Long Time....

......no see, blog! :o) Ok, so it's been approximately one month since the end of CATZ Fitness Challenge and I am proud to say that I lost 10 more pounds and have maintained that ever since. I would still like to lose a little more but with the holidays quickly approaching I think i'm just going to keep maintaining and try not to beat myself up too much. The plan was to lose 10 more by Christmas but.... well, I may try to do 5 more. We'll see... :o)

Alright, so I found this neat little website that has literally blown my socks off. It's myfitnesspal.com and it is AWESOME!!!! Well.. at least for me it is. This site is basically a food and exercise journal with helpful blogs and a pretty cool calorie counter. I downloaded the app to my phone and have been able to track all my food & exercise with no problem. I was a little afraid about becoming somewhat obsessive, as i'm known to be but it is what it is. :o) Anyway, it's pretty basic that the more you exercise the more you can eat. The whole time while doing CATZ I thought I could ONLY eat what was approved on their diet which was roughly 1200 calories per day. I wasn't taking into account that a CATZ workout, depending on how intensely you work out, can burn anywhere between 400-500 calories per one hour session. They don't encourage you deviate from their diet while on a challenge but once you're done and continue to exercise, they do recommend a splurge every now & then. I'm still not at the point, and may never be, where I can eat whatever I please and still work out but I think the whole moderation thing has REALLY clicked now. This website i'm in love with tracks how many calories you burn per work out! So.... today, for example, I ran 7.29 miles in 85 minutes and burned 791 calories at 5 mph. That means, if I feel like it I can eat 1991 calories today and not feel guilty while still managing to lose a pound a week! DON'T FREAK OUT!!!! I'm most certainly not going to eat all those calories, there's just no way.... No way on earth!

Yesterday I read the following "A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world." -Paul Dudley White. I am walking proof that this quote rings true in soooo many ways. The last 2 weeks have been murder. Just over week ago my daughter did not make her 8th grade Jr. High soccer team and that was such a blow. For those of you who know Robyn, you're aware that soccer is her life. That girl cried all afternoon and into the night until she fell asleep and I cried all the next day while she was in school. As if that wasn't enough, the following Saturday she was kicked on her injured knee and it looks back like we're back to square one on that issue. That didn't help one bit and she hasn't been able to play now for just over a week. It took a couple of days for us all to get over it but in the mean time I ran and lifted and squatted and lunged and burpeed and so on and so on until I couldn't anymore. I honestly believe that keeping physically active and NOT eating an entire Costco sized bag of Doritos really helped. Robyn's doing great and has some amazing friends who have only supported and encouraged her thru this whole ordeal. "What doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger" is also a quote that I love and in her case is ringing truer & truer every day. The topic of 8th grade soccer still smarts her a little but she has handled it like a champ, with all the grace and dignity she can muster up. Just so you know, she has way, way more of that then her mother does, for sure. We'll be starting up on some more physical therapy this week and praying. :o)