179.4 Are Lollipops A Food Group?

Since I have been procrastinating about going over to the gym, I decided to go on line and see what I could learn about the way to do exercise to lose fat. Am I looking for a rule:)? Not exactly, but here's what I have come up with as a gem of the day:

Interval training, strength training (weights), and proper nutrition are the essential ingredients to achieve weight loss from all areas of the body while maintaining important muscle mass.

One of the most obvious things I've noticed during this weight loss journey compared to past quick loss programs is that I do actually look and feel stronger. I know I have greater, rather than less, muscle mass and I attribute that to losing weight at a much slower pace while at the same time slowly but surely increasing the amount, and type of exercise that I do. I've also been eating foods from all of the food groups and not starving myself of any nutrients. I'm laughing to myself as I write this because a friend on Facebook just wrote that her 3 year old son has been working very hard to convince her that lollipops are a food group!

Now let's see those numbers just left of the title continue to fall.

179.0 "My Favs" and Me

I just got back from visiting my dear friend the elliptical. Our relationship has been a little rocky over the past 4 - 5 weeks, basically because I haven't been doing my part. I've ignored it, putting other things first, and so reuniting with it today wasn't easy. I did the interval speed up technique a couple of times and thought that the elliptical was out to kill me! As I was easing into completing 10 long, hard minutes on it, I started thinking about leaving, quietly, sort of slipping out the back door. But then, as I was listening to my group of tunes for exercise that I call "My Favs", (I know, not very original) Willie started singing On The Road Again and there was no way I could leave before he finished. So on I rode. And then, as I am still planning my unobtrusive exit, Louis Armstrong joined in with What A Wonderful World, so I decided that I really needed to keep going and use that song as an opportunity to cool down, and then.... Well, you get the picture. I stayed with it for 25 minutes instead of 10, thanks to "My Favs". I'm going to add some more songs that I can't possibly not listen to and see if I can't use that as my motivation to keep going. Once I download about 40 minutes worth of tunes on "My Favs" instead of the current ~25 minutes, I'll be in business.

181.0 Getting The Hang Of It!

Now that was a great surprise this morning as I stepped on the scale. In fact, I got off, let it go back into its sleep mode, woke it up and stepped on it again to be sure.

Jennifer has been encouraging me for a while now to do interval training on the elliptical instead of staying around the same speed throughout the workout. I've been doing that lately and I think my metabolism is wondering what the heck is going on, but has sped up in response to the change! Now I go for 3 minutes at about 3.5 mph and then do 30 seconds as fast as I can move my legs, and then go back to the slower pace for 3 minutes, etc.. And the workout lasts for between a half hour and 45 minutes. It's funny, but as the end of the 3 minutes is approaching, I get excited to speed up. I think my body really likes the switching back and forth. Another shift in response? The old me would have dreaded the impending speed up and work involved.

We are heading to the Boston area for a couple of weeks to see our daughters, son-in-law, and friends so the posts will be intermittent. Not that I'm counting :), but I've lost 22 pounds since visiting there last November. And, 3 of those pounds have been lost in the last 8 days! Maybe I'm getting the hang of it:)!