Big Fat Zero

That's exactly how many pounds I've lost after working out 5-6 times a week for 5 weeks. In fact, when I stepped on the scale this morning I'd gained a pound.

20 pounds in 30 days? I'd settle for 2 pounds in 30 days. I did lose a pound and a half during week four, but then we made sugar cookies with the Nate cousins for Family Home Evening last week, so that was the end of that.

These girls have been my BFF's for the last five weeks:

I started exercising in November, but as is typical for me, I only lasted two weeks before I let sick kids and holiday plans and just plain laziness get in the way of my good intentions. I'd been struggling with what to do for exercise because the weather had turned cold and there's not exactly a Gold's Gym on every corner in a town of 500. Several people have treadmills and elliptical trainers that they use at home, and I was welcome to borrow them, but it just seemed too inconvenient to drag my kids to someone else's house and worry about Mack falling down the stairs or trying to climb on the equipment. And then there was the question of what to do when one of the kids was sick. So, after talking with my friend Julia, I decided to give exercise DVD's a try. I ordered Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and while I waited for it to arrive I checked out some DVD's from the library. I did cardio/toning and some Pilates.

When I started doing the workouts, my SIL Dianna, who spent a week in our tiny house last summer (without the wood stove taking up half the living room), asked, "Where in the world do you have room to exercise?" Here's a little visual:

(Photos courtesy of Amelia. I think I deleted 27 pictures of the wood stove after prying the camera from her hands.)

I was doing my workouts in the late morning and I found it to be frustrating because Mack was always climbing all over me and Amelia was whining for me to do something for her every 3 minutes.

So when I got the 30 Day Shred video and recommitted to exercising at the beginning of January, I started getting up around 6:15am and doing my workouts before waking Lily up for school. I have been quite surprised to find that I can actually wake up that early and that I like having the quiet time to myself. They say it takes 27 days to form a habit and I am now pretty well in the groove of getting up early and exercising.

It has been frustrating not to see a lot of results after working so hard. My arms aren't quite as flabby and my legs are getting toned, but I haven't really lost any fat. For the first two weeks I alternated between the 30 Day Shred and Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. I liked the yoga because it really helped my posture and balance, and it gave me a "lighter" day in between the harder workouts. The 30 Day Shred has 3 circuits of 3 min. strength-2 min. cardio- 1 min. abs for a 20 mintute workout with the warm-up. In the first two weeks I gained a couple pounds, presumably from building muscle mass, but it didn't seem like I was losing any fat. I thought maybe I wasn't working hard enough, so in the third week I just started doing the Shred video everyday and moved up to Level 2. After another week of that, I decided that there was too much toning and not enough cardio to accomplish my goal of losing fat. I might be strengthening my abs, but if you can't see it under all that chub, what's the point? I started doing the elliptical a couple days a week instead of the Shred, and that's when I lost that pound and a half.

Enter cookies. And Golden Graham s'mores. And sick kids so I couldn't go to Katie's house to use the elliptical. I just went back to doing the Shred everyday in week 5 (I am up to the Level 3 workout, though.) This morning as I was getting dressed to exercise and I discovered that I was up to 159 from my starting weight of 158, I was just so discouraged. I started the video, did the warm-up, then got down on my stomach to do supermans. I found myself hitting the pause button, sprawling out on the carpet and quitting.

I really don't want to diet. I mean I really, REALLY don't want to diet. I love food. And in the past I've always been able to eat whatever I want as long as I exercise. I'd rather exercise twice a day than have to cut back on the good stuff. But after doing these workouts for five weeks with little result in the way my clothes fit (other than my quads have beefed up so now my jeans are tight on my thighs), I'm gonna have to break down and modify my eating. My main problem is treats.

Have I mentioned that I love sugar cookies?

In fact, I've eaten two while typing this post. I have to get rid of the treats, y'know, so I can start dieting...

Please give me some ideas for healthy snacks and meals, preferably ones that everyone else can stand to eat also. 'Cuz if there's one thing I'm not doing, it's making two separate meals every night. Also, if you have any suggestions for a good cardio workout, please share.

Ok, I'm off to work it with Jillian and the girls while I wait for this to come in the mail.

And I will NOT eat a sugar cookie right after I'm done.