Monday, June 25, 2012

Week 24

Although last week was a restart, and this is kind of the start of week 2, I wanted to keep my stats correct, so last week was in fact week 24 since I started weight watchers online.

I set myself 3 goals for this week.
1. To go to three gym classes. I went to aqua aerobics on Monday which I enjoyed, until the evening :( Then I was in so much pain - previously I had been doing water running, which is a class in deep water so there is no impact, I never thought about this when I did the aqua aerobics class and was quite happily bouncing away for an hour, not good when you have two herniated discs :( So that was the end of that! I did then go for a swim later on in the week, I never made it to the gym a third time last week :( BUT I did run a 5k on my treadmill at home - so I think I deserve to say I kind of succeeded in that goal ;)

2. To walk 10,000 steps every day - the week started well and I achieved this Monday to Friday, then Saturday I didn't get out of bed till 12 noon, so struggled to make up the steps, and only did 6800 steps, BUT overall for this week I hit 70,000 steps - and averaged at over 10,000 steps each day. So I'm going to let myself have that one too :) Although looking at my fitbit stats I can see I still am sedentary a lot :( Need to work on that. Going to aim to beat my overall steps taken this week :)
3. To track everything I ate 100% - no grey areas here - i tracked 100% (forgot to tick off my healthy checks though - but that's not super relevant). I used 20 of my weekly points, and ate all my daily points except for one day. I tracked activity points for the days i went to the gym and did my 5k, but never used them.
So how did I fair on the scales after all my hard work this week?
I lost 5.2 lbs :) Taking my total loss to 11.4lbs this year.

I had a great week, wasn't as planned as I hoped to have been, but I did good. I even ate out once and had popcorn at the cinema. Here's to another great week (and hopefully great loss)

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Summer Challenge Week 6 results

Two more weeks left of the challenge - how is everyone doing?

Sadly we lost two of our challengers this week, they both wished everyone well in the challenge and lots of luck. So for the rest of you this is a good thing as there is now only 15 people left in the challenge, plus I'm not eligible for the prize, so you have an even better chance of winning. Plus one of the people we lost this week, was in fact our overall biggest loser, so that is opening the field lots for you.

Last week I challenged you to all make a recipe that you hadn't made before and tweet about it using the #losew8in8 tag, I was a little disappointed that only 3 of you posted on twitter about this. The spot prize is going to go to Marisol N  (@missmarisol) as she posted a picture and the points value :) She made salmon, salsa and grilled asparagus. Marisol please DM me your address for your spot prize.

Down to this week's numbers. Between you there was a total loss of 10.6lbs which worked out at 0.34% and the running total is now a whopping 112.7lbs. So a big pat on the back to you all.

This week we have a new weekly biggest loser who lost 1.98% this week and that title goes to Sarah G (@Sarah1807) she also now jumps to the top and is our overall biggest loser with a whopping 7.25%. So double congratulations to you.

Two weeks left, just a reminder that I do need a photo of your final weigh in result (whether it be scales or a copy of your weight watchers log.  I know some of you have just been sending me numbers for the past few weeks which is fine, but it needs to be a photo for the final weigh in.

Challenge for this week - I'm going to open this up to you. I want someone (ideally today or tomorrow) to post on twitter a challenge for the group and make sure you use the #losew8in8 tag. One it has been tweeted I will be looking for updates as to how everyone is getting on with it. It can be food or exercise related.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Virtual Summer 5k

A few days ago I was on twitter catching up on a few posts and I saw that someone had signed up for a virtual 5k run via Running, Loving, Living you could choose to do 5k or 10k or both and you could walk, jog or run. So I thought why not. Also the good part is there are prizes, everyone who takes part gets put into the draw for the super cool prizes. I did a few virtual 5ks a few years back and thought it would be good practise for the two 5k walks Im doing next month.

I planned to go out to a nice quiet, flat location to complete the 5k, but it was quite warm outside today so I decided I would face the treadmill!! For those of you who don't know, last month I was on the treadmill and fell off, and twisted my knee and back, and I haven't faced it since, so I wasn't overly keen on getting back on. I decided to keep it at a nice steady pace, no attempting to run like I did last time, so I stayed between 3 and 3.5 mph, the first mile was really easy, then I started to find it harder, what didn't help is the fact the sun started shining through the window on to me and the treadmill, but I wasn't going to get off to close the blinds, so I carried on. The last mile was the hardest and I thought I was never going to see the display say 3.11 - but it eventually did, and it felt so good to have done it.

Not sure if it was because I was in the sun or just I was working hard, but I don't think I've sweated so much in my life. Don't worry I drank a liter of water whilst on the treadmill and plan to go and drink some more now.

So my finishing time, which was a bit slower than I would have liked, but I do find I'm slower on the treadmill in general anyway was 59 mins and 57 seconds, so I just broke the hour :) This will now be my target to beat for the two 5k's next month.
Proof I ran 3.11 miles (5k) in 59 mins 57 secs
It was a hard, sweaty workout!



















Thanks to Running, Loving, Living for hosting the challenge, and I'll let you all know if I win anything. Just a shame I don't have a medal to show for my efforts :(

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

June Bark Box

It was Jess and Bluey's favorite time of the month yesterday when the mailman delivered their BarkBox. Yet again they weren't disappointed.
 

















Everything was very well sealed this month, so it took them a good few minutes of sniffing before they gave up and waited for me to unwrap things :)

The first item I took out was some beef freeze dried food from Stella & Chewy's. There was no feeding instructions on the packet, so I broke a small piece off to see if the dogs would eat it - of course they did! So between them I let them eat it. I went online later and found out it can be fed to them as it came or re-hydrated with water. I have heard lots of good and bad things about feeding a raw diet, so not sure I would make the change to a raw diet just yet.
The next edible treat in the box was the double nut super boost treats from Tumbleweed & Eddie's At first when I gave them to my dogs they turned their nose up and wouldn't eat them, which is unlike them, but I think they were hoping for more of the beef food!! I tried them with these treats again today and they both ate them straight away.

 

















The next two items were my favorite ones in the box. There was a minty fruit smoothie from Mr Barksmiths Both of my dogs are big fans of frozen treats, so I am sure they will love it, especially in the warm weather we are currently having.  I have placed it in my freezer and will be letting them try it in the next few days.

Most dog owners have heard of kong toys, and I thought this next item was pretty similar until I read all about it. The Gimme gummy from safemade and is made of food grade silicon and is freezer, oven and dishwasher safe. They have a recipe section on their site, for some cool ideas for filling the toy too. I normally put peanut butter in these type of toys, so will be interested to see what new ideas they have.
The final item was a soggy paws dog towel from Farfetched. It is a towel with pockets making easier to hold and dry your dog at the same time. I plan on leaving mine in my car for beach days.

A special thanks to the BarkBox team for including some summer tips for dog owners in the box too. Don't forget if you sign up at www.barkbox.com and use the code SASCO020 you will get $5 off your first box. Go on  - treat your puppy :)

No more frizzy hair

 
I've been a very busy Bzz Agent lately getting to try out new products, the latest one is one of my favorites. It is  Frizz-Ease® Sheer Solution Lightweight Frizz Control I've used it for the last three days and haven't had to use my hair straighteners once, as it leaves my hair looking and feeling silky smooth all day.

One of the suggested tasks as part of this campaign was to take a photo before using Frizz-Ease® Sheer Solution Lightweight Frizz Control and one after using it, so here goes.

Before: This was taken approximately 4 hours after washing and blow drying my hair. It's not a great photo, as I took it in the sunlight, but you can see some of the frizz and how my hair has gone curly.
After: This photo was taken today, 7 hours after washing and blow drying my hair and using Frizz-Ease® Sheer Solution Lightweight Frizz Control. As you can see hardly any frizz and my hair is really straight and I didn't need to use hair straighteners. Both days I have been outside and it's been between 40% and 50% humidity.

One of the great things about this product is you don't need much of it, they recommend 10 drops, I used just over 10, and it is a quick to use, and the bottle is small so handy for traveling. I am eager to try it on a day where I don't blow dry my hair to see if it leaves my hair feeling heavy or greasy. I believe it is priced around the $9.99 which I think is a great price.

As part of the campaign I received lots of free samples of this product, so if you would like to try some let me know :)

For those of you who aren't aware of BzzAgent, it's free to join and they send you products to try (90% of the time free of charge), and you get the fun job of trying them and telling your friends all about the good (and bad) experiences with them, and then you write reviews on the products. They are always looking for new agents, and they are in the US, Canada and the UK.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Fresh start

I've been off track now for a fair few weeks, and as a result my weight has slowly been creeping back up. So I made a decision on Friday of last week that I would move my weigh in day to Monday and start a fresh from today :) I think having weigh in on a Monday will make me more accountable over the weekend.

So I faced the scales this morning and my current weight was 286lbs, so a small gain since Wednesday of last week. As you can see from the chart it's been a gradual creep back up, the lowest weight of this year was 274 which was the end of April - makes me wonder where I would be now if I had stayed on track! I guess it's not a complete disaster (well maybe a little one) as I do have a loss of 6.2lbs since I started following weight watchers in January.


I am setting myself a few goals.
1. To go to a minimum of 3 classes at the gym each week, yes that's right I signed back up. I had to cancel my previous membership when I moved, so am now a member of the YMCA in Berkeley. I started the week well and went to aqua aerobics this morning.
2. I want to make sure I hit at least 10,000 steps each day on my fitbit - I will be tweeting my daily progress when I go to bed each night - it's looking good so far today as I'm already on 9641 steps. 
3. I am going to track 100% and will aim to eat all my daily points and some of my weekly points, but won't be eating my activity points.

If all goes to plan I should be back here next week reporting a nice loss. Also all the extra exercise should help with my back issues, I'm still in a little bit of pain, but not too bad at the moment, so hope it will improve and I won't need another epidural injection or surgery.

Have a great week everyone
xxx

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Summer Challenge week 5 results

I can't believe we are at week 5 already, only a few more weeks to go :( Would anyone be interested in hosting the next 8 week challenge? 

So how did you all get on this week with exercising when watching TV? Most of the time I forgot, but a few evenings I did do my physio exercises in front of the TV, which includes doing planks :) Does that count?

Challenge for this week - let's go with a food related challenge. I've been doing lots of planning this week and reading magazines, and have a list of all the recipes I want to try. So the challenge for this week will be to try a new recipe, and post the pics and link to the recipe on twitter using the #loswew8in8 hashtag - you can make a blog post and link to it or however you want to do it. I will even offer a spot prize for this challenge. 

Numbers time - and yes I gained again :( I'm starting a fresh tomorrow and moving my weigh in day to Monday, so hope to have a loss by the end of the challenge. This week's biggest loser title goes to Kipp (@scribble_nibble) who lost 1.41% - a special well done for you :) Lisa S (@LisascottLisa) remains the overall biggest loser with a whopping loss of 6.04%, there are three weeks left in the challenge and there a few of you who are not that far behind - so its still an open field.

Between us (or should I say you!) there was a total loss of 11.9lbs this week which was 0.34%. Well done, and since the challenge started the overall weight lost is 102.1lbs - I am so proud of you all.

Good luck for the week ahead and don't forget about those recipes.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Catch Up time

Hello :)

Yes I know other than my challenge blog posts (well done to all the participants) I've been AWOL - apologies.

Life has been busy, I moved house and have had lots of visitors staying. My mother in law has been here for the last two weeks and flew home today, so I will be resuming normal service again shortly :)

So what have I been upto...

We took my mother in law to South Lake Tahoe for her 60th birthday and had lots of fun, we got there on the Friday afternoon and it was 99 degrees, when we left on the Monday it was 55 degrees, heavy rain and there was snow showers expected. Such strange weather. We had the heat the whole weekend we were there, which made it even nicer, we went to a Renaissance fair which was awesome, although not sure Dave was too impressed, as I got them to arrest him for walking off and abandoning me (they have lots of people in character walking around the event acting things out) and they put him in jail and he ended up getting drenched in the water barrel - those of you who are my friends on Facebook can see the photos from the event.

The biggest news for the last few weeks, which I'm sure that most of you would have read on twitter on Facebook, was that Dave and I became permanent residents of the US. We now have our green cards, so you are stuck with us for at least the next 10 years :) and it also means I'm now allowed to go and get a job (which is a scary thought after not working for almost 3 years). Although first I have the fun job of going to the social security office to get issued with a social security number - for those of you in the US - you know what a mundane task this is (much like a trip to the DMV!!). 

As most of you will know I signed up to do the Susan G Komen 3 day, 60 mile walk this September, which I was really looking forward to and had just started the official training (until the day I fell off the treadmill!!). Well unfortunately I am longer going to be taking part :( For those of you who didnt know, I have two herniated discs in my lower spine, I recently had an epidural injection to help with the pain, which worked great, but the last few weeks I have been in some pain again :( I went to see my spine doctor last week and he has said that he thinks I will need a second epidural injection soon, but there is no guarantee it will work, and there is still a good chance I will need surgery on my spine/discs, which can have a long recovery period. I discussed the walk with him, and he advised me against doing it with my back in it's current condition, as he said it would put too much pressure on my discs and possibly do more damage :( So I am no longer taking part. A special thanks again to everyone who did donate to such a great cause. I am still planning to do the two 5k walks next month, which my doctor said shouldn't be an issue as long as I stretch plenty and take it easy. So I will be doing the Do Life walk on July10th and The Color Run on July 14th.

I'm still busy sending and receiving postcards through Postcrossing, I have sent a total of o 20 cards and have received 16 so far, I look forward to the mailman coming each day now in case he has a postcard for me :) It's interesting hearing from people all over the world. I plan to make some kind of collage out of them when I get 20. Not sure exactly what or how, but there will be photos.

Weight watchers - erm........ well...... I haven't pointed in weeks :( and as a result I have gained a total of 5lbs in the last three weeks, taking my total weight loss since the beginning of the year to a measly 6.8lbs. So I now have no excuse to get back on track, I have no more visitors planned until October, and nothing else planned that I can use as an excuse to not track. Plus I joined my local gym yesterday and plan to start swimming again and attending aqua aerobics classes. Feel free to harass me on twitter and Facebook, and any other ways to keep me on track - it will be much appreciated.

Oh and I booked tickets to see The Lion King in SF for my birthday in November :)

If you have made it to the end of my lengthy blog post - pat yourself on the back you deserve it :)


Sunday, June 10, 2012

Summer Challenge Week 4 Results

Sorry for the delay in posting this week's results, I've been a bit busy.

It looks like we all had a much better week this week, and between us we lost 28.9lbs which was a total of 0.81%. Although I feel I must confess :( I am the only one in the challenge who has actually gained since starting! Life has been a bit crazy lately, and I'm hoping it will settle down next week and I can get fully focused and back on track.

So how did everyone get on with their exercise this week? Did you make a conscious effort to get out and exercise everyday this week? You must have been doing something right based on the numbers i got from you all this week.

A big well done to you all for having lost weight so far in the challenge. As I explained at the start of the challenge I was lucky enough to receive some coupons from PopChips to hand out to the winner of the challenge, but turns out the expiry date is the end of June which is before the challenge ends, so that's why I decided to do the half way prize. The biggest loser for week 4 goes to Terri E (@feritae) who lost an amazing 3.34% this week, I know she is been doing lots more exercise this week, so well done to you. The overall biggest loser after the first four weeks goes to Lisa S (@LisascottLisa) who has lost a whopping 6.04% so an extra well done to you - that is an awesome loss. Now unfortunately for Lisa she isn't eligible for the 4 week prize as she lives in the UK, so it will go to our second biggest loser over the four weeks who is Terri E (@feritae) who has lost a total of 5.14%. If you can either email or DM me on twitter with your address I will mail the coupons to you.

Since moving house I have hardly watched any TV, so I was wondering how much TV you guys all watch. I think the challenge this week is going to be TV related. When you next sit down to watch a TV program I want you to also do some form of exercise, maybe squats, push ups, arm exercises - anything that means you aren't just sitting there doing nothing.

Good luck for next week and I'm excited to find out how well everyone does next week.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Summer Challenge Week 3 results

I think there must have been something in the air this week, as we had a few gains between us. Maybe we all over indulged on our Memorial Day celebrations!

We are almost half way through the challenge, so how are you doing? Are you where you wanted to be? Are you going to do anything different for the rest of the challenge? Last week I asked you all to try something different, what did you try? I must confess I never tried anything new this week :(

So numbers time. We sadly lost one person from the challenge this week so are down to 17 participants, that gives you all a little bit of a better chance of winning now. Between us we lost 4.15lbs which was a total of  0.12%.  After three weeks a total loss of 61.3lbs - so well done to you all.

Do you think you made the title of biggest loser this week? The title goes to Alexis A (@divaonadiet) who lost 1.78% this week. Well done to you and our overall biggest loser title goes to Lisa S (@LisascottLisa) who has lost a total of 5.49% in the challenge.

Remember next week is week 4 and we have a prize for the halfway winner. It could still be you.

Let's focus on exercise this week. How many of you can go the whole day and not get out and do any exercise? It's surprisingly easy for the day to pass. So this week lets try our hardest to get out for at least 30 minutes exercise each day, whether it be a walk at lunchtime or first thing in the morning.

Good luck to everyone for the week ahead