No Pain, No Gain

The mighty Stratford Tigers came to town tonight for some boys hoops action at Assumption High School. This is a big deal for the Austin men because the elder set (like my father-in-law) hail from there and the younger ones (like hubby) are Assumption grads.

We went to the game knowing we'd pull for our nephew Colin in the JV game -- which we lost by a sizable margin -- and still cheer for the home team when the varsity squads hit the court. However, if that Austin kid on the orange and black team (belonging to Jim's cousin) scored, we'd be happy for him, too. It's family, after all.

As it turned out, the varsity game was pretty exciting at the end. The Royals almost came back but fell short by a mere 3 points. Too bad. But that Austin from Stratford had a good game.

I was just glad we were out of the house and I wasn't force to do my new workout DVD! Oh yes, I tried something new last night and I am paying for it dearly. Both Carter and I are.

Since my right leg has been bothering me -- usually about 3 minutes into a run or walking -- I thought I'd do a shorter workout with less cardio time. If you've ever watched The Biggest Loser, you know who Jillian Michaels is. I bought her 30 Day Shred DVD, which suggests a person could get a ripped (or "shredded") body doing her 20-minute interval workouts -- offered in 3 levels of intensity.

The key word is interval. Just 2 minutes of cardio, 2 minutes of strength, 1 minute of abs... then start over. Done in 20 minutes. Sounds easy, right?

Well, I thought so. I even convinced Carter to do it with me. We wisely started at Level 1. It didn't seem too bad at the time. In fact, I was thrilled that my leg didn't bother me because the cardio stints weren't long enough for that pain to set in.

The bad news: That pain did set in. Today.

Carter and I are both hobbling around because our thighs, mainly, are killing us! I had a hard time holding my curling iron this morning, too, but my arms aren't doing as bad as I expected after those push-ups.

The thing is -- if you want results (as pictured on the DVD case), you gotta Shred every day if possible. No pain, no gain. Well, we got the pain part down. Now we just gotta gain some momentum to get back at it. Tomorrow.

Unless there's another basketball game we just can't miss!

Motivating factors

It's amazing how a warm, sunny day can lighten a person's disposition. It's either that or getting exposed to too much reality TV last night and realizing I have a pretty normal life.

I found myself flipping channels while folding laundry. Just about everything was reality-based programming: American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, The Biggest Loser. All on at the same time. I don't know much about who's in the running for the singing and dancing shows, so when I saw that it was the season finale for The Biggest Loser, I stopped channel surfing to check it out.

I needed that show to inspire me more than anything else. The winner, apparently a big deal because she was the first female winner, had lost half her body weight in this competition. Remember how I mentioned we had our Biggest Loser contest locally this winter? That success story definitely was not the case with me. I ended up finishing where I started.

Remember I thought I could do it on my own? I couldn't. I've made more progress in the past week because I now have a network of 4 or 5 friends who are all on the same mission to get off our butts before our butts are too big to get out of the chair! One will say, let's go to the fitness center. Another will want to go running. A couple of us do this new aerobics class called Zumba, too. Now that's fun. After all the exercise videos I have put myself through in my life, I thought I was coordinated. One Zumba class put me in my place. But I am catching on to the sexy samba-like dance class. We sweat. We hurt. But it's so fun, you don't notice.

Sometimes it's just easier to suffer, I mean stay motivated, in a group. With a support network. With friends who won't say, "I'd walk a mile in your shoes," but instead say, "I'm walking a mile and you're coming with me!" That's what friends are for, right?!

Does 'young at heart' count?

We shall not regret the past nor close the door on it...

You know you're getting old when you are technically old enough to be the mother of one of your co-workers. Yikes.

Today is my friend Katy's birthday. She's 24. That means she was born in 1984. And that means she was born the same year I got my driver's license and was learning to type on those fancy electric typewriters in Mr. Lake's class.

Some of the older people at work (and I qualify) say they'd love to be 24 again. I'm not so sure. If I went back, would I be smart enough not to get my heart broken that summer? (And the few times after that?) Would I still be a party girl? Would I be more financially responsible?

As much as there are some moments from my wild, young and single days that I wouldn't mind re-living, I wouldn't go back and change anything -- even the mistakes. Some made my life hell at the time, but now I can say I learned from them. I wouldn't change my life decisions either -- professional, geographic or emotional. They all had to happen for me to meet and befriend some of the neatest people on the planet along the way and get me where I am today -- married to my best friend and the father of three incredible boys.

Nope, other than the gray hairs my "hair artist" makes disappear every other month, I wouldn't go back to being 24 for anything. Besides, 15 years later, I'm actually a few pounds lighter now. You don't hear me say that every day! Now if only they'd extend this Biggest Loser contest over a few years, I might have chance.

News to me...

Chicken Little: Good news in the "sky is falling" department. The Pentagon said today it has a "high degree of confidence" that the missile fired at a dead U.S. spy satellite in space (remember the one the size of a bus?) destroyed the satellite's fuel tank as planned. Apparently, a space operations center in California is tracking some 3,000 pieces of debris, all smaller than a football. Well, I still think an object smaller than a football, falling thousands of feet from the sky, could hurt, don't you? Think: baseball, Coke bottle, telephone...

Tooth Fairy: I got Scott and Jana's take today on Carter's weekend visit. He behaved quite well and was patient with their almost 4-year-old (for the first 12 hours anyway). If you recall, Carter lost a tooth on Friday so they got to play Tooth Fairy that night. Carter put his tooth in his little snack-sized Ziploc bag and put it under his pillow, where he found two presidential dollars in the morning. One tiny detail Carter was quick to point out to the fairies-in-training: "She (as in the Tooth Fairy) doesn't usually doesn't take the baggie." Oops. I think he still believes -- especially since the ante has been upped to presidential dollars now!

Oscars: I'm glad I didn't bother staying up for the Oscars. Looks like No Country for Old Men took home a bunch. I didn't see that movie (yet) so I wouldn't have been excited or impressed. Sort of like the year Titanic won everything and I was the only person in the western hemisphere who hadn't seen it yet! (Yes, I've seen it since. What's all the fuss?) Of course, now that I am typing about it, the Celine Dion theme song for Titanic is starting to play through my head. I hate when that happens!

Winter Break: We got a reprieve from the arctic air yesterday and today. The mercury moved up beyond the 30 mark! The joy is short-lived, naturally, and temps will dip down to single digits again by tomorrow night. Did I mention I am going somewhere warm for spring break (tee hee)? Three weeks from now, I'll already be in toasty Texas -- where it is 93 degrees as I type this. Whoo hoo!

Concession Stand: We'll be signing up Carter for baseball this evening, which means Mommy and Daddy will have candy bars for sale at their desks for the next few weeks ... or until the box of 50 is gone. Even if you gave up chocolate for Lent, buy one and stick it in your freezer. If we don't sell them, we get stuck eating them ... and I don't think my Biggest Loser team would appreciate that.

(What? Don't all newscasts end in a commercial?)

Great Expectations

There's something to be said about people who lower their expectations just enough that disappointment rarely sets in. They probably don't have days like I did today.

By noon, I had labeled it as one of those "days from hell." Ever have one of those? I'm guessing most people have. It wasn't that things weren't going right, it was more an increase in stress level due to various factors (beyond my control, of course). In retrospect, I can sum it up in one word: Disappointment.

Right out of the gates, I was disappointed to learn my stepson Clay (the 9th-grader) was not going to school today. He wasn't home when Jim called him last night at 9 p.m., but sometime between then and this morning, he got a sore back. Yep, he missed another day of school -- that's the 28th of the school year for those of you scoring at home.

I had another personal matter eating at me and that, again, is something out of my control but frustrating and disappointing nonetheless.

There were a few work situations going on, too, that left me feeling a bit bummed. I only have what I would consider reasonable expectations of my employees. It is disappointing when I don't see an effort to meet those.

Isn't is frustrating when you can't magically transform someone into a person who cares? I had to take a break so I could calm down and get perspective -- plus it's weigh-in and measurement day for the Biggest Loser.

I realized on the ride over to the fitness center that my parents probably had the biggest disappointment of the day. They should be enjoying the warm climes of southern Texas tonight but instead my dad is home in northern Wisconsin, recovering from a bout of the stomach flu. Hopefully he'll be OK so they can catch their rescheduled flight on Friday!

Going into my weigh-in, I did not have high expectations. I knew I had an OK week so my hope was that none of the numbers would go up. Remember, I am taking a reasonable approach to this -- accepting slow, but sure progress. Needless to say I was thrilled when I stepped on the scale and saw I lost a pound! Plus, my body fat percentage went down, too! I was thrilled -- and it motivated me to keep going. I was smiling the rest of the day.

Yes, there's something to be said for people who lower their expectations just enough that disappointment rarely sets in. They miss out on some great highs when the tough ones are met!

Biggest Loser :: Take 1

A year ago around this time, 3 friends and I embarked on a fitness journey when we joined the Biggest Loser competition at the health club in Iola. The problem with our journey is that we took so many detours -- eating what we wanted, blowing off exercise -- that we came to a dead end. Needless to say, we pretty much finished in last place.

Now it's that time of year again. I've decided I am going to give this another try. The problem is that I lost my team. One teammate is pregnant and the other two are doing their own things. In my quest to find a new team, I became paranoid that our reputation preceded us. No one wanted me. Did they know I was a loser last year -- but not in the successful weight-loss sense? Do they think I am a slacker?

The deadline for sign up was last week but yesterday I emailed the fitness center director to see if there were any lonesome losers like me who needed an extra body to complete their team. Turns out, there were.

So now I have a team. I considered calling us the Lonesome Losers but instead went with the Dedicated Divas -- we are willing to do what it takes to get this done, even if it means teaming up with strangers.

The program officially launched today. We had our weigh-in and body fat measured. The aspect of this program that I like is that it is not completely weight-loss driven. Our goal is to decrease the percentage of our body fat. Obviously, that does involve some weight loss to accomplish, but it shouldn't set us off on a complete scale obsession.

I think the trainer set reasonable goals for me that will go a long way toward my previously mentioned birthday deadline. I can and will reach my goals and help my team. I am ready to kick butt!

Part of me is motivated, too, by the fact that I don't want to let strangers down. Isn't that weird? We are OK with letting our friends down? Maybe it's because we know our friends will understand. And with strangers, at least I know they won't be saying, "Hey, let's go get pizza! (or chocolate or cheesecake or a Shamrock Shake)."

I mean, c'mon. I may be a Dedicated Diva, but I don't have abs, buns, arms or willpower of steel! ... Yet.

Reality check

This business of trying to lose weight has turned into a situation so pathetic that it's laughable. And I mean truly laughable.

Today is Thursday so that means it's weigh-in day for Weight Watchers. The last two weeks I finally broke through my plateau and lost some poundage for the first time in 2007. That fact alone is a bit pathetic (just a bit, huh?) -- considering a group of us started the year gung-ho with the Biggest Loser contest, then Weight Watchers and more Biggest Loser. (I mean, did we think the fat would just fall off by reading Self magazine or Women's Health?)

One of us had a great week this week, losing nearly 5 pounds. Way to go, Karen! We were sitting at our desks talking about her success and she mentioned the key was that she quit drinking soda of any kind and is mainly drinking water and milk.

Give up soda? Wow, that sounds like a great idea, we said. We should try that. That's when Sara (who is not on this weight-loss quest and doesn't need to be) says: "You know you guys were talking about doing this on my first day here last Dec. 4."

Oh wow. The reality hit us all. We've ingested all this great advice and knowledge about weight loss -- and have shared it freely with each other -- but have not taken our own advice and taken action. "Sara, I'm sorry we've all let you down!" I said. "We're so pathetic!"

And then we just started laughing. Laughing at ourselves. Laughing at how we always KNOW the solution to getting healthy but don't act on it. Laughing at how pathetic our progress has been in all of 2007. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

It was a good, healthy laugh session. I don't know if it burned any calories but it felt good. Sometimes we just need to laugh at ourselves. Then get off our butts and do something about it! Let's go, girls!!

The wall

Since I embarked on this blogging thing, I have gotten some warm fuzzies from my family and friends about my writing. I mean it's what I do, sort of, for a living. But they haven't subscribed to any newspapers or magazines I've ever worked on, so they don't know what I've been doing with my life.

In my opinion, they haven't got a chance to read what I would consider my "good stuff." But now, hopefully, they can at least see why I love writing ... love this low-paying career (ha!). I like it when the words somehow come together to tell a story, maybe inspire someone, and occasionally entertain. It makes me feel good if I can make others feel, period.

My sister Rayna has caught the blogging buzz as well. She has embarked on a personal project to improve her quality of life physically, emotionally and spiritually. She calls it her PES project.

We have a lot in common. She is finding it somewhat freeing, too, to write about her challenges and her triumphs. I think we're both after the same thing. We both want PEACE with our PES projects. Just because I keep things on the light side, doesn't mean there aren't serious things going on in life, nor does it mean I am avoiding them.

I can joke about the fact that I am such a loser I can't win the Biggest Loser contest, but it's a serious goal for me to be healthy. I've spent too much of my life NOT that way, trust me. 2007 has not been my year for progress, yet. I weigh the same as I did back in January! All this effort has been for maintenance?!?

In Rayna's blog today she talks about walls. I think I have hit a wall, too! Lately, my life has become an excuse festival for not exercising or eating right. I'm too busy, too tired, too sore from kickball, it's too hot, too rainy ...

I've discovered the best way to get over a wall is a good ladder ... sturdy support from loved ones and someone to push you onto that first rung. Last night I got that push when the 3-year-old son of one of my friends said, "Robyn, you have a baby inside you!"

I started climbing that ladder this morning!

The Biggest Loser

Did you know all your weight-loss dreams can come true by opening just one e-mail? Every day there is probably a dozen offers in my inbox for a quick and easy way to a new, skinnier me.

Just click here to "banish those thunder thighs," "turn my belly into bedrock" or "make my arm flaps fly away."

If only it were that easy! I'm the typical yo-yo dieter and have been all my life. As a child, my nickname was Round Robyn and my twin sister, who was 4 inches taller than me, was Lean Raylene. I maintain that I am the perfect weight today -- just happen to be the wrong height!

A group of us "yo-yos" at work decided in January to join the Biggest Loser contest at the fitness center. Each week, we had our body fat percentage measured. I liked that better than strictly checking weight loss. Weight is still a factor but, ideally, as long as your fat turns into muscle, the percentage decreases.

What a great way to start the year off with health top of mind, not to mention a great support network to give each other the nudge to exercise once in awhile. Like those magic e-mails, it sounds good on paper, but ...

Though our intentions were there, the follow-through fell short and our team of 4 finished 19th out of 20. And while the leading team lost 68 pounds, ours was the only group to actually GAIN weight! I am not kidding. I think we could have done nothing and come out ahead.

Now the team contest has turned into an individual competition. We have no one to blame -- or praise -- but ourselves. There are at least 6 of us at work who will be vying for the title of "Biggest Loser." With aliases like Round Robyn, Critical Mass and Baby Phat, this could get crazy.

And why not go a little nuts? We have nothing to lose ... or in this case, everything.