Sunday, October 19, 2008

Getting in the game...

My whole adult life I have avoided exercise. I hate exercise and it hates me too. I have been the type of person to watch from the sidelines secretly wishing I could get in the game. Too bad I knew I couldn't actually do it- physically. I have never been to a gym. Good lord, even the word gym scared the ever livin' crap out of me! Imagine my shock when Chris suggests that we stop in to our local gym to inquire.

Inquire? As if. I don't need to inquire to know what goes on in there. A busload of meat heads and their body builder girlfriends are inviting each other to come see the "gun show". Not only do I not belong in a place like that, I know people would stare at my jiggly bits. Frankly I am just one large jiggly bit. I know I am on the right track and I have lost weight, but not enough to go into a gym! Here's the conversation between Chris and I:
CHRIS: Hey, since we're in the neighbourhood, why don't we go inquire at the gym?
ME: Inquire? Inquire about what? I already know what happens in a gym, and I'm not going.
CHRIS: I mean about prices and services.
ME: You can go, I'll wait in the car. I am NOT signing up for a gym.
AUSTIN: I wanna go too, maybe kids can work out there.
ME: Kids aren't allowed in gyms.
CHRIS: Come on... just come with me.
ME: No... I'm good. I'm not going.
CHRIS: You'd be better if you went to a gym.
ME What!!!???? What does that mean.
CHRIS: Nothing... Just come with me...
ME: Fine but I'm not signing up, END OF STORY!!!

So in we go to the gym. Me going into a gym is like the devil walking into a church. I practically brace myself and close my eyes tight, I know at any moment I'm going to be struck by lightning. I wait a minute or two then after realizing I am ok, I look around. Yup, it's a gym alright. Workout music is blasting people are working out upstairs and a manager rushes at us, obviously smelling new prey. He asks how he can help us and of course Chris starts up this big chat with him. He offers us a tour. Great now we're gonna go look at the meat heads and the female bodybuilders I spoke of before... We tour the women's locker rooms. It's really luxurious and the change rooms and showers are really private. Perhaps no one will see my naked jiggly bits after all. I go continue through and find a eucalyptus steam room! Hmmm... so far so good. Then comes the pool, I like the idea of a pool, but I bet it costs extra to use it. I tour the women's gym, no men aloud in the section! This could be ok... No beefed up chicks in here, just regular women big and small.


I come back and meet up with the guys who just finished touring the men's locker room and the youth gym. This must mean that kids CAN workout her after all. I owe Austin an apology. He is soo excited and he tells me that when working out he can play video games!! Cool!

Next we go upstairs to the main coed gym. I nearly fall over when I look around and see REGULAR people, not a single meat head!!! Whoa, I never thought it would be possible!

In the end I am so excited about this place!! That I am the one begging to sign up.

We got a family membership for all 4 of us. Wait... you must be asking why we would get a membership for Ruari right? Well, daycare costs 175.00 for 1 child and since she would just be an add on fourth member, her membership is only $96.00 for the year, giving us unlimited daycare and uses of the pool for her! It turns out that they were running a 1/2 price sale on the cost of memberships so I pay $68/month for all of us for full use of EVERYTHING!!!

I have already been 3 times and we only signed up on Thursday night. We all went on Friday night and I went for 3 hours Friday night and 3 hours yesterday morning.

I don't feel like I am out of place there a bit and best of all when I was there yesterday I burned 340 calories PLUS whatever I burned doing laps in the pool for 40 minutes!!!

I FREAKING LOVE THE GYM!!!!

I AM NOW A WORKOUT JUNKIE!!!!

Gotta run, I'm heading to the gym... Again!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

From frumpy to fabulous...

BEFORE <---------> AFTER



The first photo is one of me at my heaviest. this photo has NEVER EVER seen the light of day. In fact I deleted all of the photos taken in this time of my life. When deleting them I kept one but hid it way down in the depths of my photos. Not sure why I kept it, but I think I knew that one day I would need it. That time has come!

The second photo was take of me today. No comparison.... I am beginning to be one hot mama!

So tell me... Click the comment button below and let me know what you think of the difference?

Monday, October 6, 2008

Finally some photos..

Let me warn you... what you are about to see is not for the faint of heart. It's scary despite the 16 pounds of progress. That's right folks I am down 16 pounds in total and 4 pant sizes! Here is a bit of proof. You can cick them to make them bigger for the "full effect". I've wonr black, and I even dared to put on white. that way people can't say buck the black is deceiving because it's slimming. I also am modeling the no makeup, frumpy housewife/mom look. It's very "in style" at my house.





Here are the views looking down. In the one where I am wearing black it shows you have my jeans just kind of hang off my waist.



In this one I have actually showed you how much room is really there.



Well, that's it. I always said I would post the good the bad and the very very ugly...

This is this the part where I say: "I told you so..."

The scale is making me smile...

We are almost done filming the show! I know... time flies eh?

It's been 6 weeks since we started the show and 4 weeks since we got our meal plan/diet and fitness plan. The scale is getting a bit easier to deal with. Seeing the numbers keep going down makes me feel amazing!! I am now down a good chunk of weight! For the first time I actually WANT to take pictures of myself and post them on my blog. In fact I might just do that today. I started in a size 24 (yikes!!!) and now I am in a 20!!! I lost another 2 pounds which equals 16 pounds total. For me that is huge! I can actually pull my jeans down without undoing them (put that on a resume!) I have until Wednesday morning to loose as much as I can in time for the final taping. Regardless of the short amount of time left, I think I have done very very well!

Today I will be taking a photo of myself in my favorite jeans so you can see exactly how my weight is coming off. Watch for that update later.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

So many things going on!

Ok so here's a recap of the week.

On Wednesday Kelly (the AP) came over with s whack of wardrobe options for me. We were looking for the perfect outfit for the final day of filming. You know the rotating pedestal scene? Something that actually shows that I have lost some pounds/inches! One store they had picked up some items form was Lululemon... All I can say is OMG!!! I had hear it was really pricey and they would not have anything to fit someone of my size. Well first of all they had clothes in my size (yay!) and second, even though I can't afford it, I love it! It is worth every penny spent. Too bad I'll never buy it for myself. Though I can enjoy wearing it for that day anyway! I can't rationalize spending $200+ on a workout outfit for myself when I have 2 kids who I could spend that on instead. I don't get final say on what I will be wearing but I trust this team to choose the best option. You'll have to tune in to find out.

It was a ton of fun just trying on all this different stuff. Something I have NEVER done before.

Then came the news that they set up a hair appointment for me for Tuesday, so my hair will be freshly cut/coloured/styled for Wednesday's taping. The salon and hair dresser were recommended by Alison Griffiths who is the host of a Canadian financial show. She always looks top notch so, while I normally don't like to go to new stylists, I feel much more comfortable knowing she comes recommended.

I plan on wearing contacts and actually putting on some makeup for the last day!

I haven't weighed in since last weekend, but this has been a particularly bad end to the week. I wound up "emotional eating" and it really may have hurt me. I am feeling bad because of the guilt but I know I can't do anything about it now. I'll weigh in either today or tomorrow and will post the results.