How Old Am I?

I have never dreamed of getting old. Not that I am afraid to get old, more like I never want to stop being young. These past few years my body has felt “old”. All of the symptoms they suggest of aging I have been experiencing. Well I have escaped one; my hair is not turning colors yet. I love being active and outside. Hiking, mountain biking, skiing, playing hockey, and my newfound love of road biking have almost hurried up the ageing process. This next week I pray that years will be taken off my old body, and for the first time in a long while, I will start to feel 23 again.

But they say it is always darkest just before dawn. In order for me to be comfortable in the rehabbing process I have moved into my grandmothers living room. Talk about feeling “old”! Antiques, chiming clocks, and the little boy who is painted in the 1700’s are watching over me day and night. Please don’t get me wrong; I am very excited to be at home getting taken care of. My family really is the best in the world and my parents have already sacrificed so much for me. 

We leave tomorrow, Sunday morning, for Vail. I am started to get a few butterflies and already having a tough time sleeping. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we have a long week ahead of us. There will not be much to report tomorrow, but Monday is a full day so I should be able to blog then. Thank you for your support!

One Less Day

The Waiting Game

Playing a “Waiting Game” for two and a half years starts to makes injury feel like real life. The fact that I have put passions aside because of my inability to participate has started to mess with my mind. I have wondered if I would ever get back on ice to play a real game of hockey, buckle my ski boots for a power day, or even run. The “Waiting Game” has changed my life and been exactly what I have needed.

The best news is that the Waiting Game is over!

Sunday morning we are headed 789 miles south to Vail, Colorado. It is time for my hip to be fixed! We have pre-op appointments all day on Monday with surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning. My mom and dad (the best parents in the world) will be driving me down and will be playing nurse for the week. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t have to be in the hospital over night on Tuesday. Starting Wednesday I will be in physical therapy twice a day through Saturday. If everything goes as plan, we will make the three-hour trek to Denver for a night in a hotel. Sunday morning Michele and I will be on a flight back to Bozeman, as Mark takes on the open road driving back to Montana.

The emotions are mixed as I am anticipating surgery. This past year of working hard to take as much weight off as possible leaves me to believe that I can do anything for a short period of time. Thank you all for your encouragement as I start into a long summer of rehab.

One Less Day

At First You Won’t Succeed

There is an age old saying that reads, “If at first you don’t succeed… sky diving is not for you”. I always thought that was hilarious because most of the time things take me a few tries before I get it. I have been dreading this blog post for a few weeks because at first, I didn’t succeed. Adding a different fitness or food related challenge ever day became very difficult about 20 days in. I eventually gave up on myself, and didn’t succeed. It was embarrassing because I was so confident that I could do it. Here I am feeling like I let most people down. But some days I have to look back and see how far I have come.

 

In less than 24 hours I will have completed my first ever road bike race. In January I put a team together that will race tomorrow in the Grizzly Triathlon. I am excited and proud even if at first I didn’t succeed. It is a constant reminder that on April 30, 2011 I weighed over 300 pounds and had trouble walking in the Ridge. I was in the mindset that this was going to be easy and require very little work. I was so wrong and tomorrow I will be reminded of all the hard work this journey has taken.

Team “Cat Woman” races tomorrow at 9:30 am MST. What a scary/fun/rewarding race it will be. Not every day will be a success, but it is how I handle that success that matters. “At first you won’t succeed… but get up and try again.”

If You’re Not First, You’re Last! :) 

One Less Day 

You have not been forgotten!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

This is Serene’s big sister blogging today. There’s been a small bump in the road for Serene, she has only has one more month until she graduates from college (WOOHOO!) and that has taken a toll on her blogging. Understandably so, I remember how stressful the last month of school was. It’s like you finish with one paper and start another while trying to ride a wild horse backwards and sing “Baby got back!”  So as the older, not quite sure if I’m wiser sister I decided to whip out my blogging skills and help her out by updating the 50-day melt off!

So how is everyone doing? Have you cried yet? I know I have! Not really but it’s been quite a challenge. Serene’s last post talked about eliminating sugar from your diet. It’s Girl Scout cookie time; the weather is getting nicer so the urge to eat ice cream is creeping up and who doesn’t want an iced coffee to sip on a lazy Saturday afternoon? Personally, this has been the hardest challenge yet. However, I’m pleased to announce that I’m prepared to reveal some great tasks we have ahead! YAY! I just heard you all let out a heavy sigh…don’t fret, this is good for our souls.Should we reflect back to what challenges we’ve been given thus far? Okay!

Day 50: Write down everything you eat
Day 49: Stop eating after 7pm
Day 48: Run/Walk 25 extra miles a week. This is aside from your everyday workouts
Day 47: Drink a VAST amount of water…we’re talking about 100+ ounces a day
Day 46: Eat 5 servings of veggies a day. Four of those servings need to be green and one can be any other color you want (pink if you find it.) Also, you may only have carrots ever 3 days…they have lots of sugar in them
Day 45: Give up one bad food habit. Serene gave up eating out. I personally gave up alcohol. No I’m not an alcoholic but it does have a lot of calories and those can add up quickly on a Saturday night
Day 44: Get to know healthy food habits aka balancing out what you are eating
Day 43: Calories in vs. calories out. It’s just that simple
Day 42: Attend yoga once a week. Let’s get flexible people!
Day 41: Cut out that sugar folks…that means anything that has sugar within the first 5 ingredients of the product. (High fructose corn syrup is SUGAR…don’t be fooled by the TV commercials)

So we’re caught up to where Serene left off. I bet you were all thinking, okay this isn’t bad now that I’ve basically had a week off without a new challenge. Prepare yourselves because I’m about to throw out enough challenges to make you feel woozy. That could also be a side effect if you haven’t drank enough water. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Do you have a pen and paper? Okay, let’s get to this:

Day 40: No weighing in until this challenge is over…yep that’s 40 days of just hoping those pants are loose for a reason.
Day 39: No food containing highly-enriched flour. That stuff may taste yummy but get it out of your system! Pack in the whole grains.
Day 38: No meal replacement bars. Put down that protein bar and eat an apple instead.
Day 37: Write encouraging notes around the house about exercise! For example: “Sweat is your fat crying!” or “Yesterday you said tomorrow!”
Day 36: No processed food. Say adios to those ever-so-yummy chips
Day 35: Get 7 or more hours of sleep a night. (Sounds good to me!)
Day 34: Try a new exercise every week. Have you ever tried Zumba? These hips don’t lie.
Day 33: Don’t mix any other activity with eating. When watching Real Housewives of Orange County, don’t eat caviar or even almonds.
Day 32: WHAT…YOU GET TO CATCH UP TODAY! Re-evaluate how far you’ve come…be proud of yourself. You’ve been rocking this!! Keep up the great work.

So what do you think? Breathe it’s going to be okay. This is a difficult challenge but think about how good you’ll feel. I’m sure most of you are feeling better already. Personally, I know I am. I have a lot more energy. 

Thanks everyone for having patients for this post. Serene appreciates it as well. I might be back soon to keep everyone going. Until then, keep your chin up and keep trucking along. Be proud of yourself.

In the words of the corporation of Nike “Just do it!”

Adios and have a great day!

You Are My Candy Girl! {Day 41}

The last day of April in 2011, Lana gave me my first challenge that started this change in my life. “No Sugar!” I melted. My mother and father are both bakers. On their kitchen counter there is always a cake, cookies, or some sort of candy. My grandmother has a draw in her house FULL of candy. Goodies are everywhere in my life. Ice cream was my biggest weakness. I loved going to Pickle Barrel and getting a waffle cone or even swinging by Dairy Queen for a cherry dipped cone with sprinkles. (I am drooling right now just thinking about it) Sugar and I were best friends, we did a lot together and it has been a tough ride since we broke up.

The day Lana shot the sugar in my life I was pretty sure I would never make it. At the end of this April, it has been 12 months since I have last eaten a cookie, cake, or even ice cream. The challenge today is to think of sugar beyond treats. When reading ingredient labels it is important to understand that sugar is used in a lot of things. Today the challenge is to Cut out all food and drink with the first five ingredients that include simple sugars or syrup. Includes brown sugar dextrose corn sweetener fructose cellulose and anything with the last 3 letters being -OSE.

This challenge is going to be hard with Easter right around the corner, but it must be done! Natural sugars are still good to eat, but still not in excess.

Sugar Sugar!!

One Less Day 

The Count {43&42}

Combo day! After yesterdays suggestion, I hope you found a program that will help you track your food better. These programs will also help today's challenge too. Along with writing all of your food down, it is now time to add calorie counting! This will include calories in and out. These can be added to the food journals you are already writing down. 


The second challenge for today is to attend a yoga class once a week. This form of exercise really gets the body to stretch at the same time a solid work out. I remember the very first time I experienced yoga. I could not stop laughing because I knew I looked like a complete fool! I was thinking I looked just like the teacher, man was I wrong! "Lock the knee!" 


Count 'em up and get a mat. It's YOGA time!


One Less Day! 

Day 44: Balance {In Food}

I need to remember blogs don't post from my phone. Sorry its a day late! You get two today.

If this last year has not changed my life forever it is my fault. It has not been a year of diets, but a reorganization of my life style choices. Lana never asked me to do something I wasn’t able to do forever. Some of the worst diets around ask you to do things that you could not do forever. If we are to be changing our lives, then we must be practicing habits that will last a lifetime. Sometimes it is hard to know what a balanced meal looks like. For a while, I thought a balanced meal came from Costco. A coke and a giant slice of pizza all washed down with soft served goodness of “yogurt”.  I have since learned this is not the case.

There is a pretty standard nutritional guideline issued by the FDA. This guideline is suggested for the 2,000-calorie diet but is easily modified for everyone. The challenge for today is to know and eat within the suggested guidelines. Many programs are available on line, or as an app on different phones, that show you how you are eating.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet/NU00200

This is mine for Friday

It is important to know and understand that each day is a new day, but staying within these suggested guidelines prevents you from getting unhealthy with your eating. When some diets eliminates carbs things start to get haywire. Carbs are what gives you energy and when we have no carbs to burn, we start to burn muscle. That seams counter intuitive. Trying to gain muscle when our body is eating the muscle.

It’s a lot to change and get used to, but once we know healthy eating habits our lives will start to change!

One Week Done!!

One Less Day 

Day 50	Write everything that you eat and drink down. Including what time you consumed it.
Day 49	No Eating after 7 PM
Day 48	Walk/Run 25 miles a week (Intentionally and apart from other workouts)
Day 47	Drink Enough Water!
Day 46 (Today)	Eat 5 servings of veggies. Four must be green and carrots can only be eaten ever 3rd day.
Day 45	Give up one unhealthy food choice
Day 44	Keep within the Healthy Food Guidelines

Give It All

Each of you has officially made it through the first five days of the challenge. Great Job! Stick to it, it might get easier. Yesterday I was feeling a little tired and honestly struggling to get my 25 extra miles in this weekend. Not a good sign! After a long week I was really feeling a vacation. Thinking of a beach, or a hotel room, anything away from real life would have been nice. The bad news is that our food choices can never take a vacation.
 

Today, Day 45, the challenge is to give up one unhealthy food choice. That could be ice cream, chips, cookies, if it’s bad for you give it up! For the next 45 days I will not be dining out. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will all be prepared at home.

What will you give up for the next 45 days?! Good Luck!

One Less Day

Day 50	Write everything that you eat and drink down. Including what time you consumed it.
Day 49	No Eating after 7 PM
Day 48	Walk/Run 25 miles a week (Intentionally and apart from other workouts)
Day 47	Drink Enough Water!
Day 46 (Today)	Eat 5 servings of veggies. Four must be green and carrots can only be eaten ever 3rd day.
Day 45	Give up one unhealthy food choice

Popeye Strength

I would be so happy if I could fill all my daily calories with ice cream. Huckleberry Milkshakes, strawberry cheesecake waffle cones, and Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds would be my favorite day of the year. The truth is I haven’t had ice cream in over 10 months, yet I still dream of it. Since giving up sugar I have had to fill my days with other types of food. Some foods are easier to add than others.

For todays challenge its time to mix up what food you are eating. Day 46 Challenge is to eat 5 servings of vegetables. Four of the five must be green, and the 5^th can only be carrots every three days. The 4 servings of green veggies must all be different. So eating 4 servings of celery does not count! Spinach is a great choice, but if you eat only spinach for the next 46 days you might look like Popeye. I’m not sure that is the most attractive choice, but then again you might be into sailors that are proportioned oddly.

Just a questions; who had to wake up to pee last night?

 Popeye Strength!

One Less Day

Day 50	Write everything that you eat and drink down. Including what time you consumed it.
Day 49	No Eating after 7 PM
Day 48	Walk/Run 25 miles a week (Intentionally and apart from other workouts)
Day 47	Drink Enough Water!
Day 46 (Today)	Eat 5 servings of veggies. Four must be green and carrots can only be eaten ever 3rd day.
Day 45

Water Logged

I have the wonderful privilege to live with my grandmother. She is pretty amazing in some ways but in some ways she if flat hilarious. She is always comparing today’s world with “back in the day”. We talk often about each of these daily challenges and she always has something to say. For most of the challenges she say, “Oh Serene, I don’t know about that”.

Today’s challenge was a major “Oh Serene” moment. For today's challenge you will use the following water calculator to see how many ounces of water you need to drink a day. (And Drink It!) For me, I am drinking 200 oz of water every day. Along with food journals please keep track of the amount of water you consume.

http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercalculator.htm

When I told my G that I was going to drink 200 oz she thought I was crazy. “Back in the day, each house would get one pale of water for the entire day. I’m pretty sure you are doing good at three 8 oz glasses of water for the day.” Ladies and Gentlemen, grandma is wrong. We each need well over 24 oz of water a day.

Warning: You will have to use the bathroom SO much at the beginning.  I was even waking up in the night, not cool! It really does get better. It also helps if you have a water bottle and can keep filling it up. It makes tracking the ounces that much better.

Belly Up!!

One Less Day  

I Would Walk 500 Miles

I remember the very first time I met Lana. I was invited to attend her Boot Camp one early summer morning. At 5:30 am I was at the park ready to do whatever she told me. I was heavy, out of shape, and had done little exercise in a long while. I told myself that I would keep pace with the class and wanted no one to know how fat I really was. Every time Lana told us to do something, I did it full force. Never once did I back down because I was physically unable to complete the task. I was constantly pushing myself harder and longer than ever before. That first day of Boot Camp if Lana said jump I asked how high. By 9 am that same day, I couldn’t walk. I was working at a store on Main Street and I could hardly use a stapler. My entire body hated me for weeks. Although I did return to Boot Camp two days later, never once have I made the mistake of keeping up to act “fit”.

A good excuse for 25 miles a week.
The best dog in the world, Lollie!
Her and I enjoyed a 4 miles loop today.

Today’s challenge is the first “physical” challenge so far. I know, I know, we are only three days into this 50 day melt but each of us needs to change how we move. Today’s challenge requires you to move more. Day 48 the challenge is to walk/run 25 miles in a week. These miles need to be on purpose, not part of your every day life. If you are physically able to run some of these miles, do it! Not because you must but because you can. I so wish I was able to run all 25 of these miles, but I must walk. If you are currently doing some type of exercise these 25 miles are in addition to what you already are doing.

This challenge is going to take some serious time management. Do us all a favor, don’t wait and have 25 miles to do in one day. You will feel just like I did after my very first time at Boot Camp.

“I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more. Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles to fall down at your door.”

Happy Walking My Melting Friends!

One Less Day      

Late Night Pancakes (Day 49)

The fall after I graduated from High School I moved to Florida for the longest four months of my life. In Florida I learned to eat. It was rare for my roommates and me to cook in our apartment. If we did it was hotdogs on the George Forman and Mac n Cheese, so not making very healthy choices anyway. You can imagine what it does to the body to eat out almost every meal of the day. I will even confess I went to McDonalds two times in one day and ordered the number 11 both times. My eating habits were beyond awful, but there is one that stands out beyond the rest. There is a restaurant in the south that the people in Montana are safe from. This 24 hour restaurant is destined to make you sick and tastes best after midnight. The “good old fashion” Waffle House makes my skin crawl today but in Florida was my guilty late night pleasure. Waitresses with missing teeth, tiny locations not up to health code, and food that would give you instant stomach problems. How foolish I was to think it was safe to eat if it was after midnight.

My midnight rendezvous with Waffle House ended when I left Florida but my late night boredom solved by food continued. Enjoying late night Taco Bell runs or even a slice of pizza down town is starting to add up. All the extra calories added by drinking and eating after dinner is over are amazing. Day 49 challenge is for dinner to be the last food that enters your body. Nothing, none, zilch food after 7pm. Watch how many times you unnecessarily reach for a “midnight snack” before bed time. I have noticed that I just want to go to bed earlier because I am hungry and want to eat. Drinking a big glass of water does the trick to settle the stomach and allow for you to get to sleep.

As we move into day 49 remember that we are all still writing down everything we eat, along with the time. Now today make sure everything is consumed and finished by 7pm!

One Less Day!

Waking Up (Day 50)

Disclaimer: You need not be a member of any health club to partake in this Springtime Melt. Anyone around the world is welcome to join at any time. It just helps if they too start on Day 50. I count backwards because I like to see numbers getting smaller, not larger. Avoiding getting bigger is a key to this Melt.

Monday March 19th! 

Mondays are my most favorite day of the week. Most of you curse Monday but I really enjoy them. I am finished at the ski hill and have a day off before heading back to school. This morning I woke up to a sold 10 inches of snow on the ground. Seeing as though we have had very little snow this winter I was caught off guard. I love when it snows. It looks as if Bozeman got a fresh start to winter but then again it is almost April. In all my years in Bozeman, I am still shocked by spring snows. Some years it feels like summer will never come. Snowstorms continuing through May leaves me a little sad but there is always a glimmer of hope thinking about a snow free month in July. Even when the unexpected snow does come each of us knows that eventually it will melt away. I am hoping in six weeks the snow in Montana is long gone, and both you and I are on our way to be that much more healthy. 

Today is that first day of the Melt. Today’s challenge might sound a little simple, but in a few weeks might be easy to forget. Day 1 Challenge: Write down EVERYTHING that you Eat and Drink BEFORE you do it. Also include what time you ate/drank at. This challenge is for you to become aware of all that you consume. You will be surprised at how much you wont want to eat because of writing it down. At the end of my day, I send my entire journal to Lana for “proofing”. I do that for even more accountability of what I am eating and drinking. There are no eating restrictions on Day 1. Simply write down everything, and if you want, e-mail it to us.

My Actual Day 50 Food Log:

7:30 Banana

9:30 Isagenix Shake

10:30 String Cheese

2:30 Lunch

         8 oz Chili

         ½ plate of Salad

         4 oz Grilled Chicken

4:40 Snack

          Apple

          2 slices of Cheese

6:30 Dinner

          1 cup chicken stir fry

          1 tortilla

9:00 Think Thin Bar

 

I hope you will each take advantage of e-mailing in your food journals. It will not only change how you eat, it will make you aware of what you are about to eat. Forcing you to make the right choices before it’s to late!

Here’s to busy hands and 50 days!

One Less Day