at which time I was having a lot of migraines. So when I started I was having trouble doing the exercise. I figured a way to kind of ‘work around’ my headaches, bought an exercise ball, made sure to have my hand weights handy – and I jumped right in with both feet! Then in October, I broke my durn foot.

Every time I think that my foot is feeling pretty well and maybe I can just do a little bit of exercise – I wind up making it really sore. So I’m a little frustrated about it lately. I wish I could just have crunchless abs. That’s right – magically gorgeous abs that required ZERO crunches! And all of the rest of it, too! I had told Scott at one point that I would do some kind of exercise in my office chair – you know, like twist, and flail my arms about and who knows! Just get moving! Well, when I tried that, guess what? For the twisting and anything else that I could figure to do in my chair, it required the use of my foot!! And all of that twisting did not feel good on it.

So now I’m back to just push ups. There must be something else besides push ups that I can do. I’m experimenting to see what all I can accomplish, but, in the mean time, I’m committed to logging into Sparkpeople every day and logging my food. And that is definitely helping. And while at times it feels quite depressing, for the most part, I’m feeling pretty good about it! I lost forty pounds with them before, so I know what’s possible. And I aim to get there again (to a 40lb loss, I put back on about half of it) and beyond!

Have you ever tried Nutrisystem? I’ve often wondered about trying it, because, it just sounds so handy. It seems like it would be so easy to just have all your meals completely ready-made for you. So many times, when trying to lose weight – that is half the trouble right there! Trying to figure out what to eat and prepare what to eat. And sometimes it’s most of the trouble! I’ve gone off my diet many times when we’ve run out of my ’special-Mama’s-eating-healthy’ food! We may not be going to the grocery store for several days – or longer – and I just give in and eat the crap we have on hand. And when you’re eating ‘junk’ it’s hard to eat “normal” portions of it. You do know what I mean, don’t you? Let me see you ‘being healthy’ and eat some Cheetos! Come on – that’s next to impossible. You grab huge handfuls and you know it – just like I do!

If I did do Nutrisystem, though, I could put in my order for the program of food that I chose …and it would just show up at my door! Just like that! And they have several different plans from which to choose, one of them being vegetarian! That’s definitely cool!

Ok, I’m reading about the vegetarian plan and they give a sample day of food:

• Breakfast ==> Pancake Mix (Yum – I love pancakes – score!)
• Lunch ==> Cheesy Homestyle Potatoes with Broccoli (Omigosh – delish – score!)
• Dinner ==> Vegetarian Chili (I’ve been thinking of making some, actually – score!)
• Dessert ==> Fudge Brownie (Say no more – score!)
• Snack ==> Low fat String Cheese and a Pear (Love both of those – score!)

Gosh, I think I might just about be sold!

I had some friends years ago that were on it and they swore by it! They just loved it! Of course, that was back in my younger days and I had no expendable income to spare, so I couldn’t even consider it. Now – it is definitely sounding good!

Another thing that it would make so much easier is the fact that I am generally eating something entirely different from the family, since I’m the only vegetarian. This way I could cook their meal – and mine would be right there, already made, ready to heat up. Easy peasy.

I’ve lost them. They’re gone. I can’t find them anywhere. I wonder if you could help me find them….

I really don’t mean it. I don’t want them back, no way, no how – not a chance in Hell do I want them back. In fact, it would be great if I lost some more 11.3398093 kilograms! Seriously!

You see, with the help of some lovely people online – and with some really strong determination, that came from I don’t know where, I have….
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I feel like I am at a crossroads again, or a jumping off point, if you will. Which is odd, because I find myself here so blankety-blank frequently. I am needing to get back in the swing of things with my weight loss, though. And I guess, I could be grateful that I continue to arrive here, instead of falling off the wagon and abandoning all hope forever. So it’s good news that I want to get back on the horse. The falling off part is in the past. Right. That is the best way to look at it. When I was doing so well before, I was taking a diet supplement. I wasn’t taking the full dosage, and I wasn’t even taking it every day. I think I just used it for the gentle nudge in the back to keep me going, you know? I would like to try to find another one, though. It had Hoodia in it, which I think helped me, but, it also had something in it that made my heart race like a young thoroughbred just released from the gate! It was awful! I don’t remember if it was caffeine, or what, but, I would like to try one with just Hoodia in it, I think. This is all just so frustrating. I remember when I was a friggin’ teenager and young 20-something and I thought I was so fat! Could someone please find me a time machine, so I can go back and slap the crap outta that me?! And if I wanted to lose weight back then (yeah right, like I had any to lose!) I would just make it happen. Almost like snapping your fingers and the weight is gone. What I wouldn’t give…
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIcW-TrwP84]

Wow! Sharon looks really great and she really spoke about some things that I could really relate to! I have often felt the same way about seeing old friends, and I have failed over and over again at weight loss!