May 4, 2012

April Game On! Results

I may not have mentioned it, but my beautiful, awesome SIL organized another Game On!  competition for the month of April.  This time, we tried having teams of people.  With the team concept, you average the scores of each team member, which means that you can have a team of two competing against a team of three.  It meant more work for her because she had to compute the averages.  I was on her team, along with another lady, who persevered through a lot of family crises which would be encouraging me to reach for the big tub of ice cream.  Just for that, she is a winner in my book.  Of course, there are more important things that losing weight.  Our team came in second, but we all lost weight, which makes the loss "hurt so good."  I am down 15 pounds overall.

This month was a little tougher.  All the foods that were so new last month were getting old this month.  I had to tell myself what I tell my kids when they get tired of something:  "If you were living in Africa, your meal would most likely be the same thing."  I don't know if this is exactly true, though we did read a book about the Sudenese lost boys and how they were given the same thing from the U.N. on their last journey to Kenya, but even after having the same thing, whenever they wanted to grumble, they remembered when they had to go hungry and became thankful for the "same old thing."

My body is now getting used to 20 minutes of exercise six days a week and seemed to be unimpressed with my efforts.  So I am trying to work out a little longer and go for a run/walk for at least 30 minutes one day a week.  I am now running for two minutes and walk for one.  I progressed in the Hi-intensity workout, too.  I was able to do 4 reps of 30 jumping jacks, 30 lunges, 12 army-style push-ups and 25 crunches without stopping.  On one of the last day of exercising for the game, I was able to  touch my nose to my knees during my yoga sequence.  I never thought I would be able to do it.  However, I also think I pulled a stomach muscle doing it because I was sucking in my stomach with all my strength and when I went down into a plank pose, I felt a sharp pain in my lower stomach.  That ended my yoga session (I refuse to call it a practice) within minutes of starting it.  I also know why they call it a "core muscle group" as walking and standing and getting up out of bed were a little more uncomfortable for a few days.

In terms of clothes, I don't have too many things hanging off of me, but they are getting loose when I put them on, fresh out of the laundry.  Some people might wonder why they aren't loose, but I have to confess that the clothes were getting quite tight before I began this, which was the primary impetus for joining the competition in the first place.  I was tired of always having to buy a size up because they felt a little loose and then, eventually, fitting into them, which led to them becoming tight.

The biggest victory is emotional.  I had been feeling vanquished by my stomach.  I had tried to eat less on my own, but only was able to focus for a few weeks at a time.  Then, my old habits would start luring me back and I would be worse off than before I started.  I also feel that sugar's power over me is less than it was.  Though I have had a couple of bad sugar days on my days off, they aren't as bad as my "regular" sugar days before this.  My emotional state, when PMS is not taking control of me, is much calmer in general and I am less flustered by the little things, probably because one of the requirements is sleep and my body is not stressed out by sugar.

The only negative I have about the game is the fact that they have you try and take on a new, good habit and lose an old, bad habit.  Isn't it enough that I am trying to change habits involving eating, exercise, sleep and water?

I will be visiting Minnesota, where my all my in-laws live this summer and hope to see all the ladies I competed with and against while I am there.

Praise be to God for giving me the strength to continue.

2 comments:

Adrienne said...

Oh my goodness hooray good job! I'm so proud of you!

Keep up the GREAT work and if you need encouragement, feel free to call out to me and I'll tell you to pick up that dang carrot stick!

tandemingtroll said...

Thank you, Adrienne! Much blessings!