Today marks the first day I’ll be heading to the gym. Hannah and I are going to take a Family Yoga class together at 12:30pm, and after that I have my fitness equipment orientation at 2pm. Then it’s swimming time!

I spent some time last night laying out a schedule for us for this summer, including her 2 weeks of stroke booster swimming lessons in July.  As I get more in shape and able to handle more, I’ll be adding additional things, but to start out, we’re taking two classes a week (Monday – Family Bootcamp; Tuesday – Family Yoga). I have two days of rest, Sunday and Thursday, and the other days I have some cardio. I’ll be starting out light on the machines, not pushing myself to injury. After a few weeks I’ll be adding some strength training on alternating day rotation with the cardio. And LOTS of swimming time, especially for Hannah. Once we’re comfortable at the gym I might take one of the H2O Combo swimming classes, but for now I’ll just swim with Hannah to cool off and relax from the day’s workouts.

I have such a good feeling about my changes this time around. I’m actually EXCITED to go to the gym, with a little side of my self-conscious body-image dread. I have a feeling that will go away with time, just like the soreness and pain I feel will after a few weeks. I know after this first week I’m going to be nearly dead with soreness and fatigue, but if I can make it through it, I can reach all my goals!

As of my weigh-in this morning, I’m down 9.6 lbs which officially breaks the 100 lbs to go mark! I have 99.4 lbs to go! So excited! Yeah it seems like a lot but I have the next year or so over which I expect to lose it. I should be in a really great place physically and definitely mentally by my 32nd birthday in May next year.

I’m also .4 away from my first mini-goal, new tennis shoes! I should hit that goal this week, though I’ll probably wait until the 28th to go get my new kicks.

Off to hurry up and wait to go to the gym. Hannah’s excited because we’re going swimming! I’m excited about everything!

I think I’m in a very good place in my head right now regarding my weight loss. I have my doc appointment tomorrow, but I’ve been trying not to stress about that. One of my friends on Lose It commented that “weight loss happens in the kitchen, fitness happens in the gym.” There’s still a lot I can do for my weight loss by just watching my diet and sticking to it even when I’m frustrated about my meds and blood pressure. My body has proven this by showing me several small losses over the last few days, culminating in a now 7.8 lb loss since I started.

I have been extra diligent on my diet, managing to eat right up to my budget of 1500 calories a day, which is an improvement on the last several weeks because I wasn’t quite eating ENOUGH. Not eating enough can sometimes be as bad as overeating because the body goes into starvation mode. I’ve been eating healthy with a Usana Nutrimeal replacement shake for breakfast and lunch with little snacks in between and a decent dinner with veggie, small amount of starch (usually rice), and protein. My friend Claudia gave me my first package of the Usana shake, and Sean and I have decided to continue with it, I even ordered some for him.

I’ve gotten into a daily routine thanks to the shakes and logging my meals on Lose It. After my doc appointment tomorrow, hopefully I can add gym visits to that routine. I want to get into a weekly routine where I can go do cardio or a group class, while Hannah plays in the child watch, then we can swim together later in the day. They even have family group exercises like a Bootcamp, Yoga, and Zumba, which I think Hannah would love to do with me. I really want to establish good habits in her so she doesn’t struggle with her weight her entire life like I did.

So… here’s hoping tomorrow’s appointment bears fruit! *crosses fingers that body cooperates*

I didn’t post for two days, and I’m kicking myself for it. Sean came home yesterday, and I’m not really sure what my excuse was the day before that!

So it’s been almost a month since I started my healthy new life. There have been some ups and downs, and a large obstacle in the form of my high blood pressure to overcome. I still haven’t got the OK from my doc to exercise so most of my loss in the past couple of weeks has been from just light house work, one walk I took (without Sean knowing!), and diet.

I weighed in today and was down .8 since my last weigh-in. So in total I’ve lost 6.6 lbs in 30 days. Not bad! I’d like to keep up at least a 2 lbs per week pace once I start exercising. It should take me about a year to safely (and PERMANENTLY) lose my weight and tone and get my body to where I’d love it to be. After that I don’t see myself stopping going to the gym. I’ll probably keep up a weekly exercise schedule to maintain and to keep my cardio up for health reasons. I got really shafted with genetics – heart disease from both sides and cancer as well. Bleh.

My next doctor’s appointment is Monday. I really hope my BP is more stable by then, because I want to get started at the gym. I’m also going to chat with my doc about my diet and exercise plan. I want to be super healthy about it and not hurt myself in the process. She told me my bad cholesterol was a little on the high side, not enough to throw meds at but alarming for my age I guess. I have a feeling my diet and weight loss will help fix a lot of my health problems.

Hannah’s at her Grandma’s, and it feels super weird to be in the house by myself.

I even caught myself calling for her earlier today, thinking she was in her room playing or drawing. /sigh

Don’t get me wrong. I love my alone time. Just not quite this MUCH alone time. I think the four-legged members of clan Hodges understood this, because I was vegging on the couch today watching Netflix and they all piled on top of me. Doom Kitty included. It helped a little, all the kitty snuggles.

I miss my girl, and I miss Sean.