Weigh In!!!

Wow! Let me tell you, it's been a great 3 weeks! I have found my motivation and I am just gonna go with it! The last 3 weeks have been so great for me in many areas of my life. I found something to work towards and it's just making me push and push. Normally when I was doing Weight Watchers, the day after the weigh in, I'd give myself a break. I'd eat whatever I wanted in huge amounts. Then I would end up blowing it for a few days and have a hard time getting back on track. This time it's different. I'm not giving myself those cheat days. I don't want those cheat days! I never thought I would ever say that, but it's true! Before I started working on losing weight, we had decided every payday we would go to Dairy Queen for dessert. That would be this week-end, but I don't even have the urge to go! I want to keep working on eating right and exercising, which I'm starting to get addicted to! I guess if there's something I should get addicted to, exercise should be the thing. :) I've been working out everyday for the last 24 days, without missing a day. I'm doing the 3 mile Walk Away the Pounds workout, but I think I'm ready to push it a little more. It's becoming easier for me, so I need a challenge. Last night I also walked 4 miles at a very fast pace. I'm to that point of wanting to jog, but still not comfortable doing it in public. :) So for now I'll just keep walking and working out at home. I did 21 miles on the WATP workouts plus the 4 mile walk, so that's not bad for a week! I have had so many challenges come up as far as eating, like the WOE fair last week-end, having the kettle corn booth straight in front of me, the ice cream to the left and the cotton candy straight across the path, going to Eugene and eating out and today going to the bowling alley. But I have succeeded at every one! Today I had one chicken strip and a salad with water for lunch at the bowling alley. I always get the big, fat juicy hamburger with tater tots and a big Pepsi, sometimes 2, but not today. I can't see throwing away the 15.6 pounds I've already lost to just eat a greasy meal. I met someone that has given me the motivation to lose weight, and I am so thankful for that! I've been struggling for 4 years to get this far, and to have this kind of positive attitude, it's so worth it now that I've found that urge to work at it. I am 5.7 pounds from my 10% goal, which is a huge thing for me. I'm also at that 30 mark as far as my BMI, which puts me on that border between just being overweight and obese. I can't believe that I've actually been considered obese, but the fact that I'm so close to the overweight mark, it's really a huge thing for me. Next week I will be below 30, and I'm hoping in 2 weeks I'll hit my 10% goal. I also measured myself which I was anxious to see the results, because I've been wearing jeans all week that I haven't been able to wear in over a year. Today it was my Levi's, which was a really good day! I love my Levi's, so it made for a happy day getting dressed. :) I have lost 9.5 inches total this month. I measured my bicep (times two), neck (someone told me to measure there because you lose that too, which I did), chest, waist, hips and right thigh (times two). So 9.5 inches and 15.6 pounds, that makes for a happy day! But I didn't celebrate by eating something good. I celebrated by eating healthy and thinking about the next month, what I can do. I might break that 190 mark in the next month, so I can't give up now! I'm ready to kick this fat for good! So here's a big thank you to that person that gave me the motivation!!! THANK YOU!!!

By the way, I altered my weight stats a little. A friend of mine said to take my highest weight for the month and use that as my starting point. It was in the middle of the week, but I started weighing myself on Friday's after that (well, officially weighing myself, cause I get on that darn scale everyday, sometimes more than once just to see where I'm at.) :)

8-5-08 (212.6) (Start) (BMI: 32.3)
8-8-08 (209.2) (-3.4) (Total loss -3.4) (-1.6%) (BMI: 31.8)
8-15-08 (203.8) (-5.4) (Total loss -8.8) (-4.1%) (BMI: 31)
8-22-08 (201.2) (-2.6) (Total loss -11.4) (-5.4%) (BMI: 30.6)
8-29-08 (197) (-4.2) (Total loss -15.6) (-7.3%) (BMI: 30)

So until next week, happy (healthy) eating and maybe I'll see some of you out walking in the evening!

Weigh In

Well, today is just starting and has been a great day! I did my 3 mile workout this morning after I weighed in, which was a happy weigh in!!! I lost 5.4 pounds this week! I'm so excited! I have worked hard for it this week though. I did a total of 18 miles with my Walk Away the Pounds workouts and 9 miles on my bike this week. What a huge difference from recent months. And for the first time in quite a while, I have stopped hating myself. I have my goal set, which I'm working at very hard. And I have done a lot of thinking this last week. I turned into the person I didn't want to be. I told myself when I quit working that I would still get up everyday and fix myself up. Well, I haven't done that. I have let myself go physically, and I finally realized that I deserve to take the time and make myself feel better. So last Friday I started. I have been curling my hair everyday whether I go somewhere or not, I have been painting my nails again (which for some reason helps me feel better - I feel more feminine) and I've been working out everyday, sometimes twice a day. For the longest time, I wouldn't even walk to the mailbox across the street, for fear of people seeing me. It took all I had to go bowling every week, even though I love to go. But now I am feeling better about myself and I don't hate myself. I know that it is going to take some time and hard work, but I will get back to my skinny self once again! I just feel like a completely different person now! And in a few months, hopefully my goal will pay off and I will get the reaction that I've been wanting for quite some time now! So check back next week and see how I did!

6-27-08 (210.5) (Start)
7-4-08 (208.6) (-1.9) (Total loss -1.9) (-.9%)
7-11-08 (212.5) (+3.9) (Total gain +2)
7-18-08 (210.6) (-1.9) (Total gain +.1)
7-25-08 (209.9) (-.7) (Total loss -.6) (-.3%)
8-1-08 (208.7) (-1.2) (Total loss -1.8) (-.9%)
8-8-08 (209.2) (+.5) (Total loss -1.3) (-.6%)
8-15-08 (203.8) (-5.4) (Total loss -6.7) (-3.2%)

Lane County Fair

Here are a few pix from the fair. I kinda forgot to break out the camera more, so I didn't have a whole lot of variety. These will have to do for now! We're going to the WOE Fair though, so I'll try to get some more then.

Gabe was waiting patiently for the carousel to start.

Gabe, Smiley and some friends playing the horse race game.

Gabe trying his hardest to shoot the star

Swing that hammer!

Smiley & Gina - this is the closest we got to the ice cream! We were good girls. :)

Kassie floatin' in the canoe.

Picture on Register Guard website

Kassie & I had our picture taken on the carousel at the fair yesterday by someone from the Register Guard. I don't know if it's actually in the paper or not, cause we don't get it, but it's on their website. Kassie looks so cute! Gabe is to the right of the picture sitting on the bench in front of us, but he's just a blur cause we were moving pretty fast. Click on the link and check out picture #11.

http://rgweb.registerguard.com/rgn/index.php/rgp/scenes_from_the_2008_lane_county_fair/

Fair Food!!!

Well, today was the biggest challenge of the year for me I think. The County Fair. Normally when we go, I completely indulge. I have a corndog, Pad-Thai meal (lots of bad food!!! But tastes so good!) I have cotton candy, kettle corn, a licorice rope, elephant ear and several really big Pepsi's. Oh, ice cream too. So yes, I pig out completely. Well, today I went in with a goal in mind. Not to eat that much!!! I planned on having maybe a bite of everything, just to get the taste. And I did awesome! I had my 2 eggs for breakfast before we went and then a fat free, sugar free mocha on the way. We walked around for a couple hours before getting lunch. While 7 other people around me enjoyed whatever they wanted, I was good. I had chicken on a stick. So there wasn't much to it. Chicken and a little bit of sauce. And the chicken was about the length of a corndog, but very thin. I drank water. As for the treats, I had one bite of elephant ear, a small one I might add, one small bite of cotton candy, 3 pieces of kettle corn, yes only 3. Chris offered me a bite of chocolate covered frozen cheesecake...and I turned him down!!! I drank water the entire day. No Pepsi at the fair! So we left and I was so proud of myself!!! All this plus the walking, plus my 3 mile workout this morning before we left. We ended up going out for pizza at Abby's with Chris' parents. That was challenging. I was so hungry by then, cause it had been about 4 or 5 hours since I'd eaten. So I got a salad and put a little bit of dressing and 3 croutons on it. Not too bad. I did get a Pepsi, but it was a lot of ice and I only drank about 3/4 of it, and it wasn't a 32 oz, maybe a 20 oz??? And I had one small piece of pizza and 2 bites of another. I did so great! I'm really proud of myself today. This was a challenge that I was afraid I was going to fail. But I kept my motivation in my mind all day and it worked!!! I can't wait to see my final weigh in on Friday morning! I weigh myself everyday, so I know where I'm at, but I'll wait to surprise you all on Friday with the total. :) It's gonna be good, that's all I can say!

Anyway, I just had to share, because this was the very first time I have eaten good at the fair. It was a huge milestone for me!!! So until Friday...

Working Out

Wow, what a difference the last few days have made! Today was day 5 of working out. Normally I take Sunday's off from working out, but today I had the urge to actually get up out of bed after a few short hours of sleep (about 4 cause I couldn't get my brain to turn off last night...again) and pump it up a notch! Instead of the 2 mile workout, I did the 3 mile, which is a 45 minute aerobic workout. I haven't done that one in over 5 years! And when I felt like I couldn't keep going, I pictured my goal in my mind and pushed even harder. And I feel so awesome right now! A little wobbly, but better than I've felt in months! A little motivation from pretty much a complete stranger, who I only talked to once I think. And that's all it took for me. Now I have it in my sights what I am going to do and I'm going for it! In the last 2 days I have actually lost 2.5 pounds! And my stomach actually has lost some of it's bulge! I've decided to cut back on the carbs a bit. Instead of a sandwich, I just ate the tuna straight out of a bowl. It's the little things like that that I have to work on. But I know I can do it now. I have my goal set and I hope to be there and see the results in a few months. It'll be awesome when I get there! So, to anyone who is fighting to lose weight, just wait, your time is coming! It will hit you like a ton of bricks when you least expect it!!!

Weigh In

Oops, forgot to add my weights. Guess I got out of the habit on my little "diet vacation". Here ya go!

6-27-08 (210.5) (Start)
7-4-08 (208.6) (-1.9) (Total loss -1.9) (-.9%)
7-11-08 (212.5) (+3.9) (Total gain +2)
7-18-08 (210.6) (-1.9) (Total gain +.1)
7-25-08 (209.9) (-.7) (Total loss -.6) (-.3%)
8-1-08 (208.7) (-1.2) (Total loss -1.8) (-.9%)
8-8-08 (209.2) (+.5) (Total loss -1.3) (-.6%)

I had a pretty rough week, so I'm not a bit surprised that I gained. But, the good thing is that it was at the beginning of the week that I was showing the gain, so I've managed to lose the last half of the week. It was a lot worse. :) I need to learn stress management!!!

Weigh In/Working Out

So today I kind of slept in. I couldn't sleep last night. Thoughts of different things kept rolling thru my head and I just couldn't get to sleep till after 2:30. My alarm went off at 6, but I didn't get up till 8. But an amazing thing happened today. I woke up and actually looked forward to working out! I wanted to get out of bed and go do it right away. I had some ideas flowing for why I want to lose weight, the reasons I've been trying to and some other strange ideas. Too many to go into here, and a little strange, so I won't get into it. But I have my own little private goal that I'm just not gonna mention. I think part of the problem is opening my mouth to other people, then they have all these high expectations of me. So I'm just not gonna ruin it. It'll be my own little secret. :) But let me tell you, as I was working out this morning, I pushed myself like I have never done before. So something finally clicked. I also thought about what I did wrong last night at bowling. I did so good with my food portions, but stupid me, I drank (2) 32 oz. Pepsi's! I'm not a big tap water fan, it just tastes nasty with the chlorine. But I wasn't thinking about the vending machine with the bottled water! DUH!!! So next time I need to remember to look for bottled water before Pepsi. One of those habits that I've had for so long (Pepsi with bowling - kind of like pizza and beer for some people). So now I need to break it. Anyway, I just had to get on here and share how excited I am! I haven't felt this good and this motivated in quite a while.

Hi!

Well, I've been so obsessed with myspace lately, I've been ignoring the blog that everyone else can see who's not on myspace. :) Not a whole lot of new stuff has been going on, just the typical family stuff and working on the yard a little here and there. I've lost a bit of my ambition as far as the yard goes. We were so gung ho the first few weeks of nice weather, I just got burned out. So now I'm trying to get refocused on it, but it's hard. We're also having some issues with the contractor who owns the lot behind us. He decided to tear down a section of the fence to rebuild it on part of our lot, but he did it without telling us. So there's been some stress there.

I'm also at kind of a low point in my life right now with my self esteem. I've been trying and trying to succeed at Weight Watchers, but for some reason I just can't focus. So I've decided to take a break from it, and just try things on my own once again. I'm actually doing better the last few days. We even had a potluck for the last night of bowling tonight and I controlled myself really well. I was actually really impressed with myself on my eating. I didn't even fill my plate! I think I was putting too much thought into WW, but not enough common sense. So I'm working on it. Maybe one of these days I'll be skinny again. I'm needing that self confidence boost. I think being a stay at home mom has affected me a little too. I have fallen into that whole scene of "I don't have to go to work, so why bother fixing myself up everyday". So I've decided even if I don't go anywhere, I'm gonna start taking care of myself again. I'm gonna fix my hair and do as I would if I were heading out to church or somewhere nice. It's amazing how much it's made me feel better the last few days. I know, it sounds kind of stupid, but hey, if it works, I'm all for it. I'm just hoping that I get back to being skinny and have it boost my emotional state. It's amazing how being over weight makes you feel really crappy all the time.

Well, enough about that. Just had to vent in writing a bit I guess. :) I hope you are all doing well and having a great summer! I would love to hear from anyone I may know out there! Till next time...