Tag Archives: fitness journey

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Reflecting On My Journey

While I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to Oprah Radio and just doing some self – reflection about my health, wellness and fitness journey. My thoughts were triggered last night while reading the book about the P.I.N.K Method. The book also serves as a journal in which you write your starting measurements, goals etc. While writing my goals, I realized a number of things that I am doing to hinder my health and fitness journey. Some of the things I am going to mention in this post may be a repeat of a earlier post so I apologize in advance.

1. I am an emotional eater.

2. I  snack out of boredom

3. I sometimes skip breakfast

4. I eat certain things out of weakness (giving in to what my daughter and man want to eat for dinner)

5. I lay in bed most of the weekend in the dark either sleeping or watching TV

6. I spend a lot of time feeling sorry for myself

7. I am allowing my depression to run my life instead of continuously seeking treatment (this is my biggest obstacle).

8. I have not made any short or long-term weight loss goals

My biggest obstacle is depression and I have decided that its time to contact my insurance and seek treatment. I was under treatment before at the Veteran’s Affairs but I stopped going since the main focus was medicating me and not allowing me to face my issues and learn new ways to overcome those issues.

I have also realized that I do not need to have everyone in my house on the same page with me. I find that I want EVERYONE in my house to change their lifestyle because I am trying to change mine. I am unsuccessful with my change because I am not focused on just me. It is okay to be selfish so that I can reduce my risk of heard disease, diabetes, high cholesterol etc. I have to make a change for ME and not anyone else.

I initially planned to start the  P.I.N.K. Method on March 19th but since I have not finished reading through the book I have decided to start on April 1st. The first 90 days of 2012 did not go they way I intended on this journey (only a 3 lb weight loss so far), so let’s see how the 2nd 90 days of this year will go. I have some upcoming events to get jazzy for as well as being healthy overall such as my daughters graduation and my birthday. I will discuss my short-term and long-term weight loss goals in a future post. :-)

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Kettlebell Workout Day 1

This morning I decided to open up my Kathy Smith Kettlebell solution package and try it out. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the package came with a 3 lb and 5 lb kettlebell and the workout DVD. The DVD was sealed in a packet that also had two other items. There was a 10 page booklet called Kathy Smith’s Nutrition Solution and a large poster with all the kettlebell workouts along with the description and instructions of each workout. I thought that was nice because I can hang that up on the wall and create my own workouts on days that I cannot pop in the DVD (like those days that my daughter commandeer the television!).

I decided to take it easy this morning because in all honesty, I did not walk or workout last week. In addition, it has been a while since I even did an upper body workout so I decided to do the warm up and the Kettlebell Upper Body Solution. I wanted to record my work out session because I am a YouTube Vlogger documenting my natural hair journey (luvndanaturalme channel) as well as my health and fitness journey (Journey2Jazzness channel) but I honestly did not feel like setting things up. Any who, I got a very good work out in 25 minutes, burned 400 calories, and I am really looking forward to doing again. The workout was a little difficult because the muscles in my arms were like “hey, what are you doing? You don’t normally use us this way” so I am sure to be sore tomorrow even though I stretched before and after the work out but that is okay. Later on today I will do a 30 minute walk with one of my three dogs as I cannot handle all three of them and tomorrow I look forward to doing the Kettlebell Core Solution.

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My Progress So Far

On January 16 of this year I decided that it was time for me to get myself together and change my lifestyle. I want to get healthier, lose weight, stop my knee pain and just be better overall. It has been a total of seven weeks since the start of my journey. Although I have changed they way I eat and I walk for one hour a few times a week my progress in losing weight has been slow. I have lost inches which is wonderful and as of this morning I have lost a total of 4 pounds, my current weight is 193. I know that a 4 pound weight loss is good, however in seven weeks I should have lost so much more. Why? Because I need to work harder when it comes to exercise. I am so tired of worrying about my knees which is preventing me from working out the way that I want to. I have decided to step it up a notch with my health and fitness journey by doing the following things:

I will continue to walk but only for thirty mins a few times a week. I recently made a few purchases of some at home workout DVD‘s to add some variety to my workout life. Through my bank I received Jillian Michaels Killer Buns and Thighs which I have to save until my knees are stronger, looks like a lot of squats….maybe I can modify the workouts. I also receive Kathy Smith‘s Kettleball Solution. This package came with a DVD, a booklet, and a 3lb and 5lb kettleball. I am so excited about this program and I will be starting this one either later on today after I run errands or after church tomorrow. In addition, I had been looking into the P.I.N.K Method for a few months now at the recommendation of my daughter. She saw that it is a health and fitness program that was designed by a women specifically for women while watching Dr. Phil. So, I saw a few YouTube videos about the progress that other women have made on that program and I finally decided to purchase the program. I should be getting that in the mail on March 6th and I am excited about getting started with that program as well. After chatting with a friend of mine, she motivated me to book a few appointments with my personal trainer at LA Fitness. My thoughts on working out at the gym will be in my next post. So, I am hoping that by the end of March…well no…let’s back up. My GOAL by the end of March is to weigh 189. That is a feasible goal right? That is a one pound weight loss per week….we will see how this all plays out!

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I feel like I am fighting a losing battle….

I know that it took me several years to gain the 40 pounds that I want to lose but it seems like I am fighting a losing battle. I go up and down with my weight loss journey and give up when I feel this way. A few years ago, I would have lost the weight much faster. All I had to do was power walk, or run and in a matter of weeks my weight was falling off. What is the issue now? Well, I cannot do those things now. I have osteoarthritis in BOTH knees and it angers me. Why? Well because it’s partly my fault. I over did things, I gained weight, I got really lazy and this is the result. Now I am in pain and I feel like I am an old woman.

I have the option to get knee injections and physical therapy but I am still on the fence with that. My reason, well….the pain will only go away for about 6 months. What is the use in that? Will that buy me time to lose the weight? Who knows but I am not going to give up. I started my health and fitness journey on January 16th and as of January 29 I am down two pounds. I measured myself today and I have lost up to 1.5 inches in certain areas of my body. I keep telling myself that if I continue to work at it without hurting myself the weight will be off of me by the end of the year. Have I had moments where I wanted to try a “lose weight fast” gimmick? Yes…I was talking to a friend of mine today about the NV weight-loss system. Then I decided that I do not need to take an appetite suppressant especially since my eating was not a big issue, it was the lack of exercise.

I did not want to set myself up by saying I wanted to lose 40 pounds by a certain date. I do realize that slow and steady wins the race and that I have to go through a bit of pain to gain the end results of being 40 pounds lighter.