Sometimes you have to Encourage Yourself

Summer of 1997
Believe it's my largest size
other than pregnancies

A few years back I sang Donald Lawrence's "Encourage Yourself" at church.  I woke up this morning needing to do just that.  Before I left for the gym, I dug up an old photograph that reminded me of just how far I've come.  Yes that's me over there on the left.

You may wonder why I was discouraged in the first place, well I've hit a plateau,  remaining at the same weight for nearly four weeks.  With just four weeks left in the contest at the gym and feeling like the prize is slipping through my finger tips, I had to refocus my attention, look at the bigger picture, encourage myself.  All day I felt cravings attack from McD fish fillet to Chick-Fil-A Waffle Fries with Polynesian sauce.  I'm proud to say I made it through the day without sabotaging or derailing my progress.  No McD, no waffle fries and to my surprise at the end of the day my friend, Sharron, came by to surprise me with a treat, a Vegan Gluten free gourmet cupcake.  The thought that she while enjoying a full of sugar and flavor gourmet cupcake herself, thought of me was the icing on the cake or cupcake in this case.  I felt loved and encouraged and knew my struggle today wasn't in vain.  I enjoyed 1/4 of it and shared the rest with my kids.

Vegan Cupcake
From Red Velvet Cupcakery

Fighting to the finish,

Lynnell

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." - Amelia Earhart.

"Our deepest wishes are whispers of our authentic selves. We must learn to respect them. We must learn to listen". - Sarah Ban Breathnach.

"I will decide if I will each Chicken again when I'm wearing a Bikini"

How does it feel...To host Thanksgiving Dinner with all the Traditional trimmings and not to eat any of it?  To carve the Turkey and not even taste a piece?  To see relatives need to unbutton their pants after enjoying their second plates as they head to the desert table?  To cut cake, slice pies and provide cups for ice cream? To stick with my eating habits and not compromise my resolve during Thanksgiving?

Black Bean Spaghetti with Peppers &
Mixed Greens with Onions

Well honestly I felt like a proud hostess, having satisfied guest enjoying the comforts of my home and not feeling any pressure to break my health regimen.  I made my Vegan dishes and had enough to share, which created more laughter than hunger pangs and that's okay.  It was a very gratifying Thanksgiving, from the morning beginning at the gym doing Turkey Burn Boot Camp and ad hoc Zumba class to the Pot Luck Thanksgiving Feast and finally the easy "take all this food with you" clean up afterwards.  I'm Thankful for many things and yesterday I proudly made it through the day.  When I left the gym that morning, a trainer, Keith, said to me, "Don't undo all the work you just did." I responded, "I won't, you know what I'm trying to do." (referring to my quest for a repeat title)

This morning I returned to the gym to find I was one of four regulars for the 6am Cardio Karate class taught by Keith. At the end of the workout, I proudly shared my picture of my Thanksgiving Plate and told them that my family often ask if I'm going to stay Vegan and I respond I'm not sure but tell them, "I will decide if I will each Chicken again when I'm wearing a Bikini."  See I am doing what is working for me right now and I don't recommend anybody do what I'm doing, I recommend they find and do what works for them.  I could never do meal replacement shakes successfully but others have and been very successful taking it off and keeping it off. I'm on a mission to get to that same success story but I know I have to eat food to stick with something, so I've changed what I allow myself to eat only to realize there are a lot of things I enjoy.  Yes I still miss Bacon, but I don't miss the effects it has on my body when I would over eat it.  I rather live without it and just have the memory of it right now, that is what is working for me.  I told my Aunt yesterday that at work Tuesday for lunch, Chick-Fil-A platters were ordered for everyone to enjoy and it was much easier to say I eat Vegan than to struggle over the "one nugget won't hurt conversation" between my brain and stomach if I was still eating meat.

My goal is overall health benefits inside and out (wearing a Bikini to show them off of course, just kidding...maybe, lol)!  Whether I do Clean Eating, Raw Foods or add lean meats or fish back into my eating habits is yet to be determined.  Just know I'm determined to get it done this time.  Lose it and keep it off!

Can someone pass me a fork because I'm eating just not the same things I used to,

-Lynnell

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When we complain, we remain. When we whine, we stay behind. When we praise, we raise." - Jim Baker

30 Days To Go...Second Time Around

No this isn't a Countdown to Christmas, though Thanksgiving and Black Friday are just days away. I'm at it again, going for a repeat title having entered the next 2-Month Challenge at Waldorf Fitness.  The weigh in date is December 20th, just a month away from today.  So where am I in the pack, I have no idea.  All I know is my health issue at the end of the last contest hindered me from starting this one with everyone else.  So I'm basically starting this one behind the pack but hoping to make up some ground with increased intensity in the gym.  My goal for this contest is to be under 200 pounds on all scales including the one in my bathroom, the one at the gym, the one in the doctors office, the one in your bathroom, lol.  Simply put, no matter what time of day I step on any scale shoes on or not the number begins with a "1".  Let's do this, time to get the weight off one last and final time and keep it off.

I was recently asked by a friend who was congratulating me on my weight loss, "Any words of wisdom of how to find my will power? What was the "it" moment for you?"  I answered with,

"I finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired. Stress was always my food trigger, well stress seems to have made me a constant target so I finally decided I was sick and tired and that of all the things going on around me, I was going to control what I can control.  One thing for sure, I can control what I eat! So I started with that and then in August joined the gym to tone what I had lost and well, here I am still battling.  Being in the contest at the gym was a great motivating factor for me.  I've always wanted to be the person in the before and after pictures.  Stress hasn't lessened but I still control what I eat.  Hope that helps. BTW all my family and anyone I tell what I'm doing say I have great will power."

Have a great Thanksgiving!  This is Lynnell and I'm headed under 200lbs. before 2013 then on to the next benchmark on the path to Forty-Fine with a Deadline of September 19, 2013, my 45th birthday! Who's planning to party with me?

Thanks for reading my words, they are more than just a string of letters on a page, they come from the heart and I'm glad to share the authentic me on this journey.

30 days left and the second time around is harder but the victory will be sweeter.  See you at the finish line, whether it's to accept the prize or congratulate the winner.

It's not over until the fat lady is no more, she's just a lady,

Lynnell

"Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable." -Wendy Wasserstein

"Motivation will almost always beat mere talent." -Norman R. Augustine

Breathe!

When you make a public declaration that you will do something, it's both a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because all your supporters show you love and give you encouragement.  A curse because for me, I will put more pressure on myself to succeed.

I have personal goals I've never shared publicly and some to no one at all.  I know you can keep a secret so I will share one with you. (Shhhh, between you and me of course)  I secretly want to audition for a stage play, get the part and have it make it to Broadway, then tell all my family and friends about it.  See by not letting the cat of the bag, so to speak, if I never accomplish that no one would ever know I didn't achieve it.

While on the other hand, now that I've made my Fitness goals public and continue to reveal them to more and more people, I'm reminding myself to breathe. Even when I started my blog in my very first post titled This is Lynnell, I didn't even identify that I was starting this blog with the purpose of journalling my Fitness goal.  My goal was simple, "In 2012 I would begin my journey to loose 100 pounds for the last time," which isn't stated in there anywhere.  It wasn't until almost ten months later that I openly talked about one of my fitness goals in the post title Let the Countdown Begin... which at the end I quoted myself writing:

"I have lost one pound 100 times, this time I will loose 100 pounds for the last time!" - Lynnell

In that post, I revealed my goal was to win the 2 month challenge at the gym. Now that I have accomplished that goal, I've shared my victory with a lot more people after I had accomplished it.  So now I'm in the front of the new goal, which is to win the next 2 month challenge at the gym.  Being able to show even more drastic results to bring home the title again is pressure enough.  Now I've told almost everyone I know from my current students, to several coworkers and numerous friends.  You would think I'm trying to go viral, believe me I am not.  Making it to Broadway I'd be all for but going viral with my fitness goal, I'm not interested.  I'm putting enough pressure on myself as it is.  I'm thankful for the encouragement, it cancels out the pressure.  

Taking deep breaths and moving forward,

Lynnell

"Breath. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one  you know you have for sure." - Oprah Winfrey

"Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements." - Napoleon Hill

Double Dose of Good News Today!

So I will report this good news in the order I received it.

First, in my last post I told the world about my little monsters.  Well today after my procedure my doctor said my anal fissure is no more, it has healed.  Take that you little monsters!

Second, (drum roll please) I WON!!! I won the 2 month challenge at Waldorf Fitness for my category.  My awesome trainer, CJ called me with a congratulations and I screamed.  Well I'm still in shock, but EXCITED!

Time to celebrate both by getting back in the gym next week.

I lost a total of 23 pounds and 12 inches.  Can you tell?

Won this challenge, now going for a second! Transformation in progress, do not disturb!

Lynnell

PS. Oh yeah, I won a year of membership and a month of training at the best gym in town Waldorf Fitness! That's just the icing on the cake though (the cake I don't eat anymore, L0L, because it's time to do it again!)

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

More Questions Than Answers

Well by now I thought I'd know the results of the contest at the gym, turns out I need to wait a bit longer for the trainers to meet and vote.  I weighed in on October 31 and though I'm anxious to find out how it turned out, I actually am facing other questions:

• When will I be able to return to the gym? Or even a normal routine pain free?
• How will I make it through my first day back to work tomorrow when I've yet to have a pain free day?
• How will the procedure go on Tuesday?  Will I get answers about what's next or more questions?
• How long will I take to heal if the doctor recommends I wait to see if I will heal on my own?
• How long will it take to heal if the doctor recommends surgery?
• How do I prevent this from happening again?
• Did I drink enough water today? Did I eat the right things today to make tomorrow easier?

The list continues believe me.  Now you may be confused by the questions because I've not stated what has kept me in and out of doctor's offices and trying different medicines to alleviate the pain the last TWO weeks.  It's not a mystery or a secret, you could say I have a pain in the ass and no that's not a joke though believe me I wish it was.  I have an anal fissure which is the medical term for it but in Lynnell terms I feel like I have little monsters that wake up every morning and stab me in my booty's exit hole.  I'll let you google anal fissure should you require more information than I'm willing to give attention to it in this post, but don't be surprised if you see a picture of me wincing in pain at the top of the search, L0L.  (Don't worry the little monsters will get me for making that funny later.)  Though I have questions, I know the answers will be revealed in time and as they become apparent to me, you'll know not because I will blog about those little monsters, but I will be blogging about my moving and grooving and loving my CJ workouts, my routine scale checks and my getting it in because believe it or not, I joined the next challenge already!  Yes through Thanksgiving November and Christmas December, I'm NOT playing, I'm going into 2013 under 200 pounds, didn't you know? I'm close, time to get over that hurdle and onto goal weight.

Waving my white flag hoping the little monsters see it this time,

Lynnell

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship" - Louisa May Alcott

"Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live" - Jim Rohn