Yesterday...

Yesterday was a big day. We woke up really early and on our way down to the park to jog, I ran into Walgreen's and CVS to coupon... While I was in Walgreens I had a store coupon for Dentyne gum. I had 4 manufacture coupons for Dentyne gum. When I was checking out the cashier said I couldn't use both because the manufacture coupon was worth more than I was paying for the gum.... THIS IS COUPONING. You are allowed one store coupon and one manufacture coupon per item purchased. She called over her little supervisor, some 10 year old guy with a "cool guy" chick's 70's hair cut. I tried explaining that this is how things work and that I do it all the time. He said "that's not how the system works". I asked him to just try scanning it to see. He said, "I can try but the computer will say no"... proceeds to scan it, only to hear a beautiful "beep" as the computer accepts my perfectly legitimate coupon. Yet he still says, "oh well that one worked but we can't scan the other 3, that one will just go to all 4" - at this point I don't push it further because we were in a hurry and there was a lady behind me waiting for about 5 minutes already. As I'm swiping my card he says, "If you have any other questions feel free to ask" - I just shrug and say "I don't have questions, I do this all the time" and leave.

So last night I emailed the manager and he emailed me back Walgreen's FAQ on couponing and proved me RIGHT. I don't know if the guy I talked to was the manager or not, but either way, I was right and I'm just not going to that location anymore.

So anyway, can you tell I was up all night fuming? Let's move on... After my infuriating store experience we went to jog. Yesterday was the first day in a new week, meaning our times changed. We went to walking for 5 minutes, then we jog for 2 full minutes and then walked for 45 seconds. This change nearly killed me. And to make matters worse, we forgot our water bottles! After jog #5 I had to go back to walking for 60 seconds after each jog. Then I had to stop and talk after 1 minute of jogging on the last 2. I was mad at myself. But a tendon in my foot and hip were killing me, so that made it even worse, on top of the normal pain.

After we jogged we took Brynley over to my friend's house and we took Mariska to SIX FLAGS! It was so much fun! Brent got us all free tickets from school, so we spend almost a full day (10-3:30) at Six Flags for just the $15 for parking. Not bad at all. We, of course, packed lunches and ate on a bench outside the park. There was no way we were paying $8 for a kid's meal!

Mariska loved the rides, but wasn't the biggest fan of the lines... who is? She liked the water rides the most and we rode the "Mini-Mine Train" twice. Seeing her up against the "must be this height to ride" signs, really showed me just how small she still is! She's still such a baby, even though she's my "big girl". The thing she liked most, I think, were the little splash fountains. The areas where water shoots up from the ground. It took a lot of effort to get her out and we had to explain several times that we can go to splash fountains for free and we should ride rides while we were there.

We all had so much fun. Here are some pictures...

Rest Day

Today is a rest day. I enjoy Sundays because they are so quiet... but I don't really enjoy the rest from working out. I find I'm more tired and just ache to work out. But I understand it's necessary.

I weighed myself today. 208.5! Only down a pound and a half from last week... but I weighed myself during the week and was always up. So I'm happy to have anything lower today! Plus, it brings my total to 3.5 pounds - which means, next week I'll hopefully be over the 5 pound mark!

Tomorrow we up the jogging to a full 2 minutes at a time. I'm scared. This last week it never really got easier. I surprised myself on day one, but then Wed and Friday, it was even harder to keep jogging. BUT I never stopped early. I'm started to find that I can push myself when all my boday wants to do is stop. And the fact that I am makes me really proud.

Eat To Live...

Today is day 1 of week 2. We upped the jog time to 90 seconds, and kept the walking time at 60... I was dreading it. I thought that there was pretty much no way I could do it. This morning it was so hard to get up and going. But, I was really surprised by myself today. I did really well!!
I was really shocked at how, dare I say, "easy" it was for the first few jogs. I kept the pace and didn't have to stop early... until we hit jog #5, then I started to slow. I was still jogging, but it was again, probably the slowest jog ever known to man. My body was screaming at me. But I didn't stop!
I only had to stop to catch my breath for a few seconds on the last 3 jogs. But I didn't stop for long, because I'd get mad at myself. I stopped for about 5-10 seconds half way through the last three but then started jogging again.
I'm so excited at my improvement. I'm starting to really believe I can do it and I'm starting to understand that my body will be okay, even benefit, from being pushed further and further.

I've also pretty much never counted calories. I've tried now and then but hated it and gave up after about a day. But I have been religiously counting since we started. I LOST 2 POUNDS LAST WEEK!!
I'm allowing myself absolutely no more than 1800-2000 calories a day. Let me tell you, they add up quickly! For the first few days, I was STARVING!! But then it started to fade and I found myself feeling more and more comfortable, eating the same amounts of food. Now, I'm almost enjoying feeling a bit hungry and hate feeling too full. I'm really excited to not pig out all the time.
It feels good to know how many calories each food has and actually pick and choose what I put in my mouth. And so now I've decided that I'm getting this for my birthday!!

Tomorrow we are going to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch to celebrate our anniversary... so we're going to have a REALLY light dinner!

Week 1, Day 5

Today we went down to the park. There is a great running/biking trail and a good playground. So we strapped the girls into the awesome double stroller and worked out first, and then let them play.

Today was hard. Yesterday was a rest day and I lounged, I won't lie. So we warmed up for 5 minutes and my body protested pretty well on the first running interval. But I was really proud to keep up with Brent and run for the complete 60 seconds!! I was so impressed with my improvement... until we hit jog #6, then it got just as hard as before and it took all the strength within me to not stop jogging early.

By the 9th and 10th jog I was going pretty slow, about 10-20 feet behind Brent. But I PUSHED myself like never before. And I am SO proud to say that I didn't give up and walk on ANY of the jogging intervals. I'll admit I gave a good yell when the stop watch hit the last 1:00:00 and it was time to cool down and walk. When we hit the playground we let the girls play while we stretched.

I can't believe how much sweat can come out of a person. I used to think I was sweaty when I'd work out at home, under a fan, doing my videos. WRONG. Luckily Brent is a genius and brought some towels with us. When I went into the bathroom (at the library afterwards) to change clothes, I was so embarrassed! There wasn't a single inch of my clothes, above the knee that wasn't wet. It was nasty.

So, I am extremely proud of myself for sticking with each and every jog the entire time, even though it nearly killed me.... I am very proud, but also scared about Monday. That's when we up the jogging/running time to 90 seconds. The walk time stays at 60! I'm dreading it, but I'm also determined and eager to see any more improvement!!

Week 1, Day 3

Yesterday was a "non-run" day, so I did my "Biggest Loser" aerobic workout and the weights work out; even though my legs are killing me! The small muscles that wrap around the inside of my knees, my thighs and my very inner thighs hurt so badly I almost couldn't move them. And just wanted to cry. But I knew they would only hurt more if I rested them and then tried running again today. So I worked out yesterday, even though it hurt. I spent much of the day heating and icing them. That pretty much didn't do anything. That was yesterday.

Today was another "run day", with the same 5 minute warm-up, and alternating 60 seconds of jogging and walking for 20 minutes. Oh man, the first time we had to jog, I thought my thighs were going to snap in two. It hurt so badly! I could barely move, so my stride was very short. But I DID IT! Today I had the stop watch, and it was easier mentally to be able to see how long I'd run and how much longer I had to keep it up. I feel really guilty that Brent has the stroller, but he seems to handle it really well. (And I do offer to take it from him.)

There were times when I think that I was jogging the slowest jog ever known to man, but I was still DOING it. I was so proud to see the substantial improvement from just 2 days ago. On Monday I thought I was going to die. I gave up and walked at least 4 or 5 times and was almost wheezing I was so out of breath. Today, I only gave up and walked at the last 10 seconds of the very last (10th) jog!!! I was disappointed that I did, but I was really out of breath. Although I wasn't huffing and puffing nearly as bad as Monday. I'm not about to say that today was easy by any means, but it was easier for me. But I've never pushed myself like this before, and I'm excited to see actual improvement.

So we went home and I stretched. My legs are still screaming at me when I walk, and especially when I go to sit or stand. But I know I'll be okay and that I just have to work through the pain. But while working out like this feels fantastic, I have to admit, I'm kind of excited that tomorrow is a "rest day".... then we gotta do it all again on Friday!!

8 week goal...

Did you know I used to be thin? I mean actually thin. When I was in high school, I had an anxiety issue that severely reduced my ability to eat. You know that feeling you get when you're really nervous, and you can't eat because you have no appetite and you fear that food will simply come back up anyway? Imagine living with that feeling about 90% of the time. This was my life back then. It consisted of waking up, starting to get ready for school, and throwing up, every morning. After I threw up I'd feel a bit better, but still not well enough to really eat anything. This is why I was thin, not because I ate healthy foods. I also had to endure 4 years of P.E, thanks to the Illinois State education system. This is why I was thin.

This anxiety started to fade in my senior year, thanks to some really great pills and a supportive Mom who came with me to counseling sessions. It didn't go away completely but improved a great deal. Things were going really well, but then I had the brilliant idea of getting a different part time job. I was on my feet every weekend as a server at IHOP. Well, I wanted a less demanding job that would allow me to spend more time with my friends. So I began working 3-4 nights a week and Saturdays at Fannie May Chocolates. BIG MISTAKE. On a 4 hour shift I would see an average of about 5-10 customers. During the down time I would package chocolates, create baskets,and arrange displays. Although much of the time I would do homework, write letters, listen to music and stuff my face with gourmet chocolates. I would bet I'd eat a good half pound a night, at least. Needless to say, I gained weight. And my weight has gone up and "yo-yoed" ever since. I didn't even know what a calorie was or how many a person should have in a day, until after Brent and I were married!

I know I'm big. What you may not know, is that I hate being big. I love to eat junk food. It just tastes to stinkin good. I love burgers, pizza and ANY dessert I can get my hands on. I also love to sleep, read and watch tv. I struggle with laziness. I always have. I have my phases of working out, but they usually don't last much longer than a few weeks, only to bomb out and have several more weeks of sitting around. At my very heaviest (nonpregnancy) I was about 220 pounds. That was when I lived in Provo. In high school, when I was thin, I was about 140. I lost weight when we got married, down to 160, only to put it all right back on and continue the cycle.

That all being said, I stopped my good working out routine this time around ,when we hit the road for our trip to Utah. While in Utah I gained 6 pounds. I weighed myself yesterday morning.... 212. I knew I was gaining some because my pants were getting painfully tight, but that's about 18 pound up from the day we left for Utah.

I weighed myself yesterday because Brent and ,I together, have a goal. Thanks to his 9 weeks off of work, and Jillian Michael's new show, we are both going to take 8 weeks and train to run a 5K. I've never run in my life. I'm horrified.

Today was day 1 of week 1. It almost KILLED me. We warmed up with a brisk walk for 5 minutes. Then we jog for 1 minute and walk for 1 minute, alternating for 20 minutes. Let me tell you, I felt every ounce of the extra 65 pounds I'm carrying around. In the walking minutes, I could barely catch my breath. The jogging minutes got harder and harder and by the end my body was practically screaming at me to just stop! I hate how out of shape I am. Although, even when I was thin, I wasn't "in shape" or fit. I've never run.

So, the house now has 0 junk food. I'm not snacking inbetween meals and I'm really limiting my portion sizes at meal time. I'm HUNGRY. But I know my body will adjust in a few days and I'll not be so hungry. Everything takes getting used to. Tonight is my 2nd night without some sort of dessert. The chocolate chips in the freezer are calling to me. But I'm so tired of not meeting goals. This time I don't have a certain weight to reach. I have a distance I want to jog. And this time I have Brent right there beside me. I am going to do it and I am going to feel like her again...

Also, Brent has started his own blog, if you want to follow is journey the site is: www.brasman.blogspot.com

Couponing Woes...

I've been really trying hard to get good at couponing. I think I'm starting to do much better. Although I'm starting to notice that the more I coupon, the worse our diets. I'm finding really good deals on toiletries and diapers and such, but when it comes to actual food, the only really good deals I'm finding are in snack foods and condiments. We've had frozen lasagna, pizza and plenty of cookies and packaged rice mixes. Although when you're roughly 60 pounds over weight, with junk being so cheap, you end up paying for it in pants sizes and regrets. We have 11 packages of hot dogs in the freezer. I'm thankful they'll keep for a while in there.
I love the idea of feeding my family for super cheap, everyone does, but I'm not finding the foods we should be eating for the great prices. I found myself simply aching for produce the other day. I'm starting to come to the realization that couponing and dropping unwanted pounds might not go that well together. I'll stick with focusing on toilet paper and shampoo... it's a bit disappointing, but at least I can get feminine pads and razors for practically nothing now. So that's good.