Friday, August 31, 2012

I'd say TGIF, but...


...the weekend is going to be rather hectic. No rest for the weary, unfortunately.

Last night was the first HS football game of the season that the marching band attended. Marching Band Boy and I had both been looking forward to the season again, but I'd forgotten how much energy it takes. Plus I was pretty much on my feet for the better part of four hours, so, needless to say, my doggies were a-barkin' too.

I could have slept in this morning, would have slept in except that Marching Band Boy had to be at school by 7:20 to practice one of the movements of the show music and to prepare for a Pep Rally.

So from last night...

The band plays the Patterson Chorale as part of their warmup. So here it is, barely 22 seconds long. Go ahead and watch it.


On another note...as I've shared, I'm trying to eat right, exercise, and lose weight. Back in March or April, I gave up sugar and carbs in an effort to do so, but it wasn't enough to really consistently lose as much weight as I wanted. For me, even though I'm 44 years old, I'm short--barely 5'1" or so, so my ideal weight is somewhere around 116 to 120 pounds. I'd been carrying around 167ish for quite some time and was tired of the way I looked and felt. Then I lost a little, but hovered just under the 160 mark for many many months.

Then about three weeks ago, for whatever reason, I went in search of an app for my iPad to help me count calories. I found one and keyed in my info and have been using it faithfully since then. Obviously this is not going to work if you are not honest and don't key in everything you eat. It has a huge database and can even give you calories of meals from restaurants.

So it calculated the number of calories I need to consume each day and for the most part I have stayed under that number. You can also key in your exercise which gives you calorie credits, if you will, meaning you can consume more calories and earn yourself treats or buy yourself enough calories for things like pizza. :)

Consequently, between really being aware of the calorie content of things and continuing to exercise, though not as much as I should or need to for other reasons, I have now lost about five pounds.

The best part is that I can eat those carbs and sugars again, though I don't consume hardly any (processed/chemical) sugar anymore as it gives me headaches. I stick with fruit or raw sugar in my tea *if* i really need a bit of sweet. This is really an amazing thing to me as a self-proclaimed sugar-a-holic. I used to make no bones about my love of sugar. And I loved candy so much as a child and through most of my adult life. Now...pfft...don't need it anymore. :)

The Wii also also allows me to set weight loss goals and deadlines to reach those goals. It's been helpful for me to see the small daily gains, even though that aspect isn't helpful for everyone. But I can now see the changes when I look in the mirror and that's exciting too.

I'm keeping the goal the same: two pounds in two weeks. I'll report back in two Fridays from now.

I hope your weekend is fun and relaxing. Have a great one.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Woo hoo! Congrats on the weight loss Jen--keep up the good work! :)

Jen FitzGerald said...

Thanks, Lara1