I accept your challenge, day 1!

This morning I went to the gym.  It felt SO good!  I enoyed every moment!  I was there for an hour and a half.  I touched on each of the three challenges presented to me thus far.

1. running: my timed mile this morning was 11 minutes 42 seconds.  My goal for 4 weeks from now is to do a 10 minute mile without touching the treadmill handle bars.  Today I touched them every once in a while and I hated having to, but I did.  I wound up doing two miles this morning in 27 minutes.  I speed walked the second mile. I burned about 300 calories.

2. biking: I used the incumbent bike this morning after the treadmill.  I did 5 miles in 20 minutes.  I ranged my speed and resistance throughout the bike ride.  I burned about 200 calories.

3. music: i have not yet bought a pair of iShoes, I hope to, but I have to wait for a pay check.  It’s not in the budget at this point.  But I was asked to by one of my challengers to show my play list for work outs.  I seriously am lacking in this department.  I need workout music…deseperately.  I started out hooking up to the treadmill and watching the Today Show, but then that ended and I turned on my iPod.  At the point I turned my iPod on, the song over the loud speaker in the gym was “Dancing Queen”  the first song that started playing just because the iPod didn’t know what to play so it started at the top of my play list was “Dancing Queen”…freeeeeakyyyyyy!!!  I soon changed it though. That’s hardly workout tunes.  I settled today for Billy Joel which is hardly workout music either, but I love working out to the song “Pressure”…I get so motivated hearing that song.

So a productive day.  I came home, weighed myself before sowering and was 2 pounds less than yesterday morning.  14 pounds to my goal for Hawaii.  But I haven’t eaten for the day, so that could be why.

As reward I get to go visit little Lexi and the proud new parents!!!

Tonight we go to the Walking with Dinosaurs at Madison Square Garden…I’m sure the memory card will be full of pictures tonight.

Edited to add…If your ust tuning in I posted this earier this afternoon, and I guess I was in a rush to go visit baby Lexi because I realized on my way down that I totally neglected the main point to this post.  Kidney stones!  Ok, no, I didn’t pass any more.  After the gym this morning I went to the car wash right in the same shopping center.  I decided to get the “express interior” package.  Note t self: when they say express, they don’t actually mean less than 10 minutes.  I gave them my car, and sat on the sidelines waiting.  When I finally had my car back, thing were out of place.  I have this little cubby hole for my Purell and my blistex.  In that little cubbie was a rolled up piece of tissue.  In that piece of rolled up piece of tissue were these:

Well, not the pea (that was just for size reference when I took the picture), but my kidney stones from last year around this time of year.  I just never took them out of my car after showing them to the stunned urologist at my appointment.  Well, today, they are no longer in my possession.  They have gone to the big car wash vaccuum heaven in the sky.  That’s right…those turds who “express interior” cleaned my car, THREW OUT MY KIDNEY STONES!!!  I am beyond upset!!!  I know they hold no value, but darn it, I PASSED THEM ON MY OWN…and that’s a feat in and of itself!!! Oh well, I can think of worse things, but still…they were mine and I can’t believe those turds at the car was threw them out!

It’s no secret that I breastfed Li’l Foot.  It was a wonderful experience, including and not limited to the fact that it helped me get back to my pre-pregnancy weight within about 2 weeks postpartum.  Exactly my pre-pregnancy weight!!!  No joke!  That was a great benefit, I have to admit.  I breastfed her exclusively (which to me includes pumping and bottle feeding) and she never once had so much as an ounce of formula.  By about 6 months or so (I know it was last summer time), I did give her water, but just enough to acquaint her with the sippy cup, so she knew the bottle and the cup.  And at about 9 months or so, she was drinking whole cow’s organic milk in addition to what I was able to pump.

I held off that weight while I was breastfeeding and pumping and when I left my old job just before Christmas I stopped pumping.  I didn’t see it as appropriate to ask Human Resources at my new job, for a room on my first day, so I could pump.  (For the record, there is an exclusive mommy’s who pump room at my new job, so it would’ve been fine, but still I couldn’t ask.)  So I stopped pumping.  By the end of pumping I was getting about 10 or so ounces each day, pumping once or twice a day.  I Still nursed Li’l Foot in the morning and before bed time and occasionally when she wanted it when I first came home from the new job, but that nursing session was sporadic.  It was fine with me (not saying I didn’t have feelings about not having that bond, but still fine).  We were working together and mutually agreeing that weaning was on the horizon.

By the time March and April rolled around, I figured, how much can she possibly be getting from me once in the morning and once at night.  My boobs were not exactly perky, if you know what I’m sayin’!  So I cut off the night time feeding.  Up until this point she would nurse to sleep, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, up to this point.  I loved it, and she was comforted and after a day of being apart it brought us together in a very special way, and she would stay asleep when I transplanted her to her crib…so we had an understanding.  So, night time feeding, be gone.  All that was left was the morning feeding.  Now we’re right around April/May.  Around this time I noticed when I stepped on the scale that I had put on 13 pounds.  In the conversion from breastfeeding to weaning I hadn’t compensated the amount of food my body was needing and just kept eating as if I was eating to produce milk.  I didn’t realize my hormone levels were readjusting and my body was readjusting, and I kept eating.  So let’s go back to the nursing thing for a second.  We both weren’t really needing the morning nursing session at all, it was more of a convenience thing for me so I didn’t have to shlep down stairs to get her a cup of milk or water in the morning, when there was still so much to be done upstairs (i.e. shower, get dressed, change her, etc.)  So this past month, as I mentioned in her monthly upgrade post, she offically weaned.  We are so close, and have many very special, beautiful moments together, and she doesn’t have to be attached to me to give me the feeling of “she really loves me”!  She offers kisses and hugs and our relationship is so special.

So now, what to do about that extra 13 pounds.  Well, I haven’t gotten the energy yet to go to the gym, but I have been losing weight.  I had great success before getting pregnant with Li’l Foot on Weight Watchers.  So I decided to give that another whurl…sans meetings and writing in a eating journal.  Not that I’m opposed to either one of those things, I just don’t have the time or the money for meetings right now and if I knew where my old WW journal was, I’d write in it…St. Anthony is working on this for me.  I am going to Hawaii in a month and a half.  I want to be able to wear my bathing suit without feeling self conscious…or relatively non self conscious.  I’ve challenged myself to lose weight.  i do best under pressure.  When challenged by someone telling me I can’t do something, I forge on even more determined to complete a project, just to prove them wrong or to show them what I’m made of and that I mean business.

I challenged myself to lose that 13 pounds by the end of July.  And guess what, I weighed myself this morning, I am happy to report that as of this morning I have lost 12 pounds.  THAT’S TWELVE!!!  Cut me a little slack, last week I was visited by Aunt Flo…that b*tch…always finding the most inopportune moments to drop in!  The one thing I am in awe of, when I challenge myself or am challenged by others, is that overwhelming feeling of accomplishment at the other side of it all!  Now I am far from done!  I would really like to lose another 16 pounds by the time I go to Hawaii for vacation.  I have 47 days until Hawaii!  16…47…carry the one…use the pinky toes as extra counting appendages…That’s 2.6 or so pounds per week!  I KNOW I can do this!!!  I’ve done this before.  When I was on Weight Watchers before, I lost 25 pounds in 10 weeks (I think it was 10 weeks? something like that! I KNOW it was 25 pounds…in a very short time).

So here’s my statement to you!  Challenge me!  Give me things you want to see me do in the next 6+ weeks.  I will blog about each thing you give me to do, and give you the appropriate credit.  I am willing to do almost anything.  I am getting my butt back in the gym next week because I’m convinced this sinus thing I have is strictly air conditioning induced and will not end until summer ends, and is not contagious and is not going to keep me from going to gym for fear of spreading it to other gym goers.  I just don’t care anymore about them…it’s time for me!  I’ve paid for the last 7 months of gym membership and used it a total of maybe 10 times, if that!  Pathetic!  That’s what that is!  NO MORE!  I’m dead serious about this now.  Something has to be done.  I’m tired of watching The Biggest Loser, feeling inspired by all the amazing things these people have done and sitting on my ass eating a bowl of ice cream to celebrate THEIR victories!!!  I will be the one who claims VICTORY, but I need your help interwebz…

So hop to it.  Consider this your call to action.  Challenge me.  What…you…got!!!  I won’t limit you by giving you any examples of challenges you can give me…I legitimately want your challenge, without being influenced by examplees I can give!  There’s nothing you can’t dish out that I can’t take (shutters thinking what you could possibly dig up for me to do…yet READY TO TAKE YOU ON!!!)!  And hey, if you want to be challenged, maybe you’ve felt inspired by this as well!  And if that’s the case…well, then?  Your welcome!!!

Challenge me!

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to adjust your challenge to fit my schedule and/or fitness level, but I WILL try my best and promise to GIVE IT MY ALL!

Another disclaimer: this challenge does not end in 47 days…I want to lose more than 16 pounds, but that is my short term goal for right now.  When I get back from Hawaii, the challenge continues and ultimately I would like to lose a bunch more weight, but I will only give small numbers as I go, so as not to feel overwhelmed.

Yet one more disclaimer: If anyone offers free fitness/personal training, either in the NY area or virtual, I’ll totally promote you here!