It’s time for our second installment from Laurie and her Shrinking Story. Last month was her very first submission, and I’m so excited to tell you Laurie’s made some big changes in her lifestyle! Keep reading and see for yourself!
Hello Sisterhood!!!
I am sooooooooo excited to be writing to you again and this time with some really exciting results!!! Woot woot!!
Let me tell you a bit about what I’ve been doing the past month – there’s been a LOT of good stuff going on.
I made a mantra for 2011 that is “be present and deliberate” in my life and I have striven really hard for the past two months to do so, with some really great results, actually. That makes me incredibly happy.
About two weeks ago I came up with a secondary mantra and that is “just try – just finish.” I came up with the first part of it when I decided to try the Couch to 5K running program and I was trying to psych myself into getting off of the couch (literally in my case!!!) and run. “Just Try it once and see how it goes,” I said to myself. Okay, I can try. Then about ¾ of the way through that first session, I came up with the Just Finish part of it. “Just Finish, Laurie, you’re almost done, just finish.” I was exhausted and felt like I was dragging my feet, but I did finish. What an amazing feeling – just amazing. Yesterday I finished day 1 of week 3, which included 3 minutes of jogging – twice!!! It’s so hard for me to believe that just two short weeks ago I was sucking wind jogging for 60 seconds at a time and today I did three minutes – crazy!!! And so wonderful!
As an aside – one of the things that got me thinking about running again, which I haven’t done in about 20 years was watching this video by Ben Davis – it really inspired me and has kept me thinking along the “lifestyle change” lines. It’s so inspirational, if you haven’t seen it – totally worth the watch!
We got a juicer and not just any juicer – we got the Mercedes Benz of juicers as a gift to each other for Valentine’s Day. And I’ve gone absolutely crazy juicing wonderful things for my husband and myself. Luscious green veggies – some of them straight out of the ground (stay tuned for my blog post about that…so exciting!) and fruits off of the trees in my yard. Heaven. And I’ve even gotten linseed oil and flax seeds and added those. Healthy things that I’ve never even considered before are making their way into my life. It feels so good.
On the “move every day” front, I will say that except for a day I was sick and a couple where I took the medicine for water retention, which makes me incredibly dizzy, I moved every day – doing something or another. Some days it was just walking the dogs, some days it was the C25K program, other days with my Wii Fit, which I made my mom get, by the way and we did it together a couple of times. I got a new game for it, which came with a strength band and heart monitor and a personal trainer that kicked my tookas! Some days I did Ashtanga yoga – which is a strength and cardiac workout for me! As you can tell, I like a little variety in my exercise program.
Another thing I did was to make a treadmill desk. I saw this video and it inspired me to make my own. Look for a blog post about the construction of it soon. So in the morning when I’m checking my emails, twitter and facebook, I’ve been walking at about 1.3 MPH. Even if I just do it for an hour, it really shoots my calories burned and steps for day through the roof. Awesome!
Okay – let’s get down to it. This morning I weighed just a smidge over 230, so almost five pounds down, which is beyond exciting for me because I really feel like I’ve gained so much muscle, which as we know, weighs more than fat that I wasn’t expecting to lose any pounds at all. And my measurements are even more exciting – I’m down to 37 in my waist = 2 INCHES!!! I’m down to 49.5 in the hips = 1 inch and in my arms I lost ¼ inch. Everything else stayed the same.
But the most exciting thing for me, which I warned you I cared about more than all of the numbers, is how much better I feel. I wake up in the morning and want to move. I have energy and I get things done. I’m happier and I feel better. I knew the numbers would change slowly for me because the changes that I’ve made have been subtle things that I knew I would be able to maintain for life. I ate fried food (tiny bits), I ate desserts (sometimes a lot) and I balanced that with really, really healthy eating and moving every day – which worked for me.
I feel like the changes I’ve made so far are such small steps, but ones that I can keep going with for the long haul.
I want to thank again those of you who commented on my last post. I kept your words and encouragement with me while I was moving every day and they made such a huge difference!!! Thank You So Much!!
This was Laurie last month. Next month we’ll bring you an updated after photo, and we are so excited to see the changes!!
Laurie’s Before Picture – 1/31/11
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