EXERCISE BALL

1. Forces proper spine alignment. Because an exercise ball is not stable, your body needs to try to balance itself on it. The perfect spinal posture is coincidently the easiest to balance with. Thus, your body will automatically try to align itself into the proper posture. This helps improve your spinal health, and decrease back pains.

2. Causes you to frequently change positions. An exercise ball causes to you to change your position often to balance. For example, if you turn 45 degrees to face the phone, your body will assume a new position. This helps reduce damage caused by prolonged sitting in the same position.

3. Fitness is at your fingertips. Another great thing about using this alternative to a chair, is that you can do stretches or mini-workouts whenever you want, without getting up. If you’ve ever stuck waiting for a minute or two, you can make productive use of that time with a quick workout or stretch. Because it’s much more convenient, you will probably do it more, thus resulting in better health.

4. Improve your balance. This one is very understandable. Sitting on an unstable surface all day will improve your sense of balance, as well as the reactions of your muscles. The result? An overall better balance, that can be observed out of the office.

5. Get that 6-pack you’ve been wanting. Your body primarily uses your core (abdominal) muscles to help compensate for changes in balance. Thus, your essentially getting a low-key abdominal workout. This may not sound like a lot, but consider the amount of time you spend on your computer at the office, or at home. Those hours can build up, and result in a strengthening of ab muscles.

6. Improves your circulation. Using an exercise ball will keep the blood flowing to all parts of your body, throughout the day. A desk chair on the other hand, reduces circulation to some parts of the body after prolonged use.

7. You’ll feel more energetic. It has been proven that staying in one position, will make you more tired, while moving around and being active with give you more energy. With an exercise ball as a chair, you will feel much more energized after you finish your work.

8. Burn up to 350 calories per day. More movement during the day = more calories burnt. Burning 350 calories per day = losing one pound of fat every 10 days. You may not burn quite 350, but nonetheless, it will help you stay fit.

9. Really cheap. Specialized exercise balls designed for sitting usage can range from $15 to $80. Much cheaper than buying an ergonomic chair, which can range anywhere from $100 to $400 and up.

10. C’mon, its fun! Who doesn’t like the idea of bouncing around on an exercise ball all day. Exercise balls are an exciting alternative to chairs, and may just give that spark of fun to your day.

so i totally suck at this diet/exercise thing. I mean, i dont mean to get off track but life is busy and even when i do have the opportunity to go to the gym sometimes i am just flat out tired.

i know its catching up on me too.

heart burn for the last two nights. its like, c'mon. are you kidding me? I was doing so well!

Tonight we went over to Diane's for a lil birthday dinner (i'll be 23 on tuesday- yeah!) and everyone was telling me how great i looked. i mean, not that 10 lbs makes that HUGE of a difference on my large frame but i'm not gonna lie- it did make me feel better.

a few more things i would lke to work on: my self esteem, my wardrobe (i totally need to wait until i drop some more weight), and my happiness! Oh! and also my business. I bought business cards and set up a website: LillyPadParties.com

I'm going to be a childrens party planner. I mean, i dont know how well it'll work but i would love to have my own business. especially if i can get out of property management. I'm really starting to burn out. :(

As for the art gallery- mom is talking a least another year and moving to Lake elsinore. we went out there on friday and it was amazing. Toms Farms was great. i picked up some fresh produce for Ceviche and mom made it for the party tonight. AMAZING!

Well, its getting late and I have 101 things to do. Laundry, cleaning, sleeping...I had some caffeine so its going to be a really long night.

Gym for the next 9 days..Can i do it?
I think if i Challenge myself not to miss a day it will work out really well. A gold star for each day and then a shopping spree?!?!? that'd be rad. we'll see. I still really need a manicure and pedicure. That and i found these shirts that look awesome on me at Target. Perfect fit! go figure. hahaha. they're maternity. Sheesh, me and my big boobies.

oh gawd i hope no one reads this shit.

Another pound!

Yes!

Vince and I went to the gym, paid our $5 to drop Lyric off at daycare, and started to head toward the treadmills.

First, we got stopped. Let me just say, I HATE salespeople. fuck that shit. If i want to sign up i will walk over and give you my name and my credit card number and sign up. so please, stop trying to sell me! ugh.

so we head upstairs jump on the treadmills and go. it was great, i was going at such a great pace and then over the intercom i called. thank god it wasn't the sales guy. It was the daycare. Apparently Lyric now has a small case of separation anxiety. great. s now we're back home and all i burned was 100 calories. :(

sooo not enough. We did walk around the mall today. So that was nice.

oh! so the good news. I lost another pound. I'm down to 205! that is so exciting. I know i really need to keep it up. I tried on my dress again last night and had a break down. i couldnt get it past my boobs. ugh. i hate these things. not mention the fact that i would looove a thinner stomach.

:(

day by day. At least i'm still losing weight, right?

oh and PS i walked light 3 miles yesterday trying to get to the parade in HB. so umm. totally made up for today. hahaha.

Finally made it back to the Gym...

um yea, so FINALLY! hahaha.
And Vince even went with me! It was really neat. We only lasted 20 minutes and then grabbed some food at Carls Jr.

Anyway, it was nice to finally get back in there. I plan on going again in an hour just for good nmeasure. Speaking of measures and weights. I stayed at 206 lbs! The good news is i'm eating healthier and therefor not gaining weight. I mean, obviously i need to exercise to LOSE weight but if after all is said and done and i only have to go to the gym 3 days a week in stead of 7 to MAINTAIN, well heck yea it'll be worth it.

now, now 56 more lbs to drop. I better get on this shit and fast. Thats 25lbs a month now. EEK!

Losing Grip

I'm totally losing momentum on the weight loss game. I'm making excuses every day and I haven't been to the gym in two days. I just can't seem to get myself motivated again! I'm going to go look for old pictures of me from when I was thinner. I came across an old one in my photobucket. It made me sad to realize how much weight i've gained. Was that my deterrent? It should motivate me! I really want to me healthy again. I don't know what this down spiral is but today it MUST stop. Only two more days until i get me "get movin'" T shirt. And then only 9 more days until I complete the contest. On a sad note I lose my trial offer on July 24th!!! EEEk. That should be motivation to work as hard as I can. I was down to 206 last I checked. If anything I should be motivated for my weigh ins.

ugh. I just need to get off this couch! Tomorrow i'm going double!

Yesterday...was a really bad day.

Sucky. That's how I can best describe yesterday. I ate crap and a lot of it. I just couldn't feel full or even satisfied. I'm sure it didn't help that we had Mcdonalds for dinner and i didnt hold back in the slightest. I didnt even make it to the gym yesterday. or post a blog. I really sucked.

At least now I know what people are talking about with setbacks.

However, in mildly possitive news I did run treadmill for 20 minutes today- it's only noon!- and I checked my weight and i'm down another pound! Yay for me! Go figure. I guess that means my metabolism is finally starting to kick in. I can burn fat while doing nothing. haha, well i mean i still have to go to the gym to keep it up but now i know i have a metabolism again.

All in all it is keeping me motivated.

Tonight my mom and Diane are coming over to help address wedding invites. I still can't find 4x6 siza cardstock but my newest, greatst idea on the horizon is to use WHITE 4x6 index cards and put a little sticky note inviting guests to draw a picture before sending off the RSVP. I could then frame them or put them in a photo album. I'm going to discuss the idea with the moms tonight.

:)

...back for week two

So we made the trek out to Arizona for 3 days and I pretty much ate myself silly. I mean, I tried to restrain myself as much as possible but we were greeted with corned beef and home made potato salad and coleslaw. Of course we topped it off with Rum cake after the Serenity screening in Tempe.

So that was day one. Day two of our vacation consisted of Carl's' jr (just a chicken sandwich!) and the some really good SW Mexican food for dinner. I should have stopped at 1 margarita but the second was calling my name. It was also the first time I've had heartburn in nearly a week.

Day 3? um, well i was really good, at first. I ate half a turkey sandwich and then on the way home we stopped in Blythe for some tasty mexican food (again.) I couldn't help it! I totally behaved myself as much as I could and as for my weight, i maintained. Which to be honest is better than i thought considering it was 114 degrees and i exerted the least amount of energy as possible.

For the most part the trip was terrific. I didn't make it to the gym yesterday (Sunday) but I did do a lot of running around the Mall. Today I worked out for 1/2 hour and hit 200 calories. It felt good and I could have kept going but while out yesterday i picked up some new shoes and they're killing my feet. I'm gonna have to wear them and work them in a little more.
my goal the rest of the week: 45 minutes daily and 2 extra servings of fruit/veggies per day.

:)

DAY 4

I have lost 3 pounds and now weigh 207. Yay!!!!

I know this is going to be a slow journey but I am also determined to stick to in it no matter what. This is something I am finally doing for myself and I cannot let it slip away. For the firs time I feel like I am achieving a goal that I set for myself.

I really appreciate everyone's support. My goal is to be down to a size 12 by the wedding. I've spent the last 4 days doing cardio and restricting my diet to 1000-1200 calories. Starting Sunday I plan to add strength training reps to my regular workout. Also, one of my goals is to spend some time working out in front of the TV. I think its really important to do strength training right and honestly, do i need to be on my laptop 24/7.

no.

Anyway, that is the update. We will be leaving for Arizona early Thursday morning. I'm going to hit the grocery store and stock pile as much healthy stuff as I can.

Day 2

So yesterday I made it through 23 minutes of rigorous exercise. 10 minutes on the elliptical stepper thing and another 13 on the treadmill for a grand total of 170 calories!

Not so great but hey, not too bad.

Anyway, today Kari and Samantha (my official work out buddies) made the trek to the gym and boy did we work it. Jonathan (the sales rep) gave us a complete tour of the facility. Pool, aerobic center, weights, cardio, basketball court... We even went through the locker room. Sans Jonathan of course. I know this sounds lame but i can't wait to try the steam room! I've never been in one before.

Anyway, we all did about 45 minutes on cardio equaling a grand total of 270 calories. I really stepped it up today. I spent the majority of my time on the treadmill and after about 10 minutes on the bicycle i thought i wanted to die.

Nothing like a new gym pass to remind you how unfit you've become.

Anyway, the gym offers on site daycare for kids. We have to pay about $5 for 2 hours. So worth it if Vince ever wants to join me.

I also spoke with my mom today and she is full of encouragement. I even weighed myself in the weight room and I lost 1 lb. Only 59 lbs to go!

Man, if i could lose a pound a day. That would be FANTASTIC!

FREE STUFF

Really cool websites:

SparkPeople.com- Full of FREE information about dieting, exercising, tracking calories, and losing weight. There is tons of information and things to do on the site. It's like myspace.com for people who want to lose weight. The only difference is, you won't get bored as fast!

Ballysfitness.com- For the next 3 days if you join the online challenge thing you can get 6 weeks FREE! It's totally motivational and it's FREE! It's a great deal and the trainers at Bally's are pretty laid back. No hassling you or anything. Plus, once we printed out our coupons (it took less than 5 minutes), walked over to the gym (5 more minutes) and gave them our Id and signed the release (5 more minutes) it only took like 20 minutes by the time we got home.

VistaPrint.com- Tons of free small business stuff. You pay shipping. (which is pretty cheap too.) Right now they have an awesome deal going where you can get Personalized business cards (250), postcards (100), brochures(10), notepads(1pad), post-it notes(1pad), letterhead(10), note cards(10), invites(10), etc for FREE. Use their templates if you aren't familiar with pixels and Photoshop and the quality will be much better.

CircusCircus.com- or any other Vegas website for that matter. Okay, so i've discovered that if you book really last minute and you do it through the hotel's website you can get great deals (think $40/night rooms-2 beds) and at Circus Circus they gave us a coupon book that was all buy one get one free and FREE margaritas. It was way cool. We went on a wednesday/thursday night- came home Friday and had a blast. Minus the speeding ticket on the way home: you've been warned.

For friends with kids or friends with friends with kids: Pampers.com, Huggies.com, Luvs.com, Gerber.com, beeches.com...all those baby sites- sign up with an email, give them your address, and let them send you stuff. These sites are great if you have a friend who's going to have a baby because they send you all of these free samples. All you have to do is pile them into a cool gift bag, add tissue paper, and Ta-DA! Free baby welcome gift. or baby shower gift. or whatever. Just please, Warn your parents before things start coming in the mail, otherwise you'll have a "sex talk" on your hands in no time flat!

...so i know there are TONS more. If anyone else knows of any, post it! I love free stuff. You love free stuff. Life is good!

Exercise

TOP 3 Excuses why I couldn't exercise:

1. I cant afford a gym pass.
2. Has anyone seen my running shoes?
3. I'm too fat to fit into exercise shorts.

So I started taking walks with the baby and the stroller. Nothing crazy and usually no more than 10 minutes each. I would go twice a day and be pretty wiped out. All the pressure and weight on my knees was pretty painful and with Summer fast approaching it was way too hot. I hate sweating. And did i mention i live on a major street? So the traffic after work was crappy too. All of that pollution wasn't safe for our lungs.

Just as I had finished telling EVERYONE about how much I NEEDED a pass to Bally's for my birthday and would someone please, please, please, get it for me early so I could look good in time for my wedding in September, a miracle happened. I'm not gonna lie, I don't usually believe in fate. I've never been an extremely lucky person. Nor do I think the universe works in mystical ways, but has timing would have it the mail arrived ridiculously late one afternoon and included in all the bills and junk was a flier that immediately caught my eye.

6 weeks FREE membership at Bally's total fitness!

What's the catch? How much do I have to pay up front? Will the location across the street accept it? What do I have to mail in to get my free pass that wont arrive for another 2 months?

So I called the number and got an automated message telling me about this FREE opportunity. Too good to be true? No at all. Everything was legit. We walked across the street the next day and signed up. They took our picture and gave us our member cards. No credit card required! It was amazing.

That was Wednesday. I then procrastinated on Thursday/Friday (my weekend) because I still couldn't find my running shoes.

And then last night, I found my other running shoe! Yeah!!!!

So today, which is Saturday, (my Monday), I am heading over to the gym to get my Step On. I love those elliptical steppers and can't wait to rock out with my I pod. I plan on making some play lists that are about an hour long each. It'll help me keep track of the time and I'll love the music as well.

The Diet

So I have never been one for dieting.
I like food.
A lot.
I eat out often. With friends, with family, even by myself if I want a break. And I am such a sucker for up selling.

Soup?
sure!

Caesar salad?
yes please!

Appetizer?
Fried cheese would be swell.

And then I would eat nearly EVERYTHING on my plate. I hate wasting food. Absolutely despise doing it. Until recently you couldn't look in my fridge without finding pizza boxes and Styrofoam containers. They littered the shelves until I'd go grocery shopping the next week. At which point I'd throw them all away. Soggy salads, stale French fries, half eaten sandwiches...you name it and it was there.

About 2 weeks ago I made a decision:
No more fast food.
No more soda.
No more crap.

I decided to DIET. Slim fast shakes, fruit, veggies, whole wheat and even Tofu!
I bought everything I needed to accomplish my goals. I sent out notice to my friends and family and everyone seemed very supportive. It was great. The first few days even went well. Immediately my heartburn receded and after the initial caffeine withdrawals the headaches cleared. I didn't feel weighed down and I even started walking for 20 minutes a day.

A week later I weighed myself and to my surprise it said 203 lbs!
heck yes! its' working, i thought!

Well, I had a Doctors appointment on Thursday and i did not weight 203 like previously thought, i weighed 210. So instead of 12lbs i only lost 5. However, in all fairness that is much safer. And while not nearly as exhilarating, It reminded me that diet alone was not going to get me fit. I need exercise and lots of it. So on Wednesday, I headed out after work with baby and stroller and signed up at Bally's Total Fitness Gym.

About Me

Hi. I am Megan. I am 22 years old, a single mom, and for the first time in my life I am overweight. I'm still not sure how it happened. Like almost any new mom I would love to blame it on the pregnancy. I ate too much and exercised too little. I spent 6 of the 9 months on bed rest. I had a slow recovery from the C-section. However, as my daughter approaches 18 months old I can no longer spew excuse after excuse for my large size. It's time to take control. And it's time to do something about it.

I weighed in at 215lbs a month ago at a doctors appointment. I was upset to say the least. I've never weighed more than 150 in my life! And at 5'6" I still thought I was a cow. Despite being evenly proportionate then, I was anything but even now.

I can best describe my body shape as an upside down Pear. Big bust, big waist, no hips and no butt. Not the most attractive figure with celebrity icons like J.Lo and Beyonce shakin' their bootylicious assets all over MTV.

What I want is a smaller waist.
What I need is more energy.
And what am I going to do about it?

Read on dear friends, because this is only the beginning.