My Journey: Positive Outlook For 2013

I think your attitude is the right one to have, Mandy. The scale is only one tool we have at our disposal. How I feel, how I look, my energy levels, knowing that I'm doing better, all should mean at least as much to us. My scale has sucked this week, but I know I'm doing fine. Just dehydrated and on prednasone. I still ate right, worked hard, worked out twice and drank fair yesterday and I dropped a couple pounds as a result. .. but I'm still up from last Friday.

It'll all come around in due time, Mandy. Keep it up.
 
Thank you Don! I agree that how you feel and how you look are far more important indicators of our progress than a number on the scale. When I look in the mirror I still see room for a lot improvement, but I’m not blind to the progress that has been made. I can see a huge difference in my face and my arms and legs. My arms and legs are noticeably thinner and my big double chin is shrinking too! It’s really a great feeling. ?

~~

I did my taebo as planned today. I felt like I really pushed myself. My hrm watch showed 1061 calories burned so I’m very pleased with that. There are still a couple of moves that I can not do. One involves jumping and the others I just can’t get co-ordinated enough to do. So, instead of doing those I do this ab twist thing to try to get more work in on my mid section. I’m anxious to see how sore I’ll be tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll be sore, but in a good way.
 
Well, much to my surprise I'm not sore at all this morning. I thought I would be, but I'm not. My left ankle is a little sore when I move it the wrong way, but that's the norm thanks to RA. I usually save Thursday as my rest day, but I think I'm going to put in at least a half hour of taebo. I do my grocery shopping on Thursdays so it's a busy night for me as it is, but I think I can at least squeeze in half an hour if not a full hour. This morning's weigh in was 208.6lb. I'm pretty sure this is all TOM related. We'll see over the next week or so.
 
Scale or no scale, you are absolutely kicking ass right now, Mandy! Great job getting back on that horse... the hardest thing to do in the getting healthy process... even harder than starting, i think. Two days ago, I was bloated from my 'roids and feeling kinda "blah"... but I got compliments from a couple of different people that day. The day i was feeling the least "good" all week, but others were noticing. The scale means only so much right now.
 
Yeah, I had no intentions of completely falling off the horse, but I do admit I slacked off some with everything that was going on. I will say that I'm feeling much better physically, mentally, and emotionally since recommitting to it though. It's great that you're getting compliments. That's always a moral booster to keep us more motivated! Last week one of my coworkers (the first one who noticed I was losing weight) looked at me and said "Geeze, Mandy how much weight have you lost. You can see a huge difference." It was a nice compliment, but when the office was full of other people it certainly made me blush. This guy lacks some common sense I think. LOL

~~

I ended up getting my full hour of taebo in today. I'm a bit surprised at what my watch said though. I felt like I was really killing it tonight, but my watch showed only 1022 calories burned. I know that's still a lot, but I was expecting a higher number. Oh well, still happy I got it in tonight. :)
 
Happy Friday!! I woke up this morning feeling pretty amazing. A little on the tired side, but I feel stronger. Today will be a good day. :)

I discovered something new today too. I can't believe I've never thought to do this before, but with all this water I'm drinking I'm needing to use the ladies room a lot throughout the day. I can't exercise in my office at work because I have people coming in all the time. Being in the bathroom, it's total privacy. So, today I realized I can at least do some ab twists that I do with taebo each time I need to go to the ladies room. My mid section needs to catch up with the rest of my body so that's my new plan. Each trip to the bathroom, I'm going to do at least 5 sets of 8 ab twists. Already did my first my sets. Hopefully this will help. :)

I think today will be a rest day (aside from the ab twists). Last night after taebo my right calf started cramping up and my left ankle is feeling a bit sore today. I've pushed myself pretty good this week, I think it's ok to rest for a day. I will still be doing "some" things at home. I'll be shampooing my bedroom carpet tonight after work so I won't be completely dormant which is a good thing.

I hope you all have a great Friday and a great weekend. :)
 
Last Saturday's weigh in was 208.8lb. Yesterday's was at 208.4lb. Down just slightly. One thing I hadn't really considered is that I gave myself a break from taebo for a couple of weeks. I opted to do some outdoor things instead. Last week I started doing taebo again. I'm wondering if I'm retaining more water because my body's readjusting again. Between that and my TOM which should be any day now, I'm sure that's what's happening. I have been eating pretty well so I don't think it's food related.

Yesterday was an excellent day for exercise. I ended up getting in 5 hours of outdoor walking with my mom and a couple of friends. I didn't have my hrm watch on so I don't know how many calories I burned, but it felt good to be out and about in the sun all day. The downside is that my left ankle was very sore afterwards. Thankfully a little rest is all I need to fix my aches and pains. This morning I was feeling at 100% again. I woke up and did my taebo first thing in the morning and burned 1021 calories. I may go for some more outdoor walking later this evening which will burn even more!

I have to say that getting back on track with walking AND my taebo has done wonders for me personally. I feel much stronger all the way around. It's pretty amazing how much of a moral booster it can be, even though you're not seeing numbers on the scale that you want to see.

There is an upside and a better indicator of how I'm progressing. I took new measurements this morning and all of my numbers are down. I won't give exact numbers, but since my first set of measurements on 3/18/13 here's how many inches I've lost so far: chest is down 3.5”, lower abs down 1.5”, upper abs (rib cage) down 4”, waist is down 2.5”, left thigh is down 1.5”, right thigh is down 1”, upper left arm is down .75”, upper right arm is down .5”, and the circumference around my under arms is down 1”. That's a total of 16.25" lost! My arms and legs I can feel and see are becoming fitter. Fat is going away and I'm clearly gaining some muscle. It's a great feeling. :)
 
I didn't get my walks in tonight unfortunately because I had to do a lot of work on my computer today. By the time I finished it was too late to go walking. It was starting to get dark and where I live in the country, walking in the dark is not a good idea. Too many wild critters running around at night.

So, instead I did another hour of Taebo! I got a new DVD; Insane Abs so I tried that out. It was interesting. The first half you're standing up working out which according to Billy Blanks is the part where you slim down. The second half is all floor exercises which is supposed to make your abs and your back stronger. I have to admit, my core is pretty darn week right now! I could hardly do one set, two at most of the moves they were doing. I still gave it my all though and I can already feel my mid section felt it. Overall calorie burn from this first attempt was 586. Not bad considering the 2nd half of the DVD isn't really cardio.

I don't think I could be any more impressed with myself over this weekend. I did 5 hours of walking yesterday and two hours of taebo today. It's so hard to believe that just a few months ago this never would've crossed my mind. I would've just sat around all weekend. This "new life" is so much better and far more rewarding!
 
Last edited:
I love your idea of doing ab twists in the ladies room! It sounds like such an easy way to sneak in a lot of moves without even having to try hard. And seriously, you had an awesome weekend of exercise! You sound like you're in such great spirits, too. That's what we like to see!
 
I am SO pleased to see that you've restarted the exercise AND that you've made that mental connection between IT and your positive mental health. That alone is an accomplishment that will reap rewards in the future, Mandy.
 
Trusylver - Thanks, I'm pretty shocked at how much I did myself. That is so not me. At least not the old me.

Laura - Yes, it is a great way to sneak some extra workouts in without really breaking a sweat. I wish I'd have thought of it sooner! I've already gotten in a few sets this morning. Now it'll fit in nicely with the Ab workouts I'll be doing at night.

Don - Thanks! It is very true that it all ties into overall well being. I've found on days when I'm really stressed or upset that it's a great way to release some of the frustration. I really do feel so much better afterwards. Especially last night after doing two rounds of taebo. They were very different DVD's, but just knowing that I did two hours of it was very rewarding. Now I'll be alternating the regular taebo DVD with the Insane Abs unless I can fit them both in during a day. That'll be a challenge, but I'm going to try.

~~
I have a Dr appt this afternoon to recheck how I'm doing with my rheumatoid arthritis management. My rheumatologist is concerned about my bloodwork when I was first diagnosed. My numbers were very high which makes her feel that I have a very aggressive type and that I'll need to go onto much stronger meds in the future. For now we're weaning off of prednisone (I'm dropping from 5mg to 2.5mg starting today for 3 weeks and then I'm off) while the methotrexate kicks in. I do still have days of soreness if I'm really active, mainly my left ankle and right knee, but lately I've been feeling great. Hopefully my numbers will show good improvement too.

Tonight, I'll be walking the dogs which usually ends up being about 3 miles and then I'm planning to get the Insane Abs taebo workout in. Should be lots of calories burned today too!

On another great note, this is my last full week without having the ocean to look forward to at the end of it. Finally, on 5/18 I get to go on my first whale watch of the season. It'll be an emotional day for my mom and me since my aunt is no longer with us, but we're both looking forward to seeing our friends who we haven't seen since last October. I'm anxious to see if they say anything about my weight. I'm hoping they do, but it'll be nice to just see them again.
 
My doctor appt went very well! She was very impressed that I'm able to be as active as I am considering how high my numbers were in my initial blood tests. She's given me clearance to continue working out and said that I look a million times better today than in my first appt. Not just because of my weight loss, but my demeanor as a whole. She said she was concerned about me during my first visit because she thought I was actually dealing with depression on top of RA. That's the first time she's mentioned that to me. I reassured her I wasn't dealing with depression, I was just in a lot of pain and was pretty scared about what was going on with my health. At the time I was literally gonig to work and then going home to sleep. I just couldn't do anything else it hurt so badly. She is upping the dosage on the methotrexate that I'm on to be on the max level because of how high my tests were initially, but she's feeling very optomistic about this course of treatment since I'm responding so well to it. My next appt is early July and if all goes well (meaning I'm officially off of prednisone with no problems) my follow up appts will be stretched out to every 3 months (right now it's every 5 weeks).

Overall, I'm very pleased with how things went. I'm so glad it's under control, at least for right now, so I can continue on this path of losing weight. I have no doubt losing the weight that I've lost so far has been a huge help in getting everything under control. :)

(( Sorry for rambling! ))
 
That's great news Mandy! I hope you are proud of what you've done so far. Keep up the great work and hopefully your RA will keep diminishing along with your waistline.
 
Quercus - I'm definitely proud of what I've accomplished so far. Saying that I'm proud of myself is something I never used to say, but for this I most definitely am! I know I have a long way to go, but I've also come a long way too and I don't want to lose sight of that.

~~

Unfortunately I didn't do anything last night other than watch the Stanley Cup playoffs. Late in the afternoon I started getting horrible cramps/stomach pains. Looking back now I'm glad I did two taebo sessions Sunday to balance it out. I woke up this morning to more cramping, but not as bad and it seems to be getting better already so hopefully tonight I'll be able to do some working out.

My weight this morning was 208lb even. Just a little down from Saturday, but I'll take it. A few weeks ago I was stuck around 211lb, now it seems this 208lb number is my new nemesis. At least I can see I'm losing inches so it's not at all discouraging at this point. :)
 
That's a trick I'm learning... if I am "stuck" at a weight, look at my weight chart and see that I was "stuck" a week or two ago at a higher weight. Reminds me that even if it isn't always at my preferred pace, I am losing weight. Keep it up, Mandy.
 
Mandy glad your doctors appointment went well. You've really achieved a lot and you should be so proud of yourself.

Aaaand you below 210lbs! Thats awesome. Your halt will soon pass. I get that often as well, really quite intriguing if you think about it. It's like the brain is stopping to catch up and register the new weight :) and then it goes again. So hang in there it will pass.
 
Don, I'm definitely learning that. It is frustrating to be stuck at a certain weight, but I'm not letting it discourage me. By letting that happen only one thing will happen and that's giving up. I can not and will not give up. Not now! My weight is going down slowly, BUT at the same time I'm losing some good inches so that in itself is pretty darn exciting! My size 20 jeans are starting to get loose so I may need to go down another size or two in the near future. That's VERY motivating!

Mands, these weight loss stalls are frustrating, but I'm in this for the long haul. I'm not letting it get me down. I'm anxious to see what's going to happen once my TOM is over. Still hasn't started yet, but it should be any day now. I have a feeling that's part of my issue right now. We'll see!

~~

I got home late last night, but still managed to get in my taebo insane abs workout. I did quite a bit better on the floor exercises, but still need a LOT of improvement. The one thing that I find kind of discouraging about doing the DVD workouts is that they make it look so rediculously easy. BUT, then I remind myself that they're already in much better shape than me and have been doing this much longer than me. I think I'm doing pretty darn good with it if I do say so myself. :)

I do have a question though. When I was done working out last night I could really feel the burn and soreness in my abs. This morning I felt nothing. What exactly does this mean? Does it mean that the muscles have already healed up? Maybe I didn't push myself quite hard enough? Maybe my body's just getting used to it? I thought for sure I'd be very sore this morning, but I'm not.

Today is my early day at work so I get to leave at 1:30pm. I'm planning on doing my regular taebo DVD and the Insane Abs DVD when I get home. It should be a good day. :)
 
Your head is SO screwed on right! Keep it up, Mandy. The victory is measured in completing the process, not in what the scale says. Thinking of it the other way around is letting the tail wag the dog.
 
Well, I learned this afternoon that I don't really have the stamina to do two taebo sessions back to back. LOL I finished the first one just fine, but my body was going into shut down mode during the second one (which was the insane abs one). I ended up calling it quits about half way through. In total I burned 1420 calories so it was still a great workout. Just need to rest some.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top