Join us at the gym with a FREE LA Fitness pass!

Here's the link to a FREE  pass to LA Fitness where you can join me in the swimming pool any day of the week, or hubby in the raquet ball court, or try out their big variety of classes that are all included FREE with the membership. They're all over the nation, so I'm sure you'll find one near you. Click here to print your FREE pass

https://www.lafitness.com/Pages/FindClub.aspx?flow=GuestPass

We go to LA Fitness on the South Hill of Puyallup and occasionally Lacey or Vancouver, Washington when we're visiting family in those areas. Hubby loves the racquetball games, my favorite activity is swimming.

Group classes include aerobics, aqua fit, belly dancing, body works plus abs, boot camp conditioning, cardio jam, club boxing circuit, core training, cycle zone, hip hop, kickbox cardio, latin heat, mat pilates, senior fit, step circuit, step II plus abs, step scuplt, striding, sunrise yoga, tai chi, total body conditioning, yoga, yoga beat and zumba.

There is a basketball court, a huge weight and strength training area, and cardio equipment.

The swimming pool is always warm and indoors, a jetted spa, and a dry sauna in the incredibly clean women's and men's locker rooms are the perfect way to top off a good work out.

They also have great certified trainers available, both men and women, in an assortment of ages, to help achieve your goals.

You can take a virtual tour of LA Fitness by clicking on the link.

https://www.lafitness.com/VirtualTourPlayer.aspx

Lost and Found

I lost 3 pounds again last week by tracking my food intake and swimming every single day, but I’ve been worrying about keeping up the sustained reducing over time. I need to take off 2 pounds every single week to achieve my goal in the time line I’m working toward.  

I found this really neat tool to calculate how many calories you’re burning in a day and it is free to use. You just click on the link, then fill in the blanks with how many minutes you do of each activity on the list in a day. It even has sleeping, sitting, reading and writing on the list as well as sports activities!

Remember your total minutes in a day are 1440, so try and total that as you fill out the list accounting for what you do. After you enter everything you do in a day, by minutes, it will give you a total of how many calories you're burning in a day.

Then if you’re counting your calories or food exchanges, you need to burn 3500 calories more than what you eat to lose 1 pound. So if you’re eating 1500 calories a day on the exchange plan, then you need to do enough activities in the course of the week to burn 7000 calories more than what you ate every day.

I REALLY like this tool and see exactly what I need to change to get those 2 pounds + off every single week.

I must be mindful of everything I put in my mouth. For me this means writing absolutely everything down. Then using this great calculator to figure out the calories I’m burning should take every bit of guesswork out of the equation and help me achieve that 2 pounds a week until I reach goal, then help me sustain my goal weight.   

Here’s the link to try it yourself. http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

Fun at Fall Rally

What a wonderful day we had at TOPS Fall Rally in Puyallup on Saturday. Quite a few from our Graham Chapter attended for a magnificently motivational time together. Leader Lin Scanland (long red hair, black shirt) was given the Chapter Angel award for her tireless efforts with TOPS WA #1147 Graham.

Guest speaker Robert Sweetgall was amazing with his stories and activities to get the room pumped up and our heart rates going and he did it all with humor and fun activities. Robert said he was Forrest Gump before Gump existed. He made an 11,208 mile foot journey, walking through all 50 states in one year, averaging 31 miles per day. You can learn more about him on his website http://www.creativewalking.com

Graham TOPS member, Beverly Satter, got in the spirit of the day with an energetic walk, hop, and dance around the room in one of the activities Robert had teams competing in.

Seeing the high percent of people who have achieved and maintained their goal weight and KOPS status over time was a huge inspiration to me.
 

Don't miss the opportunity to attend one of these events in the future. It was well worth my $9 investment and totally exceeded my expectations.

-30 Pounds and Counting

I was hobbling across the parking lot to the Orting Food Bank carrying my donation of 30 pounds of potatoes when a volunteer came dashing out to help me. I declined her offer to take them off my hands.

I wanted to experience and savor what it felt like to bear the burden of those extra 30 pounds weighing down my body. They were the symbol of the 30+ pounds I've lost since my first TOPS May weigh-in.

I was determined to be reminded with every step the impact my obesity has on my body and feel the difference these first 30 pounds I've lost is making. I was huffing and puffing before I made it to the building. My knees were literally creaking. My arms were burning under the extra load. And this was only for a 1 minute walk!

I left the donation and as I walked back to my car feeling the freedom of the loss of over 30 pounds, I did the math in my head of how many more sets of 30 pounds I have to lose to reach my goal. I calculate it will take me until the end of 2012 to get there.

I don't feel discouraged by the length of the journey ahead. Instead I feel encouraged with the realization of the difference these first 30 pounds is making in the strain on my body, and how much greater the improvement will be with each 30 more I take off.

30 pounds of pure fat. Just imagine it. Take a pound of butter from the fridge and wad it up into a ball. Now picture how many pounds you have to lose and how much fat that actually is weighing down your body, impacting your joints, your organs, robbing you of vitality, strength, health and energy.

I suppose it sounds like a silly exercise, but it is just one of the mental pictures I'm using to keep myself on track, reaching toward my goal weight and improved health.

I plan to make many more treks to the Orting Food Bank as I reach weight loss milestones, carrying the symbol of how many pounds I've shed. I want to feel the pain and impact of the burden I was bearing and be reminded of the gain I'm experiencing by losing my excess weight.

I'd love to hear about the things you do that reinforce the positive changes in your life. Send me an email to jrmadison@comcast.net and share your ideas.

Falling Down and Getting Up

I've had balance and falling problems this year due to health issues I'm dealing with. I crashed and burned several times this summer, but the last time was the big bubba of face plants.

As I hurtled forward, my mind flashed through what was going to happen. If I didn't stop the fall with my hands and knees, I was probably going to put my head through the wall. I quickly decided a concussion was not the best choice and hit the floor very hard stopping myself on my good leg.

As I lay there, thankful I didn't headbutt the sheet rock, it occurred to me that I was going to have problems getting up. I was in the hall, nothing to grab on to, and my wrists, knee, and leg hurt so badly that I couldn't crawl on them. To top it all off, I was home alone. 

Eventually I pulled myself upright gripping the door frame, and iced the worst parts of black and blue bruises. I thought all was improving until a week later my leg swelled up like a balloon and turned an ugly purple red.

I ended up on antibiotics to fight the infection and spending a lot of time in bed with the leg elevated and iced. I ultimately recovered and the down time gave me the opportunity to contemplate other ways I've fallen down in life and the recovery process.

I'm not talking about physical falls now, but life tumbles. Things like going through divorce. That's a fall I'd rather not experience again. It was painful. I did learn that with time you heal and recover. You try to learn from your bad choices and pain to not repeat the cycle, make different and better choices, and have a healthier relationship in the future.

Falling down happens in my eating and health habits. I've been trying to establish new and improved eating and exercise patterns in my life, but sometimes I fall down and make bad choices. It slows down my progress, but if I get back up and keep working on it, I will improve. My body responds, my health responds, my mind responds, I feel better.

It's not always easy. Some days I don't feel like going for my swim, but I've been faithfully keeping at it. Some days I don't want to weigh, measure, and write down everything that I eat, but for me that is part of getting up. I have to eat and move mindfully. If I don't, I consume more than I need and I don't move as much as I should.

Sometimes I'm afraid to go to my weekly weigh in at TOPS. I'm fearful that instead of the loss I'm working so hard to see on the scale, I'll see a gain. But the weigh in is part of getting up from the fall for me. It is an accountability to myself and others. It is a time of meeting with like minded people who also know and understand what it is to fall down and fight to get back up to achieve their health and fitness goals.

At this morning's weigh in I was the week's biggest loser in our TOPS group with another 3 pounds gone from my frame. Some of the others lost and some gained. I'm so glad everyone came and that when we do fall, we have people who love us, give us a hand up and help us get back up and on track.

'Souper' Suppers!

The cool weather has put me in a mood for soup. It has been fun coming up with modified recipes to get nutrient rich, low calorie versions that are tasty. As big as hubby is, he's a picky eater, so if it passes the Jim test, I feel pretty good about the concoction. I've had 3 winners in the past week. I took a scalloped potato soup recipe that I saw in a magazine, replaced the heavy cream with skim milk, added loads of vegetables, and it was a huge hit. I've seen the Dr. on PBS touting the benefits of eating GOMBS (green beans, onions, mushrooms, berries and seeds) every day, so I made a wonderful vegetable beef soup that had the GOM part and a sorbet dessert made with strawberries, nonfat milk, and flax seeds, that was delicious and very filling for the BS part. The third winner is a spinach soup that not only Popeye would love, but Jim does too! I'm working at keeping my salt intake down, and since store bought soups are loaded with sodium, these healthy home made versions are made without added salt for me, and everyone else in the house can put as much as they want in their own bowls. I'd love to get your favorite soup recipes. You can send them to me at jrmadison@comcast.net. Check out this great article and recipe on soups by clicking on this link to an article that ran in the Tacoma News Tribune for  Chef Rocco DeSpirito's Slim Soup .

VENDORS & CRAFTERS WANTED FOR HOLIDAY BAZAAR!

$ell your wares & see your profits soar at the 'Have Fun at Thun Holiday Bazaar' Nov. 19-20th, Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-3. Vendor space available for $30 per 6’x8’ or $40 per 8’x8’ space. $10 extra for a 6’ table & 2 chairs or bring your own. Reserve your space today! 253-846-6715 or tmasura@yahoo.com. Day of bazaar, follow the signs from Meridian & 168th St SE from the entrance to Pierce County Airport Thun Field to the Talon Aviation hanger at 17006 105th Ave E. Puyallup. Thun Fun Holiday Bazaar sponsored by and benefit for nonprofit Take Off Pounds Sensibly, WA #1147 Graham.

Farewell to Joy Cook

Founder of the Take Off Pounds Sensibly TOPS WA 1147 Graham group, Joy Cook, gave a fond farewell program at today's weekly meeting. She was presented with a gift from the chapter for her years of service and inspiring programs.

In 1988 Joy earned the prestigious recognition of TOPS Washington state queen for achieving goal weight and losing 124 pounds.

"Stick with it...success is incremental...it might be 1/4 pound at a time to get to goal, focus on living and eating healthy" was her parting advice to the group.

"We know how to lose and gain weight, we have to learn to live in the middle at goal," she added.

When she moved to Graham she couldn't find a group to transfer to that worked with her schedule of availability, so she started a new chapter.  Over the years it has blossomed to 39 members with several who have reached their goal weight and maintained it earning them KOPS (Keep Off Pounds Sensibly) status.

Joy and her husband are moving to Arizona to pursue a career opportunity. She looks at the change as a way to demonstrate to her grown children that at over 60 years of age you can still do something new in your life.