I missed you!!!!!! 2

Ok so after the new year I joined a challenge group on myfitnesspal.com. We are the Snowflakes to Sunshine group and our goal is to help and encourage each other along the way and to lose 40 lbs or more by June 1st. Our first weigh in was January 1st and thats when I discovered I had put on 6 lbs since my last weigh in which was the beginning of December right around the time I injured my foot. Oh I was not happy! I knew that I had gained back some weight but I didn't realize it was about half of what I had managed to lose!! Not a great day for me.

But I jumped right back on the wagon...er..treadmill. But I know I have to take it easy because of my foot so this is my new plan.

• Walking on treadmill 6 times a week for 30 minutes.
• Increase time by 10% every week until I reach 60 minutes.
• At that time I will add in a small amount of running
• Increase running time by 10% every week
• Started a weight lifting (kettlebell) routine 3 times a week
• Every week I will add in one kettlebell move
• After I have a solid routine I will increase by one set every week until I reach 3 sets
• 1 or 2 times a week I will do one "new" thing so that I don't get bored and I have some variety
• by which I mean work out dvds or video games.
• Do one plank everyday starting out at 15 seconds and increasing by 5 seconds every week until I'm up to 1 minute.

I think this all sounds very doable and the increases are small enough that I won't cause any more harm. I'm also trying to make a list of rewards for pounds lost. I have always been the one that takes care of everyone else and never myself. People stopped giving me money as birthday or christmas presents because they knew I would not spend it on myself. I'm learning that I need to be important too. Just because I take care of myself some doesn't mean I'm a bad person/mom/wife. So I figure if I make a reward list for the weight I lose then I'm not just spending money on myself for no reason. I can know that I earned that reward! I have a list started but I think I need a few more things (cause I have lots to lose) so if anyone has any suggestions just let me know!!

• manicure
• pedicure
• new haircut
• massage
• new e-book for my nook
• new item from sockdreams.com
• new video (workout) game

These are all I have come up with so far and I haven't decided if I want to reward myself after 5 or 10 pounds lost. I'm thinking 5 so that I can keep some momentum going. I haven't decided what order I will do them either but I'm going to try to get that figured out today.

Myfitnesspal.com is the website I'm using to keep track of my calories and weight. It has been a great site! There is a lot of information and encouragement for people that are the same journey as I am. I'm so grateful to have found the site and even more wonderful is that it's free!! You can't beat that with a stick!! At first I set my weight loss goal at 1 pound a week and that is what I have achieved so far but I decided that I want a little more than that. Saturday is the "start" of my new week so yesterday I changed my goals to lose 2 pounds per week. My suggested calorie intake went from 1740 to 1250! That was a big change! I did fine with it yesterday (despite a starbucks run) and I know that I will be able to stick with it because I eat back at least part of my exercise calories.

Speaking of exercise calories-hubby gave me a heart rate monitor for Christmas so that's what I'm using to keep track of exercise calories. It has been a wonderful tool and I'm so glad he got it for me!! As I mentioned in a previous post I started back to walking on the treadmill on January 1st and have noticed some improvements just in this short period of time. Not really in much weight or inches lost but in my heart rate. At the beginning of January my heart rate would jump up almost immediately to my target zone and stay there (or above) the entire time I was walking. I discovered that some deep breathing could lower it somewhat and also that helped my not get so out of breath. Even though today is only January 9th, I noticed I guess around the middle of last week that it was taking longer for my heart rate to reach the target zone and it wasn't going as high in the target zone as before. And when its in the lower end my breathing will bring it down so much that it is goes under my target rate!! That means I'm now having to work harder to keep in my zone. Which is good news for my cardio health.

In other news, we are expected to have some really nasty weather moving in tonight and my kids are praying it gets here so they don't have school tomorrow!! I guess we'll see what happens pretty soon. I went to the grocery store last night for my regular day of weekly shopping and had to fight massive crowds and they were completely sold out of so much stuff!! It's unreal. But we live in the south so winter weather is not something we deal with well. And the news channels are not being much help because they are telling us that its gonna be bad and we should go to the store and stock up in case we are snowed/iced in for a couple of days and to prepare for the possibility that we may be without power!! Doesn't that just sound loverly!!!??? Oh well, maybe we'll get to sleep in tomorrow.