Accountability

I've had this thought in my mind for three months. I need accountability in my life in order for me to get anything done. If it was only me in my world, well, I'm very lazy and would rather someone else do everything for me. Perhaps I should have been born into royalty. But whatever. So, I'm having a tough time losing this bulge around my middle...really all the excess weight from head to toe - it's sliding off at a snails pace.

I'm told that since I'm a group fitness instructor that I am considered an athlete now. Wow...really? Athletes treat their bodies as temples and take care of them. This athlete doesn't do that. I have participates in my classes that are losing more weight at a faster pace than I am, and we celebrate those accomplishments. I am so happy for them. And after all, as instructors, we are always told to have the mindset that our classes are for the participants, not for us. But at the same time, we are to be role models for our participants. The only thing I'm role modeling is the amount of weight I can lift and push.

So starting today, I will make this weight loss journey a public one, so that I can have some sense of accountability to someone.

November 2007, Gold's Gym of Pelham opened and I weighed 222.
January 2008, I had a light bulb moment that I can teach BodyPump. It will be my thing.
May 2008, went to a three day BodyPump training.
August 2008, received my first class: Wednesday 9:30 am.
October 2008, was asked to fill in the Friday 5:15 abs class and 5:30 BodyPump class for an instructor going out on medical leave. We now team teach that class, and she is a HUGE inspiration to me.
April 2009, have slowly lost weight over the course of the above events and as of today weigh 210. I've been stuck at this weight for three weeks.

That is what is happening to me. I will drop 2-3 pounds and just sit at that same weight for weeks and weeks. I have terrible eating habits, and it's sad to admit that my eating habits are worse when my husband is around. When he is out of town, I don't eat that much. Oh, and then there is the week before the monthly thing - food choices are thrown out the window - just give me chocolate. Better yet - ship me to Hershey, PA for the week.

So, here are the goals I had set for myself about 6-9 months ago.
1. get to the 200 pound mark and have dinner at OutBack Steakhouse. We went there for new year's and it was awful...very busy and I didn't get what I thought I had ordered. We went back again a few weeks later, and it was better, but it was not a celebratory event. I think I'll change this to the cheesecake factory. G and I had the best date night there one time...we sat at the bar area and ordered appetizers and wine and cheesecake. I want to relive that again. So new goal - reach One-derland, and celebrate with a trip to C.F.
2. Reach goal weight of 170 (yeah, I'll be in about a size 8-10 and look nearly anorexic), and get a new digital SLR camera. Seems this would be a huge motivator b/c I really do not like my little Sony. It's slow and by the time it's ready to take a picture, the moment is over.

I'll get the man to take a photo of me and we'll consider that my before photo. I'm going to do this with diet modifications and ramp up my exercise routine. This will work this time. If I can lose 10 pounds by the end of May, then I will know I'm on the right track.

Saturday...

It was hot at soccer this morning. Three more weeks of soccer and three more weeks of school. Should probably start planning the summer now and get organized so when that day comes, we aren't sitting around yelling at each other for lack of boredom.

The yard was mowed today, the boys found a frog and just about man-handled it to death. It was a fairly large frog, so it had a good life - until the boys got a hold of it. Dad said that the frog was really enjoying being toted around in a pitcher of water with a rock to perch on. I offered to take the frog to a new home, but it is currently hanging onto life in the front yard - after being thrown over the fence. Wonder why we don't have pets????

Sent Dad to Wal-Mart for a $10 plastic swimming pool - just something for brief entertainment until the pool opens next month. He comes home with one of those $15 pools with "reinforced" yet easily collapsable sides. And then he says he couldn't find the hard shell plastic swimming pools - they were sitting outside the building. I know, I know...that's a really dumb place to put a selection of swimming pools - they should really be stacked in the back of the store with the other boxed swimming pool items, so that you have to get a large flat bed cart and wheel the hard plastic pool through the store and out the front to your car. Whatever. The boys spent two and half hours in that little pool and simply had a blast. Our neighbor wheeled over in her scooter and we all had ice cream pops, chatted and watched the boys play in water. Everyone was happy.

This is not a typical Saturday for us, so it was fun to just exist as a family and forget about adult responsibilities.

Not quite summer, but...

Mama was really wanting to watch the boys play on a slip n slide and I've been talking about it for weeks. It finally warmed up just enough to make it worth it. But really, the boys don't care what temperature it is, as long as they can play in water.