Day 23 - Sick of coughing

Three weeks in and I have lost 8 lbs!! I know its not a HUGE amount and its not even really noticeable by looking at me, but its PROGRESS! And after sitting at the same exact weight for 7 months, it means a lot. I also like that its a "healthy" weight loss. No extreme measures or fad diets here, just true slimming!

I'm still battling my cold. I'm now in the coughing phase. And let me tell you, there is TONS of coughing. I stuck to my plan and did the treadmill on Saturday and my first Zumba class on Monday night. Zumba does seem to be a lot of fun and its a lot easier to keep up with than that aerobics class was. My only problem with both exercise days was that as I got deeper into the exercise, my coughing got worse. I had to skip Yogalates last night due to a scheduling issue between my hubby and me and had planned on doing Zumba tonight, but my cough JUST started to improve around lunchtime. I want to get over this cough so I decided to take the night off from aerobic activity to see if I can manage one night of sleep without having several coughing fits. So, I still have to exercise one more day before Saturday in order to keep to my "workout 3 times per week" plan.

Yesterday, I attended a meeting that my co-worker put on at lunch. It was an informative meeting about Team In Training which is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society program that trains you to run/walk marathons or half-marathons while raising money to fight blood cancers. I've participated in two half marathons in the past and happen to work with the run coach for the Lansing area. Sure enough, I went to the meeting, heard all of the excitement from the staff person and the coach and signed up right then and there. I'll be participating in the Bayshore Half Marathon in Traverse City on Memorial Day weekend. At this point, I'm happy to just walk the race, but I DO plan to stick to training and if I get the desire to run at all, I'm not against trying to run. But right now, sitting here coughing as I type, I'm leaning towards walking.

Dieting is still my primary success. I've been able to keep my calorie intake low and my foods are healthy for the most part. I've been craving lots of vegetables lately, which is GREAT, but we don't have as many as I want in the house, so I need to make sure to include plenty on our weekend grocery trip. I'm still working on getting all of my water each day. But I've been doing an excellent job of not drinking any pop (even diet). I've only had 2 diet sodas since the start of my diet. That's pretty impressive for me.

Watching Biggest Loser this week, I heard them talking about The Biggest Loser Slimcoach. Apparently its a tiny device where you enter in the number of calories you want to burn for the day. Then you wear this device and it tracks the number of calories you burn and tells you when you've met your goal. I'm not sure how well this thing works, but it sounds interesting. I may have to look into it a bit more. Here is the link to see it on the Best Buy website: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/The+Biggest+Loser%26%23174%3B+-+SLIMCOACH%26%23153%3B+-+Black/4526204.p?id=1218480946018&skuId=4526204#tabbed-customerreviews

YUP! She's got a Sweaty Band on!

One product I DO know about is SWEATY BANDS! I saw them in a fitness magazine and decided to buy one at Playmakers (in Okemos, MI). These are workout head bands for ladies that actually stay put. They really DON'T SLIP! I was skeptical at first since their tag line is "OMG...they don't slip!" but I bit the bullet, shelled out the $$ (they are definitely more expensive than a cheap Goody hair band) and tried one during my Zumba class. I LOVE IT! Its cute AND it keeps my shorter hair out of my face while I work out! I highly suggest them to all women! http://sweatybands.com/




So enough advertising from me. I swear, no one is paying me. Although, maybe they should - it would help out with my fundraising! ;) Speaking of which, here is the link to my fundraising page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/bayshr12/hslawinski Help me fight blood cancers AND get in shape! :)

I'm off to drink some Robutussin and pray for a silent night.

Heather