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We had a rough weekend. On Friday night, our dog Zeke starting vomiting shortly after supper and kept it up all night till almost 4am– I was up with him.

He finally went to sleep at about 4 and when I got up at noon, I found that DH had fed him before going out to do some carpentry work for a friend that morning, and that set off a new round of vomiting.

I found vomit in three places around the house, so I called our vet and was instructed to bring Zeke in. To make a long story short, they wanted to give him some IV fluids and something to settle his stomach, and then keep him overnight, so we agreed. Not only for his sake, but for mine, I didn’t want to be up all night again, cleaning vomit. (turned out I couldn’t sleep anyway because of worry, but that’s another story)

In the morning we agreed that he would remain there throughout Sunday being fed small amounts of a prescription food, and if he held that down until the end of the day, he could come home.

That worked, and he is back home with a four-day supply of his RX food and some Pepcid, which he has twice a day. Last night I slept well for the first time since Thursday night. So far, so good.

DH took today off as he came down with a cold in the middle of all of this- added to the stress of the dog, I think he just needed a day. Anyway, we took Zeke and Beau on a quick jaunt through the woods, off-leash. Zeke zoomed around and seemed to be feeling great. I did some jogging intervals and it felt good to be moving as we missed the gym Sunday from being fried over Zeke.

It was only about a mile but the snow made it hard to do– like running in the sand. The fresh air was great too and it was not that cold today. It was good to enjoy that together.

I hated leaving Zeke at the vet as he was a rescue and the kennels there are like the dog pound. I was afraid he would think he had been abandoned again. It broke my heart to leave him.

You’ve never seen such a happy dog when we came to pick him up. The vet tech said when he heard our voices, he went ape-shit. When he got home, he went through the whole house smelling everything to see if anything good happened while he was gone.

This morning, DH and I cleaned out our bedroom closets together and then brought a whole bunch of stuff to Goodwill. I have plenty on room for new clothes in SMALLER sizes now!

Tomorrow, I will probably do both the work-out I missed Sunday and the one that I would normally do on Tuesdays, to get myself caught up. Believe it or not I can see and feel changes in my body already.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

I  was just hanging out new year’s eve with DH and having an uneventful day, when my doctor called. First of all, I was shocked that a Dr would call me on new year’s eve and talk with me for 20 minutes about my lab results. My old doc trained me to expect suck-ass behavior, I guess.

Anyways, after running new lab work the thyroid was even worse than before. After he took the blood last week I wanted to educate myself somewhat about hypothyroidism so that I would know what questions to ask him if it turned out I have it.

So we had a good conversation and the bottom line is that I started taking meds for this that same day, as he called in an RX for me. I can either just wait to see how I feel and go over this with him more when I have my next appointment at the end of February. Or I can make an appointment with an endocrinologist and let the specialist handle this aspect of my health care.

I am going to wait two months and take the meds to see how I feel. I don’t want to make this bigger than it needs to be. If I don’t feel differently after two months then I will see an endocrinologist.

Now that I looked into this, I can clearly see that I’ve had all of the classic symptoms for quite some time, I was just attributing them to other things. For instance, my normally silky skin has been dry and scaley– I attributed that to getting older. Lotion doesn’t help and I was annoyed by that.

I had a gorgeous head of reddish-blonde hair that was all the way down my back. It was so thick that it barely fit into a large pony-tail holder. My hair started to thin and break off about two years ago– again, I attributed this to getting older and also genetics. My grandmother developed very thin hair as she aged. Now I wonder if she didn’t have hypothyroidism too. Sadly, I cut my hair off because of this and I have been sad about it ever since. I always LOVED my Irish hair.

My feet and lower legs are always cold– like blocks of ice. This adds to my insomnia as this is to the point of being really uncomfortable. I keep a small space heater near the chair where I sit in at night to watch a little tv before bed. I put on socks and put my feet near the heater trying to warm them up. Even this doesn’t do much good. Cold feet and poor circulation are one of the main sympoms of hypothyroidism.

One thing that really pisses me off is that I complained to my former Doc about all of these things and he did NOTHING. You’d think he would have said, “Oh, this overweight woman whose mom had hypothyroidism now has dry skin, thinning hair, cold feet, insomnia, low body temperature, etc. Maybe I should test her thyroid?”

I didn’t know these things were connected, but he is a doctor, shouldn’t he have? He knew that I was starting to go through menopause and basically told me that dryer skin and hair were part of getting older and I’d just have to accept it and age gracefully. I am adding him to my list of people who need a good slap!

My weight loss may increase now, my hair grow back and my feet stop feeling like two blocks of ice. That would be great! It can take a few weeks for the medicine to have an affect that you notice, according to what I’ve read.

I am going to keep reading on the subject and studying the different treatment options. People with hypothyroidism are at an increased risk for heart disease and cancer, so there is more involved here than being cold and uncomfortable and having a tendency to be fat. I will keep you all posted.

On other fronts, I did a two mile walk/jog on New year’s day and followed that up with just under an hour in the gym. I said after the first of the year I would record my work outs here, so here’s what I did at the gym that day:

These are all machines, no free weights today. “JB” is an abbreviation I use in my training log that means “just barely.” It means that the set was at the outer limits of my strength and I could barely do it. LOL

Chest Press: 12 reps at 100#, 12 reps at 115#, 12 reps at 130# JB

Duel axis Chest press: 12 reps at 90#, 12 reps at 95#, 12 reps at 100# JB

Duel axis Incline press: 2 sets of 12 with 70 pounds
(had a hard time with this today, unsure why)

Cable seated row: two sets of 10 at 150#, JB

Cable chest fly: 2 sets of 10 at 90# JB

Overhead press: 12 reps at 35#, 12 reps at 50#

Shoulder press: 12 reps at 20#, 12 reps at 30#, 12 reps at 40#

I am starting a new weight training program today and I will post the details about that within the next few days.

It is snowy and cold here in CT so I will be exercising indoors.

 Be good to you today!

Ok kids– it is the moment I have been waiting for– and somewhat dreading– the weigh-in and blood pressure check at my doc’s today.

Jeff, my DH, weighed himself at the gym on Sunday and put on ten pounds. I don’t think that is a true “fat” gain. He had been eating much less carbs, like me, but has been cheating wildly for two weeks. When I eat that many carbs, I immdiately pile on a bunch of “bloaty” weight that comes right back off once I return to the right kind of eating.

So DH gaining THAT much, even bloaty carb weight that is temporary– made me nervous about my weigh-in today. I told you all that I wanted to be under 300 for the new year– this was the main thing I hoped to achieve.

By now you’re probably saying, “Alright already, give us the dang numbers.” Ok, I lost 9 pounds since my last visit in November, making my weight 298 — so YIPPPPEEEEEE, I made it! I will start the year 2010 under 300 pounds and I am beyond thrilled!

My last weigh-in was a few days before Thanksgiving. So even with lousy holiday eating and being half-ass with my exercise for almost two weeks, I STILL lost 9 pounds in four weeks. Not bad.

We checked my blood pressure and went over the blood work from my last visit. Last time, my blood pressure was 158/88, this time it was 142/74– that’s with a drug called Avalide that my Doc thinks I should be able to wean off of as my weight comes down.

My total cholesterol was 174; my HDL (good cholesterol) was 45. My doc would like to see that improve even more (as he likes to see the HDL at at least 50) but thinks it will get there over time by itself, so long as I keep exercising and eating the way I do– Salmon 3-4 times a week and flax with the oatmeal must have SOME benefit!

My triglycerides were 113 and anything under 150 is supposed to be good. My fasting blood sugar was 96. Doc said he would have liked to see that lower because of diabetis in the family. He told me to watch the sugar and carbs– which, I do.

One potential issue is that my bloodwork showed a sluggish thyroid. He retested it today and if that blood work comes back sluggish too, he might consider giving me thyroid meds. My mother had to have this and lost 50 pounds the minute she started taking it.

I both want and don’t want to have to take meds for that, if you know what I mean? It would be cool to take a pill every morning and effortlessly peel off more weight than what I’ve been losing. On the other hand, I’ve been averaging 6 inches of weight loss per month without any pills. And I wouldn’t want worry about a sudden massive weight gain if I had to go off the pills.

He wants me to have a mamogram and a colonoscopy before I go back for my next check up, which will be February 23rd. Changing my Doc was one of the smartest things I did this year. I love the guy!

I was hoping for more than a nine pound loss, but I am under 300, finally, and that’s what I wanted more than anything as a Chrsitmas present to myself.

After the doc’s I went to meet my son Andrew at his gym and try some new exercises with him. He is actually my step-son, but Jeff and I both hate that term, so I just call him my son.

Anyway, he has battled with weight too and in the process got certified as a personal trainer. He is in college now, doing his own work outs, plus working with clients. Andrew is one of the reasons that I am able to push myself as I do. We tend to NOT want to do that. Having someone around to remind you of how strong you are really does help.

Our gym won’t allow you to bring in your own personal trainer, so I visited Drew’s gym. I wanted to try some things where it helps to have a “spotter” and I wanted to try some things that I haven’t tried before– like using the smith machine.

So he helped me through bench presses, squats with the smith machine, dead lifts, bent-over bar bell rows, calf raises, preacher curls, Lat pull down and a few others.

I squated with 85 pounds on the smith machine, did preacher curls with 20 pounds, lat pull downs with 130 pounds and can leg press 300– which is MORE than I weigh now– FINALLY! I can do seated calf raises with 125 pounds.

Anyway, he has a month off from college so I’ll probably go back at the end of January to see if I can bench press and dead lift more. I will practice on my own.

Hope you’re having a great day!

A year apart and about 140 pound difference

This month I lost another 1/2 inch off my neck, making it 16″ now. For the first time since I started measuring back in July, my chest stayed exactly the same. My waist came down another 1 1/2 inches and I lost 2 whole inches off the hips. This is the most weight that I lost from around the middle in one month since I started, and since this is my problem area, I am thrilled.

I lost 1/2″ from each upper arm and 1/2″ off each thigh. My calves stayed the same. So I have a total of 6 inches lost this month, which is about what I have been averaging. I was hoping that because of the jogging, the number would be higher. In a sense, it is, because I’ve been averaging only 1/2 an inch off my waist each month and maybe an inch off my hips. This month, my losses in those areas are DOUBLE what they’ve been averaging– so I am not unhappy.

My total inches lost since July — 38 1/2! Wrap it up, I’ll take it!

Since this is the last monthly update for the calendar year, I thought I’d throw in some additional stats. When I first started walking, which I believe was back in August, I could barely manage going around the block– which is about 1/4 of a mile.

I mean it would REALLY kill me to the point that I would have to lay down when I got back and my head would be pounding– you could actually SEE the blood vessels in my forehead pumping away. That was some scarey shit homies! Now I can walk 3-4 miles and be fine with it. PLUS, I can run a complete mile and I am working on the second mile.

My first visit to the gym, which I have logged as July 26th, 2009, I could BARELY do bicep curls with ten pounds, now I can do 20 pounds. I set the chest press machine on 30 pounds that day, I now set it at 100 and I up it to 115 for my last set.

Back then, doing flies with the cables I could barely eek out reps of 10 using 20 pounds. I now set that bad boy at 80 pounds and up it to 90 for my last set.

My first day on the seated row, I set the weight at 60 pounds and my back hurt for WEEKS but I kept doing it. I knew it was a weakness thing and not a serious injury thing. I now pull 150 on that and I need to raise the weight as when I did three sets the other night I felt like I could just keep doing that all night long. So, time to up that. No more backaches and my shoulders are ridiculously strong.

When I first started, I did my squats with no weight and I could barely get myself into a half-squat position. I was afraid of falling and of hurting my knees. Most of my weight is in the gut and things got to a real comical stage at one point as I could achieve squating down but barely had the strength to get myself back up as there was this massive gut sitting there holding me down. I now squat perfectly and go as deep as is possible, holding 25 pound weights in each hand. This has gotten too easy and I need to up the weight.

There is still enough fat on my arms that you can’t see in a pic what is going on there but I’ve got biceps that are literally close to softball size, a good tricep starting to form, along with delts and definition between the bicep and the delt when I flex . Where the arm connects to the body, that space between the arm and the chest has developed a thick ridge of muscle that you CAN see if I take my bra off and flex– which is something I’m not doing here, not even for you!

My BUTT has gotten totally rock hard from the squats and now that I’m running, that will finish the job. It is the one place on my body where there is almost nothing left that “jiggles.” It figures, where my progress is best, I can’t see it to enjoy it. LOL

Sorry I have not been posting.  This is an extremely busy time for me with what I do.  I help Lakota teens sell their crafts on ebay and 1000 Markets.  With the holiday season I struggle to list the items as fast as they come in so the kids make money— and it has been difficult.

My mother in law who is 90 years old had surgery on her foot last week, she cannot get around and this is compounding my stress big time. Add these things to the normal holiday season stuff and I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger.

To top it off, I try to raise money for needy families on the rez through a charitable trust that I set up and because of the economy– I have received almost NO donations.  It is so DEPRESSING .  I was hoping to at least be able to provide a holiday dinner for a few elders or families on the rez and the way things look, I’ll be lucky if I can do that for just one family– so this isn’t doing much to put me in a Jolly mood.

 For those who have interest, the URL for our ebay store is http://stores.ebay.com/Lakota-Crafts-Project

 and the URL for our 1000 markets is http://ahopa.1000markets.com

I’ll be listing new items this evening.

 For my blogging friends, I can send things out gift wrapped to the recipient of your choice, give you the tracking number, etcAt this time, we are appealing to our online friends to contribute $5 or $10 towards this worthy effort and to convince their family and friends to do likewise. Funds can be sent either via Pay Pal or by check made payable to the charitable trust we have set up for this purpose. To send a check or money order, make it payable to WHITE FEATHER TRUST and mail to: Lori-Ann Locke, 145 Rangeley Street, West Haven, CT 06516. To send via pay pal, send to loriannlocke@yahoo.com

 Any help appreciated.  You can also help a family more directly if you prefer.  I am over whelmed and will take any help I can get.  I have no problem being accountable to people for how money is spent and I am not offended if people ask to receive recipts.

Below are some facts and statistics that explain why I do this. 

The Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux), is a land of contradictions, a place as poor in resources as it is rich in culture and history.

The terrain is stunning enough to bring tears to ones eyes. The sunlit prairies with their grasses and wildflowers, the mesas, the hills and cliffs, the picturesque valleys dotted with red cedar– all of these take your breath away. Yet as one travels the Pine Ridge Reservation and meets with people there, a heart-piercing truth is revealed — the scenic beauty of South Dakota is home to the poorest people in America.

Most of the land on Pine Ridge is rocky and the soil of poor quality. Most of the terrain is not conducive to farming, ranching or industry.

39 percent of Pine Ridge homes have no electricity. Most of the homes are of poor quality and many lack insulation, indoor plumbing, or central heat.

The average Lakota family has an annual income of under $4,000

If, like most Americans, you have been completely unaware of this, please read on and prepare for greater shocks:

Lakota people have the lowest life expectancy of any group in the Western hemisphere outside of Haiti

Lakota people have 8 times rate of diabetes (compared to the rest of the USA)

Lakota women have 5 times the rate of cervical cancer

Lakota people have twice the rate of heart disease and 8 times the rate of TB

The rate of suicide among adults is twice the national average, while their TEEN suicide rate is four times the national average

The infant mortality rate among Lakota Indians is 4 times the national average

The Pine Ridge Reservation is the size of the state of Connecticut, and yet the only Library is at Oglala College in Kyle. The reservation has no banks, no department stores, no movie theaters, etc.

You cannot take the bus and get a job at Walmart. There is no bus. There is no Walmart.

According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Indian Health Service, Native Americans have the highest prevalence of Type 2 diabetes in the world. Treating diabetes for only those Native Americans who are currently diagnosed with diabetes would amount to $1.46 billion per year, or 40% of the total budget for Native American health care.

Per capita funding for Native American healthcare is 60% less than all other Americans and 50% less than federal prisoners. In total, there is a $900 million backlog in unmet needs for American Indian health facilities

It was shocking to find out that people in America live this way when each year, millions of dollars leave here to aid other countries.

In addition to being moved into action regarding how the elders and children live, I also fell in love with Lakota culture — spirituality, art, music, ceremony and tradition. This is a much bigger part of my life than I can relate in this one post.

According to a report issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, one in five homes on reservations lack complete plumbing facilities and less than 50% are connected to the public sewer system. This has lead to the creation of numerous health and environmental hazards. Additionally, Over 30% of American Indian families live in overcrowded housing and 18 percent are severely overcrowded with 25-30 individuals sharing a single home. These rates are over six times the national average.
Approximately 40% of housing on reservations is inadequate according to the federal definition, compared to only 6% nationwide. American Indians have the highest rate of home loan denial of any race in the United States; nearly 25%.

Alcoholism and drug abuse are huge problems on the rez. We want to help but we don’t want to enable self-destructive habits by throwing money around without understanding where it is going.

Also, charity relieves immediate suffering but it does not empower people and is not a long- term solution. In the short-term, the way that the children and elders suffer makes the charity necessary — but along with that effort we have developed relationships with Lakota people who would seek a better way.

If you want to speak privately with me on any of this, you can email me at loriannlockeATyahooDOTcom

Thanks for reading! Be good to you today and let’s all take a deep breath and be thankful for what we have!

XOX

Lori-Ann

Wakam Tanka Nici Unweyepo

Hello Friends. Hope you all had a GREAT weekend!  I have a goal of exercising a MINIMUM of 6 hours a week and I keep track of  my fitness hours. Here are my fitness totals for the week of Sunday, December 6 to Saturday, December 12.

The bad news is– it was not a good week for walking/running outside. It either rained or was freezing (or both) just about every day. In spite of that, I got some walking with jogging intervals in– just not as much as I would have preferred.

I got in 3 hours of walking/jogging, 1 hour at the gym and worked out with DVDs at home 4 times for a total of 6 hours and 40 minutes of exercise. The majority of fitness hours came from the fitness DVDs because of the weather.

One thing that sucks, timing wise, is that my ability to start adding the jogging intervals to my walks is coinciding with winter weather in New England. Today was the start of a new week and I wanted to get off to a good start no matter what– so even though it was raining, I used an umbrella and did my jogging intervals anyway.

But I will do my best to tough it out till spring. I’ll bundle up and use an umbrella to get out there as often as I can.

I did manage to finish the second phase of the ChaLEAN Extreme program and will begin the last phase this week!  When those four weeks are over, I plan to try the 30-day shred with Jillian Michaels!

I put in an hour of upper body work at the gym Sunday and pulled 150 pounds on the seated row. Thing is, that is no where near my maximum on that and I know it. I did 3 sets of ten and felt like I could have pulled more, so I will up it a bit more next time. This was the last exercise I did and I had pushed myself on others and was wet and irritable from walking/jogging there with an umbrella.

One thing that happened Sunday at the gym that DH and I laughed about on the way home. This cardio bunny was on a treadmill across from where I was using the chest, arm and back machines and she kept watching me. Then she came over and sat on leg machines directly across from me to get a better look.

I know the look all too well. When you used to be really heavy, as I was, you can have nearly a year of walking and weight training under your belt and have lost a great deal of weight already. However, since you are still heavy, people will assume that you are out-of-shape and have no stamina. They think that you are new to the gym.

So I see the look in this cardio bunny’s eyes, the look that says, “No f*cking way is this fat bitch stronger than me.” Finally, she starts following me on the machines to see what I have them set on, and trying to lift or pull what I can– which is simply not going to be possible for some 120 pound woman.

People are so silly! It was obvious that she was VERY irritated and when she followed me on the chest cable fly machine, I thought she was going to have a bird right there, as I do 3 sets at 80 pounds with full range of motion, then I up it to 90 pounds and pull as far as I can, as I trying to reach 100 pounds by the first of the year.

I probably bench press more than that woman weighs, but because she is thin and cute, in her mind, she should be able to kick my ass on the machines and in the weight room. LOL Maybe she won’t underestimate someone in the future because they carry extra weight.

On other fronts, DH is coming down with a cold and is taking Monday off from work. I already had a busy day in the works so in all probability, I won’t be online much today and will have to go around and catch up on all of your blogs on Tuesday.

I’ll be posting my monthly progress report within the next week or so and I am actually looking forward to it as I have a good feeling about my inches lost for the month. Hope you’re all doing well!

Remember, Where the mind goes, the body follows!

Last night DH was looking at me as I cooked dinner and said, “Your waist suddenly looks smaller.” He kept bringing it up until finally I thought, “Oh, hell’s bells, I just gotta know.” So I went upstairs, peeled off my shirt and measured my waist, even though the time for my monthly progress report is a good week away.

I was shocked that my waist was down a good inch and a half to two inches from last month’s progress report. So I measured my hips. Same deal– down quite a bit. FINALLY!

What is so great about this is that these are my problem areas and they have been lagging behind in getting results. From day one I have consistently lost more from my chest and thighs than I have from the gut.

Plenty of months, the loss from my waist has only been half an inch and the hips not much better. When you carry most of your weight around the middle and that’s where you have the LEAST amount of weight loss — it can get pretty discouraging.

Numerous have been the times when I have taken my measurements for my monthly progress report and seeing the smallest change in the area that needs it the most, I would think, “What the f*ck am I bothering for? Why am I working so hard month after month for a lousy 1/2″ loss off my gut while meanwhile, the ‘girls’ are disappearing?”

I would be so disappointed, so discouraged and fed up. BUT I NEVER GAVE UP. Never! I would indulge those feelings for awhile as they are understandable. But then I would reaffirm the need to persevere, to try harder, to keep going.

It looks like when I post my monthly measurements in my progress report for December, I will have the greatest loss showing in the middle of my body FOR THE FIRST TIME. At long last, after almost 9 months of effort, the weight is finally starting to come off the problem area.

The reason I am posting about this is— what if during month 3 or month 5 or month 7 I had given up? If at any point I had let my discouragment, frustraton and impatience get the better of me, I would have robbed myself of the satisfaction that I feel right now.

We MUST persevere! We must keep moving forward! If you eat right and move your body the weight will come off. You cannot weigh yourself every 5 minutes and throw your hands up in despair every time 2 days goes by without a change you had hoped for. This is a life-long commitment!

We can do this!

You have to do what others won’t to achieve what others don’t

The days have become weeks that became months and the time has flown by. Seems like only yesterday that I was a 400-plus pound woman who could barely get out of bed in the morning.

I never binge anymore and very rarely stray from my food plan. And when I say NEVER, I mean never. Numerous other destructive habits have vanished and I have been thinking and evaluating the WHY of it. I tried to get here before and failed. Why was I able to do it this time?

I see so many people on these blogs who suffer with the excess weight, obsessive food behaviors and all that goes with it. They have trouble getting started on a path of change, or they start but have frequent returns to binge-behavior or other behaviors that halt their progress and make them feel worse about themselves.

I have been trying to understand how I arrived where I am now, and also how to articulate it in a way that might be useful to others. I will be sharing my thoughts on this here and there, beginning with this post today.

They say there is no magic pill. No, there isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that there is not magic. There is, and it is in you– it is just a matter of learning how to access it.

The Nike ads say “just do it.” That’s great for average people but for the morbidly obese, the binge eaters and others like us, there is no long-lasting transformative power in merely “doing.” We should know, as we’ve been on 67 million diets and started so many fitness programs that we lost count years ago.

For me, (and I am convinced it applies to others like me) there is no transformative power in merely doing, the power is in the becoming– in the being. Let me explain this a few different ways.

A diet is something that you do, as is an “exercise program.” They are something that you do, NOT something that you are. As something that you do, it is just as easy to stop doing them, and eventually, we generally do stop– and find ourselves back at square one– or perhaps even FATTER than when we started.

As fat people, our sense of identity and self-worth is severely injured and impaired. Countless times we tried to change our identity from someone who eats too much to someone who is able to stay on a “diet,” and each time we fail, we feel worse about ourselves.

In talking with former fat people who have become runners and body builders and kept the weight off successfully for years, I realized that diet and exercise are only effective if they are used as tools to help you become the healthy, powerful and energetic athelete that you could be.

You can start a diet on Monday and go off of it by Wednesday. But once you become an athelete, you are an athelete EVERYDAY and will be very likely to make choices that will support that instead of working against it.

I am not suggesting that we all try to become championship swimmers, ultra marathon runners or olympic-class body builders. That is not usually realistic for people with careers and family to deal with.

If you’ve always been fat, never have been atheletic, never played a sport then I understand that this would be difficult for you. It was for me too. I never before pushed myself physically as I have been doing now. I never knew my own limits. Didn’t know what I could or could not do. Finding out, venturing into uncharted territory is empowering beyond anything else I have ever tried.

Food, whether pigging our or depriving myself of it, used to have such monumental power. It was the center of my universe. The Gospel according to Lori-Ann. Now it is just a tool to get my atleticism where I want it to be.

No, this is not going to be easy. Worthwhile things seldom are. Set a goal. See the athelete you can be and avoid anything that does not support that. Keep going until the day comes when you feel up to really testing your limits– at that moment, walk a little faster, swim until you cannot do another stroke, up the weights on the bar, lift your legs higher while doing your aerobics dvd and don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop and THEN———

A crack will form in the door that’s hiding the magic in you, the magic that will help you do the seemingly impossible with your body. Yeah, I know you might have been the fat girl or boy at school who hated gym, hated sports. That’s because you thought you couldn’t do it. There was no one around to tell you that you could and to guide you to that point, but there is now! I’m tellin’ ya, you CAN do this. You CAN become an athelete and put all of this fat business behind you.

For myself, I am a bit older than some of you. I arrived late in the game so I don’t have as many years left to enjoy my body and my health. For this reason, as I look toward the new year and ponder what my goals should be– I have decided to take this to the limit and beyond.

It is no longer enough for me to get to goal weight and think of myself as an athlele– I am taking this over the top. I am NOT allowing myself a comfort zone for any length of time, any time soon. Every time I reach a new level of strength and endurance I intend to go past it, to go beyond what I think I can do– and to keep repeating this again and again.

So for 2010– I am challenging one and all to become a “TRY” athlete. Don’t just do, BECOME! Keep trying and experiementing until you find your path, then keep pushing until you can maintain a good stride. Nothing will stop you after that!

I don’t know how to make “awards” or banners– or else I’d make one to give to everyone who wants to give this a try.

If one person benefits by what I’ve written here, I’ll be thrilled! Rock on, homies!

I have waited many months for this day…….. and here it is. Back in July, when I returned from the rez and got more serious about my diet and exercise, I bought some running shoes in the same size that I used to wear back in the day when I used to run.I put them on my dresser so I would have to look at them first thing every morning and last thing every night.  As weeks have rolled into months, I thought the day when I might be a runner again–and wear those asic’s gels– would never get  here!

 Well, don’t look now, but just about every day since my last post I have not only gone out walking but did jogging  intervals  each time, and today I ran a 1/2 mile without stopping!  I completely shocked myself as I just added the jogging a week  ago.   Not only that, but home girl now fits into her asics!  Yes, I have been wearing them and they fit perfectly!

 This week I also beat my personal best (weight wise) at the gym on several exercises and I am up to 90 pounds on the cable chest fly machine.  I feel powerful and jacked when I sit there pulling all of that weight!

I have to go back to the dr to have my blood  pressure checked on December 29. I’ll get weighed again at that point too and I REALLY want to be under 300.  So I have been really pushing myself and watching the portions and snacks.   

I appreciate the booster notes and  messages  - they really help me keep going. I haven’t figured out how to upload pics into booster notes or onto my blog.  I am still learning.  I apologize that I haven’t reciprocated with the cute boosters. I just don’t know how yet.  I am going to try to upload a pic here and see if I can do it!

Oh well, better go!  Hope you guys are working hard and getting the results you want.

xo

 Lori-Ann

Yesterday and today were both very busy but I feel a great sense of accomplishment. I spent part of yesterday just running errands. In our town, June is the month that you license your dog and we had let our dog’s licenses lapse. (yeah, I know, I know). After that incident Thanksgiving day with the pack of vicious dogs, I want to be prepared and completely “legal” if there is another incident.

So I went to our vet yesterday morning and got copies of our guys rabies shot certificates and brought those down to the town hall to update their licenses. It felt good to get that done. On Thanksgiving when we had that incident, the officer didn’t ask if our dogs were licensed, if she had, we would have been sunk.

That taken care of, I went to the army/navy store down the road and bought a big ass can of pepper spray. This can is bigger than what I expected but it shoots a powerful stream up to 8 feet away. I tested it and it really does spray in a powerful stream, not a mist– so it would probably be very effective.

It also doesn’t spray in bursts but has continuous action and will spray as long as you hold down the button. It is made for security people working a crowd. So if that pack attacks again I can sweep it across them as they approach and it should work.

I dug out a fanny pack that I bought to wear during my trip to the rez and I will use that for walking from now on. It can hold the pepper spray, my camera, ipod, and cell phone without a problem.

By the way, speaking of that fanny pack, it was designed for big people so it was extra big to begin with–PLUS, I had to order an extender for it. Now, I took out the extender and had to cinch up the other part too. That sure felt good!

After that, I took Zeke for a walk/run at the Beach/boardwalk. Once again, I would walk for awhile then jog for awhile. Zeke LOVED it! He kept looking up at me as if to say, “Holy crap, mom is running with me.” He was a good boy and stayed with the program. When I needed to walk, which was a lot at this point, he would slow down and not pull at the leash. So Zeke and I did two miles of walk/jogwalk/jog yesterday and I was so happy!

Today I got up and immediately did the Denise Austin cardio dvd that I used to do all of the time when I first started. It is only 25 minutes long,  so I put it away when I began to feel like I needed more time.

So I popped it in and found that I can put a lot more energy into it than I used to be able to do. This is pure cardio, but I wanted to make it more difficult so I held 5 pound dumb bells in my hands the whole time.

This worked, as I really had an elevated pulse through the whole thing, yet 5 pounds is not enough weight to make my arms get tired or sore. I am going to do this work out here and there when I get the chance so that I can take off as much weight as possible before my doctor visit at the end of the month.

THEN, late morning I took a 2 mile walk/jog around the neighborhood and followed that up with the ChaLEAN Extreme Push circuit 1– which is a lot of arm work. It is only Wednesday and I already surpassed the fitness hours I put in last week and it looks like I will finish this week strong.

I am able to do bicep curls with 25 pounds now and triceps work with 20 pounds. Yes, I feel like my arms are going to fall off, but I CAN do it and I am so proud of how strong I am getting.

Yesterday I received a huge box of crafts from the Lakota kids. I needed to go through the items to see what everything is and what I would try to sell it for. I sat the box in front of my chair while The Biggest Loser was on and went through the crafts during commercials. I was able to get the whole thing done and started photographing them today– so I’ll have new items in the eBay store very soon.

There is a half marathon in my area every September and I am toying with the idea of pre-registering for it after the first of the year — sort of as a new year’s goal. My trip to the rez will be in early July and I hope to be very close to goal by then. But I want something for after that. I don’t want to come home from the rez and not already have something else that I need to work on.

If I do sign up for it in January, I will have 9 months to get myself into good enough condition to run 13 miles. I think this is doable. I actually thought of this after seeing the Biggest Loser marathon last night. If they can do that after 5months, I should be able to do a half after 9 months of training, especially since I’ve been exercising since July.

I went back to being a little stricter with my food for the next few weeks. I really, really, really want to be under 300 when I go back to the doc’s at the end of the month. It would be so incredible for me to start the new year in the 200’s.

I have heard people talk about “one”-derland. Right now, I’d be happy with Two Town. LOL

I have work to do, just wanted to make sure I posted today. I hope you are all well and back on track now that turkey day is almost a week behind us