I finally had to do it

[rhapsody]

Well, hubby surprised me yesterday and told me we have an appt on Monday with a nutritionist/personal trainer type of person. He works out of a Dr's office so we'll be going there. He interviews you, finds out what your goals are and designs a diet and exercise regimen to meet those goals. He works with people just trying to lose weight and get in better shape, but he also works with triathletes.

I had thought about joining Weight Watchers but may just give this guy a try first.

[kerryc]

Oh Rhapsody that's GREAT news! I've been down the Weight Watchers road with my mom and it didn't work for us.

I simply could not have made a better choice in my personal trainer. I've watched the guy personal trainers with their lady clients. They are good I guess, but Jasmine is super exuberant and on the floor with me to demonstrate was well root for me to push past the "tingles." She seems to be one of those personalities who is always happy.

I've gone to the gym a few times in a bit grumpy mood and come out feeling GREAT. Also for me, I have a personality that is quick to agree with myself to get out of walking or gym work UNLESS I have someone to be accountable to. My walking buddies helped me so much in that aspect. We even stated many times in the beginning how grateful we were to be accountable to each other because that was a day it was a struggle to GET to the mall/park to go walk on time. BUT afterward we always told each other how much better we felt and the struggle was so worth it!


My dance instructor dropped my Wed lesson so I replaced it with a 4th day of gym work. I've gotten stronger (I don't feel the need to s l e e p (so much) after a workout. I'm going to TRY and layer Saturday with a morning workout and an early afternoon dance class. We have bummped my dance classed up to 90 mins. so will see where that goes for now.

I'm on the clock so to say. I've GOT to get a better looking body and lose as much of these hips as possible by mid April. That is when I'm having my new Latin dress made and I WANT to look good in it! This gives me a month to stone this dress. I have a new teal smooth gown (in the raw) that is just waiting for me to sew a massive lace feather applique on. I started with a black one, but found the same thing in gold. It's a royal pain in the butt. I have to pin the thing on the dress when the dress is ON me. Remember the dress top is spandex. Next is to deal with the puckering and glue what I can down, THEN hand stitch what I can down, THEN start glueing the stones on. My dance comp is in Austin the first weekend of June.

[kerryc]

January 25 was my weight and measurement day.

I've lost 10 lbs and 10 inches. It's not a big wow, but it was hard earned! I started AT Thanksgiving then went through a BIG birthday bash, Christmas parties, Christmas and New Years.

I'm feeling better and amazed at how much power I've gained in my dancing. I still have a long way to go, BUT... this is the FIRST 10 lbs chipped off the bock!

I'm starting working out 4 times a week now. Ms. Jasmine had an opening and David dropped one of my dance lesson nights. Silly man thinks he can just pick it back up some time down the road. Told him NOPE Jasmine snapped it up.

As time gets closer to the first week of June I may have to change my tune and look to getting my lazy butt out of bed EARLY to work out so I can have the evening to do a 3rd dance lesson. I am going to really look forward to this dance comp in Austin.

[MJ]

Wow, you seem to have so much energy. I just started losing again 2 weeks ago, 3 nieces, myself and 1 other lady started a group to encourage each other. One of my feet has been bothering me for about 6-7 months so I haven't walked other than being on my feet at work all day on a concrete floor, which is probably part of the problem.

I have started walking with the dogs a couple times and walked on the treadmill tonight. I'm hoping that as I get weight off the foot will get better too.

Good luck with your dancing.

[rhapsody]

Well, tomorrow is the first weigh-in and measurement since I started the program fully last week. Well, the food part anyway! Still working on the exercise part! I'm going to guess that I'd have seen more progress had I followed that portion, too!

[rhapsody]

Well, I was disappointed when I got there to my appt because when I stepped on the scale my weight hadn't changed. When I got in to see JT he reassured me that he wasn't surprised and told me we'd probably see a difference in the measurements . . . and we did! I lost 9 inches in ONE WEEK! Woooo-hoooooo!

[kerryc]

Rhapsody HANG IN THERE!!! This is JUST your body fighting back/not believing this is a real change. The scale didn't move for me for the LONGEST time! BUT I did see inches coming off. As long as you are reducing in inches you are on the right road. Keep after it the lbs WILL start to come off!!!

Jasmine sent me my photos side by side 3 of them. You CAN see the belly and legs getting smaller. Photo #3 you can see abs making their appearance.

Of corse on photo #3 I'm making a terrable face. It was COLD in that room, I had just finished my workout and she had me lift my shirt.

[rhapsody]

Today was my next weigh-in and measure. I'm down another 5.9 inches AND I've lost 3 pounds!

[kerryc]

Oh Rhapsody almost 6" off and 3 lbs down!!! FANTASTIC!!!!! Inches over weight girl!

My weigh in day is this coming Saturday.


Jasmine worked me hard and I gave 100% this last Saturday. There wasn't anything much left in the tank for David and working Latin & Rhythm 3 hrs later. It was all I could do get through 1 hr. He TRIED to run dance heats and by the time he got to Mambo I gave him a look like YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!?!?! I just could not hold it in. My other heats were pretty sloppy as well, but Mambo just fell apart.

I had warned him that some Saturdays might be difficult for me. AND this one sure was!!

Mom came over Sunday for a short bit. My tush has been soooo sore. Being the wise craking kid I still am, I asked her if she wanted to kiss it and make it feel better. LOL she passed on that, but did give me a hug. My calves have been jummping since Saturday night. I've been eating bananas until I think I'm going to turn into one. Satuday night I did hit and Epsom Salt tub.

[Marci]

Congrats, you guys are doing great!!! And heck yeah, inches over weight anyday. Maybe some magnesium would help the calves Kerry?

[rhapsody]

Had another weigh-in and measure yesterday. I'm down another 3 lbs and 6.8 inches! Since we started a month ago, that puts me down 7 lbs and just under 22 inches lost.

[Marci]

Wow 22 inches. How do you Measure that?

[kerryc]

Hi all sorry I've been MIA - Life has been a bit of a roller coster here! Plumbing problems has a sewer smell in the master bedroom. It was so bad I has to move to a guest bedroom. Had a smoke test done and no in the master bedroom. HOWEVER the bathroom on the Southside of the house had BIG problem! The flange that the toilet bolts down to was broken AND the piple has moved a bit. It took them for ever to jackhammer my tile floor through the foundation that is 10" thick. Yep, I told the plumber my grandfather had the foundation dbl poured. The contractor wrote him a letter stating it would take an act of GOD for the foundation to move. (somthing one might consider if having a house built in Texas with our shifting foundations.)

I was NOT going to re-tile the floors in the back of the house (hallway, bathroom, utility room & kitchen) just yet. So much for MY plans!

Mom has been having a really BAD time and I'm REALLY worried about her. She developed a Bakers Cyst on the back of her knee. It is QUITE painful. Dr. wanted to do a knee replacement. What would you expect when you visit a knee surgeon? He apparely is also quite cortisone happy and hit her with too high a dose. The next day her rosacia turned red/pruple on her face and made her quite sick. Rosacia can make you sick on a good day. Now she's alternating from being starving, eats a bit and 3 mins later is nasuiated. She's freezing to death dressed in layers and heavy blankets with some sweating. She has been losing 4 lbs every 5 days - while eating. Cortisone can stay in your body for 6 months! There's not anything they can do for this bad reaction she is having. She is hoping this will pass quick enough so she can seek out a cold Laser treatment they are doing in Fort Worth Texas on Bakers cysts with great results.

My plans for doing the Austin Ballroom Dance comp fell through for the end of May. My instructor has FINALLY been approved by the insurance company to get his hip replacement. While I'm dissapointed that I will not compete again this year, I am glad for him to get fixed and be out of pain. So I'm making this a year of changes. My body is changing and so is my dancing - both for the better. We will dance the Angels of Dance bennifit for the Susan G Komen foundation for breast cancer research October 25. We decided to go with Tango this year since I'm strong enough now with all my gym work. We are dancing to The Masochistic Tango by Tom Lyhere. It's really funny and tells a story. One friend is going to fix a red LED in a fake cigeret & holder for me. I'm checking with my local horse friends to see if they have a riding crop with a leather popper on the end. If not then I'll have to go over to Dover's and get one, then return it a few days later. As for my dress..... it has to be appropriate since this IS a family show! I found 2 dresses on line that I like the parts to. I've printed the pics and will have the skirt of 1 dress and the top line of another dress combined. Need to keep an eye out over at the Golden D'or for black leather looking spandex. It might be really cool if I could find grey snake skin spandex!

Oh and as for me..... I had a little bit of a set back weight wise, but I'm back on track and losing inches and lbs again. Through all of this I'm still hitting the gym 4x a week.

[kerryc]

I had to run up to the store last night before to got too late/dark. I grabbed a pr of jeans and nearly panicked when they were a bit tight in the waist. I had grabbed my next size down jeans! I can remeber when my legs were sausages in these and I could close the waist to get them buttoned.

[kerryc]

I'm dancing in a fundraiser Saturday so I took the crystal crusted bra to my smooth gown in to the tailor yesterday to have the straps shorten. NYE they kept sliding down. Diana told me to try it on, ding dong me was sort of thinking she would just take my word and shorten it from the area of the stones I already picked off it, from NYE where I tried a temp fix. Geeze, you should have seen how many more stones she had to pick off from each strap to shorten it even MORE!

I was talking about this yesterday at practice and someone asked if I had tried my Latin costume on too? -blank look- No....
I had to go back to the tailor this morning with the Latin costume to have that taken in as well so I could have more body shape in it.

I'm still in a mind set that my body is NOT changing.