hotel workouts

i am now in seoul. everything on the computer screen is in korean. there is internet in my hotel room! also a tv with a vcr AND dvd player! you know what that means... stepping with me and CathE! the disc skipped a bit, so i missed pieces, but yes i DID do my step workout in my room today. er, yesterday night. which was saturday. i have sunday free, and then training starts on monday. on my personal agenda is to buy gloves and a scale. gloves first, it's cold as a mo fo. k, gots to sleep now.

"Meal on My Own"

so im embarking on a career change and going into teaching esl and i'm leaving for south korea TOMORROW MORNING! im very very exited. im packing, stocked up on deodorant, got my boxes all set to send to myself later full of cute smaller clothes, gonna be great. i had one last appointment with jc yesterday; i wanted to discuss doing what they call "meal on my own." w/jc, you get your main jc meals and then your snacks, and the snacks are defined as a starch, fat, meat, milk, fruit, or vegetable. they gave me a break down of how many of each im to have at my calorie level of 1700 a day. so for example the jc complete start cereal i used to eat in the morning is equal to 1starch and 1milk. so i can find my own cereal, or go to the jc list of what's a starch and what's a milk and have something else. i can also mix them up however i want, like eat 4 meats in one sitting if i wanted, so long as i eat everything listed for that day and not go over calories. it's much easier than i thought it would be. being on jc for this little while, the transition is ok. this is why i dont agree w/people who say jc is no good b/c you'll gain all the weight back once you stop eating their food. not so, you're supposed to stay on the program, you transition slowly from jc food to your own, one meal at a time, until you're doing all your own. if you gained everything back once you stop w/jc food, then you werent paying attention when you were on the program. dont blame jc, you'd have gained it back anyway. same reason i dont blame optifast, or nutrisystem or anything else ive done where i was not successful with the program, b/c really EVERY PROGRAM WORKS, but it's what you do and how you live after you finish said program that counts most. pero anyways, the scale is bouncing around 238-240, hasn't gone over 240.5 in days. im happy. and man, do i LOVE my stupid step workout, i've been doing it everyday. i want to buy a new step dvd now. so let me get off this computer, i got so much stuff to do. good day, blogworld!

im stopping jenny craig

2/04/07 today was supposed to be my last jc appointment. i called to postpone b/c i wont have money until monday, and turned out the consultant i'd been seeing no longer works there. ah lindsey, i'd hardly knew ye! so i just canceled altogether. im on my own now. i thought i'd be scared, but im feeling very confident. the daily exercising has helped for sure, makes me very confident. and i got calorie-count.com, i got sparkpeople, i got you all in blog world, im'a be ok. it's been in the back of my mind this whole time about going solo anyway, i've been scheduled to leave for korea since early november. im ready. keeping in mind that this weight loss is a life style change, that there's no start or finish, really, makes it all less daunting. there's no, "i have to lose 20 lbs by April" or anything, im not in a competition, this will happen for me, i know it, b/c everyday i keep trying. so i did a lot of giving away today. i posted items on craigslist one by one, and within ten minutes of each posting, someone called to come pick up said item. my balcony is so clean and clear now! i gave away the aerobic rider. i did rather like that machine, tho i didnt use it daily. not even twice a week, i think. s'cool, b/c i love my step set and balance ball. i've packed a couple boxes of clothes and books to send to myself in korea. using the cheapest method of surface mail will take about 2 or 3 months to arrive. and all them clothes are sizes smaller than i am now, b/c i just KNOW they'll fit by the time they get to me. :)

my past contributions to the Fitness Industry.

look at that photo! if only it really were pennies that i pissed away at the gym! maybe it's a reverse photo showing what i was left with AFTER the gym membership. the lesson i learned: having a gym membership isnt going to make you lose weight. using it, yeah, but just having the automatic monthly withdrawal set up to keep that membership, not so much. silly sha. these are the gyms i've made monthly donations to, in no particular order:

• 24hour Fitness. i went less than 5 times in 6 months and decided i ought to cancel. if you decide to cancel your membership, prepare to keep calm and have ample time to sit on the phone. When i tried to quit, the only way to cancel was to call this 800 number, and there was always a hold. i tried for 4 days in a row, holding for over 45 min each time, and when i did finally get through, a woman answered with a scripted message that the system was down and please call back another time. >:( i think i just ended up calling the gym directly and did an "angry customer" thing and demanded they cancel my membership right then and there.

• The Women's Club was close to my school, so i thought i'd for sure be coming here regularly, esp since it's a women's only gym. yeah, didnt happen. well, i did start out ok, i really loved the hip hop dance class, and i did stepping for the first time and enjoyed it. all kinds of different classes were offered regularly, but my attendance was sporadic at best.
  

• The Arc is the Aztec Recreation Center on the campus of my alma mater. It's also the acronym for the Association of Retarded Citizens, but that is completely unrelated. Tho the Arc was close, could be hit up before or after classes, and was open 24 hours a day, i found it too intimidating to work out with all those tight college bodies. if you went after 6pm, it'd be packed until well after midnight.
  

• Curves for Women opened up right down the street from my house, less than a mile away. thought to myself, "Huzah! The answer to all my problems is here!" yeah... no. yet again, i did not accept into my brain that you have to GO to the gym for things to happen. i made monthly donations to this thang for like 3 years. well, at least it was black-owned. Ujamaa!
  

• i've had home exercise equipment, treadmills and exercise bikes and the like, that i was fortunate to come up on for free, and whattyaknow: having them just sit in your living room doesnt make you lose weight either! :)
  

i dont have a gym membership anymore. dont know if i ever will again. not to knock gyms at all, glad i got to try all of these, but i think i am just not a gym person. i really enjoy my home workouts, but i think that is just my nature: i spend and enjoy a lot of my time alone. i get excited when i get in a groove, i talk to myself and the cats and the instructor on tv about how much fun were having. and of course, the type of home workout i do makes a difference. maybe im a little vain too, b/c i want to be seen in public looking cute, not sweaty or jiggly or struggling. Hmmm, maybe that attitude will change when i am closer to goal weight, maybe i will feel like i look like an athlete, glistening from a hard workout. time will tell. in the meanwhile, i'm still stepping in front of my tv at home. anyway...

do what works for you!

240.8

it's 8:40am and the scale says i weigh 240.8. yeah, mang!

thus starts a new month.

it's feb 1st, my weigh-in is 242.4. note the annoyance in my face on this month's photo. i've not been writing down and tracking all my food. and the exercise is only just really becoming routine; when i work out today, it'll be the 4th day in a row. but it's the eating that's the weakest for me, i know, even if i didn't exercise at all, i still could've lost if i kept track of my nutrition. so my weight is up 0.6 lbs from january 1st. well hey that's not so bad. i can work with that. i'm keeping track now. now is what's important. keeping track keeps me on track. im awake, im aware. i'll leave february in the 230's. oh and did i tell you all and i did my entire step workout yesterday; warm up, combo 1, combo 2, and the cool down. the WHOLE thing! the first time i tried it, i could barely get through just the warm up!yeah, that's right! im doin' it!

Milestones

i started this list so that i can look at my milestones and remind myself that i am making progress... b/c dammit, weight loss happens soooo slowly... but that's ok. progress has little to do with speed and everything to do with direction.

• dec 31 2006: lost the 1st 10 lb

• jan 18 2007: did home workout for the 1st time & only could get through the warm up

• jan 30 2007: completed entire home workout for the 1st time.

• feb 24 2007: realized i havent had any sore ankles in forever... not since nov.

• march 09 2007: down a full twenty pounds.

• november 08 2007: down 25 lbs.

• april 07 2012: down 40 lbs.
• may 2017: i have returned, blogworld. kkkk ;)