Weekly Weigh-in #34: One Up, One Down

Last week Mrs. and I canceled each other out on the scale, and this week we've done the same. Last time Susan gained and I lost. This week I gained and she lost. While both of us are taking it in stride, I must confess that getting below the 250s is starting to become a frustrating hurdle for me. Yes, we know healthy weight loss takes time, but I've been in the 250s for quite a while now.

Jay
Starting weight: 301 pounds
Current weight: 255.5 pounds
Pounds lost this week: (1) pounds
Total pounds lost: 45.5 pounds

Susan
Starting weight: 238 pounds
Current weight: 184.5 pounds
Pounds lost this week: 1.5 pounds
Total pounds lost: 53.5 pounds

As with our previous weigh-ins, Mrs. and I took time to review last week's habits and create a plan of attack for the coming week. Susan's plan to reduce her drinking clearly helped her this last week, but I obviously need some help stepping up with my exercise. Maybe one of the two personal trainers I contacted will bother to call or email me back. Beyond that, we're simply staying focused on our original goals and trying to eat right and exercise every day.

New Photo of Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit

One of our dear readers recently requested an updated photo of the two of us. We agreed that it was time, since our original profile photo doesn't exactly look like us anymore. (It was taken in December 2007, just before we launched into our fit lifestyle.)

So last night, before we went out on a rare date, we asked our nice babysitter to take a new photo of us. Here it is:


I think it's quite an improvement! Now we'll have both photos in our sidebar, so our visitors can see us in December 2007 and August 2008. In just eight months, we've come a long way toward our fit selves.

Update: The nice people at the Wine C.A.R.T. (where we did the wine tasting) sent us a photo they took of us that night. It's pretty good, too!

Mrs. Get Fit Wants to Be Mrs. Get Gorgeous

I am one of 20 finalists in a contest at SmartNow.com to win a professional makeover and trip to New York City! After losing 52 pounds (so far) this year, I feel like a makeover, new wardrobe and fun trip would be a pretty nice reward. (Mr. Get Fit would also benefit by getting to tag along, although no makeover for him.)

Can you help me win the contest? All you have to do is click the "Vote" button here.

Or if you want to see my cheesy entry (and everyone else's) first, go here.

You can vote as often as you want between now and Sept. 4. Extra karma points to you if you spread the word to your friends (and your blog readers, if you have a blog!)

In conclusion, vote early, vote often and vote for me! Thank you.

So Proud of My Fellow Losers

As anyone who's struggled with weight knows, it takes a lot of momentum and courage to tell the world you need to lose--and then actually start doing the work to lose it.

That's why I'm so proud of these fine ladies of the Nati for drawing their lines on the scale. Each woman has her own reasons for losing and her own goals to shoot for. Each plans to share the ups and downs of her weight-loss journey on the blog, which I will read faithfully! It's nice to know other bloggers in my town are working on their fitness, too.

Good luck to Julie, Amy, Shannan, Laura, Kate and Michelle. I can't wait to see how good you start feeling and looking as you shed pounds and gain muscle!

Weekly Weigh-in #33: Even Steven

Mr. and I canceled each other out on the scale this week. I gained a little, he lost a little. Neither of us was thrilled or devastated. More like ho-hum. Sure, we'd like to lose heaps of fat every week. But it doesn't work that way.

Jay
Starting weight: 301 pounds
Current weight: 254.5 pounds
Pounds lost this week: .5 pounds
Total pounds lost: 46.5 pounds

Susan
Starting weight: 238 pounds
Current weight: 186 pounds
Pounds lost this week: (.5) pounds
Total pounds lost: 52 pounds

As we usually do on weigh-in days, Mr. and I evaluated last week's habits and looked for trouble spots or ways to improve in the coming week. I'm laying off the sauce (I probably had 6-7 glasses of wine last week--there's my 1/2 pound!) and Jay says he will exercise more. Otherwise, we'll just keep sticking to the plan of eating to live and working on our fitness, day in and day out.

Just think, if we lose a combined total of 1.5 pounds or more this week, we'll hit the 100-pound loss mark! That's a pretty cool number to aim for.

Why I Like Clothes-Shopping Again

Today while our daughter was napping, I went out for a little "Mrs. time." I had a mani/pedi at the quickie mall place where all the workers speak in Vietnamese (kind of soothing, actually). Then I thought I'd cruise through Macy's, just to see if anything caught my eye.

Fat Mrs. wouldn't have done that. Too depressing. I'd have had to go directly to the plus-size section and pass by all the cute stuff in the regular-size areas. Then I'd try on a bunch of tent-y things that didn't look good on me, and in between outfits, see my fat body in the full-length fitting-room mirror. No thanks.

But for the first time in years, I felt confident enough to walk right up to Macy's Style & Co. section clearance racks and see what I might like. There was a lot to choose from! I eyeballed the sizes and thought, "Boy, those XLs look kinda big. Maybe I'll try L instead." Even the 16's, which I just recently started wearing, seemed too big. Even seeing my body in the mirror didn't depress me. Can't say I was thrilled with what I saw, but I could see a big improvement over previous shopping excursions. I ended up taking home a 14 skirt, a 14 dress (the one shown in the picture above), and two L shirts.

I couldn't help beaming as I purchased my new clothes. And not because of the deals (though they were terrific). I just wanted to tell everyone, "Hey! I can shop in regular sections of the department store now! I can almost qualify as not plus-sized anymore! Look how hot I am!"

OK, I didn't exactly do that. But I blabbed to the nice Macy's sales lady, who said she was proud of me and hoped to see me again soon. You will, lady! I like shopping again, and I'll need to do more as I drop a few more sizes in the months to come.

Are You SURE You Want to Eat That?

Here's a brief cautionary tale for you. Yesterday at the office, someone brought in leftover desserts from a photo shoot. One of them was a French silk pie. Ever tried one? Though I've eaten many a pie in my day, French silk was not one of them. Creamy dark chocolatey mousse on a pie crust, covered with whipped cream and chocolate shavings? Uh, yeah, I'll have to try that.

Having weighed in yesterday to victory (3.5 pounds lost), I guess I felt a little cocky. I can have a piece of pie. How bad can it be? I enjoyed every last creamy bite.

Then, I checked the label. Uh oh.

My one slice of French silk pie turned out to contain 610 calories and 42 grams of fat. That's right. 42 GRAMS. I'm pretty sure that's more than the piece of pie WEIGHED. No wonder it tasted so damn good.

Even though I exercised yesterday and did pretty well otherwise, I still was mad at myself for eating that pie. Not because I should never splurge or indulge--I am a believer in the occasional treat. But because I didn't know what I was getting into. If I had known about all those calories and fat (42 grams! I still can't get over it), I would have avoided that pie and stuck to my 150-calorie granola bar.

Lesson learned. Always get the facts first, and then ask yourself, "Will it be worth it?" before taking a bite.

Weekly Weigh-in #32: Losing and Staying Level

I'm extremely proud of Susan this week. She passed a major hurdle on the road to getting fit and has now lost more than 50 pounds! Mrs. has been working extra hard to pass the big five-O for several weeks now and she has surpassed that mark. I, on the other hand, remain stuck at the same weight from last week.

Jay
Starting weight: 301 pounds
Current weight: 255 pounds
Pounds lost this week: 0 pounds
Total pounds lost: 46 pounds

Susan
Starting weight: 238 pounds
Current weight: 185.5 pounds
Pounds lost this week: 3.5 pounds
Total pounds lost: 52.5 pounds

This week, I plan is to follow Susan's excellent example by returning to our Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit roots. I ramped up my workouts over the last week, but when we first started our healthy lifestyle, I did a much better job controlling my diet. Even if you work out for an hour every day you won't lose the pounds if you keep increasing the number of calories you eat.

Half-Assed Review and Giveaway

Even though I'm pretty into the whole fitness/weight loss thing, I don't read a lot of books on the subject. Sure, I like seeing the inspirational "before and after" photos and interviews in Shape magazine, and I do admit to watching The Biggest Loser on TV (even though it's totally unrealistic and an extreme model of weight loss--the changes in the people are just too amazing).

Between my extremely busy lifestyle (no time to read long-form stuff) and my lifelong exposure to way too many diet books and programs, I just don't read many books about people losing weight.

But when I heard about Jennette Fulda's blog and new book, Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir, I was intrigued enough to contact her and get a copy to review. I'm so glad I did.

After reading her blog Half of Me (start with her "best of" posts here), I had a feeling I would dig her book. First of all, she was successful. Ridiculously so. Jennette started out at 372 pounds and lost nearly 200 of them in a couple of years. That astounded me. Plus, she seemed to take a sensible approach to her weight loss--no fad diet or extreme measures, just good ol' nutrition and exercise. Her style was totally not smug or uber-chipper, just honest, self-deprecating, and real.

Appropriately, I started reading Half-Assed (a galley copy furnished and mailed by the author herself) on the treadmill. In fact, I read most of the book during my workouts at the Y or at home on the stationary bike. It's quite readable in small chunks like that. Each chapter is like an essay about a specific topic or period, like her fat childhood, her health crisis that eventually prompted her to get fit, and how her life (and outlook on the world) changed dramatically as she shed hundreds of pounds.

I related more to Jennette's weight loss experience than I did to her "before" life. We just came from different starting points. But I was still quite fascinated with her mentality back then and what life was like as a 372-lb person. Her extra weight held her back physically (not fitting into seats for a college class and having to drop it) and emotionally (often avoiding relationships and social interaction). She didn't regale with horrifying "fat girl" stories, just described some of the everyday cons to being morbidly obese.

The pros, I could relate to. There's really just one "pro" to being fat: eating whatever, whenever, and as much as you want. That's kind of what I did after our daughter was born, because I thought I had earned it. (Boy, did I earn it.) Here's how Jennette describes her previous eating patterns: "I ate like most people would dare to only if an asteroid were scheduled to demolish the planet tomorrow afternoon." She goes on to describe her daily indulgences. Mmmm, fatty food in abundance...

Once she went through a life-threatening health crisis, Jennette had her wakeup call and knew she absolutely needed to lose weight. Really. Seriously this time. And after thinking on it, doing some research, and making up her mind (which can take a while--Mr. and I took six months before fully committing to our Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit lifestyle), she dove into the world of shopping for veggies and putting in daily treadmill time.

I loved reading about her discovery of things like chopping up healthy ingredients to cook for dinner (something she hadn't really done before) and how it actually feels good to push your body to new limits of athletic performance. She describes the changes she made in the early days, then stepping up her game after months of weight loss, and eventually tackling half-marathons.

Throughout, she observes a new self emerging--one who goes out, tries new things, speaks up, and soaks up every ounce of life. It's not that she becomes a different person. More like her true inner self is able to fully manifest once she takes control of her own health and body.

If you can't tell, I totally loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who's ever struggled with weight. No matter where you are in your journey--still fat, getting fit, formerly fat, whatever--you will find hope, humor, insight, and joy in Half-Assed. Read it on the treadmill or sprawled out on the couch. Just read it.

Now, the Giveaway: Want to win your own copy signed by the author? I was lucky enough to meet Jennette at BlogHer, where I bought her book and had her sign it--for you, dear readers! Send us an email to actionjackson03@gmail.com with the subject line "Half-Assed Giveaway" before midnight on Aug. 16. We'll randomly select one winner next Sunday.

UPDATE: Jeannine of North Carolina won the signed copy of Half-Assed. Congrats, Jeannine! And to the other readers who entered (especially those who wrote such nice notes to us), thank you. Now go buy a copy. You're supporting an awesome blogger and writer.

Weekly Weigh-in #31: Wakeup Call at the Scale

I'm going to be brief: We gained. We know why--too many "comfort foods" (Goettafest? Sundae bar at Michelle's? PB&Js as snacks? They add up.) Sure, we still worked out--but not enough to burn those extra calories.

Jay
Starting weight: 301 pounds
Current weight: 255 pounds
Pounds lost this week: (1) pound
Total pounds lost: 46 pounds

Susan
Starting weight: 238 pounds
Current weight: 189 pounds
Pounds lost this week: (.5) pound
Total pounds lost: 49 pounds

This week, our plan is to return to our Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit roots. When we first started this lifestyle, we were extra careful about each bite we took and extra hard-core about each workout. And the pounds melted off. We've got to get back to that mentality to break out of this slump and start losing again.

Just Keep Going

One thing that sets apart the fit and the fat is tenacity.

When the going gets tough, the fat give up and let their old bad habits take over. (Which Mr. and I have done many times in the past.)

But the fit (or getting-fit) get going. They eat veggies and fruits at every meal, even though pizza and ice cream would be so much more comforting right now. They go to the gym and push through a workout, even though those endorphins might be no match for stress hormones (cortisol). They see numbers on the scale that they don't like, but maintain a positive attitude toward fitness anyway. It will happen eventually.

I'm writing this because Mr. and I both have had a fairly stressful week, and we both need to remain tenacious--especially now. Stressful times in our lives are when fit lifestyles are in the most jeopardy. For the most part, we've been Tenacious D. But it's not easy and we might be tempted to slack. This post is to remind ourselves (and you) to be persistent, don't give up, and live fit even when it's easier to be fat.

(Nonetheless, we are going to Goettafest today. But we'll just have a few tastes of our favorite Cincinnati-German treat. No pigging out.)