Shannan: Making Good Strides

This last week and a half I've really hit my stride. The weight has started coming off again and I've now lost a total of 15 lbs!!!!! With just 10 more pounds to go, I really am hoping to buckle down and am going to try and be serious. These past few weeks were filled with booby traps and pit falls - camping out, trips to Nashville and the infamous Pancake Pantry (who could resist!!), wedding receptions tempting me with tasty hor's doevres and cake, how could I be expected to resist such temptations?

Well the last wedding is in sight - this weekend - and them I'm out of excuses. It will be time to buckle down and bust off those last 10 pounds. I'm a little nervous about making it happen as we put our gym membership on hold for the month of November and it's getting colder outside. I might have to look into working out at work, which I'm not a big fan of, but I might have to suck it up and do it anyway.

I leave you with a YouTube video from Saturday Night Live featuring two of the country's top trainers:





Thank you all for your support. This blog has definitely been a great motivator for me.

Starting weight: 160
Current weight: 145
Total lost: 15 lbs

Confession Time - Shannan

I have a confession. I have been hiding behind guest posts because I've not been happy with my results, or should I say, lack off results.

I think I got to confident. The first few weeks I was watching every morsel I ate, writing it down, being good and the weight was falling off. I was walking at lunch - eating right and I'd lost 10 pounds in 5 weeks. I was feeling good.

As the weight started falling off I think I became complacent. I started allowing myself a bite or two of the things I shouldn't be eating, I used "special occasions" and "events" as excuses to break free from my diet plan. I found myself too busy to talk a walk at lunch. Worst of all - I have yet to really use my Weight Watchers membership.

I have decided that today is the day I get back in the game.

I am 15 pounds away from my goal weight. I don't want to fail this time. I want to loose the weight. I want to weigh what I did before I had children. I want to be that girl again.

This weekend I had a conversation with a friend that really put me back on track. I won't name names because I know she didn't mean it the way it sounded, but here it is in a nut shell:
Friend: Picking up photo off kitchen counter "Wow. When was this picture taken?"

Me: "Back in 1999. I was in Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break. We were getting
ready to go out to the bars"
Friend: "Wow. Look how thin you were.
I can't believe it."
Me: "I know. It's been 10 years...."
Friend: "I mean,
look at your arms. You were thin."

Truth is, while I know she didn't mean it the way I heard it, it hurt my feelings. Had I changed that much? Other than aging (gracefully) do I look that different?? I don't have the photo electronically but I will try and get it scanned.

So, this week my goal is to get back into my eating routine, use my Weight Watchers membership and start walking at lunch again.

Current Weight: 150

Goal Weight: 135
Total Lost: 10 lbs

Guest Post ~ It Takes a Village to Lose the Weight

Please join us in welcoming Susan from Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit. On her blog, Susan and her husband Jay chronicle their journey from fat to fit.

Weight loss is an odd thing. It’s very individual in many ways—only you can decide how many calories you take in and how much activity you do to burn them.

But losing weight sometimes feels like a team effort. Actually, weight loss could be compared to an Olympic sport like running or swimming. Sure, an Olympic athlete has to be unbelievably dedicated, hardworking and talented to win. But where would she be without a coach to guide her daily workouts? Without a trainer to help her build the right muscles and eat the best foods? Without family and friends to encourage her when she feels like giving up after an injury or setback?

Successful weight losers usually have at least a few people to support them during their losing period—and beyond. My husband and I started losing weight together at the beginning of 2008, committing to ourselves and each other that we would get fit. This partnership in weight loss formed a strong foundation for our new lifestyle.

But we didn’t stop there. We launched a blog called Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit to reach out to a bigger network of cheerleaders. Based on many previous attempts to get fit, I knew we needed to feel accountable to the world—not just ourselves—in order to stick to our plan.

Our moms read the blog, of course. So did a few of our close friends. Some readers from my other blog, Working Moms Against Guilt, chimed in from time to time. Before we knew it, our little weight loss blog had 50 to 100 people checking in daily to see how we were doing. When we did well, they cheered. When we struggled, they chimed in with encouraging words and helpful tips. Talk about support!

The more I found myself blabbing about our efforts to friends, coworkers, acquaintances, anyone who would listen … the more I noticed how it helped me stay on track. Just knowing that they knew I had a goal kept me going, even when it would have been so easy to say, “Good enough.” Accepting a compliment about how much slimmer I looked made me feel like I owed it to that person to continue—I couldn’t let down my adoring fans! And so we trudged, jogged, occasionally sprinted on, losing nearly 100 pounds of fat between the two of us (with another 100 to go).

Perhaps the most powerful social motivator was (is) those friends and blog readers who have flat out said we inspired them to get healthy. (See that Cincinnati Losers’ blogroll on the left? We’re listed as “Inspirational Losers.”) Whoa. Now it’s not just about us and our fat. We’re role models now. Other people are shedding their excess pounds and bad habits, all the while looking to us as a beacon of the Great Fit Hope. How can we let them down?

We won’t. We can’t. Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit want to make ourselves, each other and our entire support network proud. Even when life makes it hard to get and stay fit, we will always have those coaches, cheerleaders, family and friends to give a nudge and help us get to the Olympics of Losers: to achieve and maintain healthy weight for life.

The awful Truth: Shannan

This week I managed to get back on the horse and stick to my diet.

One thing I did do this week that is important in my dieting was pick up a new scale. I've been using one of those cheap $10 scales for years. You know the kind - the weight varies based on where you place it on the floor (best spot is to the left of the toilet). Well this weekend I picked up a digital scale and right away it confirmed my suspicions. My old scale had been lying to me. Telling me big FAT lies - almost 10 lbs worth!

I had kind of suspected it and had been accounting for it in my weight reports but I hated seeing my suspicions confirmed. It had been fun (and ego boosting) to think I was close to my goal weight.

This week I am going to explore healthy snacks (in particular the ones involving chocolate!). I am hoping to put together a list of things that you can eat that taste good and satisfy those chocolate cravings.

Weight lost this week (no idea how this happened): 2.8 lbs (please note my old scale was lying to me, this is based on what I thought I had lost and what I actually weigh subtracted from what I thought was my starting weight..... Does that make any sense???)
Total Weight Lost: 7.8 lbs