The Shrinking Jeans of Nancy –

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January 24, 2012 by Nancy

Yesterday was my husband’s 60th birthday. That is one of those milestone birthdays. It was a whole weekend extravaganza of parties and fun.

I did my best to be good and I think I did pretty well. I watched what I ate with one small exception. Saturday we went to Chili’s for lunch. I ordered the avocado burger because it sounded really good. It came on a wheat bun and everything. It tasted awesome. I thought it was the healthier of the burger choices. Boy…was I ever wrong. When I went to enter my food in My Fitness Pal that night, that little burger and her french fry companions were a whopping 1540 calories. What the hell?!?!

Yesterday morning, I had every intention of going to zumba that night. Hubby was okay with my leaving, so I was going. A half hour before zumba, some of our very best friends showed up with wine, beer and cake. I had a small piece of cake and a half glass of wine and didn’t go to zumba. You know what? I didn’t feel guilty at all. I was totally okay with not going. I had a wonderful time with our friends and zumba will still be there next week.

Sometimes, you just have to relax and let things happen for the best. 60 only comes around once and people love my hubby and wanted to celebrate with us. Who am I to say no? A little cake, a little wine and missing one night of exercise won’t kill me.

There you have it. My confessions. How about you? Anything you need to get off your chest?

January 3, 2012 by Nancy

It has been a long time since I have been on my personal blog here at Shrinking Jeans and I’m sorry. It is my plan to post here no less than every Tuesday for True Confessions in the new year.

I saw the picture below on a friends Facebook page and thought it was perfect for how I’m feeling about the new year. 2012 is my chance for a do over, so to speak and I am grabbing it with both hands. My brass ring, if you will.

My biggest confession today is that I have just been going through the motions of weight loss and fitness. I have been eating right (when it suits me) and I’ve been exercising (when I make the time). I’ve been making excuses for both of those things. Not good excuses, but excuses none the less. I am a contributing writer here at Shrinking Jeans. I am one of the oldest people here. Should I not be doing my best to set a good example and not going through the motions and calling it good?

I am confessing here and now that I am ashamed and embarrassed by my attitude and lack of motivation this past year. I was talking the talk, but I sure wasn’t walking the walk. That all stopped yesterday.

Finally, here comes the good part of this confession. I have found my motivation again, my mojo is back. I have begun the very long process of losing the weight and doing my best to be the very best me I can be, inside and out. I am back on My Fitnes Pal and tracking my eating. I am back to classes three days a week. The classes are zumba, piyo and kettle bells. The last two are intense workouts and I’m loving them. I am doing January with Jillian over at the Hood. I am also doing 52 changes with Christy also at the Hood. I am doing a few other things that I will save for another time, but you get the picture.

I confess that I have very intention of making 2012 my bitch. That is my new mantra for the new year. When we go on vacation next summer at the lake again, they are going to see me in a bathing suit. I am going to be strutting my stuff (as much as you can with family) and feeling really good about myself.

Look out 2012! I am gunning for you and you are in big trouble. This is my year and not yours!

July 19, 2011 by Nancy

Oh my friends (you are my friends, right?), have I got some confessing to do. Let’s just go with bullet points.

1. At 3:25 this morning, I got up and ate a bowl of ice cream trying to cool off. It was that hot in my house.

2. There is a major heatwave going on in northwest Indiana and I am a wimp about it. The only real exercise I have done has been in the pool. When I have worked out there, I have worked hard. I am pretty darn sure that I have sweated off several pouinds this week.

3. I redid the front bathroom this past week. I removed old wallpaper and painted. I had to keep turning off the fan so I didn’t decapitate myself. I was sweating like crazy there too. Again, I think I lost some weight there.

4. We live in an old 1930′s home with hot water heat. Because we have no ductwork, we have no central air. My hubby doesn’t see the need to buy so many window air units, so we have a whole house exhaust fan and ceiling fans in most rooms. That is a huge embarrassing confession. To not have central air in this day and age is unheard of.

5. My eating has not been too bad because it has been too hot to eat. But we all know that not eating can be as bad as eating too much.

Okay that’s it. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I honestly think I lost weight. How’d you do this week? Is it hotter than blazes where you live?

July 12, 2011 by Nancy

True and confession. You read those two words and you know you are kind of screwed. We are supposed to come here and truthfully confess what we have done wrong this week. I’m in trouble friends because I did a whole bunch wrong this week.

I went to one of my very best friends family reunion this past weekend. We had so much fun. But oh my heavens did we eat. This Polish girl was at a Mexican family reunion. A three day family reunion. Do you have any idea what kind of food they have at these things? It was like I died and went to heaven. Everything was homemade. There were enchiladas. I helped make 34 dozen of those yummy suckers. There was beans and rice and fajitas. There was Italian beef and guacamole and homemade chips. There was every salad known to man. A dessert table the size of a banquet hall. There was so much, I can’t even remember it all. There may have been some drinking involved and some shots consumed. The brunch buffet on Sunday was better than any restaurant I have ever been to. There was chorizo and eggs and hash browns. There were two kinds of breakfast casseroles. There was warm broccoli cheese muffins and bagels. There was pancakes and a beautiful fruit tray. All the leftovers from the day before were there too. Let me just tell you that now that I know how to make enchiladas, I’ll definitely be making them again. Those things you get in a restaurant…not even close! Now that you’ve read this and seen the size of this paragraph, I think you get the picture. It was so good, but I was so bad.

You’ve heard the bad, now here is the sad. I think I may be done with going to boot camp here. It is getting harder and harder to go. It is a long story, but I’ve become disillusioned by the class. I’m not the only one. The class size as really dwindeled down to a very small group. I’ve talked to several of the other people who have left and we all feel the same way. The bottom line is that you go to classes like this to better yourself and feel good about yourself. You are trying your hardest and that is a good thing. You shouldn’t leave there feeling bad about yourself. I didn’t like it when there were teachers pets when I was 6 and I don’t like it any better at 56. I’ll still be going to zumba I think. That’s a different instructor and so far is still the same.

Last but cetainly not least, I succumbed to the temptation of sweet tea vodka with lemonade. I’ve listened to you people talk about it and tweet about it since Fitbloggin, so I had to try it. Damn…you were right. It is good.

There it is…the whole ugly truth. There is good news in here somewhere. I did good on Wednesday, Thursday and Monday. I plan on being good today. Maybe I have a shot at at least maintaining. It has been in the 90′s here with 4000% humidity, so I’m sweating constantly. That has to count for something. Plus, I’ve been stripping wallpaper in a tiny bathroom with no fan.

So Thea, I didn’t do any better than you last week. I guess we were just bad hookers together. Here’s to next weeks confession. Hopefully that will be a good one!

June 28, 2011 by Nancy

Happy Tuesday! Time to confess our faults and slip ups for the last week. I had a few, but nothing that I’m totally embarrassed over.

1. Like Thea, I missed doing the bursts twice this week in the boot camp. Doing two boot camps is hard and sometimes I guess that I need to pull back a little. It is easier to do that in my own backyard than in front of a bunch of other people.

2. Twice now, I have eaten a 3 ounce bag of Quakes in one sitting. In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that tragic. They are only 330 calories and with the two boot camps, I can afford the extra calories. Still, two bags!

3. I missed my other boot camp once last week and I missed zumba both days. It was a crazy week. I did my stuff at home though.

4. I went to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and I bought cupcakes and I ate cupcakes. If you saw them, you couldn’t pass them up either. I won’t be buying any this weekend.

5. I didn’t drink as much water as I should have, but at least I drank some.

That’s all I can remember. I think that is enough. I’ll try to do better for next week, but we do have a holiday weekend coming up. So…how’d you do?

June 21, 2011 by Nancy

Happy Tuesday! I’m in a good mood today. I have some really good confessions for ths week. Ready, set, confess….

1. I have done really well with my eating. I’ve logged my food every day of the challenge so far on My Fitness Pal and I have been under my calorie goal every day.

2. I worked out every day but one. I overdid it yesterday. I did the SJ boot camp and my usual boot camp and I walked three miles. Let’s just say that by the last circuit of boot camp last night, I really wasn’t giving it my all. I’m going to do SJ boot camp on T/Th/F. That way I won’t be doing boot camp twice a day.

3. My water intake was great. No less than 64 ounces of water a day. Most days I had more than that.

4. I haven’t missed a day with my vitamins.

It feels great to have an all good confession. I haven’t had one of those in a long time. I’m actually excited for tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to a good weigh in for Team 4. We rock!

June 1, 2011 by Nancy

I don’t even know where to start on this one. I have sucked at so much lately. Really I have. I’ll just jump in and see where it leads me.

May is a really bad month for me. It is the manic month of May. There is too much going on and I can’t control any of it. The end of school is the worst part of it. So much to do and so much going on. Most of it is fun stuff, it just requires tons of work on my part. I just keep going like the energizer bunny and hope for the best.

Here’s my problem….with the exception of doing the tworkout while I type this, I can only remember working out twice in the last two weeks. I am scared to death at what it is going to be like when I get back to zumba and boot camp. It is going to be like starting over and I have nobody to blame but myself.

Believe it or not, my eating hasn’t been too bad. I’ve actually been losing a little in this last challenge. I guess that is one good thing I can think about. I guess I have been too busy to eat. That is one good thing busy has done for me. Unfortunately, I haven’t logged on at My Fitness Pal in two weeks.

My nerves and emotions are on edge. I have a couple people in my life that just love to jump on my last nerve. The kicker is if you said something to them about it, they would say I was crazy. The truth is they like to talk about me in the third person on blogs and Facebook like I won’t catch on. It still hurts my feelings. These are people who are always going to be in my life. I may see a showdown on the horizon. My feelings count for something, right?

Well, that’s the ugly confession. No exercise, sad case of nerves, but eating in check. The good news is that there are only seven days of school left. I may be teaching summer school, but that is so much easier than this month was. Only four mornings a week and the pay is great.

The final analysis is that I have to get my head out of my you know where and get back to basics. I can’t use busy as my scapegoat anymore. I had told myself that I was going to get up at 5:00 and workout, but that hasn’t happened, but it really needs to. I have to make time for me in this crazy month. Oh wait, tomorrow is June. Maybe that will help. I guess we’ll see.

Tomorrow is the final weigh in for the May Your Way challenge. How’d you do?

May 12, 2011 by Nancy

The manic month of May is upon us. I have so many things going on that I am missing things. Last Saturday, I had four things all going on at the same time. I need to be cloned to get everything done and attended to. It is one busy month.

Because it is such a busy month, I am already starting to miss fitness classes and I don’t like that. Working fulltime, I can only go to classes at night. Unfortunately, that is also when most of my extra stuff is also going on. My plan is to make sure I am up by 5:00 (oh God did I just say that) and workout before work to make sure that no matter what, I am getting a workout in every day. On the days that I can make class, that is just a bonus.

I am really enjoying the extra stuff for this challenge. I was able to catch the end of Sister Chat and do the tworkout. I loved Happy Hour with Mel. The Monday Mantra helped me through some tough stuff this past week. I just kept telling myself that I was strong and I was. I rocked Sister Says. I drank more than 64 ounces of water every day.

I only lost .08 pounds this week, but I’m okay with that. It was a crazy week with lots of extra things going on. Of course, they all involved food. I was pretty good for the most part. I still had a loss and that’s what counts. I’m hoping for a bigger loss next week though.

So, that’s what is going on with me. How did you all do?

April 29, 2011 by Nancy

I took a personal day off today from work. It was totally selfish and I admit that.

My husband is on a golf trip and my daughter is at a conference. Nobody but little old me at the house for about 36 hours. That just never happens and I couldn’t pass it up. I had to take the day off and relish in the house to myself.

I got up at the crack of dawn to watch the royal wedding. I was a little disappointed. Kate looked pretty, but I was expecting a little more. Her hair looked like she was going shopping. Once that was done, I got busy. Or at least I had planned to get busy.

I wanted to clean house really well. Don’t I know how to have a great day off? I haven’t actually cleaned anything yet though. I’ve sorted, I’ve rearranged cabinets and drawers, I cleaned the fridge and took out the garbage. I cleaned out my purse. I paid some bills. I wrote a post I have due tomorrow. I read other peoples blogs. I read April’s new post here and loved it. But, I have not cleaned my house one little bit.

One thing I did that was productive is I worked out. I got on the treadmill while I watched part of the wedding. I did a little wii zumba and some weights. I guess if I don’t get anything cleaned, at least I did that.

So, now it’s 1:30 and my husband will be leaving for home in an hour or so. It’s a five hour trip. I guess it’s do or die now. I’m thinking that maybe I’ll just hit the shower and go get some grocery I’m pretty sure he’ll want to eat when he gets home.

I would have been better off not planning anything. Then I would have felt like I got a lot accomplished. Have a great weekend. The sun is finally out here.

March 30, 2011 by Nancy

I’m happy to say that I have nothing but good news today. I had an awesome week. So awesome that I don’t even know where to start to tell you about it.

I guess I should start with the change I made. I cancelled Weight Watchers and started My Fitness Pal. I really love it. Most of the girls that I work out with are on there and talked me into trying it. I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted with Weight Watchers and to be honest, it was a lot of work. My Fitness Pal works with calories and there has yet to be a food that I put in that wasn’t already in their database. With Weight Watchers, I was always having to figure out points and I was having trouble changing from the old way to the new Points Plus way.

I have been working out a lot. I’ve been doing zumba four days a week and boot camp twice a week. I’ve been alternating at home with the treadmill, elliptical and bike. I’ve also been doing sit ups and weights.

One thing that I have fallen off on is the 100 push up challenge. It’s not that I stopped doing them. It’s just that we do so many of them at boot camp, I have a hard time keeping up with the challenge at home. Monday night, we did 60 push ups in a 10 minute circuit. We also did a different kind of push up in another circuit. I only managed 42 in that circuit. Try making a diamond with your hands together and do a push up. It’s tough!!

So, here’s the weigh in news. After starting My Fitness Pal on Sunday, the Bacardi part of Team Bacardi and Diet Coke has lost 1.4 pounds this week. I’m anxious for next week to see how I do in a full week.

I feel like I am in a good groove now. How are you all doing? My partner seems to be MIA, so I’m not sure how our team did this week. Hope I find her soon.