Frying In My Own Fat Week Four Update

For those of you who are keeping up with my "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge, my latest post  appeared on technorati as  Week 4–Better to Fry in Brown Fat Than White Fat. To read it, you can click on the article name or the scale above or you can go over to my fitness blog and read it there.

Frying in My Own Fat Week 2 Update

For those of you who are keeping up with my "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge, my latest post  appeared on technorati as  Frying in My Own Fat Week Two: Why I hate the French. To read it, you can click on the article name or the scale above or you can go over to my fitness blog and read it there.

Frying In My Own Fat Week One: Happy Hour Proves Less Than Happy For Fitness Challenge

For those of you who are keeping up with my "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge," my latest post first appears on technorati as Frying In My Own Fat Week One: Happy Hour Proves Less Than Happy For Fitness Challenge. To read it, you can click on the article name or the scale above.

Get Ready For the 'I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat' Weight Loss Challenge

[Let's start the school year off right toward a healthier, leaner year. This article (still written by me) was first published as Get Ready for the 'I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat' Weight Loss Challenge on Technorati.]

The 40 days of consecutive 100 plus degree temperatures ended just two days shy of matching the 1980 record of 42 consecutive 100-degree days.
I must admit it was somewhat of a disappointment for me as well as for others.  One meteorologist told The Dallas Morning News, "It's the ultimate slap in the face. It's like your horse was in first place, and before crossing the finish line, it decided to stop running."

After all, if you have to survive 40 days of walking on the face of the sun, you might as well have bragging rights to breaking the record and surviving.

Of course, this wasn't the only numeric recording that failed dismally. It just wasn't marked with much fanfare. Now into my (cough cough) something year of attempting to lose weight, I have once again allowed my summer to pass with only one less pound to not show for it.

Sad I know.

All this hot air got me to thinking that perhaps it's time to launch the "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge. Anyone else up to it?

It's not that I'm stupid when it comes to this. It's not that I don't exercise. I do. Even the training for the 3-day 60 mile walk for the Cure last year wasn't enough to shed the baggage.

And it's not that I don't eat well. I do. I don't eat fast food. I avoid fried foods. I don't drink sodas.  I know it's all about portion control, and therein lies the problem. No self control, I suppose.

I know that there are programs out there to help people like me. My BFF has lost close to 30 pounds on one such program.

But I'm not much of a joiner in that regard, and I certainly don't have the money after my beach house in Denton renovation. I'm stubborn enough to believe if I set my mind to it, I can do it.

Dumb, I know.

I even got on that Oprah-Doctor-Oz Bandwagon and purchased that You on a Diet book last summer. I got to page 95.

Pathetic, I know.

But maybe, just maybe, if I have to publicly document my success and failure, I will finally lose some weight. So Monday, August 15 begins my official start of my "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge. At the very least, it'll be an amusing distraction.

Here's the challenge: Let's try and lose some weight. Weigh in every Monday. You don't have to tell how much you actually weigh, just how much you lose or gain each week. Everyone says it's a good idea to log that sort of thing and keep track of what you eat and what you did.

Perhaps some public humiliation will work.

Or maybe not.

But what do we have to lose?

Except that fat.

Week 15 Training Update

For those of you who have been following my training for the Susan G. Komen 60 mile, 3-day for the Cure Walk, my latest update can be found on Technorati or on my fitness challenge blog.

Week 12: Kicking it into stupid gear

(Article first published as Week 12: Kicking It Into Stupid Gear on Technorati.)

Sometimes I ignore warning signs, whether it's a simple telltale sigh from my spouse or something more "official" like those nasty little National Weather Service heat advisory bulletins.

Sometimes I'm a poster child for memory loss, like when I forget that the previous week of my training for the 3-day for the Cure was short on training and long on air conditioned conference rooms.

And then, sometimes, just sometimes, I'm just not the brightest crayon in the box.

Yep, Week 12 of my training found me kicking it in high gear on the stupid level.

It started on Monday when I, along with my two training buddies, decided it would be a brilliant idea to do an 8-mile walk... at 1:30 p.m. during a heat advisory. Despite slathering on sunscreen, packing lots of water, wearing light colored clothing and taking a few breaks here and there, by mile five things weren't looking so good. 

I, of course, knew the problem: heat exhaustion. I even ticked off all the symptoms to my walking buddies because, after all, I had previously written about those dangers in my Week 5 post.

Still, we remained undeterred, but things started getting ugly at the six and half mile marker when we collapsed on a bench located, fittingly, near a cemetery.

We almost called our husbands to come and rescue us, but the thought of them taking photographs and posting our failure on YouTube was enough to spur us on.

That and the sound of an ice cream truck (as if we needed a reason to celebrate National Ice Cream Month.)

Good thing I carry around an emergency five dollar bill.

Workshop, Slackers & Shoes

(Article first published as Week 10 & 11: Shoes Provide Little Hope for Slackers on Technorati.)

Blame it on the week-long high school journalism workshop filled with 600-plus kiddos that I had to attend.

Or blame it on a lack of sleep resulting from chaperoning said workshop

Or, let's just blame it on the rain. (OK, so you probably have to be pre-Generation Y to get that rain allusion.)

Perhaps all those factors combined to make it not only difficult to walk, but also impossible to find the time to dutifully report about my inactivity for my 3-day for the Cure training. I only managed to squeeze in four miles or so while attending the workshop. The previous week I kept to my walking schedule racking up two to three miles every day, but I'm such a slacker I neglected to report about it.

I didn't even get a chance to read the second part of the USA Today fitness challenge story.   

I did, however, read with interest another article  about those toning shoes that supposedly will give the wearer a more shapely behind, toned legs and tighter abs--all without having to set foot in a gym.

Oh, if I only had a pair of those shoes, I wouldn't have to obsess so much about my lack of training this past week.

If life were only that simple. If it were, I'd be the first to slap down a hundred bucks or so (plus shipping and handling), and everything would shape up. 

But my hopes for an easy out were snuffed by the seventh paragraph. The article quoted a professor from Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine in Baltimore who very succinctly said those claims were "utter nonsense."

Moreover, according to the article, doctors warned toning shoes can cause other problems with balance and can strain Achilles tendons.

Perhaps  I'm better off with a pair of those ruby red slippers and my regular walking shoes. 

Your Mum’s So Fat…

Made ya look, didn’t I?

For a completely educationally unrelated post, check out my latest on BlogCritics called, “Wanted: Two Chubby Brits.” 

The Game’s Afoot!

(This post originally appeared on my fitness challenge site. And yes, we are still looking for two Brits who are up to the challenge. Surely, there are two of you out there!?)

Ah, my fellow portly friends, the game is, indeed, afoot. The challenge has been issued. The shot has been fired across the bow.  We are jumpin’ jack flash at the ready. We have challenged my friends across the pond to see if they have two teachers who are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

My buddy, Sarah Ebner over at the SchoolGate, the London Time's education website, posted a letter I sent them challenging two of their teachers to join Joel and me in the Battle of the Bulge.

Now, if we don't get a couple of takers, we'll start lobbing our arsenal of "your mum's so fat jokes…"

So hop over there and post a comment challenging those Brits!

Ah, what have you got to lose?

Can Wii Do It Shoutout

My good friend over at the Scholastic Scribe gave my fitness challenge blog a great plug.  Don’t take my word for it, check her post out over there.

Now, if you haven’t bopped over to Can Wii Do It?, please do so. Joel and I need all the encouragement/help we can get. We each post, so you’ll need to scroll to whatever entry/entries you want to read. My latest is called, BMI, Floating Fatso & Goals. Of course, we’d like for you to read them all.

So, please--in the name of all that is skinny--go there and post some comments… share some tips…offer to guest post… keep us out of the chocolate drawer…

For crying out loud, is anyone out there?