Happy New Year! - Welcome to 2014

Sorry for skipping out on you after completing the Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge.  Never got in those after pictures.  It was crazy around here trying to get ready for Christmas with my family in Ohio.  It was the first time we had Christmas BEFORE Christmas so we kind of had to rush everything.

My Slim in 6 for the Holidays Losses

4.8 pounds

.5 inch off my thighs

2 inches off my chest

2.5 inches off my waist

TOTAL WEIGHT LOST FOR 2013 - 62.8 lbs (as of 12/26)

I came across the Weight Watchers' New Year, New You Challenge yesterday.  This 4 week challenge appears to be designed to help you get a jump start on your weight loss goal for 2014.  By committing to the challenge you're vowing to look towards the future not the past.  There are weekly tasks to help you be healthier and successful in reaching your goal.  Tasks are designed to keep you mindful in everything you do and help you navigate your journey.  This sounds like a great idea so I signed up as a participant.

Week 1 has two tasks, one immediate and the other long term.  The immediate task is to try food that you've never had before, preferably whole foods.  Well, I tried almond milk and other lettuces at my grandparents' house during our Christmas and PB2 (love it!) later so I say I'm good for this one.

The long term task is thinking outside the scale.  This involves a separate goal that has nothing to do with your weight or clothing size.  For me I think it would be to participate in some kind of personal development program.  I've been reading books but they're just not clicking for me, not holding my concentration.  Perhaps participating in a program with hands-on activity is the key.  Now to find these programs that won't cost an arm and a leg...

This new year also marks some changes to the blog.  First of all I'm moving my weekly updates to Wednesdays.  It just makes more sense to post the day after I've weighed in at Weight Watchers rather than the Sunday night after.  #WEIGHINWEDNESDAY

The second change is the introduction of healthy recipes on Tuesdays.  Mostly these recipes will be contributed but every once in a while it'll be something I've done (when I felt creative in the kitchen).  So what's the best way to do my weekly "call for recipes"?  #TASTYTUESDAY Non-recipe guest posts will be on Thursdays.

The third change is in the works.  I'm looking at ending Casually Cassi and moving all product reviews here.  It's just not getting the interaction and viewership that I thought I'd have.  I'm actually not getting more opportunities because of that.  Please leave your opinions of this transition in the comments.

I Vant to Suck Your Blood

Image Courtesy of [dream designs] / Freedigitalphotos.net

Monday I had my annual physical and saw that I was down some more.  Because of the anemia symptoms returning since I've lost weight I asked the doctor to run my CBC again.  He also wanted to see my cholesterol levels.  I don't even remember how many vials they took. LOL  I haven't heard from the doctor's office but I saw results on my EMR Friday morning.

 Check out the difference in my BMI from February to now - just about 10 kg/m2!

 

 

Last year my Vitamin D levels were very low.  The doctor had me take 2000 mg of D3.  I've been taking it about a year now and I've drastically improved - just about 3.5 times!

 

 



I spotted something on my EMR that I haven't seen before - ideal weight.

Calculating that out it's only about 120 lbs.  I think that's too unrealistic for me so I'm sticking with my 130 lb ultimate goal.

 

My blood counts (WBC, RBC, Hgb, Hct, MCV, MCH, etc.) were all about the same between last year and this year.  So I'm waiting on the doctor's response as to why the anemia symptoms have returned.  My Triglycerides are holding steady.  My LDL is in range.  My HDL is low.  Is there anything that I can do to raise my HDL without raising anything else?  Again I'm waiting for the doctor to respond.

 

Tuesday night I weighed in down another 1.2 lbs - just .8 lbs shy of 60 lbs for the year!  Hoping I reach that number at weigh in tomorrow night.  Will try to get Benny to take my measurements and after pictures tomorrow night so it'll all be done in one fell swoop.  My plan is to make a separate post on Wednesday with my full results.

 

Thursday was my best recorded burn

 

The Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge is now over.  Challengers slowed down in completing the workouts but I don't think that's all that bad for my first group.



Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge Week 5

The headache hasn't really been bothering me but I can feel myself tensing up around 6/7 pm, whether it's in the car or on the couch.  I don't know what's going on.  Since the first time taking the Flexeril I've been extra sleepy.  You can take this muscle relaxer up to 3 times a day but I've only taken two a couple of times since I've been tired.  We'll see what the doctor has to say in the morning.

I went to the dentist Friday (during the snow storm) for my first cleaning.  Again the hygenist was surprised that my teeth looked so good even though it's been so long since I've been to a dentist.  The only teeth with a tartar build up were those at my lingual bar (the wire glued to the back side of my lower front teeth as a bottom retainer).  This is because it's so hard to get anything through there to floss.  She gave me some samples to try but I don't know if it'll work.  Everytime I try something it works for a while then the floss starts shredding or breaking. My lower teeth are just too tight!

My weight dropped 2.2 lbs, wiping out the gain of the past two weeks and then some!  I'm now just 2 lbs shy of losing 60 lbs this year.  I'd be happy to just maintain that through the holidays and then start losing again in January.

After pretty much burning the same amount of calories (417-419) all week I shocked myself with how much I burned Friday!

Trying to decide what workout to do next.  I don't really want to start a new program over the holidays so I'll be mixing things up after this final week of the challenge.  We'll see what I get for Christmas and go from there.

It was pretty quiet with the challenge group this week.  One reported a slight gain over Thanksgiving but it was much less than she normally sees.  The others didn't chime in with how they did so I can only assume either there were gains or they didn't weigh themselves this week.

Most of the jello is gone from Austin's Minecraft Cake.  I've been nibbling the cake almost every night this week; it's still so moist!  Perhaps I'm just craving sugar....  I don't remember if Austin ate any of the cake this weekend.

This week I was selected as a co-host for the Countdown in Style hop.  Be sure to enter your favorite post (not a giveaway or other linkup) to be featured on Homemaking with Style or 100lb Countdown this Friday!

Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge - Week 4

Monday night I went to the dentist for the first time in about 10 years.  I still have no dental insurance so everything has to be paid via the Care Credit financing.  The hygienist was surprised that I didn't have so much that needed taken care of not having had a cleaning for so long.  My one tooth that bothers me off and on (and is broken) the dentist gave the option of saving it with a root canal or extracting it.  Not only because of the price difference but why would you do a root canal for just one molar?  There are also 7 cavities that need filled.

Since when do they take your blood pressure at the dentist's office?  The tech (for lack of knowledge of her title) tried the arm cuff but it wouldn't work through my sweater.  She then used the wrist cuff but that said my blood pressure was high (she never gave me the numbers though).  Nevertheless I think it'd have something to do with the headache I've had since the 19th.  I asked the doctor's office about it and they suggested that I go in and possibly get a Toradol injection.  Is anyone familiar with this for headache relief?

I was up another 1.4 lbs this week.  I think it was the combination of TOM and this terrible headache.  By the time I got to the doctor Friday my weight had already dropped back to where it was last week.  The doctor said my neck/shoulder muscles are super tight so we're trying a muscle relaxer (Flexeril).  If the headaches/tightness don't improve by my regular appointment on the 9th we'll look at physical therapy.

It was a slow week with the challenge also.  Two of us had a gain and the one that had been losing 4 lbs had a smaller loss.  There are only two weeks left so we'll see what they bring!

This was our simple Thanksgiving dinner...white asparagus for Benny and green beans for me.  I cooked a 18.5 lb turkey and this was just what Benny first cut off.

Afterwards I started working on Austin's Minecraft Cake.  Benny said it's too sweet for him so he hasn't had any more.  So what am I going to do with all this cake and jello? LOL

Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge - Week 3

I was up .4 lbs but it's all good.  As promised here's me in the Body Gospel shirt.  Both sides have the same logo so I didn't bother with a rear photo.  Benny and I couldn't get the picture right.  I don't know if it was the lighting, my pooch, my jeans, or something else that made it look weird to us.

My double headaches returned this week and are still going on.  Medicine will squelch the aches for a few hours but it always comes back.  I didn't let the headaches stop me from working out.

Along with my headaches, Saturday my HRM was spazzy.  First, it wouldn't even pick up my heart rate.  Then, during the warmup it jumped from 90-something to 180!

One challenger has lost 4 lbs two weeks in a row!  Fingers and toes crossed that she'll have another great loss to mark the halfway point.

I've made some progress on the Famous in Five Challenge, although not exactly in the way they intended.  I've answered Carli's interview questions and have picked out two of the three pictures to use - a couple of pictures put together from 2011 & 2012 for my before shot and one of my workout pictures (like above).  What should I do for the third one?

This week, not only do I have Thanksgiving dinner to prep but it's Austin's 12th birthday.  I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday.  He said that he wanted a Minecraft themed cake with all the fun blocks...something like this -

Photo Credit: turoczy via Compfight cc

So Saturday, we went to Kroger and I let him pick out the ingredients.

• German Chocolate & Chocolate Fudge cake (he says there's enough of a color difference to make the blocks)
• Strawberry jello for the lava
• Berry Blue Jell-O for the water
• Coconut, icing, and green food coloring for the grass

I've NEVER done anything like this before so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.  My cakes are normally just the plain kind, sometimes with writing (spelling errors included).

I think I'm going to try to do the cake in the roaster oven while the turkey bakes in the regular oven.  I picked up some square pans at Dollar Tree to make the cutting more even/easier (I hope).  I could put two in the roaster to bake, remove them to cool and put the next pair in.  I should be able to cut the cake into squares during this time also.  The leftover pieces of cake and jello (not used for the design) I'll be taking into work to share with coworkers.

Have you made a "mixed media" cake before?  How did it turn out?

Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge - Week 2

I was down another 2.4 lbs this week!  My HRM showed that my calorie burn was dropping with Start It Up! so that meant it was getting too easy for me.  What's a girl gonna do about that then?  Wednesday and Friday I did the Cardio Core Express bonus workout.  Thursday I did the Thin Thighs Guaranteed bonus workout.  As you can see those workouts did me good! Saturday I wanted to take it easy so I did another Start It Up!

The challengers were quiet this week but I think they all lost a few more pounds.

Glad to see the positive feedback on the Famous in Five Challenge!  I have to kick myself into gear and actually write those pitch letters.  All I really have is "Dear so-and-so" and then my mind wonders off onto something else.  UGH!  I need to focus focus focus...

FedEx delivered my Body Gospel shirt Saturday.  I was so excited that I wore it that same day and didn't have anyone take my picture.  I'll have to save that for the next post.

Benny took my measurements tonight.  This past month I've lost:

• 1.5 inches off my waist
• 3.5 inches off my hips
• 1 inch off my chest
• .5 inches off my right arm (left arm stayed the same)
• 1 inch off my right thigh
• 2.5 inches off my left thigh

Weird discrepancy with the size of my thighs.  Benny measured several times and said he could actually see a difference between the size of my thighs so we're assuming everything's correct LOL.  As of tonight my left thigh is measuring 3 inches smaller than my right thigh.  I've always carried things on my left side so I guess it sort of makes sense that I've worked my left thigh more than the right.

Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge - Week 1

I lost 2.2 lbs this week - 55.2 lbs lost so far!  I was definitely able to feel the difference in using the resistance band vs weights as I'd used last time with Slim in 6.  I felt it in my back and sides.  The challengers are reporting in great losses this first week!

I went from this look on my selfie

To this look

I don't know why I struggle so much smiling on a selfie.  I like to say that I'm too busy concentrating on getting the shot LOL

Saturday was our 5 year anniversary.  As promised in his vows, Benny gives me one rose for each year.  Every year I'm always surprised he remembers the day let alone to do the roses LOL.  (Don't ask me what the vows were.  I had found them online or in a book somewhere but that information was on my computer that was stolen several years ago!)  This year he said that the flower shop he'd go to pick up the roses closed down so he had to search elsewhere for them.

ONEDERLAND with a Cold

It's finally official!

I dropped another 3.2 lbs this week.  Monday was a scheduled rest day as the last "day" of the Body Gospel program.  I took another rest day Tuesday.  Then Wednesday I just did Core Revelations but still felt weak.  Stupid colds.  The rest of the week I did a Leslie Sansone walking DVD.

I'd ordered the Slim in 6 program to use with the challenge starting November 4.  I'm going to try the bands this time around. Just not sure what kind of schedule I'm doing yet but I have one more week to figure that out!

Saturday I made a quick trip to Goodwill and picked up a couple of size 16 jeans that fit nicely.  It was annoying having to wash the darks every 3 days since I only had three pairs of pants.

I made today a rest day to get into the groove of starting Slim in 6 on a Monday.  Since I'm not doing anything new, just mixing up my existing programs, there shouldn't be any issues.  I was so bored today.  I went out into the garden this afternoon and pulled up the dead plants and dowel rods.  I used the weed whacker to chop up what I couldn't pull up.  This one deep root I used the pickaxe on to remove (well, I hope I got it all LOL).

Body Gospel Week 4 at GOAL #2

Well, my official weigh in didn't put me in ONEDERLAND....just .1 lbs shy.  There was no workout scheduled for Tuesday morning but I think if there had been it might've made it LOL.  I still reached a milestone anyway!

Images Courtesy of Stuart Miles | Freedigitalphotos.net

Yes, that's 20% / 50 lbs of me gone since March.  This is the lightest I've been in over 7 years!  I got my 50 lb charm at the Weight Watchers meeting and added it to my collection.

This week during the Body Gospel workouts I had some weird tummy thing going on.  It never lasted much beyond the workouts so I have no idea what it was.  Then Friday afternoon I got a sore throat that I've been fighting with all weekend.  Tonight it turned into a cold as my nose keeps dripping.

This final week's workouts were Strength & Spirit, Power & Praise, Core Revelations & Stretch in the Spirit, and Body Revival. This morning doing Strength & Spirit I could feel the weakness setting in from the cold.  I was shocked to see that I'd burned so many calories even while feeling like crap!

Today was the final workout of the Body Gospel program.  I'm not sure what I'm doing between now and the Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge starting November 4.  Maybe I'll lay out all the DVDs and do the old "eeny, meeny, miney, mo" every day to see what workout I'll do each day LOL.

My Halloween costume is pretty much complete.  I just have to figure out how to do my hair, what to wear on my legs, and what shoes to wear.  It was suggested that I do a rockabilly hairstyle but most of those have bangs.  What are your thoughts?

A side by side comparison of last year vs this year...

Body Gospel Week 2 + My First Challenge Group

I was up a pound this week I think because of TOM. Gotta kick it back up next week!

Early September I won a Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor as a part of Britton @ My Big, Beautiful, Life's Blogger-Versary giveaway. It arrived in Thursday's mail so I used it during Friday's workout.  I'm going to try to remember to take a picture of the recordings every day and post them on Facebook.  Would you rather see the heart rate, calories burned, or both?

I did Body Revival, Power & Praise, Core Revelation, and Stretch in the Spirit this week.  Both times I did Power I was hot and red afterwards.  My face stayed red even after a shower.  Could that be from my heart rate reaching the high end of the target range several times?

The foot straps on the Body Gospel bands aren't adjustable.  They stay on my feet but are still quite loose and sort of move around during some of the workouts.  Either my foot is smaller than everyone on the DVDs or someone used too much elastic on my straps.

US/CANADA Only

I'm excited to host my first challenge group next month!  You saw my progress doing Slim in 6 half-assed in the summer heat. Just imagine what I could do in cooler temperatures!  So I'm hosting the Slim in 6 for the Holidays Challenge starting November 4th.  I'd love for some of you to join me on this adventure!  Please RSVP to the event and send me a friend request so that I can add you to the group later this month.  Be sure to purchase Slim in 6 so you can play along!  (I think you'd need to order by 10/28 to make sure it arrives in time with standard shipping.)

Body Gospel Week 1

I weighed in down 4.2 lbs this week.  Now if only I can get this loss more often I'd reach goal in no time!

I received my Slim in 6 shirt this week.  This time it specifically said it was a Women's XL.  However these are made it's definitely a tighter fit than a standard XL.  I think I'll have to wait a little bit before I can wear it in public.

I'd also ordered the new Shakeology sampler pack and received that this week.  It's two chocolate packets, one vanilla, and one greenberry.  I tried the greenberry but wasn't too thrilled with the flavor; it just left my mouth feeling a little dry.  Austin tried the chocolate and said it tasted different from other shakes but wasn't sure if it was a good or bad difference.  When I took a sip I thought it tasted like sugar free cocoa powder.  He didn't drink it all so I had him put it in the freezer.  I tried it the next morning and it was much better frozen.

61 Hoosiers became citizens on Thursday.  There was standing room only for the family and friends to watch it all unfold.  I was kind of squished in the front left corner for the whole ceremony.  The first hour or so was checking everyone in.  There was a 10 minute break before the ceremony, which lasted about 40 minutes.

Click here to see the pictures full size.

I'm liking Body Gospel so far.  It's not the same thing every day.  The schedule has you mixing up which workout you're doing each day.  I did Body Revival, Core Revelation, and Stretch in the Spirit this week.  Core (~20 minutes) and Stretch (~10 minutes) on their own aren't long enough for me so I put them together to keep myself going at least 30 minutes.  With the Shakeology sampler I ordered the bands too since I couldn't figure out how to effectively do a modified version with the weights.

I've received several inquiries from people responding to my request for guest posters.  Some are spot on the subject matter and others are nowhere in this realm.  Those of you that have had guest posters on your blogs, how do you sort through the madness?

How Slim Did I Go?

I lost another 2 lbs.  There's officially more than 40 lbs of me gone forever!

Image courtesy of [hinnamsaisuy] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There isn't anything different for me to report on the second week of Burn It Up!  It was just as confusing the second time around LOL.  Something weird I did notice though.  When we got to the resistance band portion (in my case the 3 lb weights) I'd feel an overwhelming exhaustion, like I could just fall asleep right then and there.  I neither experienced this with Tai Cheng nor the other Slim in 6 DVDs.

Since we still don't have curtains for the front room I still have only my ~6x6 ft area to work out in.  So this small space limits what I can do.  I was told that I should still be able to do Rockin' Body in this space....we'll see.  I've requested several programs from the library to see which I can actually do in this area but they didn't come in yet.  So I grabbed everything they had at the library just to find something.

The first one I looked at was the Core Rhythms Dance Exercise Program: Starter Package.  Austin and I watched most of the Quick Workout and both said "I don't think so" for me.  Way too intense/advanced for me at this point.

The second one I watched was Hemalayaa: Bollywood Dance Blast.  Austin had gone back to his room so he didn't get to comment on this one.  I didn't watch too much of it.  There was just too much crazy looking shaking going on.  Not real sure how you're supposed to follow this one.

The third one I checked out was Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home. 3 Mile Slim & Sleek Walk.  This one I didn't understand at first.  After all, if you're going out to walk how can you watch a DVD right?  I watched about half of it before I decided I could do this one.  The walking was in place or forwards and backwards.  Several moves tossed in with the walking were similar to what I was just doing with Slim in 6.  So it looks like I'm walking for a week or so.....back to my original idea for exercising LOL.

We did the measurements and after photos late Sunday night so I waited to finish up the post so I can include this information.  Benny thinks he measured my waist wrong last month since there's a 1 inch gain and everywhere else was a loss.  Here are the results:

 .5 inches off my hips

.5 in off my bust

1 inch off my right arm

1.5 inches off my left arm

2.5 inches off my right thigh

2 inches off my left thigh

 

What changes have you had this past week?