False Advertising? I need your opinion.

Hello everyone. I am back from my travels and will talk a bit about that ahead, but I have something I need your opinions on first, as I'm not sure what I should think. As those of you know that have read my blog in the past, I have been involved with a fitness club that has had a "Biggest Loser" program going since January. There have been two sessions so far. The first session ended in April and I won for my class. The second session ended in June. Well, I came home and went to their web site to see what was happening and what I may want to sign up for this time around and found my "before" and "after" pictures being used to help promote their programs. Okay, I'm sure that in something I signed I gave them the rights to use my pics, so that in itself is no big deal. However, when I saw the pictures, I was astounded at the false advertising. To be sure it wasn't just my opinion, I asked a few of my friends, some of which also have attended these sessions, and they agreed with me. So just now I saved the pics from the web site so that I could put them here with my story, and guess what? They saved to my computer in original form, not the form they use on their web site. So I want to paste the way it saved here and ask you to click on the link to their page and see the way they have it posted and ask you to please tell me what you think. I have been told that these pics are also on their door in a flyer format, so I will have to go by there while I am out today and see just how it looks there. In the meantime, I feel like this is false advertisement, at least on their web page. My fiance wants to call his friend at the newspaper about it, but I'm not sure I want to do that. I know if I do something like that, I obviously will be done with the fitness center, and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, either. We have all seen ads for places with before and after pictures of their sucessful clients and want to believe what we see. But this just shows how easily false things can be. I think the real before and after pictures would be fine on their own. However, the way they used them sure does show what should be a much larger loss than what they stated I lost. Please share your thoughts with me, pro or con. I really do want some objective feedback with this. Thanks to anyone/everyone that takes a moment to do this.

Here are the true before and after pics as they should be (the way they saved to my computer). Okay, the pics posted at the top of the blog, but there they are. Now please, compare that to the squished and stretched versions located at the bottom of the page on this link.

http://www.focusfitnesstucson.com/BLprogress.html

The Old Man and His Beard

Do you remember the story of the old man and his beard? Short version is there was an old man that had grown his beard all his life. He was known for this and people came from all over to see him and his beard. One day, quite innocently, someone asked him if he slept with his beard under or over the covers. Having never thought about it before, the old man found he could not get comfortable either way and eventually had to cut it off in order to get a good night's sleep.

Well, I currently feel like that old man. On Saturdays, Steve goes with me to the track to do his walk while I do my thing. This past Saturday, quite innocently (seriously, he meant nothing beyond poking fun at me), he asked me if I could feel my butt jiggle when I ran. At that moment I simply laughed at him about it. However, on Monday while I was running I suddenly remembered his question. All of a sudden I realized that yes, I could feel it jiggling. All of a sudden nothing felt right, but I finished my run/walk. Next afternoon I went in and part way through same thing happen. When I thought of it, I felt like I was having a hard time running. Yesterday was national running day, and I had planned to push myself a bit more. But, there I was again. Shortly after starting, it suddenly popped back into my head. Yes, I could feel my butt jiggle as I ran. Suddenly I felt that I couldn't get my stride right. I was SO tempted to stop before I had completed my usual routine. I felt like I was having to work harder than normal to do what should be natural at this point. I was feeling drained physically too soon. No matter how I tried to distract myself, I kept feeling my butt muscles (and fat). I actually was feeling sore across my butt from the jiggling. Okay, what is wrong with me? This HAS to be all in my head, right? I've been doing this for months without a problem before. Why is this creating such a situation for me? And, of course, it's not like I can just say "don't think about it". Once it has popped into my mind, it seems to be all consuming while I'm running. Has anyone else had something like this happen? If so, how did you overcome it. I am finding that I am not looking forward to the track anymore, and in fact would welcome any excuse I can come up with right now to not go back anytime soon.

On another note, tonight is weigh-in. I may be in trouble this week. I have been being a bit "bad" everyday with my food. Sunday evening at dinner I had a homemade biscuit and serving of pasta with corn in it. Considering I am doing low carb, that was three no-no's in one meal. BAD, BAD, BAD. Otherwise I have just done some stupid little something somewhere in my day each day. Last time I was reaching this point, I was ending the first session of the biggest loser contest and so was able to take a week "off" between ending that one and starting the next. I think it really helped me get back on track because I had to lose what I had gained that week and I did it and kept going. So I am thinking this means it's time for a little "off" time so I can recommit. Problem is, I will have plenty of "off" time starting next week when I go on vacation. Knowing that, why couldn't I just stay good for another week?

Okay, I've got to get it together. I've got to overcome this running issue and get control again with my food. I want to be of the right mindset so that while on vacation I won't let it all go and come back to large weight gain. I know I won't be on top of my exercise and food, after all, when will I get a chance again for real German food? But I do want to stay in control about my choices and hopefully keep at least some exercise happening. There is actually a bit of fear happening here. I don't want to have to work to re-lose the same pounds over again. I want to feel the resolve I felt a few weeks ago of knowing I had developed great new habits and would not let them fall aside again. I still have four days before we start our trip, so hopefully I can get out of this funk and back on track before I leave. And I WILL pack my running shoes!

Weigh in tonight. Down another pound. Slow and steady, right? That makes 35 pounds total lost since starting.

I made a small accomplishment today. Last week one of my run/walk sessions had to be short as I had someplace I had to be. Rather than skip (which would have been an old habbit), I went and decided to try to work it harder since I had less time. I have been running one lap, walking one lap, running one lap, walking one lap, etc. That night I ran doubles twice. Then Saturday morning while there, I ran doubles four times. Tonight, I ran doubles each time. That would be nine doubles, so 1.5 miles out of 2 miles I ran, walking the other half mile, plus a couple laps to cool down. While this is not really big in the overall scheme of things, and I know most others are running miles without stopping, for me this was good. I found my body is finally ready to be pushed a little harder. So I may not hit as many miles a week, but for now, to push harder for two miles each time works for me. I want my heart to be healthier, and this feels good.

Just a quick update. Life has been, well, let's just say very full lately. On our last day of school, we were caught completely off guard when 13 of my co-workers were given notice of being laid off. We really never saw it coming. In fact, a couple months ago we were all made to go to a meeting where we were assured our department was "safe" this year because we had been hit so badly last year. We were lied to. I still have a job at the moment, but what and where that job will be is currently up in the air. Apparently there is a complete restructuring happening, and "centralizing" seems to be the target. It would take me off site of my employees, which reverses every thought about why I was put there in the first place. There are some duties of my job I would be unable to do if not on site, which is why my manager said he is fighting against the idea. So, I hold my breath and wait. June was suppose to be a good month for me to take vacation as our location is being shut down for repaving and summer routes are being run from downtown. Now, I have no idea what will happen while I am gone for three weeks nor where I will be reporting to work when I get back. Nice thing to have hanging over my head while on vacation, huh? But I know, it could be worse. Just been a bad week in SO many ways, I am emotionally exhausted. Ever feel like you are being attacked from all sides? My current fantasy? To hide away all weekend and just sleep...........no issues.
Okay, enough of all that. In spite of things, I did get nearly all my exercise in this week. I had a few week moments on the food side of things, but actually did not do emotional eating....even though I have had plenty of reason to fall back into that cycle! I went a little off course last Saturday night when we were at the goth birthday party. And on Wednesday, as a "happy end of the year" gift one of my employees gave me a very small dark chocolate bar and reminded me how "good for you" dark chocolate is. Well, heck.....it's good for me, right? So yes, I ate it, but I shared it with the man that occassionally shares my office. Anyway, the results of all this at weigh-in last ngiht? Down 0.8 pounds. Not a lot, but under the circumstances of this week, I am pleased. I was sincerely afraid there would be a gain.
One quick note of a highlight of the week. Wednesday evening I got to hang out with my grandchildren so their parents could go out. I had SUCH a great time with them! They are so special. My daughter and her husband are doing an amazing job as parents. Those are the things that holds the soul together when the rest of the world is pulling it apart!

Another week has passed. I feel that I should probably be posting more often than I am, but I just don't feel I have anything newsworthy to share. This past week was pretty good. On Saturday night we went to a birthday party at a restaurant. I decided I would allow myself one indulgence, so I ordered the chicken parmesean sandwich, took off the bread (leaving chicken, bacon, and cheese...which is all good choices on my plan) with the fries (which was the indulgence). When it came, I gave half the fries to Steve. I felt good because I had made a choice to allow myself something, and then kept it in check by only taking half. However, (isn't there always one of those.....lol), when the birthday cake got served, I didn't resist and shared a piece with Steve. Okay, so the up part is that in both cases, I only had half of what I could have had. The down side is that I had just said how stuffed I felt from the dinner, but then ate the cake anyway. But other than that, I have been good with my food all week. On Saturday morning I actually got Steve to go to the track with me. He ususally walks everyday at home, but I think this is so much better for him than where he walks for many reasons. And since we have stopped our hikes on Saturday mornings, this is good so that I am doing something on Saturdays again. Last week we hit the track, and then went to an early showing of Star Trek. Last night he agreed to go with me again tomorrow, and perhaps we will hit the movies again afterwards to see Angel and Demons. Also, tomorrow night we have another birthday party to go to, but....get this. We are all suppose to dress "goth" and show up at the restaurant. This should prove interesting!! I was looking online last night at some goth web sites and actually learned a lot about the different types of goth dress and attitudes. It was really interesting and popped my stereo-type bubble I had. I will definitely have to share a picture here afterwards.

At my weigh-in last night, I was down 2.7 pounds to 186.3. I am SO happy to have stayed headed in the right direction! I was afraid of crossing back into the 190s. It would be so cool to be in the 170s at the end of this round of Biggest Loser. We actually have four more weeks to go, but I will miss the last week. I will probably weigh in on the last week on Monday before leaving town. So I actually have 3 1/2 weeks left.

Speaking of leaving town, did I mention that yet? We got our tickets last week and are Germany bound in June. My son and his wife are stationed there right now (Army), and we are going for a visit. I have lived there on three different occassions; when I was very young, when I was in high school, and when my son was born. It will be neat to show my son some of his history. Steve has never been, so it will be a brand new experience for him. We will be there 2 1/2 weeks. And on the trip back, we have a nearly 10 hour layover in London. It will be in the dark......10pm till 7am, but doesn't matter. I plan to rent a car and get out and see whatever I can see while there, as I have never been there and am likely to never be there again.

Here it is the morning after weigh-in, and I've somehow confused myself. I will have to call today to find out what my weigh-in was last week, because the number of total pounds lost is not seeming to add up right to where I thought I was last week. However, the scale last night was finally down into 180's. Well....189, actually, but still "in" them! That makes a total of 30.5 pounds lost since I started this in January. So I've crossed out of the 190's, and I've crossed the 30 pounds lost. The scary thing about saying all this is that now I have to be careful this next week to not screw up and cross back over to the other side of those two milestones. Here's where the fear of accomplishment meets the fear of losing. Cara has recently blogged about that, about how fear of being able to maintain a milestone can sometimes keep us from achieving it. That is SO true! I think about this complete process and wonder.......are these changes I'm making really going to be able to be life changes? I SOOO don't want to do all this just to gain it back and have to start over again some years down the road. I've been here before, BUT....I hope this time is different....that this time sticks. I believe I started this time around with a different attitude, different reasons for doing this, and a better support system in place. So I must stay positive and assume only the best ahead, knowing there will be setbacks, but also knowing they can be overcome. (Question is...am I trying to convince you or me....lol.)