Surprise!  Hello everyone, well here’s my first post.  I’m not much one for blogging so my posts will be pretty sparse, though I’ll try to do one in a little more frequent manner.  Robbin is the poet and writer of the family.  I’m a reader, so I’ll be reading our stuff and everyone else’s.  I’m having some pretty good weeks, with the exception of the week with the .2 pound loss.  Dieting is one of those things that when I put my mind to it, I have no problem doing it and dropping the weight.  Be it Atkins or some kind of low calorie thing.  But therein lies my problem, I begin a diet and drop all the weight but go back to eating like normal and gain it all back.  This time with Robbin's help we are making a life style change.  I now eat smaller more frequent meals, beginning with breakfast and try to make better choices.  The only time I used to eat breakfast was on the weekend, when we would head out to the restaurant for some eggs, bacon and pancakes.  Last night, I had something of an epiphany moment.  We went to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday at a Japanese steakhouse.  I ordered my meal and where I normally would have eaten everything on my plate, and started on Robbin's leftovers and had a very miserable night trying to sleep.  I split my food into two, ate half and took half home with me which I had for lunch today.  And yes I ordered white rice over fried.  The epiphany part was that by doing so I actually left the table content and not miserable.  Where I thought by not cleaning my plate I was going to by hungry I wasn’t.

Robbin got me started last week, with logging my food.  I’m glad she did, I thought I was being really good eating small meals/snacks every couple of hours instead of the two huge meals and huge snacks I used to eat.  But I wasn’t,  I had actually swung too far to the other side, and wasn’t eating near enough calories.  I would have never thought it and I’ve actually had to increase my calorie intake some.  It’s just a matter of increasing with the right foods and not with pizza. 

 

Robbin mentioned in one of her posts that were taking a class at church “First Place” together.  This past week, was actually the first week of the course.  So that means daily homework for now on.  Unfortunately I’m off to a very bad start, and did not complete any of my homework until this afternoon at lunch.  But confession time, that’s not the only area I’m not doing well at.  So far, I haven’t done any exercising at all despite having a nice free gym at work.  Robbin and I also both wear pedometers, and so far I average only 5-6000 steps a day, so  need to work a little harder in that area as well to even get that number up to the 10,000 steps or more. 

 

But lets not end on a negative note, tomorrow is our official weigh in for the week for the biggest loser challenge.  I weighed on Saturday just to see how I was doing and the number looked pretty good, so I’m hoping it will carry over until tomorrow.

 

Tip for the day: For that sweet tooth craving, sugar free jell-o (I like cherry and black cherry the best) and my favorite sugar free popsicles, it’s not ice cream but it still taste good.

 

Tim

Hey Everyone!   Today (1/22) was our week 3 weigh in.  I felt pretty good this week and have found myself, if anything, not eating enough.  Imagine that!   Of course, I know that's not good either.  I'm sort of an all or nothing person when it comes to food.  I'm afraid if I eat the wrong thing I'll go crazy, so I'm pretty particular about what or where I'll eat.   We went to a covered dish dinner at church last week and I didn't eat anything there.  I waited until I got home because I knew I could be good.  The desserts looked great though!!

Anyway - the results for this week:

• Tim       - Lost 0.2 lbs
• Robbin - Lost 4.2 lbs

I'm very happy with my loss.  Needless to say, Tim was quite disheartened by his.  It's not because he did anything bad, so I'm sure next week he'll bounce back with a good number.   Sure, 10+ lbs would be great each week - but, that just isn't going to happen!  So I'm in this for the long run.  I've set a tentative goal for May 20, 2009 to reach 200.  I've never looked that far ahead.... but I'm trying to be realistic. 

I don't know if Tim's set a goal date or not yet.  I'll have to remember to ask him.  I keep trying to get him to post something, but I guess that isn't going to happen.  But at least we're doing this diet together and supporting each other and that's what means the most to me.

I hope you all have great weeks!
God Bless!
~ Robbin

I took my son to the movie today since he had no school.  It was right around my lunch time and I just knew I had to be smart so I didn't mess up.

I am proud to say that I packed a tuna sandwich and a bag of 100 calorie Smart Pop popcorn and smuggled them into the theater in my purse.   Since I ate the tuna sandwich first, I was satisfied with the small helping of popcorn.  Had I not prepared myself, I would have had at least a medium butter popcorn and a big box of chocolate candy. 

So, if I do say so myself.... I done good!

Oh yeah!  We went to see The Water Horse.   Both my 9 year old son and his 45 year old mother enjoyed it so I give it 2 thumbs up!

This morning was weigh in time and ... drum roll please.... we are down 7.2 lbs this week as a team!   Bringing our 2 week total to 18.8 lbs!

• Tim    - lost 4 lbs
• Robbi - lost 3.2 lbs

I have to admit.  I was a little disappointed with the 3 lb loss for me, but then I thought about it.  I had a great week.  I didn't feel deprived.  I actually enjoyed the food I ate and savored the flavors more than I usually do.  Plus, I thought about the contestants on Biggest Loser on TV and how they work their butts off all week long exercising and sometimes they don't have 3 lbs weeks.  So, I got over myself and chose to be happy about my loss!

I have a tendency to want to reward myself when I have a good weigh in week.  I remember when I went to Weight Watchers with my Mom and cousin we would always go pig out on weigh in night.   Afterall, it didn't count because the week was over and the new week didn't begin until the next morning!  No wonder we never succeeded for very long!  So today, I thought perhaps I'd eat a lunch that was a little more than I should.  I managed to stick to ordering something decent though when I ate out with a friend.  Then I had to go to the drug store.  I thought, surely I deserve some candy, cookies, some chips or something!  But, I'm proud to say, I thought about it and made a choice not to eat something like that... no matter how good it sounded!  I came home and popped myself a 100 calorie bag of popcorn instead.  A MUCH better choice!

I know I can do this.... ONE choice, ONE day, ONE pound at a time!

I hope you had a successful week too!

God Bless!
~ Robbin

Tonight my husband and I added another aspect to our weight loss effort.  A new class just started at our church called "First Place" so we decided to go to it.  It's a Christ-centered health program for men and women of all ages. Using a support system that incorporates Bible study, Scripture, prayer and balanced eating and exercise plans First Place provides the opportunity to change your life, not only physically but spiritually and emotionally.

Being Christians, it only makes sense to look to God for help in this area of our life too.  I look forward to sharing this study with my husband and adding another way for us to support and encourage each other.  Plus, there are several other women in the class that I know and we can encourage each other as well.

I chose not to get on the scale there though.  I figured with my husband and I weighing at home and sharing that with each other, there was no reason for me to get on the scale there too.  Also, I just didn't want anyone there to know how much I weighed.  Besides, that would be a night time weigh fully clothed and my "official" weigh in is on Tuesday mornings as bare as I can get!

So here it is Sunday, and if I do say so myself, I am pretty happy with myself this week.  I've made good choices for the most part and although I've been tempted many times, I have avoided giving in to it.  Well, except for last night.... when I remembered the chocolate chip cookie in a tin that Santa had left me in my stocking.   I ate it.  I'm not going to lie. It was good!  I counted the calories in my day though and although it wasn't a good choice, it didn't kill my calorie intake for the day. 

Although today isn't the "official" weigh in day, I did step on the scales and I was happy with what I saw.  We'll see what carries through to Tuesday and I'll let you know then.

I find that watching the food network isn't a good idea right now so I've tried not to watch too much of that.  I do get inspiration from watching shows like Biggest Loser reruns, National Body Challenge, etc... so I watch those when I can.   Last night I also was up real late and I watched 2 fat movies on Lifetime;   "To Be Fat Like Me" and "Queen Sized".  Both dealt with issues that I relate to because I grew up the fat kid in school and grew up into the fat adult.  Although I've had a couple of times that I've lost weight and not been obese.... and it was in those times that I truly realized how differently I was treated as a fat person.  I hate that more than I hate the fat.

Do you know it's possible to be 300+ lbs and be invisible?  I've noticed that when I'm fat, salespeople, bartenders, etc. can't see me standing there waiting to be waited on.  If they do see me and actually acknowledge me, it's not with a smile.  However, if you're not fat, they actually smile at you and jump at the chance to help you.  What's up with that?  Why can I stand at a counter and no one "see" me until someone else walks up beside me and then I get waited on after they are acknowledged? 

Do you know that adapting to the change of how people treat you after you've lost weight is a huge issue?  Something you might want to start thinking about and preparing yourself for now.

Anyway, let's not close with that downer!   I've had a great week as far as my eating goes.  But, I've been so sedentary and tired... not a good thing.  I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I"ll be talking to her about how I've been and what I might do to help my tiredness.

I hope everyone had a great week and I look forward to reporting my weight on Tuesday.  I'm trying to get my husband to actually write something for this blog but I haven't had any luck so far.  Maybe soon!?

Since we started our Biggest Loser Challenge on Jan 2nd, today (the 8th) was official weigh-in day for us.
The results.... 

• Tim      - Lost 7 lbs
• Robbin - Lost 4.6 lbs

That's a good week in our book!   Granted, I would have loved to see more gone, BUT, I am happy with the loss.  This was without much exercise at all ... but I plan for that to be better next week!   I'm really proud of Tim, although I knew he would lose more than me - he's a man afterall!  

PLUS - we did better than most of the teams this week!  Were those some low weight losses or WHAT?!

I hope you had a great week too!  Share your losses as comments below!

Yesterday was a good day food & exercise wise.  I was proud of all the choices I made.  When my son was at Karate, instead of sitting there on my big fat butt just watching, I decided I'd do some walking.  So, I'm at a little strip mall area and the Karate place is near one end.  Looking at the strip mall, I'm thinking it's at least 1/4 mile from one end to the other so I take off walking the sidewalk in front of all the businesses.   There are TWO things I discovered while I walked:

1. It's not 1/4 mile long - only 1/10!  It sure looked and felt longer! :)  So, of course, I had to make several laps in order to even get 1/2 mile logged.
2. In that little strip mall, there is a BBQ restaurant, Sub Shop, Chinese restaurant, Japanese restaurant, Pizza parlor, Indian restaurant & a Seafood restaurant.... Oh yeah, and not too far away right there in the same parking lot is the Outback restaurant!!!

Here I am, trying to do something healthy, and the whole time I'm walking I'm smelling this menagerie of delicious aromas wafting from all these restaurant's kitchens!   I trudged along though and didn't let it tempt me.  I have decided though that as much as walking while my son was in Karate is a good idea, that location is not a good idea because sooner or later I would give in to the temptation and eat a pizza or something!

So, I was thinking - why do gyms have to charge so darn much for memberships?  What about those of us that just want to hop on a treadmill for 30 mins or so a few times a week?  So, after having that conversation with my friend over breakfast this morning (1 egg & 1 pc dry wheat toast) I got home and found a special offer in my mailbox that a local gym is offering.  It was just the deal I was looking for so I couldn't pass it up - so, I joined the gym with a full 2 year membership for only $200!  The only stipulation is that I can't come on Mondays or Tuesdays.  I can handle that!  Plus, it's women only - and I like that too.

So things are looking good right now. I'm feeling good about what I'm doing and where I'm heading and even though my husband and I don't work out together (he has free gym at work), I fully intend to get busy at the gym.  (Now, ask me next month how that's going!!)

I waited until my husband went to bed last night and I ate some M&M's that were left over from Christmas.   Truth is, I've hit them everyday this week - just not eating near as much as I normally would.  However.... he apparently heard the bag rustling and came out and made me 'fess up to what I was eating!  I'm glad he busted me.  He gave me a mini lecture and asked me what role I wanted him to play in this endeavor.  He wanted to know whether I wanted him to give me a hard time or just let it go.

The fact is, there is one thing we have always done well together... and that is eat and enable each other.   We've always brought something "good" home for each other when we wanted to bring a smile to each others faces.  It's really sad sometimes.  I think it's time we enable each other to eat right and exercise. 

Today was a good day as far as food choices go.   I am very happy with the choices I've made so far.  Thought late night is toughest for me.  I have some fruit ready for then though.  I am not feeling 100% though and I don't know whether it's because I'm not eating as much or if I'm a little sick or maybe a little of both.  I just feel very weak and chilled, so I spent half of the day asleep (on and off) on the couch.  I need to start making a point to take my vitamins daily rather than sporadically.  I also take B-12 shots and it's time for that too - so maybe that will help some.

Tim has had a good food day too.  He's in heaven right now watching his team playing in the Playoffs - GO JAGUARS!  He talks more to the TV during one game more than he talks to me in a week I think!

Oh yeah, Tim and I were both independently curious this morning and we both weighed for the first time since we started.  Our weigh in day is supposed to be Biggest Loser show day.  Anyway - we were both pleased with what we saw so far.  He has lost 6, I have lost 4.  We'll take it!

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary.  Of course, we decided to go out and eat to celebrate our anniversary.  The delima was, were we going to be good or were we going to enjoy the dinner?   We ended up at Outback and I had Alice Springs Chicken with steamed veggies.  Tim had Chicken, rice, veggies and salad.  Both were much better choices than we would usually make.  I was pleased with my choice and it was REALLY good.   I honestly don't think I have enjoyed a dinner there before as much... even the veggies (which I normally don't eat!) were delicious!  It's amazing what happens to the taste buds and brains after they are deprived of sweets & carbs for a very short time.  Now, if I could only remember how good that dinner tasted when I want to make a poor choice I'll be doing good.

On the exercise front, so far I've done nothing today.  Even my pedometer is wondering what's going on because I've logged so few steps, I'm embarrassed to tell you what they are.  We are aiming for the 10,000 steps but I haven't come close yet.  Tim is at 4,429 today.  I work at home, so unless I go somewhere or exercise, my steps are ridiculous.  Being that we live in Florida and the fact that it's COLD right now (I know - cold to me is probably shorts weather to you Northerners reading this!) I haven't been walking the past few days.  To be honest, I'd rather walk in 100 degree temps than walk in 30 deg temps.  I despise the cold!  I'm going to do some crunches, stretches, jumping jacks & push-ups here in a few minutes though.  Gotta get my husband motivated to do it as well.

On January 1, 2008 my husband and I decided to join in on the Biggest Loser Million Pound Match-Up. We have watched Biggest Loser since the first show and every week we sit here and watch it while eating Dibs ice cream bon-bons or eating something else equally as fattening. We sit around and joke about how we eat while we watch - all the while wishing we would really get serious about losing weight.

Just before the Couples show this week we put on clothing as equally as revealing and embarrassing as what they make them wear on TV. You know, tight shorts and sport bras for women.... showing every roll, bulge and stretch mark. How embarrassing! Well, I only had to do it in front of my husband while he took a photo, but that was hard enough. Then he put on a pair of shorts and I took his photo.

The question is now... do we put them online and share them with whoever finds us here or do we keep them private? 

Also, as hard as this is to write, I will log our beginning weights....

Tim - 261
Robbin - 341

Yeah, as you can see, I am quite a bit bigger than him. I have always been very overweight. However, Tim hasn't. When I met him in 1994, he weight 185. He never had an excess pound on him until he met me. So I kinda feel responsible.

They are also doing a Biggest Loser contest where my husband works too, so he's going to be being watched by more people than just me.

I'm hoping we can motivate each other to eat right rather than enable each other to eat wrong ... as we most often do. I am also hoping we can motivate each other to start exercising together. I watch what they do on TV and know that I would be a big sissy and never make it past day one with Jillian. Sometimes I can feel their pain and think they are just going to keel over and die the way they work out! I don't have the time or resources to workout like that anyway - but I do plan to start a walking regimen, do sit ups, push ups and jumping jacks to start. Then we'll see where it goes from there.

Stay tuned to learn more about each of us and how we got where we are today and how we do as we work towards a more happy and healthy life together!

We'd love to hear from you - especially if you're joining in the Biggest Loser challenge. Leave us a comment and we'll be sure and respond!

Thanks for visiting and may God greatly bless you in 2008!
- Robbin