Ok! It's stupid to be mad about this. I think Team Holkins needs to work with others to have these conference calls every night. We are going to continue to take Monday and Thursday, Stephanie and Gayle will do it on Wednesday nights. Does anyone want to do it another night? My conference number can be used any time as long as someone logs in. I will put a link to Stephanie and Gayle's page later tonight when I have time. Let us know if you would be willing to host another night. It would be great to have one available every night! 

ok...Last night was a bust! LOL! I know it was kind of a last minute deal but we will just keep trying every Monday & Thursday nights. I can't wait to share ideas with all of you!!

 

~~Wendy~~

OK everyone I SWEAR I had no idea what katie's video blog was about. She did express to me she was down about gaining some weight this week. I guess it is just a "kinship" we all have in the whole losing weight process. We who suffer from over weightness (I am making up words today) know how another feels like no one else can ever understand. That is why I don't take advice from people who have never been over weight...they just DON'T KNOW!! We may all come from different back grounds, ethnic groups and raised differently but we are the same when it comes to losing weight. Ya know what I mean? 

 

Love Katie!!!   

 

~~Wendy~~~ 

Hi everyone! I was reading some blog entries from others' pages and I just felt the pain of wanting to lose weight but hitting that plateau. Ladies (and gents), I know EXACTLY how you feel!! Don't give up hope! I remember when I first started people would ask me how much weight I had lost. It was early and I would tell people "only 30 lbs" or whatever it was at the time. People would look at me and say how wonderful it was but I didn't see or feel it. My goal seemed like it was SO far away and completely unattainable.

 

Yes, I have given up a lot of my favorite foods for the most part but IT IS WORTH IT! People ask me how I did it I just say diet, excercise, blood, sweat and tears. People thing I am kidding when I say "blood, sweat and tears" but I have encountered all of it....even the blood!   People who have never had a weight problem just don't understand what it is like and how hard it is. I hate the ole' thing where people say "just push away from the table". I want to tell those people to go take a hike!!! (Not in a nice way!)

 

I "allow" myself to have cheat days and I have pizza and junk but we just can't do it everyday. I even allow myself to skip works outs every once in a while but I have to learn to do that and be OK with it. I AM ADDICTED TO EXERCISE!!! My parents tell people that too but I HAVE to work out or go back to where I was. WE have to do this every day just to be normal. As Amy says "there is no finish line".

 

I say it all the time...If I can do this, so can you! We didn't gain the weight overnight and we won't lose iit overnight either. Don't give up! Email me if you feel like giving up. Look at my pictures if you need encouragement. I didn't do anything but work out and eat a balance diet and counted calories. Don't starve yourself to do this either. Been there done that and it doesnt work.

 

I love every one of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

~~Wendy~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, you all know I had a bad day as far as eating the cake, right? So I go home and look in the fridge and my hubby had bought a single slice of cake, some coconut bars and an entire pumpkin pie. Not to mention I had cake left over that I brought home to him AND we have a HUGE tub of frozen cookie dough in the freezer. UGH! Temptation is all over the place!!! I need to resist! I HAVE TO!

 

I am going to try a little trick I have used before and see if it works. What is that trick? Asparagus! It is a natural diuretic and will help to lose the water weight that you might get from eating unhealthy foods. It’s worth a shot. I will let you know if it worked next week.

 

Ok! Now I have been typing this out between calls at work and I get approached by one of my former supervisors about the company setting up a Wellness committee. She thought I would be ideal to be involved and give me a chance to promote my business. I had been feeling a little remorse over getting into my own business and wondering if I would be able to make it work and then this! I mean a new door has opened for me! God certainly answers prayers. Now….I just have to spend a little more time practicing what I preach.

 

~~Wendy~~

Ok, I had 2 pieces of cake during a company baby shower. WHY DID I DO THAT?! I mean I was just talking about our little challenge and I completely blew it! I guess dinner will be a salad and some meat of some sort and that will be it. UGH! I better go now so I can go beat myself up some more! 

 

~~Wendy~~

Well, I started a blog post the other day and hit "save as draft" but I don't know where to find it now. LOL!

 

I am sorry I have not posted in a while. I have been trying to get this coaching business going...how exciting!! Stressful but exciting! It's not like me to take a risk like this but what is life if you play it safe all the time, right?

I decided not to go to boot camp last night becuase Katie came over and we did 'Turbo Jam'. I got all of my videos from Million Dollar Body and we are going to do each and every one of them. I got about 24! LOL! Turbo Jam was pretty fun...my hubby even did it with us. He is SO NOT coordinated. (sorry honey, I lied I was watching.) LOL! I am going to go tomorrow night though. I think I am going to change to Thursday nights now unless Katie goes with me since Tuesdays are the only night she can go. I am so wound up after that I have a hard time sleeping and it takes me 2 days to recover from it. This way I will only be miserable for one day at work a week instead of 3.  LOL!! Amy and Marty just get me pumped up both physically and mentally. What positive influences they are!! I just love them!!

 

I hate to say this but I am glad they voted out the white time last night. Neill just didn't seem like he wanted to be there. The purple team needs to stay. I think they need more time with Bob and Jillian but who am I to say, right?!

 

Anyway, I guess I am going to for go the gym tonight since we are going to have 5-6 inches of snow today. It's supposed to start getting heavy by about 3PM today. I leave work at 4PM but there is no reason to be out on the roads if it's getting nasty. If I had a 4x4, it would be different. So....I think I am going to do 30 mins of cardio on my elliptical, some weights and if I am really feeling energetic, I will look at that beginner Turbo Jam video. Kate just rocks at that Turbo Jam stuff! She knows all the moves! Way to go girl!

 

Oh, as far as the challenge, I am doing pretty well. I made Katie and I homemade HEALTHY pizzas last night and we didnt have a salad. Probably should have but we didn't. For dessert I got out the 100 calorie 3 Musketeer bars. They are pretty good size for 100 calories so I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Gotta run for now as my lunch break is almost over. TTFN!!

 

~~Wendy~~

 

 

 

 

So, I am sitting at my desk today feeling extreme remorse for not going to the gym last night. GASP! Katie didn’t workout on a Thursday night. I am just tired. I am tired of being on this journey and tired of forever having to watch what goes in my mouth.

 

I know that sounds whiney; but I wonder…. Will I always consider myself a “fat chick”? Will I always have to watch EVERY thing I put into my body? When will I be able to just sit back and relax and have fun with my girls?

 

When we put on the pounds do we ever really think about the long process it takes to take them off? If we did I am pretty stinkin sure I would have said no to that extra piece of cake or helping of mashed potatoes. I have watched my team mate, Wendy; go through this process since Jan. 2006. She has taken this whole process in great strides. She hits a plateau and she doesn’t falter from her end goal. That amazes me. Where she draws it from some days I don’t know; but she is such an inspiration to me.

 

Though I am not in a plateau I feel drained physically and emotionally right now. Yeah, I can blame the whole single mom thing on it as an easy fix; but that is exactly what it is…easy. If I settle for easy then these past 8mos are for nothing. I need a renewed sense of motivation. Look back upon the goals I have and the dreams I have for my girls. Maybe I found that today.

 

I took Grace (my 7yo) to get her hair cut and lunch today. She chooses Little King (a sub shop) over McDonalds. Whether she was doing it for me or not it was a great feeling that she wanted to have a turkey sammy with her mom rather than a cheeseburger. Maybe, the lifestyle change is really doing what I hoped. Changing lives! It makes it worth is when your daughter says “I like this diet mommy” to which you tell her “It’s not a diet Grace. It is just plain ol’ living life how we should… vibrant and healthy”. In that moment I found my missing motivation.

 

I have 3 beautiful daughters that are being raised in a society that pays homage to emaciated models and the Super-sized industry. My motivation is to keep these girls from unhealthy body image by getting myself healthy again. How could they possibly learn if their mommy is on this points diet, or this veggie cleanse or that high protein diet?  A mommy never happy with who she is in her skin. NO! NOT ME anymore!!! My girls are going to have every opportunity to experience life to the best in a healthy and supportive way.

 

I could ramble away….but what is YOUR motivation today? I would love to know what drives you on your journey.

 

~Katie~

My girls on Halloween 2007 Grace, Hope and Michaela

I was sitting here at work thinking about this weight loss thing and looking at my old pictures. I was just remembering how when I would go to a buffet to eat I would get those judgmental looks from strangers. You know the ones that say “do you really think you need to eat all of that” or “I can’t believe she is going up AGAIN”. Do you know what I am talking about?

 

Although I make it a rule to avoid buffets, I still feel weird when I do go. I did notice that I don’t get stared at anymore. I just find myself looking around at other people and noticing that no one is looking! Then I find myself seeing others that are over weight like I was and feeling so sad for them. Not judgmental but just sad. I want to just go over and talk to them about what I went through but I would NEVER do that. I know there those out there that are perfectly content with the way they look. I envy those people so much! I just could never accept myself as a heavy person. Although, I was in denial about how big I actually was, I was aware that I was “a little” overweight and I had “some extra baggage”. LOL!

 

Anyway, those are my random thoughts for the day. I am really tired but I am still going to go to Boot Camp with Marty and Amy tonight. Some of the people from the Biggest Loser Club online are going to be there. I have really nagged at them to go so I do feel obligated. It’s probably a good thing that I did that so I don’t make up an excuse to NOT to go.

 

Well, gotta run for now. Will post more later as I have more “random” thoughts.  J

 

~~Wendy~~

Katie did such a good job telling her story I guess I better tell more about me.  J

 

I am 38 years old, married, no kids but we have a cat named Noah. I was one of those people that struggled with my weight my entire life. I have been heavy most of it. I lost weight in high school but it was not healthy. I just quit eating. I had lots of trouble with my stomach and the doctors could never figure out why. Back in those days they just didn’t know much about eating disorders but I definitely had one! I was down to about 135 lbs and had a 27” waist.

 

I did keep it off for a number of years but I think that was because I did a lot of partying. Drinking was about the most important to me at the time. I met my first husband and married him 10 months after we met. We liked to eat out all the time. I did cook but my ex just never liked to eat it. He preferred Taco Bell. I think I am a pretty good cook but I can’t make food that tastes as good as take out pizza or tacos.

 

I don’t know what my weight was but I got so big I had a hard time fitting in my little Ford Escort. I preferred to blame it on the car shrinking some how rather then the fact that I just got too big. I even broke the drivers’ seat of the car!!

 

I had some success on a plan called Form-U-3 but it was short lived. Looking back, I think it was partly the plan itself was just wrong and set people up for failure. My ex didn’t like me being skinny, because he was so worried that I would leave him, so he did everything he could do to sabotage me. It worked! We ate pizza almost every night and sat for hours playing video games. My attitude was “if you can’t beat them, join them”. What I didn’t realize was what I was doing to my body.

 

Fast forward past a bad divorce, financial issues, getting laid off to moving to Omaha, NE in 2001. I met my new hubby and moved to Omaha to work and be closer to him. I was so much in denial about my weight at the time and started to have many physical problems. My feet started to really bother me along with my back. Most of the problems were on the right side of my body because my right foot was severely over pronated. I had been having back problems for years but my denial kept me from seeing it was my weight. I went to a new chiropractor and he finally sat me down and told me that I was not going to get any better until I lost some weight. I was never offended by his honesty, in fact I embraced it. I tried the Atkins Diet and that just do anything for me. I lost about 10-15 lbs but that was it. At least I was a little thinner when we got married! J

 

I finally just got to the point where I couldn’t hardly stand for more the 5-10 minutes at a time and just walking to my car was painful. My doctor was about ready to have me on high blood pressure medication and who knows what my cholesterol levels were. My podiatrist told me I would never be able to run and that walking was probably always going to be painful.

 

We had a personal trainer purchased for us for a Christmas present in 2005 and started working with him after January 1, 2006. I started to get stronger but I wasn’t really losing any weight. I continued to work out and joined the Biggest Loser Club online after watching 2 seasons of the show. I was impressed by the show and what those people were able to accomplish. I figured if they could do it, so could I. I started the program and followed it religiously. IT WORKED! It has worked better then any other program I have ever tried and it just makes good sense.

 

My blood pressure dropped from being pre-hypertension to about 116/65. My resting heart rate has dropped to about 45 bpm and when I am completely relaxed and just waking up, it runs about 39 bpm. My cholesterol is extremely low. My LDL (bad) is 50 and my HDL (good) is 90. Against all odds, I can also RUN! I run all the time now and I love every minute of it!! My pain levels are minimal now and are tolerable.

 

How did I really do it? Calories in/Calories out, working out 6 days a week, doing cardio and strength training, core training and just quit sitting around and getting out and living life. Oh…and I recommend investing the extra money on a good pair of tennis shoes.

 

I look forward to getting rid of these last pesky pounds and bulking up! I also want to make it my mission to help others achieve their fitness goals. If I can do it, anyone can do it!

 

~~~Wendy~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~Katie

Today I did not make it to work. Not to go into too many details but I am having severe cramps and even prescription ibuprofen isn't helping. UGH! I will HAVE to work out some time today. It is going to have to be a very, very light workout. I did a lot of ab work last week and I feel like I may have injured myself a little bit because Friday I was having REALLY, REALLY bad pain. So much so that I thought I was going to vomit. Sitting under this nice warm electric blanket does seem to be helping a little bit though.

 

Tomorrow night is boot camp with Marty and Amy. I sure hope I am feeling better otherwise; I will just have to go Thursday night instead.

 

I feel really bad about missing work. I wanted to try not to miss any days until spring. I guess things just happen. I think it really is my fault though. I think I need to make sure I am documenting my “cycle” again so I know to take it easier just before I am due to start.

 

What is on the agenda for today? Sleep!  

 

~~~Wendy~~~

Well, we met through mutual friends at a weekly Christian gathering called Friday Night Live. We just had an instant connection to each other. Although it took a while for our friendship to "bloom", we have become the best of friends and support for each other.