Kathy: Week 4

Current Weight: 148
Last Week's Weight: 149
Total Weight Loss: 3 pounds!

Woo hoo! Another pound of me gone bye-bye!
What's that, you ask? What does 3 pound of fat look like?

3 pounds of butter

Imagine all that butter smeared all over me!! Yuck!!

Of course, vain little me would like the 3 pounds to come off of my tummy all at once, but that's not how it works. Our bodies metabolize fat from throughout our bodies, including the fat we never see, the fat that sticks to all our organs, like our liver and kidneys, and if we really want to be healthy, not just skinny, that's the bad stuff that we really want to lose.

This belly fat is nasty, nasty stuff. It generates toxins that make our bodies susceptible to chronic diseases, bad ones like heart disease and diabetes. And the way to get rid of it is to eat healthy, exercise (especially aerobic exercise---check out Sarah's videos below this post!), and lose weight gradually.

So I really do feel like I'm on the right track! I'm sticking to my original plan really well. I am getting just a teensy bit bored with the snacks I'm eating every day, so I'll probably change those up a bit this week. But I LOVE eating 1600 calories every day, divided into four 400-calorie meals (one "meal" is my snacks). So simple. So healthy.

The yoga class is an amazing stretch and muscle-lengthening/strengthening workout every week, and I'm faithfully getting up and going to Curves 2 mornings per week. Speaking of that, I have to tell you that getting up to exercise at 5:15 isn't so bad. Sure, I'm sleepy, but I'm all awake and energized by the end of the workout. It's great! And my Curves gym is starting a 60-day challenge next Saturday. I've signed up for it, which means I'll be going to Curves 3x per week (instead of just 2x per week) for the next 60 days. It's nice to have another incentive to improve my exercise habits!

Speaking of Curves, I have to tell you about a great little book that is crammed with great eating and exercise tips. It has a very healthy eating plan with recipes that are simple, flexible and YUMMY!

It's the Curves Fitness and Weight Management Plan. I know, I know, not the jazziest title ever, but the insides make up for the ho-hum title. You can pick it up on amazon.com, or at your local Curves gym. You don't have to be a member to walk in and buy this book ($25.00)

Here's a recipe from the Curves book that my family loves:
Apple-Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes
(6 servings - 150 calories per serving)

1 large (29 oz) can of yams or sweet potatoes
2 apples, diced
2 Tablespoons butter
4 teaspoons cinnamon
Mash the sweet potatoes and combine with diced apples, cinnamon, and butter. Warm in the microwave or oven until heated through.

That's it! You just cut up apples and mash the yams and mix it up, and it is SO GOOD.
It makes a lot, but the leftovers keep just fine in the fridge to have for lunch the next day or for a quick and simple side dish for supper the next night.

So to wrap things up this week, I thought I'd share a little bit more about me, outside of trying to eat healthy and get more exercise and fit into my clothes better. Like Katie pointed out in her recent post, The Skinny has many more readers than we ever anticipated, and you deserve to know who your writers are!

First of all, of course, I'm Katie's mom. But I'm also mom to 8 other amazing people! My husband and I are parents of a large and active blended family of 9 children--5 are mine (Katie's my baby), 3 are his, and 1 is ours--a young adult daughter we adopted last year. We have 16 grandchildren (!!) ranging in age from almost 10 years old to almost 5 months old, and we will welcome 3 more grandchildren into the family in 2010. (Polly, who writes the "Frugal Food Fridays" recipe posts for The Skinny, is also one of my daughters.)

My favorite thing to do, when I'm not enjoying my family, is to go out hiking and backpacking in the woods. Here's a photo from July 2008, when I was setting out on a 50-mile solo backpacking trip! That's right, I spent 5 days alone in the woods, hiking in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, and I loved every minute of it. I'm excited to be healthy and fit and strong for more hiking again next summer.

I do most of my hiking in the summer, not only because the weather is better, but because I'm a high school English teacher, and the school year is pretty busy for me. My husband teaches Spanish in the same school--what a treat to be able to work/carpool/eat lunch with my best friend!

I have another blog, where I write about...oh...lots of things. Things I think about and notice, things that are funny or thought-provoking, things that inspire me. I write about my family, my job, my other life as a writer. Come on over and read a post or two or more, and please, please leave a comment! I love comments. I love the way blogs help us connect with one another in this big and busy world.

Happy Saturday, dear Skinny readers! Here's a thought to carry with you today:

"Happiness is not a destination, but a journey."

Let's remember that. Weight loss and health are not some magic number on the scale, they are the path to happy and healthy lifestyles. Let's keep encouraging one another along the way. We can do this!