DietBet

I decided to join the Dietbet game that is being sponsored by The Anti-Jared,

The premise is simple. Put $50 in a pot. If you meet your goal (4% of body weight lost in 28 days) I win back MY money and split the pot with all the other winners.

First, you verify your starting weight (I had to submit pictures on the scale to prove who I am and what my weight is:

Along with a special code word that they assigned me the morning of the challenge, which is why I have "legume" written down by the scale.

The scale currently says 210 and not that I cheated (I didn't!), it just so happened that I spent the weekend at my parents house eating all kinds of fatty, carby things AND went to dinner with my friend Tanya the night before which involved wine and cupcakes and was definitely retaining some water.

So...I'm not going into crazy dietgirl mode but I AM making some changes. On work days when I can't workout, I MUST stick to 1200 calories. On workout days, I can be slightly less strict and will only eat half the calories I burned. If you want to follow me on MyFitnessPal, my username is stephaniemartin42.

28 days to lose 8.4 pounds. Can I do it? Should be an interesting ride.

Fitness Studio

On January 30, I posted on Facebook:

I completely forgot that I bought a voucher for 5 Kangoo-Jumps (trampoline shoe) classes MONTHS ago. Amazon sent me a reminder that it will expire in a month so I signed up for my first class this coming Monday. I'm not sure how well my klutzy self will do with trampoline shoes but I managed to not kill myself on the Segways when Karin and I went and it's supposed to be a great workout so...here goes nothin'.

As of today, I've attended 13 Kangoo classes, and I love the studio (Beachside Ryde) so much that I started several of their other classes too - Pilates and Tabata being my favorites, and I'm going to try the TRX class and Indo-Row too. I started with a 5-class voucher, signed up for another 15 classes, and then this week I fully committed and signed up for 6 months of unlimited classes. I was hesitant to do it (it took a not-insignificant chunk of our tax refund) but Scott made the point of looking at how much we spend on TV service, going out to dinner, etc. and that if it made me happy, we could cut back elsewhere.

It DOES make me happy.

This is the Beachside studio - they have all kinds of toys that add lots of interest to the workouts - BOSU balls, weights, hula hoops, TRX straps, a ballet barre etc. The workout is NEVER the same twice.

My friend Maria (also a band patient, and she is the receptionist for my bariatric surgeon) started attending Kangoo with me once a week...it's a blast working out with a friend. Last Saturday we both rented heart/calorie monitors and competed for who could burn the most calories. She won by about 100 calories so I had to buy lunch. We had salads with tuna on them. :-)  I burned over 1200 calories that day, so I'd say we both won though.

A couple of weeks ago we had an incredibly gorgeous afternoon, and we did a Tabata boot camp outside...it was amazing!

This is my trainer Tania, who teaches most of the classes that I take. She is also the owner of the studio and is incredibly inspiring!

Even though a small studio is more expensive than a big-box gym, the difference there is amazing. It's like the difference between shopping at Walmart versus a small, locally-owned boutique - in theory, you're just working out but the difference is truly incredible. I can't wait to get there for each workout.
The individual attention makes all the difference in the world. I love walking in and seeing the same faces week after week.

And you know what else? When I work out, I want to feel light and strong and that influences my eating choices every day.

I have no idea how much weight I have lost, and it doesn't really matter. My pants are definitely getting too big on me. I'll weigh in next Sunday but no matter what the scale says, I know what I'm doing is really, really good for me and I have my motivation back.