There have been many things and people that have helped me along my fitness journey, even though I have not finished yet and have loads of work to do I think it is important and perhaps even helpful for me to share what has helped me along the way. Some things may be surprising to you, others may not.
First and foremost I have had an amazing cheerleader, he has kept me accountable every step of the way and said some things that were sometimes hard to hear, but very necessary. My Richy has driven me to my classes at the YMCA, watched the babies while I worked out, moved the elliptical into the house from the garage, bought me rewards to celebrate my victory, kept my scale batteries fresh, tuned up my elliptical, shared links to my blog and the literally the list of what he has done for me to help me along the way is endless. He complemented my willpower when everyone was enjoying pizza and I was eating a salad, and is always asking where I would like to go to eat so that I don't feel limited by the menu options. It was an adjustment period for both of us though, while ordering a cake for our daughters' baby shower Richy was pointing out to me all my favorite pan dulces that I love in the bakery display case, he then got a serious look on his face and apologized for tempting me. I explained that I was not tempted but so appreciated that he is always so eager to feed me things that he knows that I enjoy, nowadays whenever we go to the mall Richy finds my favorite kiosk and purchases a large cup of fruit for me with salt and lemon for flavor. Not only do I truly enjoy eating it, but it is healthy too. To me Richy's patience and support are nothing short of amazing! Richy has always told me that I am beautiful and that did not change when I ballooned up and it has not changed now. When I asked him about how I looked before he said, "Honestly I didn't notice how big you had gotten, because I love you no matter what your size."
Other people have helped me and supported me along the way as well, my Mom for one. She is cheering for me from afar and really wants me to share all my secrets and thoughts as I go through this whole process. My Mom knows firsthand about my lifelong struggle with my weight. Many of my co-workers have helped me as well, since we all started this fitness challenge together we have all been able to watch and learn from each other.
I count my calories, and keep my phone handy at all times to enter meals, and work outs. I use the MyFitnessPal App for android. This program is super simple to use; you start with a base amount of calories a day, mine is 1250, (it was higher but now that I have lost weight I get less calories) and if you exercise you get to consume more calories based on the calories burned during your workout. Entering data is easy, you can search for the food consumed or simply use the barcode scanner to enter the data. I have found other apps that are helpful and that I liked, Accupedo and MapMyWalk.
My goal is to do a minimum thirty minutes on my elliptical every day. I have not always met this goal, and get pretty hard on myself whenever I make excuses not to exercise. Along with my elliptical I have a set of small hand weights for toning, a medicine ball, a yoga ball, a stick, and a belt. The stick I use to do different types of twists to help slim the waist, I could do the same exercises without it but I find that I benefit from it more if I use it. I have had a separated abdomen throughout this process that has made traditional core training difficult, I have used the belt in order to make some adaptations to exercises.
I have attended Zumba classes at the YMCA, in addition to Zumba I have taken CardioKickboxing, Yoga, and Flex Power. I have enjoyed all of these classes and look forward to attending more. Since I can't always make a Zumba class at the YMCA and the kiddos have a Wii, I have taken advantage of the situation and started using the Zumba Fitness game for Wii that Richy purchased for me. It is lots of fun and I think it helps my performance in classes.
Something a little bit unusual that has helped me significantly along the way is my Kindle Fire. In the beginning thirty minutes on the elliptical seemed an unbearable eternity and I found that if I read a book while I was working out it helped the time pass, plus it hid the screen that was counting away the minutes of the workout. Whenever I didn't cover the screen the workout seemed to last forever. I have also used my Kindle Fire for Pinterest. On Pinterest I have found so many suggestions for mini-workouts, recipes and inspiration; a little pseudo retail therapy never hurt anyone either. To fully take advantage of my Fire's capabilities I have downloaded magazines like "Women's Health" and "Shape."
When I need little extra motivation, it is always close by. I simply have to look at my new pant size to see that what I am doing is working. Sometimes it feels like a painfully slow process, but then I see myself slipping into a size 10 for the first time since college and remember that it is all worth it.
Every once in a while I need to remind myself to just breath. I get so focused that when results are not as quick as I would like them to be I get pretty upset. Daily reminders to just breath and do a mini-meditation on it.
One last key element to my success is simple, good training shoes that I am excited to put on every time. I love the obnoxious color combination because they seem to yell, "look at me, I'm working out!"
I see myself needing to update this blog entry at some point when I discover new tips and tricks that have helped me succeed. I know this for sure though the scale is so close to saying 149 that I can taste it, even though when I reach that weight I still have another 25lbs to go, it will seem like such a victory!
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