Strength is not always in the numbers!

Week 1:

Week 4:

alright a little hard to tell from the pictures but this week is the start of week 4 of P90X, all I have to say is that I am so proud of not only myself but of Peter for sticking with it! It has definately not been a easy road but I know that when we get through the 90 days we will be very happy.

Not much change from the pictures but I definately feel tighter in the ab area. And not only that but I am feeling MUCH stronger. No longer do I feel fragile! There is still work to be done but I will take the changes and "run" with them!

Here are the changes in measurements

Chest - down 0.5 - PHEW :-) not much more room to go down there :-)
Waist - down 1 inch
Hips - down 2 inches :-)

I couldn't be happier, it has been really hard work and although I'm not seeing a huge drop in the scale the measurments are proof that my body is changing!

This week is what is referred to as "recovery" week. There is alot of Yoga and cardio and much less strength moves, not sure if it's going to really be a "recovery" week per say because Yoga is very hard and we are doing it twice this week!

On Saturday I set out for a run. I ran till I couldn't run anymore. It was rather chilly but I lasted 9km. I would have loved to go further but at about the 5km mark my left hip really started bothering me. I ran through the pain and when I hit home it got worse. I immediately went for long bath and felt a little better, but as the day progressed it got worse. It felt almost as though someone was stabbing me in my leg. I knew that P90X would have to be put away for the day and I needed to just rest. Along with last nights rest I also took today off. By mid afternoon it was feeling alot better, so I know that I will be ok for Yoga on Monday, the stretch may be exactly what I need!

It felt so great to get out there and run. I definatley feel stronger, and like I said if it weren't for the pain I would have ran further! I have NO DOUBTS in my mind that I will be ready for the half marathon in May. If this first month is any indication of the strength that I am gaining, then my friends, nothing is going to stop me from crossing that finish line with flying colors, I can feel it, it's going to be great!

I ran the Boston and did really well :-)

Hi everyone! It's Friday (thank goodness!)

this weekend things are pretty low key. Well except for Sunday when we are going to a friends house to watch football? Seriously what's the point of this game? Well besides the tight uniforms :-). I don't even know how those people score goals and have always wondered why it took so long for the game to end.....I guess I'm not the best person to invite to a gathering like this but my girlfriend has already informed me that we will not be watching, instead there is a pedicure in my future! So while the "men" watch the game, she will be making my feet all smooth and pretty! I can't wait!

Speaking of feet... these feet are gonna get moving and by moving I mean running! This weekend I am going for a run, let me tell you how it's going to go down...I'm going to put my shoes on, blow the dust of my Garmin AKA Jasper, plug my ipod into my ears and RUN and not come back until I can't run anymore.

I haven't run for a really long time and it's time, I miss it so much, so much so that I am dreaming about it! In fact, last night I ran the Boston Marathon, oh and I did really well :-).

What's even more exciting then that is the this up coming week starting Monday is "recovery week" with the P90X, which means there won't be as much strength training and more Cardio, Yoga and stretch, I am hoping that I am able to get some runs in during the week as well.

Have a great weekend, I'll be back Monday with progress pics and a run update!

Afraid of failure

Next up on The real reason you can't lose weight - you are afraid to fail!

(Again these are my opinions and how it has realted to MY weight loss journey)

Reading this part of the article the only thought that crossed my mind was "people aren't afraid to fail, but it's a hell of a good excuse and the easy way out!"

Harsh - YES - but so true!

I was afraid of so many things going into this journey of mine, but I knew that I had to push through all that if I wanted to be successful. My number one objective this time around is that I was afraid of regret. I no longer wanted to continuing regretting the time I wasted in my life. I wanted to turn things around and I think this single handly pushes me every single morning when I wake up. I have lived with regret for a long time and no longer what to do it.

When I decided that I would lose weight once and for all I had alot of reasons that I was afraid to fail, these are just some of them:

1. I was afraid that my relationship with my husband would change
2. I was afraid that I would lose my friends
3. I was afraid to give up the foods that provided me comfort and filled a void
4. I was afraid of change and how my family would adapt to it
5. I was afraid that I would gain weight
6. I was afraid that I would not have the support I needed
7. I was afraid that I would resent people who could eat anything they wanted and still be skinny

8. I was afraid of making myself a priority

again all excuses.

I can tell you right here right now TODAY while I'm still fighting to cross that finish line of weight loss, the above fears hold no truth.

1. my relationship with my husband has never been better, we laugh more, we smile more we enjoy life, do you know why? because half of the equation is no long MISERABLE, the half that was bringing the realtionship down now has self confidence and that makes a world of difference!

2. this did a complete 180! I did not lose one single friend, IN FACT my friends have found their own motivation and have fought through their own fears and are losing weight and changing their own lives!

3. missing the foods and afraid my void wouldn't be filled - complete and utter BS!! I would take happiness and health over a bag of chips any day!

4. Change has made a HUGE inpact on my family, infact my 6 year old son is doing the mother's day run with me this year and so is my husband and the grandma's! how's that for my family embracing change!

5. afraid of gaining weight - well this still lays heavily on my mind, but I try really hard to not let it get to me. I am confident that the road I travelled and the lessons I have learned will not lead me back to the place or the person I once was!

6. I have an incredible support system, it's as close as an email, a phone call, a quick coffee or a blog post away. I thank each an everyone of you that come here every day to support me, it makes a world of difference, I don't even know why this was a fear of mine!

7. I don't resent people who eat crap and fill their bodies with empty useless calories. WOW! The old saying "she can eat anything and still be so thin" brings a new meaning to me. Because I know that the fit person who is eating a chip here or a bowl of ice cream there, has either already worked it off or will later on in the day. Everything in moderation!

8. Afraid of making myself a priority! Wow has this ever changed. I am a very selfish person now. I need to be. I put my needs ahead not of everything or anyone is in this household but equal to. I am no longer on the bottom of the list because me being happy makes everyone happy. My husband benefits from it, my kids benefit from it and most importantly I benefit from it!

I think the important lesson to be learned from all of this is it's ok to be afraid, it's ok to feel like we have made mistakes, it's ok to question ourselves..the important thing is to NEVER GIVE UP! Wake up each morning and say "today is a new day, what am I going to do to make it a good one".

The real reason you can't lose weight

I read an interesting article in the latest Fitness magazine. I want to share my thoughts on it with you and how it has related to my weight loss journey. I may be getting a little personal in the next couple of posts but I knew I wanted to do it and knew that if maybe one person could benefit from my words then it will be worth while.

As a disclaimer I would like to say these are MY thoughts and MY experiences and I am not setting out to hurt anyones feelings and I just want you to know that in these writings I am not setting out to offend anyone, they are my thoughts. I am by no reach perfect but this is what has worked for me.

Ok now with that out of the way lets get started shall we...

The article I am referring to is "The real reason you can't lose weight"

The first reason they give is "you give up to soon" - I couldn't agree more, these are my experiences on this:

Often times we expect a "quick fix" . This is so very true. In my case I spend years stuffing my body with foods that were awful for me. Foods that lacked any nutritional value and foods that filled a void in my life.

A few years ago I had episodes that would wake me up at night and I could hardly breath. The pains in my abdominal area were so painful that I would pray that I would get a break. Most of these episodes happened at night and would wake me up from a deep sleep. These shooting pains would bring me to tears and I would just pray that it would stop.

The worst episode happened after my son's birthday party in which we ordered pizza. This pizza had loads of cheese on it and was very greasy. That evening I thought I would have to phone an ambulance, I was in that much pain.

The very next day I went to the doctor and got an abdominal x-ray done. You know what they came back with? you have gall stones and they need to be removed RIGHT NOW! What you are experiencing is gallbladder attacks. There are many reasons that people get gall stones but for me if I am being brutally honest with you, I can say that they were caused because of my food choices.

How could I believe that the crap I was putting into my body wouldn't eventually catch up with me.

So I go get my gallbladder removed and still choose to eat the way I use to. Not even this made me change my life style.

I decided that maybe I should go on a diet. This diet lasted maybe a couple of months at most. I wasn't seeing results and so I gave up.

If I were to be honest with myself I would sit back and say "I gave up too soon". It took years of doing and why was I expecting for the results to happen over night.

Alot of times we give up and are not willing to put the work in.

It took a tragic event (my dads passing) to put my life into perspective. My attitude has completly changed. I work hard every single day to get the results I want. I work myself hard. I watch what I eat and some times the results don't come. Sometimes I see the opposite. Some times at the end of the day I feel completly wiped, then I wake up the next day and continue my journey because that is MY only option, I wouldn't have it any different.

The way I look at it is giving up is the EASY WAY OUT. Why are we so afraid to succeed, why do we give into the easy route, why are we not worth the change, worth the happiness and worth putting ourselves first above anything else...you wanna know why, because it's easier. It is a sad reality. We get discouraged easily, instead of believing that we are worth the work and worth the success, one little tiny gain and we give up.

I cannot stress enough how much I would just love to get into a room full of people who belive they have failed and have given up and tell them YOU ARE WORTH IT, PUT IN THE WORK! This is not going to take a week, you are in for a long haul and only YOU can produce the result you want.

My weight loss journey has taken alot longer than what I expected but never once have I said it's too hard, I give up. Thru out the year and a half that I have been loosing weight I have taught myself how to fuel my body, I have embraced excercise, I have run in races, I am training for a half marathon, I am happy. My whole family has benefited from my experience. Why would I want to throw that away, because it's easier? NO WAY I am not done fighting, I will never give up and I hope that you will not either!

Tomorrow's topic : You're afraid to fail!

See the world through new eyes!

Love me some Tuesday torture! Another session of plyometrics followed closely by my evening class!

Lets talk about changes when we lose weight shall we! I have said many times there is nothing better than losing the weight and being able to buy the cute stuff off the shelves at the stores. Being able to pick out anything you want and actually trying stuff on in the stores.

I remember a time where I would go into a store pick up something in a 16 or 18 and just bring it home, try it on and if I didn't like it return it. I couldn't stand trying stuff on in a store because of the simple reason that the person helping me would want to see me in it. No thanks, I would rather not!

Alot of that has changed, not only in the clothing department but in other avenues of my life, like eye wear!

I have been suffering from headaches the last couple of months and knew that something was off...I couldn't put my finger on it but thought maybe it was to do with my eye sight! last week I booked an eye appointment and sure enough my perscription was way off and not only that but I have a stigmatism. No wonder my head throbbed from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. Long story short, I now have new contacts and new glasses!

Picking out glasses was such a great experience. Before when ever I bought them I would look for glasses that didn't make me look FAT, you know try and trim down that round face of mine. It's much easier going into this situation and be able to pick out something that makes you look trendy, or pretty or expressive. The person that was working with me was very helpful and had nothing but compliments, she said I should always wear glasses because they just add something fun to me, and for once I didn't feel like the person was trying to make a sale! I went ahead and got the ones that she thought looked best.

They are definately going to take some getting use to but here I am sporting my new eyes! It's amazing how much things change if you let them!

Leaner, Firmer, Stronger & on Fire!!I

The best beginning to February.....would be the fact that my loss this week was 2.6 pounds!!!!!!! I'm feeling leaner, firmer, stronger and I'm on fire!!! Not just because of what the scale says but because of what my eyes see in the mirror, truly an amazing feeling!

I couldn't be happier with this loss because it's getting me back to my summer weight and I've been working so hard! I am hopeful that you will all see these changes when I post progress pictures of my first month but you're gonna have to wait till Monday :-). I am so excited that my hard work is paying off!

Yesterday I had something different for dinner, I just wanted something quick and simple, so I had french onion soup:
A grilled cheese sammie, some oven fries and some raw vegetables on the side, my tummy was very happy :-) I made sure I ate dinner on the earlier side because of the workout that awaited me once the kids went to bed!

So many of you were in awe of the ice sculptures, truly breath taking aren't they! So I am ending todays post with a few more pictures...I didn't want to bore you all yesterday and really didn't think you would be so interested...so now I have added a bunch of them for your enjoyment....happy viewing and when your done it's time for your workouts...no more slacking!

Oh and before I do that Kimert has been playing around with her blog (silly girl) and is not sure if her readers have lost her so if you have lost her and can't find her....here she is...if you are not a regular reader of her blog you are missing out..... go visit her and say hi, you won't be sorry!

All right here they are:

One of the boys top picks, a fish!
My hubby being silly with Justin!
And this is what the sculpture actually looked like behind them, by far my favourite!

This was right on a lake, it was frozen, and there were people actually playing ice hockey on it!



Speed skaters:



Snowboarders:

Who says winter is for staying home!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! I know I did!

Today was my rest day from the P90X what better way to spend it then in the mountains! We packed up the kids as well as friends of ours and headed out. It was a warm -5 and we enjoyed the out doors. There was a ice carving display on the lake and it was a great way to spend the day. We off course packed a lunch and then had warm beverages to keep us warm.

It was so nice to spend the day outside, this is normally a venture we take in the summer, but it's just as beautiful and breath taking in the winter!

We stopped at the candy store as well as a chocolate factory for the kids, and guess what...this girl didn't buy a thing for myself! Not one bite! I have goals and just didn't feel like treating myself today so I didn't. Instead I chose to have a skinny vanilla bean latte and it was delicious!

This brings me to my thoughts on the Month of January, in my honest opinion I can come here and tell you I kicked butt! After the slump of December I feel that I am at 100%. I worked out to put it lightly :0), ate well and it was just a great month. If January is a prelude to what my year will be like, then I can't help but say that I am excited for things to come!!!

My plans for February are to continue with the P90X, go to one class a week and to add running to the mix. I am excited and let February begin!

I leave you with a few photos of our day away from the grind of every day life, it was so nice to leave the house and encounter the beauty that is such a short drive away.

Don't do it! Ignore this post :-)

Tricia is having a give away over at her blog. I am telling you because it increases MY chances to win. Now please ignore this post and don't go there for your chance to win a RUNNING SKIRT......Just don't do it :-)

Oh and while your at it DON'T head over to TJ's blog because you really won't like what she's giving away either :-)