10%

It feels really good to say that 10% of my body weight is gone! And it's never coming back! I mean never! You might say, but wait what if you get pregnant again? Well I know that it is possible to get pregnant and gain only what the baby weighs. I've heard its been done before and as determined as I am to lose this weight I am determined to keep it off! I won't be having another baby for at least another year or more so I know I will lose a lot more weight and maybe even be at my goal weight before I go for another.
I was at the mall last week and decided to get my wedding and engagement rings resized since they are getting loose. I fully intend on losing a lot more and that will be one more motivation to not gain the weight back.

The key chain is a 10 to celebrate my 10% and the clapping hands with a 16 is my stay and succeed award for sticking with WW for 16 weeks

10%! It sounds so crazy it's like I just cut one tenth of myself off. This is 10% since I started back at weight watchers. If we go back to when I first started WW in 2009 I've lost a little over 20%! Then if you count all the way back to my heaviest I've lost 22.5% :-) If you are good at math and go back and read some of my older posts you can figure out what my past and current weights are.
I can't give all the credit to Weight Watchers, last time around, before babies I was using the original power 90. This time I've been working out with Shawn T and doing Insanity and Hip Hop Abs. I'm feeling good about my health and where I'm heading! Another super accomplishment is that I am now at my lightest since college! Woop Woop! Just wanted to give myself a little pat on the back there.

I'm baaack!

Well I have decided that I want to get back at this old writing thing. I'm going to start with blogging more again and hopefully when I feel brave enough I'll write a short story then one wondrous day I'll write a novel. So there's been a lot of changes since I last wrote. I had another baby. So now I have two beautiful daughters!

They are a delightful handful! 14 months apart and I wouldn't change it for the world. It has some challenges as you might imagine, for example, I don't get a lot of uninterrupted time to myself, so if some of the things I write ever seem a little disjointed you'll understand why.

Another great development is that I am back on weight watchers. I started up when one of my friends had her baby and roped me into joining again. I am so thankful and glad she did. I started on July 3rd and have lost a total of 16 pounds so far! Whoot Whoot! I'm also on a new exercise routine. As you may have noticed from some of my past posts my husband (then fiance) and I were doing Power 90 and we had wonderful results. I lost a ton of weight right before I got pregnant. I am so close to being back to that weight, just 2 pounds to go! Anyways I'm now doing Insanity! and it is just that, Insanity! I am pouring sweat by the end of every workout, but boy does it feel great.

I just started incorporating walking into my exercise routine as well. My goal is to eventually run a 5k. I got an app, Couch to 5k, that is supposed to help get me there in 8 weeks! I'm hoping by next year at this time I'll be able to run a half marathon. I really don't like running all that much though. I kinda feel like I have to do it because it is the only form of exercise my kids will let me do while they're awake and that's only because they are strapped down and can't move in their stroller. Silly me, one day I tried to do an insanity workout with both of my children awake and in the room. That lasted about 5 minutes, if that! As I was bending over to do a push up or something my oldest jumps on my back after I calmly remove her from my body she does that thing that kids love to do when you are busy. She proceeds to call me a hundred times in a row and I answer her, but that's not good enough I'm not paying enough attention to her and a full blown tantrum ensues. I could be sitting perfectly still on the floor staring at the wall and she'll just be playing by her merry little self, but If I try to do something anything that requires any kid of concentration she needs my attention instantly. My younger daughter is starting to learn this tactic as well so now I'm getting double teamed by toddlers. 

Clearly I don't have enough to do because I am also the current President of the Antioch Chapter of the MOMS Club (Mothers Offering Mothers Support) and I recently began selling Mary Kay Skin Care Products and Cosmetics. Everyone deserves to look and feel their best. Here's a link to my personal website www.MaryKay.com/antoinetterbrown Feel free to make a purchase! 

I think you all are caught up now... I'm going to bed! Wish me luck!

Whoot Whoot!

Wowsers! I lost 3 lbs this week! (LOL a friend of mine says wowsers a lot I guess it is catching) I am so excited I made it past Halloween and My Fiance, Mike's birthday. It was difficult but I was able to stay away from chocolate and lollipops and cookies and pie and cake!! OMG there was a lot of temptation. I did give into one temptation though. I had a homemade samosa one of my co-workers made for our monthly potluck. She is an amazing cook and I couldn't resist one. I looked it up and they are only 3 points each, so that's not so bad although I did get the evil eye from my WW buddy. Thanks Sue for watching my back! We went out to my favorite mexican restaurant, La Pinata for Mike's Birthday. Before I started WW I would have bought the New Mexico Cheese Enchiladas. That is two cheese enchiladas, two eggs on top of it, rice and beans, so good but hella bad!! I have also been really craving Nachos!! Instead I got something called the Joyce Special, which is Tilapia and shrimp surrounded with veggies and avocado. It was delicious and only about 9 points! Crazy good for a restaurant meal!

I made a conscious effort to get in my daily walk during my lunch when I could. I even went by myself a couple of days. I keep saying every week that I am going to take it up a notch with my work outs and it is the same song this week. I am planning on working out at least 3 times this week after work and the way I am going to make sure I do it is to actually put it in my planner plus I am going to create a calendar reminder in my phone.

I took my first picture where I can actually see the difference in my face from my weight loss. It feels great! I've posted it everywhere, my facebook, myspace, my blog... I love it, I'm actually proud of the way I look in a picture, I haven't felt that way in a long time.

Working Out Lingo

Wow I can already feel my arms getting sore and I just finished working out. My Fiancé and I have started using these new workout DVDs that are eXtreme. They are from the P90X series. It is the step up from the original Power 90 DVDs that we started on. We did the Shoulders and Arms strength training workout. The premise is that if you stick with the workouts for 90 days you will see extreme results and boy do I believe it. My butt is sore from the Kempo Karate P90X workout that we did yesterday. There were lots of kicks! The guy in the picture to the left is Tony Horton the Power 90 leader, he is super ripped and in shape and he's 52! He's double my age and I have a hard time keeping up with him!

I can't wait to start seeing real results. I know that I'm losing because a lot of my clothes are feeling loose but I still don't see it in the mirror. I've heard that that happens with a lot of people. I'm not discouraged though because I feel like I have a ton more energy. Maybe its time for some comparison pictures? I took some a week or two after I started WW. You can see those on a previous post. 

As I browse the weight watchers website I've noticed that there are several shorthands that people are using in their blogs and in the message boards. Sometimes it takes me a second to understand, "what the heck are they talking about?" But then it comes to me. Here are just a couple of the weight watchers acronyms that I have decoded:

WW = Weight Watchers (obviously I knew that one)

OP = On Plan

WI = Weigh In

BLTs = Bites, Licks, & Tastes (which add up to points!)

Does anyone else know of any other abbreviations or acronyms that are used on e-tools or in your meetings or just in general health and exercise discussion? Post them in the comments I'd love to add more to my personal WW dictionary! 

Rough Start

Today was a slow starting day. I feel kinda like I am moving in slow motion. I was late to work and I have a feeling kinda like I'm lost in the pit of my stomach. I just ate my normal oatmeal for breakfast and it wasn't bad. i used to eat oatmeal every day until I got sick of it so I started eating cereal and then just skipping breakfast, but now that I'm on WW I am back on the oatmeal. I hope I don't get sick of it again.

Yesterday my friend and I were talking about cheese and that is my number one craving and weakness. As I was telling her that I can't have cheese at all because I can't control myself around it I was envisioning a giant block of extra sharp cheddar. I could see myself just taking a giant bite right out of the block. It is times like that that I am glad I don't have any cheese in the house. I probably would have gone home and taken a giant bite out of the cheese if I had any. I really love cheese. I can't be trusted in a room alone with cheese!

Three Songs to “Get” Your Workout On:

• ·         T.I. Ft Nelly – Get Loose
  
• ·         Beyoncé – Get Me Bodied
  
• ·         David Banner – Get Down (Like A Pimp)
  

How To Lose 2 Pounds A Week

How to lose 2 pounds a week. Brought to you by howcast!


Howcast is a fancy little Youtube channel that teaches you how to do just about anything. This is a helpful little video and gives you the basics.

Exercise!

Hey Folks! So I had a pretty decent weigh in on Sunday. I lost a total of 3.6 pounds. That brought me up to a grand total of 20.2 pounds lost! I feel like I am right on track. I have lost more than the recommended 2 pounds per week, but I don't feel like I am losing out of control. I owe a lot of my success to my fiance because he is my motivator and he keeps me exercising. We have been trying out new exercises since the start of our weight loss journey. We were working out 6 days a week, but this week is our vacation so we haven't been as good. Here are some of the exercises I have been doing.

• Playing Catch with a Baseball (I got my first mitt)
• Passing Drills with a Soccer Ball
• Walking/Jogging Around the Lake or Track
• Playing Tennis (or at least trying to play)
• Power 90 Workout DVD (we tried P90X, hella hard!)
• Yoga

We have gotten into the routine of doing the Power 90 workout and then going to the track. I will usually walk half a lap then jog half a lap and repeat that for 6 to 8 laps, 1.5-2 miles. Mike usually runs that 1.5-2 miles and laps me a couple of times. I don't mind as long as I have my iPod. I have a great Workout Playlist. My current workout favorite songs are anything by Lady Gaga. She wouldn't normally be my favorite musician, but she has some great pump you up music. Next time I will post my top ten workout songs. We will be going to Lake Del Valle in Livermore today to canoe or row a boat. Maybe we'll even ride horses.

During my normal weight loss browsing I found two interesting things. After writing about Men Vs. Women weight loss I found this book by Weight Watchers called She Loses, He Loses: The Truth about Men, Women, and Weight Loss. I ordered it on Amazon and I should get it early next week. I will review it for you once I'm done with it. The other interesting thing was a handy little thing called a snack widget. You put into it what you are craving and it suggest better alternatives. I tried to embed it here but for some reason it doesn't like the code so click here or go to snackwidget.com


Well I hope you see less of me next time (my weight watchers leader always says, I hope to see less of you all next week!)

Keeping the ball rolling

Or should I say keeping the fat rolling off of me. Last week I wasn't able to post my weight loss because I had an eye infection and I couldn't even look at a computer. I am better, not 100% but better.

SO last week I lost a total of 3 pounds!! That brings me to a weight loss of 16.6 pounds since I started weight watchers. If I don't say so myself that is pretty darn good. My fiance Mike is also losing weight. He at first was counting points and tracking what he ate, but since he is such a tall guy he had a lot of extra points that he wasn't eating at the end of everyday. so he stopped counting and tracking and he's still losing weight. Lucky men, they always lose weight way faster then us women. It is true! I did a little research and here are some of the reasons that men lose weight faster than women.

• They have naturally faster metabolisms: The truth is that men have evolutionarily more muscle than women and muscle burns fat. The more muscle the more fat burned. They don't even have to do any work, with more muscle you burn more calories while at rest.
• Women have a disadvantage. They have a tendency to store more fat because of a wonderful little horomone called estrogen. It all goes back to those caveman breeder days, estrogen keeps women from losing fat so that they can more easily get pregnant.
• Women also have smaller lungs than men. This can make the same workout for a man harder for a woman.
• Men have less body fat than women. Men don't have huge globes of fat growing out of their chest. Well some may... but with a man and a woman that are both at around the same weight and physical fitness, the woman is going to have a higher % of body fat. In women the normal body fat % is 25% while in a man it is anywhere between 18 and 22%.
• Where our fat is stored is also a big factor. Men mostly store the fat they gain around organs, which can be dangerous for things such as heart disease, however that fat is easier to lose. Women's fat is normally store subcutaneously, which means under the skin. One word, Cellulite! This type of fat can be harder to lose.

But this is not an excuse to just give up and say I'll never lose as much as Mr. Boyfriend, or Mr. Husband! This is just to let you women out there know. You are not alone and it's not all your fault! Don't let it get you down! I won't! I will be going in to Weight Watchers in about 30 min to weigh in. Lets see how much weight I lost since last week. Wish me luck!

8/31/09
Here are some official "Before" pictures, just like they have them on all those weight loss tapes and gimmicks. Can't wait to put up some after shots!

Step Out Against Diabetes

On the 27th of September I will be participating in the Step Out Against Diabetes Walk-A-Thon. I will be joining more than 100,000 fellow walkers from across the country in this year's Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes to raise money for the American Diabetes Association.

I will be gathering donations and walking to help stop diabetes. I am walking as a part of the weight watchers team.

I am asking for your help. By making a donation on my behalf, you will be helping the American Diabetes Association provide community-based education programs, protect the rights of people with diabetes and fund critical research for a cure.

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. The cause of diabetes continues to be a mystery, although both genetics and environmental factors appear to play roles. There are 23.6 million Americans living with diabetes, a disease that is outpacing heart disease, cancer and AIDS. If we don't act now, one in three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime.

I believe that my participation in this year's Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes can and will make a difference. Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes is one of the American Diabetes Association's biggest fundraisers. With the help of people like you, the American Diabetes Association can raise over $20 million to help stop diabetes.

Please help me reach my goal by supporting me for this year's Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes. Please click on the picture below to go to my personal Web page to make a secure, 100% tax deductible donation. You can also go to diabetes.org/stepout and search for me by name, Antoinette Roberts, or by team, weight watchers, and then find me. (If you do not want to donate online, please make your check payable to the American Diabetes Association and mail your contribution to me at 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway Suite 100, Alameda, Ca 94502.)

Together we can stop diabetes. One step at a time.

The County Fair and Pants

This Friday I had the first major test of my weight loss progress. The San Mateo County Fair!! At those types of event I normally can't leave without buying a big bag of kettle corn. I thought about not going at all, but I can't live my life hiding from everything tasty so I prepared for it, plus Boys II Men was also playing. It just so happened that weight watchers has a telepathic connection with me because there was an article about summer weight loss danger zones which included fairs. It had a listing of common fair foods and their point values. Some of them were shocking, like the turkey leg it is 27 points and the funnel cake, one of my amusement park weaknesses, is 12 points and I don't think that includes the strawberries and syrup that is normally on it. I printed out the list to keep on me at the fair. So as I was wandering around the fair smelling all the yummy smells I just pulled out my points list and repeated to myself, "it is not worth going over my daily points." I also brought some low calorie snacks with me, like the weight watchers cheddar twists. Sadly when we got there the auditorium was already full so the fire marshal wouldn't let anyone else in. We didn't see Boys II Men. We did get to see the pig races though.



I weighed in on Sunday and I lost another 2.8 pounds! Mike, my fiance, was so proud he bought me a present. It is a fancy water bottle and holder it also has places for my iPod, cell, and keys. It is awesome. I was tired of putting all that stuff in my bra. Have you ever noticed that women's workout pants rarely have any pockets, or at least the ones I have don't. You could always wear those swishy pants but then you make that swishing noise everywhere you go and there is the risk of starting a fire. Plus whenever I try to put my cell, iPod, and keys in the pocket, it's all so heavy that they start to sag. So basically I prefer the curve hugging stretchy pants or sweats and thats why all my paraphernalia ends up in my bra. Thanks to Mike I don't have that problem anymore.

The beginning

I began my most recent weight loss journey four weeks ago, since then I have lost 10.8 pounds. I started the weight watchers program on July 19th after hearing about the success one of my co-workers had had on the program before her wedding. I'm getting married in almost exactly one year and I hope to be healthier and in better physical shape than I am now by then. The co-worker I mentioned before has also started Weight Watchers back up and another co-worker has also joined. One of their key mottos is to track things. You track your food intake, you track your weight. They even suggest tracking your measurements and clothes sizes. I'm am tracking using their e-tools website and going to weekly meetings. I also want to track the differences in my physical appearance. I searched my computer and phone to find a good "Before" photo, but I realized that I don't have a single picture that is more than the shoulders up. So below there is the most recent picture of me I had on my computer. It is from the fourth of July this year so I figure that's close enough.



I had already started to make some changes. I knew I was overweight and I had started to be more conscious of it so I unconsciously had already started paying attention to what I was eating and maybe even losing some weight. Take a look at the difference between one month ago and in February of this year (See Picture Below).



Tell me what you think, had there already been some weight loss? If not oh well there are two picture to compare as before photos. Keep coming back and you can see my progress.

I'm not ready to post my weight here yet, for the whole world to see, but probably once I lose more I'll spill the beans. I will tell you that I am very close to my first goal which is to lose 5% of my original weight from when I joined Weight Watchers. I have also been using the Nintendo Wii to weigh myself in between weekly weigh ins, From Sunday to Wednesday morning I lost 0.7 pounds. I have to celebrate the little victories! I'd like to loose at least 2 pounds a week. That means I should reach my goal weight in about 41 weeks, that is just enough time to buy a wedding dress. If you are smart and good at math you can probably figure out how much I weigh with all the information I gave you, and you thought you'd never use algebra in real life! LOL! Well I hope you see less of me next time!