Monday Weigh In

Monday is when I weigh in and measure on a Christian board I'm on. All the times I have done this in the past I never keep my records. So hopefully here they will not be lost.

Starting Weight: 214.4
Week 2: 210.8
2 Week Total Loss: 3.3 lbs

Measurements
Starting: 403
Week 2: 396.75
2 Week Total Loss: -5.75"

Am I the only one who every time I measure can't help but wonder if I'm measuring the wrong places every time? I never trust my results. Up, down, I always end up attributing it to measuring not in the exact same spot. So here I am down almost everywhere and my mind can't give it up that I might have actually lost something. But I lost weight and inches so it must be real right? Ever amazed at just how long term dieting has totally messed up your thinking?! Here I am down some pounds, down some inches and I literally can't believe it. I didn't expect to be down this far weight wise so my first thought? I must not have eaten enough yesterday so I must have less in my "gut". Stupid. Same with my inches. I FULLY expect to next week measure in a slightly different place and be right back up again. What is it about ME or dieting or something that makes it feel impossible to embrace ANY success? Do I want myself to fail? I definitely expect myself to fail. And to be honest, despite all this "change your thinking" talk by ladies I respect, I am yet to get HOW to do that. Just telling myself to stop thinking the worst of myself doesn't change the thoughts when they come. I'll need to pray about that some. I've gotten the advice to try and see myself how God sees me. And that's always a struggle. Because on one hand, I've been washed in the blood, but on the other hand I feel like a big ole giant sinner all the time. So what IS how God sees me? Definitely an area to meditate on.

And lest I forget - The workouts from the last week:
Tuesday 11 - MORE + BROOM
Wednesday 12 - PBS, TTT, HD
Thursday 13 - MORE
Friday 14 - PBS, TTT, HD
Saturday 15 - Off
Sunday 16 - MORE + BROOM

Bowling, painting and the wonders of MORE

So Saturday was a scary day. And it would be scary for anyone with back problems. *insert menacing music here* Bowling, shopping and painting!

Saturday was when we celebrated our newly 7yo and newly 11yo sons birthdays. We went bowling. Yes, bowling. Because well... you know... I'm a glutton for punishment. As someone with chronic back pain bowling isn't top of the list of wise things to do. But my sons were so excited so I bowled. I stopped in frame 8 but should have stopped after frame 6. My back just got too tired. So the moms and I went shopping at Goodwill next door. So bowling, then standing and walking for over an hour, the back to bowling and walking around the arcade.

Then we return home and I.... paint until 2 AM. Two coats on one wall, a coat of primer and a coat of paint on the front door. Around 1 AM when waiting for everything to dry for second coats, I decided that my only chance at walking in the morning was doing T-tapp MORE. So I did it. And went back to painting fully expecting to wake up with one of those bad back morning.

Instead I woke up to the sound of angels singing and a great back. Insert awe inspiring music here:
I felt great. No different than any other day. In fact I kind of felt better than any other day. I truly believe that t-tapp is my savior with these back problems. Adding to that, my bad knee. Almost 2 years ago I slipped and fell and hurt my knee. With my weight, and running on the treadmill, etc. etc. it never healed. It was always hurting in the morning and when doing stairs, hiking on rough terrain, things like that. Well MORE has a few lunges and lots of plies. But with the t-tapp technique of knees out, tucking, leaning away from the lunges, not only do my knees not hurt from t-tapp they are feeling better all the time. Truly amazing stuff.

Lest I forget: (oh and assume that I pretty much do PBS at least once a day in the morning)
Workouts:
Wed Jan. 5th - MORE Instructional
Thurs Jan 6th - MORE Instructional
Sat Jan 8th - MORE
Mon Jan 10th - MORE
Tues Jan 11th - MORE and Broom

Workouts

Before I forget lol.

Tuesday: PBS, t-tapp twist, lawnmowers and Hoedowns

Wednesday: PBS, TTT, OIP/HF full version, Hoedowns - *note* when I went to bed it was the first time I have gone to bed where when I relaxed my back I didn't have ANY pain. Those stretches from OIP/HF were amazing.

Thursday: PBS, the stretching from OIP/HF - *note* was hoping to wake with no back pain but both the baby and Garrison were up most of the night in bed with me and I hardly got any sleep. I was a tad sore but not horrible. Who knows how I would have been should I NOT have done the OIP/HF

Friday so far: OIP/HF stretching, PBS - Woke feeling pretty good! Was a tad sore but NO weakness in the back! So did the OIP/stretching and some arm movements before getting out of bed and was actually ABLE to do PBS after that. I NEVER can do PBS in the morning. Will be doing the full OIP/HF tonight I think. Wait it's New Year's. We'll see.

Free Food/Exercise Log

I started this originally thinking I could easily keep track of my workouts. But if I don't log in for a couple of days I find I forget my workouts so easily. Every time I start a new entry I keep having to rack my brain to remember. And I have realized that while I don't like to journal at all in an actual paper notebook, I like to list, plan, etc. in a real notebook. Do you KNOW how many binders and notebooks I've made? Now using them.... it another story for another time.

Then of course while poking around Charlotte's blog I read this post by Charlotte about her notebooking. Here's her always motivating entry:
Charlotte's Notebooking Entry I was told she goes into more detail about it in her book. Go read there and be inspired to start the year off with a notebook.

As the New Year approaches I, like most every other woman out there, am gearing up to start revamping my life. So as part of that I want to set up an exercise, food and supplement journal. So I opened Photoshop and made myself some. And I figured that others might enjoy and use them too. SO you can download them here on the blog! The links are down under the preview and description. Here's a little preview of the pages.

There are two versions - plain and swirls with more decorative font.
Each zip includes:
Cover page
Daily Log page
2 Weekly Log sheets(1 with food log space, one without)
Long-term goal sheet
Short-term goal sheet
2 Numbers sheet (one with weight & measurements, one with just measurements)
T-tapp tips and tweaks sheet
A sheet with some great dry brushing info (I mean you can pretty much guarantee you get "what's dry brushing?" whenever you mention it so now you can print this and hand it out)

Download here:
Plain Log Sheets Download
Swirly Log Sheets Download

Note- if you haven't used 4shared before when you click that link it will take you to a page where it says "thank you for downloading" and has a timer counting down. Wait the 20 seconds, then click the BLUE link that says "Download Now". When the popup opens click SAVE then choose where you want it saved. It is a zip file so you will need to unzip it. When you go to open it, your computer will have a button that says "Extract Files". Click that and you're golden.
They are both zip files and if you have troubles opening them, just let me know.

I hope you enjoy and get loads of use out of these. AND I'm totally open for making more pages if anyone wants to suggest a change or a different page!

And lest I forget:
Thursday: BWO+ using the audio - I tried to do this in the bathroom with the mirror. I don't know how you guys who use a mirror do it. I couldn't focus ONE BIT. It was a so-so workout

Sunday: BWO+ Tempo and brushing. I like brushing. Why I procrastinate with it I don't know.

Monday: Brushed in the morning & BWO+ and the Balance Sequence from TWO. Balance was a tad hard and I'm crossing my fingers that my back feels good in the morning. Worked out in the afternoon instead of night.

Hiding my head in the sand

I have come to the realization that when things are bad I bury my head in the sand and hide. No posting on the t-tapp forums, no talking to my HK friends, and of course... no blogging on my new t-tapp blog. So here we are. Time to shake the sand off, buck up and hop back on the wagon and any other cliches you can think of.

I took a good week off. I don't know why I do it. Well I don't know why anymore than I know why I eat 10 cookies instead of 1. Or none. Wouldn't eating none and feeling fine be just amazing? Anyways, so I didn't get around to tapping for a week. I was feeling invincible back-wise. My back just was feeling great (after the week of tapping before!) and I just let myself not do it. Do we know where this is going? Yeah, my back became a MESS after a long day in town, at the store, then cleaning my mom's house. No tapping+hard work=downright painful and hard to walk in the morning. Sigh.

So this week I started again. Monday and Tuesday I did BWO+ (okay I did Basic + Tempo which is a version of BWO+ but it's my favorite). My back was still stiff in the mornings but hey I could walk and make breakfast for the kids. I was on a roll. And again the feeling of invincibility crept in.... and Wednesday I tried to do the lunges after BWO+ (I got my TWO DVD 2 in the mail that day!!). I know, I know, I have a bad back, a back that makes it hard to walk at times, and I know that overdoing it is a recipe for disaster. But I'm an all-or-nothing gal. Sue me. So needless to say my body wasn't so happy the next morning. Was discouraging to have done my t-tapp and have my back hurt. But I did push it past my comfort zone and I know it was the cause. But discouraging nonetheless. I really want to be able to do TWO.

I did B+Tempo last night but was still sore this morning from the day before so today I'm taking a full day off. I did PBS (Primary Back Stretch) today with the kids and will do brushing before bed. But I am hoping that a full recovery day (though I admit it took everything I had not to pop in SATI (Step Away the Inches) and do that). but hopefully this full day will help me to really get my back ready to tapp again tomorrow. Less is More is SUCH a hard thing for me to comprehend. I hear it said on the t-tapp forums a million times but it's SO hard for me to embrace. I've always been the "add as many plates to my barbells, run as fast as I could, working out twice a day is always better than once" person. It's time to retrain my thinking on this!

Workouts for the week of December 13-17th:
M - BWO+ Tempo
T - BWO+ Tempo
W - BWO+ and lunges from Instructional 2
Th - BWO Tempo & body brushing
F - Day off/PBS and body brushing

Weight: 212.2 Sigh. I know that measurements matter and weight shouldn't but when you're over 200 lbs seeing that scale goes down is a great thing. I WILL have it down next week. And if I don't I'm sure I'll pretend this blog doesn't exist :)