Oh yeah – how about this for a fabulous prize from yours truly? I saw MizFit’s My Trainer Fitness Packs on her blog a while back and thought they were so great that I wanted to review them. She sent me a set to look at, and I liked them so much I wanted to offer two of you a chance to win the set of your choice.

The cards are cellophane wrapped when you get them to make sure they stay crisp and shiny while the post office slowly delivers them to you. There are six different sets, each of which costs $12.00. The choices include:

I tried out the 100-Calorie Workout set. I liked that it came with the little clip to hold the cards together, because knowing me, I’d lose Day 4 and then feel sad.

 MizFit explains that you can use weights, bands, or no additional weights, depending on your level of expertise and skill. She details each exercise in pictures, and gives you the approximate calories burned. Each workout takes about 20 minutes, and a person weighing 150 pounds burns about 100 calories per workout. Not bad for a fast workout that gives you cardio and weight training. In fact, it’s perfect for me right now with my back issues just now starting to resolve.

I felt like the exercises were challenging and effective, fun and best of all quick! This is important to me because I sometimes have to fit in strength training between schooling the kids, cooking dinner for nine or ten people, doing laundry, or running errands. I also appreciated the detailed instructions on stretching after your workout to help prevent injury and stay flexible.

Would you like a set for yourself? Just do one or more of the following, leaving a comment for each one. That gives you seven different chances to win.

1. Follow me or MizFit on Twitter

2. Like my Facebook page

3. Subscribe to Fit to the Finish updates and/or MizFit’s updates

4. Tell me which set of cards you’d like to win

5. Tweet this giveaway and leave me the link

Good Luck! I’ll choose the winner on December 18th!!  Diane

On Thursday, I was outside doing my usual walk and run when my shoe came untied. I put my foot up on a car bumper to retie my shoe and felt a little pull on my back. I finished my walk/run. As the day went on, my back started to bother me more and more. By that evening, I couldn’t walk, lie, sit, or stand without pain.

Friday morning when I woke up, I thought I was going to die just trying to get out of bed. It took me forever to get dressed and even longer to get down the stairs. Every step was excruciating. I collapsed onto the couch and had to force myself to get up and try to walk.

Saturday was a bit better, as I could actually walk around the house at a very slow pace. Sunday was even better, Monday was an improvement, and by last night, I was actually able to sit in a chair. Victory!

While I was couch/house ridden I learned a few things about myself. I really missed exercising. I mean really missed it. This was a huge source of frustration, and made me appreciate people who persevere with exercise no matter what affliction they have.

It was also eye-opening to me how little I ate, and interesting that I lost two pounds in those few days because I couldn’t get up and get myself food without a lot of effort. I found myself getting breakfast, then laying on the couch, getting lunch, then laying back down, and then doing the same for dinner. No snacks, no grazing before dinner, just three square meals day. The result? Some weight loss that I wasn’t intending, even though I was very inactive.

The time down on the couch also made me realize how I now naturally eat within my maintenance range and when I didn’t, I lost a few pounds. (That took a long time to master!)

The lessons from the couch made me appreciate my mobility. It made me contemplate how I might have lost my mobility completely if I had kept gaining weight 13 years ago, and ended up 400 pounds or more. Being stuck on the couch stunk in so many ways, but it also gave me a chance to appreciate that fact that I can be active most of the time, and made me happy that I made daily activity such a part of my life that I sorely miss those short times when I am unable to exercise.

Have you ever been faced with an injury or other situation where you had to think about your ability to move around?  Diane

In my heart I really want to be a runner, but even though I finished the fabulous C25k program several months ago, I’ve struggled with foot problems. I got two new pairs of shoes, both Nikes, and one time after I ran for 35 minutes in one of the pairs, my right foot hurt so badly I had to ride my bike for several weeks until the pain went away.

That put a damper on my running plan, but I was still determined to do the 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. I wasn’t as well prepared as I should have been, but with over 500 people there, I wasn’t the only one!

Before the race John took my picture when I still looked fresh and not like I was getting ready to die.

As I waited to start, I kept thinking, “Surely I won’t be last.” I also kept thinking that I hoped I didn’t embarrass myself.

I started out way too fast, even though I knew better. By the first mile I was literally gasping for breath, but I did that first mile in about 11 minutes, which is good for me after not running for a few weeks. The second and third mile went by so slowly but I perservered.

I looked from sign post to sign post, trying not to think about how much further I had to go. Eventually (35 minutes and some change) I finished the race.

John took this very lovely picture of me right before the finish line.

I struggle with being glad I did it, and being disappointed that I did not do as well as I had in previous 5K’s. It’s silly to focus on what I did not accomplish as opposed to what I did, but I suppose that’s just human nature!

I hope that you were able to find some ways to stay active. I also did quite a bit of walking when John and I went shopping. We were not among the midnight crowd where people were spraying each other with pepper spray, but rather went out at 7:30 a.m.! The stores around us were remarkably empty at that time, which made me happy as I hate to stand in line!

Here’s the question I have for you. How to focus on what you do well, and let go what you do not do as well as you would like? Diane

Exercise is one of the mainstays of my weight maintenance. Soon I will hit 14 years of weight maintenance, and during those 14 years, there have been very few days that I have no exercised. I didn’t exercise during the first trimesters of my pregnancies, took a few weeks off when I broke my toe, and missed the occasional day because of illness.

Normally I exercise six days a week. I either take off Saturday or Sunday, depending on what our family schedule looks like.

Yesterday, I woke up to the sound of rain hitting the windows and had to make a decision. Walk or not.

As you can see from the picture, I decided to walk in the rain. My daughter thought I was so funny looking in my bright blue poncho that she took a quick picture. The rain was really coming down, but there was no thunder and it wasn’t freezing cold so I kept on walking. (I told her that at least I’m really visible in the poncho. (She gave me the teen look when I said that.)

I do not belong to a gym or have the luxury of a treadmill, so if I don’t want to miss my walk or run, I’ve got to go whenever the weather permits. After my daughter showed me the picture I realized that exercise is now part of who I am.

In my past obese years, I would have used the weather as a legitimate excuse to skip exercise. (Not that I exercised anyway!)

Now I realize that missing exercise makes me more unhappy than getting a little wet, sweating in the heat, or feeling cold when I walk in freezing weather. Exercise takes just a few minutes each day, but the benefits last throughout the day for me. I feel better about myself, I burn some calories, I rev my metabolism up, and have a sense of accomplishing something important.

I do think that I need some different rain gear though as the blue poncho leaves a lot to be desired in the looks department. Not to mention that the rain whipped underneath the poncho and I got quite wet. I’d love suggestions on what you wear when it’s raining.

In addition to rain gear suggestions, I’d love to know if you exercise in any weather, or how you handle exercise when the weather absolutely won’t cooperate. Diane

I was invited to do a blog post for the Sabra blog. I wrote about the benefits of meal planning and how simple it really can be.

It can be hard to get your kids up off the couch and get the game controller or laptop out of their hot little hands. Believe me, I’ve got seven kids, and although none of them are addicted to television (because we rarely watch it), my boys do enjoy the Wii. I find that I have to allocate their time carefully because they seem incapable of self “policing” themselves.

In our family, we play the Wii two days a week, for one hour each session. The four boys who are old enough to play play in teams of two for about 30 minutes each. After that, the Wii time is over.

If you are like many parents or relatives of young children, the rising obesity rates in America are concerning. It concerns me.

So, we look for opportunities to get out kids out of the house. I also figuratively “kick them out” of the house regularly to play in the fort, ride their bikes in the driveway, shoot basketballs, and run around in the yard!

A couple of weeks ago we traveled a couple of hours from the house to the Land Between the Lakes National Park to do some hiking and sightseeing. You would have thought we were going to Disney World for all the excitement. Days of planning from this little guy who is very much like me in the planning department. . .

We loaded up our 12 passenger van and made the trip. I never stop at fast food for refreshments, but instead always make snack packs for each of the adults and kids. Saves money, calories, and stomach upset!

We got there and headed to the lake for a 3 mile hike. (We debated on a longer one, but chickened out because of the 4 year old.)

We started out on one side of the lake.

We sat on rocks.

And got a great workout carrying the 4-year-old the last bit.

We made great memories and hopefully continued our deliberate effort at instilling the love of activity in each of our kids.

How do you get your family to be active? Diane

A couple of friends and I were having a discussion the other night about workout scheduling. They were explaining how hard it was to get up and get going early before they had to be at work. They were finding that although they technically enjoyed working out better in the morning, logistically speaking, the evenings were more convenient.

When I was morbidly obese the thought of any exercise was daunting, so if you had asked me when the best time to workout was, I would have said, “Never.” I would have been perfectly serious in my response because that is what I believed 100%.

Fortunately, I changed my mind, and became a fan of exercise. And the mornings were the time I chose. I chose the mornings because that’s when I could exercise without having to take the three small children along. I could exercise super early before John left for work and then I was done.

But, there were many times along the way where for one reason or another he had to leave before I could exercise. So then I faced a dilemma. Did I exercise when he got home? Did I take the children along in their strollers? Did I do a DVD?

Quite frankly, I did a little of all three. There were many times when I put the littlest two in a stroller, had the oldest ride her bike and off we went for a three mile walk. And other times I did “The Firm” video tape (yes, no DVD’s back then), and still other times I went in the evening.

But I always loved the mornings the best  – and I still do.

One thing I didn’t do was quit exercising just because I couldn’t exercise first thing in the morning. I just moved things around to make it work. Just like my friends were doing. They were changing their routines around to make sure they got their exercise in – even if it wasn’t their favorite time.

For me I realized that there is no perfect time to workout. Rather the fact that you are working out at all is what is perfect. It’s a perfect way to relieve stress, burn some calories, and improve your health. When you workout matters less than the fact you are doing it.

I love the fact that I can workout, because I get so sad when I see people struggling to walk into a store, and realize that could have been me if I hadn’t been able to get my act together and exercise whenever I could.

Have you ever felt frustrated over your workout times? What strategies did you use to overcome those road blocks? And what about you?

When is your prime time for exercise?  Diane

It was so exciting to have Michelle from Woman’s World magazine email me and ask me if I’d be interested in sharing my weight loss story. She was particularly interested in how my choice of exercise while losing 158 pounds was walking.

She and I had a phone conversation, and then a few email exchanges before she told me that I was definitely going to be featured in the magazine. I was very excited.

Then, a professional photographer, John Perkins, called me to set up an appointment. He and I set up a time and he took these kinds of pictures:

 My oldest daughter came along to watch and be John’s assistant while we changed locations.

 I waited anxiously for the magazine to come out, because you never know what the finished product will be like. I was very pleased with the article. Of course, there are some things that were a bit problematic such as the fact they accidentally said I had three kids after I lost weight. It was four! I definitely remember my fifth son being born!

Also, the photoshop work was a bit overdone in my opinion, but I don’t get to have any say on that.

One thing that I liked about the article is that it stressed how good choices and consistent walking really can make a huge difference on your health and your weight.  Diane