Charts and Cheerleaders

You never know what you'll get when you visit this blog. One day it may be a cupcake sewing tutorial (yesterday), the next, my kids in costumes (every other day), and another, ramblings on my fitness endeavors (you're in luck--that's today!).

I am often asked, "What are you doing to lose your weight?"

The simple truth is work, work, and more hard work.

Seven months and 43 pounds ago, I bought a gym membership. After 14 consecutive days (yes I'm serious) of grueling cardio workouts and ZERO weight loss, a very overweight, and scared (but determined!) me entered the strength training area of the gym and approached a complete stranger, Amasa Jay, fitness trainer. (By the way, how is it you can feel so small on the inside when you are so big on the outside? hmmm)

She pulled out this nifty yellow sheet and began taking me around the weights area, machine by machine, filling out a plan for me. I'll never forget her promise: "Follow this chart consistently, Rebekah, and I promise you WILL lose weight."

And that's just what I did. Notice the dates at the top. I was there on Christmas Eve in a snowstorm, then again the day after Christmas, and again on New Year's Day, etc.

Seven months later, my yellow sheet is now four yellow sheets, filled front and back. I've completed a triathlon. And yesterday I swam a MILE--my newest and most exhilarating achievement to date. Just sayin'.

I am obsessively goal oriented and I seriously dig charts. BUT . . .

I could not have done it without my cheerleaders. See this guy:

Many of you know my sweet dad. Saturday he came with me to my 5K run. The coolest part? He didn't just come with, he walked the mile race with me before my race. It was a blast. I was proud of him and proud for him to come see me run.

He did it just for me. Because he loves me, and he believes in me, and every time I plateau he's in my ear immediately cheering me on. Because he's just that cool. And then there's mom. She came to my triathlon. She arrived in Columbia, MO at 11 p.m. the night before and got up with us at 4 a.m. to cheer me on.

Not to mention Nathan . . . my sweet. You know about him.

So here's to charts and cheerleaders. I hope you have some of your own.

Thanks for listening.

Wanted: Pixie Dust--URGENT

Ever have a day that makes you feel like this?

Poor Tink. No amount of Pixie Dust or "I DO believe in fairies" can repair her pelvis, torn in two by Lilly as she attempted to dress her in Ariel's mermaid tail. Normally, I'd bet on the Neverland fairy in a Tinkerbell-Ariel smack-down, but I guess Ariel was having a good day.

And Tinkerbell wasn't.

Neither was I.

I feel like Tink today. For a couple weeks, I've been stuck at 29 pounds lost. Finally, yesterday, I hit 31 lost, only to land back at 29 this morning. Even with all my hard work, self-deprivation, healthy eating, running, swimming, consistency, and fitness goals reached, my body fat percentage is still, in my opinion, astronomical.

To top it all off, I attended a new fitness class yesterday and, well, I'm just sore.

This morning, my trainer and I confabbed and she outlined a whole new strength training program for me. She said I'd graduated: no more machines, only free weights.

I start the new regimen tomorrow. I'm tired. I can only hope this works. I'd like to get to 40 pounds lost.

Encouragement? Tips? Ideas to pull me up out of this pesky plateau and body fat funk? Thanks, dear reader. Your opinions, to me, are worth their weight in Pixie Dust.