I'm not a whale anymore

Well, this week was our first weigh in for our new group. I am not a Whale anymore, the members of the group were upset because it gave a negative image of our group. I can see it but I did like what it stood for, and I thought it was funny. However not everyone shares my sense of humor and to be politically correct I really don't wish to offend anyone, so with that in mind...Who are we?

I don't know, there was some discussion on it, but nothing ever came about. I did come up with a name for the group, I like it, it doesn't offend and it sort of has a double meaning, I will throw it out to the group next week and if it is voted in, then I will let you know the name next week.

This week's meeting, while I enjoyed the meeting, there is some struggling going on with the other members. It seems as if some of the members are having a hard time getting motivated. What to do, what to do? I wish I had the answers for them but plain and simply I think each person has to find it within themselves to find the motivation. I personally just needed a jump start to weight loss again, I admit I lost my motivation and put about 16 pounds on from where I was at. I thought about the quote all of last week from the Kung Fu Panda movie, and it is still sticking with me.

We had to set a goal last night and we will continue to set monthly goals which are attainable. If I do not reach my goal I must pay a fine at the end of the month. I thought long and hard about it and I decided to exercise three days per week for at least thirty minutes. I can usually make it twice a week because of a class, but I can not make it more than that for whatever the reason, so I am challenging myself to do this.

I am back on track and this week's weigh in was a good one. I lost a whopping 13 pounds! Can you believe it? I knew I would do okay, but I never thought it would be this good, this is a great feeling for me.

So now I am going to close this week with a different thought, one that is very important and crucial in this time in my life:

SAVE OHIO LIBRARIES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please tell everyone you know to call or email our state senators and state representatives and most importantly Governor Strickland. Time is running out and your input could make all the difference.

I'm a WHALE

Well, what can I say? We started our new diet this week. All new weights, all new rules, and all new name. Our group name is WHALE and it stands for Weighing Healthy And Losing Effectively. My nephew, Taylor, came up with this name and it fits our group. There is humor in this name, and isn't that what dieting should be about? Having fun while taking the pounds off? We are a motivational group that follows healthy eating guidelines. We stress the importance of food journaling, portion control, exercise, and getting a minimum of six glasses of water daily. Any diet plan you think about following is going to say that these are the key steps to following a healthy lifestyle.

This is actually not much different than the TOPS group we belonged to, but we felt that being part of a national organization, we should have received more support than we did, so this is why we broke into our own little group. The topics will range from person to person as all the members will share in presentations. We will take turns giving some sort of presentation or just having a round table discussion (even though our tables are never round). Diet groups are a strong source of motivation and we can all learn from one another. I am excited to be doing this.

Needless to say, I haven't been doing too well for the past few weeks, I have not been motivated, and I put some of the weight back on. It is important to keep this up. I am not sure why I lost my motivation or how I lost track of staying on my diet, it just sort of happened. Now I have to get back with it, I am still not super excited about it like I was when I first started, but I am committed to doing it and sometimes that is what it takes.

When there are stress factors in my life I tend to turn to food, and I have to learn to stay away from that because I am thinking that the stress in my life is not going to go away anytime soon. Oh, the joys of raising a teenager. I will get through this though one day at a time.

I read Kim Bensen's latest blog entry and I have to say that it helped me tremendously. She was talking about the movie Kung Fu Panda, and this excellent quote came from that movie, I love it, it means something to me , so I want to share it with you too. "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, that's why they call it the PRESENT." What a wonderful thought, and as Kim said if we can just forget about all of our yesterday's and not worry about all the tomorrows we just focus on today, think about staying on your diet plan for just TODAY, and what a present you will give to yourself. Then before you know it, all of your today's will help shape all of your tomorrows. That is what I got from Kim's blog and it makes perfect sense to me.

So, thank you my little Tater Tot for coming up with our awesome group name and kudos to my baby sis, for coming up with my ending statement.

Until next week, I hope to lose nothing but weight and gain nothing but knowledge. (and have fun doing it)

What is it about starting over?

Well, I did not post a blog last week, and it seems I have a lot to say this week. I did not go to weigh in last week, it is the first time I missed getting weighed since I started my diet. I had a severe migraine last week that took almost the entire week to get over.

So, here I am, and the most I can say is that I am depressed right now. I am not sure that there is any one thing I can attribute it to, it just is what it is. I lost my wallet last week and while it was returned back to me, it was returned without any of the money or credit cards. It was my own fault for losing it and I am glad that I got it back but man it really bites that I lost so much money. Fortunately I have had a couple people help me out and that helps but this is going to be a tough month because I had just enough to cover what was lost and there is no extra money, but in most cases there really isn't much extra anyways. Are you tired of my pity party that I am throwing for myself? Well, I am almost over it, but wait there's more. I had the migraine, my illnesses are getting in the way and I lost ALL motivation for dieting for about two weeks now.

This past Monday was weigh in and I gained 5 1/2 pounds. There are no excuses except that I was lazy and didn't follow.

We are having problems with our TOPS group, as to not getting the support we need from our chapter leader and that makes things rather difficult on all of us, so we decided we were going to dis ban from the group. Why pay money to an organization that will not give us the help or support that we need? This was not a rash decision made on our part, we did take steps to get communication started with our chapter leader but to no avail. Anyways, personally, I hate the political crap all this brings. Our group is going to stay together and keep doing what we are doing so all is not lost, it is just we won't receive recognition from our chosen organization.

Not a big deal, if I want to pursue this in any other fashion, I have proof about the weight I have been losing.

So, we are starting over. I have to lose my 10 percent body weight all over again. The 41 pounds I had lost while it is good for my overall health; is starting over, at least with this group.

I think this is a good thing because it has motivated some of the members that hadn't been there before and now because they are motivated I am too again.

I am back on track this week and though it is hard it is still happening. I went off my diet for two weeks, which doesn't seem that long but man it is hard trying to get back into the swing of things. I went to the gym last night for my water class and they (the ones running the show) cancelled the class because the water was too cold, and my sister was already there waiting for me and the water temp was 79 degrees. That didn't sound cold to me, let me be the first one to tell you if you didn't already know, it is cold. We managed to stay in the water for 40 minutes and then spent a nice 20 minutes in the steam room. I hear tell that the pool will be fine the next time I go. Let's hope.

Well, since I am starting over on a new but familiar path let me leave you with this quote by Brian Tracy "No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals. "

Until next week...