They see me runnin', runnin' and runnin', runnin'

Me running the Shamrock marathon in 2008.

So I went running tonight with Frank.  We did 2 miles.  It felt great!  I miss the feeling that I get from running.  I love that it proves to me that my body is capable of so much more than I give it credit for.  That's all.  It doesn't matter what else happened the rest of the day, all that matters is that I went running.

Weigh-in Day

So I weighed in this morning at 250. Now I could sit here and whine about the fact that I've been back and forth with this 250/251/249 for a couple of weeks now OR I can celebrate being down 26lbs and move forward. So... let's consider 26lbs...

1) 26 lbs of fat
2) 26lb cat
3)26lb fish
4)26lb gummy bear
5) a Two year old
6) a 26 lb barbell plate
7) a bowling ball
8) 26 one lb full butter boxes
9) a small dog
10) 10 ft metal chain
11) 5 bags sugar
12) 26 foot balls
13) 19 inch flat screen T.V.
14) 3 one gallon jugs of water

Yeah, I'm thinking 26 pounds is kind of a big deal.  Good thing I'm not carrying it around anymore.  Now I can focus on more important things!!

Happy Memorial Day

I'd like to thank all of the men and women that have fought for my freedom.  I have had military influence in my life, all of my life. Growing up, my father was in the Army. We spent three years in Panama after Just Cause. We were surrounded by buildings with bullet holes and restricted areas that were off limits to civilians, and/or Americans. And I will never forget the time that my mother had to be rushed to the hospital by helicopter because the car we were in could get through the riots. And I know I was very much protected from the thick of it all.  A miniscule glimpse of what these soldiers see and deal with every day.  Just so that I can walk down the street with a pair of jeans and a tank top on, or pray at a restaraunt before my meal.  I listen to whatever music I want to, and I am friends with whoever I want to be friends with, all because Of the men and women that fight for those freedoms for me every day.  Thank you dad, and Ramsey, my brother, and Kurt, the guy that lives above me, and the lady I saw in the grocery store today, and Stacey, one of my amazing church lady friends, and so so so many others that I know and those that I pass on the streets, and those that will never ever meet me, but still fight.  Thank you for making this choice so that I can make choices.

Daddy

My Bro-bro

This Day ROCKED!!!

I got my butt kicked by my mom's trainer today. She's awesome.  We did circuit training.  So we did our workouts with 2 minutes of runs and walks in between each. It was awesome.  I sweated my ass of and felt great afterwards.  Then a couple of hours later we did Zumba.  My mom did her first Zumba class.  I was so excited.  I can't say she "loved" it, but she did say that she liked it, and if not any faster than today's class that she'd be interested again. 
It was amazing the difference in the people that were in the gym from the night, when I normally go, to this morning.  There were no girls following boys around wiping up their sweat.  The employees were more interested in the safety and concern of the patrons instead of which basketball game is on.  It felt good.  It felt like I was in the big leagues. The way I see it, I can make a life of this.

The Nothing

So I didn't work out today.  Blah.  I know I've gone pretty hard this week.  But I don't like not doing anything.  I am working out with my mom and her trainer tomorrow though.  I'm excited/nervous about that.  I would love to have my own personal trainer.  I know I can go so much harder.  I know that my body is capable of so much more.  But really?  It's unlikely that I'm 1) going to make myself do it, and 2) know full well what I'm doing without hurting myself.  It's so hard to find somebody to work out with late at night when I work out anyway, much less a trainer.  And why do they have to be so damn expensive.  In a perfect world everyone will just want everyone else to excel and will all lend a hand to make sure that happens.
I'm also going to try to get my mom in to Zumba tomorrow.  I think she will really love it, she just needs to trust herself and let herself do it. She used to be hardcore into group exercise, step class, spinning, kickboxing, all of it. So I know she can do it. 

*turning the page*
I'd like to start adding pictures to my blog.  What's the best way to do that?  Should I add pictures of me? Pictures of motivational posters? Just random pictures?  Any suggestions?

Zumba night

Tonight was Zumba.  Alice's class.  She's so awesome.  Super duper sweet, and a lot of fun.  Her classes are always packed.  Tonight was extra packed though.  Some of "the guys" were zumba-ing.  Apparently they're summer guys (that work at the Y).  And each summer they come in for a couple of weeks, spice up the joint, and then fade back out.  Admittedly I did shake my ass a little more with them there.  I figure, WTH, anything I can use for a little extra motivation to get my heart rate up, right?  Right.

I drank all my water today. It felt great. I also ate relatively well.  I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not so good things... mayo in my tuna fish, with crackers, and croutons and Caesar dressing on my salad at dinner.  I have this obsession with creamy.  In my coffee, my salads, my sandwiches, my pastas... I love creamy. I wish I could get over it. Find a good substitute, but seriously, if one more person tells me to replace the butter and sour cream on my baked potato with salsa I'm going to lose it. It just isn't the same.  I guess this part will take time.

Introduction

I know introductions are normally the first post, but I gues that's just not how I roll.  Hi, My name is Jessica.  I'm a mother of 2 beautiful girls. One 6 about to turn 7, and the other is 2. I'm sure you'll hear more about them as they are a big part of my world. I am also a wife to Frank. Frank and I have been married for 6 years, together for 12, or something like that. I also work full time, as does my husband. And that's what you get what you meet me.
I have been heavy all of my life.  At least that's what I thought when I was younger.  The truth is that I've always had big boobs, so I thought I was heavy because I had to buy bigger shirts and bras than girls my age. But in reality, looking back, I had an amazing body in highschool. BUT you couldn't convince me of that when I had to look at size 16 prom dresses. (SN... this is a lot harder to think about than I realized it would be) So after I graduated I put on the freshman...20 or 30, whatever it was.  Didn't really care at the time, I was out of the house and allowed to do what I wanted, and since drugs and alcohol weren't my thing, I ate.  I met my husband when I was 20. After all the duds I dated I knew this man would be in my life for a long time... he had a car and actually let me call him boyfriend. So the more comfortable I got the more and more relaxed I got with watching what I ate and exercising.  Fast forward a bunch of years of yo-yo dieting, throw in a couple of marathons and half marathons, to January 1st, 2012.  New Year's resolution weigh-in day... 276 lbs. HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP!!!  What the hell happened?  This is not me.  I'm not that girl.  But I am, I was, that was me. So I went to a Zumba class that week that I was off for Christmas break.  Dawn was the instructor. Seriously, to this day, one of the hottest chicks I know.  Anyway, loved the class. I also did a little running (SN... I love to run. Running has always been a passion of mine) did a little strength training. Got Frank to start doing Zumba with me.  Don't ask me how, I guess it just clicked for him.  I said try it, he said ok, I'll try it. and it is one of the best things that's ever happened to us (besides our children obviously).  It's something that brings us together.  It's a thing the he and I share that we love and we love to talk about and we love to be a part of it.  So... here I am five months into 2012, still going strong. I've lost 30 lbs. I feel great.
There are several things that I see while on this journey. Which brings me to this blog.  This is going to be a combo, of my weight loss story, as well as things that make me laugh, things that make me mad, things the make me go, WTF?!?! while on this journey. Just so people know my opinion. Not sure if you'll care or relate.  But for the most part you'll probably have some kind of rise of emotion.
There will be several references along the way that may make you go, "What does that mean?" I'll try to make a side note (SN) if I don't think I've mentioned them before. Otherwise, try to keep up.

I work out at The Y... so some of my words have to do with that. For example, Purple Shirts... these are the guys that are employees at the Y, that are there to answer any questions that you may have during your workout.  Or in some cases change the channels to the most exciting basketball games, or chat with the cutest chicks in there, or chase each other with markers, and every once in a while look up and acknowledge the fact that you might actually have a question relating to working out.
There are the black shirts... these are ACTUAL personal trainers.  These (normally girls at my Y) are no joke.  They will wipe there sweat off the mats with these other guys.  If I didn't feel like money was literally falling out of my pockets and into theirs just from asking them if there were still using a machine, then I'd have them help me more often.  The Red shirts, I believe, are always custodians, and blue shirts are involved with child care. and then there are the rest of the bunch. Some I've grown fond of, some I just see, and some I make my skin crawl every time I see them.  The way I see it, is that's my Y, in a nutshell.

Finally...

I had a great workout tonight.  I did my lower body workout and my new and improved abs workout.  Now, I've been doing the same lower body workout for about... 4 months now, give or take. Always including squats.  Yes, I'm one of those freaks of nature that loves squats.  I love that I can do them. I love to think about the outcome of continuous squats. Love them!! Anyway, tonight, I was doing my squats as normal, with the smith machine, and I saw a guy watching me out of the corner of my eye.  So I start thinking, either this guy better be Christian Grey, or he's a creeper and he better back off.  So I finished out my set and turned around and sadly, it wasn't Christian Grey, it was Tony.  I wish I could say Tony was comparable to the desired, but nope.  He was an older gentleman, quite buffvery obvioulsy knew his way around the gym.  He was actually there to help me on my form with my squats.  Finally... somebody is helping me out.  ME!  I've been doing this on my own since January. I've worked out with my mom and her trainer a couple of times, and every once in a while I'll ask a "purple shirt" to help me out, but on a regular day to day basis, it's just me sitting there making shit up as I go along.  For the most part I have an idea of what I'm supposed to do.  Anyway, so Tony comes over, as sweet as can be assures me he's not a creeper and that he does have experience and studies is physical training, and shows me (and wipes down the pad when he's done) how to correctly perform a squat with a bar, placing the bar across my shoulder blades and not across my neck/the top of my spine. Amazingly enough, the last set was almost a relief.  Thank you Tony, you were a breath of fresh air in the stuffy gym.  They way I see it all, the purple shirts need to be Tonys.