My 100th Post...Looking Back

I was going to post the next in a series on Adam and Eve I've been working on. But then I realized...it's my 100th post. I don't know why but I just feel like I want to do something fun for this one. It's taken me forever to get here and writing this blog has meant so many things for me. This is where I really discovered how much I love to write. This blog helped me get my job as a writer for Mercy Ministries. It has been an outlet for expressing myself and what I've learned in life. I just turned 40, another milestone I'll write about soon, but as I look back, I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorite of the last 99 posts. Mostly they are the ones that made me laugh at myself and the ones you responded to the most. So here they are if you have the time and need a good chuckle:

My Very First Post

How to Extract Top Secret Info from Spies

and the follow up to that fun night The Secret Life of a Toddler

We're Breaking Up

The First Day of School...Again

Little Sister has been the star of many a funny blog post and at times has provided some hilarious video. Here they are:

Knock Knock

Long Day

Jingle Bells

And then there are the lessons learned

Rubies

Sanctuary

Lost and Found

If you made it to the end of this post, you're awesome. Thanks and I look forward to the next time. Tune in for more soon!

You Snooze...You Lose

Or so I hope anyway.

A while back I wrote a post called We're Breaking Up about my struggles with my weight. I have this...shall we say...bootylicious problem that I continue to struggle with. Anyway, this past Monday, The Today Show on NBC did a story on how your sleep habits affect your weight. I heard about it from a friend (I'm a Good Morning America gal) and had to check it out.

Apparently everyone (but me) knows that lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain and getting the right amount of sleep can actually help you lose weight. What?!?! So all I have to do is sleep MORE and I'll lose weight? Of the women who participated in the study, nearly all of them lost weight and one who lost no weight, still managed to lose inches! Over the course of 10 weeks they lost anywhere from 6 to 15 pounds! They made no other significant changes except to sleep at least 7 and 1/2 hours each night.

Okay, think about it. When you become a mom, it gets harder to keep your weight down...when you become a mom, you also get a lot less sleep. We live in an obese country...we live in a busy, sleep deprived country. I'm just putting two and two together people. The studies show that those who "sleep 5 hours or less a night are 30 percent more likely to gain 30+ pounds than those who got more rest". "The average woman gets 6 hours and 40 minutes." The healthy minimum is 7 hours 30 minutes! Go to the article here to read all the details. It's fascinating.

I'm a night owl. After the girls go to bed, that's MY time. Just me and Daddy. I like to savor it as long as possible so I always go to bed LATE. Unfortunately, the girls always wake up at 6:15 on the dot. I'm not missing the healthy requirement by a whole lot, but that 7.5 hours is a minimum! At this point, I have about 2 non-elastic waist pairs of pants that fit so I'm willing to try anything. And I do love to sleep.

So Monday night, my Bible Study was cancelled and I was in the bed by 8:30pm and asleep by about 9:30. That would be 9 hours of sleep...except...Little Sister was up at 4:30am. 7 hours! Just short by 1/2 an hour! I tried again Tuesday night and the SAME THING! I'm starting to think she likes me big and soft and these are her attempts to keep me that way. Finally, last night, I went to sleep at 10:00pm and the girls came downstairs at 6:15am. That's a little over 8 hours...and I feel thinner already.

So how much sleep do you get each night? And what do you think about this study?

Breaking up is HARD to do!

A while back I wrote a post about breaking up with my butt. Well, I've been trying to break up with my butt for two LONG months now. It hasn't been easy. It seems like if I relax even a little bit, there it is, trying to lure me back. There have been some challenges along the way. A visit to my sister in Wilmington, NC...the Bon Jovi concert...the Preakness of course. How can a person be expected to diet while doing these things? Then there was that short but beautiful two weeks I participated in the dinner exchange. I teamed up with three other girls and each person took one day, Monday through Thursday, and made and delivered dinner to the other three families. It was kind of crazy but I love to cook and the other three days you had a wonderful meal delivered to your door. There were two major problems. The driving was killing me because we just lived too far apart. And the food!!! Not conducive to breaking up with that butt. Among the most tempting were baby back ribs, spaghetti pie with tons of oozing, melted cheese, and some kind of dessert that had snickers bars in it. Ahhhh! That stupid butt was using my friends to try and come back.

Then there's the running. I'm shocked to say, I actually started to like it. I even planned to run a 5K on Memorial Day. Eventually, I got a little muscle pull in my left quad which I continued to run with. It turned into a hip flexor pull and hurt so much it was waking me up in the night. So I stopped running for two weeks in order to let it heal. I want to feel good when I run and it was getting more and more painful every day. So, since I wouldn't be running away from my butt and regularly listening to my motivational break up music, I needed a plan. I'm a little more than halfway to my GREAT REWARD and I refuse to stop now. I also noticed that even though I was losing weight, I wasn't necessarily losing all fat. I want to get leaner so I started doing some research. EVERYTHING I read about cutting fat said you had to cut carbs. My worst nightmare. I love carbs. I love sugar. I love bread, pasta, dessert. But...that butt...I had to try something drastic.

After two days I was completely miserable. Tired, hungry, and not sure it was even working. You can eat all the meat and lean proteins you want but last night I couldn't even finish my grilled chicken breast. You can even have one of my favorite things, cheese. But woman cannot live on cheese alone. I was starting to think I could just find a way to settle for that butt. Forget the cookies and bread, I have never thought a banana sounded so good. Well, after one week of torture, I do think it might be working. I haven't weighed myself yet so we'll see but I'm willing to stick it out a little longer at this point. I will, however, be visiting my stepdad this weekend in Miami. That could be a challenge. That butt may be lurking around every corner.

With my reward in sight I keep pressing on. I started running again yesterday and the pain is back but I'm not quitting until I get to the end. I get through it by dreaming of one more thing. When I reach my goal weight I have a special day planned for myself. A day of gluttony. Is that bad? It probably is. Kind of like a one night stand with my old butt. But in my mind right now I see myself eating out three meals and baking all day. I'm making a mental list of all the indulgences.

Pancake Pantry for breakfast (Sausage and Cheese omelet with a side of pancakes)
Pizza for lunch (any pizza will do, never met a pizza I didn't like)
Mexican for dinner (again, not too picky here)

And then the sweets
Chocolate chip cookies, Caramel cake, Brownies, Blondies, Homemade ice cream, Chocolate covered strawberries (heck, chocolate covered anything), Donuts, I want it ALL!

Wow, suddenly I have visions of Veruca on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and some giant golden eggs. Truth is, I'll probably feel sick by lunchtime and that will be the end of it. Anyway, I just want one long cheat day and then back to eating like a normal person. Back to moderation and maintenance. Back to sanity and satisfaction. Here's to kissing that butt goodbye and cashing in on my great reward!

Has anyone else out there tried the no carb thing? Did it work? How did you feel? What did you eat? What are you indulgences?

We're Breaking Up

I was walking/running last night and I have to admit that it is getting a little better. A little. For the most part I still don’t enjoy it but I do have to admit that it burns more calories much faster. I loaded my iPod with what I thought would inspire me to keep going and it seems to help. Here’s my running playlist.

Queen – We Will Rock You

Survivor – Eye of the Tiger

Kelly Clarkson – Since You Been Gone

Destiny’s Child – Survivor

Christina Aguilera – Fighter

Britney Spears – Hit Me Baby One More Time

NSync – It’s Gonna Be Me

Backstreet Boys – Bye Bye Bye

Pat Benetar – Hit Me With Your Best Shot

Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

Heart – Never

Indigo Girls – Midnight Train to Georgia

KC and the Sunshine Band – Boogie Shoes

Elton John – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me

I know, it’s not very spiritual. Somehow praise music has the opposite effect on me. It makes me want to stop in my tracks. I’m one of those people who can barely sing in church because I just cry the whole time. But I realized while I was running last night that I have a lot of angry breakup music in the lineup. I’m not sure why this music pumps me up so much. I mean there’s a little bit of fun stuff but what’s the deal with the breakup songs? And then I realized.

It’s over. We’re done for good. I’m breaking up with my big butt. I have broken up with my big butt before only to reunite with it again a few months later. It always lured me back with sugary sweets and fatty fried foods and I just haven’t seemed to be able to get it out of my life for good. Well, it’s done me wrong long enough. I’m mad and I’m breaking things off for the last time. I even wrote it a Dear John letter.

Dear Big Butt,
I know we’ve been together a long time. We know each other so well but there’s never really been love between us. In fact, I've never loved you and I never will. You make me unhappy. You make me feel bad about myself. You’re weighing me down. And this time I’m serious. Don’t come around anymore because I’m not taking you back. You need to just go and take all your fat pants with you. No one likes you. Your dimples haven’t been cute since I was about 3 years old. There’s no room for you here anymore so please quit following me around. You’re not the butt God intends for me to spend my life with so I’m breaking up with you. Goodbye.

P.S. Leave my friends and family alone too because they don’t want anything to do with you either.

So, what’s in your iPod lineup?

Back From The Beach And Needing Motivation

Well, we are back from the beach. It was pretty chilly except for two days where we actually got a little bit of sun. We had a great Easter with my mom and the girls and a good time overall except for one thing...putting on that bathing suit. Every year it's the same thing when I unveil the pasty whiteness. I'm disgusted. This year is particularly bad because I could only fit into one pair of shorts that I own and they were tight. My fat jeans are tight for crying out loud. Now, this is not me saying I'm a big fat whale. This is me saying I either have to lose weight or buy a new summer wardrobe. And I will NOT buy a new summer wardrobe.

I wrote an earlier post about an episode of PRIMETIME where some people lost weight because otherwise they faced the threat of their spandex photos being shown on national television. Jeff and I came up with a credible threat of our own and I lost the weight last year. I kept it off for about 3 months only to go on a couple of great vacations in the summer and send myself spiraling back into tight jeans. I also recently wrote a post on gluttony and while I have been less of a glutton on most days (not including of course my vacation on the beach...why is this always my excuse?), it hasn't been enough to lose weight.

So I was pondering this as Jeff and I walked down St. George Street in St. Augustine and Jeff had a great idea! What if this time, he could offer a credible reward? I couldn't imagine something he could offer that wouldn't be something I could give myself or be cost prohibitive. But he did! Now just to make it more fun I'm going to keep my reward a secret until I receive it but it's goooooood. So I have my motivation and I'm ready to go. I started yesterday with Slim Fast. Slim Fast is hard to do but it's very clear cut and I'm hoping to do it for two weeks in order to jump start the process. I'm going to have to really exercise this time as all my previous weight plus five extra pounds came back. I have eight weeks to undo as much damage as possible in order to get my reward. I do wish it was as easy to develop good eating habits as it is to go back to bad ones. I wish it was as easy to exercise as it is to stop. I wish broccoli tasted like chocolate cake. I wish, I wish, I wish.

Anyway, I'd love for you to share two things:

1. Your best diet/exercise tip for getting started and staying motivated.
2. Any scripture or quote that is inspiring and motivating towards this goal.

Please don't try to give me any of your leftover easter candy. Don't invite me to chik-fil-a for the next eight weeks. And if you catch me consuming a Starbucks peppermint mocha...feel free to give me that "look". Let me know if you have a weight loss goal in mind yourself. Memorial day weekend is eight weeks from now. Anyone want to join me on this quest?

The Ultimate Accountability

A while back, maybe a year or so ago I saw an episode of PRIMETIME on ABC. They were doing some experiments regarding something called "game theory". I don't really understand game theory but what they did was fascinating. First they dropped off several pairs of strangers all over New York City. They gave them only one instruction. Find another pair. Sounds crazy right? None of the people knew each other, none of them knew their partners but they had the challenge of finding another pair somewhere in the city. Guess how many of the pairs found another pair...are you ready for this?...ALL OF THEM. Can you believe that? They all found other pairs. Basically, they all had similar strategies:

What is a major meeting place in NYC ?(1/2 picked the Empire State Building, 1/2 picked Times Square)

What is a good meeting time? (several decided on noon)

How do we stand out and help someone find us? (Many went and bought supplies and made signs)

Anyway, I thought this was crazy. They all ended up going to either the Empire State Building or Times Square with signs and whistles and things and waited for another pair to show. By noon, all pairs had completed the task and they had started from all over the place. The whole thing was done so that people could study game theory and strategies by observing what the participants did. What does this have to do with accountability?

The second part of the show was about weight loss. They took about 20 people who wanted to lose at least 25 pounds. They took pictures of them (blurred of course) in spandex. They gave them no diet or exercise plan. They simply told them, lose 25 pounds in 60 days or we will show your spandex photo on national television. These people knew what they were getting into and they all signed up. Guess how many lost the weight? ALL BUT ONE! Crazy! The one who didn't had gotten really sick at some point. But really, this is the most effective diet plan ever. It had a 96% success rate. Do you know any other diet plan with that kind of success rate? The idea with game theory here was that people will react to a "credible threat". The key to success is that they have to believe that the consequences WILL happen. We see this with our children. We will get obedience if our threats are credible. If my child believes that I will really take away her favorite toy if she throws it again, she will stop. Of course, children always test your credibility from time to time. Once they find out the threat is credible, it becomes effective. Consequently reward works almost the same way. Boy, could I go down a rabbit trail about discipline here but anyway...back to weight loss.

Last year I thought about this alot and asked Jeff, "How can we create a credible threat so that I will actually exercise and lose weight?" He came up with an idea. If I didn't lose 15 pounds (because I wanted to ladies, not at his request) by spring break, he would tell all my friends that I...ha, ha, like I'm going to tell you, just imagine something really stupid I did. It was something he thought was funny and I thought was embarrasing and I knew he would follow through. So we agreed. I weighed and the challenge of avoiding embarrassment began. I DID IT. I lost the weight! Next on the agenda was keeping it off. We renegotiated. Okay, I had to keep it off until our trip to Destin in June or same thing, he would tell my friends that I...still not going to tell you. I DID IT AGAIN. I kept the weight off! But...

...then summer went on, we were out of town a lot and the threat was gone. We took several vacations and all involved great dining. There's a joke in our family that if someone is eating a lot you ask, "What, are you on vacation?" Needless to say, the weight (+5) is all back. (See post on Gluttony) What to do?

I'm thinking of photographing myself in spandex (I'm trying not to gag) and entrusting it to a friend who will post it if I don't take it off and keep it off. It was the ULTIMATE ACCOUNTABILITY before. It worked. What do you think? Anyone want to trade spandex shots?

Weight Loss

Today I happened to catch something on Martha Stewart I thought might be worth sharing. It was a weight loss chart and instructions. The chart figures out how many calories you must consume each day to stay at your current weight and then how many calories per day to maintain your goal weight. Here's the thing, it's not that big a difference! Now, if you want to lose weight, you consume less calories per day than the amount needed to maintain your current weight. This is the hard part...getting to the goal weight in the first place. The only way I have ever effectively lost weight is by counting calories with exercise. Weight loss is all about math after all. 3500 calories is equal to one pound. When you've eliminated this many calories over the course of time, you eliminate a pound. Consequently, if you eat more than the amount needed to maintain your current weight, you will gain a pound with each 3500 extra calories. If you're not following me, here's an example:



Let's say you weigh 150 lbs. It takes about 1650 calories per day to maintain that weight. If you eat 350 more calories than that per day (2000 calories) and don't exercise, in 10 days you will gain another pound (10 x 350 =3500= 1 pound) If you cut 350 calories a day and only consume 1300 calories, in 10 days you will lose one pound. Get it? Exercise and burn calories and you can cut 3500 calories even faster. Want to know how many calories you're burning for different kinds of exercise? Click here. If the 150 lb. person runs at a pace of 12 minute miles for 30 minutes, they will burn 273 calories. Add this to the calories you cut from your food and you will get to 3500 you need to cut a pound in about 5 or 6 days.

I hope this isn't too confusing. If you want more info, let me know and I will try to clarify.

Gluttony

Well, since there are now officially only two pairs of pants in my closet that fit, I'm forced to face the sin I (and much of America) so often ignore. GLUTTONY Eewww. Don't even want to go there but instead of just disgusted right now I'm...convicted. It's always bothered me that the church seems to ignore this sin but I guess it didn't bother me so much that I did.

But I had great justification for my gluttony. I can think of two huge excuses.

1. I don't want to be wasteful. I should eat all the leftovers before they go bad and I have to throw them out, right? If Annie only eats three bites of her cheeseburger from her happy meal and five fries, I should eat the rest, right? If Annie ruins all the cupcakes but they are still edible I should eat them, not throw them away, right? Is it worse to be wasteful or gluttonous?
2. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. After all, if someone goes to the trouble to make a bunch of food for me, I should eat it. If two members of my family send me Cheryl & Co. cookies for Valentine's Day, I should eat them. If my mom sends chocolates, I should eat them. I don't want to seem ungrateful after all.

Gluttony used to be tied to pride. It was a sign of wealth to be fat. I guess that's what poor countries with little food think when they see us. Even the poorest of us is wealthy by comparison. Gluttony is often linked with drunkeness in the Bible but we don't have to drink. We do have to eat. It's not like we can avoid gluttony by just not eating at all. And the temptation is EVERYWHERE. We talk about stumbling blocks and then lay out all kinds of gluttonous pleasures with no regard for the fact that more people struggle with food issues that alcohol. I have a great affection for good food. I love to eat out. I love to cook. And I know we'll be feasting in heaven. Why do I have self-control in other areas and I blow this one off? I've been pondering and learning and reading a lot lately about truly living by the Spirit. Why haven't I thought about it in this area? Romans 8:5 says, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires." So I've decided to "set my mind on what the Spirit desires." Don't know what this is going to look like yet in this area. There's nothing in me that wants to deal with it so it will have to be God who does it. It's something God's been teaching me in so many areas in the past few months. Even Sunday morning at connect group I was reminded again that our bodies are temples. For some reason I got a real clear picture this time.

Anyway, it's not really about diet and weight, it's about sin. And I'm guilty as charged. Let me know what you think about the subject. And here's the other thing I'm going to have to look at...I don't think gluttony is just about food.