day 123 (day 4 / week 18)

When I think about it, I can't believe that I have exercised for 123 days IN A ROW! That blows my mind, but only because I take baby steps, and take one day at at time (I don't think about it as a bigger picture). A lot of littles, turned into one big HUGE number! I can't thank you guys enough for your encouraging words and support. You really don't know how much you lift me up!

Today I did Turbo Jam's Punch, Kick and Jam. I am really tired. I didn't get much sleep and was up 4-5 times throughout the night. While doing my workout today, I was trying to break in my new shoes. I returned the shoes I mentioned yesterday (my feet felt like they were trying to curl in!) and exchanged them for a pair of Nike's. My feet feel much better today, but I definitely have some breaking in to do with these (they are stiff!). My feet hurt a little, but what do you expect? I haven't worn actual real tennis shoes for like 3 years! lol. I only did 36 minutes today, out of the 48 minutes today.

For 3 years I have struggled with shoes (and clothes and a lot of other things because of my weight). At my largest, 240 lbs, and up until recently, my feet were so wide I needed to wear an 8.5-9 despite how stubby they are (I am wearing a 7.5 this very second) because my feet were so wide. Losing the weight and inches that I have, during this year, made it possible for me to wear shoes again--not flip flops, Ugs or Crocks--real shoes! Tennis shoes! With shoe laces! And not from a specialty store. This to me is a huge, huge blessing and proof that perseverance pays off with exercise. That's not to say that this is easy yet, and I don't still struggle, but I have faith! I'm so excited for the future!

I hope everyone has a great and blessed Sunday. Make today count. Your future self will be so happy that you did!

I can do this. I am a star.

day 116 (day 4 / week 17)

This morning I went and took the initial class (again) to get my CPR certification (I let it expire...oopse!). I woke up early, so that I could exercise before the class, but my workout today was almost an hour long, and I futzed around too much before before starting.

The class only took 3 hours long, and the compressions were a HUGE workout (with the dummies)! I know I will feel it in my lats tomorrow. I got home and immediately exercised, which I am so proud that I did!

I did Punch, Kick and Jam (Turbo Jam--48 minutes) and feel great! I also added a supplement to my diet--Omega 3-6-9 which my MIL swears by although I have the less expensive version AND I am only taking the softgels (not the oil). She says the oils (Udo Oil, more specifically) give you better health benefits all around, including weight loss (she was introduced to it when she was doing the Prism diet--which she also swears by). I'm a little skeptical, but I love her and trust her (not necessarily this diet) so I will try it, for her :). I am still doing my research on it as well (cause that's just what I do) :).

I hope you all have a great Sunday!

I can do this. I am a star.

day 102 (day 4 / week 15)

Happy Easter! I am so excited for when my son gets old enough to tell him the story behind today. It has amazed me since I was a small child and still does as an adult!

Today I got up "early" (not as early as I was getting up in Reno, but not as late as I have been getting up lately lol) to exercise, so that we make our schedule for today.

I put in Punch, Kick and Jam and about 20 minutes into it, I started to feel icky. I pushed through it and even got a boost of energy, but the feeling stayed. About 10 minutes later I started feeling pretty nauseous so I stopped for a few and tried to start up again, but I stopped because my body was obviously trying to tell me something (duh). I didn't eat anything before I exercised so I'm sure that was the problem. It has been such a long time since I exercised early that I forgot my routine (I usually have some yogurt beforehand), and eating just slipped my mind (I know, kind of stupid). Anyway 30 minutes is fine with me. It's better than nothing, and I will get plenty of exercise throughout the day.

Hope you all have a blessed Easter! Stay active :).

I can do this. I am a star.

day 85 (day 1 / week 13)

I turned on Punch, Kick & Jam today and only did 25 minutes of it (it's 48 minutes long). I am just really tired and have been doing laundry and cleaning since 6am. I also feel a little funny from all of the cleaning products and there being no ventilation in our master bathroom (I feel like I burned my sinuses or something). It's spotless though lol.

I hope you all have a good day! If it's nice outside, go take a walk. Walks aren't exercise! Well, they are, but they don't seem like it when you're surrounded by God's art (nature :)). If I can find time to exercise in the middle of moving 450 miles away, then you can too! ;)

I can do this. I am a star.

day 82 (day 5 / week 12)

My hubby doesn't get off of work until after 4pm, so I wasn't able to post this earlier. I wasn't able to get online to post it either (the connection seems to only like my hubby lol).

Today (around 1:30pm) I did Punch, Kick & Jam (with the sculpting gloves). I'm definitely not as sore as I was yesterday, or even the day before.

95% of the apartment is packed. Yaay!

Hope you guys have a good day and a great workout! Make today count! You'll be happy you did :).

I can do this. I am a star.

day 81 (day 4 / week 12)

Today I did Kick, Punch & Jam. Man I am sore (good sore) from doing it the past few days. I also did the same workout yesterday, instead of the 20 minute workout (I need to change it on my blog from yesterday)

Doing the labels from my hubby's phone is hard. It doesn't list my preexisting labels for me, so I have to type them in from memory (no big deal cause it doesn't affect you guys, but I'm anal lol).

Surprisingly my hubby's computer is picking up a wireless connection (mine didn't find any), so I am able to type this on the computer, and not his phone. He doesn't have a keypad that is easy to type with either--he has Palm Centro (i'm not that impressed with it anymore lol) so blogging on it takes more effort than I want to put out. My phone has a keypad, but has very limited internet access. I can only go to sprint pages (i can't even use OR search for google!). Thank you for understanding if I can't blog for a day and for having faith that I am exercising. I am not stopping now especially after 81 days in! If being sick wont stop me, lack of internet deffinitely wont lol.

Anyway, this connection is not reliable at all and is extremely weak, so I need to post this now before I push my luck! Besides I want to watch the snow fall one last time before we leave (I'm happy that it's snowing right now. The snow is the only thing I will miss about this area!).

Make today count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 79 (day 2 / week 12)

O.M.G. that was hard (Turbo Jam's Punch, Kick & Jam)! I was able to keep up better today without the distraction (God bless his little heart). I am extremely sweaty and so happy to do that workout! I know that I am going to have great results with it, and I love how energetic it is and Chalene is. She totally helps you through it (mentally).

Punch, Kick & Jam is a lot more challenging than the other Turbo Jam workouts I have done so far, and I'm glad. I'm not saying the other ones are easy-peasy, but I don't sweat like this with them.

Anyway, a few days ago I mentioned something that I discussed with my MIL, that I wasn't ready to mention here. Well I guess there isn't going to be a better time, and maybe a lot of you can relate. Maybe coming out will encourage some and make you feel like you aren't alone in this battle.

Hi. My name is Melissa Henning and I am addicted to refined sugar (I said yes to most of these things).

This isn't to say that I eat brownies all day. Or candy. Or ice cream (it's not allowed in the house or I would! lol). Or even table spoons of sugar lol. It's not to say that I will eat an entire box or batch of cookies. I just always have it in my life. Always.

I know it's not a big deal, but I never realized how much I really enjoy my sweets, and baking a lot. I realized this looking at my diet as a whole and trying to cut it out of my diet. Looking for nutrient dense foods, and foods that are lower in calories or low in fat and higher in protein (just depends). Sugar really packs in a lot of unnecessary calories in my diet, and since I cut it out of my diet (it's only been a few days) I have lost 3 lbs. It could be water weight (probably), but I haven't seen a jump like that, on my scale (my current scale) ever! (I need to throw that thing away btw).

For the past few months, since it was mentioned to me in a comment, I have been using sparkpeople.com, but not obsessively inputting my food (just my exercise), until lately. I was packing in almost 600-800 calories--sugar calories here and there and not even realizing it, or I would put aside healthier foods because I knew I wanted to have a brownie or something later! I NEVER enter it into sparkpeople, and when I look back on my days, the days I have only eaten 330 or 500 calories, it's because the rest was something I was ashamed to admit, unconsciously (lol). I feel like I am lying now that I am aware of it, and not inputting it. Now when I want something sweet, I take a tsp of honey. It's sweet enough to knock out my sweet tooth, and leaves me satisfied. If I'm not, then I take 2. A serving size of honey is 1 TBS and is 60 calories. There are 3 tsp in 1 TB. My MIL went through this years ago when she was on the .brain.fart. Prism Diet, and honey helped her. She was a lot worse when it comes to sweets though, she was a hardcore addict, so much so that she still can't touch sweets, because she says she cant just eat a bite, but will eat it all.

I'm not saying that the reason why I'm not losing weight, is because I eat sugar, but maybe part of it is. I know that muscle is heavier than fat and that I am using weights daily (my sculpting gloves) and doing squats and lunges, so I am getting slimmer, but staying the same weight. I know that is fine, but it really bothers me that I am *so close* to 200 lbs, and I can't quite get there. Now that exercise has become apart of who I am, on a daily basis, I need to start thinking about what I put into my body more. I need to appreciate the body that God gave me more, and feed it correctly (again, not that I eat junk all day--I don't). I know some of you will be concerned, some of you wont care either way, and some of you may be right there with me. This isn't to say that I am going to go wacko about it and not eat foods with it in there--I am just not going to cook/bake with it anymore, or at least for a while, until I know I don't need it (I have never wanted to need anything) and I am not going to buy things to specifically satisfy my sweet tooth (even if they are those 100kcal packs).

Sugar isn't the only thing I have changed either. I am forcing myself to drink no less than 8 glasses of water a day (no more soda--but I have been doing that for almost a month now) and I eat 2 cups of salad (no dressing--my preference because I'm not a big fan) with every meal. Yes, even including breakfast.

I feel much better making these changes, just in the last few days...even being sick (my cold is almost gone btw...). I am proud that I am finally jumping on this bandwagon, and now that I have honey, I don't feel like I am depriving myself (when i tried to cut it out cold turkey, w/out honey, I honestly couldn't and didn't want to do it).

Sorry for the long blog entry! I hope you all have a great Friday. This weekend I am going to experiment with my hubby's phone (since his web access isn't limited), and post a blog entry that way, because I will be without the internet for, quite possibly, a while (until we have jobs which we still don't have!).

Make today count! It feels great, I promise!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 78 (day 1 / week 12)

I feel much better today. I still have a cold but the symptoms are easy to ignore now. My energy is back so I was excited to do a longer Turbo Jam video today.

I totally forgot that my Turbo Jam videos came with another DVD that I never opened, so I decided to do that one today. It's called Punch, Kick & Jam. Man, it's really steppy and it was pretty hard for me to follow. Logan woke up like 15 minutes into it (he slept for less than an hour!) and he wouldn't leave me alone. He accidentally (on purpose) bumped into my bottom and then it became a fun game lol. He kept running into my butt and falling (silly kid--he was laughing really, really hard lol). Then he decided to lean against me, and I just gave up. It will be a lot of fun once I can keep up and understand what she's doing. It's like 47 or 48 minutes long, but I was only able to do 24 minutes. I hope I can do it tomorrow with no interruptions.

I think I will go take him for a walk. It's nice outside :).

Hope you all have a great day and an awesome workout!

I can do this. I am a star.