My Family and My Life at Castle Lynn

  1. Stay within my WW points. 

  So far so good, I still have 6 weekly points and 16 activity points left for the week. I always journal, but to be honest for the last few months I ALWAYS go over in points. Now the tricky part of the weekend is coming up, so I need to get smart here.

2. Stick to my workout schedule. 

  I ran 2 miles on Monday. I walked the dogs, swam laps, and did weight training on Tuesday. Yesterday I went to a 90 min yoga class in the morning and ran 4 miles with my running group in the evening. This morning I feel like I was beat up with a stick, but I'm planning some house work and maybe some yard work.

  Normally I would take the puppies for a walk but Penny has some kind of pain. She won't jump up on the furniture; she just paces back and forth looking longing up until someone lifts her up. And she is walking slowly and her tail is down. She takes the steps to the yard very gingerly. Obviously something hurts, but I can't really tell what. I gave her a baby aspirin and she gets a day of rest today. Then we will see.

3. Don't eat in my chair in front of the TV in the evening.

  We have done this 3 nights in a row. It seems to be working so far in helping me to eliminate my cravings to eat mindlessly while watching TV.

Tonight we are meeting up with my Sister-in-law and her husband for dinner. I always enjoy being with them. We will be going to Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet. The food is so good and so healthy too. As long as I don't go overboard on portion size and watch the dessert I'll be double happy. OP and Yummy Food.

On Tuesday, October 14, 2008 I became a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers. I did this by reaching my goal weight and mainting that weight for 6 weeks. I am so proud of myself I just can't express it in words.

I did switch to the CORE plan of eating foods. On the CORE plan there is a list of healthy foods of which I can eat any amount of them and not have to count the points. The limit being that I eat only when I'm hungry and stop eating when I am full. I also have 63 weekly points to eat foods that are not on the list. So far I have enjoyed the freedom of eating healthy foods to my satisfaction and have not felt limited to only those foods. My daily weight still swings erratically between 132 and 134, but that is probably a normal flucutation.

My current goal is to get my body fat % down to 23% without losing more weight. I am trying to do this by eating a little more protein and working hard at increasing my muscles at the gym. I am taking a 90 minute yoga class 2-3 times a week. I also practice yoga at home. I run 30 minutes or more 3 times a week. I go to the gym and lift heavy weights 2 times a week and do some cardo for 20 or more minutes while I'm there. But my body fat % is holding pretty steady at 25%.

Well my personal trainer and I are going to have a talk about that on Monday and we shall see what the new plan is.

Maintenance: Now that I am at my goal weight for WW I need to maintain that weight for the next 6 weeks. Then I will be a Lifetime Member and I won't have to pay for meetings any more as long as I weigh in once a month and do not go 2 pounds over my goal weight. I will be using those 6 weeks to learn how to add back some points and eat more foods without going back to my old ways of eating that got me into so much trouble in the first place. This is the scary part and the part where all diets before have failed me. But since this is a Live-It it is going to be OK! http://www.weightwatchers.com

My next goal is to get my body fat percentage to 23%.

In January when I started my body fat percentage was 41%, now it is hovering around 25-26%. At about 133-134 pounds this means I should have about 103 pounds of muscle. Currently I have about 99 pounds of muscle. So my aim is to rev up my weight training and eat more protein. My trainer, Aaron ,has approved the WW food plan and is happy with the variety of foods I have been eating, with two exceptions. Eat more protein and don?t eat starchy foods (carbs) in the evening. (Some of my online friends know him as the Nazi Trainer, but as he might read this we?ll have to address him more politely.) So he means bread, tortillas, rice, WW cake, potatoes, etc. Now that I get more points to eat, I can easily accomplish those two wishes and still be on my Live-It. This means if I want a sweet treat in the day, I?ll need to eat it as lunch dessert which is my favorite time to eat sweets anyway. 

In the Gym.

Aaron switches up my workouts every time I go. It is always a mystery to me what we might do. But basically over the last 2 months I have built up my strength until now I am working with free weights. Generally I do 3 sets of each exercise and walk around the gym between each set to keep my heart rate up. Some times I do 2 or 3 exercises at the same time. One set of the 1st exercise, one set of the 2nd exercise, and then one set of the 3rd exercise. Go for a walk and then start on the second set. The first set is normally at a weight that is a little heavy for me and I do as many as I can, 20 or 40 reps. The second set we increase the weight to more than seems like I can do, and again do as many as I can, 15 to 25. The third set is less weight than the first and I get to do 10-15 more reps than I did the 1st time. Usually one time we will concentrate on upper body, chest, back and arms. The next time will concentrate on the core, which basically means 5 kinds of setups from hell. We work in squats and leg presses here and there, I guess he thinks my legs look ok. According to Aaron this is how we build muscle. http://www.goldsgym.com/gyms/trainers.php?gymID=1039

Out of the Gym. 

I will continue with my other activities to keep working on the fat as we build muscle and hope my weight stays the same.

Yoga: I take a yoga class 2-3 times a week for flexibility. I have been taking yoga classes with Devon for about 7 years now. I feel certain that yoga has made all of my other activites possible at my age. Which is 54 by the way. I rarely get sore from weight training, just a little stiff for awhile until I stretch it out again.  I also practice yoga poses as my stretching routine before and after I run. http://www.clearspringstudio.com

Running: For a cardio workout Penny (my Jack Russell Terrier) and I run about 30 minutes 3 times a week. On the off days I usually walk Penny very briskly.  Lucy (my old Lab mix) gets to join in a 15-20 minute amble with us prior to our cardio work outs.

Swimming: I also like to swim 15-20 minutes after my weight training to relax my muscles and just have fun. Really I joined a gym in the first place so I would have access to a pool. Where did I  get off track?

Anyway that is the plan for now; I?ll let you know how it works.