weight/exercise | Permission to Peruse

The gym – check

October 20th, 2007 at 2:33 pm / Amy Bennett / 3 Comments »

So I made it to the gym today. Honestly, I didn’t like this 24 hour gym nearly as much as the Y. There were some plusses.

It was a short walk in. This is situated in a shopping strip instead of the huge building and parking lot the Y has. It was nice that when I forgot something in my van (twice) all I had to do was take a couple steps out on the sidewalk.
I was the only one in there. No one to distract me or compare myself to.
It has TVs built into to every machine. I got to watch a decorating show and Hogan Knows Best uninterrupted. Big plus.
It’s cheaper than the Y.
It’s open 24-7.

But I don’t like…

There is no childcare.
I didn’t like the elliptical machines as well. There was no option for incline. Not as many metrics on there as the Precor ones at the Y.
There are no classes.
And the Y has a TON more other things for the family to do. But honestly, we never really used any of it, so I probably shouldn’t
use that in my comparison.

I don’t know, it’s almost twice as much at the Y but it includes childcare. So I’m not really sure which way I’m going to. I have a free week trial so that gives me at least a little bit of time to decide.

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WW Update

September 11th, 2007 at 10:17 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

This morning I hit my “ultimate goal” of 8 lbs lower than I was and 2 lbs below my original goal. I can’t tell much difference with the last 2 lbs honestly but I’m very proud to have literally changed the way I was eating.

This morning I was fixing some coffee and I thought hey, I don’t need to use Splenda, I could use REAL sugar in my coffee. But honestly, I was like, why eat the calories when Splenda tastes just fine and so I used Splenda. Last night I opened the fridge to eat some ice cream and Edy’s ice cream and then my Skinny cow ice cream sandwiches were there. I chose the Skinny cows because why would I want the extra calories? Small choices like these have helped this past month or so and after using a journal the first two weeks I learned the small things DO add up. A candy bar here and a Frappuccino there DO matter. The great thing is when eaten in moderation, you can still have that candy bar or that Frappuccino. In fact, I’ve enjoyed Krispy Kreme donuts, Edy’s poppable ice cream, ice cream cake and plenty of Starbuck’s all in the past week. It is doable to enjoy your food AND lose weight. I’ve just cut back A LOT on how much snacking I do. Honestly, my main meals haven’t changed that much. It all comes down to the snacking for me.

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WW Before/After

September 3rd, 2007 at 10:24 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

OK, I know before and after pictures are sometimes stretching the truth a little bit…I mean even I was tempted to pull out the 3 weeks post baby picture of me 15 lbs heavier to compare how I look now but I tried to find some pictures that actually made a decent comparison. After Scott snapped some decent full body pictures of me this weekend, I figured now was as good a time as any to post some before/after pictures.

The first picture is me last year at the beach but I didn’t weigh as much as I did when I started WW a few weeks ago. The second picture is back in June where the weight was closer but unfortunately the swimsuit was a little different so it’s not really apples/oranges kind of thing. You’ll notice the weight is pretty much in the belly. Some around the thighs.

And yes, I was slouching, scratching my nose and had no tan in the “before” pictures and all but posing for “after” pictures with a nice, end of summer tan but come on, you know these wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t actually look better in the end….

So I show all that to, yes, say Go Me, but also to say Weight Watchers WORKS and once again 7 lbs was only 7 lbs (was down an extra pound this weekend) and maybe you couldn’t even see the need for me to lose any weight–yes, I’ve heard the “you’re going to blow away in the wind” comment more than I can count–but it was a goal that mattered to me and Weight Watchers was what helped and I highly recommend it to anyone! I do want to note I’ve also been working out for the past 2 years almost so it helped with a lot of the toning but the actual weight never came off until I did WW.

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WW Update

August 30th, 2007 at 2:00 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

So it’s been, what, a month since I started Weight Watchers? Something like that. I splurged this past weekend at one point was up 1.5 lb from goal. With the beach trip this weekend, I’ve been really strict this week and am now under goal by a pound. Which really is like a pound above my “ultimate” goal. It’s really nice to be able to maintain right around goal without much effort or suffering at all.

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It’s official

August 12th, 2007 at 8:58 pm / Amy Bennett / 1 Comment »

Guess who made it to goal this morning!!!??? Woo Hoo! It’s official, it took 18 days on weight watchers to lose 6 lbs. I stepped on the scale at least 10 times to be sure I was seeing right. I’m so happy I’ve done this, I can definitely tell a difference. A skirt that had gotten pretty tight and wasn’t fitting quite right fit perfectly this morning for church. It’s wonderful. I said from the beginning my goal was 6 and if I was being greedy, maybe 8 so I’m not stopping quite yet. But if I maintain where I am, I’m perfectly fine with that as well.

My family thought I was crazy for going on a “diet” but those few 6 lbs made a difference to me. No one can even tell but I can tell every morning when I put my clothes on and that’s what matters. I have to be happy with me. And I’d like to say it’s not a numbers game, but I think in some ways it is. My body was different to me 6 lbs ago. My sister rolled her eyes at me when I told her today I made my “goal”–all 6 lbs. But to me, losing any amount of weight is a success and I’d much rather have to lose 6 lbs than 66. So there’s my pat on the back. Go me.

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WW Day 16

August 10th, 2007 at 9:50 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

OK, I’m getting bored of hearing my stats every day too. So I think this will be last until goal unless something report-worthy happens. This morning I was up 1/2 lb, now putting me 1 lb away from goal. Why this pound is so hard and why it even matters, I don’t know. But I until I see that exact number on the scale, I’m not stopping this thing.

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WW Day 15

August 9th, 2007 at 1:33 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I already wrote this post once and I think something didn’t save right…anyway…

I lost another pound this morning, making me 1/2 lb away from goal. Yay!

I didn’t think it was possible after splurging at church so much last night. I was at 11 points for the day and didn’t eat dinner before I went. I chowed down on doughnuts and cookies and cheese and crackers, etc. I figured if I was going to splurge, I may as well do it right. So I was quite surprised to see the pound gone this morning but no complaints here.

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WW – 2 Weeks

August 8th, 2007 at 10:14 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Weight watchers decided to reward me for making it to the two week mark by taking back the pound I gained yesterday. So I’m a little bummed I had only planned on staying on this for a week and now here I am at 2 weeks with the last pound and a half to go. However, I can’t complain too much. I lost 3 lbs the first week and 1 1/2 lbs this week so maybe only another week or two of strict point counting and I’ll be set.

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WW Day 13

August 7th, 2007 at 1:27 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Congratulations, you’ve stayed on weight watchers for 13 days now and guess what you get?? You get a whole pound back that you lost.

I do not like stepping on the scale and seeing a gain. It’s so very depressing.

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Weekend catch-up

August 6th, 2007 at 9:08 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Wow, that was a pretty busy weekend.

WW Day 11 or 12

I’ve been holding steady all weekend despite having to use Flex Points for two days now.

Saturday

Saturday was pool day. We got in and out of the pool from about 10 that morning to 3 that afternoon. Scott and I were working on getting the water clean. Turns out our filter had parts that were broken, causing sand to come out of the filter thing and also we needed chemicals so although the water is a little cloudy still, it’s a clean kind of cloudy now if that makes any sense. Word on the street is this is the hardest year “pool people” have seen trying to keep a pool’s water clean, so I don’t feel so bad that we haven’t had crystal clear water since filling the thing up back in June.

Saturday was Heather’s birthday so we had dinner at my Mom’s, took the kids to IL’s and my sister and parents and us all went to see Bourne Ultimatum. Wow, that was a great movie. I’ll have to post a separate review on that.

Sunday

Sunday our church choir was having a spaghetti dinner fundraiser after church. After all that, we came home and swam again. It was definitely a “pool weekend”. With temperatures here hanging around 100, there wasn’t really much else you could do. Yesterday evening we took the girls with us to a surprise outing with the youth group to a church member’s house. Can’t really say just house though, more like ponderosa or something. They live on 14 acres of land. They have a log cabin which is fixed up as a retreat type thing with a big screen tv, pool table, etc. They have in ground pool with a 13 foot deep end with an attached little pool house where you could change/use the restroom. They had a frisbee and volleyball net set up. It was really, really nice.

Lexi was having a time with the diving board. Everyone would clear out when it was their turn. They’d see Lexi walk up and say there’s “daredevil” (they learned quickly she is no stranger to water) and she would jump off that board, trying to hold her legs up like the big kids to do a canon ball and jump right in. Emma was much more timid. She’d walk to the end of the board, hold her nose and sort of fall in. That’s the way it is with them though. I’m just glad they both aren’t scared of water and even went off it at all.

We had around 50 people go altogether and besides one leader about break her nose when someone dived on her right after she jumped off the diving board and then someone that pushed our pastor who doesn’t know how to swim in the deep-end and people had to jump in with all their clothes to literally save his life, it was a really good time. Yes, some very serious close calls but honestly the rest of the time was enjoyed by all and I’m sure we will be invading their “house” again for another outing.

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WW Day 10

August 4th, 2007 at 9:48 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Woo Hoo! I’m down another pound today! Yesterday was a tough one too after going to the office and then to the baseball game.

For breakfast, I drank my instant breakfast and had to skip on the Krispy Kreme doughnut or Chick fil a biscuit I normally get.

For lunch, I skipped on several good meals including a huge Mexican lunch I was actually wanting and opted to drag everyone to Applebee’s to get a 7 point shrimp and steak meal. It tasted like 7 points too. Won’t get that one again.

For snack, no candy bar, but I did treat myself to a bottled frappuccino and a bite-size Krackel bar.

For dinner, I got Subway and bottled water at the game instead of a hotdog and fries and a soda. I only ate a few bites of dip and dots and funnel cake where normally I would have completely splurged on all the sugar. When I got home and calculated, I think I stayed within my points and nothing could have rewarded me better than seeing that number on the scale. To infinity and beyond!! OK, I don’t know why I thought of Buzz Lightyear just then, I guess I’m just weird like that.

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WW Day 9

August 3rd, 2007 at 9:40 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Holding steady again. I put on a pair of jeans last night I hadn’t worn since the winter and I could definitely tell a difference. Which is all I was asking for to begin with. So that makes me happy. I’m still going for 2.5 more lbs though.

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WW Day 8

August 2nd, 2007 at 10:38 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I’m sure you can’t wait to hear what my scale told me this morning! I was back down that 1/2 lb. I had gained yesterday. So yay.

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grrr…

August 1st, 2007 at 9:11 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Posted a 1/2 lb gain this morning. No wonder people quit dieting. Play by the rules and STILL gain. So one week, 3 lbs lost. I guess if I was only doing weekly weigh-ins, I wouldn’t be so disappointed but still. Grrr.

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WW Day 7

July 31st, 2007 at 8:44 am / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

I was way under my points yesterday especially after gaining points going to a class at the gym but my weight maintained this morning. In case it’s hard to keep track, I’ve lost 3.5 lbs since I started last week and to meet my goal, I’d like to lose at least 2.5 more lbs, 4.5 if I’m being greedy. I had hoped I’d continue with a pound a day, making this just a week process but it looks like the last few might be stubborn.

In really good news, I’ve found I actually like eating different, healthier things. Last night I made sweet potatoe fries and they were delicious. In fact, I think I would take a plate of those over McD’s fries any day. I’ve found that I really like tomato sandwiches and the skinny cow ice cream sandwich fixes my ice cream craving just as well as a chocolate milkshake. I’m not sure if I’ll stick to having 18 points a day for the rest of my life, but I do think this has opened my eyes a little to trying healthier, new foods and actually enjoying them.