"Give a Little Bit"

 It's no secret that I love music. I always have. When I started my blog, I didn't know what I would call it but I knew, without a doubt, that each title would be a song title. I'm not sure it it's clever or a clever way to cheat but either way, music describes our lives.

"Give a Little Bit" has more than one meaning to me this week.

I'd like to brag on myself for eating all the right calories, walking the right distance, showing great strength during our first strength training and being a strong team member.   I'd like brag on myself, but I would be lying.

  Let's start with the highs: This week I was introduced by a very generous and wonderful friend to the Fit Bit. I must admit that I have always had a hard time understanding anything that is medium-to-high tech but I have found this to be a big plus in my weight loss routine.

For those of you who don't know,  A Fit Bit is a tiny, thumb-sized contraption that you wear, like pedometer. It keeps track of your activity (counts steps like a pedometer, stairs that you climb, calories burned). As you go throughout your day the little flower on the Fit Bit grows :) You can also log your sleeping (when I can figure it out) food, water intake, glucose, bp, bmi and just about else you can think of pertaining to your weight.

The fit bit synchs up with my computer (and, when I take the time to do it, my smart phone) and whenever I sit down, it tells me how many steps I've taken, stairs climbed, etc. It even sends me "way to go" emails when I reach the milestones that I have set. I can honestly say that this is one of the cleverest tools I've seen to keep track of everything related to physical fitness/healthy eating (I assure you that NO ONE is paying me to say any of this).

This week, our team had our first strength training with Chris O'Hearn at Fort Sanders Health & Fitness Center.  There is a part of me that is, generally, scared to death of strength training. I don't understand the machines and I am already a bull-in-a-china shop type person so I felt a little awkward working on the machines.  This often times causes me to revert back to my fat middle-schooler ways of cracking jokes, which I did and I hope no one doesn't think I'm not taking this seriously, because I am.
 We were divided into groups and worked during part of the hour on the weight machines and then with Chris on the stability ball and those "Planks" that Missy showed us on the first day came back to haunt me on this night. I found out, very quickly, that I need to strengthen my "Core".

 I also went back to Zumba this week. If you don't do Zumba..you should. You also have no excuse not to do Zumba, since there are, literally, dozens of  classes during the week in and around East Tennessee.
 A couple of places you can find Zumba are:
Zumba Knoxville
Dance Moves

If you belong to a gym, like Fort Sanders Fitness Center, be sure to ask when their classes are..or as always, go to the Zumba website.

Don't worry about not being able to follow the moves or looking out of place, trust me--if I can do Zumba ANY ONE can. So get out there and move to the music!

 On Saturday it was time for our weekly training. This week, I was to walk 5 1/2 miles. Trouble is, I overslept. I admit that I have ALWAYS struggled with sleeping. I can never fall asleep, stay asleep or wake up. It's really embarrassing. Without giving excuses, I will say that I simply woke up at 7:45 a.m., drove like a mad woman to get there (obeying traffic rules, of course), and had to park at a local school to catch up with my team. In all, I did about 5 miles (I made up the 1/2 during my trip to the grocery store). It wasn't my strongest work out and I felt that I had let everyone down. No one said this to me, I just felt that I had (I always tend to feel this way when I fall short of my own expectations).

 It was nice to see Mike, Ariel, Randy and Darla during our walk (and strength training) we hadn't been together as a group in a while so it was a mini-reunion. (Side note:  It was also fun to see Peggy--WIVK the frog--during our Thursday night group meeting. I have always loved this woman..mostly because she was a trooper during our Mascot Baseball Games on Live at Five at 4) Amanda and I were walking buddies and we had good talks about support, food choices (I almost didn't recognize her at first because she's toned up so much).

 After our walk, we all met at Panera and talked about how things were going. I admit that I had one of their Power Breakfast Sandwiches (because I am sick to death of oatmeal). It was delicious. We shared some advice (which I always appreciate) and struggles (which I appreciated even more). We talked about meeting up for a class on healthy cooking (since one our team mates is a chef and another is a Dietitian), I bragged on how one of my co-workers is like my "Coach Missy" at work, She makes sure I'm walking, climbing stairs, drinking water and keeping on task to get out and get across town in time to attend meetings at the Covenant Weight Management Center. I've even enlisted (well, strong-armed) the help of another co-worker to walk around our building 4-5 times a day to add steps to my pedometer, make my flower grow and  to just get a break from staring at our computers.

 Even though Saturday started rough for me, it's ended on a high note.  Meeting with the group made me feel so much better and I left there with a resolve to do better in every aspect of this journey. I'm taking it easy today, I'm giving myself a break for things I can't do anything about, and I'm looking at each new day as a fresh start.

I'm also listening to the music.

Have a great week

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13