Skinny Emmie Weight Loss Blog » Moves

Recap: My first 5K

Skinny Emmie — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:30:12 +0000

Yesterday, I finished my first 5K. Woot! I didn’t finish it alone, either. I had a wonderfully supportive group of friends who were there to push me, and who finished with me. I was really overwhelmed with emotion yesterday (and still am today, but have turned the waterworks off), and made a video to thank them all: Anne (with James and Eliot in tow), Heidi, Kristi, Kelly Anne, Elizabeth, Noel, Amber and Trainer Rob. I don’t care that I’m crying like a baby in that video. How can one adequately express gratitude to a group of people who helped push you to a major goal? There are no words.

On my way to pick up Kelly Anne and Elizabeth, it was storming. I was concerned it wouldn’t let up and the race would be cancelled, but thankfully by the time we reached the race destination, the rain had stopped. I met up with my new friends as we got our race numbers on and t-shirts picked up.

Heidi, Me and Kristi

Me and Noel

Shay from The Biggest Loser Season 8, and a major inspiration of mine, was doing meet-and-greets at the Subway tent. Each of us took pictures with her and she was gracious and sweet. I shared a little about me starting at 455 pounds and losing 64 so far, etc. I asked her questions about doing it at home vs. on The Biggest Loser and she said that she has more appreciation for those who do it at home, because they’re not in a sheltered environment. You have real life issues you have to figure out and cope with, instead of being in seclusion focusing ONLY on your weight.

Shay and Me, pre-race

There were brief welcomes and speeches by Shay and others, however we were too far away from the stage to hear it. Soon enough, the gun sounded and we were off! Trainer Rob was hellbent on me doing the race as a high intensity day. I had a goal in my head of finishing under 1 hour, however honestly, I just wanted to finish! We did a 5 minute warm up, then went into high intensity intervals. 1 minute power walk or jog, then 1 minute walk, 1 minute jog, 1 minute walk, 1 minute jog, 5 minutes walk. So, each set is 10 minutes: 3 minutes high, 2 minutes walk in-between, then 5 minutes recovery. I am NOT a runner, and haven’t really done any workouts outside, so the heat and humidity was a lot to take in. I was on the verge of tears at some points when Rob would tell me to jog or power walk. Sometimes I didn’t do it. He kept pushing me to do it. My friends were pushing me. I honestly feel I did the absolute best I could.

The course was BEAUTIFUL. Trees, flowing streams, bridges, corn fields. It really was spectacular.

Around mile 2, we saw Shay with her group of Subway participants up ahead. She was like “You can do it! Come on!” Trainer Rob asked her some questions, and they chatted about crossfit and other ways of training, etc.

After seeing the time clock at mile 2, Trainer Rob knew I could finish in under an hour, so that was a good feeling/motivation in my head, despite that my body was just feeling slow and gross. My pants were falling down when I would jog, and my shirt was too short, and the camisole I wore underneath it was straight polyester and was sticking to me like crazy. Yuck.

When we had about 1/3 of a mile left, Shay came back to finish it with me! Talk about motivation.

Turns out she and I were sharing the same saggy pants story, so I’m glad I wasn’t alone! Somehow, Noel recorded some of our conversation while she was walking backwards. I’ll throw it in at the end of this post.

We rounded a corner and could see the finish line ahead. It was about 1/10 of a mile. Trainer Rob was like “let’s jog it!” so Shay and I went jogging:

Post-Race

I was so happy I wanted to cry. Shay said “hey- go ahead if you want to! It’s weight loss!” But I didn’t. I was too tired! I thanked her again and she took a group photo with us.

Anne, Heidi, Kristi, Kelly Anne, Amber, Trainer Rob, Elizabeth, Me, Shay, Noel. Eliot and James in the stroller.

Some of us all went out to grab breakfast afterwards. It was a great way to cool off and socialize.

Edited to add: Per Noel’s Garmin our time was 58:27. The official race time from the results today was 59:20. It took us a little bit to get to the starting line after letting the runners get off first. I’m fine with either time though

When I got home, I saw this on Twitter:

She DID tell me so. And all of you guys told me so. And the wonderful friends who were with me told me so. And I’m SO.GLAD.

Not sure when the next race will be, but there WILL be one. Right now, I’m just going to be happy with this accomplishment and check it off on my 101 in 1001 list.

Here’s the advice Shay gave me, as well as a photo slideshow.

Mind versus Body

Skinny Emmie — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:40:21 +0000

This morning, Trainer Rob tried to kill me. He tried to make me cry.

Okay, so I’m being melodramatic. He wasn’t trying to kill me, or make me cry. But I felt like I was on the verge of both. He was pushing me. He sees that picture I posted yesterday every time I work out. He says things like “awesome recovery” and “great progress” with regards to my heart rate. Today, during our 5th session, he pushed me harder than ever, and I really, really had a hard time.

Was he being mean? No. Did I (temporarily) hate him? Yes.

You see, he would jack up the treadmill to some insane incline at some insane speed and I would have to keep up. My body, still hovering around 400 pounds, really doesn’t like this. My mind, knowing that I’m around 400 pounds, is scared shitless.

With the treadmill, you HAVE to keep up. You either keep up, jump off, or fall off. My body hasn’t ever been pushed like that before- even when I was thinner. Even though the sprints were only 1 minute each, my body and mind just weren’t in sync. My mind was SCREAMING for my body to stop, then Trainer Rob is telling me NOT to stop, that I can do it. There were a few times today when I gasped for air and said “please, no!” when he would up the speed or incline. I just KNEW I was going to fall off- my legs buckling under my weight and out of pure exhaustion, and my ass on the gym floor.

To add insult to injury (or non-injury, as it was), he had me get on the stair climber. WTF? The stair climber? My mind was terrified of getting on that thing. My body was tired from the treadmill. He put it on the slowest rate possible, and I got on. I hated it. Even at the slowest speed, my heart rate was in the upper end of my “medium” zone. Again, just like the treadmill, you HAVE to keep up on the stair climber. You either keep up or fall off. Again, my mind was so scared of falling off because a 400 pound person surely CAN’T do this. He sped the machine up for my minute sprint. I fought my mind the entire time. My mind was telling my body that I couldn’t do it. The fear was palpable. The fatigue in my legs was indescribable.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting back up every time we do.
-Confucius

I did it.

I did not fall off.

I did not die.

I did not cry.

When it was all said and done, the cramp in my side faded, and that puking feeling went away. I did it.

It’s been about 5 hours since that workout ended, and my body is already sore all over (we also did a couple of weight training circuits). My legs feel like jello. I’m waddling around like a penguin. But I feel great.

What is the lesson in this? Sometimes, our brains need an off switch. We build up these walls of “I can’ts” and “That will hurt” and “that’s impossible” and all of this nonsense for why we don’t do certain things. 400 pound people can’t jog sprints. 400 pound people can’t do stair climbs. 400 pound people can’t hold plank position. 400 pound people can’t be fit.

Today, my body (and Rob) proved me wrong. This 400 pound person CAN do all of those things, and CAN be fit. Instead of crying tears of utter fear and pain as I wanted to earlier, I now want to cry tears of joy that progress is being made. This is just the beginning.

____________________________

On another note, I went to the doctor yesterday for some follow up blood work. He tested my thyroid again, and ordered several other tests to check out hormones and insulin and such. Hoping the results will come back quickly, but it could be a couple of weeks before I find out anything. Doc thinks there might be something else that might be holding my body back from releasing the weight. We’re also still monitoring the pitting edema. I’ll keep you posted.

Happy 4th of July to my US readers. I’m off to a cookout with hubs and the in-laws.

Yep, I Really Am This Big

Skinny Emmie — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:42:36 +0000

My workout today:

I’m all about keeping it real these days. There are so many posts I can write about what I feel after watching this video. Will write them down for another day.

With regards to the post I reference towards the end of the video, that is coming up shortly (later tonight), so stay tuned.

No related posts.

Scale Boycott

Skinny Emmie — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:19:19 +0000

After yesterday’s disaster on the scale, I made up my mind to boycott it for a couple of weeks. Trainer Rob looked at my food journal and it seems to be in order. “Aunt Flo” isn’t in town, so it’s not that. When I got home from work, I noticed that my legs and feet were really swollen. I am retaining water like crazy. Especially in my legs. As the day goes on at work, it gets worse. Not even my 1 gallon of water per day helps.

This morning, I woke up and my water retention hadn’t been relieved. I got on the scale (I know, I know…) and I was up ANOTHER pound from yesterday, so 7 pounds from last week’s weigh in! CRAZY.

Instead of being super upset about it as I was yesterday (in tears, I hate to say…), I called the doctor. My doctor has seen me at my lowest weight (not-very-low-215) and at my highest weight of 455. He has been my doctor for years, and knows me very well. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to go see him.

I told him about my workouts, my food, water intake, etc. He took one look at my legs and feet and said “yep, you have pitting edema.”

My blood pressure was normal and I had no symptoms of anything else, and he frankly didn’t seem surprised at all at this swelling. He said that at my weight, it is really easy for the body to just want to hold onto the water, even when activity increases. He put me on a diuretic and a potassium pill and told me that in 5 days, it would help my body “regulate itself.” He drew blood for liver, kidneys, thyroid, etc, but I had that done a couple of years ago and he said he bets nothing has changed, and to keep on working out and doing what I’m doing.

Can you say RELIEF? For one, the edema isn’t pleasant. You get a permenant case of cankles. Legs are a little sore all the time. I am so glad he didn’t think it was a big deal either- just one of those things!

I appreciate all the encouragement you guys left for me in yesterday’s post. Very much appreciate it. I wanted to let you know that I am not going to be weighing in for the next 2 weeks. Next weigh in will be June 28.

So, in other news, today is the start of the Plus Size Bloggers Summer 15 challenge. Bad timing for me, but I’m going to do it anyway. Basically, the goal is to lose 15 pounds by September 7 (12 weeks). I am going to say my official starting weight is last weeks non-water-inflated 394, despite me having weighed in today at 401.

That’s all for now. Just got back from the gym.

How are you doing on your exercise and eating so far this week?

The Ugly Doubt Monster

Skinny Emmie — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:00:26 +0000

Today I had my second session with Trainer Rob. I’ve been whining all week that my workouts have been slow going. I think I can shut my mouth now.

Rob introduced me to a medium interval training day. Not super hard, but I have to *think* about how fast I can get my heart rate up, how fast I can get it back down, how long to stay at the proper level, etc. Unfortunately, I can’t get a reprive from the recumbent bike, but oh well.

Things got interesting when Rob showed me 2 of the weight training circuits I need to start adding in. This is when the doubt monster came to rear its ugly head. The words “I can’t” came tumbling out of my mouth. Those words are such nasty, nasty things.

Rob called me out on it. Every time. Whenever I said “I can’t,” I really could. Go figure. My mind was holding me back from what my body could do. Was it hard? HELL YES.

On my shit list today?

Step Ups
Stairs of any sort. Especially going up them 3 times in a row.
Knee-ins from push up position

By the end of the session, my puke meter was at a solid 8 out of 10, where 1 is no problemo and 10 is upchuck city. This week should be very interesting!

How do you cope when the doubt monster comes to play? How do you stop yourself from saying “I can’t?”

Do a 5K with Me?

Skinny Emmie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:20:16 +0000

I may not be pining to be on The Biggest Loser anymore, but that doesn’t make my girl crush on season 8′s Shay go away. Imagine my excitement when I saw she was going to be at the Bluegrass State Games here participating in the 5K. (Oh yeah, Jared the Subway guy will be there too.)

Wanted to see if any of my Lexington-area friends would want to walk it with me? Here’s details:

Saturday, July 17, 2010
RJ Corman Railroad Group
Walking Trail
101 R. J. Corman Dr, Nicholasville

This will be a 5K (3.1 mile) footrace. Walkers are welcome. Beginning at 8am, there will be a brief Opening Ceremony with special guest speakers, Jared Fogle and former Governor, Martha Layne Collins. The race will begin at 8:30 am.

Online registration deadline is July 14th. The registration fee is $15 in advance, $20 day of.

I tweeted Shay asking if I could have some of her time for a quick video hello. She tweeted me back. Not sure I’ll get to talk to her, but it’s a good reason as any to go for a walk. I would love to have a Skinny Emmie contingent represent!

If you can commit to this, please fill out this form below and I’ll add you to the list, and email further instructions. And if you want to run it, that’s great too! We’ll use the motto “run your own race” or something to that effect. Trainer Rob is going to do it with me, and maybe I can conjure up some t-shirts or something fun! Come on, you know you want to do it!

[contact-form]

Slow but Steady

Skinny Emmie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:23:57 +0000

Gym day #3 today. #4 for the week will be with Trainer Rob on Saturday morning.

I lucked out today and hopped on the treadmill right as Jeopardy was starting. And it was an episode that made me feel smart! So rare! That kept me entertained during my sloooow walk. Seriously slow.

Yes, that’s a 2.0 speed at 0 incline. If I went any faster, my heart rate got too high for the range I was supposed to be in today, so 2.0 it was.

I hopped on an elliptical after that, but again, still had the problem where I went too slow and it kept thinking I was pausing. I’ll keep trying ellipticals- there’s like 5 different types/brands in there. Was only on the elliptical a few minutes.

Hopped off the elliptical and headed to a recumbent bike to do the rest. I learned I don’t like the bike. My legs/feet get numb for some reason. It’s boring. Maybe it will grow on me. Hubs has a recumbent bike here at home, but I’ve never had the slightest urge to do it. Now I know why!

I know Trainer Rob knows best and that going this slooow is what my heart needs to start conditioning. I complain of boredom and of being slower than anyone else, but what I noticed today after I took my “sweaty after” picture…

… is that there IS a “sweaty after” picture! My face is somewhat the shade of a tomato, but not as crazy as after Zumba or something much higher intensity. I get a steady sweat when I go slooow for an hour. So while my mind thinks I’m going too sloooow, my body is actually responding to the stimulus just as expected. Eureka!

Tomorrow is Friday funday! Any weekend plans?

Let ME do ME!

Skinny Emmie — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:14:41 +0000

Seriously guys? The notes from my post last night still have me choked. And jazzed.

I was really tired today for some reason. No exercise yesterday, so planned on going to the gym today for sure. Was tempted to stay home and cuddle with my not-so-little-dog and go to sleep early. But then she started barking like a maniac at some squirrels outside and that was my cue to go.

I don’t know who tweeted this or originally said it, but the saying “You never regret going to the gym. You only regret NOT going” is soooo true. I had some anxiety issues related to the gym today. Not sure where they crept up from, but my mind was thinking:

- It’s a Tuesday during gym “rush hour!” OMG, it’s going to be crowded and people will look at me!

- What if I don’t have a clear little space to do my warmup? What if people look at me like I’m stupid and have to step over me to get to their equipment?

- What if the treadmill I like to use is taken and I have to go to one front and center?

- My legs are still sore, what if they cramp up and I fall over?

Yes, I know I’m nutso. These thoughts were completely my own made up stumbling blocks. Mental demons meant to psych me out of something I have enjoyed doing lately- going to work out. And of course as you know the story goes, I had none of these problems, whatsoever. The gym wasn’t nearly as crowded as I thought, I had plenty of space to warm up, the treadmill was available and my legs were less sore during my workout than before.

There were a couple of points though, while at the gym, that made me doubt myself:

The treadmill next to me had a really cute girl running fast on there. It was easy for her. And yet there I went, at 2.3 on a 1 incline, on my treadmill. That’s like Sunday-stroll pace. But that’s what it took for me to keep me in the proper heart rate range for today, so I did it. Halfway through my 40 minutes on it, the girl was still going strong. Some light bulb in my head went off. LET ME DO ME! This is MY workout, and whatever I need to do to finish it is MY prerogative. Forget the comparisons or jealousies I have in my head to this girl, or any of the other people in the gym going at full speed.

The second point of doubt came when I finished 40 minutes of walking and decided to do the elliptical the remaining 20 minutes. I knew I’d have to go slow. I got over my mental block on the treadmill, so that made no difference to me. I picked a machine and started. What I thought was hilarious was that at the pace I was trying to go, the elliptical kept telling me I was “Pausing” and would stop tracking my time. Like I had paused to take a drink of water or something! It was really annoying, but I just threw the towel over the display and finished my 20 minutes.

Ironically, while on the elliptical, on the cardio theater I watched a special on TLC about the worlds biggest Rice Krispie treat being made by some town. It has completely turned me off to the goodness that is a Rice Krispie treat, because that gigantic thing looked NAS-TAY!

via http://photos.toofab.com

The First Cut is the Deepest

Skinny Emmie — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:08:49 +0000

Ah, Sunday. A day of resting and relaxing.

Usually my Sunday’s consist of drinking a lot of coffee, reading a book, cleaning the house, doing laundry. I typically try to get up early(ish) on Sunday’s, but today was a completely different story. I feel like such a slacker! I slept in until 12:40! 12:40! For real? And then when I got up, my legs were screaming at me from yesterday’s session with Rob. I didn’t even do anything really strenuous! Goes to show how out of shape I am.

After eating some late lunch and hopping on the computer to shoot off a few outstanding emails (outstanding as in late, not great), I went to Lexington Athletic Club to do my workout. My legs were still screaming at me. I did my warm up and then set off to do my 60 minutes of cardio in my low range. This ended up being me on a treadmill going pretty slow (2.4 at a 2.5 incline), but I tried really hard not to feel self conscious next to the runners and crazies whose legs were churning on the elliptical. The first 15 minutes were boring, but then an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive came on one of the TVs in the cardio theater, so I was set. Even though I had planned on moving to a bike or elliptical at some point during my 60 minutes, the show sucked me in and before I knew it, it was time to go.

Now, a couple hours later, my legs are still burning! I feel like such a wimp. They are so tight- my hamstrings especially. I guess getting started is the hardest part.

How was your weekend? Do anything exciting?

Personal Training Begins!

Skinny Emmie — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:57:53 +0000

Check out my vlog recorded after I finished my first personal training session with Rob Silver of Heartfit Lexington. Today, we had to test to see how my heart responded when I pushed my body – very interesting!

Also, if you haven’t done so yet, check out this post (that I seriously almost deleted 3 times) that I put up last night. Hope you all are having a great weekend.

…Just Workin’ on My Fitness

Skinny Emmie — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:58:12 +0000

Now that you have Fergalicious in your head…

Say hello to Rob!

Lots of things to blog about today! First, I have to announce a new Get Emmie Skinny sponsor. I am so geeked about this, it’s not even funny. Let’s give a big interwebz clap for Rob Silver of Heartfit Lexington – my new personal trainer! *applause* He’s now listed on the Get Emmie Skinny Sponsor page, and you can read more about him there.

Rob is putting me through one of his 12 week training programs which are heart-rate based. This means that instead of me following a prescribed workout routine designed for “anyone,” my training will be based entirely on MY heart rate. I know my fitness level is pretty rock bottom right now, so with Rob focusing on helping me increase my fitness, I am actually more excited than if the primary goal was only to lose weight. I will be able to feel and physically see (via my heart rate monitor) how much I’m progressing. Talk about motivation! Our first session is Saturday morning. Again, I’m geeked.

As 5:30pm approached, I was dreading going to the gym tonight. I knew that I was going to start training with Rob Saturday, so why did I need to go now? Thankfully, some Twitter friends kicked me in the butt and said I should go. I am a sucker for peer pressure. I wriggled into my Aquatard (laugh at the name, if you must) and 10 minutes later (because that’s how long it takes me to get IN the damn thing) I was ready to go:

I can't believe I'm posting this.

Someone tweeted about a 0 to 1 mile swimming program, and I was curious. Similar to Couch-to-5K, it’s a swimming endurance program. I was skeptical that I could finish the routine set out for week 1, which was as follows:

4 X 100 meters, rest 12 breaths between 100s
4 x 50 meters, rest 8 breaths between 50s
4x 25 meters, rest 4 breaths between 25s
Total: 700 meters, or 0.43 of a mile

You know what? I did it!!! Did I take more than 12, 8 or 4 breaths between some of the sets? Heck yeah. Did I do about 100 meters of kickboarding only? Yep. But I did it. *happy dance* Know what else? I did an EXTRA 50 to cool down. So really, I did 0.466 of a mile! One of my 101 in 1001 days goals is to swim a 1/2 mile. It will be checked off my list before you know it!

When I was done, I had pruny fingers to show for it:

Someone said recently that you never regret going to the gym, you only regret NOT going. So. true.

And THEN, as I was driving home, I was surprised at a rainbow that looked like it was over my house. Great way to end the night! (Disclaimer: I am not always this damn happy-go-lucky. I’ll come back to earth sooner or later.)

Swimming for Weight Loss

Skinny Emmie — Sun, 30 May 2010 21:59:04 +0000

Check out what I did today! I actually went to the gym AGAIN. After yesterday, I thought I would be mega-sore and tired, but I felt pretty good. What is Memorial Day weekend without a pool, anyway?

I’m glad I got in the pool. I know there are others out there who go to the pool also for weight loss (like blogger friend Stephen), so let me know what you guys do in the pool.

Seriously, my body feels soooo tired. I had to run to the grocery store to pick up some stuff to make low-carb faux-tato salad for a cookout tomorrow and it took everything I had to not walk at the pace of a snail.

On my 101 in 1001 list, I have “Swim 1/2 a mile” and “Swim 1 mile.” I didn’t realize how close I came to 1/2 a mile today. Makes me feel like my goals are attainable.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

This thing called “the gym”

Skinny Emmie — Sun, 30 May 2010 01:43:34 +0000

So… with the Get Emmie Skinny program now underway, I will be doing some vlogging to record and track my weight loss and workout progress. I will continue blogging as usual, just now there will be more videos on the site to explain more about what kind of activities I’m doing, interviews with trainers or fitness professionals, etc.

This morning, I went to this place. It was this big, huge building. When I entered it, I had the odd sense of deja vu. Once inside, I asked the man at the counter what this place was… and he said it was a GYM.

Seriously- it’s been forever since I’ve worked out. Yet today, I took the first step to becoming a healthier Emmie.

Check it out:

To see what Zumba is, here’s a video from YouTube. Not the class I went to- just some random class, but the moves are the same:

Help Emmie Get Skinny!

Skinny Emmie — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:48:51 +0000

EDIT: PAGE FOR “GET EMMIE SKINNY” IS HERE- CHECK OUT VIDEO, AND SEND TO FRIENDS!

To get out of being bummed that The Biggest Loser didn’t pick me for season 10, I want to create my own Biggest Loser or Ruby-type environment. What does this mean? Well, I do pretty good on food. My good friend Lizzie is a caterer and she does a fantastic job of helping me break out of the rut with low-carb deliciousness. I also can do pretty well myself in making sure my food is on-pointe.

My big problem is exercise.

I’m very big. VERY big. Not as big as I used to be, but still, morbidly obese- very big!

I want to assemble a collection of methods, trainers, groups and/or gyms to help me discover exercise. Back in the day (when I was 18), I was an aerobics instructor. I taught kickboxing and step aerobics at fat camp. Yes, I was 220 pounds, but damn I was healthy. I could teach 3x a day, no problem. I want to get back to that shape. I NEED YOUR HELP.

There are SO MANY programs and activities I’d like to try in my quest to become fit. I need help busting these excuses:

Someone my size can’t do that
Oh my gosh the instructor/trainer will laugh their ass off at me
People are going to judge me
I’ll die if I try to do that

Even more so, I want to BUST these excuses for others out there. I want to show them that they can do it too. The whole “if I can do it, you can do it” adage would never ring so true.

I need people to help me make this happen. Gyms, trainers, fitness professionals, friends. I NEED YOU.

What I don’t have? Buckets-of-money to join all these places and to assemble a team. I can’t budget several hundred dollars a month on this project.

What I do have?

Lots of readers: I would blog about the business/trainer/gym/activity. I will link your site and your information in my blog posts. What I can’t do is lie. I retain full control over the content and reviews.
Twitter followers: Over 1500 of them that will see your posts and your name when I’m publishing the blog posts
A Flip Video camera: If you want, we can even videotape part of the session/activity and do a short interview. I will edit the video and post with the blog post. I will put it on YouTube to enhance your search engine results
PASSION. I have passion. I want this. I need this. This is YOUR opportunity to show the world your talents as a gym/trainer/instructor/fitness guru

I want a team. I want people who WANT to help others. I want people who will commit to helping me for more than one time. This is no “wham-bam-thank-you-mam” deal. I know that time=money, but please consider the value of the exposure over just cold, hard cash.

What else do I need? Fat Buddies! Ok, so you don’t have to be fat. You just have to want to help. How can you help?

Join the program and at least once weekly comment on what you did to improve your fitness, or link to a blog post explaining what you did
General encouragers- sometimes an “atta girl” goes a long way
Advocates- people to help me spread the word locally to get trainers/gyms/etc to want to help me

Things I’ve wanted to try:

Regular personal training sessions
Pilates
Pure Barre
Yoga
Spinning
Dancing
Different gyms
A boot camp
Boxing
Kettlebells
TRX training
Training like an athlete- sports endurance and such

I know I’m asking a lot. This could go over like a big thud. Who knows.

If you’re a fitness provider/company offering services in the Lexington, KY area who wants more info on this program, visit this page on my site and fill out the form. I will contact you to open up a conversation of what kind of arrangement we can make.

If you’re someone who is willing to cheer me on and be a “Fat Buddy” (or unfat buddy), PLEASE COMMENT below! I want to show fitness practitioners that we have an army of people who are cheering for this to work.

Muchas gracias- xoxo

Weigh in | 9.24.09

Skinny Emmie — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:26:48 +0000

Start Date: 5.28.09

Week 1: -8 pounds
Week 2: -2 pounds
Week 3: 0 (boo!)
Week 4: -5 pounds
Week 5: -1 pound
Week 6 : -5 pounds
Week 7: -1 pound
Week 8 (7/20 because I left for vacation): -2 pounds
Week 9 (7/30): 0 (nothing gained on vacation!)
Week 10: -3 pounds
Week 11: -2 pounds
Week 12: -3 pounds
Week 13: +1 pound
Week 14: -4 pounds
Week 15: 0 (to the tenth of a pound)
Week 16: -3 pounds
Week 17: -3 pounds

Total lost: 41! pounds

Can I get a “whoop! whoop!” for hitting 40 pounds? This means I’ve averaged 2.4 pounds per week since I started, which is more than I expected. It’s amazing that when you find out a program that works for you how easy it can be. It’s also amazing how even after recognizing accomplishment like this that it is so easy to get glum-in-an-instant. My clothes still aren’t fitting like I want them to, so it makes the number of the scale feel less significant. MUST STOP INSANITY. I’m happy for the 41 pounds, and will only think positive thoughts today.

Review: EA Sports Active

Skinny Emmie — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:22:28 +0000

I always liked the idea of using video games for exercise. Think of Dance Dance Revolution and Wii boxing (sorry, bowling doesn’t qualify as a workout on the Wii). I haven’t turned on the Wii though since buying the Wii Fit balance board the first day it came out, only to step on it for my weight and it told me to get off. Literally. The freakin’ board told me to step off. When I didn’t step off, the game turned itself off. SERIOUSLY. I was furious. Damn furious. But I didn’t return the stupid thing, thinking “one day, I’ll lose weight enough to be able to use this.”

STUPID EMMIE!

I should have returned the damn thing because marketing something as a fitness product that is going to make you feel worse about yourself when using it is a bad thing. Bad.

With this awful experience in my mind, I was very hesitant to purchase EA Sports Active, this game that incorporates a personal trainer and walks you through exercises. Or, you can customize your workout- all kind of stuff like tennis, boxing, running, inline skating, etc. It’s a serious program, unlike the wobbly Mii’s that are in the normal Wii Sports package.As you can see in the picture, it comes with a resistance band and a strap, which wraps around your thigh. I thought FOR SURE that the strap wouldn’t fit my thigh that is about as big as an elephant’s leg. I’d be mad all over again that a fitness program wasn’t designed for fat people.

Went to brother-in-law’s and saw his wife had it. What do you know, the leg strap fit (albeit barely). Hubs and I tried it together for 5 minutes and were pouring sweat. We went out and bought it that same night.

There is a 30 day challenge you can start off with, and that’s what I opted for. 20 minutes of various exercises using various parts of the body. DAYUM. Sweat. Everywhere. Can’t. Breathe.

I really enjoyed myself. There is such a variety of exercises using the leg strap (to record leg movements like lunges, running, etc) and the included resistance band (upright rows, curls, etc). It went by very quickly and I feel it was a good total body workout.

2 knocks though– You enter your weight when creating your profile (helps track calories and keep track of progress). The slider only goes up to 300 pounds. The game can also be frustrating, because if the wiimotes aren’t in the exact correct spot, it doesn’t think you’re doing the exercise properly, or it doesn’t register you doing it at all. Steep learning curve to figure out which way the wiimotes need to face to show you’re moved up or down. Maybe after several sessions this will get better. I hope so. It’s frustrating to listen to a virtual trainer fuss at you for not squatting low enough when your ass is literally just off the ground.

For these minor issues, I rate EA Sports Active a 4 out of 5.

Review: Yoga

Skinny Emmie — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:01:32 +0000

As I type, my fingers are literally sweating (and shaking, along with the rest of my body). Someone with my massive weight does not need to try yoga. Holy cow. Bob keeps telling me to breathe, but how can I breathe properly if I’m shaking and have sweat dripping into my eyes?

The Bob I reference is Bob Harper from The Biggest Loser. I did The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga today. The DVD contains a warmup and 3 levels of itnensity. You can program it to play whatever you want. Today I did the warmup and level 1. I think I’ll be stuck on level 1 for a looooong time!

That being said, I really liked it. Good ‘ol Bernie was there doing the beginner moves with me. I couldn’t do everything smoothly, but I tried my best and feel good that I took the leap. Here comes the old cliche: “If I can do it, you can do it.” Seriously. At this point, fat Emmie weighs more than I’m sure any reader out there (I’m not giving numbers right now, but if you want to start a dialogue with me I will share my personal story), and if I can do a modified plank without breaking something, anyone else can do it too. *Insert cheese factor here*