It’s All Going Away

Here we go again!

After hurting my Achilles Heel while training for my 5K last year, I’ve had a really hard time getting back on the bandwagon for permanent weight loss. Even worse, those wonderful eighteen pounds that came off in the three months of training for the 5K have also returned.

And then some. Yuck, huh?

I started back at the gym with some healthy goals in mind this past January. I did really well for several weeks and even lost a few pounds.

Then I got sick and spent a week in bed. And since then I’ve had the darndest time getting the motivation back to be really good and healthy-minded again. Easter candy has not helped in that regard. Neither has being on the road so much. Sometimes, it can be hard to find ways to work out and eat healthy.

I was grateful to be home Monday, so I headed to the gym for a wonderful workout. I spent forty-five minutes on the elliptical machine, which I love, and which is also low-impact and doesn’t hurt my apparently-permanently-damaged Achilles. It felt great! On my way out of the gym, I stopped to read their inspirational stories of members who have lost weight with the help of a trainer.

While I was reading, mostly not bothering a soul, a nice trainer named Lindsey came up to me. She was so friendly and not intimidating in the least. She asked if I wanted to do my free trainer session with her. I hesitated at first, and then I decided to do it. Why on earth should I be afraid of something that could help with my health improvement goals?!

So I met with her yesterday for a fifty-minute workout session. She spent some extra time with me in the beginning to get a feel for my goals and desires. She is so sweet and understanding. She played sports in high school in a small town, too. I feel like we have lots in common. Rather than feeling inadequate around her, she made me feel good for my goals and wanting to change! Lindsey is awesome! And she made me feel awesome!

We had a great workout. She taught me some neat exercises that I can also modify to do in the hotel room when I’m away from the gym. My legs and arms were certainly feeling the burn, and it was a great feeling. She was so uplifting and supportive. I really enjoyed working out with her.

So I bought a trainer package with her. Eek!

We are going to work together on my weight-loss goals these next several months. I just want to get me back and be healthy and happy and satisfied. I think that having a trainer throughout that process will only be a good thing. Nothing else has worked, so this has to be the trick. And I am tickled to get started.

She will be a motivator and someone to help me keep track of my progress. She will help me get through those plateaus and find new ways to keep the weight coming off. She will challenge me and push me harder than I think that I can do. She will help me develop the new me that I’ve been wanting for years.

No more excuses. No more regrets. Only doing something about it and loving the results!

It’s going to be great, and I’m so excited to start this new phase. I’m keeping track of my daily exercise and food using Lindsey’s recommended MyFitnessPal.com. Follow along, if you want! Even better, join and keep track with me! You are three-times more likely to succeed if you have friends helping you along the way. I have previously been using loseit.com to track my progress, but MyFitnessPal is a little more comprehensive in tracking exact workouts, like reps, weights, etc. It will make it really easy to see my improvement! I recommend either tracking tool, if you’re looking for a way to start being more healthy.

Once it comes back in stock, I am also going to get The Basis fitness tracker watch, which will also help my weight-loss goals. I hope this happens soon…I’ve had my eye on it since January!

In these next several months, whether I’m busy at work or have a few days home, I’m excited to see these weight-loss goals come true. It will solve so many aspects of my life that I’ve been wanting to change!

The journey has already started and is wonderful.

This is Going to be Good

Rather than making resolutions that I never keep and then feel badly about…I am making a goal this year.

My goal is to develop more self-mastery. In every venue of my life. I think that it will help me to be a better person.

What are your goals for this new year?

A Photogenic Addition

 

This past week, my penny-pinching of per diem money finally paid off when I was able to purchase the camera of my dreams. In a lucky turn, Best Buy honored their online price, and I saved an additional $100 when buying it in person at the store.

I really wanted this camera to document my family reunion in Sedona over the first weekend of August (where I presently am), so getting it in person was awesome. I am wondering if this camera will soon be gone from shelves since the release of the new T4i just last month. Ordering my beloved T2i online would have let the camera arrive too late for taking pictures at my family reunion. So I was thrilled when I got the last Canon T2i on the shelf.

In the short amount of time that I’ve had to play with it, I am absolutely blown away. I’ve watched a few tutorials online, which are way easier to use than a cumbersome instruction manual (though I’ve read it a few times, too). It has been nothing but a treat to play with the camera’s various settings to see what it can do. I had pretty high expectations, and so far they are being blown out of the water.

Though I still have about a month’s worth of posting from my old camera, you will soon notice a difference in the pictures on this here blog. I can’t wait to try it out for recipe posts, shots from the sky, and portraits of loved ones. And, since it was practically free with some extra per diem funds, buyers remorse is nonexistent!

I’m tickled! After drooling over this camera for years, it is finally in my hands. And, since it can also shoot HD video, it does anything and everything that I could possibly want in a piece of technology. I am one happy camper!

Something Delicious and Perhaps Unknown

It’s been a whirlwind of a year so far. A few weeks ago, I was asked by a friend at church to help make some cupcakes for a wedding. Since we weren’t 100% sure that I would be home from work during the event, which was on a Friday, we asked a third churchy friend to join in on the fun.

     

And that’s exactly what we had…fun.

So much fun, in fact, that we want to do it again. It helped that several people during the wedding asked for our contact information so they could hire us for their event. I honestly wasn’t expecting so much interest, though our cupcakes are pretty awesome.

 

Thus, we are starting a cupcake catering business.

In case you didn’t know this about me, I have wanted to start a baking company on the side for a very long time. We were even shopping for a mother-in-law suite that could be gutted for a commercial kitchen during our house hunt. After a few roadblocks, we decided to wait on pursuing my dream of having a part-time baking business.

Hubby calls it his “Retirement Plan.”

Not only did we have interest from others during our first gig this past Friday, but we have had several of them actually call for booking their wedding! In fact, we are making Lemon Squeeze Cupcakes and Key Lime Cupcakes this Saturday for another wedding…a gal we met at our first catering event last Friday evening.

To say I’m excited is just a little understatement. I can’t sleep at night because I am thinking of all the various aspects that can help this business be really wonderful.

   

The best thing? My partners have the same goals. Every time I’ve tried to make money from a hobby that I love, it has ruined the hobby for me. For example, I made jewelry in high school until it just wasn’t fun any more.

Though it was a concern that I would stop liking baking (snort), we all three decided that our main objective is to have fun. It will be an enjoyable creative outlet for each of us. If we happen to make a little spending money on the side, so be it.

I don’t think we will be sleeping in a bed full of Benjamin's or swimming in a pool of gold any time soon. But it will be really fun to see how this thing grows.

Since we already have several more bookings in the works, and each event will give us even more exposure, the whole process might be a little too much fun for the next several months!

 

We are creating a website right now. Hubby has helped with the financial side by creating a spreadsheet to track our expenses and income. And it gives us extra girl time in the kitchen! How fun! Our spouses have all been super supportive and are just as excited as us for this to get going.

Just yesterday, we created a Key Lime Cupcake for our upcoming wedding this Saturday. I then took it to our client’s house for a tasting. She liked them so much that she ordered more. I think we’re on the right track.

   

I just wanted to let you know how busy yet happy we’ve been lately. There have been changes in every avenue of my life in the past few months, and I am loving each and every single change.

And if you are in the Phoenix area and need some yummy cupcakes, I know just the right group of gals who can help you out!

A Turning Point

When I was in high school, I played three sports all year long. Small schools afford such luxuries, and I really loved being able to participate in all three instead of having to choose. The athletics year began in August with volleyball season, which was only a primer to get me in better shape for basketball (my favorite), which ran from November through March. Softball began immediately after and continued through May. With several team sports camps each summer at various colleges, even the summer didn't allow me to fall away too much from being fit and trim.

The summer after I graduated, I visited my sister in New York. We had a great week of traveling the east coast and seeing some incredible sites (I'm talking to you, Williamsburg!). However, I assumed that vacation meant eating dessert after every meal and finding treats at every stop. Since I was no longer working out as strenuously as the past four years, the weight just magically appeared for no reason. By the end of the summer, I had gained my Freshman Fifteen before beginning my classes that fall!

Over the next eleven years, weight was a constant battle for me. Since my preferred major food group is the sugar family, it was inevitable that pounds started to pile on. Most of the time, it was gradual enough that I wouldn't sense it until I found a scale and weighed it in. Then I would panic and try to get back to my better days through Tae-Bo, dieting, and any other drastic measures I could find. I also found that unhappiness in my life simply invited more weight to join in on the fun. I couldn't keep ahead of it, and I certainly couldn't get back to that high school weight (which I thought I was so fat at the time, mind you).

While living in North Dakota and attending flight school, I tried the latest fad of The Atkins Diet and had much success. I lost twenty pounds in about two months and looked amazing. Compliments abounded, and I was loving the results. However, I felt like crap. Atkins consists of a low-carb diet, and even fruit and vegetables are forbidden! What type of healthy diet won't allow fruits and veggies?! I was restricted to only proteins, like meat, cheese, and eggs. I still have a hard time scrambling eggs for breakfast! Though the weight came off quickly, my body felt awful. I was putting bad fuel in and feeling the affects. And, of course, after I stopped eating the Atkins lifestyle, the weight all came running back to me and then some.

I've gained an additional twenty pounds just since being married. It feels awful to admit that, though I'm sure it's been obvious to all. Despite trying to eat healthy and working out rigorously (in occasional spurts), nothing I've done has lost more than a few pounds over the past 2.5 years. It's to the point now where I am constantly thinking about my appearance...and not positive thinking, either. I'm miserable. I've lost so much confidence and have seen that trickle into every aspect of my life. Truth be told, it's taking over. It beats me down all day, every day, until I hardly recognize who I am any more. Physically, emotionally, and mentally...this monster has infiltrated every part of who I am.

So I've decided to change my life through healthy eating and consistent physical activity. And I've also decided to keep track of my progress here on Captain Micah. I do best at maintaining goals when more people are aware. I've been a little gun-shy about displaying it for the whole world to see because it felt like I would only let more people down when it didn't work. But you know what? I can't think like that! I've got to do something, and if it means letting more people in on my efforts to become healthy again, so be it!

I refuse to take drugs or supplements to help in this endeavor...I need to do it the right way by changing my lifestyle completely. It's called working out and eating properly. This doesn't mean I can never eat a brownie again. When I've tried that no-sugar approach on multiple occasions, it's only been marginally successful for a short time (losing two pounds in one month). What I need to do now is just make every decision better. And to be consistent. If I eat fewer calories in a day than I burn, the weight will subsequently go away. That's Micah Math at work, so you may want to check that! I've got some fun tools to get me through...a gym membership, an app on my iPod Touch that helps me track every calorie that I take in or burn off throughout the day, and a loving husband who wants nothing more than for me to be happy. Perhaps the most important tool up my sleeve is the burning desire to find me again. Seeing a picture on my Mom's blog of our trip to Utah last week had that killer impact on me...I couldn't believe that was me. Where is Captain Micah?!

This process may take longer than I would prefer, but I've taken an awful eleven years to get to this point. I, thus, have to understand that in three months I won't be fifty pounds lighter. But you know what? That is a goal that could happen in six to eight months! I'm not going to obsess with a number on the scale as much as I am going to measure it through self-esteem and how I feel about myself day in and day out.

I'm excited. I need this. I need to lose the weight and feel better about myself. I know obsessing about how I look, even if just in my head, has impacted everything I do for the past several years. I need to get healthy so I can focus on things that really matter, and be happy doing it. I'm tired of trying to fill my life with things that are supposed to make me happy. I've been treating my symptoms instead of simply killing the root of my problems! I am tickled to begin this journey and love that results are already taking place. I don't know what is different about this time, but it is. And it has to be! I can't live like this any more! I know what I need to do, and the excuses need to leave my life so that I can get to work and make it happen.

So to the side of this blog, I will "weigh in" each week. I will update the pounds of weight lost and maybe occasionally make a post or two about my feelings on progress.

If you want to join me, feel free. Rumor has it there is strength in numbers. I've only just begun and am already feeling better about myself. What a difference to actually DO something about it!

New Captain Micah, here I come!