Wake-Up Call

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding


Diane from Fit to the Finish wrote a wonderful post the other day on not really seeing our selves as we are physically. You can read it here.

I know that, personally, this is a problem for me. For years I didn’t look at myself with honest eyes, but it didn’t stop when my weight loss journey started. Instead I’ve continued this bad habit.
Having lost twenty five pounds and starting a regular fitness regimen has me feeling very, very healthy and, well, wonderful. So it is easy for me to think I’m doing great and that, yea..sad as it is…that I’m fine. But I know that it’s not fine.
While I know that I do feel great and I am proud that I’ve made wonderful progress in my weight loss journey, I have to be honest with myself. I still have a ways to go.
Besides Diane’s post, you know what else brought this to my attention? The changing rooms at Target.
Something about seeing myself from every angle without a top on was very, um, exposing and scary. I see myself from the front often enough, maybe even the side at times, but never the back and when I caught site of myself from the back I was shocked.
Shocked in a good way.
It made me realize I need to keep moving down the scale and on towards better health. Yes, I’m jogging and feeling much better than before, but I’m still overweight. And I need to keep working on it.
And I will. This post has a happy ending… 🙂 … I will keep working on it, but I’m glad when I get a wake-up call like the three-way mirrors or the post by Diane.
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Encouragement Across the Miles

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding


One of my best friends, and fellow sojourner on the path to better health, sent me a weight loss encouragement package last week. It was compromised of eight packs of Extra gum!! I am set for months now.

We may not be able to get together for walks, or to share a lunch, but she is always thinking of ways to encourage me along my weight loss journey. I appreciate her continued support as I keep taking turtle steps forward on my journey.
I hope you all have at least one friend who is your support and encouragement along your weight loss journey. I’m blessed to have a handful of great support friends and I know it means the world to me that they haven’t given up on me and my aspirations to lose weight and get fit. 🙂
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A Few Of My Thoughts on Running

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding

  • Having a full meal and then jogging, even over an hour later, isn’t a good idea. I did that tonight and I felt heavy. Yuck.
  • Daily water intake is necessary. I’m noticing how parched I get and I know it’s not just because I’m running for longer periods of time. For almost two weeks or more now I haven’t been drinking even half of the water each day that I should be.
  • I’m finding myself having to psyche myself up for these straight long runs. For some reason jogging a straight 28 minutes is more daunting than doing intervals. I had no problem doing the C25K when it was just intervals, but now I have to rev myself up and keep myself motivated during the run.
  • Having just written that last thought I am reminded of the first week when it was all I could do to push out the last two or three one-minute jogs. Those were HARD.
  • No matter how much I might dread the run, or be scared of it, I always look forward to it, because I know I feel so good when I’m done. Not only physically, but emtionally as well because I’m so excited that I have been able to do this…which leads me to my last point…
  • I can’t believe I can jog 28 minutes straight through!!!!!!!! In December I decided to try jogging, just to see if I could make it through a mile. I was so excited to jog a mile in 16-17 minutes, even if I was dying and I had to stop there for my workout that day because I was so tired. Today I jogged 1.96 miles in 28 minutes – just over two months after that first attempt – and I probably could’ve gone on a bit longer. I made myself stop at 28 minutes, because that’s all I’m supposed to run for week eight of C25K.
  • Oh, and one last thought…I feel silly saying “run” or that I’m a “runner” when my pace is 4.2 on the treadmill, but it sure does sound fun. I figure I can get away with it on my blog, where you are all so gracious with me. Plus, if I keep speaking positively and calling myself a “runner” then it just might happen some day.
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Perfect 10 Update #7

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding
Here’s another update for the Perfect 10 Challenge.


My Perfect 10 Goals Are:
  1. Complete the Couch to 5K program. No…as far as I only got one day in this week due to being real sick on Monday and then busy as heck yesterday. However, I do plan on doing a second day of C25K week 7 today so that I can go on ahead to week 8 on Monday. I’m amazed that I’m making it through these 25-minute jogs!! It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when I’m done. 🙂


  2. Drink 6-8, 8 oz. glasses of water daily. No. Just haven’t been getting the water in. No reasons/excuses.


  3. Adjust my eating to see weight loss. Yes. I saw a 2.5 pound loss this week! Yippee! I’m really trying to focus on the Intuitive Eating process and I’m seeing change in my eating habits. Glory!

As for the little tidbit on me….

I think I can say I married my high school sweetheart. Sort of…We met in September of my senior year of high school and began writing letters as pen pals. It was a year before he would officially ask me to be his girlfriend and then only five months m

ore before he would propose. We married another five months later when I was 19 and he was 20, almost 21.

Our dating relationship was a long distance one composed mainly of handwritten letters and phone calls. This was before cell phones and email were so affordable and easily accessible. Talk about high phone bills – we sure had lots of them, but they were always worth it.

It’s been 14 1/2 years since we were married and I look forward to many, many more by his side. 🙂

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Weigh-In … Keeping My Scale

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding

Today’s Weight: 205.5

Loss/Gain: -2.5 lbs.
Total Loss So Far: -25.5 lbs.
In the beginning of the Intuitive Eating process the authors suggest getting rid of your “diet tools”, one of which is the scale. This is one thing I’m not going to do. I need a constant in my life that I can compare my progress against. Having a pair of jeans or clothing to compare against just doesn’t work for me. So, I’ve decided to keep using the scale to monitor my progress.
However, the scale is solely a way of noticing how this process is affecting my weight loss. As they say often in the audio book, I am trying to just notice the changes — not be judgmental. It’s a tracking tool and nothing more.
Now I do have to be honest and end this post with a little YAY!!, because of course I’m glad that I’m down to 205.5 this week. 🙂 This is the lowest I’ve seen on the scale on my journey so far (except on Tuesday after being sick) and I know I earned it with the hard work I’ve done this week.
Happy Friday!
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Liner vs. Process Thinking

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding

I’ve been listening to the accompanying CD set for Intuitive Eating and I’m learning so much. I hope you’ll bare with me as I learn and share things along the way. I listen to them on the way to the gym, the way home, anytime I’m alone in the car or at home. I’m hoping that listening over and over again will ingrain those thoughts into my head. It’s definitely cheaper than therapy. 🙂

Today’s thought that really caught my attention was changing our thinking from linear thinking to process thinking.
Linear thinking is focusing on the goal. So, if you have a bad food experience, you overeat or gain one week, and know it’s because you pigged out all week, you feel like a failure and begin the self-hate talk. This is because you think of it as ruining your chances of reaching your goal. Your focus is on the future.
Process thinking is focusing on each situation as a part of the process. When I ate those “just-one-more” bites after dinner last night (even though I had a feeling I shouldn’t) I went from feeling satisfied to feeling a little too full. “Darn it!”, I thought and then reminded myself that I’m learning. It’s all a process and along the way I am learning what works and won’t. Process thinking is dealing with what is happening now. Ultimately the learning along the way will help the goal be met.
So, there’s some food for thought today compliments of the authors of Intuitive Eating.
Have a great day everyone! 😉
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My Turtle Journey

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding

Today I completed my second 25-minute jog. I’m not as fast as some most, but today I was reminded that I’m also not as slow as some.

Usually on the treadmills I am next to people who are jogging, but today I was between two people who were walking and not very fast. The lady to my right glanced over a few times, so I decided during my cool down to encourage her.
I leaned over and said, ‘You’re doing great!” to which she replied, “Oh thanks. I’m just starting.”
I told her that if you would’ve told me a year ago I’d be doing this I would’ve laughed at you. I also told her that I started by walking last May and that I only just started jogging in January.
We exchanged a few more pleasantries and I was on my way.
I hope I encouraged this lady, because in reaching out to her I encouraged myself.
A year ago I wasn’t concerned with my weight. I had decided to love myself how I was, but I was gaining more and more weight and beginning to have pain in my knees after long periods of standing. Thought I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, I was still a bit sad deep down that I was so big. Plus it made me feel so old to be large and having knee trouble.
Today the last thing I mentioned to this lady was I’m a turtle in my journey. It’s been slow, but I keep going. I know if I can see the changes I’ve seen over the last year for the better in my health I will continue to keep seeing more in the future…as long as I don’t quit.
You know what they say, “Slow and steady wins the race, not the one who sets the pace.” For me, that concept equals hope and it’s what I cling to each day as I learn more about what I need to do to see myself reach my weight loss goals.
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I Was Selfish

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding


Today I was selfish at the gym.

You see, the Dr. Oz show was on and Diane and Lori were both going to be on there. I don’t have a television and searched all over the web to find out where it might be shown later, but to no avail. So, I decided I would go to the gym and use the elliptical for the entire hour and watch the show there. The cardio machines at the gym on base all have little t.v.s with cable on them. I can do the elliptical forever when I’m watching something…but I digress.

So, I went and watched the show. I got there a few minutes early, so I actually started working out before the show and then continued on for the duration, totaling 75 minutes on the elliptical.
This is a big deal because there is a 30-minute limit on the cardio machines. I’ve never abused this rule, so I decided it would be okay just this one time.
I didn’t feel bad until this guy came up, looked around for an empty machine and then ended up standing behind me while I was still only at 38 minutes on the elliptical. There was 15 minutes left in the show…
I was determined to finish watching it while I worked out, but I’m telling you the guilt from using the machine over the 30-minute limit almost took over. I was inches/seconds away from explaining to the guy that I would give up the machine when the show was over, but my friend…Diane from Fit to the Finish was on it and I just HAD to see it all the way through to the end.
Don’t worry, I didn’t do that, even though he waited for 15 minutes and ended up on the machine next to me… (Yes, my husband is also relieved I didn’t embarrass myself.)
It was great to see the show and see Diane and Lori on there. Once again I felt that glimmer of hope grow a little brighter seeing all those people who had traveled their own weight loss journeys and came out successful. I am not finished yet!
And next time, I’ll try and switch to the treadmill during a commercial so I won’t have to feel so guilty for being selfish with an elliptical machine with cable t.v. ~ 😀
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Only 24 Hours

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding

Thankfully my stomach sickness seemed to be only a 24-hour thing because I was feeling much better by last night. I woke up feeling much more back to normal today. Whew!

Thank you for your kind words.
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So Sick

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Leah@MyNewEnding

Yesterday afternoon began the worst sickness I’ve felt in a long time. I threw up everything I’d eaten in the twelve hours previous and then proceeded to have it out both ends for the next six hours until there was absolutely nothing left. Sorry for the TMI… I was reminded that I HATE throwing up compared to any other sickness.

This has left me so weak that I’ve spent most of the day resting. There was definitely no exercise today, and very little eating also. My husband bought me Sprite and chicken noodle soup last night, so that and the crackers I already had at home have been my staples through the day.
Thankfully I have kept that little bit of food down today. I’m praying that I wake up tomorrow back to my normal self, because I just don’t have time to be sick. 🙂
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