Atkins!!

Okay, so obviously I am not that great at keeping up with the blogs......oh well. I did pass PE. I set it up for credit only, but if it had been a grade, I would have received a B+, or maybe it was an A-, I cannot even remember now, I was just so happy to pass and to not pass out!!

At some point, I tried the raw diet......um, it worked, I lost 5 pounds, but it was AWFUL. I could NOT ever do it again. It was so hard to eat nothing but raw fruit and veggies. It sounds so healthy, guess I am just not cut out for that.

So, after being at the beach for a week, I was inspired by my sister-in-law, Nikki, to get back on Atkins. She has been doing it and has lost 30 pounds so far!!! SO I started last Monday and so far, I have lost 6.5 pounds, but no inches, although measuring in exactly the same place, every time....frankly, you can never be sure. I will say my clothes feel more loose, so I think I have lost maybe a half inch. But giving up caffeine and alcohol was difficult to say the least. The headaches were excruciating in the beginning. And gawd, the leg cramps were a nightmare. I basically took ibuprofen and a vitamin and just went to bed early every night. I have not exercised yet, unless you count my "water aerobics" in the pool. But the goal is to get in that bikini in two weeks!

We shall see!!

Week 1

Well, this is the end of week 1 and disappointingly, I suck at it so far:) I have worked out three times, but I managed to workout Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and have done NOTHING since then. And do you think I have eaten better? Of course not! In fact, I am so depressed because somehow I spent a whopping $175 at Food Lion!! How does that happen??? I got an N&O today to clip coupons, but I don't need 75cents off of Colgate, I need $3 off of porkchops!

My resting heart rate has been different every day I have woken up. It is supposed to go down at the end of the semester, after it gets in better shape-sheesh!! I will be the first person I know to not get an A in PE!! Holy crap! There goes the Dean's List, ha!

Oh, let me back up.........so....I spent HOURS last Sunday watching four lectures and taking notes because, yes, there is a midterm and final and I wanted to get ahead. Well..........sigh.........I took them for the wrong class-the Williams jinx has struck again! The link took me to the Step aerobics class-ugh! Oh well, maybe some of the material crosses over? But I was so mad that I did not sleep well at all that night! And then there was the one night this week that I went to bed at 4:30am!!!! And then I woke up Saturday at 4:15am-what is wrong with me, good Lord! It's really sad when I hope to get sick so I can just have a day off to myself. That's one thing I can say, aside from allergies, I have an impeccable immune system-I never get sick.

Well, I have not had ice cream in forever-that's a plus-although who wants it when it's cold? And I have cut waaayyyy back on the beer, and alcohol altogether for that matter. fine, dandy even, but when will I get the urge to lay off of the freaking Doritos and Diet Pepsi? Omigawd, let me share something with you (told you I would be honest!) you will not believe what I ate Thursday night. Are you ready for this? We had a frozen pizza-Freschetta maybe? Anyway, so that meant each of us got one slice-what was I thinking? Well, that was just not going to be nearly enough. Unfortunately, since I had not spent that unGodly amount of $150 yet, there was nothing in the cupboard-the choices were slim, but I had to eat something with it. Well, as a lover of fries with ice cream, I wanted something sweet to compliment the pizza sauce. So...I thought about cereal, but alas......I ate waffles with syrup. Did I eat them separately? What do you think? Buddy the Elf would have had an Oprah lightbulb moment, as if his distant sister was having her Bar-Mitzvah. Tears would have streamed down his face as I grunted through my meal and swung my fork back and forth between waffles drowned in syrup and pizza, all washed down with, what else, but a Diet Pepsi, just for effect.

Yep, dieting is not in my future! I keep reading Dr. Oz, but until he comes to my house, or Nate Berkus....oh wait, that's another blog, (why are all the cute ones uninterested in women?)....digress....until Dr.Oz comes to my house and throws my pantry out of the front door, it jsut isn't happening. You would think that when I can (honest to God) rest something on my "shelf" or have a "moment" like finding a crumb in a damn fat fold, that I would throw my hands in the air and say "THAT's IT!" No, I throw my hands in the air, to open the cabinet doors and decide what to gobble down next.

OH AND..........I cannot do ONE SINGLE PUSH-UP, not ONE!!!!!! Even the modified (which, she says are harder-HOW?) I think they are easier, but I have to touch my nose to the floor for the push-up to count. If I iddn' thave to do that, I might be able to do three. But once my nose hits, I can't get back up. Should I just tell her to put down a zero? Are the other 49 people going to laugh at me, or yell "Wow, go, go , go grandma!" as I huff, puff and fall down to the floor!! My test is Saturday. I am dreading the day already. I am afraid my "partners" might want to cheat and you know me, honest abe! What I mean is, they might want me to put down they did 20, when I know they did five! Oh well. I guess I will look for another old fart in the class, if there is one. Ugh, will this be nothing but in shape twenty-somethings? I thought DE classes were for people like me, lol!

Okay, on to the kitchen-the Reese's are gone, but I need a Diet Pepsi refill. Tonight might be a Unisom night too!

Wow

This class is going to be really difficult! Gone are the days when you could just get an "Easy A" by taking a PE. My dad and aunt (dad's sister) would both be proud...they are both retired Physical Education teachers.

All I know is I saw, gulp, CALCULATIONS. And I don't mean "take this and multiply by 2", I mean something involving an x, a Q and a square root-oh my! There was a reason I got a C in Precal at UNC:) (And I was a Mathematical Decision Science Major-Ha!) Granted, that was a quick summer course, and I did make an A in my stat class, but still...

We have quite a bit to do within the first week, and thankfully the class has been up since Friday, so I went ahead and watched a few lectures (introductory) and took my resting heart rate this morning, even though I cannot enter it in until tomorrow. It was 59. I took it twice, to be sure. Although, since I was "timing" my looking at my clock and waiting for it to change, I probably missed that very first second, and so I might just take it to 60. Not sure if that is a good, or "average" resting heart rate.

I also watched the "testing" videos, meaning these are the ones that show you what you will have to do when you go to campus to be "pre-screened". The good news is, based on the video, I might actually be able to do a few push-ups. The bad news is, there will be 49 other people there:( And we have to wear shorts-dear Lord, I hope people wear sunglasses to the gym!

And the crucnches looked VERY uncomfortable. I have ALWAYS put my hands behind my head to support my head or neck. Actually, I take that back, I have had both arms straight out to do "crunch pulses". I just want to be sure I don't have a sore neck.

The class does not technically open until tomorrow, so there is one other thing that I am kind of unsure about-whether we need a book or not. The syllabus states "No text required", but in the opening lecture, she mentions a book, and there are also "chapters" to be read, with page numbers, within the "schedule" part. I guess we shall see tomorrow. Wow, I will be a reading machine this semester!

Oh and we have to go ahead and start working out this week, and submitting our data. I am not sure if I am going to do the wii workout with Mya, or my Denise Austin dvd, or go ahead and begin her workouts. Although, for that, the dvd's would be better. I can't workout to a laptop:) One fun part will be that my husband is going to workout with me-so we can both lose weight!

Yesterday, I ate a Chick-Fil-A sandwich for lunch and for supper, we had New York Strips, corn and homemade fries. This morning, I am putting chili in the crockpot and enjoying my last day before school begins!

I signed up for PE 105, now what?

Welcome to the diet diary of a twinmom, who is sick of my battle with my waistline-not my weight-my waistline! I am 37 (as I write this) and I attend NCSU full time and work part time at a local engineering firm. Part of the requirement for my undergrad is to take a PE. I am completing my undergrad completely online, so the PE is online as well. This should be interesting.

Actually, what is funny to me, is that I have to have medical clearance from my doctor (as does anyone over 35 who is taking the class). They probably should be concerned, as I quite literally, cannot do one single push-up! I get winded going up a flight of stairs for goodness sakes!

I have started this blog, because I want to journal my ups and downs of weight loss. I will not lie about any of it-I have no reason to do so. I am 5'5" and I weigh, I think, around 148. But it's the fact that I am about 39 inches at my biggest point (my waistline) that bothers me. Yes, I have had twins, but that was, um, cough, cough, nearly eight years ago.

My goal is to only lose maybe ten to fifteen pounds, and that will take a while I am sure, but I seriously would like to lose about nine inches off of my waist. Okay, let's not get crazy, because after all, I do love a Reese's Cup! How about five? Maybe that is more reasonable?

My testing date is the 23rd. Lord, I just hope I am not the only "adult' student and the class isn't full of twenty something blonds who totally don't need to exercise! Even though I won't see them all semester, I will still be embarrassed-although, maybe that will be good incentive!

SO, being that the 23rd is the test date (so that I have true numbers to go by), the 24th is D-DAY! Until then, I am enjoying myself-no resolutions here yet! Now, just to give you an idea, here is what I ate today:

BIG muffin for breakfast/milk
PB&J for lunch, but with chips and a BIG cookie, diet pepsi
snack-another big cookie
Dinner-McDonald's (I know!) Angus Mushroom and swiss combo

Totally unhealthy-my kids do not take after me, thank God-they eat apples, bananas and cucumbers for snack! Yuck! See, that is just it-I do not like veggies...well at least not a lot of them...nor fruit! What am I going to do????

Once upon a time, I did Atkins, and I lost 20 pounds. I worked out like crazy and got my body fat way down, but God is that diet hard to stay on for life! I have tried pills, different workouts, different diets, read books, etc.......all to enjoy going up and down like a yo yo. The bottom line is, I love food-I just do. It's that simple. I am what Dr.Oz would call a "supertaster" meaning I don't discern-I eat it all! Sour, sweet, you name it, just not healthy. When I eat, I am like a dog, it's really sad. What I mean by that, is I am territorial about it-I literally eat so fast, as if I am afraid someone will take it away from me. And I eat everything on the plate-love big portions. When did this happen?? I used to weigh 118 in high school!! I just know that I want my life back. For God's sake, I have had tingling and numbness in the extremities, insomnia, depression, auditory sensory issues.....ack! I truly think it's all due to what I eat, and probably a bit of stress between working 30 hours a week and taking five classes. Oh, and being a full time mom and wife:)

So, that's my story....well, not all of it. Chad and I have been married for almost 12 years now. Graham and Sydney are almost 8. I grew up in Raleigh (three generations) and Chad is from Wilson. He went to UNC, but we are not a house divided, because we just don't watch enough sports to care all that much.

My major is Leadership in the Public Sector. I didn't choose this major, it chose me. It's a long story, for a whole other blog sometime:) But the degree completion is offered completely online, which is the main reason it fell into my lap. I love the flexibility, but sometimes, it is much more demanding.

Now, I think that about covers it. So, follow me and my ups and downs as I attempt to lose weight and get in shape. I will always be honest and admit when I cheat:)