I’m happy to report that shortly after I made my lack of willpower post yesterday, I sucked it up, changed into some workout clothes, and got moving. No, I didn’t do the complete workout that was scheduled last night, but I did get in a pretty challenging 35 minute workout! I was dragging by the end too, so I don’t think I could have managed the longer one.
I did feel better by the end of my workout, and I think powering through and doing it even when I didn’t want to is exactly what I needed to do. I was talking to my mom on IM, and she agreed with me when I said that doing any workout was probably more important than doing THE workout that was up on my rotation.

I’m struggling with willpower at the moment. I already broke down with the eating today, and now I’m trying to motivate myself to do my workout tonight. I have a headache, and the last thing I want to do is do my scheduled hour long, intense workout. The dialogue is running in my head… “Oh tomorrow is your rest day, just rest tonight, and do your workout tomorrow.”
That might very well be a viable option if the headache gets any worse, but that’s a slippery slope. I don’t know… I just know I don’t want to do it tonight. I want to go to bed, or at least curl up on the couch with my blanket. I certainly don’t want to do a very challenging workout.

Monday was my new and improved rest day, so I didn’t do any exercising then, but yesterday I started right back on schedule, and now I’m on a work-out rotation that I’m hoping will work a whole lot better with my schedule. I’m hoping to get out and do a little walking as the weather allows, as well. We seem to have skipped straight into winter weather at the moment, but I’m still hopeful that we’ll have some real fall weather in the next couple of weeks.

I’m trying to make better food choices without actually dieting. I’ve eaten breakfast this week, even if it’s just an apple in the morning with a Special K bar in my purse. Even if I haven’t eaten overly healthy at lunch, I’ve at least made the conscious decision not to get the deep fried, fatty foods when nothing else looks good. Still need to seriously purge the cupboards at home since there are too many tempting options, and no one to help me eat them. Fresh foods just don’t stay good long enough, especially when you’re the only one eating them, and you don’t want to have to go to the grocery store a million times.

So today was the day of truth… I stepped on the scale this morning, and held my breath. My weight is the same as last week. I know that sounds like something I should be disappointed about, but I’m not. I skipped a workout, and ate like PIG all week long. SO maintaining last week’s 4 pound loss is a big deal to me.

Also, since it has now been two weeks since beginning The Firm program (even though I’ve done 12 workouts and not 14), I updated my measurements. So since starting the program two weeks ago, I’ve lost a total of 4 pounds, and 6 inches over all. Not bad for two weeks!!

Hi-Def Sculpt today!

I’m kind of reevaluating my exercise program. I fully intend to keep doing it– I’m enjoying it so far, and I think it will really work for me in the long run. What’s not working for me, however, is the current rotation. As it stands now, my “rest” days on this program are Tuesdays and Saturdays. That’s not bad, but Mondays and Fridays would be more beneficial. I missed Friday’s workout because I didn’t have time. Well, I could’ve MADE time, but there were other things that I needed to do, and I chose not to do that. I think that’s a choice I’m going to be faced with a lot on Fridays, so I think I’m just going to take that out of my hands. I can’t be trusted to make the right decisions– if I could, I wouldn’t be fat!!

My mom told me today that she can see a difference in me, right under my chest. I’m not sure I see it, but it was nice to hear that- a little bit of encouragement. The diabetes walk was this morning too, so I did get some walking in. I told my mom that we must have lost 10 lbs just in sweat!

Despite being less than a month old, here at Jenn Loses Weight, we’re listed in the Top 100 Health and Wellness Blogs over at the Nursing Online Education Database. Here’s what my listing says:

Jenn chronicles her journey to a healthier lifestyle. Jenn began this blog in September, so it will be interesting to read how she does with her weight loss ups and downs as she progresses.

The pressure is on now!! Knowing that I’m listed there, and many people may find that and decide to come check on my progress will help motivate me on those nights when it’s really tempting to skip the workout I don’t want to do, or eat the cookies that I don’t need. Tim at Hundred Day Headstart is on the list as well. I think a bigger support network can only help, so I’m going to go over there and check out some of the other listings.

I discovered something this morning that just might endanger my weightloss efforts for the next month or so– Monopoly at McDonalds is back. I have very little willpower when it comes to this game. Despite the fact that I’ve never won more than a small fry in the game, there’s always the little me inside saying “yeah, but the piece you need might be on that very next large fry…” Add in the online aspect, and forget about it!! ((If you’d like to spare my waist, feel free to send me YOUR codes )) So hopefully the desire to lose weight will win out over the need for greed! It helps that I don’t really care for their fries anymore– ever since they changed their oil to remove trans fats… blech.

Anyways. Last night was Hi-Def Sculpt Express… I was almost disappointed it was the shortened version. Enjoy that because it won’t last long lol I didn’t look to see what was on the schedule tonight, but it’s one of the cardios. I’d also like to get some crocheting done, but that has nothing to do with this.

I’m about to make a statement that I never thought I’d hear myself make– I’m looking forward to my work out tonight. *gasp* Okay, take a breath, recover from the shock of that statement. But it’s true!! The program I’m using has two scheduled rest days a week, and yesterday was one of them. I didn’t mind the rest, but it felt a bit weird to not have something to do last night. And I find myself actually anticipating the one scheduled for tonight. I don’t expect this mindset to last forever, so I’m going to enjoy it while I can. I think tonight I’m scheduled to use the tape I’ve only done once thus far.

My right leg is really kind of bothering me today though… real achy, right above the knee. I don’t know why, but I’m hoping it won’t interfere with working out tonight. All I know is that no matter how I sit at work today, it just keeps aching.

I was really impressed with myself last night… I did really well, if I do say so myself I made it through much more of the Cardio Party tape than I have the previous times. I made it through the first two rotations before I needed to rest, and I sat out a much smaller portion of the tape than usual. The entire last section is salsa/latin-inspired dances, and usually I do a minute of it and watch the rest. There was still quite a bit I didn’t manage, but I stayed on my feet and did a whole lot more than I thought I could.

Today is supposed to be a rest day, so I’m thinking I might go for a short walk or something. It depends… I was going to go grocery shopping, but I really don’t have the money right now. I need to come up with the money somewhere, I suppose, but unless I get some paid blogging money coming in, or raid my savings accounts, it just isn’t going to happen. There’s also a ton of cleaning I could do at home to count as exercise. If the weather is decent though, I might grab my iPod and take a stroll around the block.

The Firm lulls you into false sense of security! lol I kept mentioning that I was expecting to feel sore after the workouts last week, and it just wasn’t happening. Well, apparently week one is just to get you started… week two is when the ass-kicking begins! Yesterday was Hi-Def Sculpt, full length, with the weights. Let me tell you, today my thighs are screaming at me. Can’t you hear them? It sounds something like “Sit down, FatAss!” Of course, I’m used to sliding back and forth at my desk, so everytime I use my foot to push my chair closer to the phone, or closer to the file drawer, my thighs cry “Traitor!”

I didn’t pack my lunch today because I didn’t go grocery shopping over the weekend. I’m hoping they have something decent to eat… or that the salad bar at least is stocked well. Mondays are hit and miss as far as the cafeteria is concerned. I should balance my checkbook and put together a list for the grocery store.

Tonight is Cardio Party again, I believe. We’ll see if I can manage to keep up a little longer this time. It seems to get a little better each time, but I’ve not been sore at the beginning of the workout before either. Should be interesting!