Becky Flade, Author

The weekend started with a disappointing gain on the scale [0.5 pounds]; followed by a frustrating attempt to find something flattering to wear to my own daughter's birthday party. I had a lot of fun hanging out with family and friends. I did a lot of dancing with the kids and my brother's girlfriend. I did a HARD workout with my oldest. I made a lot of bad choices with food and beer, and dealt with a lot of regret and self-flaggelation over same. But this is Monday and I'm going to shake off the weekend and give myself a fresh start. I took the guided strength training {ST} class that I also took last Monday. It's hard, so hard, to get all those reps done. But on the brighter side of life, I managed mostly all the exercises with a higher weight than last week. I only just got back and am a little worried about my ability to use both my arms and legs later, lol. But as Bev, the nicest damn Marquis de'Sade ever, says if you're only going to ST once a week we'

Weigh in is tomorrow and I'm nervous about seeing another gain; it hasn't been the greatest week.

Saturday morning's weigh in was vastly disappointing. I showed a gain. I tried to keep it in perspective, I knew it was a possibility due to mother nature's timely arrival, but it is so disheartening to see that when I have been working so hard. I had bloating, back pain, cramps and a migraine. Saturday was not good for me. Though I did manage 32 minutes of dance before taking a pill, crawling onto the couch and wrapping myself in a blanket. Where I stayed, all day, till bedtime. But I got my water in and managed to stay in my calorie range. It could've been worse. Like yesterday Sunday yielded no cardio, I drank soda, ate part of a stromboli, and slept like crap. I'm tired and sluggish. I got a lot of housework done and banged myself up in the process. I've got bandaids on 4 different fingers. One is bruised and swollen and keeps bleeding all over the GD place. Uggh. The calendar made today Monday but yesterday made today a MONDAY and it's in caps

I know it means fearless and adventurous but seriously if you knew me you'd know I will probably never get to use this word in description of myself. Honestly. The most adventurous I've gotten in the last couple years is trying pasta salad (I got this thing about food groups touching and pasta salad seems to be defined as a jumble of different food groups just jammed all in a bowl together, yikes). And fearless doesn't apply either, I'm afraid (pun intended). But some words are just awesome and unfortunately the opportunity to use them rarely presents itself and when it does, the speaker tends to sound like a pompous ass. I can tell I'm really making a difference with the exercising and eating right. I did 40 minutes on the elliptical today and it wasn't as challenging as last week, even at a higher incline & resistance. Don't get me wrong I was bright red and sweating buckets and smelly. That sounds so gross but that's what you get when a big f

I went over my calories last night, by like 300 calories. But 1) I had a vicious headache (beginnings of a migraine) and needed a caffeine bump so I had a 20 ounce pepsi along with some excedrin; 2) I hadn't indulged at all in weeks; and 3) spark keeps telling me my caloric intake is too low when compared to how much I've been burning. I'm really hoping that I won't see a negative result on the scale Saturday morning but I have to accept the possibility. Best thing I can do is just chalk it up to a bad day and keep it in perspective. Forward march!

I'm going to stop pretending that I have an opinion or more accurately pretending that my opinion matters. It is no secret that I have been unhappy at my job as of late. But after 8+ years of specialized work in a very unique area of law, I had believed myself to have at the very least a valid opinion on the subject. Yet, time and time again, my ideas or opinions are struck down often condescendingly and I've about had it. I'm not sure if its a reflection on me personally or the generality prevalent in my office that unless you have a JD you are obviously less intelligent than those that do. Maybe it's a combination of the two. Maybe it's presumptious of me to assume that asking me my opinion is nothing more than a polite courtesy, a rhetorical question as it were. Regardless, it appears to me that using my brain is not an expectation of my position. From this point on I'm just going to sit here and let my brain atrophy, doing only that which is specifica

I wish I could do that I-dream-of-jeannie-head-bob thing or the samantha-nose-wiggle and just presto! I'm thin. *************************** I almost quit. I almost quit. That's what I keep telling myself. I almost quit. Today's plan was to do another set of those 4:1 walk/run combos on the treadmill. I get down there I get dressed I get on the Treadmill. Five minute warm up followed by a healthy stretch session. So far so good. But 2 minutes following my first 1 minute run both my shins seized up. It was so bad, so so bad. I could barely lift my toes off the floor I had such a limited range of motion. I stretched and stretched until I could flex the shins relatively painlessly before I started back up. It was useless both shins were completely enflamed before I'd even made it through a 4 minute walk at a comfortable pace. Pissed, frustrated, I tossed in the towel and went to the ladies. While I'm using the loo, I'm wondering if I'd be able to tol

Because of the daily workouts and careful eating I've been getting tired earlier and therefore going to bed earlier. I'm sleeping more soundly and waking up on time and more refreshed than I've felt in months. That's good. Real good and I expected it to be the only benchmark I could cling to this first week: how I feel. I got up this morning around 7a.m. with little prompting or growling, my body is starting to fall into a rhythm that it likes (this will be incredibly helpful when I'm REALLY into my running and getting up before dawn becomes my norm, even still that idea seems preposterous but I've done it in the past routinely and I know I'll do it again). Had already planned on passing the morning working out with my youngest. Not the most intensive plan honestly as there were as I knew there would be, again from past experience, lots of starts and stops but it is an awful lot of fun. Saturday is weigh in day and the Wii showed me something unexpecte

The week is almost over and I couldn't be happier. I feel good about the actions I've taken to get fit. I've got a couple streaks going on. I'm just tired.

I love to run. Only I haven't in some time. Life just seemed to get in my way. For the past, I guess 18 months - 2 years, I'll see other people running and I lust; in the ugliest sense of the word. Part of my journey to get fit includes a return to running. But I'm the heaviest I've ever been. Ever. Even pregnant with my girls I never weighed this much. And I've been smoking. I'm a realist. I can't strap on my shoes and hit the door for a 9 mile run anymore. I busted my ass on Monday so Tuesday I figured I'd take it a little easier and do a walking workout on the Dreadmill. About 10 minutes in I decide to see how bad the RUN situation really is. Oh My Lord, I wish I hadn't. I had to stop almost 3 minutes in, not just cause my lungs felt like they were on fire, but I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, I was getting light headed and my left leg was beginning to wobble with every stride. The impression that I was either going to stroke out or wi

I hurt myself in the locker room getting ready to go work out. Who gets hurt in the locker room while getting dressed to go work out? Oh, yeah, that's right...me. Anyway someone, no idea whom, left the toilet seat up in the ladies only locker room (you don't even wanna get me started on that) I was in a hurry and frankly there are a few things you should be able to take for granted in life and the toilet seat not being in an upright position in the LADIES ROOM is one of them. I hit the ceramic edge HARD and it hurt and I cursed. Loudly. And I finished getting dressed. I go into the gym and I pick out a machine. I'd wanted to take a step class but the instructor called out due to the snow. I end up on the elliptical cause I did the treadmill and the crossramp already this week and my butt hurt too much for the stationary bike. I've been giving myself 5 minutes to warm up, 3o minutes cardio, & 5 minutes cool down per workout. And today's plan was the same

I opened 2011 with a flu bug courtesy of my special man which kept me out of work. Then I had to work insane hours the remainder of the week to make the time up. So I didn’t start my journey till Saturday January 8th. My three prong starting initiative: a) Eat smaller/healthier; b) Replace my soda with water (at least 8 cups a day); and c) Exercise every day. I’ve been going strong for 4 days, as of today. I’m tired when I’m supposed to be and as of last night, sleeping a little better than I’ve been, and it was a little easier getting up and getting going this morning, despite it being so freaking frigid outside. This first week I need to use the way I feel as my benchmark for success, because I know from experience that I won’t see any difference on the scale for another week or so. I’ve got to remember to keep up with it, take everything in stride, and keep positive. Rewards help with that. My rewards for stage 1 are: -5 lbs ~ Bubble bath -10 lbs ~ Book -15 lbs ~ Pedicure -2

It’s been awhile, as my daughter keeps reminding me, since I blogged. The holidays are, as always and for everyone, a time of utter chaos. Busy at home, busy at work, barely any time for anything, let alone my incessant ramblings. But now thankfully the holidays have passed and it’s time for New Year’s resolutions. As usual, losing weight/getting fit are on the list and part of that journey includes journaling. I got the blog and a need to journal so you, my lonely loyal and only reader, get to suffer the indignities of weight loss right along with me. Aren’t you glad you bugged me to write Case? I think exercise brings out the mean in me. I’m on the crossramp (cross between a stepper & an elliptical; I like it) and I’m sweating my ass off (hopefully). In walks this woman, who’d I’d be willing to bet has like less than 5% body fat, she’s wearing a cute little workout outfit and heading for the treadmill. I’m watching from across the room, rather irritated by her for simply being in