My Appreciation for the Fit Blogging Community

First off, I want to say sorry to all the bloggers I follow for not keeping up with their blogs the past 11 days (and counting). I am still on vacation, spending time with family during the holidays over here on the East Coast. My PC time is a bit limited, but rest assured I have not forgotten about my blog and Twitter friends. Actually, that's what this post is about, the great friends I have made since starting this blog, and the great community of supporters.

When I left for my trip this month on the 10th, I thought I was leaving behind all my Twitter and Fitblog friends and supporters.  I realized though, as early as my first flight, that I didn't leave you behind, I took you all along with me. I bet you didn't realize that you were all taking a trip to RI with me did you? :)

After the first leg of my flight, I was sitting on the plane (I was one of only 2 that stayed from the last leg) so I got to chatting with one of the Southwest flight attendants. Come to find out she is on a weight loss journey of her own and has a goal of running her first 5k this March. This of course got me talking about my journey and the great support I have received from the Fitblog community of friends I have gained over the past 9 months. I told her how great you all are and how much of a positive experience it has been getting to know all of you. I also told her that without all of you and your great support, I would not have accomplished what I have so far. She really seemed intrigued so I asked if she was on Twitter. She wasn't at the time but said she was thinking about setting up an account. Well, I don't know if she has an account yet or not ( with all the talk of you guys, I forgot to give her my Twitter name lol ), but I will say that if any of you get a follow from a Southwest flight attendant, you know who the follow suggest came from LOL.

As I was spewing off names to her like Tidbits_of_Tara, JPnagan, Brooklyn_1012, FatgirlvsWorld, Cyclingsi, ChrisPugh, Rspnsblty199 and RingAroundRinn, I realized I never left you guys. I always carry you around. I obviously could not stand there and name all my followers but I think she got the point that everyone in the Fitblog community was responsible for my success so far. I also think that she was generally interested in what I had to say. She kept the conversation going with questions about Twitter and Fitblog so that was a good sign...I think.

I also realized that I talk about this great community all the time. Every chance I get I am letting people know about all of you. So, to sum all this up I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who follows and supports me. Thank you to everyone who is part of this fitblogging community (whether you follow me or not LOL) and thank you to everyone who goes out of their way to support someone who is going through this fitness and weight loss journey. You may not see it right away, but please know that you all make a very big difference in someone's life. You all help make it possible for people to realize that what they want to accomplish is entirely attainable.

THANK YOU!

Also a very special thanks to Katy (twitter: Kwidrick) for creating such a wonderfully supportive community with Fitblog. Follow fitblog chats on Tuesday nights at 9pm est by clicking here: Fitblog. Or follow the #fitblog hash tag on twitter. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

Offical Monthly Weigh In

Last month was rough. It started off with me doing a bunch of whining and beating myself up about how I only lost 5 pounds for the month of October. That lead to a few days of overeating and self doubt. After that I had blister issues to contend with and then it was the dreaded Thanksgiving feast. All of those lame excuses (well except for the blisters..they hurt like crazy) led to a dismal:

One pound Loss for the month of November.

Now, I'm not doing the same thing as last month and getting out the violin, playing a sad song for myself and wallowing away in self pity. In October I worked damn hard, so to see just a 5 pound loss was well, frustrating. As for November, I honestly didn't work hard at all. I went through the motions of going to the gym with some lazy workouts, and I counted my calories albeit half assed. But all in all, I pretty much gave in for the month of November, so a 1 pound loss was more than I expected. I thought for sure I would have a gain. 

For this month I going to get my workouts back to a kick ass level. I also need to work on holiday eating. Thanksgiving day was rough. Putting a fat guy who is trying to lose weight in front of all that food is like sitting an alcoholic at an open bar and saying hey, now go easy and only have a few drinks. It will almost always lead to a disaster. I didn't eat as much as I have in previous years, but I did eat until stuffed and then a bit later had pie.

At the end of this month I will be heading back to RI to visit family for the holidays. I don't get to visit RI too often so I'm going to have a tough time resisting all the great food I have been missing on the east coast. I usually go back and I eat my way through all my favorite places and probably gain 10 pounds in the process. This year I am adding a Christmas dinner with family into the mix. If I don't watch myself I could be in trouble so I must admit, I am a bit worried. When it comes to food I don't have much self control. I do better just staying away from it at this point in my weight loss saga, rather than testing my will at portion control. I will be staying with my sisters, who thankfully are a bit health conscious, so they might help me stay in line.  

 

What are some of the things that you do to fight off the holiday food monsters?

Well hopefully through all of this, I have worked hard enough to hear that *CLICK* when I sit down in my seat on the plane this month. If you don't know what I mean, scroll down a few posts and read. With that I leave you with a short summary of my weight loss saga so far. It's not great and with less weight lifting I think the numbers could be a tad better. But I will take this and all my NSV's over where I was in March any day.

March 2010 - 320 pounds

November 2010 - 290 pounds

December 2010 - 289 pounds

NovGTD Wrap-Up

Well another month has come and gone and so ends another monthly GTD (Going The Distance) challenge. These challenges, put together by Robby (@FatGirlvsWorld), are a great way to stay focused all month. They are also a fantabulous way to become part of group of people that will support you every step of the way. You see, these challenges are not set to pit one person against another, but they are there for you to challenge yourself. You can sign up here (http://tinyurl.com/35cmd3p), then get yourself on Twitter and follow all the great people. If you need help, I’ll lend a hand. So get on board for this month's DecGTD and become part of something special.

www.shoeboxblog.com

My NovGTD was a slow start followed by a rush to finish strong. The month began with me feeling a bit down about only having a 5 pound loss for the month of Oct. So the first week of Nov was filled with all my crap about is this really worth all the hard work and I ate too much and complained too much blah blah blah. I almost had to get the violin out a few times. I also started to develop blisters (big Mofo’s) in my armpit and that hurt like hell, so that kept the workouts to a minimum and definitely no running. After being kicked in the ass by most my fellow bloggers (I love those peeps), the second week went a bit better. The third and fourth weeks went ok as well but I ended up with only 85.4 miles on the month. I was short again of my goal of 100 miles running/walking in a month. You know what though, I was fine with that. Sure I want to hit that goal, but other than the first week (only 13 miles logged)  I really kicked ass to pull out a strong finish.

I’m about to do my monthly weight in for November and I must say I am not looking forward it. But even if I did gain, I know it’s just one month in a long journey and I will get back on track. I am so far health wise from where I was this past March and I have no complaints about that.

Next up….My monthly weight in.