My daughter is a senior in high school, and to celebrate that her school hosts a mother/daughter dance just for senior girls and their moms. It was last night and here are a few pictures from the event:
Autumn and I before the dance started.
The girls of our family: Maxine, Linda, Amanda and Autumn
Linda, Steve and Autumn
One of the big complaints most people who have lost a lot of weight have is that hardly anyone comments on it.
After you’ve worked your butt off (literally) to lose 20, 30, 40 pounds, you want to hear that your effort has been noticed, but no one says anything. It’s frustrating. It makes you think that the weight loss isn’t noticeable, and it makes you realize that people are still looking at you as the fat girl.
I didn’t have a lot of people comment on my weight loss, and I still get very few comments about it although I’ve lost 70 pounds and look remarkably different.
Still, no remarks.
Well, there are some remarks and those are usually weird and funny, which makes me have a theory about why people tend not to comment about weight loss.
For instance, last weekend I stopped at the post office. As I was coming out the front door, a man behind me said, “Damn, how much weight have you lost?”
“70 pounds,” I answered even though I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t turn around to look at him as I answered.
“You’re looking good,” he stated.
And then I got in my car and asked my husband who the guy was because I was still clueless. My husband knew who the man was, and when he told me the name, I recognized it and realized the man knew about my weight-loss surgery.
And I think the fact that he knew about my surgery is why he made a comment. These are the people who I find tend to comment about my weight loss — those who know I had WLS.
If the person doesn’t know why I am losing weight, the person doesn’t comment.
This is usually because the person doesn’t recognize me, or it is because the person is worried the weight loss might be because something is wrong. Plus, if they recognize my loss, they might offend me because it would make me realize I was fat and some people don’t like being called fat.
I never minded. I’ve been telling my weight and self-proclaiming myself as obese for years because I want my kids to have a healthy view of weight.
But a lot of times, people don’t comment because they don’t recognize me. I was out to breakfast a couple of months ago, and it was more than 30 minutes into the breakfast until a guy at the table commented on my weight. He had spent that time thinking my husband had a new girlfriend until the guy finally realized that it was me.
What about you? Do people comment about your weight loss?
Yesterday was prom, and my two oldest daughters attended. Here they are after they were all dressed up:
That’s Amanda, 16, on the left (a junior) and Autumn, 17 (a senior) on the right.
Here’s a photo of them showing off their dresses:
And while they were getting ready, there was a bit of tomfoolery:
And Amanda wasn’t sure she wanted to wear high heels, so she tried on some alternative footwear:
She did end up going with the heels.
And here are a few more pictures of the fun:
I have realized that evenings are the time that I tend to munch mindlessly. It is when I am most likely to make bad choices when it comes to eating.
My biggest culprit? Popcorn.
In my house, I am usually the only one in the living room/kitchen area after 9 p.m. The husband is usually off to bed, and the children are in their rooms (although they aren’t usually sleeping yet). This leaves me to be up and about, and it also means I can grab food to eat without anyone seeing me do it.
I am usually still up because I am working. It is a time that I can get some work done without interruptions and without interfering with family time. I prefer to work during the day, but it doesn’t always work out because of other mom-duties. This leaves me working after everyone else has gone to bed.
And while I’m on the computer, I want to eat something. I am not hungry, but I want to munch. I like salty snacks and prefer popcorn and nuts. Usually, it is popcorn.
I need to stop eating after 9 p.m.
One thing that helps is for me to hit that “complete this entry” button on MyFitnessPal.com. Once I’ve hit that button, I tend not to eat anymore especially when I see a good number for the “in 5 weeks you will weigh” prediction.
Another thing is to give up and go to bed. I have found that I am going to bed earlier to avoid being tempted by food.
When are you most likely to indulge?
Was there any doubt in anyone’s minds that I wouldn’t be blogging about Zumba when it came time for my Z post?
This is going to be a review of Zumba Exhilarate! I bought the 7-DVD version after having a few problems getting the Zumba XBox game to start in a timely manner.
First off, I must explain that I LOVE Zumba. I have taken the in-person classes as well as played the video game and now used the DVDs. As an exercise, Zumba is fun and burns a ton of calories.
I really like the in-person classes, but they don’t always fit into my schedule. This is why I invested in the video game and eventually the DVD set.
The DVDs included in the kit are as follows (according to Zumba.com and my own experience):
The step-by-step explanation does a nice job of breaking down the steps slowly and then moving faster. It is broken down into different styles, so you can focus on just the steps that are giving you problems rather than doing all of it.
My Recommendation:
Overall, I am very happy with my purchase, and I would recommend anyone try the fitness program.I tend to burn anywhere from 650 to 1100 calories during a 60 minute work out.
If you think you might like Zumba, the cheapest way to get started is to take a local class. I was able to take my first class for free and subsequent classes are $5 each. My local class also has a lot of community involvement type programs. For instance, around Christmas time, you could bring an unwrapped new toy to donate to Toys for Tots and take the class free. There was also a special class to raise money for Relay for Life. The cost for classes vary, but it is usually $10 or under.
If you want to work out in your home, the video game runs about $50. I had the Kinect version for XBox, and I had some problems getting the game to start correctly. It became frustrating and used up too much of my time I wanted to work out. I also wanted to exercise, and I didn’t like that I had to unlock certain areas before I could play them. I just wanted to use the game to work out and not earn my way to higher levels.
This is why I bought the DVD set. It cost about $90, and I bought it when I was able to get a free pair of workout pants as well.
Reviewing the DVDs:
The DVDs are perfect for what I wanted — they let me have a fun work out when I can fit it into my schedule. I can do the 20-minute Rush DVD when I am short on time, or I can do the 60-minute long workouts when I have time. I tend to rotate between the Ripped DVD and the Exhilarate DVD.
One thing I noticed with the DVDs is that they have a lot of “flavor.” In Zumba, “flavor” is when you add a little style to the basic exercise moves to make it more like dancing and less like exercise (although no less of a calorie burn). It is when the instructors put a little “flair” on the moves.
Sometimes, I found the flavor distracting.
Specifically, I disliked the “flavor” that the lighting sometimes caused during a video. At times, the lighting in the dance studio goes completely dark, so you can’t even see what the exercise instructors are doing, and you have no idea what it is that you are supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, this sometimes happens as you transition into a new move and you can’t even see the new move. Once you’ve done the DVD a few times, you can figure it out, but it was very disconcerting when I first stared exercising and couldn’t figure out what they were doing because I couldn’t even SEE them
Other times, I was frustrated because how I learned to do a move on the right side wasn’t exactly how they did it for the left side. I noticed this specifically on the Ripped DVD when we were lifting weights for tricep extensions. The exercise has you put both weights in the same hand, raise your hand above your head and then lower the weights behind your head and then extend up again. That’s the arm movement. They then add in a leg movement.
Initially, the move shows you to extend your arm above your head (while holding the weights) and then extend your leg on the same side out as well. You start by pointing it on the floor, but then lift it off the ground and eventually, add a plie (a bend to your knee as you extend your other leg out).
The first time you do this, the leg and arm are extended at the same time and then brought in at the same time. When the same exercise is done using the opposite side, at first, the arm extension happens when the leg is in and when the leg is extended the arm is not. IF you keep doing it, you will notice that eventually this changes until both are extended at the same time. This was frustrating for me until I realized it was the mistake of the instructors and not me.
In other spots, the instructor will be doing “flavor” rather than leading the exercise, and the “flavor” isn’t even an exercise. Sometimes Beto will quit exercising completely and just walk around and encourage the other dancers. That’s fine as long as you know what exercise you are supposed to be doing, but when you are not used to the DVDs, you get lost.
In some dance routines, I felt like one side of the body was getting more of a workout than the other side. This was usually for only one dance routine, and there are about 10 dance routines in a 60-minute workout. Most of the routines do work out your left and right side equally. It was just a couple of routines that didn’t really switch sides.
I didn’t think the Mix DVD was good for working out purposes. The Mix DVD gives you a bit of flavor from around the world. It does a nice job of introducing a routine and telling you about the background of the music and dance steps, but this is also what makes it not good for working out. The down time between the routines as the background of each dance is explained keeps you from maintaining your heart rate while exercising.
Despite the “flavor,” I still like the DVDs. They aren’t perfect in showing you how to do the moves and routines, but they are great at showing you how fun Zumba can be.
I love the calorie burn. Most of the time, I burn anywhere from 800 to 1,000 calories during a 60-minute workout. I sweat.
I also love the music. It has a good beat and is fun to dance to.
Unintentional Entertainment Purposes Only
When I do Zumba at home, I find that I can only really get it done in my living room. I don’t have enough space in my bedroom.
This means that I often provide unintentional entertainment for the other members of my household and their friends.
Zumba involves a lot of wiggling of the hips. Many of the moves are doing figure 8s with your hips. This frequently causes lots of giggling from teenagers and preteens. It also means that if someone is in my living room that I don’t want to wiggle my hips in front of, I end up missing my workout.
The best thing to do? I get up early on weekends and do my Zumba before the kids are awake. I also do Zumba after everyone else has left the house for the day. And if they are there, I talk them into doing Zumba with me or make them do dishes. Both are successful strategies.
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