Category Archives: Seven Days of Sanity

7 Days of Sanity is DONE! Happy Easter!!

Battle of the Butt, Seven Days of Sanity

Hey, y’all!

Day 7 is done and today is REST DAY!  (Or it was…I know this is coming late!)

I did 6 of 7 days of insanity, losing 1 day on Wednesday when I had a migraine and was in a stupor.  How did you do?

I meant what I said when I declared that I was going to pick this right back up again tomorrow.  Seven more days of sanity starts tomorrow for me.  I absolutely need to make consistent exercise a habit – and it’s going to require the same persistence I applied to getting my eating habits in line.

I’m going to move the tracking of 7 Days of Sanity over to my Facebook Fan Page, however, as it’s just not possible for me to update the blog every single day (and those of you who subscribe by email will probably be thankful I’m not spamming your email every day with Sanity updates, right!)  If you’d like to join the challenge, I’m going to try using Facebook events and see how well that works.  Then you can share with friends and, hopefully, we’ll all help motivate each other to start healthy habits.

This is a short post today, as it’s Easter (which means in the Hot Mess Household that the hubby sleeps on his ass all day and I clean everything myself…don’t get me started).  I’ll be back tomorrow to share one of my big motivators with you.

Speaking of motivating…I moved another marble this morning.  33 pounds and counting.

339 by the end of the month…I’ve got this.

Happy Easter!!!

7 Days of Sanity: Day 5…I’m not wearing pants!

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It’s Day 5 of 7 Days of Sanity…and, it’s true, I’m not wearing pants. 

Calm down.  Think rationally.  Of course I’m not going to go running around my office completely uncovered.  But this morning I didn’t slip on the typical frumpy, dumpy fat girl pants that I usually have to wear to work.  And, no, for Heaven’s sake…I’m not wearing a skirt or a dress.  Cankles, hello! 

(drumroll….)

This morning, I put on (and zipped) the first pair of jeans I’ve worn in 2 years.  

TWO YEARS!!!!!

Our office is closed tomorrow for Good Friday, so today is our last day before the weekend.  Fridays are always jeans day at the office.  I don’t have a pair of size 32 jeans and I have refused to buy any because I have a whole bunch of size 30 clothes in my closet just waiting for me.  As such, I’ve never worn jeans at this job.  Unlike most offices, we don’t get to participate in Jeans Day unless we donate $5 for the designated charity for that week.  Every Friday is kind of like a nagging little reminder that I’m a big fat fatty…because someone comes through the department to check and see who’s wearing jeans and who has to pay up.  And…every Friday…I say “I’m not wearing jeans.”  And every Friday, there’s this tiny little voice that reminds me that I’m not wearing jeans because I can’t fit into the ones in my closet.  It’s something that makes me fight to stay positive.  I tell that little voice to shut up…and I remind myself that I’m working on it. 

Sure, I could have gone out to buy bigger jeans, but I have adamantly refused to buy bigger clothes for myself and I’m sticking to it.  I’ve burned that bridge.  In fact, I’ll show you what I did with my last pair of size 32 jeans…tomorrow.  It’s pretty funny.  

But today…I am incredibly proud to be the girl who’s lost 32 pounds and is wearing size 30 jeans at work.  32 marbles have gone plink, plink, plink in the jar.  187 marbles are waiting to be moved.  And they will move.  It’s all in my power.

I’ll leave you guys with this for today:  me in my jeans at work.  Still a big fat girl, I know…but working on it every day and moving forward no matter how hard my personal demons try to throw me off course.  I’ve got this.

Today, I am a Hot Mess Bad Ass.

7 Days of Sanity: Day 2 is DONE, Day 3 is HERE!!

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Hey, peeps!  How are your 7 Days of Sanity going?

The scale stood firmly at 351 Monday morning (and also this morning), but that is a very good thing and I’ll tell you why in just a minute.  Prepare yourselves for something dreadful and horrible…something unheard of in the Hot Mess world. Sunday, the Hot Mess Hubby took me to the movies…and I had movie theater popcorn! GASP!!!

I knew we were going to the movies, so I had a light breakfast. The movie started at 10:45 am.  I planned to eat popcorn.  It’s just one of the most inhumane things in the world to expect me to walk into a movie theater and not have popcorn.  I should tell you that, although I’m a movie buff, I married a guy who thinks it is absolute torture to sit still in a dark theatre for an hour and a half…so I go to the movies about once a year.  In fact, the last movie he took me to see was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II…and only because I threatened to kill him if he didn’t.  So if eat movie theater popcorn once a year…big deal, really.  And yes…it had butter on it.  Perfectly popped, partially hydrogenated evil in a box.  And I ate it.  And it was gooood.

We saw “The Hunger Games”, which I originally thought was a tell-all documentary about the diet industry.  Katniss Everdeen and the wild game diet.  Peeta, aka the Boy with the Bread…really, c’mon.  A cute guy with carbs?   How can I resist that??

Okay, I’m kidding…I knew what it was about.  I’ve read all 3 books. 

But back to my popcorn…

Like I said, I had a light breakfast with a chaser of movie theater popcorn at 10:45 am…and I didn’t even begin to feel hungry until 5 pm that night. I made a grilled turkey burger and some baked, seasoned fries and that was it.  The next morning I got up and got on the scale…351.  Good boy, Mr. Scale…good boy!

I was a little afraid that my partially hydrogenated tryst was going to make the scale flinch a little bit, but it didn’t.  I win!!  I worked out on the treadmill for 30 minutes on Sunday and 31 minutes on Monday.  Tonight will be 32 minutes.  Tomorrow will be 33.  I’m going to work my way up to 45 minutes consistently this month.  Next month, I’ll shoot for 60 minutes.  Time to get serious about this exercise thing.

How’s everyone doing? Time to check in!!

7 Days of Sanity: the Challenge!

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Hello, my peeps!

True to my word, I’m starting another 7 Days of Sanity Challenge today.

Since December 15th, I’ve been building healthier habits and kicking a little ass…and I’ve dropped 30 pounds in 3 months with just old fashioned common sense.  I’ve been losing about 10 pounds a month.  Not bad for a fat girl, eh?

As you know, I missed my goal of hitting 349 by March 31st…by a dinky 2 pounds.  My inner perfectionist is still cringing about it.  However, the only way out is through for me…so onward I go, because I ultimately have faith that if I keep going forward I will hit my goal – and I’ll hit it faster if I increase my physical activity level, yes?  Yes!!

That being said, those of you who are regular readers (and I love you for that!) know how I feel about the fitness gurus out there and all their ridiculous “fitspeak.”

Obviously, obese people aren’t avid exercisers…or we wouldn’t be obese, would we?  No.  Honestly, I think anyone who wants to develop a real healthy habit of exercising regularly should approach the task methodically.  I don’t believe in jumping into something with the “no pain, no gain” mentality – especially if you can use any of the following words to describe it:  brutal, shred, turbo, or…you guessed it…insanity.

I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who will disagree with me, but I know myself better than any of those people…and this I know for sure:  I will not be successful starting a real habit if I cause myself so much pain that I’m waddling around like a truck stop hooker after a convoy rolls through town.  I want to encourage myself to get more cardio and live a healthier lifestyle – and if I can’t lift my legs out of bed in the morning without screaming, well…that’s not going to give me any incentive to do it again.

Pain like that is going to do is send me straight for the couch, never to bend at the waist again.  (Understand, I’m not talking about the normal discomfort that can come from using muscles you’re not used to working…I’m talking about going from completely sedentary to 90 minutes of extreme cardio insanity tap dance Zumba ninja moves and then limping in to work on crutches Monday morning.)

Enough with the extreme turbo insanity shred…BULLSHIT.

7 Days of Sanity is about starting a good, solid, healthy habit (or reinforcing something you’ve already started). Let’s be normal.  I don’t want to be insane (some of my friends would argue that that ship has already sailed).  I was used to no exercise in the beginning.  Lately, I’ve exercised sporadically.  Now it’s time to really dig in and make this a consistent habit.  Here are my goals for this challenge:

Starting today, I will walk on my treadmill every day for at least 30 minutes.  I will rest on the 8th day.

That’s it.

It’s so much simpler when there aren’t all kinds of rules, stipulations, and other crap to remember isn’t it?  7 days, 30 minutes a day…that’s it.  I’m hoping to repeat this pattern twice more before the 7 Dwarfs of the Apocalypse come back and get me all bloated and crampy again.

What healthy habit would you like to start or reinforce?  It doesn’t have to be exercise.  Are you ready to join me for 7 Days of Sanity?  It’s enough to help build a habit, but it’s not so daunting that it seems impossible.  We can do 7 days, right?  I know I can.  Who’s with me?

Post a comment here if you’re joining the 7 Days of Sanity Challenge.  Tell us what you’re going to focus on and how you’re going to do it.  We’ll cheer each other on right here.

7 Days.  We got this.  Who’s with me?

Scale Day

Battle of the Butt, Seven Days of Sanity, Weigh In Time

My first scale non-victory today…I didn’t hit my goal of 349.

I kind of felt like that would be the case after waiting a week and a half for my new walking shoes to come in, immediately followed by a visit from the 7 Dwarfs of the Apocalypse.  I know exactly what I need: another 7 Days of Sanity to kick off the next leg of my Battle of the Butt.

After the 7 Dwarfs of the Apocalypse departed on Monday, I got on the scale and it was hanging faithfully at 354 – so I felt good that all the water gain was gone. And this morning the scale is reading 351.  3 pounds is not a bad haul for 6 days!

I’m confident that I’ll be able to get to 349 by next week now that I’m working out again.  And I’m going to have to push it a little extra hard in April if I’m going to make 339 by the end of the month.  Those are my goals for the next month.  Pretty big goals!

You know what this means, right?  The first leg of 7 Days of Sanity starts TOMORROW!  Who’s with me?

From Sunday, April 1 to Saturday, April 7 I will workout every single day for 30 minutes…and rest on the 8th.  Then I’ll pick it up again…and so on.  I will get there – and I’m sure it’ll be sooner than later.

There is a tiny little voice in my head right now that’s trying to beat me up for not hitting 349…and I just keep telling her to shut the hell up.  If I listen to that voice, I’ll start giving up.  Failure won’t be far behind.  From the moment I started this, my plan of attack has always been to handle self-doubt, set backs, and self-loathing by running full steam ahead towards my goal.  Years of drowning my sorrows in Little Debbies and pizza have shown me that the road behind me leads to nothing but pain and embarrassment.

Feel like a failure or not, it’s up to me.  I’m not a failure.  30 pounds lost in 3 1/2 months is effing bad ass.  🙂  349 will be mine soon enough.

Tomorrow I wake up and start the sanity.  I also think I’m ready to try working out in the mornings again.  For a time, I was too grumpy in the mornings…but now I think it might be good to start my mornings with something extremely positive…so I’m going to try that again.  After all, what the hell do I have to be grumpy about?

 

 

I’ll tell you what:  it felt really good to move some marbles this morning.  Really good.

 

The Power of Positive Thinking