Less Lisa

I know, COMPLETE shocker.  Go clean your drawers, I’ll wait.

 Ok…so, after MONTHS of promising pics…I’m finally doing it.  They are mostly of me, my body parts (no we won’t go porn-ish, don’t worry), my boxing area in the shop (our building out back), stuff like that…ok..here we go…

These first two are just a couple of random pictures from our recent trip to Cincinnati…this is the ‘Purple People Bridge’…it’s in Newport, KY and it connects Ohio and Kentucky.  It’s a pedestrian only bridge, so it was really great to get out and do some walking  

 

 

 

  

Here is one Clint shot of me getting ready in the hotel…I was putting on my earrings…

Here is my boxing area ~ You can see my mat, it’s actually bigger now, I’ve added pieces to it for more area for my workout…my heavy bag is hanging, my cute red clock for watching my minutes, my full length mirror which sucks because it stretches you horizontally, so even the skinniest person looks really wide, the little red bag hanging in front of the mirror is my speed bag, and the long silver pole is what I use to do my broom twists.  You can see the small yellow broom handle that I was using…compared to the long silver pole, you can see why it was too short for me.  My arms literally stretch out to either end of the silver pole.  Oh the joys of being 6 foot tall with amazon arms and legs.  Like clothes shopping isn’t already hard enough being overweight, lets add 6″ to each arm and leg and have a laugh!!

Here’s me from the front…I’m still nowhere near a skinny minny, but at least there are less ‘bulges’ from every angle…things are smoothing out a bit…

Here is the bicep picture I took…when the pictures is small, you can see the shadow of the actual bicep better for some reason…not sure how it’s going to show up here, but I swear there really is a muscle there…I can FEEL it…I even play with my arms all the time now because they feel so different.  Besides my arm still having the lovely bat wings, they are improving…

Alright, here’s the last 2…First, the most improved body part so far:

And my favorite body part…I have always been comfortable with my legs…even though the rest of my body fell apart, my legs have always been my favorite.  Especially now that there is more muscle showing

I will try and post pictures more regularly…it’s kinda fun    I do have some of the wall / tv thing that we built also, but they are on a disk, so I need to find them and post them as well…L8R!!

 

 

So.  Things are still going strong here, although I’m not ‘feeling’ as thin as I was…could possibly be the ‘monthly’ craptime to blame.  My boobs are hurtin…sorry TMI I’m sure.  But I’m thinking that’s why I don’t feel so thin right now.

 Other than that, workouts are still going strong…I LOVE sweating.  When I get out to the gym (my boxing area in the shop) and I start working out, and the sweat comes, it gives me like a 2nd wind.  I get pumped that I am sweating.  How weird is that?  I just wanna work out until I’m SOAKED.  Weird motivator, huh?

I have so many pictures that I need to share here.  I took some pictures of my arm making a muscle, I could see the definition in the mirror, but not so much in the photo, so maybe I’ll post it anyways and see what it shows up like.  I have pictures of my boxing area in the shop (my ‘gym’). I have a couple of myself.  I have to post the ones of the living room built-in that we did awhile back.  I hope you all don’t get bogged down when you visit this site on that post, cuz I will just upload a bunch and have a picture fiesta entry

As for this weekend, I’m SO stinkin’ excited.  It has been FOREVER since we have gotten a chance to get away from everything and just go somewhere.  Even though it’s a short trip, I’m so thrilled.  I had originally won tickets to go to The House of Blues in Cleveland (owned by Jim Belushi and Dan Ackroyd) and see the Gin Blossoms tomorrow night (Thursday).  That fell through, so I called the radio station back and told them we couldn’t make it so that they could do a last-minute giveaway today.  So now we are leaving by 5:00 a.m. on Friday morning (leaving our HUGE house guest (our lab) to protect the house, so don’t get any ideas if you know where I live…he’s a protector!!!) and heading to Cincinnati, OH and going to the Zoo and Botanical Gardens that they have there…this is supposed to be a beautiful zoo…rated VERY highly.  Then after we spend our day at the zoo, we will head back to the hotel…THE FREAKIN HOTEL…and do NOTHING…yes, I plan to do NOTHING…well, sorta…they have an awesome fitness room and I’m taking FULL advantage that night   We will check out about 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and head to the Newport Aquarium…that also is supposed to be awesome and it’s only 10 minutes from our hotel.  We will spend a couple of hours at the aquarium and then head out for our 5 hour drive home….It’s going to be a short but sweet getaway…all 4 of us deserve this one, let me tell you…we don’t get to go away overnight EVER.  Our neighbors are watching the house and letting Samson in and out for us…they also have 2 labs that he loves to play with, so he probably won’t even miss us…but we are so looking forward to this…

I’ll be back with updates and pictures!!

You guys…this sounds crazy even for me to write this…but guess what I felt last night while lying in bed…

 Ok…BESIDES that!  HA!

I freaking laid on my back and my hand brushed my hip…lo and behold I have a HIP BONE!!!  That was THE coolest feeling ever.  I have some definition happening in my arms…I’m getting ‘curvy’ now instead of ‘lumpy’…seriously…I feel SOO much better about myself it’s not even funny.  

I don’t even remember the last time I have felt even the smidge of confidence in myself, so this is an overwhelming feeling right now, and I’m actually enjoying it!  I have always felt that people would look at me and feel that they were better than me, thinner than me, prettier than me, you name it…I was low man on the totem pole in my book.  EVERYONE was better.  It’s funny but now that I’m feeling confident about myself, I feel like the looks I get now are that of GOOD ones…not judging me. 

Isn’t it funny how your own mind dictates what is really not complete reality in alot of situations?  What I mean is, just as I said above…I feel better, so I assume others are more admiring, and when I have a crappy-about-me day, I feel everyone sees me as so nasty and disgusting…I probably bring on alot of my stress about myself, myself.  I know I do.  I think we all see ourselves as MUCH worse that we truly are.  I can honestly say I understand how they say an anorexic looks in the mirror and still sees a fat body can totally be true…it’s all about our self-image and self-worth…I’m learning alot lately, and realizing that I’m better and stronger than I think I am.

Here is where I would be … Extra Pounds

Any of you who have yet to build a weight loss page and have wanted to

*HINT HINT KAREN COUGH COUGH*

you HAVE to check this site out…it’s SIMPLE to use (I signed up just because I wanted to check out their weight loss tickers)…and has ALOT of useful things like tracking your weight for you, tracking your activity, food, has a food search to show you the cals, etc. in food…plus you use it as a regular blog and journal your little heart out…it’s great…

Check it out if you need a weight loss site and have been scared or didn’t know how to.  KAREN!!

Frig the scale.

Today is the day. I think the first sentence says it all.  I’m ok though.  In the last month I only lost 2 lbs.  The WHOLE freaking month.  Thing is, I have been working my ass off.  So you wanna hear my measurement total loss??

Huh?  Do ya?  Do ya???

In ONE month…drum roll please………………………….

I lost 8 INCHES!!!  Now THAT I’m excited about.  The scale can go back to hiding.  I no longer have the same overwhelming feelings for it as I did a month ago.   I updated the ‘Training’ page above with my new measurements.  I need to have Clint take pictures now and I will have one full month complete.  My Training page (which was my Daily Log) is also different…seeing how my routine is the same everyday, I took out the chart so that I don’t have to update daily with the same thing day after day…I just wrote what my daily training is and left it at that.

What has been amazing are the compliments.  Last night even, Clint was like, ‘Your boobs stick out and your stomach is flat!’…LOVED hearing that.  Even when I sit, the middle bulge that was there has shrunk and there’s not much left!!! 

Seriously, any of you who are addicted to the scale as I am was, and it doesn’t seem to want to change for you, TAKE YOUR MEASUREMENTS…I can’t say that loud enough.  The scale is an evil machine that will throw all your efforts to the dirt.  I think he WANTS you to fail.  He knows he can sabotage you!  Get out the tape measure and focus on you and the activity & exercise your body needs and your body will change.

I can’t believe I’m not upset over that small of a loss for a whole month’s time.  CRAZY!

Want ANOTHER positive??  When I flex my arms, I can see definition in my bicep mucle AND in my tricep!!!  Of course I’m still embarrased about my arms and never go sleeveless (I cannot WAIT for the day when I can) but they are getting definition to them…it’s amazing.

Uncle D told me to give it 3 months and wait till I see the changes this will make for me.  It’s only been a month, and my body is changing right before my eyes.  You know when I can see the changes in my own body that something good is definitely happening. 

I finally found THEE perfect graphic for my site…now I just need to make the layout and ‘personality’ to match.  I have a long weekend ahead of me, so I would love to take some time and come up with something then…

Ok.  Fessing up here.  Karen and Clint are the ONLY ones who know so far, (no I’m not pregnant) but since I STILL can’t find my friggin scale (gave up looking, actually) I cheated and got the tape measure out yesterday and only measured my hips and waist.  I almost FELL to the floor.  I can’t even begin to tell you how SHOCKED I am at the changes.  Ok, so should I keep rambling or spit it out already??  And, mind you, this isn’t even for a FULL months time…it’s not a month till the 6th or 7th of July…

Hips ~ were 52.5 and are now 51…lost 1.5 inches !!!

Waist ~ was 44.5 and is now 41…lost 3.5 inches !!!!!!!!!!

Random thought #3…I take 2 of these huge chewable fiber tablets everyday.  They are called ‘Fiber Choice’.  They are orange flavored and really do not taste bad at all.  Each tablet is 2 g. fiber…so that’s 4 g. fiber per day that I add into my diet.  They run about $10.00 a bottle and last about 1-1/2 months.  I went to Walmart last night to get more and I found something new.  They are still Fiber Choice, but strawberry flavor, and they are ‘weight management’ ones.  They help curb cravings and promotes weight control.  They make you feel full, and it says they promote fat metabolism.  They have Chromax (chromium picolinate - which is supposed to also help in weight loss) and green tea in them.  They are ephedra free.  I bought these this time to try.  They were about 1.80 more than the regular fiber tablets, but I figure if they help, it’s worth it.  They don’t taste quite as good as the orange ones do, and don’t, how do I explain this…they don’t ‘go away’ as fast when you chew them…does that make sense??  They seem chewier or something, but still very down-able.  Here is their website if you wanna check them out Fiber Choice Site

I haven’t had time at home at night to update my Daily Log page…but I swear, except for Friday, I have done my training routine every single night.  I don’t have access to update my pages during the day, so it has to be at night, and that’s just been too crazy to even TRY to attempt to get on the computer.

A few months back we sold all of our animals (cows, pigs) and took some of the money and bought a 56″ DLP Tv…yeah, the sucker is huge, and completely the testosterone in the house’s idea.  That was the first of March.  The past week and a half the picture seemed really dark to me…I knew something wasn’t right.  Clint messed with it, thought he fixed it, ya know…the man touch.  Nope…still dark and not right to me.  Last night, I get home, turn on the TV for the girls and thing shuts itself off….repeatedly.  I called Toshiba, they walked me through a few things, and comes down to the lamp in the TV is done for.  Luckily we have one year parts and labor on the TV and the new lamp is covered.  So within 5 business days we will have a TV again…I think it was a sign from above to make sure I stay off my butt.

Workouts have been going really well, but this past Sunday when Uncle D came over, he taught me a 1-2 hook punch.  I’m having a really tough time with coordination getting this one down…I think I’m going to search the internet today to see, once again, how it’s really supposed to be done, so that I’m really doing it correctly.

Well, I mainly wanted to make sure you all know I’m still at the workouts, and haven’t abandoned them seeing’s how my page isn’t updated with them…

I was going through a bunch of WL sites yesterday on Blogexplosion and FatFighters and just seeing if there were any new takers in the WL blogging world, and once again, I’m bummed.  So many of the sites that i had been to before and they were doing really well, were now abandoned.  Most over a year ago.  I wish I could virtually kick people in the butt to keep em moving, ya know? 

If each cell of my body could speak today, they would be screaming OUCH!!!

Friday, as I said in my previous post, was my ‘rest’ day.  I didn’t walk at work, only because it was storming, otherwise I probably would have.  Friday night, we had friends over for pizza and a movie, while I had a yummy dish of imitation lobster shredded up mixed with 1/2 lb. cold shrimp, with a little lemon juice mixed in it all.  It was DELICIOUS. 

 Saturday was my plant picnic at Waldameer park in Erie, PA.  We got there about 11:30 a.m. and didn’t get home till around 7:00 p.m.  We walked for at LEAST 4-1/2 hours there.  When we got home, we got the girls ready for bed, put a movie in for them in the living room and they crashed there.  Meanwhile, I went out to the shop and did my workout, all except for Lippy, while Clint and the neighbors got a bonfire going and we sat out by the fire until about midnight.

Yesterday was my killer day.  Clint let me sleep in until 9:00 a.m.  I was in heaven.  I got up and dressed and headed outside to help him weed the garden.  About 9:30 a.m. I came in  to make myself some breakfast of eggs and a couple of sausage patties.  Headed back outside and was out there until 6:00 p.m.  Never eating again.  I mowed our back field, push-mowed around the house and swingset and things while Clint mowed the regular yard, I put down weed killer, we moved 4 huge piles of fire wood to new location (friggin workout in itself) and I played in the water with the kids with some water balls, can’t even remember what else we did.  I was so weak from not eating that I just headed in the house and was *this* close to dying on the couch when Uncle D showed up for my 2nd training session.  So, another hour of HARD workout, no food in me. 

He is very impressed with my jabs.  His exact words were ‘when people come and see you hit this bag in a month, they are going to shit themselves!’…HA!  He said I had an awesome punch.  So yesterday he showed me how to throw a hook.  It’s another fun one   What a friggin workout I had.  I have been only doing 30-45 seconds of jump rope at a time, he had me do 2 rounds 2 MINUTES EACH on the jump rope and working on single jump, one leg jumps, switching from foot to foot, that kind of stuff.  I could barely breathe.  My boxing rounds, I did the 3 - 3 minute rounds with him with the new stuff he taught me and more jabs, and 1-2 punches.  I was WHOOPED by the time he let me stop. 

After he left, I headed in the house to officially die.  I did have about a cup full of shrimp real quick.

But I laid down, exhausted yet not tired enough to actually sleep, I just didn’t want to move, and felt more guilty and more guilty that I didn’t do my arm circles or broom twists, so I hobbled my sore bottom BACK out to the shop and got those done as well.

Came in, and treated myself to a piece of pizza.  Good, huh?  I was just too friggin weak and hungry to even attempt to make something healthy.  But that’s all I ate yesterday besides my breakfast.

So now today, my body hates me.  But I’m proud of myself.

I think this is what they mean by a ‘natural high’…I can’t get enough of this.

I’m sleeping SO good at night. I have energy.  I don’t sit at my desk at work and yawn all day.  I feel more focused.  I don’t ache.  I’m in a better mood DAILY.  I get 1-1/2 hours per day that I do my workout, ALONE!!!!  There are SO many positives to my working out….Shall I go on???

I’m seriously so excited to be able to weigh in.  I can FEEL that my body is thinner.  I don’t think I have ever looked forward to weighing in as I do right now.  The suspense is killing me, but I will live, because I know it will pay off when that day finally arrives.  I was just telling Clint that July 1 will be the day I weigh in and all, but then I looked at when I started and it was June 6…so I don’t know if I will wait till the 6th and make it a full month, or break down and do it on the 1st.

I got my first compliment today on looking like I’m losing weight since I started this on June 6.  I was told that I am looking thin, especially my neck, and torso…that feels AWESOME to hear.  I am looking forward to more. 

Thing is, I need to learn how to accept compliments.

My low self-esteem and horrible vision of what my body looks like really keeps me from taking anyone as being sincere when they pay me a compliment.  It’s like I take the compliment as they are feeling sorry for me in some way and are trying to make me feel better.  In another spin, if someone were to tell me, ‘Wow, you look like you’re losing weight, you look great!’,  I feel like if I accept a compliment with a ‘Thank You’ it’s like I’m instead saying ‘I know’, with a bit of conceit, and I’m scared to come across that way to someone.

Wow, my head went 100 different directions with this post, aye?

One thing I wanted to note…well two…first, I am still updating my Daily Log with my workouts, so if you’re curious as to what I’m doing, it’s all there.  Second, I changed my ‘off’ day to Friday.  So it now reads that I will be going 6 days per week, Sat - Thurs.  Fridays are our ‘family night’.  Clint and the girls usually make home-made pizza while I usually treat myself to shrimp coctail (if it’s on sale) or something similar that I don’t get very often, and we rent movies and just spend the evening together doing NOTHING.  Tomorrow for our family night, we are having friends of ours over to join us with their 3 kids and we’re going to order pizza and watch a movie…so truly, there will be NO time for my workout.  So I decided since that is truly our night of doing nothing, I will make that my one night off so I can spend it with my family and not feel any guilt about missing my workout.

Welp, Clint is already snoring, so I’m going to go and climb in and get cozy next to him.  G’night!

Boxing is SO fun!  What is really making it nice is that Clint is all for it.  He’s so supportive of the time that I need to devote to myself each night and it’s working out wonderfully.  I still am holding a bit of resentment towards him regarding his hiding place for the scale though…it’s a good spot, because even though I have tried, I can’t find it. 

I’m anxious to weigh in but in the back of my mind, I keep thinking that when I get on the scale, it’s going to read the same freaking 253 that it did the last day that I weighed in.  I’m pretty sure I’m losing.  How can I not be??? Have you read my Daily log of my acitivty lately?  I’m freaking working my butt off.  I haven’t had any carbs, except for this past crappy weekend that I whined about in the last post.  There has to be SOME kind of progress, but I’m so scared there won’t be.

It’s just about that ‘time’ of the month for me, so I’m glad I haven’t found the scale, or that Clint didn’t give in and tell me where it was, because I would probably be disappointed with the scale with all of the fun things that happen to my body at this time.  My weigh in day will be after all that icky time is over, so it should show well.  What I do know definitely is that I have lost 2 inches in my waist.  Seriously.  That is the ONLY measurement I have taken so far, and don’t plan to do any more until the monthly day.

I’m working on redoing my site behind the scenes.  I need a new look.  Something not so ‘cutesy’…I’m no longer following WW, which my site suggests, I’ve taken a completely different path at this point and I want the site to reflect ‘me’ at this time.  Sometime soon, hopefully it will be done…

I just figured out my calories in and out today and I have a calorie deficit of close to 3500 calories today with all the exercise I did.  That means I lost 1 lb. today.  Hope the scale is just as nice to me as the figures sound.