August 31, 2012
Pounds lost in week fourteen = 3.2
Total pounds lost = 53.2  (average of 3.8 per week)

Officially done with the Biggest Loser program. It really went fast, which is actually what I was psyching myself up with at the beginning of the three months. I told myself that three months seems like a really long time to be getting up every day at 5:00, but on the other side of it, it will feel like time flew by. Truth.

The most amount of weight I've ever lost was 60 pounds. This was back in 1989 right before my sister Kristi's wedding. I remember exactly what I weighed (160), and exactly what I wore (size 10-12) when I got there. One-sixty actually seems heavy to me when I hear what friends weigh, but I remember a flat tummy and mostly normal-sized upper arms. I should add, too, that this goal was acheived almost solely by dieting - 750 calorie-a-day, unhealthy dieting. I did very little exercise, mostly walking, I believe.

Anyway...I'm not sure I can get back to that number, but I know I can blow the 60 pounds lost acheivement out of the water. I'm only 7 pounds away from that. And I have another significant goal that I want to hit in bootcamps (which I'm not putting here because I don't want you mathy folks to figure out what I weigh now and subsequently how much I weighed when I started - it's crazy embarrassing...).

SO, I decided that I'm NOT going to take a break. In fact, I believe I'm even going to do my first bootcamp at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Who is this person?

Oh, and I promise I'll get the "Before and After Biggest Loser" photos posted this weekend. And maybe Puffy will make an appearance too.

Warm Green Bean and Tomato Salad

Just made this tonight (needed an all-veg dinner after having a whole bagel for lunch) and I loved it. It's sort of based on this recipe I saw on the Food Network: Green Bean Salad

But, honestly, I get kind of lazy about following a recipe so I decided to wing it. I think the biggest change was that I switched the basil, which I'm kind of 'meh' about, for cilantro, which I'm all 'woohoo' about.

So, here are the ingredients...roughly:

2 C. chopped green beans
1 large garlic clove
About 1/8 C. diced red onion (the chunk of onion I started with was about the size of a golf ball)
1 small tomato, chopped
3-4 T. fat free feta
1 to 2 T. chopped cilantro
1 T. oil
1 to 2 T. wine vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Smoked paprika (if you don't have smoked paprika, just use regular or add whatever you like - cumin would be similar)

I cooked the beans in water on the stove along with the garlic and onion. I didn't want the garlic and onion raw and I didn't want to dirty another pan (see 'lazy' comment above), so I boiled them with the green beans. I 'think' this was successful...I could taste the garlic and onion, but it was subtle.

Anyway, I strained these veggies in a colander and then transfered them to my bowl. While still warm, I added the feta, cilantro, tomato, oil, vinegar and the seasonings.

Total calories is about 250. I was kind of surprised that the calorie count was this high, but the oil accounts for 125 of the 250. And, really, a normal person might only eat half of the recipe...I am not said normal person.

Fifty

August 27, 2012
Pounds lost in week thirteen = 3.5
Total pounds lost = 50.0 (average of 3.8 per week)

I did it! Hit the magic 50. I will say that this might be +/- 0.2 pounds or something. The very first weigh-in was logged as a whole number, but I believe it was actually a couple tenths below that. Anyway, before class, I was a few tenths short. But after class, in which I was sweating buckets doing a billion push-ups, and after emptying my bladder (in the bathroom, not while doing the push-ups), I weighed in again and the scale finally showed the number I wanted to see. Haa haa. The things we do to get our mental reward!!

I said to Troy after weighing in the second time, "Now it's 50 pounds!" He gave me a high five, and then said, "I want you to get past that. How about 4 pounds by Friday?" Sigh...always with the goals!! Is that how people get stuff done - by setting goals?

Now I'd like to tell you a story about an old friend - Puffy McCloud. Puffy is a beautiful, light grayish blue, down winter jacket that I love with all my heart. I bought Puffy over 10 years ago after I'd lost a considerable amount of weight, and we only spent one winter together because I didn't maintain the weight loss. But I kept Puffy, because it was too hard to part with her. At one point, I gave Puffy to a good friend, with the idea that someone should be able to wear her. So, my friend had Puffy dry cleaned, but then Puffy sat in HER closet for a couple years. She finally realized she wasn't going to wear it, so Puffy McCloud came back to me (nice and clean - bonus!).

This weekend, I reached deep in my closet and pulled Puffy out. Well, grab your Kleenex because Puffy and I fit again! Okay, Puffy was a little tight around the middle (cinched-waist style), but nice and roomy through the shoulders and upper arms. So, here's hoping it gets nice and cold this winter because Puffy and I are ready!

I looked for a picture of me and Puffy from 2002 but no luck. I will try to post one of us together present-day soon. I'm not sure Puffy is still in style, but I just don't give a shit - I love her.

Oh, and I think I'm going to buy lottery tickets today. Not only did I reach my 50 pound mark, but I also had a double-yolk egg, AND the vending machine spit out two Diet Mountain Dews this morning. Whoop, whoop!! (or maybe the universe is trying to make me gain weight with the extra cholesterol and chemicals??)

Taking a break?

So, you know how, when you're a senior in high school, and you hear someone say, "I'm not going directly to college. I'm going to take a year off." Everyone who hears this will think or say, "You can't do that. You'll never go back if you take a break!"

That's where I am on the second-to-last day of my 13th week. I don't have anything lined up, and I'm already starting to think, "Oh, I can sleep in an extra hour and a half, and I can watch Letterman again!"

I'm 90% sure that I'm going to sign up with Hybrid and become a Bootcamper. I feel like I need to keep up the higher intensity workouts to keep getting the results I want. Maybe when I'm working on maintenance, I can do classes that are more girly (dance, pilates, yoga).

Oh, and Troy offered that I can come back next week to finish up with the three team members who started a week late. I really think this would be my 14th week, but the others are telling me it's my 13th (thus their 12th). I'm not going to worry about it - if Troy's going to train, my ass will be there.

Almost there

August 20, 2012
Pounds lost in week twelve = 3.1
Total pounds lost = 46.5 (average of 3.8 per week)

To make my goal of 50 pounds by program end, I have 3.5 pounds to lose by Friday. Eek! I think I can do it. Ahem, I mean I KNOW I can do it.

I feel good, and I feel healthy. But I had a photo taken with Derek yesterday at Badger Family Fun day and I hated it of me! Still with the giant double chin. So, it kind of snapped me back to reality that I have quite a ways to go still.

Oh, and I found my "before" pictures. So, by next week I hope to post the "before and after". Probably should be calling them "before and during", but anyway...

Two Tips

So, here are two tips for the dieter.

If you're eating a sub sandwich, hollowing out the bread can reduce your carb/calorie intake by quite a bit. I'm thinking you can get rid of up to a half of the roll, maybe?

Tip two is don't eat the damn hollowed-out scraps when the sandwich is done. How about throwing them in the garbage ASAP, Kari? (do as I say; not as I do...)

Stupid bread - why you gotta be so delicious?

Fun morning

This morning - yeah, I'm saying it - was actually fun! All five of us were at class, and with Troy joining, we had enough for three-on-three basketball. I made quite a few baskets in the first two games, but kind of tanked in the last.

Then, between the basketball games, we played Dodgeball. It was awesome. We used lighter, smaller balls so no one got hurt. Haa haa. I didn't do so well the first two rounds, but in the third round, I pegged all three of the other team (including Troy). Whoop whoop! I may not be fast, but my aim is dead-on *usually.

And here are some fun dodgeball videos from the internets.

Huh...!

August 13, 2012
Pounds lost in week eleven = 4.4
Total pounds lost = 43.4 (average of 3.9 per week)

Kind of surprised with this weeks loss - 4.4 is pretty good!

This weekend I focused on eating sparingly, replacing a normal meal with a big salad both days and eating light foods (light by weight, not just light in calories). I'm not sure these tricks to get a good weigh-in are the best thing to do, but it's all I've got right now.

Two more weeks to go. I need to set a goal for where I want to be at the end of this program. I think 50 pounds is a good target - possibly a little low (3.5 pounds in each of the last two weeks) - but if I lose more, all the better.

Also, I was hoping to post 'before' and 'after' photos, but I seem to have lost my 'before' pix. There is a blank spot on my data card where they used to be, so I know I transfered them to my computer. Where they went after that is anyone's guess. Sigh...they were really terrible, too. I'll keep looking.

I'm not Misty May

So, with sand covering me head-to-toe, you might mistake me for Olympic beach volleyball player Misty May-Treanor. Sorry for the confusion.

Why am I so sandy, you ask? Let me explain. You see the yellow climbing net in this photo? Well, today's workout included this innocent-looking contraption. We had to climb up three or four rungs/ropes, move across from right to left, then back down to the sand. I didn't think it would be awful, but oh how wrong I was. The net is not very taut, so when I stepped on, my feet went forward a couple feet until I was hanging from my arms. Not good...


Anyway, I made it up, across and down once with a lot of support from Troy - and I mean verbal as well as physical, with him propping me up with his hand on my back while also telling me, "You need to stop saying to yourself that you can't and start believing you can." And he's right - giving up too soon is probably my biggest obstacle.

So, the second time through, my hands and arms were just on fire, I couldn't lift my foot without getting my knee stuck in the square above, and I couldn't stay in an upright position. Instead, I was hanging with my legs forward and my upper body backward (in other words, most of my weight on my arms). I was slowly, gruelingly making my way across and my arms just wouldn't last. I ended up falling on my back into the sand, and I also gave a bit of a yelp (or maybe an animalistic cry - I can't be sure). So, the whole gym probably saw it go down.

Now, it didn't hurt at all: one, because of the sand; two, because I was only three feet off the ground; and three, because Troy had been supporting me so I'm sure he helped control my fall. The only pain was my damn arms and hands. Oh yeah, and my pride. Then I tried to get up and my feet kept getting tangled in the ropes. I said to Troy, "I can't get free of this damn net....now there's a metaphor for you."

Anyway, even though it was a hot mess, I can say that I didn't give up mentally. I worked until I physically caved. Which I guess is good?

OMG

So sore today. We worked arms Monday, legs Tuesday and core today (with lots of leg and arm work included). Hurts to get up, hurts to sit down, hurts to lift my arms, hurts to laugh....you get the idea. Today I was laying on the step and I missed what we were supposed to be doing next. So I loafed for a bit to watch what the others were doing. Well, that cost me a "Kari, get going!" comment from Troy and cost the group an extra 10 seconds of crunches with elbows to opposite knees. So hard to focus on the next circuit when you're in the process of dying from the current one...

An interesting thing I learned last week is that Trainer Troy's workouts really are difficult; not just to me, as someone who is significantly overweight and out of shape, but to others as well. There's another Biggest Loser group going at the same time as our group. One day, their trainer was out sick and his group was left kind of floundering so Troy worked a mother and daughter team into our group.

Not to be judgy, but they weren't really killing it - they kind of seemed to be lazing through the circuits (it's possible that others might be thinking this about me). Anyway, through the whole hour I thought, "You paid so much money for this program. Why are you just going through the motions?" And I'd say each has about 20-30 pounds to lose, so it's not like they're limited by size.

Anyway, the two groups come together for Thursday meetings with a dietitian, and they both commented on how difficult Troy's workout was compared to theirs. My first thought was, "Well, shit! I thought so!" But, I'm very thankful that I ended up in Troy's group, since it seems like we're getting a better outcome than the other group.

I also had the realization that my nightly habit of looking at recipes on foodie blogs is probably not a good idea. Kind of like a prison inmate paging through Penthouse magazine. Oooh...I want that. CAN'T HAVE IT....oooh, and that...NOPE! My Pinterest board is chock full of crap I can't have (like pasta, not boobies).

And this may be my kryptonite - Almond Poppy Seed Bread (OMG):

Source: ohsodelicioso.com via Kari on Pinterest

First major test - Grade B

August 6, 2012
Pounds lost in week ten = 3
Total pounds lost = 39 (average of 3.9 per week)

So, I had a major test this weekend with the diet and exercise - spent the weekend up north with the cousins. Fun and food all around, and I did pretty well. Definitely ate things that are diet-derailers, like Bud Light, snack mix, s'mores, beer dip. However, I really tried to moderate the quantities (like a 'normal' person might). For the weekend, I only had three beers, I kept the beer dip under 10 bites and my s'more was just marshmallow and graham crackers - no chocolate. I also worked out a bit. Took an hour long walk with about 7 minutes of running peppered in (in 1 and 2 minute spurts). I also did a tiny bit of vigorous treading water - not for long, but my arms were sore, so it counts!

I think the rest of the group isn't doing that well. We got a talking-to from Troy about diet. It's funny- I kind of want to hear, "Except Kari," when he tells the group we're not focused on our diets, but I also don't want to be singled out with positive praise. So, I just nod and think, "Yeah, I'm doing well on my diet, but I could still be doing better."

And, I think Crystal and I, who started a week earlier than the other three, are going to get a 'bonus' 13th week while the other girls finish their 12th. I've heard him say that we have 4 weeks left when Crystal and I only have 3 left, but I don't want to ask for fear that I'd be pointing out to Troy we should actually be done or else paying for another week. Who thought I'd be trying to sneak my way into extra workouts?

By the way, that beer dip? Cream cheese, cheddar cheese, ranch dressing, beer and some other thing I can't remember. And we had it on pretzels. It's a small miracle I didn't hoover the whole container.

Oh, and note to self = probably shouldn't wear the shorter shorts to workouts anymore. They're modest when standing, but probably pretty frightening from behind when doing bear crawls. Sorry 'bout that, fellow gym members.