I Bow To The Queen Of Steps-Corpus Christie!

I am a fairly competitive person. I was never into organized sports and such, but if you throw down-I’m gonna do my best to beat you! I like to win; I like the feeling of pushing myself to be the winner. Unfortunately, I can’t win all the time. Such was the case on Sunday when Christie threw her gauntlet at my feet and declared that she would have more steps on her pedometer than I. “You’re on!” I roared, “Your ass is GRASS!” I’ll be honest here, I’m an exerciser and Christie is not. I was positive I had this one in the bag. We set our pedometers to zero, typed our goodbyes for the day and headed off for my Wii. I hula hooped. Twice. This one is a good warm up and actually got me a few steps too. Then I did Advanced Step. Twice. I moved on to 30 minute Free Step. Then Island Biking (Twice), Short Run, Obstacle Course and 30 Minute Timed Run.

For two and a half hours (taking several small drink/bio breaks) I kicked my own ass positive that this would outdo Christie’s plans for laundry and a run to the store. I jogged around my living room in my shorts and sports bra-cursing at my children to keep their mouths shut - confident that my plan was secure and I emerge from my sweaty ordeal victorious. I took great pride in finding that while jogging indoors in much different from outdoor, I could still jog a 5K in 30 minutes.

I knew that being Super Bowl Sunday and having planned to go to a poker tournament, I’d be sitting most of the evening. I kept this in mind as I jogged on. I repeated helpful and inspiring affirmations to myself; “You are a winner!”, “You can do this!”, “Every drop of sweat is a calorie burned”, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggoneit-people like me!”

After showering, playing poker and gloating a little to myself about step count, I sat down at the computer to compare numbers with my best friend. “You first”, she says. I smirk a little as I type out my 12,308 steps taken-wondering if she’d like a screen shot of the gorgeousness that is my readout. “Good for you!” she declares, “I’m so proud of you!” Yep, I got this one in the bag, I nodded to myself and sat back and waited. Suddenly there are characters on the screen that I can’t quite comprehend. Where did those come from? I force myself to focus on them. 13,568. Wait. What? “I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at full incline, then 30 minutes at half incline, then 30 minutes of cool down with no incline”, pops up in the next few lines. I swallow. I stare.

I have lost.

I’m so proud of my friend. She is doing so much better than I. Christie has truly been my inspiration and my driving force. Both of us being of a competitive nature has made our weight loss journey interesting and fun. We cry on each other’s shoulders when we gain and cheer each other on when we lose. We challenge one another and share recipes and tips, each wanting the other to succeed almost more than ourselves.

So here it is-my admission of loss in a public forum. I am the step loser for this week.
Next week….She’s goin’ DOWN!

Drowning Anna, Book 5 of Christie and Angie's Literature and Blogging Project.

My family, unfortunately, has been closely acquainted with teen bullies in recent years. My daughter is (Thank the Gods) living proof of the harm that teasing and menacing can manifest into. In 2007, she was hit by a car after being followed/chased on her way home from school. The girl responsible had been a friend for several years but was upset and hurt when she found that the boy she liked, was interested in my daughter instead of her. This child assembled a group of five others having no idea what the consequences of their actions would be. They taunted and threw old soggy newspapers at her.

My daughter’s only injury was a broken leg and a huge hit to her entire thought process, life- its people and the meaning of friendship. While this was a horrible experience to go though, my daughter is one of the lucky ones.

Anna Goldsmith, protagonist of Sue Mayfield’s work Drowning Anna, was not as fortunate.

Moving to a new town, Anna quickly becomes the star athlete, teacher’s pet and all around ace student. She becomes fast friends with Hayley Parkin. At first, she and Hayley are inseparable but after a while Hayley begins to play what would become a horrible game. She begins to tease and belittle Anna, insuring that Anna has little to no one who she can count on. Even Anna’s only friend, Melanie can be easily swayed by Hayley’s influence.

As Anna continues to withdraw, her parents are left wondering what happened and where to turn. Eventually it is realized that Anna has begun to cut herself. Unlike other girls who show off their scratches for attention, Anna hides her deep cuts from everyone. She finally tells her mother, Frances about the abusive treatment at school and is removed from classes with Hayley. Sadly, this does not stop the intrusion.

This book is told from several points of view, keeping you emotionally invested from all sides. We see Anna moving about her home, Melanie recounting events in her words, the parents’ point of view and matter of fact entries and letters from a journal Anna is clutching when Frances finds her after a suicide attempt.

I read this book in one night. While not a huge novel, I received it in the mail (finally) at about 5pm and didn’t put it down until 1am. This book is a fast read that unfolds smoothly and sucks you in, taking you back to high school and reminding us of the bullies we’ve all encountered. I’ll be handing it off to both my children. It is so important to understand how taunts that seem simple and harmless to one can have devastating consequences for another.

Pure, Clear, Life-Giving Water

So I’m off to a good start with Lose it Bitches Challenge. I’ve tracked everything I’ve eaten for the last two days. It’s only 3pm and I’ve consumed my daily intake of water already. Go me! This is a big time for me because I also started taking Chantix again yesterday and I started Hypnosis for Weight Loss class. I’ve got a lot going on, but that seems to be how I work the best. All or nothing, so right now-it has to be all.

Tomorrow is the second of six classes with the wonderful Linda Gentry. She is a professional hypnotist and is using group therapy on the class to help us get healthy! Since I work at the school, I get to take lifelong learning classes at an enormous discount so I figured there was nothing to lose (except weight!). Last week the topic was drinking water. I swear to god every time I get thirsty I hear Linda’s voice in my head saying “Pure, clear, life-giving water”.

The class started out talking about hypnosis, what is and what it can and cannot do. There are a lot of fears and misconceptions about hypnosis. Linda assured us that we would remember everything and that we could never be hypnotized to do something that we wouldn’t ordinarily do. No barking like dogs or clucking like chickens against our will, that was good news. Part of the class instructions were to bring a pillow, at the end of the class period we put our heads down and got comfy. Linda worked her magic with her soothing voice and now here I am all water logged and excited for tomorrow’s class!

I found this handy-dandy ticker so I can publicly display-in an easy to read format-just how well I’m doing.

My hopes are set on small tools like this assisting me in being accountable. I'll be honest, my intentions for this blog were not to turn it into a weight loss blog, but for a while that might exactly what it is.

The definition of Amelioration is in a word: Improvement. That's what I'm working on here. The amelioration of Ang.

Lose It Bitches!

Better late than never, I’m going to jump into the Lose It Bitches weight loss challenge. These ladies have put together a fantastic blog filled with recipes and no-nonsense advice and motivation to lose those extra pounds. You can even get this cool badge. Click on mine to get the code from Think Tank Momma. The challenge runs from January 2nd to April 30th. The challenge winner gets cool stuff and Bragging Rights!

Struggling with my weight is nothing new. I need another approach. I’ve tried Weight Watchers and while I’m still following it half-assing I’m not losing. In fact, since Thanksgiving I’ve gained 10 pounds. My current weight as of yesterday at the doctor's office is 211. I'll be working my way down to 150 lbs.

As of Monday the 25th, I will be (again) quitting smoking. Assuming I can conquer the need to put stuff in my mouth (stop laughing-this is serious) I think I will be losing weight in no time. I anticipate soon after quitting I will have more energy than I know what to do with and will feel like getting off my butt and exercising again. The last time I quit I ran a 5K. Part of my inspiration for quitting and losing the extra baggage is the new found love of running. I really enjoy running. I enjoy the strength and power that I feel in my body and mind. Knowing that I am capable of running miles gives me insane amounts of confidence. When I exercise, the eating right falls in line. I kick my own ass in the gym or on the running track and I won’t let myself undo all that work with bad food. If I’m not exercising (like now) I pay zero attention to what goes into my body.

Anyone care to join me? I’ll be attempting to post weekly progress reports here and maybe throw out some recipes that I’ve “WW-ized”. Wish me luck and stay tuned! I’ll be writing more about weight loss and I’ll soon be posting a blog about smoking cessation.