"Before" pictures

Hello everyone...a few people have either verbally or on the blog said they would be willing to post a "before" picture of themselves. Please email Shannon a full length shot of yourself in clothes that reveal your shape enough that after a year we can post "after" pictures in the same clothes that will show what a difference a year of regular exercise makes!

A Great Recipe for a peace-filled life in 2009

Hopefully some of these will apply to you....and make you have a better day!

1. Take a 10 to 30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It
is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about
what is going on in your life. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement,
'My purpose is to __________ today. I am thankful for______________'

4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that
is manufactured in plants.

5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild
Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues
of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead
invest your energy in the positive present moment.

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a
college kid with a maxed out charge card.

9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument.
Agree to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

14. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.

15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years,
will this matter?'

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

19. GOD heals everything - but you have to ask Him.

20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends
will stay in touch.

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

25. When you are feeling down, start listing your many blessings.
You'll be smiling before you know it.

Getting Your 4th Day in!!

For some reason, I have an easier time doing 3 days instead of 4, especially when I am able to do at least 3 days during the work week. This week I did three gym days last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (one spin class, one day on the elliptical trainer and one day on the stationary bike on my own) but had problems making it to the 4th day on my weekend. Lets face it; weekends are when we are supposed to veg out to prepare for the upcoming work week. The last thing we want to do is more work, right? Well, when I saw I wasn't going to make it physically to the gym, I chose a home workout consisting of several sets of push-ups, abdominal crunches and tricep dips (off a chair), then spent 20 minutes on back stretches suggested to me by my doctor. At least you have to do something, right? I chose to work on my core and flexibility for the last day to at least get some activity in. I urge everyone not to avoid core strength and flexibility exercises within your routine. These are things that you can even do when you first get up in the morning just to get things warmed up. I'd love to hear comments on what everyone else incorporates into their workouts! We all need to mix it up from time to time. - Vic

Yoga?

I know some of our members had tried and or does yoga, but I never thought I would be able to do it due to my abnormal clutziness! Yes I'm still clutzy, but I've been doing the Wii Fit Yoga poses, and find I actually enjoy the stretching and balance. I've been amazed at how the poses work the muscles.

I've been doing the Wii Fit this whole month and can see an improvement in my performance of the poses as well as a change in my shape! So if you haven't tried yoga, look up a couple different poses and throw them into the mix of your normal exercise routine. I've only been doing a few poses since my knee is injured, but I am positive that the 10-15 minutes of yoga as part of my workout is making a difference. So much so, that some day I may get enough confidence...and balance...to try a class. Well maybe not, since I am no expert, but my opinion of yoga has certainly changed!

Here's just one website of the millions out there: http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yogapractice/postures.asp I'm linking this one since it gives animated directions on how to do the poses and has the basics. Enjoy!

Old Posting Brought Back To Life

I have had my share of weight struggles over the years, and, over the years, I've learned how to lose and manage my weight in a healthy way. But I wanted to share something I posted on my own blog, www.thedrummerchic.blogspot.com, which I titled Journey From The Couch . We all had to start this process from somewhere, and this is how I finally hit bottom and decided to change my lifestyle for the better. Hope it can inspire you!

- Vic

And an idea was formed....

Today Beth and I were talking about the blog and our weight loss goals for the year. All of a sudden I had the idea that we could all put a January 2009 picture of ourselves on the blog, then put another picture at the end of December 2009 to see how our bodies have changed after 12 months of exercising. I'm thinking a full body picture with form fitting clothes so we can actually see the changes - but not exercise spandex clothes -- I'm not even willing to do that! Nor would I subject anyone to that! Maybe jeans and a T-shirt? Then we would want to make sure we keep the same clothes for the picture in December so we can see the difference in how those clothes fit, hopefully looser!

Who would be willing to do this? It would be great if everyone wanted to, but it wouldn't be mandatory if we decide to do this. I wouldn't want to be the only one! The added benefit of putting our pics up on the blog is so that everyone would get to see everyone else, which would be nice for those who don't personally know all the members of EFC.

YIPPEE!!!

I can't believe I won! I never win anything. Thanks. Now I'm even more motivated.

And the Winner is.............

BETH!!!! Watch the exciting video of the name being drawn. Please see previous post for who owes what. If you owe Beth, please send her an email for her address. She is the big winner of a total of $21 in Starbucks cards! I hope next month's winner wins less, since that will mean more exercising has been done!

Weeks 1-4 results!

From what I calculated this is how many tickets each person will get:
Vicki-1 (owes $10.50 to the winner)
Shannon-4
Kelli-2 (owes $7 to the winner)
Judy-4
Cheryl-1 (owes $3.50 to the winner)
Nancy-1
Beth-1
Michelle-1

Let me know if I miscalculated...the drawing will be sometime this evening. I thought I would attempt to video it and then post the video. We'll see if I can do that!

Welcome Rusty!

Everybody, please welcome Rusty to our group. She comes to us from the Academic Advising Center at Sacramento State and works with Shannon, Beth and Michelle!

1st Week

I finished my week with hitting the gym on Saturday with a 20 min swim and 20 min bike. I get bored easy, so I like doing more activities and less duration, it makes time go by faster!

First 4 Weeks are Complete!

Make sure you've put in your tallies for the past weeks if you aren't already up to date. I'll post our totals for the 4 weeks and how much in Starbucks Cards will be up for grabs!

I did it!

This has really motivated me this week to stick with my exercise routine! Thanks for letting me join. I even went to the gyn this morning at 7am (yes on a Saturday). Have a good weekend! Beth

Article on Fighting Mid-Life Weight Gain

I ran across an interesting article on Web MD - it has some good info.

-Vic

Someone Else's Blog

Somehow I came across someone else's diet blog. Mainly this person is discussing her use of Pure Acai Berry and Colon Cleanse as a method of losing weight. I don't know about these products, but she did have some helpful tips for losing weight. I thought I would share her blog with you all.
http://mariasdietblog.com/?sub=t5_01

This acai berry sure is getting a lot of attention. Has anyone tried it? I wonder if the fresh fruit is available, or if we can only get it in pill form. If anyone has any experience with acai let me know!

At last!

This may say signed by Strikethru, which is Cheryl, FYI.

I figured out how to post to the blog! Doing pretty well with the wimpy 30 minute treadmill workouts, am adding some weightlifting and stretching exercises because I sit on my *&^ all day at work and it kills my arms.

Hope you ladies are out there busting a move at the gym.

Thanks for letting me join!

I'm so excited about being part of this group! I needed something to get me movitated for the new year.

-Beth

Thanks for the invite!

Thanks for letting me join your club! I'm very excited and I have already started. My sister-in-law is letting me borrow her elliptical. I've had it in my garage since Christmas and have been using it more than I thought I would.

This week, I got 45 minutes in on Monday. Tuesday, I wasn't going to work out but I decided to hop on for 30 minutes after the Oprah show!

Michelle*

Each Monday...

Don't forget to sign in using our super duper secret code to update the tally for the prior week. If you don't, a zero will be assumed and you will owe a coffee card for that week. If you don't feel comfortable editing the blog, feel free to email Vicki or Shannon to update the blog for you.

Thanks!

Welcome to EFC Beth and Michelle!!!

Please welcome Beth and Michelle to our challenge. Both work with me at the Career Center and are excited to have this motivation to exercise!

-Shannon

How should we tally up our exercising?

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a successful week last week. Even with my "bum" knee, I managed to get in 4 or 5 workouts. The reason I put in 4 or 5 in the tally is because I have a dilemma...How do we determine our count for the week? Is it per workout or per day. For instance, last Monday I did my Curves workout then a little later I did another 25 minutes on the Wii Fit. Two separate workouts but on the same day.

Please comment on what everyone feels is fair. My opinion is that we are going for 4 separate DAYS of having exercise activity. What do you think?

-Shannon

Welcome Loretta!!

Our little blog idea is very popular! My friend Loretta joins our group from Sac State PD. Loretta and I used to enjoy our parking structure walks (they have a good incline) for exercise when we were working graveyard shifts together :)

Glad you've joined us!

-Vic

Hi Vicki and Friends! Thanks for including me in this blog/coffee/exercise challenge. My goal for exercise is fairly simple...I just need to get up and move. It is a good stress reliever for me, as I tend to hold in my stress, and it manifests physically in a variety of uncomfortable ways. ;) I will probably do a variety of activities to reach my goal, including walking, a Pilates dvd, and playing Dance Dance Revolution with my kids. I enjoy running, and would like to get back into that, but I have been having trouble with intermittent pain in one of my feet, so I am hoping this lower key plan to exercise will improve my fitness and mental health, without increasing my pain.

When I am not exercising (which is most of the time), I can be found hanging with my four kids and sweet husband. As you might imagine, with four kids, I need all the energy I can get, so hopefully exercising will help! :)

Blessings,
Nancy

Welcome Nancy!!

Please all welcome my cousin Nancy to the mix! She joins us as a mother of 4 from El Dorado Hills. She writes a heartwarming blog about her family at http://ladolcevita6.wordpress.com/

I'm glad you joined us!

- Vic

My bum knee...

I am sad to say that in my desire to do something fun with the kids and still make it a physical activity, I decided to take them ice skating on December 31st. Why is that sad, you may ask? Well because after about 40 minutes of some fine ice skating I took my first fall. Unfortunately it wasn't just on my behind. I fell forward on the inside of my left knee...and heard a "pop". Not good. At first I thought it would be ok, I got off the ice on my own and was able to walk around. However after a short time I discovered I can't twist my leg at all, from my hip down to my ankle. You know the old song,

"Your toe bone connected to your foot bone
Your foot bone connected to your ankle bone
Your ankle bone connected to your leg bone
Your leg bone connected to your knee bone
Your knee bone connected to your thigh bone
Your thigh bone connected to your hip bone...."

I understand that song so much better now that when ever I move one of those connected bones, I get a sharp pain in my knee!

So after my fall, one of my first thoughts was how am I going to keep up on my exercises? Can't go to Curves, can't do most of the Wii Fit exercises, so my options are floor exercises that don't use my legs. So I will focus on my abs and arms until I find out from the doctor what the extent of the damage is. If any of you have any ideas of other exersices that don't include my bum knee, let me know! Thanks!

Shannon

Welcome Cheryl!!!

My sister-in-law Cheryl has joined EFC, starting on January 5th. I wanted to put her up on the board before she changed her mind :)

Check out her blog at: http://www.strikethru.net/. She lives in Washington, has a 2 1/2 year-old ball of energy named Iris and is an excellent writer with a passion for typewriters and all things related to old-school writing.

Glad you're here!

-Vic