My Journey to Healthy Living

No more blogging?

2011-01-17T13:16:00.001-08:00

I don't know if I have to do a post about the fact that I am not blogging lately. You can all figure it out. I just wanted to say that my heart doesn't seem to be into blogging these days. It has dropped way down in the list of priorities. It doesn't mean I am giving up on living healthily. I am still exercising most days and trying to watch what I eat. I seem to be holding steady at 170, which doesn't thrill me so I know I have to step it up.

I just wanted to let you all know that I am officially on a blogging break. I hope to return someday. Maybe monthly updates is all I can handle. I don't know.

Please know, I am so grateful for each one of you that have continued to follow and encourage me on this journey. I would never have made it this far without each one of you.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2011-01-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

It has been about 3 weeks since I officially weighed in. Here is my first official weigh-in of 2011. Today the scale read 170.8. That is a couple pound gain since I last reported, but it is only .3 off of what I weighed at the beginning of December. I will take that! A .3 pound gain in December is acceptable to me. Maybe I'm justifying it too much, should a gain ever be acceptable especially considering I was actually down during the first two weeks of December? Be honest, people. I can take the truth.
Bigger picture news. I began this journey at 205.5 pounds, today's weigh in brings me to a net loss of 34.7 pounds this year. That is 16.89%!
This is my blogiversary! I am so grateful for having made the decision to blog about my weight loss journey. It motivates me to do better because I am accountable. I have also made some great friends in cyberworld and reading your blogs motivates me even more! Today has to be a short post, but I hope to do a post tomorrow. It will be more about how wonderful you all are and what you have meant to me over the past year.

A New Year: A Not so New Me

2011-01-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, my blogging friends! Thanks to all who have been stopping by to check in on me. Let me explain my title. I guess I am a new me from who I was last year. What I mean to say in my title is that I like who I am now and don't feel I have to become some new me this year. Isn't that great!? I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday season. I enjoyed mine for the most part. Here's a rundown on what has happened in my life over the last 2 weeks:

-My hubby and I celebrated 14 years of marriage. (Hooray for us!)
-On the same day, my Granny Auntie passed away. :(
-We celebrated my husband's birthday
-We enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home with our little family and the grandparents stopped by
-I spoke at my Granny's funeral :(
-I was rear ended on the way to an eye appt. An inconvenience, but no injury or major damage.
-We rang in the New Year at home, with a family game night.
-We have been dealing with sick kids.

So you can see, that the holidays were a mixed bag for me. The death of my Granny Auntie was unexpected and sad, but we'll get through it. I know she is happy to be reunited with her husbands that had passed on before her.

The last time I checked in, I had actually lost weight...IN DECEMBER. I wish I could say that held true for the whole month. It did not. I will officially weigh-in tomorrow. I had hoped to stay in the 160's, but that hasn't happened. Having said that, I don't think my monthly gain will be too bad. I'll just have to accept it for what it is and move on. Because today is a new day and a new year!

Tomorrow will mark the year anniversary of my blog! Wow! I am grateful to have made it this far, even though my blogging has been sporadic over the last couple of months. I think now is a good time to reflect on my 2010 goals and look to the future. Here were the goals I outlined in this post a year ago:

Long-term goals:

Lose 50 lbs in 2010-This did not happen. :( Yet, I'm still happy with my loss of about 35 lbs.
Run a 10k in 2011- Stay tuned.......
Develop a life-long pattern of regular exercise and healthy eating-I am definitely on track with this one. I am so pleased with the changes in life-style I have made over the past year. I've improved the most in the exercise dept.

Shorter-term goals:
Lose 25 lbs by summer-Accomplished this one!
Run (the whole thing) a 5k in 2010-I have yet to run a whole 5K, but have participated in a few organized 5K's and continue to do them on my own almost daily. I am pleased that my run/walk approach puts me at about 35:00 minutes. I will look to improve on this in 2011.
Work up to running 2 miles on treadmill this winter-Not sure I accomplished this last winter. In fact, it is hard for me to run 2 miles on a treadmill this winter! However, outside I could run 2 miles fairly regularly.

Again, I did not meet all my goals. Should I feel disappointed? I am somewhat disappointed not to have reached my weight and running goals, yet at the same time I am proud of what I have accomplished.

Now for the 2011 goals:

Lose 15 lbs. by my birthday (August 16th)- This will put me to about my 50 lb. goal and means I will have to lose 2-2.5 pounds a month. That seems totally doable to me.
Improve my 5K time to 32 minutes- I am beginning to doubt I will ever be able to run a WHOLE race, but know I can run a little bit more and improve my time.
Participate in a 10K race-This may be my limit, but I am excited to do it!
Lose 20 pounds by this day next year

Here's my exercise/eating schedule for now (it needs to be changed up every so often):

Spend 50 minutes (usually 3.25+miles) on the treadmill 3x's a week.
Spend 60 minutes (4+miles) on the treadmill one time a week.
Spend 45 minutes on the stationary bike 4 times a week.
Attend my strength training classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
Track my calories and consume about 1600 a day.
One day a week of bonus exercise as often as I can.
Rest on Sundays

So there you have it. I know my exercise schedule is only set for 4 days a week. But it just seems that is what is most realistic for my life right now and I do not want to get discouraged because I am not meeting my goals. That is why I added the bonus day at the end.

I do hope to move to 4 miles on the treadmill on 2 days a week in February and then bump it up to 5 miles in March. Even writing this I have a smile on my face. This time last year, 2.5 miles on the treadmill was a great accomplishment and most days I did 2 miles!

I hope all of you feel good about the progress you made in 2010 and are looking forward to what you can accomplish in 2011, I know I am! Have a good day and stay tuned for my first weigh-in of 2011 tomorrow.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-12-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

Good morning, bloggers! I thought I'd better check in for those who actually still care and follow me. I weighed in at 168.6 this morning. That is a 1.9 lb loss from my last weigh-in post. I actually lost 1/2 of it last week (just never posted) and 1/2 of it this week. I am pleased with the loss, obviously. This past week I attended two Christmas parties and exercise was somewhat limited due to business and feeling crummy on Monday. So a loss is great!

I am cautiously optimistic about my chances of seeing a net loss in December, a month that I have wondered about it even being possible to lose in. I am cautiously optimistic because the next 10 days or so will be challenging. We will be celebrating our 14 year anniversary (at a fancy restaurant), my husband's birthday (with his favorite pasta dish for dinner and pie for dessert) and hosting Christmas Eve dinner (honey baked ham, yummy rolls, Christmas jello, etc) all in the next week. Not to mention Christmas day and then New Year's after that. I am happy with my loss so far and don't want to ruin it. Actually, I came into this month just hoping I can stay in the 160's and then hit it hard again in January, after the holiday craziness. I think that is a doable goal.

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season and enjoying family and friends....and not too much chocolate. I hope to catch up on reading some blogs in the next couple of days.

Throwdown Results!

2010-12-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

Well, as you can see Leah clearly won our challenge! She had a great loss and I had a gain in the four weeks we tracked. To say I am disappointed would be truthful. I really wanted to do better. I started off so well and then things went downhill from there.

My glass half-full approach is to celebrate that I only gained .1 last week, with Thanksgiving and all. Actually, I hoped to see a loss. I felt like my eating (besides Thanksgiving) was better and my exercise was still on track. But the truth is, I wasn't tracking so my eating may not have been as good as I thought.

I don't have the energy for a long, reflective post right now. Hopefully, I can make up for it the next couple of days. I just wanted to let you all know the results of the challenge and give Leah a big shoutout for doing so well! Congrats, Leah!

Throw-Down-Challenge- Week 3

2010-11-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm a little late on this but I need to post Week 3 results of our throwdown challenge. I weighed in at 170.4 for another gain. Leah also had a gain, but it was small and she is still way ahead of me. She has now lost 2.35% and I have gained .83%. So my goal for this week is to have a loss and get back to atleast even.
I am proud of Leah, as she has obviously practiced a lot more discipline in her eating than I have. I am proud of my exercising and figure the gain could be a lot more if I had not been so disciplined and exercised most days.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed mine. My husband had the whole week off and we were able to spend some much needed time together. He has been working 60-70 hour weeks the last few months so it was good to have him around. He will be taking a couple of weeks off in December, too. Woo hoo! This may mean my blogging in December may be sporadic, as it has been of late.

I'm hoping to get back on track with blogging in the New Year. I figure I made it a resolution last year and it worked out pretty well for me, so why not start anew with it in 2011.

Have a healthy week! I'll post the final Throwdown results on Thursday!

Throw-Down-Challenge- Week 2 (It's not good)

2010-11-19T07:47:00.000-08:00

Leah created this lovely scorecard for our Throwdown Challenge. As you can see, I have fallen behind. I had a 1.5 gain this last week. Not good!

Leah, however had a 3.5 pound loss. I am so proud of Leah, who is continuing to work hard and make good decisions. She had a busy week and wasn't able to track really well, but still came out ahead in the challenge.

I was also busy and didn't track very well, but obviously didn't do as well with it.
Here is an update on my goals:

1.)I will walk/run a minimum of 3.25 miles, 5 days a week.

Well, it doesn't seem to be happening for me five days a week. I am really good about doing it four days a week and I'm actually okay with that. I think I will change this goal to walk/run 3.5 miles on four days of the week.

2.) I will ride the exercise bike for 50 miles a week (I usually do 10 miles in 40 minutes)

Again, I haven't quite met this goal because I seem to be only exercising 4 days a week. However, I'm not going to change this goal because I need to motivate myself to get on the bike at the end of the day if I missed my morning exercise session. I can just as easily watch TV and ride the bike as I can watch TV and sit on the couch. :)

3.) I will track my calories on sparkpeople and aim for no more than 1450 a day. I have decided that I will not track on Saturdays (hopefully it won't be my downfall).

Fail,fail, fail! No excuses here. I just have to do it!

Well, I sound like a broken record the last couple of months, but it's time to get back on track! Being the competitive person I am, I do not want to creamed in the challenge! In fact, I don't want to lose at all. :) That means I have a lot of work to do. If I do lose, I want to go down fighting.

I hope you all have a healthy, happy weekend!

Novemeber Throw-Down Challenge Update

2010-11-12T07:22:00.000-08:00

Good Friday everybody! I hope you are all looking forward to a great weekend.
I should have posted yesterday, but my day got away from me. So here are the results from week one of my challenge with Leah:

Leah's current weight/ weight loss/percentage: 190, -1.5 lbs, .78%
Barb's current weight/weight loss/percentage: 167.5, -1.5 lbs, .89%

Notice these result may be different than what is on Leah's blog. She used the Fit Watch calculator, found here. I had not used that calculator and my initial results were a higher percentage loss. But I want to use the same calculator to measure as Leah so I calculated using the Fit Watch calculator, which seems to calculate lower than my own calculator and a couple of other sites. Hmmmm... not sure why. But it doesn't really matter, as long as we use the same calculator so it is fair.

It looks as if I won this week, by the hair of my chinny chin chin. I have to say I am sooooo proud of Leah. She is on vacation and still kicking the scale's behind! I think this means I better step it up myself, because Leah won't be on vacation for much longer.

I am very happy with my loss this week, though. I have been posting my weight on here every Wednesday for most of this journey. My last Wednesday weigh-in was 170.5, so since then I have lost 3 pounds. Not so shabby! Thursdays will be my official weigh-ins for the time being.

Well, I have to go now. I am giving two talks on Sunday for church and really should finish preparing them so I am not totally nervous because of I don't feel prepared. Who am I kidding? I'll be totally nervous anyway! But if I'm prepared, I may not come across quite so nervous.

Have a great weekend everybody! I'll post an update on my goals on Monday.

Changing our Mind-Set

2010-11-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Good morning, everybody. Today is Wednesday, which usually means a weigh-in for me. But since Leah and I are using Thursdays as our official weigh-ins for our November Throw Down Challenge, my official weigh-in days will be Thursdays for the time being. I'll just let you all in on a secret, had today been an official weigh-in day I would have ROCKED this week. I did lose 1.5 lbs between last Wed. and Thurs. and since Thurs. was my official starting weight my loss may not be as great tomorrow. However, up until this morning I was pretty worried about my weigh in. Let's just say it usually always evens out. I guess that would be an argument against weighing yourself every day. The ups and downs can really get to you.

My thoughts today center around our mind-set. Have you been on a healthier living journey for awhile now, but still consider yourself an over-weight, over-eater and out-0f-shape person? Have you forgot to look at your progress along the way? Have you increased your exercise and still consider yourself the out-of-shape Sophomore in High School who came in last in the mile run in PE? (Oh, wait is that just me? I wasn't even really overweight, but still came in last. I did kick butt in the speed walking event, though).

Last week I laid out my exercising and eating goals for the month on here. One reader, Christina, warned against not taking in enough calories if I was upping my exercise. I read it and thought, "ppppphhh, I definitely take in plenty of calories!". Well, after feeling like I wasn't seeing the results on the scale that I would like for a couple of days. I went back to Christina's comment. I pulled out a book I own called, "Losing It!". I love this book, it is a no non-sense book about living healthily. No gimmicks, just good sound advice about eating more healthily and moving more. In the book, she has a chart to look up how many calories you should be consuming per day. It takes in account age, exercise habits and goals. I found my age (31-50) and my goal (weight loss of 1-2 lbs. per week) and then looked at the exercise options. The first being sedentary, the next moderately active and finally Active. I have been basing my calorie budget on being sedentary-moderately active during this journey, which would mean 1400-1500 calories a day. Yesterday, I decided to read the author's definition of "Active".

Here it is: "physical activity equivalent to walking more than 3 miles (or 30-90 minutes) at 3-4 miles per hour on most days of the week"

I thought, "Ha, that's me! I am physically ACTIVE!" Now, why had I not realized this before? I think we think of people who run 7 miles a day and train for marathons or triathlons to be the really active ones. I am not that active. How could somebody who is still considered overweight on the BMI chart be considered an Active exerciser? That was my mindset. So I have adjusted my calorie goals to be 1700/day. Now, because I have been too much in the "diet mindset" it scares me to death to think I should be upping my calorie intake. It really does. But I will trust it for this month and see what happens. Of course, this means I cannot let up on my exercise routine. Also, I realize that I should make those extra calories good ones. I think I'll add more nuts and peanut butter. Love those!

Have you noticed ways that you need to change your mindset? Take a look at yourself wherever you are at in your journey. You may still have a long way to go to meet all your big goals, but take the time to see how far you have come. Today I celebrate the fact that I walk/run 3.25 miles on most days and in the beginning just getting to 2.25 miles was cause to rejoice. And then after I do that, I ride the exercise bike for another 10 miles . AND on T/TH I add 45 minutes of strength training into the mix. Yes, I am physically ACTIVE! What will you celebrate?

Weekend Update

2010-11-08T09:48:00.000-08:00

Well, hello out there. I hope everybody is having a good Monday today. I know most people hate Mondays, in fact today my husband woke up with an upset stomach that he called "the case of the Mondays". Poor guy. Work is not so great lately and a new work week is not something he looks forward to. I am so grateful for how hard he works to support our family, while I stay home and take care of the kiddos and things around here. I digress.
Anyway, I hate to say it(and I sure didn't to my hubby), but I actually really like Mondays. And the first Monday my kids go back to school after their three week break is always wonderful. Today is one of those Mondays. So while it is pouring rain outside, I am sitting inside my warm house enjoying the quiet.
I have already done my 3.25 miles on the treadmill and rode the exercise bike 15 miles. I vacuumed and folded laundry as well. No interruptions, slowing me down. :) And now it is time to check in with you all and be accountable for the weekend and let you know how things are going in this first week of my "Throw down Challenge" with Leah.
The weekend actually wasn't very pretty. I did not exercise at all. Not Friday, not Saturday and never on Sunday. I ate really bad on Saturday. And did not track food at all. I'm glad I don't have to officially weigh-in for the challenge untill Thursday.
Why no exercise? I had committments to do other things in the early morning on Friday and Saturday and then the rest of those days were busy, so exercise was not really an option. The truth is, if I don't exercise first thing it doesn't happen the rest of the day.
Why the terrible eating? Well, one of my poor habits or family traditions that really should go away is how much I associate food, junk food, with big time sporting events. This past Saturday was a HUGE football game for my alma mater and so we just had to celebrate it! My husband said, "What is this the Super Bowl?". Anyway, my mom made her yummy taco dip and I bought the licorice and m & m's, plus my mom brought other stuff. She did bring veggies, but veggies dipped into the taco dip just aren't the same as tortilla chips.
So not only did I eat way too much, my team stunk it up! They got slaughtered. So sad. The game was over in the first quarter. :( Oh well, I still love my Utes!
So this week, I look to rebound from my poor choices. Weekends are always the hardest for me, which is why I never wanted Monday to be my weigh-in day. I feel like I've already started the week off great today. So watch out, Leah!
What about you all? Are weekends your hardest, too?

It's On!

2010-11-04T08:57:00.001-07:00

So, today officially begins mine and Leah's November throw-down challenge to see who can lose the most % of weight this month. Leah made the cute badge above. I'm glad she is so talented, because I am not! Our weigh-in days will be Thursdays and we will end 4 weeks from today on December 2nd.

My weight today is: 169

Leah's weight today is: 191.5

I think this is just what we both need to help us start the holiday season off right. Who doesn't love a good competition? I really want Leah to do well this month, but not quite as well as I do. :) Here's how I plan to win the throw-down and start the holiday season off right:

I will walk/run a minimum of 3.25 miles, 5 days a week.
I will ride the exercise bike for 50 miles a week (I usually do 10 miles in 40 minutes)
I will track my calories on sparkpeople and aim for no more than 1450 a day. I tracked for the first time in a very long time yesterday. I have decided that I will not track on Saturdays (hopefully it won't be my downfall).

Leah has some great goals herself, you can check out her blog here.

On the good news/bad news front. The good news is, I don't think my son has anymore chocolate left in his trick-r-treat bag. The bad news is I probably ate most of it (and I'm obviously a thief)! Sigh.

Have a good day everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-11-03T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! I'm not sure any of you are even following me anymore since I have been such a sporadic blogger lately. I appreciate anyone who is still checking in on me. I promise to do better. This time I mean it.

My kids go back to school (after this latest three week break) on Monday. I should have more time to commit to blogging then.

Now for the numbers. Let me just say that the numbers are not great. This morning the scale read 170.5. That is up 3 pounds from the last time I recorded my weight. That means I GAINED 3.5 pounds in October. My first monthly gain of the year. :(

Well, I don't have much to say about it except that the reason for the gain is that I have totally been eating off plan. I have ate and ate a lot of Halloween candy. The self-discipline has not been there. Had I not been exercising the whole time, I can only imagine what the gain would be.

I was all prepared to post about how over the next two months my goal would be just to maintain where I am at right now and then start anew in January, after the holidays. Well, I think that may have been a bit of a cop out. I also saw on a couple of blogs that some people are doing a November throw-down challenge between themselves and one other blogger. I thought that is just what I would need to stay motivated! So I asked (challenged) the beautiful Leah over at My New Ending to do the throw down challenge with me. She has accepted! Leah is making us a badge now. Stay tuned for all the details.

The truth is, I am not at maintenance weight and should not be happy with maintaining. I need to learn to develop better eating habits over the holidays and now is as good as a time than any. I'm pretty sure I gained at least 5 pounds last year over the holidays, so something has to change.

I would love for you all to share your favorite "holiday eating tips" with me. I sure could use them.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Here I am actually posting my weigh-in results on weigh-in day. Wow. Maybe I can get back into the blogging groove again after all. This morning the scale read 167.5 for a loss of 3.5 pounds. I must say I am happy about this. I still haven't lost the whole 4 pounds I gained while on vacation, but I know that will come off (and more I hope) for next week's weigh-in. I am still a bitt bummed that I gained the 5 1/2 pounds since my last loss on the scale, but got afford to get down about things I can't change.

I think looking back on where we were or what prompted us to start this journey can be an important process. It helps us to see how far we've come and reminds us of why we don't want to go back. However, sometimes looking back can do us harm. If we look back and think how hard it was to get where we are now and how much further we have to go, we can get discouraged. If we get down on ourselves for ever letting our weight get so high in the first place that is not productive.

The truth is, I wish I never would have been in the situation that I needed to lose 50 pounds. I really wish that once 40 pounds were lost, I hadn't gained 5 1/2 of it back. To put it bluntly, it sucks to have to re-lose weight you worked so hard to lose.

However, I am a positive minded kind of gal. I prefer to acknowledge why I weighed so much in the first place and love that I can put the responsibility on myself. Because, if I (and my poor eating/exercise habits) am the reason I weighed so much, then I am in control of what happens now. My decisions will control my destiny. I can do this! It is true, I am not alone in this journey as I have really great friends (you all) to help me along the way and I have faith in God, as well. But the truth is, it falls on me to make good decisions. I have mostly made great decisions this year and I have the smaller pants and the bigger muscles to show for it. I plan on sticking this goal out and will lose these last pounds!

Have a great day, everybody!

I went MIA again!

2010-10-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Wow, this post is hard to even start. I think when one leaves blogland for three weeks, one gets overwhelmed thinking about all she has to catch up on and what a long post she needs to write. Thus, putting it off even longer. So I will not update you on everything I've done over the past three weeks, of every bite I've had or every run I've ran, I'll just give you the important details.

First up, my weigh-in updates. On 9/29- 166 (+.5), 10/6 - 167 (+1), 10/13- 171 (+4!). I know, not good! Let me tell you what happened the week going into 10/13. This happened:

That's right a vacation to San Diego, for just my hubby and me. This meant eating out and I did not always make the best choices. Worst choice #1 was going to Trader Joe's and buying guormet chocolate covered almonds and then eating them all in one day. Then going back and buying more. I was out of control!
I did run on the beach 3 out of the 4 mornings we were there. And it was beautiful! I could do that every morning, now if only I had a beach and ocean nearby.

I just spent about 20 minutes writing a lovely post, only to find out it wasn't being saved and the connection to blogger was lost. Grrrrr! I don't think I have the energy to re-write it.

Let me just say, I am committed to getting back on track with my eating and exercising. Eating is the real challenge. The last couple of weeks have opened my eyes up to how I ever got to where I was at the start of this journey. Knowledge is everything.

I want to thank Corletta for checking in on me while I was away. Also, I received two emails at just the right time. Thank you to Leah and Mel for those! They actually used inspiring in the same sentence as me. They also referred to my running achievments. These two emails really reminded me of how far I've come and inspired me to not go back.

Have a great day, everybody. It's great to be back!

Happy Monday!

2010-09-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hello, my friends. I hope everyone is enjoying their Monday, thus far. Mine is going great. That's right, a great Monday. Why so great? You see, after a VERY hectic week last week, in which everyday seemed to be filled with committments I actually have no where I have to be today. I have dedicated this day to cleaning (and a little blogging). I don't think I have ever been so excited to have a day of cleaning. I have vacuumed, mopped my floors, deep cleaned my kitchen and washed and dried 4 loads of laundry (folding will come after blogging).

I think last week was the first week since I started this journey way back in January that my exercise was really off track. When I turned my Garmin on today, Leo showed that the last routine was TEN days ago! I did run on the treadmill last Monday and with the kids for their jog-a-thon at school on Friday, but that was the extent of my running or walking. I think I hopped on the exercise bike a couple of times, but that was it.

Factor the little exercise in with some poor food choices (involving drive- thrus) and the scale is up. Last Wednesday I was celebrating 40 pounds lost, this Wednesday I will be happy with a small gain if that is all. Today the scale was up 2 1/2 pounds. I have a couple of days to get it down before my official weigh-in. I got back on track this morning by meeting my friends for our interval training of 3.5 miles and I did the exercise bike for 40 minutes. Exercise should not be a problem this week. Hallelujah!

On a happy note...I am still getting a ton of compliments! I think it helps that I have bought new church clothes that are my correct size. So people, please stop wearing the too big, baggy clothes when you have shrunk a bit. Go out and get something new, you are totally worth it! Maybe I'll post pics of my new outfits another day.

I hope you are all well and staying on track.

40 Feels Great!

2010-09-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

Good morning, my blogging friends. You may notice something unusual about my title since it is Wednesday and I didn't use my normal Weigh-In-Wednesday title. Well, today I am celebrating a new milestone. This morning I weighed in at 165.5, for a one pound loss. And I have now officially lost 40 pounds! Woo hoo! I must say I am quite pleased with myself :) ! Now, to not get too cocky.
I still have 10 pounds to lose this year. And I plan on doing that. I must admit 9 months ago, losing 50 pounds seemed daunting. Even after I had lost 25 pounds, I thought "how am I going to lose the rest?". But now I am confident that it can be done. It has taken diligence and hard work up to this point and that is what it will take the rest of the way. Actually, that is what it will take from here on out, forever. I'm in this thing for the long haul.
Besides, looking better and wearing smaller sizes I feel great. I feel great physically and mentally. It is nice to know I can set my mind to something, come up with a plan, be patient and see it through the end (well, I will see it through the end). It is a great life lesson I will try to apply to aspects of my life.

What lessons have you learned through your own weight loss journey that you are applying to other areas of your life?

Too Close for Comfort

2010-09-21T09:06:00.000-07:00

This is a picture my backyard neighbor took on Sunday evening. Pretty scary to see the mountain just up from our neighborhood on fire. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep on Sunday. Although, we were never evacuated we knew there was a possibility that we would be. Over a thousand people were evacuated and some have yet to be cleared to return home. It was a great reality check. Were we prepared? Did we know where our important papers were? Did we have our 72 hr. kits ready and accessible? I never felt that our home was in danger because we live just below the mountain and there are a few neighborhoods between us and where the fire was. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured and far fewer homes were lost than expected. On Sunday night, they estimated they would lose 100+ homes. Once daylight broke on Monday, the count was just 3. My heart aches for the 3 families that lost their homes. I am grateful for the brave firefighters who saved so many others. They are working on containing the fire,which has moved back over the other side of the mountain where it started at. There is a possibility of stronger winds today, which were the huge problem on Sunday, but I think our area has seen the worst of it.

So today is a day to be grateful for a home to live in, for a bed to sleep in, for all the "things" I have, for memories captured on photos, for firefighters, for a community that works together and for the sun shining on us today.

Due to the pollutants in the air, I have chosen not to run outside. I did the treadmill today. Boy, I sure do love running outside!

I hope everybody is having a really grateful, happy day. Remember to count your blessings, because you never know....

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-09-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everybody! This is my second post in two days, wow! Maybe I will get back to regular blogging afterall. Today the scale read, 166.5 for a loss of 2 pounds. Woo hoo! My total loss is 39 pounds. Double woo hoo! It has all come off slowly over the past 9 months and so it doesn't seem like that much, untill I actually think about how much 39 pounds is. 11 more to go to reach my goal for the year. Let's hope I keep losing and don't follow this good week with a gain as I have been accustomed to over the last couple of months. There's nothing more aggravating than having to lose the same pounds over and over.

Yesterday I alluded to some problems with cookies I have been having lately. I now have three kids and a husband that I pack lunches for a few times a week so I hit Costco for some lunch items. Yes, I bought boxes of chips and cookies. Not good, I know. I do throw in a sandwich and fruit, I promise. Well, for some reason the cookies have been a weakness for me. I have been eating at least a bag (250 cals) a day. If anyone knows any good tricks to help me get back my self-discipline I had going on so well in the beginning of this journey, clue me in please.

Thank goodness, for exercise. Yesterday, after my strength class I did a 5K on my own. My time was 35:00 flat. Really, no more no less! Leo doesn't lie. It wasn't a personal best, but it was close and I was happy with it. I am suppose to run a 5K this weekend. But now it is looking like that may not work out. Bummer. I would really like to finally participate in an official 5K.

Have a happy day!

2010-09-14T10:55:00.001-07:00

J at For Real, This Time gave me this award a few weeks ago. Thanks so much for the award! Sorry it has taken me so long to post it. I will now tell you 10 things that make me happy:

1-Being on vacation with my family

2-Knowing my kids are growing into such beautiful, kind human beings

3-Lunch dates with friends

4-Comments on my blog :). Doesn't this make us all happy?

5-Hearing a Lady Antebellum or Zac Brown Band song on the radio.

6-My faith in God.

7-Reading and discussing a good book.

8-Watching my U of U Utes win football games!

9-A good piece of chocolate.

10-Going to bed after a long day.

I am suppose to pass this along to 10 other bloggers. I will just refer you all to my blog list at the right of my blog. These are all blogs that make me happy! If your blog is on there, consider yourself awarded the Happy blogger award!

I hope you all are well. I will post my weigh-in results tomorrow as well as blog about some struggles I have been having. I'll give you hint: It has to do with trying to stay on plan and all the cookies in my pantry!

Have a happy day!

Choices....choices...decisions...decisions

2010-09-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well, hello everybody. Yes, it is me, your sporadic blogging friend. Didn't I promise to do better once my kids were back in school? Who would have known that life only seems crazier now that I have all this time to myself?! By the time I get it all figured out, my kids will have their first track break! I just don't see life slowing down anytime soon. So, I have been debating about the whole blogging thing. To blog or not to blog? This morning I decided I would post my weigh-in from Wed. and at least try to be diligent in that and take time at least one day a week to catch up on other blogs. I logged on to the computer to do my entry and what did I find, but a comment from sweet Leah checking in to see if I had weighed in. Now, that my friends is the reason for blogging! I love my blogging friends and I am grateful for Leah for caring at all and wanting to keep me accountable. It's a good thing, too. Because although I had logged on to the computer to post, I am easily distracted and it may not have happened. :)

Anyway, my weigh-in for Wednesday was 168.5 for a gain of .5. You know it wasn't a stellar eating week, when you rejoice that the gain wasn't as large as you had anticipated. So , yes, I am actually happy with the minor gain. Over the holiday weekend, we spent time with family boating and such. Food is always involved. It could have been worse, but it also could have been better. I've decided that holidays are no longer allowed to fall on Mondays (or Tuesdays) since the beginning of the week is usually my time to get back on track with exercise and diet from the weekend. That's not to say that I always do horribly on weekends, I just do better on Mondays.

I plan on doing another 5K next weekend. I'm not sure if I'll be able to run the whole thing, but I am hoping for a new PR. I have been running most mornings with my friends. I call it my "speed training" because I can't go as long, due to their speedy pace. The last time I ran on my own, my pace was a bit quicker, so I think my speed training is working. However, at this point I think it is more important for me to work my way up to being able to run 3 miles than to have a quicker pace. What about you all? Do you have distance goals or speed goals? What is more important to work on?

I better not take too much longer or I won't have as much time to read your blogs. I received an award a couple of weeks ago that I never posted. I think I will use that as incentive to post on Monday. So stay tuned.....

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-09-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Happy September! I can't believe that it is already here. I am actually happy to welcome September in. I love Fall. I love the cooler weather. I love the leaves changing. And I especially love college football! All things associated with fall.

Of course, it means the end of the year is right around the corner and I still have some weight to lose to reach my 50 lb. goal, but that's okay. I am happy with my progress for the most part. A few weeks ago, I blogged about wanting to reach my goal by the middle of November because, "Who really loses weight over holidays?". Well, I have thought a lot about that statement of mine and think it was probably fairly realistic, but that I may have been underestimating my ability to stick to my basic plan. So if I still have weight to lose and December arrives, I am not going to panic. I will stick to my plan and continue to work towards my goal.

This morning the scale read 168, for a .5 loss. That brings my total weight loss to 37.5 lbs. Not too shabby. I would have liked to have seen a greater loss this week, but am happy for any loss. That means I only lost 1.5 lbs. in August. Hopefully, September will be better.

I hope you are all having a great day. Be happy!

Guess What I'm Wearing?

2010-08-30T15:47:00.001-07:00

Good Monday, bloggers! At least I hope you are all having a good Monday. I am.
What am I wearing, you ask? I am wearing a new outfit I bought for the fall since fall is just around the corner. It seems like fall decided to make an early appearance today and it is a bit chillier here than is normal. Anyway, I am wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt today. Guess what size the pants are? Guess! If you guessed a size 12, you are correct! That is right I am wearing my first size 12's in a few years. It feels great. I have been trying on the 12's in my closet and I can get them on, but they are just a bit too tight for me to feel comfortable wearing out. When I went to buy some new clothes, I decided to buy 12's since I knew I would be there soon. This particular pair just happens to fit right now! Hopefully, I can say the same once I wash them the first time.

I had a great weekend. I can now say my birthday (Aug. 16th) is officially over. On Saturday, we celebrated one last time. This is how we celebrated:

My hubby and I took our girls to see "The Lion King" Broadway show. No, not in New York. We went to the travelling show in our capitol city. When I found out it was coming here, I said that is what I wanted to do for my birthday. I have long wanted to go to this particular show and it did not disappoint. The costumes were amazing! I'm grateful for a generous husband, who bought us great seats. We have had the tickets since February, so it was long anticipated. Now, it is kind of a bummer that it is over. It is always nice to have things to look forward to.

Today I worked out on the dreadmill....I mean the treadmill. The weather was lightening and raining this morning so we didn't go on our early morning walk. I put on my workout clothes then anyway, but didn't actually work out until 11:00 a.m. And believe me, my friends, it was a close call. I almost didn't do it.

But I talked myself into getting on the treadmill. I tried to run on the treadmill at the same pace as I do outside, but couldn't sustain it for very long. But I did run for 27 minutes and two miles straight, which is a treadmill distance record for me. I ended up doing a 5K at an okay time. Then I hopped on the exercise bike for 30 minutes. I must say, I felt much better after than I would have had I not done it.

I figure, I better get used to the treadmill again since winter is approaching. Today was a practice run. Hopefully, I still have a good 2-3 months left before I have to make a daily date with Mr. Dred.

I hope you are all well. I promise to catch up on some blogs tonight and tomorrow.

Well, I hope you are all well out there. I promise to read some blogs later tonight and tomorrow.

Weigh-In-Wednesday (a day late)

2010-08-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

Well hello, everybody. I just can't seem to get back into the blogging groove. The kiddos have been back at school now for 10 days and I am enjoying my alone time very much. It just seems that I haven't gotten the blogging bug back. It may have something to do with the fact that I am being very conscious about how much time I am spending on the computer during my alone time. I could spend A LOT of time on here, so I am watching it closely. :)

I just wanted to check in and account for yesterday's weigh-in. I weighed in at 168.5 for a loss of 2.5 pounds. Woo hoo! This brings my August net loss to 1 pound. Not very good, but I feel good about having kept off the great losses of July. And there still about another week of August left so I just may have lost a little more by then. :) Yeah, I survived my birthday week/month without too much damage!

I hope to catch up on some blogs today. I hope all of you are well out there!

Maintenance-mode 15 pounds too soon

2010-08-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody. As you can tell by my post title, things could be better around here. Let me just tell you that I seem to be in maintenance mode the past couple of weeks (all of August actually). My exercise is what is keeping me in this game, folks. Hooray for exercise! Did I really just say "hooray for exercise"!? My eating is what is keeping me from losing the last 15 pounds I need to lose to reach my 2010 goal.

The other day I was talking to a friend. She shared with me a story about another friends of hers who had lost a lot of weight by running and such, but then gained it all back because she got tired of running all the time. Do you hear the sirens going off in my head?

I have been thinking about this since she told me it. What if I injured myself running and couldn't run for awhile or what will happen when the snow comes and the weather is crummy and I am banished to treadmill workouts?

So this is me saying that I really need to get back on the "stick to the eating plan" train! For me that means, no more than 1500 calories a day and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. It also means that I will/can go over my calories one day per week. Just not 3 or 4, as has probably been the case this month. I've said this before and not followed through, but the best way for me to stick to my eating plan is by tracking my calories. Sparkpeople here I come, for real this time! I used sparkpeople in the beginning, but have gotten cocky a bit and figure I know it all now and can just kind of keep track of my calories mentally.

On the good news front, I had another 5K PR today. This morning I ran a 5K in 34:24. And I had my longest straight run of 2.6 miles. Hooray for exercise!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-08-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Good morning, bloggers! Thank you for all the birthday wishes. It was a great day, even though I binged on German Chocolate cake with my mom's homemade frosting. Actually, that probably made it a better day! I felt a little guilty and a bit disappointed that I chose to eat at a Mexican restaurant for my birthday dinner out. I just couldn't help myself. It was my birthday after all! We all know that there are no healthy choices at a traditional Mexican restaurant. But it was my birthday and it only comes one day a year so I enjoyed it all for the most part.

Despite all that, my scale results this morning were okay. I weighed in at 171 for a loss of .5. I still need to get back the 1.5 pounds I gained two weeks ago, but am glad to erase last week's gain! And I'm very glad that I can enjoy my birthday one day a year without disastrous scale results. :)

Yesterday, was my first day in 10 years of having the whole day to myself here at home. Dropping my 1st grader off at school was harder than I thought it would be. I thought I would be doing a little dance of joy, but instead I had to hold back tears. 1st grade with my girls was hard for me, but I thought it would be different with him because he really can be challenging sometimes.

So here I am a stay at home mom without any kids to stay home with during the day. What to do? With my kid's year-round school schedule, getting a job is a bit difficult. It would have to be VERY flexible. Yesterday, I was able to go to my strength class in the morning and then after the kids went to school I was able to go on a walk outside and do the exercise bike, too. Then I showered and I still had a lot of the day left! That was weird. But very nice, too! I plan on reading more (without feeling guilty about ignoring my kids), exercising a little more, offering up more church service, refining my housekeeping and cooking skills and having real grown-up lunches with friends. I think I can get used to this new life! And I'm sure just as soon as I do, it will be time for my kids to go on their first three week break from school and we'll have to find a whole new routine.

So what do you all choose to do when you have free time? And I would love to hear input from any of you more seasoned moms about how you adjusted to having all your kids in school all day.

Race Results

2010-08-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody out there! Thank you for all who are still checking in on me even though I have been pretty sporadic with my posting and commenting lately. I promise things are about to get back to normal. My girls started school today and my son starts tomorrow.

As most of you know, I ran a 5K on Saturday. It was a great event! It was put on by and for the Utah National Guard with all proceeds going to help families of National Guard members. The event started with a moment of silence for fallen soldiers and a flag ceremony. I loved this.

The race started with a cannon being fired. It was sooooo loud and startled most of us runners. I wasn't sure what kind of crowd to expect and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too big. I think I heard someone say there were about 500 runners. A far cry from the thousands at the Race for the Cure. I knew I should be able to get a good time with not much gridlock at the beginning of the race. And here is a picture of me running across the finish line, where my family was waiting for me:

Do you see that time!? It says 32:40. Now, that is a FABULOUS time for me! Too bad it is not a 5K time and only a 2.8 miles time. That's right, the route I ran was not 3.1 miles. At the mile 2 marker I noticed that Leo, my Garmin wasn't showing 2 miles and it was off. Hmmmm...I wondered. Then when I was finishing it only said 2.8 miles. Hmmmm...I wondered some more. Later on, I asked a man wearing a Garmin what his had recorded and he told me it was about 2.8. Then he told me that the timing truck had made a wrong turn somewhere and the runners in front had followed it and so went the pack. Bummer! I still feel good about the time. My pace was right on what I have been running my 5K in the neighborhood at just under 11 minutes. I know I ran for about 2.1 miles (according to Leo and not the race markers) before stopping to walk and then ran the last .11 miles and some in between as well. Overall, I am happy.

Yet, I am bummed I wasn't able to get a time for an official 5K race. I think I could have had a new PR. The next 5K I am doing in September is more of a fun/run fundraiser for a local school so I'm not sure how official it will be. I guess it will still be a race with other people and I will have Leo so I can time myself then.

Tomorrow I plan on adding 1-2 miles to my normal run/walk schedule. I hope doing this a couple of times a week will help condition me more and jump start my weight-loss again. The scale has been moving in the wrong direction this month!

And finally, today is my birthday! I am 37 years old. The 5K on Saturday was kind of a birthday present to myself. I feel like the way I have been living the past 8 months has been a gift to me and I will continue to get better and better (thanks Kyle) the older I get. I don't know how much

the number on the scale factors into one's overall fitness level, but if you take my number out of the equation I can honestly say I am the best shape of my life. I am exercising more and eating healthier than I ever have. The scale number may not be as low as at other times in my life, but
everything else is better. Now that is something this birthday girl can celebrate!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-08-11T07:00:00.001-07:00

This will be a short post. Just five more days left until the first day of school and we are definitely making the most of the five days.....so busy, busy! I really would have rather skipped this post but know I shouldn't skip on accountability. This morning the scale read 171.5 for a .5 pound gain. That is two pounds gained in two weeks. Obviously the scale is moving in the wrong way! I can only hope to maintain this without any further gains for my next weigh-in, with this week being my birthday week and all. I promise myself and you all that after the kids are back in school and my birthday is over that I WILL get back on track. And don't think that I am already throwing in the towel this week, I will eat sensibly this week as well.

I think I may need to kick/change up my exercise in order to see the results I want. Once the kiddos get back in school, I think I'll try adding a couple of miles to my run/walks a couple of days a week. Most days I do about 3 miles so this will bring me up to 5 miles.

On a more positive note, I reached a new 5K PR. I set out yesterday to do it in less than 36 minutes. My final time was 35:54. I actually ran the first two miles without walking, which is also a first for me. It felt great! I hope I can do at least as well on Saturday for the official 5K race. I am not sure how many people to expect. If there are a lot of people, the start could be slower than usual. But I am hoping adrenaline will kick in and make up for it.

Have a great day everybody!

I'm Still Alive!

2010-08-09T15:01:00.003-07:00

Hello to all my fellow bloggers! I have really been MIA lately, haven't I? I just wanted to check in for a quick hello just in case you all are missing me. Mostly because I am missing the blogging and am afraid it may be effecting my eating. Ahhhh! I have not done so well in the eating department as of late. I think I need to post just to remind myself what my goals are.

This week will be a challenge in the eating department. It is my birthday next Monday. My hubby calls it birthday week because my family really likes to celebrate. Although, that has toned down quite a bit. Taking three kids to restaurants was not too fun when they were little. Anyway, tomorrow is the start of celebrating. I am to have lunch with my mom and Granny Auntie. We are going to the Corner Bakery. I will scout out their website beforehand and try to make a good decision.

Later this week we have family in town and will be getting together for dinner. I think we are going to go to a local Mexican restaurant. Eeeks! And then on Sunday I will be celebrating with my parents and my in-laws. I will be enjoying a piece of my mom's German Chocolate cake with homemade coconut-pecan frosting. Yummy! The truth is, I may even enjoy a piece of it for breakfast on my actual birthday the next day! I know, I know. No judging, please.

There you have it. A challenge certainly awaits me. But I am up for the challenge. I plan on making the best possible choices when I am out and sticking to my plan when I am eating at home.

As far as exercise goes I have done well in that department. I am preparing for my 5K on Saturday. So far my best 5K time in the neighborhood is 36.12. I will run one tomorrow. I would love to get under 36 minutes! We shall see.

The kiddos go back to school in one week so life should stabilize a little then. Ha ha! Does it ever calm down? School just brings more stuff, doesn't it?

I really hope to catch up on some blogs tonight when my kids go to bed. I have missed you all and I do think about you! I hope to get back in the blogging groove after next week. Take care!

I'm Still Alive!

2010-08-09T15:01:00.001-07:00

Weigh-In-Wedndesday

2010-08-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody! I have been kind of MIA from the blogsphere the last few days. Sorry, for not commenting on your great blogs. I have read a few here and there, but never seem to have much time for reading and commenting. Let alone posting. The kiddos start school in 10 days so things are a bit crazy around here trying to enjoy the last days of summer. I may be pretty inconsistent until they get in school.

Today was a weigh-in day so let's get to all the gory details. This morning I weighed 171 for a gain of 1.5 pounds. :( Well, the 160's were nice for the day they lasted! I knew that the great losses in July were to good to last, but I was really hoping to be able to maintain. Deep breath. It's okay. I am hoping to get back into the 160's at next week's weigh-in and then maintain it.

Last week I really wanted to have a great eating week all week long and it started out better than past weeks, but in the end I still had a couple of not-so-great eating days. And the scale proves that. This week will be better.

My strength training class started up again yesterday. We worked on lower body and boy can I feel it this morning. Taking a few weeks off is never a good idea, apparently. Unfortunately, I was too sore to get out and run this morning. Hopefully, later I will be able to get on the bike or treadmill. This month's goal will be to find balance in my workouts. Or really, to find a way to still do cardio on the days I do strength training. That is something I slacked a bit on before. I'm sure more cardio in July is what helped me have good losses so I don't want to lose that.

My next 5K is just 10 days away. I'm really excited! I am working on a couple of friends to do it with me. My running partner will be out of town so I may be doing it solo. That may not be terrible because then I could go at my own pace. We shall see.

Well, I hope everybody has a great day. I will try to catch up on some blogs today and show my support. My google reader says I am not following any blogs! Does anyone know what may have happened there? If it stays that way, I am glad I recently updated my blog list with all of my faves! I guess I'll be checking out other people's lists now to find new (and old) blogs to follow.

A Running NSV

2010-07-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

Good morning, bloggers! I am so excited this morning! Why? Well, let me tell you.

Michelle wasn't feeling well to do our morning walk so I was on my own. Leo and I headed out and I decided to do a 5K and time myself. I told Leo that I wanted to do a 5k and set a goal for 38 minutes. 38 minutes was my goal for my last 5K race, but as it turned out they didn't officially time that race and Leo wasn't in my life then so I never really knew.

So I set out running and just kept running until I couldn't anymore. And Leo was teasing me because he wasn't telling me the time, just how far I had gone and what my pace was. I know, I could figure it out by the pace but I'm not quite that coordinated with my brain when I am exerting myself so much physically. I knew that I had ran 1.25 miles straight a couple of weeks ago so I wanted to at least run that much. Then I also set a goal for a certain place I wanted to be able to run to on my route. Ironically, that place was a local bakery. No, I didn't stop at the bakery! In fact, I couldn't quite run that far and ended up picking up my run again at the bakery. That's right, run past the bakery as fast as you can!

Anyway, my first run was 1.6 miles! That is the most I've ran outside so I was really pleased with myself. I did run a little bit after that and ended up walking the last mile of my 5K. I'm just going to admit right now that even walking that last mile was hard. I really wanted to slow down, but I also really wanted a good time so I kept walking at a fast pace.

When the 5K distance was reached, do you know what Leo told me? He said, "You won!" , I just love that guy! My time was 36.58. Mile 1- 10.57, Mile 2-10.43, Mile 3-13.46., last .11-14.10. Pretty great for me! I feel very happy. I'm hoping to cut more time off of that before my official 5K race in two weeks.

The scale has been moving pretty great for me the last few weeks, but I know that may not always last so NSV's are very important to me. Hooray for this one! I hope you all have a great weekend.

Weigh-In-Wedndesday

2010-07-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Today is weigh-in day. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. Well, okay I weigh myself everyday so I kind of knew what to expect :). What I mean to say is that after the great losses the last couple of weeks, I wasn't sure what to expect going into this week. Well, let's just say I am sad to see July ending because July has been very good to me! The scale read 169.5 today for a loss of 1 1/2 lbs. this week. That brings my total to 36 pounds lost! Woo hoo! Oh, and did I mention I am in the 160's ? Double woo hoo! The bottom half of the 170's seemed to fly by while the top half felt eternal. Let's hope the 160's go by in a more steady manner.

I have to admit my eating wasn't that great at the first of this weigh-in week. Last Wed-Fri wasn't pretty. I tried really hard over the weekend and especially hard on Mon & Tues. So my new goal for this week is to have good eating the WHOLE week. I probably ate less the last couple of days than I would have normally eaten just because I wanted a good number today ( In all honesty, I was just hoping to be able to maintain last week's loss so the number today is a big bonus). I don't want to feel like I have to eat less than I really should so I need to do a better overall job with eating throughout the week. Does that make sense?

I want to welcome my new followers. I've noticed that my number of followers has recently jumped up. Big Clyde is a new follower and he joins Kyle as my only two male followers. Clyde asked about my running/walking schedule. He asked if I do it each week and if so how long I've been doing that. Well, Clyde I can't really honestly answer that because before I got my Garmin I really had no way to keep track of it all. I will say that I have been walking with my friend in the mornings (March-October) for about 3 years now (although you never would have guessed it by looking at me). Over the years we have upped our walking a bit. The past year or so we have probably been averaging 12 miles a week. It wasn't until this summer that we have kicked it up a notch and are adding running. In January, I turned to the treadmill for exercise during the winter months and have added running little by little since February.

Once our early morning strength training classes start up again in August we will not have our morning walks on Tues/Thurs. I am going to try to still go after class and the kids are in school though once school starts up again. I think averaging a 5K each week will really be great! Eventually, I may even add a 4 mile walk in there each week.

I am planning on signing up for a 5K that takes place on August 14th. I am really excited about this. I know there will be a timer this time (unlike the Race for the Cure) because they are awarding medals. Not that it matters now that I have Leo to time me.

I also have plans to do a 5K in September. Many of you probably remember that one of my goals this year is to run an entire 5K. I'm thinking it better be in September because my window is closing the closer the winter months get. However, I guess it doesn't have to be an official 5K race. Now that I have Leo, I can keep track and run it on my own around the neighborhood.

I hope you all have a great day!

What Leo has taught me?

2010-07-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been awhile since I posted. That is summer for you! The kids and I took another trip to the amusement park last week. It was so fun! I even found a new "happy place". It is on a certain ride with my kids. We all fit into one seat. It is the kind of ride that spins you around, depending on how you lean. If you all lean the same way at just the right time you spin around super fast. I loved being on this ride with my three kids and we were all laughing uncontrollably. I loved watching their smiles. It was a perfect moment. It may sound cheezy, but I'm glad for those moments with my kids. We all need moments we can remember when things aren't so great. Like when the kids are all fighting and you wish summer break would be over already. :) I've had a few of those this past week, too.

We went to the water park inside the amusement park this time and we also went swimming one other time last week. That means I had two opportunities to wear my new swimsuit. I really like how it fits and am glad I spent the extra money on a good well-fitting swimsuit. Of course, I think I'll like how I fit in my swimsuit next year even better, when I'm 20 pounds lighter!

I promised I would post about what I've learned from Leo, thus far. Leo is my Garmin, in case you didn't know.I've been analyzing the data using the software that came with Leo. Here's what I've learned:

*Michelle runs faster than me! No wonder, I always feel so pooped by the end of our runs even though they are shorter than when I run by myself.
*I run faster outside than on the treadmill. No wonder, I can't run quite as long outside than inside.
*I walk/ran about a 5K, 6 days last week. Hooray for me!
*I need to become more consistent with my pace because the graph of my runs are all over the chart.
*Leo is really cool and I'm glad I found him! He really is going to help me become a runner.

Here is my walk/running schedule from last week and my times:

Monday- 3.09 miles (38.49 min) I was alone for this one.
Tuesday- 3.0 miles (38.55 min)
Wednesday- 3.13 miles (44.59) No running.
Thursday- 3.36 miles (42.44) I was alone.
Friday- 3.26 miles (43.16)
Saturday- 3.11 (43.54) No running.

I feel really good about my running. I used to think that the treadmill was great and couldn't understand why people hated it. Well, now that I have been running outside, I really am dreading the winter months when I will have to go back to the treadmill. I love being outside and the challenges of the normal inclines and the relief of the descents.

On Saturday, I wanted to exercise but knew I shouldn't run. I had already ran 4 days, which is a lot for me. My body was telling me to take a rest from running. So I opted for a walk instead. It was sooo hard not to run. I really wanted to! I can't believe I actually WANTED to run. Wow! I really am changing on this journey. It feels good.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-07-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

This morning the scale read 171, for a 2.5 lb. loss! That brings my total to 34.5 pounds lost. I know I have blogged the last week about not letting myself get too emotional (positively or negatively) about the day to day scale readings, but I think it is okay on weigh-in days to celebrate a little since those are the scale results that matter. Right? So, let's hear a big Woo Hoo from everyone! That is two great losses in two weeks.

I'm pleased and excited but I'm trying not to get too excited since I know what my pattern of weight loss has been. These two good losses probably mean a month's worth of maintains or minimal losses is ahead of me. Sigh. But I have learned that remaining consistent and staying diligent will lead to results. The great losses every few weeks are the pay off for all my hard work. Just when I thought I was destined to be in the 170's forever, I am granted two good week's of loss and the 160's seem on the horizon.

I've been trying to pinpoint what the difference could be that accounted for the losses. I know that changing up your workout can always make a difference. Here is how mine has changed over the last couple of weeks. I have not been doing any strength training. The gym floor at the church we were holding class at is being redone so we can't have class until August. Also my Monday early morning class has been suspended until fall. I have missed these classes a lot.
I lent my Jillian Shred video to a friend so haven't been able to do that. So basically, I have not done any strength training. That could be the difference. We all know muscle adds weight. Maybe mine is just burning fat right now since I'm not building muscle.

I will definitely go back to the strength training next month since I want to be thinner and toned, not just thinner. Also, I would sure hate all the muscle I've worked hard to build up over the last few months to turn to fat!

I am hoping that once I go back to my classes it will be another good change in my workout routine and I will see good results. For now, I have been enjoying more cardio. Michelle and I walk/jog a 5K every morning and it feels great. I am also trying to do the exercise bike for 40 minutes at least every other day.

Stay tuned for my next post, in which I will share what I've learned from Leo (my Garmin) so far. It is very interesting. I just love Leo!

Have a great day everybody!

Happy 100th Post to Me!

2010-07-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everybody! I know it has been awhile since I posted. Summer has been crazy around here. Our summer break is only 6 weeks long, which is actually quite long for around here. Because we have so many kids and not enough schools around here we are on a year round school schedule. 3/4 of the kids are in school at one time and 1/4 is on break. The rest of the kids start next week and most only had a 3 week summer break. Anyway, we like to cram a lot in during our breaks. Good thing we have 6 weeks off this time!

I must admit my eating has not been very stellar this week. I need to learn to moderate myself better when life happens. What happened you say? Well, the amusement park happened, we had a pic-nic with friends and my hubby's company party happened. I will try to do better the rest of the summer. But I do know it could have been worse.

And because I am still weighing myself everyday (nope, I couldn't stay away from the scale) I know the scale could be worse (and it could be better). I've decided weighing myself everyday is the best way to keep myself in check and I feel fairly confident that I can manage how I react to the number on the scale. I do hope to get to the point one day that I don't feel it necessarily to weigh myself everyday to stay on track.

Another thing that I can use for motivation is the fact that I went swimsuit shopping on Saturday. Ugggh! Even 30 lbs. later, I still hate swimsuit shopping. I definitely know I really want to lose the last 20 pounds now , if I wasn't sure before. I know that even after I reach my goal swimsuit shopping won't be fun (I've had 3 kids after all) but it will be better. I did find a cute, flattering swimsuit though. I did spend a lot more than I ever have before, but it will be worth it when I take the kids swimming later this week.

As my title states, this is my 100th post! Hooray for me! For me, this blog is a symbol of my dedication to healthy living. And 100 posts just proves to me that I am doing well and keeping my New Year's Resolution, even 7 months after making it.

I have updated my blog a little in honor of the occasion. I also saved an award that was given to me by I Said So and Whitney for today! So thank you to J and Whitney for thinking of me! Here is the award:

Now I am suppose to tell you 7 things about myself. I feel like I have done this a few times before so I'll try to think of new things. Hmmmmm....here it goes.

1.) I'm pretty good at picking things up with my toes.

2.) I don't like to leave the house without lipstick on. It makes me feel pretty, oh so pretty!

3.) I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards from a radio station. It was 2 days straight of country music. I loved it! I had the opportunity to get Taylor Swift's autograph, but didn't see the point of standing in line to get some unknown 15-year-olds autograph. :)

4.) I go through reading spurts and read a ton and then find myself not picking up a book for a couple of months. I'm trying to get back to reading (and off the internet right now) so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

5.) I love to read celebrity gossip. I browse the magazines at the check stand, surf the internet and watch Entertainment Tonight when I can. It is my guilty pleasure.

6.) I dreamed of being a sport's announcer when I was a girl. Now I just play one from my couch or the sidelines of my kid's games.

7.) I recently found my old Steve Miller Band, Simon & Garfunkel, Eagles, Indigo Girls CD's and was so excited to put them on my Ipod. They bring back so many memories from my freshman year in college. And no, I'm not that old. The bands (with the exception of Indigo Girls) were classic bands when I first started listening to them! Isn't it crazy how music can make us recall so many memories just like that.

Now I'm suppose to pass this award on to some newly discovered bloggers. I feel like I just did that a few weeks ago with another award so I'm not going to do that part today. I will direct you to my newly updated blog list on my side bar. I just updated it and it has all my new (and old) favorites on it. If anyone wants to accept this award on their own blog, I award it to you. I always love reading new things about my favorite bloggers.

Have a great day!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-07-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Good morning. This will be a quick post as today is another busy summer day. I just wanted to report my weigh-in results. This morning the scale read 173.5, for a loss of 2 pounds! That is a total of 32 pounds! 32 pounds sounds so much better than 30, doesn't it? After two weeks of maintains I am happy to see a loss. And I am happy to be on the downside of the 170's.

I still haven't decided if I'm going to not step on the scale for a whole week. I have until tomorrow morning to decide. I appreciate everyone's input on my post yesterday. I think the main thing I took away from all the comments is that it really doesn't matter if you weigh once (or twice) a day, once a week or once a month. What matters is your reaction to what the scale says. I think the important thing for me is not to let the scale dictate my attitude and mood so much, like it did last weekend. Maybe taking a week off will help me sever the emotional ties I have to the scale. Maybe. We shall see.

I hope everybody has a great day!

I'm Taking a Poll

2010-07-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I hope you all are having a fabulous day so far. Today I'm conducting a short, unscientific poll.

This morning while my friend and I were on our jog/walk with Leo we had a discussion about the scale and how often one should weigh themselves. My friend goes to Weight Watchers every Monday and told me how last night her group leader emphasized only weighing once a week. I know many of you adhere to this routine and do it because the scale can fluctuate so much from day to day. This definitely happened to me last weekend after my PF Chang's dinner. As many of you mentioned yesterday, I'm sure it was due to the sodium. I just wish I would have thought about that on Sunday instead of eating a bunch of brownies because I was discouraged.

Up until now the scale has never fluctuated too much from day to day. I have not been one to get too frustrated if it was up a little one day and just used it as motivation to do better the next day. Well, that has changed over the last couple of weeks and I am beginning to wonder if I should stop weighing every day. Okay, I'll admit it. I actually weigh myself MORE than once a day. It has become a bit of an obsession.

It makes me a bit nervous not to do it. In the past, I never weighed myself. I can't even tell you how much I weighed in high school. I never considered myself overweight, but I certainly wasn't skinny either. In fact, when I came back from summer break my senior year I had people commenting on how good I looked and asking people (not to my face) if I had lost some weight. I wasn't sure there was a difference. The only thing that had changed was that I had gotten a job at a pizza place and was eating pizza everyday. Lol! I had also cut my long hair off so maybe that was really the difference in what people were seeing.

Anyway, I never weighed myself very regularly and we all know where that got me. It wasn't until I started noticing differences in my clothes and had to start buying bigger sizes that I knew I was gaining weight. Then I stepped on the scale more often and when the 190's turned to the 200's I decided I better do something about it.

So you can see why weighing myself everyday seems to be so important to me. However, I am leaning towards taking a week off from the scale. I will weigh-in tomorrow and then not look at the scale until the next Wednesday. Even writing that plan makes me laugh and have doubts that I can actually do it!

So as you can see, I am not totally committed to the idea. I have until Thursday morning to decide. I am taking a poll of all my fellow bloggers. How often do you weigh? Have you tried more than one method and why do you like your current way of doing it? I would love to hear all your thoughts on the matter. Thanks!

By the way, I'm still loving Leo. I love how he beeps at Michelle and me while we are running to let us know it is almost time to stop. Why do I love those beeps so much!? We are currently working on interval training. Michelle hasn't been running like I have so our intervals are a little spaced out now. We run 1/4 mile, walk 1/2 mile for three miles. Today we shaved a couple of seconds off our previous time.

If only weekends didn't count against you..

2010-07-12T12:37:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was pretty low-key. I sure wish I could pretend like it didn't happen (calorie-wise) though.

It started off pretty well. The scale was down and I was happy. I went for a walk on Saturday morning with my new best friend, Leo. I'll tell you more about him in a minute. I ate a light and healthy breakfast and lunch.

Then, I made banana bread after lunch. I just hate to waste mushy bananas and my daughter had been asking me to make it for a couple of days. I ate a couple of small pieces and thought that was okay.

My hubby and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. We went to PF Chang's. I ordered brown rice and didn't eat it all. We got a dinner for two and I made sure one of our entrees was the lower calorie beef with broccoli. I actually felt okay with how I'd eaten on Saturday.

So when the scale was up 2 pounds on Sunday I was shocked and frustrated! I have always been a proponent of weighing myself every day because it keeps me in check. It didn't serve that purpose yesterday. Instead of wanting to eat great all day because I was up I had the mindset of I might as well eat what I want because it doesn't matter I'll still gain. Not good.

I was assigned to bring dessert to my mom's house for dinner. My Grandpa was going to be there and my mom had mentioned how much my grandpa likes chocolate, just like the rest of us. I planned on making chocolate peanut butter chip brownies. They are so yummy and way fattening! I had told myself I would only have one. Well, I lied to myself. I tasted the batter, I had to taste them when they came out of the oven and then had a few more "tastes".....errrr brownines. Did I mention they have cream cheese in them, too.

So anyway, if I maintain this week or am up on the scale come Wednesday I only have myself and my chocolate addiction to blame. I have done better today and will do good tomorrow so we shall see.

Can't we just pretend like weekends don't count?

My last post was all about my new Garmin and someone asked what kind it was. That would have been good information to give you all. Sorry. It is a Garmin Forerunner 305. Check it out here.

I asked everyone on advice for a fun name for my new running partner. I really like all the different suggestions. I really liked Cammy's suggestion. She asked if I was a Leo since I had mentioned my birthday was next month. She suggested I choose Leo since it is my astrological sign.

And that is just what I have done. Leo is now the name of my Garmin. I was doing some "research" into astrology. Some positive traits that a Leo supposedly has are: Dignity, will-power, generosity, loyalty, confidence, ambitious. I would say that I lack a bit in the will-power (re-read the paragraphs above if you wonder what I'm talking about). I can also use a bit more ambition and confidence when it comes to running so I will depend on my new running partner, Leo to help me to become the best Leo I can be. :)

As far as the negative traits of Leos, they are: Conceited, arrogant, laziness. Hmmmm.....I don't think these apply to me at all. I am perfect. :)

So there you have some Monday thoughts from me. I hope you all have had a great start to the week and that is a healthy one. That is what I'm wishing for!

I am so spoiled!

2010-07-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

Good morning, everybody! First of all, I want to thank everyone who comments on my posts. I really love reading your comments and appreciate my faithful commentors. Yesterday two comments really made me smile.

The first was from the blogger, I Said So..., she wrote,

"Sounds like so much fun...who cares about weight loss when you're doing things like that with those you love!" I really loved this quote because it is definitely the mindset I want to have. I don't want to have to worry about my weight so much. I want to enjoy life without my weight being an issue. Once I get this whole healthy lifestyle mastered, I will be able to do just that!

The second comment was from http://www.myjourneytofit.com/... and she wrote:

"Sounds like you will be excellent at maintenance, once you truly want to be there, lol. I had several, many, ok - LOTS of weigh-ins where I "practiced maintenance." ;) "

I really respect Shelley. She has lost a lot of weight and has maintained her new weight and is working towards being even more fit each day. To know that she "practiced maintenance" as well makes me feel a lot better.

So thanks to all my commenters you guys spoil me with encouragement and support.

My hubby also spoils me. A few weeks ago I mentioned to him I would really like a Garmin watch and explained to him what it is. I even emailed him a link to the one I wanted. Well, a few days went by and we didn't talk much about it and then we got our new exercise bike. I figured the prudent thing to do would be to ask for money from my parents for my birthday (in August) and put it towards a Garmin.

A week or so ago, my husband said, "Guess what I did?". Now I know when he says that in the mornings before work and he has been on the computer that he has ordered something online. Sure enough, he had ordered my Garmin! First, I chastised him a little. Telling him, we don't need to buy everything we want right when we want it and how I was going to use birthday money to buy it. He told me I could wait until my birthday, if I wanted. I, of course, declined and told him "thank you, thank you!". It would probably be a good idea to still ask my parents for money for my birthday and just put it in the bank to cover the credit card bill for the Garmin....but.....I won't! :) I like presents too much.

Anyway, here is a picture of my new Garmin :

I love it! I am still learning how to use it and all it's features. I haven't even explored the software that goes with it. I am loving tracking my distance and calories burned when I am walking/running outside. And my friend and I are going to utilize the interval workouts on our morning walks.

I am hoping that this new gadget will help me become a true runner and not just a treadmill runner. I think I need that timer and distance alert to help me keep going and push myself. And now I have it!

Some people (like Shelley and Kyle) name theirs. I am not that creative. So....if you have any good ideas, send them my way. I think naming inanimate objects is fun!

Well, that is it for today! Today the kids and I are off to visit a Children's Museum. Apparently, the kids think I am suppose to entertain them all day, every day of summer break! They also think money grows on trees around here. Good thing we have a free coupon for today's activity.

Weigh-In-Wednesday and the Weekend in Pictures

2010-07-07T07:26:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everybody! I hope you all have been well for the past few days. I've been too busy to post very often. Anyway on to the boring part of my post, my weigh-in. This morning the scale read 175.5, for a maintain once again. That's two weeks in a row. I really need to get out of maintain mode and back into losing mode. I have been having a couple of days a week of poor eating and that is not going to cut it. This past weekend did me in this week. Without all the sordid details let me just say that I enjoyed some lime flavored potatoe chips, licorice, swedish fish and cotton candy. I guess I can say I'm happy I didn't gain.

So what did you all do this weekend? For those of us in the USA, it was a long weekend for celebrating. Here is a brief synopsis through pics of what I did:

I started the weekend off with a girl's night out and this:

Need I say more...didn't think so!

Saturday was spent doing yard work and then the family and I went to see this:

We loved this movie! Can I just say....Jaden Smith is such a cutie and he is going to be a successful actor just like his dad. It did make me feel a little old though because I remember the first Karate Kid very well. I even had a scrapbook devoted to Ralph Macchio!

After church on Sunday we headed up to my in-laws cabin for:

a little hiking......

a little ATV'ing.... and lots of rest!

We spent Monday evening at a rodeo and fireworks show in a small town near the cabin.

All in all it was a great weekend. Yesterday was spent doing laundry and relaxing at home before my husband had to go to work today. I hope you all had a great weekend and are having a great week so far!

I had Oatmeal for Breakfast......

2010-07-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

I had oatmeal for breakfast.........in the form of no-bake cookies. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about. You know, the cookies made from oatmeal and chocolate and cooked over the stove. No, I did not make them for breakfast! I made them yesterday because I was having a craving and I gave into that craving. I ate some more for breakfast.

Well, there is the confession and the bad of this post. Now on to the good part. Despite eating cookies for breakfast and really not wanting to I got on the treadmill this morning and was able to complete Week 7, Day 2 of the C25K training. For those of you who may not know what C25K is click here. Week 7 is the same each day. It is running for 25 minutes at a time. I am nowhere near the distance goal. But I have been aiming for the time throughout the training so I will be happy with it. I ran for 1.8 miles. I have decided that once I complete the training by time, I will go back a few weeks and try for the distance. That will be a new challenge and provide me with new goals.

There was a great column in today's newspaper by a sportswriter, who also writes a column called "Losing It". His name is Jody Genessy. He talks about his triumphs and struggles on his own weight loss journey. Today's column focused on tracking what he eats as well as accountability. Here is an excerpt from the column:

"If I end up being obese, it's because I choose to be obese and do the things that make me that way. It's nobody else's fault. And if I end up being thinner, it's because I choose to be thinner and do the things that make me that way.
In a way, I'm pretty dang lucky. It's all up to me. I get to choose.
It's important for me to realize that I'm in control. That's scary because I know the damage that can happen when I let go of the wheel and allow my natural instincts to drive for me. (The fact my inflated body looks like a couple of air bags exploded inside my clothes is proof of that.)"

You can read the entire column here.

Reading the article got me thinking. It really is up to us. We have all the power in this journey. Of course, there are many of us that believe God has power too and I truly believe that. But that is a post for another day. I think once we allow ourselves to believe that we have the power to change ourselves and determine our own journey we will be successful.

Of course, this takes courage. It is a lot easier to blame other people or circumstances for our problems, be it health issues or other problems. It is easier to keep going a long the way we have been and chalk it up to how we were raised or how we've been treated. But once we do it we feel so empowered.

I determine where my journey will take me. Sometimes things have happened to us that are HARD and UNFAIR. Sometimes we turn to an unhealthy lifestyle to cope with these issues. I feel like I have had a pretty good life and know others have a lot more challenging personal trials than I have or will ever experience. However, there are some experiences or circumstances of my life that have left me feeling sad and wishing things could be different. I have no control over these circumstances and cannot change them. But I do have control over how I react to them and cope with it all. I feel like I learned this a long time ago and have been a pretty happy person because of it.

This applies to our weight loss journey. We are in control. It is up to us. We can choose how we react to stress in our life. Are we going to eat a donut or go run a mile? Are we going to go on a binge or have a good cry (this always helps me) and let it out at once so we can move on? We choose to get outside help if we need it. We choose what foods we make (ugggh...shouldn't have made those cookies). We choose what we order at a restaurant. We choose to exercise or not to. We choose whether or not to let God into our journey. We choose to live healthy or not. We have the power. We can do this!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-06-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Good morning everybody, I hope you all are happy and well.

This morning the scale read 175.5, which is what it read last Wednesday. No gain, no loss. That means for the month of June I netted a total loss of 1 pound! That isn't good considering my new mini-goal is to lose 4 pounds a month so I can reach my big goal by December. I obviously have work to do.

Overall, I feel good about my exercise and feel like I am eating fairly healthy. I will say that over the past week I did have two days where I felt like I had overeaten and really felt full. I haven't felt really full for awhile so that is something I need to watch from here on out.

We just got an exercise bike and I got on it for the first time last night. I have never really ridden one so I wasn't sure what to expect. I loved it and am so excited to add it to my exercise routine. I did it for 40 minutes and burned almost as many calories as I do while on the treadmill for the same amount of time. We put it in our TV room and I did it while we were watching a movie last night. The thing is so quiet that I think the only way my family could even tell I was on there was by my heavy breathing. I love to watch TV and look forward to doing the bike while I watch my favorite shows this fall. I think adding the bike (I vow not to let it replace my running/walking outside or on the treadmill) will help me better reach my goals.

Well, I just got a call that my daughter needs lunch money. There are two days of school left, you would think she would be happy with home lunch. But she doesn't want to miss out on pizza day. Hmmm...that doesn't sound so great does it? Anyway, I better head over there with her lunch money. Have a great day everybody!

A Totally Random Monday

2010-06-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everybody. Thank you all for your positive, supportive comments on my last post regarding my new goal. I really feel like I can do it now! I hope you all had a great weekend! My weekend was pretty great (besides team USA getting knocked out of the World Cup). Here is my weekend update and some randomness for you all.

Friday, was my daughter's 5th grade program, it was a patriotic one. I loved it and it made me appreciate this great country of ours even more. I look forward to celebrating Independence Day this weekend. Before the program, they had a states parade. Each 5th grader had to do a report on one of the states and make up a mini-float for the parade. My daughter's state was Georgia. It was fun and stressful putting the float together and very rewarding to watch the parade.

Friday night, we spent the evening with old friends who moved away to Georgia about 7 years ago. They have just moved back to Utah and live only about 5 miles from us. It was great, just like old times. I am so excited to have them back here for good.

Saturday, I completed Week 7, Day 1 of the C25K training by running for 25 minutes straight. Woo, woo! I think it is mostly mental with me. If I get on the treadmill with no expectations and just start running and push myself that extra 1/4 mile or 5 minutes I can do it. Otherwise, I pysch myself out. Like today. I was going to attempt Day 2 of Week 7, but talked myself out of it. Here are my excuses (maybe valid, maybe not), I got very little sleep last night so my energy level is low. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to go to my exercise class this morning and we did kickboxing so my legs and arms are pretty sore. I just couldn't run far.

Recently, I bought a new dress. I have always admired the wrap around dresses and even have tried them on before, but have never felt comfortable enough with how I look in them to buy them. They usually have fun prints and I'm a more wear a simple black skirt with a blouse, don't be noticed, kind of gal. Anyway, I saw a dress (size L) on the clearance rack at Kohl's for $15 and had to try it on. I actually thought I looked okay, plus the price couldn't be beat. Even if I decided later on I didn't want to wear it, it was only $15.

When I excitedly told my husband I had found it on the clearance rack, he told me , "that's great, but you don't have to only buy things on the clearance rack". This got me thinking a lot. I know there is nothing wrong with the clearance rack and I love a good deal, but I think part of me wonders if I'm not worth spending the money for more expensive clothes. This is something I'll have to ponder. It could be I am just cheap! :)

Anyway, I wore the dress for the second time to church yesterday and had my husband snap a pic, so here I am in my new dress:

Leah, recently awarded me the Beautiful Blogger award and I graciously accept it here now. If you have never checked out Leah's blog at My New Ending, go check it out. She is truly a beautiful blogger and I am honored that she considers me one, too. :)

So now I am suppose to tell you 7 things about myself.

1.) I am an only child and was raised by a single mom. This is a bit of a rarity in my community, where large families are common. My mom is one of my best friends and I have many good memories growing up.

2.) I went to 6 different Elementary Schools. I think I adapted well and learned how to make friends easily. However, because I moved around so much I can't say I have one childhood friend that I have known my whole life. My oldest and dearest friend is someone I met in 8th grade.

3.) I spent 18 months in Argentina on a mission for my church. It was the hardest, best thing I've ever done, next to being a parent. Because of this, Argentina is my new favorite team in the World Cup :)!

4.) My hubby and I had our first date when we were 15 and Sophomores in High School. We dated a few more times during our teen years, but it wasn't until we were in our early twenties that we really got serious. We have been married for 13 1/2 years. I love him and consider him my best friend and more!

5.) I graduated from college with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, but have never been paid to use my degree. Unless, of course, you count hugs and kisses because I use it everyday in my home. In the early years of my oldest daughter's life, my husband would look at me as if I should know everything. I would just laugh and say, "It seems a lot easier when you read about this in books."

6.) Most of you probably know this, but it is a big part of me so I'll say it again: I LOVE SPORTS! My favorite sports are College football and NBA basketball. But I can really sit down and watch any sport. I do have to pick a team or individual to root for though, to fully enjoy the experience.

7.) I have two different colored eyes. One is hazel with brown specks in it and the other one is hazel/blueish. It really depends on the light. It has always made me little self-conscious because once people notice they just stare really deep into my eyes. I don't know why so much eye contact makes me nervous, but it does. At least, I know who really looks me in my eyes.

So there are my random things about me. Now I am suppose to pass this on to some people. This is always the hardest part. I love so many blogs, yet feel like I am passing them on to the same people a lot. You know who you are. So today, I am going to pass them on to my newest followers/commenters. Some of them just started blogging. You should go check them out so they can feel your love, much as I do. They are:

Sarah @ Creating Sarah
Taylor @ Tay's Life
Lori Lynn @ Sunflowers n Daisies
Maya @ I hate the Waiting Game

Okay ladies, the rules are you post the award picture on your blog. Then you tell us 7 things about yourself and mention a few bloggers you think are beautiful.

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

A new goal! (I really think I must be crazy)

2010-06-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

I was recently re-reading my 2nd post ever. In the post I set my goals, both short-term and long-term. You can read the post here if you want. It is amazing to me that I am 6 months into this journey and have already accomplished some of the short-term goals and am more than half way to my big long-term goal as far as pounds lost goes.

I think that goals are what keep us striving to do our best. I have thought about what may happen when I reach my goal weight. What will keep me motivated to exercise and eat healthy? I like to think that wanting to take care of my body will be enough of a reason, but wonder if it really will be enough.

When the treadmill got boring and mundane in the beginning of my journey I decided to take on the C25K training. I'm still working on that goal, but plan on being a C25k graduate. :)
When the exercise dvd's got mundane I had some new opportunities to take exercise classes with friends.
These are things that have helped me on my journey. And now I have found a new one that will help me stay on the path for at least the next 3 years.

It is called the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay Race.
It is a 178 mile race completed over about a 24 hour period. Teams are made up of 12 people and each person runs three legs of the race. The legs range from easy to very difficult. The area in which the race is ran is very beautiful and mountainous. Here is how the website describes the race:

"Think of it as a 188-mile party with 12 best friends. Teams of 12 will rock out to live bands, enjoy the wacky participant costumes, and make life-long friends with teammates and competitors. Teams will party along the backside of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains from Logan (85 miles north of Salt Lake City) to Park City, Utah (15 miles east of Salt Lake City). "

Doesn't it sound fun!? :} I have many friends that have done this. I remember thinking I really wish I could do something like that last year when I saw all their facebook updates and pics about the race, but KNOWING I NEVER COULD do anything like that. After all, I was 50 pounds overweight and couldn't even run a 1/4 mile.

This year I had the same thoughts as the race was ran last weekend. By the same thought, I meant wishing I could be involved in it. The difference this year is I KNOW I CAN do this race someday. And I think it would be great to do it the summer I turn 40. That is in three years. I truly believe anybody could train to do anything within a three year period. I have already talked to many friends about doing it and now I am posting it on my blog so it is officially a goal of mine now. And who knows, as time goes by maybe we'll decide to do it earlier.

I am so excited to have this new goal and to have something more to work towards. I really appreciated Kyle's comment on my last post. He said, "With your running you have something better to focus on than the scale." That is so true. I am so much more than the number on the scale. I have other goals that don't include numbers on the scale but numbers of miles ran.

So there you have it my new long, long-term goal. Do any of you have any real long-term goals that you really believe in? I mean, I could say I want to run a marathon in 3 years. But right now that doesn't seem very believeable to me. I think when we set goals, no matter how far out they are they must be something we truly believe in.

I hope you all are happy and well. Good night!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-06-23T08:02:00.001-07:00

Good morning, everybody! I hope this day finds you happy and well.
Today was my weigh-in day and the scale read 175.5, which means I lost the 1.5 pounds I gained last week and also lost that stubborn 30th pound that has been eluding me. Woo hoo!
I feel very good to know that I was able to get back on track and did not let last week's discouragement keep me down.

I am 20 lbs. away from my goal for this year. I have to admit, at this point 20 lbs. seems a little daunting since the last 10 lbs. have seemed to take forever to get off. I figure I have about 5 months left to do it and can hope for a maintain in December because really, who loses weight in December? Maybe that is the wrong kind of attitude, but I feel it is fairly realistic. So I guess my new mini-goal is to lose 4 pounds a month.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another goal I've set for myself. It is way long-term but very exciting!

Have a great day everybody!

Me & Yard work: A match not meant to be.

2010-06-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Good morning everybody! I hope you all had a great weekend. We loved Toy Story 3! I think my husband and I laughed as much or more than the kids, and the end is so touching I almost cried. We had a great barbecue with our dad's last night. It was fun to celebrate with them.

Saturday was our first soccer-free, nice weather Saturday in a long time. We planned on taking full advantage and getting out in the yard and doing some work. Well, I've decided that yard work may not be my thing. You may remember that on Tuesday I sat in an ant hill and got pinched at. Well, on Saturday I was doing some weed chopping with my hoe and when I stood up straight to get the rake, I realized I had done something to my back. The pain was excruciating ( I have a low tolerance for pain), it was all I could do to hobble to my backyard, where my husband was, and lay down on the grass. Needless, to say my yard work workout was once again cut short.

The interesting thing about it is that all I could think of was how mad I was because a hurt back was really going to throw a wrench into my daily exercise routine. I know I've come along way when I am worried about NOT being able to exercise!

A few ibuprofen and some rest got me through Saturday and it has progressively felt better. I am just a little nervous about re-aggravating it. I am bummed because I was so excited about running 2 miles last week and I wanted to run again today. I am little nervous about it.

I decided not to run outside today and will use my treadmill instead. That way if I start running and throw out my back, I'll be in my house and not miles away from home. :) I will take it easy to begin with and see how it goes.

My hubby just ordered an exercise bike. I am excited to have something new to do. I think it is important to change up your workout every few months and am happy I have been able to do that. So how do you all change up your workout, or do you even feel it is necessary?

Have a great day everybody!

C25K Week 6 Day 3 Complete......FINALLY!

2010-06-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everybody! I hope you are all having a good day so far and looking forward to the weekend. I am sitting her watching The World Cup. Go USA! They got down 0-2 early but are not knocking on the door to tie it at 2-2. I just love soccer, whether it is my kids playing, our local MLS team or the world cup. Woo hoo! They just tied it up!

I bet many of you have forgotten (or at least no one has called me out on it) I (we interrupt this blog post for a world cup update, USA just had a winner goal disallowed for some phantom penalty).... have been working on Week 6 Day 3 of the C25K since April. I have not seemed to be able to get past the mental challenge of running for 25 minutes straight. Also, my friend and I have started running in the mornings so I have not been very focused on the C25k.

Today was a treadmill day. And FINALLY, I was able to run for 25 minutes straight. In fact, I ran for 27 minutes and 2 miles! Before today, the farthest distance had been just over 1.5 miles. I'm not sure what the difference was today, but now I have a new standard to live up to. I just may complete the C25K program after all.

I am looking forward to this weekend. Some good friends of ours, who moved across the country 6 years ago, have just moved back to town. We are getting together with them this afternoon and are so excited to have them back so close.

Tonight we are going to see Toy Story 3. I am so excited! I love the Pixar movies. Tomorrow is a day of yardwork, as beautiful weather is expected. On Sunday, we are having our dad's over for a barbecue. It should be fun.

I hope all of you have a great weekend!

It's Gut Check Time!

2010-06-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Once again, I am a day late in posting my weigh-in results and once again I am not very excited to report my results. Here it goes: Yesterday morning the scale read 178, for a GAIN of 1.5 pounds. My first gain since I started in January. Most of my losses have been .5 pounds so I basically screwed up 3 normal weeks of hard work in just one week. Not good. I didn't really expect a loss after my poor eating.

It is gut check time for me! Will I have the courage to keep going and get back on track or will I give up when it gets hard? Will I allow my discouragement to get the best of me or will I allow this week's weigh-in to motivate me to do even better?

I choose to get back on track and to do even better! I started tracking my calories again yesterday for the first time in a couple of months. Granted, my calorie count was way too high (due to my friend inviting me for lunch and having a huge bowl of guacamole out in the open for me to dip corn chips in all afternoon) but at least I was forced to see just how high down on paper.

This week will be better. I promise you and most of all I promise myself. I have worked to hard over the past 6 months, only to not reach my goal and gain it all back.

I have to keep this short. My son is home from school all week, due to testing for kindergarten. Then he goes back for two weeks before all my kids are out for the summer (6 weeks for us). I just realized yesterday that I really need to take advantage of the rest of this week because it is the last couple of days I will ever have with my son, just the two of us. Next year, he will be in all-day school, just like my girls. :(

Totally random post!

2010-06-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hello out there! This will be a totally random post since I don't have the energy to think of something clever or insightful to write about. So here are 11 random thoughts for you all:

1.) I really planned on weeding for more than one hour this morning and then I sat on a ant hill in my garden! Good thing they were just black ants, black ants don't bite...right? NOT SO! I weeded for a few minutes longer after I brushed all the ants off and still couldn't snap the feeling that I was being snipped at or bitten. Yes, some of those darn ants crept through the mesh of my pants and were pinching me. I quickly ended my weeding session and headed to the shower!

2.) I find it interesting that I actually enjoy doing yard work now more than I used to because I know it is burning calories. Those darn ants cut my workout short!

3.) I really needed the weeding workout today on top of my strength training class and 3 miles on the treadmill because last night we ate dinner and dessert at the local ice cream parlor and tomorrow is my weigh-8in. Shame on me.

4.) I would have been better off not eating at the ice cream parlor but then my family would have missed out on the kindness of one stranger. One anonymous customer picked up our tab and the bill of two other tables. How sweet!

5.) Of course, this got me to thinking why our family was one of the families he chose to pay for in such a crowded restaurant. Did we look poor? Did we look unhappy and needed to smile? Or maybe we looked so happy and are such a cute family he could not resist himself? LOL!

6.) Why am I so darn paranoid about what others think and cannot just accept a stranger's kind gesture without analyzing it?

7.) The whole ice cream parlor thing would not have happened had the new dishwasher we have be waiting for two weeks would have just fit in our dishwasher space! Then we would not have had to pick out another one and been in the ice cream parlor's neighborhood!

8.) I really hope that the new dishwasher can be installed without any problems because I am really tired of having to inspect all the dishes when I pull them out of the dishwasher before I put them in the cupboard.

9.) What's worse is that sometimes my kids forget to inspect when it is their turn to empty the dishwasher. Nothing like pulling dirty, clean dishes out of the cupboard!

10.) My sink disposal stopped working today. Bummer!

11.) I really should get on with my day and stop boring you all. Have a good day!

Weigh-In-Wednesday (A day late)

2010-06-10T09:42:00.001-07:00

I have to be honest, I really did not want to write this post. I almost skipped it. Yesterday was my weigh-in day and I have a legitimate reason for not posting. I was at the zoo all day on the kindergarten field trip. Fun times (she said a bit sarcastically)!

Today I got sucked into the worldwide (evil) web! I have been browsing vacation homes all morning for a trip we are planning to Orlando next year. It is definitely time for me to get off the computer, but I figure I might as well do something productive on here. We all know that spending hours writing posts and reading blogs is much more productive than just browsing the web, right? :)

My weigh-in yesterday was 176.5, for no gain and no loss. This is my first maintain and it is a bit frustrating. The 30 lb. mark still eludes me! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, seeing how my eating hasn't been on track. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I can't seem to get back into the groove of eating better, I could be encouraged that I did not gain. Doing my best and still not losing would be a lot worse. I can definitely do better!

It has been 2 days since I did cardio, unless you count walking around the zoo all day chasing kindergartners. I meant to do it today after my strength class, but then the worldwide evil web got in the way!

At least I wrote the post and am still making myself be accountable. I can do this, right? My motto: I can do hard things. I will get back on track, starting right now. Thanks for listening everybody! Have a great day!

Mind Reader? Blog Reader?

2010-06-07T06:58:00.001-07:00

Good morning, everybody! Last night I did not sleep well at all so when the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. this morning I DID NOT want to get up to go to my exercise class. I ALMOST texted my friend to tell her not to pick me up because I was just too tired. But then I knew I would regret it later. Today is a busy day so it may have been my only chance to get some exercise in. So I got up.

Well, when we got there the instructor said that today was going to be game day. Woo hoo! I had no idea what this meant, but it sounded fun. Has he been reading my blog? Or does he just read minds? Because making exercise fun is just what I have blogged about recently.

We played paddle ball. For those of you who don't know what paddle ball is (I didn't) it is a game where two teams try to hit a ball into the other team's goal. The small ball is on the ground and you use little paddles to hit it around. Basically, it requires a lot of squatting down and running...and some would say I used my elbows a little too much. :) I'm just a bit competitive. Anyway, it was fun! And a great workout!

After paddle ball, we jumped rope old-school style. You know the kind, where two people hold the rope and swing it around while three of us jumped in it. I have not done that for at least 25 years maybe longer. It was also a great workout! I told the instructor that we should have game day every Monday. He said that we could. We'll see.

Thank you to everyone for your yummy suggestions as for "more awesome" dessert recipes. Thanks to you and my facebook friends I have several new desserts to try. I decided to stick with one of my tried and true recipes. It is called chocolate-lovers favorite cake. I would have to agree, if you like chocolate you'll love this cake! It is a bundt cake made from a devil's food cake mix, with a lot of other very fattening (and yummy) stuff added to it. I got it off of allrecipes.com years ago. I went to the website on Friday to copy and paste the recipe to an email for a friend that had requested the recipe. I noticed the nutritional info on it and HOLY COW, I wanted to cry. This cake has 604 calories per serving! I have used low-fat sour cream before, so I'm sure that took some of the calories out of it.

After I saw this, I could not bring myself to eat any of it on Saturday. We've had it twice recently for my kid's birthdays, so I felt like I didn't need any this weekend. I enjoyed a couple of the "melt your face off -awesome" cookies. They were peanut butter with peanut butter cups in them. Not low fat, but not 604 calories either. The good news, everybody really liked my cake and there was only a little leftover. Only enough for my husband and my two kids, who really love the cake to have a small slice.

I hesitate putting the recipe on this type of blog because, well it has 604 CALORIES per serving! However, it is delicious and would make a great once-a-year :) splurge. So click here for a link to the recipe, if you dare. If not, just skip this paragraph all together.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! We enjoyed the sunshine around here, yay!

When Does It All Change?

2010-06-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your encouraging comments on my last couple of posts. It is nice to know that some people are still reading my blog. I do love comments, but it doesn't matter if it just a few because those few people are making a difference for me! I love you guys!

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, I was responsible for our monthly pack meeting for our local cub scout pack. I also mentioned that I was a little nervous about the activity we had planned for the boys last night. Okay, I wasn't really nervous...I was just wondering how the boys would react to our physical fitness relay race. Boy was I wrong!

When I told them at the first cone they would have to do 5 push-ups they all looked offended that I thought they could only do 5 push-ups and they told me as much. Some boys wanted to do 20! We settled on 10. They also did 15 jumping jacks, 10 sit-ups, some hula hooping and a lot of running as the relay was spread out over a fairly large field. They loved it! When the race was over most of them wanted to do it again, so they did! Even after that some of them wanted to go again but our time was limited so we didn't.

I was very impressed by their eagerness to participate. I think there was only one boy out of 20+ that didn't want to participate. We also had younger siblings, leaders and parents participate. I probably should have, but I was overseeing the race. Thank heavens, nobody called me on that one. :)

The den responsible for providing the snacks for the evening just earned their nutrition belt loop so they opted to bring healthy snacks. All fruits and vegetables. There was some grumbling by the kids when they saw it wasn't the usual cookies for snack, but by the end of the evening all the healthy stuff had been eaten! I think it has been proven that when given healthy choices, kids will eat it.

The whole experience got me wondering. When does it all change? When does exercise not become fun? When do we stop wanting to exercise and challenge ourselves? Most kids seem to enjoy exercising (think sports, dance, etc). And there are some people who never grow out of it, but it seems like a lot of us do.

However, I don't ever remember enjoying exercise and did not participate in sports much so that was probably my problem. And I think had last nights activity been with 8-10 year old girls, the reaction would have been different. Do you agree?

I do think as we get older, we stop making exercise fun. It becomes another chore to add to our list of never ending "things to do" and when we have to let something slide, exercise may be the obvious thing to let go. Before we know it, we are obese and that makes exercise that much harder.

Do you think the scouts enjoyed last night because it was fun and competitive or do they genuinely like that kind of stuff? I'm sure it would depend on the boy.

So how do you all make exercise fun and competitive? For me, exercising with other people has made a huge difference. It definitely makes it more fun. I am also somewhat competitive so I definitely don't want to be the first one to stop a certain exercise or to put my weights down. I know I push myself harder when I'm with others than when I'm doing an exercise video alone at home.

Also, blogging makes a difference for me. I know we aren't all in competition with each other, but seeing what others are doing for exercise motivates me to do more. I mean, if so and so can do it I should be able to do it, too. Not to mention, I report it for you all to see.

Those are my thoughts for the day. I feel like I'm back in the blog groove. Three posts in three days! I don't think I'll blog again until Monday. This weekend will be full of soccer games, yard work and a church social.

The social is sponsored by the men's group so the men are the ones that signed (their wives) up to bring food. My sweet hubby signed us (me) up for a dessert. That would be fine and dandy, but there is some added pressure. Someone signed up for a dessert and put next to it "something awesome" so my husband signed up and put "something more awesome". Now I have to think of something "more awesome" to bring. At least I'm not the wife of the third guy who put "something so awesome it will make your face melt off"!

I'm off to figure out a more awesome dessert that won't be so awesome I will want to eat more than my share of it! Have a great weekend everybody!

Help! Save me from myself! (Warning: Long post!)

2010-06-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe less blogging is symbolic of something else. I have been blogging less and eating more! In yesterday's post I mentioned how I would love to hit the 30 lb. mark at next week's weigh-in. Well, I haven't really been eating like that is what I want.

It all started out last night when I really didn't know what to make for dinner and I really didn't want to make dinner. That led to a pizza night. In this journey, I have made an effort to cook more often and only eat out once a week. I usually reserve the take-out/ eat-out night for Saturday. Not this week.

Anyway, we got Papa Murphy's Take-n-Bake pizza. We ordered two (one large, one family size) pizzas. We basically had a whole pizza left. Why, oh why, do we always order so much? We like leftovers and can't agree on one kind of pizza. I think our days of leftovers need to end. One pizza should be sufficient.

I ate THREE pieces of pizza last night and some bread and I just ate two pieces for lunch. Not good! Oh, and did I mention that I bought a chocolate truffle candy bar at the store today and ate it? It's not even TOM's fault. Help!

I think being brutally honest with myself and with you all about what I ate should hopefully kick me back into gear. If not, Journey Beyond Survival, will you please taze me? :)

On a totally different note....I had some thoughts today regarding what God really thinks of my new lifestyle.

I am cubmaster for the cubscouts in my neighborhood. That means I plan monthly pack meetings, where the boys get their awards. Each month in cubscouts there is a character connection. At pack meeting, I take a few minutes to talk a bit about the character connection.

This month's character connection is Health and Fitness. I have been pondering what to say tonight. Our pack is sponsored by our church so I usually try to relate something spiritual to the character connection as well.

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You probably know it as the Mormon church. Please, don't think "Big Love" here (my husband has only one wife, me! And no members in good standing practice polygamy). Anyway, you may or may not be familiar with the "word of wisdom" that we follow. But basically it is a health code found in our scriptures. We don't use tobacco (or other drugs), we don't drink alcohol or coffee, either. Basically, we are counseled to abstain from any harmful substances, even in moderation. The other part of the Word of Wisdom, and the part that some of us ignore, is that we should eat healthily. Plenty of fruits and veggies and grains and we should eat meat sparingly. Of course, in many ways it is open to interpretation. Some would say, chocolate or caffeine are harmful substances. I eat plenty of chocolate, but choose to stay away from caffeinated beverages.

If we follow this health code we are promised physical and spiritual blessings. I want to talk to the boys tonight about the word of wisdom a little and the benefits we receive when we heed God's counsel to take care of the bodies He has given us. I will focus more on the things we SHOULD do with our bodies (eating healthy and exercising) than what we shouldn't do. And for our activity we will be doing a relay race that includes hula hooping, jumping jacks, push ups and sit ups. The boys may hate me when it is all over. :)

Anyway, this all got me to thinking. I started thinking about how I really want to be a size 10 (believe me that would be quite an accomplishment for me). Then I started thinking, that God doesn't really care if I'm a size 10 or not. He just wants me to take care of the body He put me in.

Apart from my weight, I am in the best shape of my life. I have never exercised so consistently in my life. I have muscles I never knew existed and for the most part I feel great. I know that God is pleased with me in this aspect. It felt good to know that I am taking better care of my body.

I must admit that I started to justify giving up on some of my goals a little. I thought, if I keep up the exercise and don't lose much more weight. That is okay. I will still be healthy.
Help! Save me from myself!

The problem with my rationalization is that I'm overlooking another part of taking better care of my body. I'm sure God would rather I choose fruits and veggies over chocolate and chips. If I heed ALL of His counsel, the weight will come off naturally because I will be making better choices.

My goals have not changed. But I do think my perspective has changed a little. I will try to be a little less worried about looking so great in my size 10 jeans and more concerned with how well I am taking care of this body God has blessed me with.

Anyway, those our my honest thoughts for today. If you made it to the end of this post, thanks for listening to me ramble on. Have a great day!

Weigh-In-Wednesday and Inspiration needed

2010-06-02T09:55:00.001-07:00

Good morning, bloggers! Today's weigh-in was 176.5 for a loss of .5 and a total loss of 29 lbs. I sure hope to reach the 30 lb milestone next week! I have to say, I have gotten back on my regular exercise schedule since my vacation but my eating wasn't the greatest this past week. It may have something to do with the holiday weekend. I made mostly good decisions, but could have done better. So I am not surprised by the little loss. However, I have had many of those losses in this journey. I continue, to believe this is the best way for me. I have never felt overly deprived as far as my diet goes and I really feel like I can eat this way the rest of my life, which is what it will take to maintain once I reach my weight goal. But, for whatever reason I feel a bit down today and wish the pounds were coming off a little faster.

I don't know if anyone has noticed that I haven't been blogging as much lately, but I haven't. I have been pretty busy and haven't made as much time for blogging. Also, Spring has FINALLY arrived here in Utah (some of you were wondering where I live)! Hooray, I love Spring! I know Summer is right around the corner, but I'll enjoy Spring for however long we get it. With Spring and Summer comes yard work, which means even less time for blogging.

Another big reason for my lack of blogging has been lack of inspiration for what to blog about. So I'm here to ask those readers that are still around, what do you want to see on blogs? What do your favorite blogs have? Do you like menu and exercise updates? Do you like random, personal things? Do you like reviews of products? Help me out here, please.

I have maintained that this blog is a big part of my journey so I don't want to let it fall by the wayside. In fact, my blog is kind of symbolic for me. It is a symbol of commitment to this journey. I worry, that if I stop blogging I will stop short of meeting my goals.

I plan on catching up on reading blogs later today. I have read some recently and not taken the time to comment. I want you all to know how much I appreciate your efforts to blog so often and you continue to inspire me. YOU ALL are a big part of my journey, too. Thanks for being in my life.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-05-26T06:52:00.001-07:00

Today is my official weigh-in day. I skipped last week's weigh-in because I was on vacation. I have to admit I was really nervous a few days ago about this upcoming weigh-in. I had gained weight on my vacation and was preparing myself for a gain and for possibly being officially back in the 180's.

The last couple of days have been great days, though. I have eaten on track and exercised really well. In fact yesterday I went to my strength class, then walked 2.25 miles on the treadmill and later on mowed the lawn and did some weeding. On top of all the exercise, I had a dentist appt. that left my mouth numb for hours and so lunch was late and consisted of a banana and greek yogurt. Yesterday may have skewed today's results a little and I may be right back to where I was tomorrow, but today is my official weigh-in day so TODAY is what counts. :)

Anyway, the scale read 187 for a loss (over 2 weeks) of 1 lb and a total loss of 28.5 lbs. Hooray! I overcame the vacation! I am really happy about this. I can't believe I am only 1.5 pounds away from 30 lost.

The friend I walk with has decided she wants to start running so we added a bit of running into our walk today. We ran further than we've ever ran together, which isn't very far, but still further. I think running with her will help me. I have been doing okay running on the treadmill, but once I get outside I just don't seem to do as well. I think having someone to run with who will push me and I will also push her will help me become a runner outside.

I think we're going to sign up for a 5k that is coming up in July and then another one in September. Our goal will be to run the whole thing in September (although July would be great, too). And next year we will set our sights on a 10k.

I hope everyone is having a great hump day and looking forward to a long weekend!

My Vacation: A Bump in the Road

2010-05-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

I'm Baaaaackkkk! Did anyone miss me? I haven't blogged for almost two weeks now. Having my kids on a school break, my son's birthday and a week-long vacation thrown in there took me away from blogging. I did think of my blogging peeps and took a look at some blogs, but that was the extent of my blogging.

I must admit it was hard for me to get on here today. It seems blogging is like anything else, if I take a break for awhile it is always hard to get started again. But I feel like blogging is such an important part of my journey, I can't let it fall by the wayside.

Our vacation was wonderful! We headed about 300 miles South and found the sunshine that has been lacking here (I really think Spring is going to skip us this year). We spent most of our time swimming and laying out by the pool. We also went on a short hike in a nearby canyon, raced go-carts, saw "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (Dumb!) and discovered a new favorite family game (Guesstures). I also spent way too much time snacking :( . Things I learned on vacation:

- I love being with my family on vacation. My husband has been working a lot of hours and works hard. When we are on vacation, he plays hard. I'm grateful he can leave his work at home and just play with the family. Our family really needed this time.

-When it feels like the sun is burning your legs, it probably is! That is when it is time to reapply the sunscreen.

-The GPS is only as good as the information you give it. We actually learned this last year on our trip to Disneyland when my husband put in the wrong address to our hotel and we drove around for 30 extra minutes trying to find Disneyland! We re-learned the lesson on this trip. To be frank, I hate Susan ( our GPS), my husband loves her though.

-I don't care if I watch another episode of "Hannah Montana" again! (No explanation needed)

-It is not a good idea to try a new restaurant like "Five Guys" or a new ice cream like Ben & Jerry's Pistachio Pistachio ice cream when you are trying to lose weight. (Now I have two new things to add to my "only eat once in a blue moon" list.

-You really can ruin a few weeks of hard work, by having one week of bad eating. (Bright side. I think it will come off with a week of hard work)

I definitely could have done worse on my vacation. I got up early and walked (with a little jogging) 4 out of the 6 days we were there. I would have made it five straight days if it wasn't for that darn sunburn.

I ate a healthy breakfast every day and my lunches were mostly on track, too. I tried to make fairly good dinner choices, when I could (when we weren't at Five Guys).

The snacking and eating ice cream everyday is what got me. Not good choices. The worst part is that we got home on Friday, but I continued the poor eating all weekend long. It is so easy to fall back into bad habits, isn't it?

Today, so far so good. I got up and went to my exercise class, did a couple of miles on the treadmill and ate a healthy breakfast. I think today will be a great day to get me back on track. Hopefully, by the time I weigh-in on Wednesday the damage won't be too bad.

By the way this is a pic I took from the balcony of our condo on our vacation:

And this is a pick I took from my deck this morning! Uggghhhhh! More snow!!!! We haven't even been able to plant our tomatoes yet!

I think I'm ready for another vacation! Have a great day everybody! I hope to go get caught up on blogs now.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-05-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks everybody for your nice comments yesterday. You all are good for my ego! :)

Today was my weigh-in day and it went well! I weighed in at 178 for a loss of 1.5 pounds! That brings my grand total to 27.5 pounds lost. Woo hoo! I felt really great about my week this past week and am glad that the scale reflects that.

I have decided that cardio really is a big key for me. Last week, I focused only on cardio because I was preparing for the 5K. I was diligent in my cardio everyday and ran 3 times last week. I always see good results on the scale when I am doing well with my cardio.

I know that strength training is important too. I definitely like the toning effect and I know muscle burns fat so I will not stop doing it. I will be careful to continue to include cardio in my workout schedule on the days I have my strength class.

Today I'm going to lunch at The Corner Bakery Cafe. I have never been there and just looked up their menu online. I love that it has easily accessible nutritional info next to each menu item (except for bakery goods). I can't believe how many calories in their Paninis though! Wowzer! I will be having soup and salad. And I'm sure I'll get a treat, too.

What do you do when you go out? Do you check menus ahead of time? Are you often as surprised as I am by how many calories are in some of your favorite meals? Do you get frustrated that some restaurants don't offer nutritional info for their foods or it is really hard to find on the website? Just curious!

Well, I had a short walk with friends this morning but I think I better hop on the treadmill for another mile or two so too offset that cookie or brownie I'm sure to have today!

Happy Wednesday everybody!

Update Pics

2010-05-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

Well, this will be a quick post. I just wanted to get some updated pics up. I have been receiving a lot of compliments lately, so I figure all my hard work must finally be showing. Yay! Now, to not get too complacent. I still have a long ways to go.

Here is a pic of me at the beginning of my journey. I never wore this sweater again once I saw this pic. So unflattering!

Here are a couple of pics I took a couple months ago. I had lost 15 lbs. or so.

Here are pics from yesterday. I had planned to take pics in the same outfit, but the shirt was dirty and I'm not into digging through the laundry basket so that idea is out the window. Anyway these are pics of me in my new outfit.

I think I can see the biggest difference in my side shots. My mom had told me that she noticed my back side was shrinking and toning up. After she said that I checked myself out and decided she was right! I think the side shot kind of shows this improvement.

I must say, last week I was trying on clothes at Kohl's and took a good glimpse of myself in the mirror. I do not own a full-lenght mirror so clothes shopping was always a depressing wake-up call for me. Last week, it felt good though. I am proud of the changes I am making. And look forward to having even more progress pics in the next few months!

Have a great day everybody!

The "Almost Perfect" Weekend

2010-05-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hello, everybody! I hope everyone had a great weekend, especially all you mothers out there. I’m sorry it has been a few days since I posted. Last week was pretty busy for me and this week doesn’t look much better. I think this is just how life is going to be for now on so I need to get used to it.

Anyway, let me give you the update of my “almost perfect” weekend. I know you are all holding your breath about my 5K on Saturday. Well, let me tell you. It was a lot of fun! It was the Race for the Cure and there were literally thousands of people there. That means gridlock at the start and gridlock at the finish (unless you are one of the first ones done).

I was really nervous and then decided that I needed to stop being so nervous. I set my first goal as running to the first water station, which was to be at the halfway mark. I have ran 1 ½ miles on the treadmill pretty regularly. I didn’t make it this time. I’m not sure how far I ran, but it was at least one mile and may have been 1 ¼ miles. Anyway, once I made it to the water station I decided to walk one block, run one block. The blocks in our city are pretty big so I thought this would be good. I did walk a couple of blocks towards the end to give me good energy to finish strong.

When I got close to where I knew the finish line would be I started running pretty good and it felt great to know I was going to be finished :). I was running, only to be stopped by the crowd of others that were finishing, too. There was gridlock at the end and I had to walk across the finish line. We were like cattle, I tell you.

Another bummer, there was no timer at the finish line! I had read online that there would be clocks set up at the beginning and at the end if you wanted to keep your own time because they weren’t keeping official times. The Race for the Cure isn’t really about the actual race. I guess I should have known when there wasn’t any kind of clock at the start line that there wouldn’t be one at the end.

As we were approaching the finish line I noticed the woman next to me looking at a stop watch. I asked her what the time was and it was 39+ minutes. But she said that when we had to start walking it was about 38 minutes. As you all know, my goal was to finish in 38 minutes. Seeing how the thousands of people made it gridlock at the start (It took a bit before I could actually start running) and at the end, I think I will call it goal accomplished!

After the race I realized my cell phone has a stop watch on it. I’ll keep that in mind for next year!

It is still a goal of mine to run an entire 5K this year so I still have work to do. I actually like the fact that running goals give me something to work towards AND help me in my weight loss.

Besides the fact there was no time the only bummer about the race was that I missed my daughter's first ever goal in soccer! :( Hopefully it will be the first of many more this season.

Here are a couple of pics of the race:

Here is a picture with my incredibly supportive mom. She and my oldest daughter did the one mile walk. I was so happy to spend the day before Mother's Day with the woman who is my mother and the beautiful girl who made me a mother.

Here I am after the race, looking pretty dorky in my sunglasses but really happy to have finished in a decent time.

Saturday night, my husband and I went to dinner at PF Changs. So yummy! I’ve never been there and I don’t intend on going there too often, but man was it good. I didn’t worry about calorie counting because I figure between my 5K and other walking downtown that day I would have done about 5 miles by the end of the evening.

After dinner, we headed over to the arena for the Jazz/Lakers game and watched one of the most exciting games I have ever watched. For sure, it was the best game I have ever seen live. Now, to the not-so-perfect part of my weekend. The Jazz lost 111-110! A heartbreaker that is for sure. Those darn Lakers are just too good and long!

Sunday morning I woke up, still bummed about the game. I said to my husband, “They still lost by one point, bummer!” Of course, after having breakfast in bed and receiving the great gifts and cards my kids made me life was good again. I love my kids! I love being a mother and wouldn’t trade it for anything. I thank God each and every day that I can be a mother to these three wonderful children. Of course, it isn’t always fun or easy but it is always worth it. I was treated well on Mother’s day.

We had our mom’s over for dinner last night. I love my mother and mother-in-law. They are true blessing in my life. My husband barbecued steaks. They were delicious and huge! I made sure to cut mine into an appropriate sized serving. I roasted red potatoes, yummy too! We have leftovers. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about what is for dinner tonight.

So that is my almost-perfect weekend report. What did you all do?

This morning I was back to waking up at 5:00 a.m. and back to my exercise class. It was a killer today! I did think to myself several times, “Remind me, why I pay to do this?!” It felt good to be back, though. I love that I got my workout done so early. I have even already cleaned my bathrooms and it is not even 8:00 a.m.! There are definite benefits to rising early.
The kids are once again on a three week break. We have some fun things planned, which may mean less time for blogging over the next few weeks. But tomorrow I plan to post some more progress pics. Be sure to check back! Have a great Monday everybody

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-05-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everybody! This will be short and oh so sweet. Today is weigh-in day and can I just say, Hellooooooooo 170's! I weighed in at 179.5 for a .5 loss (26 total). I 'm happy with the loss considering I missed out on 3 days of exercise this past week and my eating wasn't that great on Monday. I'm also happy to be out of the 180's. It's been awhile!

I am feeling better and better each day and should be ready for my 5k on Saturday. I'm so excited (nervous)!

Well, that is all for today blogging buddies. I'm off to deliver Pack meeting invites and to conquer a busy day. I hope everyone is healthy and well!

Almost Back

2010-05-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all who wished me well yesterday. I think lots of rest and your good vibes helped me. I am feeling much better today. I don't feel 100%, but I'll get there.

I feel kind of like a complainer. Really, my life is not any more hectic than others'. I just don't always handle it too well. I am still getting used to my youngest being older and being involved in activities. I'm still trying to adjust to the busy schedule of 3 school-aged kids. I'll figure it out someday.

Yesterday Beth Anne from the thrifty Ba commented on my post and reminded me not to "junk out" while I was sick. It was a good reminder because I had already eaten a 200 calorie bag of Sun Chips at that point. I'm sorry to say that even after reading her comment I still junked out. I ate chocolate and broke my no chocolate between 2 and 4 p.m. rule. :( I don't know why being sick makes me hungry for stuff that is not good for me. Does that happen to the rest of you?

Also, I always eat better when I have exercised and yesterday I did not exercise at all. The scale was up this morning, but I am confident that with a good day today I will not see a gain tomorrow for my weigh-in.

Since I was rested and feeling somewhat better this morning I decided I better hop on the treadmill. The energy wasn't all the way there. I could only run for about 3/4 of a mile before I had to walk. Then I decided to alternate between walking 1/4 mile and running 1/4 mile until I got to 3 miles. I did run for 1/2 mile once. Well, my time at 3 miles was 42.32. That is off pace if I'm to reach my goal of 38 minutes on Saturday for my 5K.

Even though I was off pace, I feel good about my time today and my chances on Saturday. I ran more than half of it today and expect to do even better when I run again on Thursday. Not to mention, I still am skeptical about how accurate my treadmill is.

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Oh Please, not this week!

2010-05-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I was bragging to a friend that since I've started this journey I have been really healthy. There have been a couple of times when I have felt a cold coming on, but it never really developed into anything. I have attributed it to my healthier eating and exercise. Well, you'll never guess how I feel right now.

That's right...I feel crummy! I am sick! It came upon me suddenly on Saturday night. I felt like a truck had hit me and I have a full fledged cold. I did rest a lot yesterday and skipped my 5:30 a.m. class this morning so I could sleep in. Usually if I rest a lot when I first feel something coming on it doesn't develop into much. I'm hoping rest will help this go away SOON!

I think I may have stressed myself into this one. This week is a very busy week. We have our usual soccer/baseball games and practices. Besides that, my daughter has a band concert and I am in charge of our neighborhood Cubscout Pack Meeting. I also have commitments to help with Teacher Appreciation week a couple of times this week. Oh...and let's not forget that Saturday morning is the Race for the Cure! Also, my hubby got tickets for us to attend a NBA playoff game on Saturday night (GO JAZZ!) for a Mother's Day date. Yes, this is a great gift for me, I love sports!

I think all of the excitement about what is going on Saturday and all the busy days leading up to the weekend got me all stressed out. Apparently, just thinking about upcoming stress (good and bad) doesn't bode well for my body. It's true. I am often sick for vacations. I get so excited and my body can't handle it! :)

Having said all that, here is my plan for the week. My plan is to run tomorrow and Thursday. I planned on walking today, but think I will pass on exercise today. I will walk with my friend on Wednesday and Friday.

Some have asked what my goal is for the 5K on Saturday. I have a goal to run a whole 5K this year, but I don't think that will happen on Saturday. I have yet to run 3 miles. In fact, the most I can run is 1.5 miles at one time. I did that this past Saturday and then added another 1/3 of a mile after walking some. So my goal for Saturday is to finish it in 38 minutes. I have set this goal based on my times from the two previous 5K's I have participated in over the last couple of years.

I think I should feel well enough by Saturday. I just hope the energy level will be there for my training this week and for race day.

If any of you have quick remedies for getting rid of this cold, let me know! I think I will enjoy the next couple of hours I have to myself before I pick up my kindergartner by resting and watching a show I have DVR'd. Have a great day everybody!

And the winner is.......

2010-04-30T08:07:00.001-07:00

Good morning! Let me just start out with a little venting. I woke up this morning to see 2 inches of SNOW on my lawn! What the heck! I know Spring in my part of the world can be a bit temperamental, but this is just downright ridiculous! I am so glad my 5K is not tomorrow. So far the forecast for next Saturday looks to be okay. Thanks for all your comments and advice on yesterday's post. I will let you all know my plan for next week on Monday.
On to the good stuff. The winner of my Yoplait Yogurt Nourish Your Inner Goddess giveaway was randomly drawn by my daughter this morning. The winning comment was #21. That is Ashley, a new follower of mine. Congrats, Ashley! Email me your mailing address to barbgetshealthy@gmail.com and I will send the info off to the people at blogspark and Yoplait so they can send off your gift pack.

I have more to giveaway today. It may not be as exciting as free stuff but it means a lot to me. A few days back the lovely blogger from Journey Beyond Survival awarded me this award on her blog:

If you haven't read her blog, go check it out. I really admire the honest way she blogs about her journey and the different challenges she faces. I think she is one courageous, graceful woman.

Here are the "rules" for this award:

1-Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER! — So wonderful. (Check)

2- Choose one of the following and post it on a blog post.

(a) Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus. (That could be entertaining, but I don't drink alcohol)

(b) Write about your most embarrassing moment. This is the one I choose. If you have been following me for awhile you probably remember this post about my shoe fitting. I think that whole situation has taken over the top spot of my most embarrassing moment EVER! And I sure hope it stays as my top embarrassing moment. Since I already shared that one, I'll share another.
In 9th grade my Spanish class was participating in some kind of competition. I can't even remember what I did for it, but a couple of my friends were doing a skit and being judged on that. After my competition was over, I saw my friends sitting down and having a conversation. I ran up to them and said, "How did your skit go?". My friend looked at me and said, "We're still doing it." That is when I looked off to the side and saw the judges lined up watching them. Duh! I grabbed my mom and left as quickly as I could and cried on the way home I was so embarrassed.

(c) Write a “Soundtrack of your childhood” post. (I'm not that creative)

(d) Make your next blog a ‘vlog’/video blog. Basically, you’re talking to the camera about whatever. (I would love to do this, but my camera has had probs downloading video)

(e) Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc)and post it. (NO WAY! I'm too vein for this. :) But look for new pics soon.)

3. Pass the award on to at least three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers as yourself. Don’t forget to tell them.

It is always hard for me to choose which bloggers to recognize because I love so many! I think I will just make a short list here, so I don't include too many, thus leaving out only a few. Does that make sense? Anyway, I award the Oh My Bl0g! award to:

1. Lisa at No more Diet Drama- I just love her! She is funny and always encouraging. We started our blogs at about the same time and I consider her a great comrade in this battle.

2. Leah at My new Ending- I always appreciate her comments of encouragement. And I really like that she has just done her first 5K and offers great encouragement that way. Also, I think the name of her blog, "my new ending" is just fabulous!

3. Erica at Run Mommy Run- She just makes me smile! Her posts make me smile and so does her picture that sets alongside her always upbeat comments.

4. Kyle at Getting Better and Better- I don't want to be sexist here and he seems to be my only male follower. That isn't the main reason though. I really appreciate his posts and comments, they truly help others to get better and better.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Calling All 5Kers!

2010-04-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm starting to get really nervous about my 5K that is a week from Saturday. I shouldn't be so nervous. I've done a couple before. I guess this time I have higher expectations for myself and have actually trained for it the past 3 months. I don't want to let myself down.

Anyway, I know a lot of you out there have trained for (like me) and have already done a 5K. Some of you do 5K's regularly (you rock!). So I am looking for any tips and advice you can give me as far as how I should prepare for it this last week. Should I not run the couple of days before the race? Did you start the race out running or with a warm-up walk? Etc...Any tips would be appreciated.

I do know one thing. I don't think I'll attend my strength training class next Tuesday. This past Tuesday about killed me and my legs are still sore! In fact, I had not done cardio since Monday so I knew I needed to do it today. It was pretty hard to convince myself to go get on the treadmill when my legs hurt so bad just walking down the stairs to get TO the treadmill.

I'm happy to say that I talked myself into it. I knew I should run, but was a little skeptical how that was going to go with my legs and glutes being so sore. I was able to run for 15 minutes at a fairly slow speed and that is it. I'm okay with that for today, though. I walked the rest of the way and did about 2.25 miles. That is less than what I have been doing, but I can live with it.

I think next week I will go to my Monday morning class and then skip the T/TH strength classes. Thursdays are mostly upper body, but she still throws some lower body in there. I will focus on getting ready for my 5K the rest of the week.

Again, any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Today is my oldest child's birthday. She is turning 11 and growing up way too fast. We will be celebrating with some ice cream cake later and tomorrow I will be taking her and some friends swimming (indoors, there is snow on the ground today...grrrrr!). I will make cupcakes for that celebration. I am definitely going to enjoy me a piece of ice cream cake tonight, but will skip on the cupcakes. There I wrote it down! I am skipping on cupcakes! :)

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter the giveaway. Check back tomorrow to see who the winner is and also I have an award to dish out!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-04-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

Good morning everybody! I'll get right to the point. Today is my weigh-in day. And.......the scale read 180, for a 1.5 pound loss. That brings my grand total to 25.5 pounds lost! Woo hoo! It took me a little longer to get to the 25 pound mark than I would have liked, but I made it. This puts me halfway to my 2010 goal of 50 pounds lost.

I have to admit as I have inched closer to the halfway mark I have felt a little frustrated. Definitely happy to be losing 25 pounds but a little discouraged that I still have 25 pounds to lose. Do you ever find yourself asking "how and why did I let myself get here?". It sits in the back of my mind, but I try not to dwell on it. We have to focus on what we are doing now, not what we did in the past.

Anyway, I'm past the frustrated feelings. I have taken a new perspective. You see, I once lost 25 pounds before and then proceeded to gain all of the pounds +25 more back. I guess, I just looked at my dieting and exercise as a means to lose pounds and once the pounds were off I stopped exercising and went back to old eating habits.

This time around, I don't think I have been "dieting" as much and I have definitely been exercising more. I have made exercise a big part of my life and I think I could really eat like this for the rest of my life. I think this time around it is a definite lifestyle change and not a diet.

Having said that, I think if I had reached my weight goal today I would be in danger of falling back to old habits. I've decided that it is a good thing I have 25 more pounds to lose! Crazy, huh? I figure at the rate I'm going it will take about 6 more months to meet my goal. I feel confident that if I can keep up what I've been doing for 6 more months, this will be a lifestyle for me.

Losing the weight will be a huge incentive to keep me going and the new healthy lifestyle will be a lifelong benefit. I will no longer beat myself up for small losses. It is all part of the plan :) ! Slow and steady wins the race.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, it ends tomorrow.

Have a great day everybody!

Making Progress

2010-04-26T12:40:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Mine was great. Two soccer games and a birthday party for my daughter on Saturday. A relaxing day on Sunday. I did not exercise. I just can't seem to get up early enough on Saturdays to exercise when my kids have early soccer games. Despite that, and eating some really yummy chocolate cake and ice cream on Saturday and Sunday, the scale is being kind. I really think I will hit the 25 pound mark this week!

This morning at my exercise class we worked on abs and arms. Have I mentioned how much I love going to this class? :) I never know what to expect from week to week. Well, I was glad that we didn't do much with legs today because I really wanted to do some C25K training this morning. I plan on doing it on Tuesdays,Thursdays and Saturdays but knew that I have a commitment early tomorrow and wasn't going to get a chance to do it.

I last attempted Week 6, Day 3 on Thursday. Well, I didn't really attempt to complete the day because I have gotten a bit off track and know I need to work my way up a little again. I ran for about 18 minutes straight/1.25 miles. Then after walking awhile I ran another .25 miles. I was pretty happy about that.

Today, I was able to run for 1.5 miles and 20 minutes. Then I walked for awhile and ran for 5 more minutes and a bit more than a 1/4 mile. W6D3 is run for 25 minutes or 2.25 miles (not quite my pace) straight. So I am getting there. I ran for 25 minutes today, just not all at once.

Also I decided to walk fast the rest of the time until I reached 3 miles. My 5K is in just 2 more Saturdays! Ahhhhhh! Anyway, it took me 42.38 minutes to do 3 miles. I ran more than half of that. I did the same race last year and did it in about 40 minutes with my daughter, who was ill. I would expect myself to be able to do it quicker this time. In Sept. 2008 I did another 5K and my time was about 39 minutes. That was without much training at all so I really expect to do better than that.

Having said that, I have set 38 minutes as my goal for this 5K. I don't think it should be a problem, really. I think I will make more progress over the next 10 days or so. Also, I'm sure the adrenaline will be pumping come race day. I have been surprised that my times weren't better on the treadmill compared to my previous 5K's, seeing how I have never really trained before.

I don't know if I really pushed myself hard in those races, or what. Could it be that my 10 year-old treadmill isn't completely accurate? We shall see.

Have a great day everybody and don't forget to enter my Yoplait "nourish your inner goddess" giveaway here. It ends on Thursday!

A Giveaway!

2010-04-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday! I hope you all have had a great day. My day has consisted of an early morning strength training class, spending all day on a field trip with 2nd graders and three sports practices this evening. I'm tuckered! But I wanted to catch up on some blogs this evening and let everyone know about my very first giveaway! I am so excited! Why am I so excited?

Well, let me tell you. I love free stuff! And I love to give things away!

This particular giveaway excites me for even more reasons. I have read a lot of blog posts that have mentioned greek yogurt. I had never tried the stuff, but vowed to try it someday. Also I love Yoplait Yogurt. I eat their light yogurt quite often.

So when the people at MyBlogSpark and Yoplait Yogurt gave me the opportunity to try the new Yoplait Greek Yogurt for free I was all over it. Yoplait and MyBlogSpark sent me VIP coupons for 2 free yogurts.

They also sent me all this:

They call it the Yoplait Greek “Nourish Your Inner Goddess” gift pack. It came with slippers, a washcloth, a few bath sponges/brushes and a wrap-around terry cloth towel. When I received it, I thought to myself "I'm ready for the spa!". I was a little sad that I had settled for a master bathroom without a jetted tub when we bought this house. It is all pretty cool and did I mention FREE!And you get your very own for free, too!

I signed up to do the giveaway a few weeks ago and was anxious to receive it. I actually ended up buying some yogurt before I received the free coupons just so I could tell you all what I think about the yogurt and do the giveaway as soon as I received my package. Although Yoplait and MyBlogSpark sent me the package and coupons to try the yogurt, I am to freely comment on the product without any restrictions or other compensation.

I bought 3 flavors of the Yoplait Greek Yogurt; strawberry, blueberry and honey vanilla. They also make a plain flavor, but I am not a fan of plain yogurt so I did not try that. I first tried the strawberry flavor. My first tastes impression was not so good. I could really tell it had a lot of protein in it. The texture was a thick, kind of pasty texture. It reminded me of when I get smoothies with added protein. Once I got over the difference in texture from my regular yogurt, I actually liked it quite well. It tasted pretty good! I liked the blueberry flavor, too. The vanilla flavor was not as good for me, though.

At 130 calories this yogurt has more calories than my usual Yoplait light yogurt. With 12 g. of protein it has more protein. I'm not sure I would switch to the greek yogurt, as it costs more, unless I am looking for ways to add healthy protein.

My kids do like me to make them smoothies. I usually blend yogurt, frozen fruit and milk together for their smoothies. I think using this greek yogurt would be a great way to add some protein into the smoothies and give the kids a great start to their day.

Now on to the giveaway. The giveaway will end on Thursday, April 29th . I will announce the winner on my blog on Friday, April 30th. If you would like to win the VIP coupons and the "nourish your inner goddess" gift pack there are 3 ways to win. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Here are the three ways:

1.) Become or be a follower of my blog. Leave me a comment and tell me you are.
2.) Leave me a comment on how you nourish your inner goddess (or inner Greek God). I like a good pedicure myself. A day at the spa helps bring the goddess out in me. I don't do it enough. :(
3.) Link this giveaway on your blog and leave me a comment telling me you did ( I very rarely do this myself, but if you want to you deserve an extra entry).

And everyone can click here to receive a coupon for a 30 cents off a cup of yogurt.

***Please note that the coupon offer for a free cup of Yoplait Greek yogurt is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Tennessee. If you live in those states you could still enjoy the gift pack, but you would not get the free yogurt .

Good luck, everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-04-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Today is Wednesday, which for me means weigh-in day. Today I weighed in at 181.5, for a .5 loss and 24 pounds total lost. Last week I was hoping to reach the 25 lb. mark this week. As the week progressed I realized that was not going to happen. I am happy with a loss, but am tiring of puny .5 pound losses. However, I know that my effort as far as eating goes has not been on track the last few weeks. This past week, I feel like my eating got back on track but my exercising was a little off last week.

With my new exercise routine/plans that I outlined in yesterdays post I think things will get better. I better see my 25 lb milestone reached next week or I'm going to have to kick my butt that's for sure! 25 pounds lost will bring me to my half way mark towards my weight loss goals for this year. It will feel great!

I usually ramble on about something, but not today. I have to pick up my son from kindergarten in 15 minutes. I just wanted to post my weigh-in results. All part of holding myself accountable. Have a great day!

The Good & The Bad

2010-04-20T08:32:00.001-07:00

Good morning, bloggers! I hope everyone has had a great past few days. I have been enjoying sunshine and trying to get back into the groove of sports season. My daughters are playing soccer and my son is playing baseball. It can be kind of crazy! In fact this Thursday, they all have practice at the same time at three different parks. Hmmm...still not quite sure how that is going to work out. My son has several neighbors on his baseball team so I may have to call in a favor.

Anyway, this post is about the good and the bad. Let's start with the good news. I attended my exercise class again yesterday. It was a great workout! We did football drills, high knees, side jumps (?), push ups, and lots of other stuff. I can sure feel it in my calves today. After class, yesterday my friends and I were talking about how we wished he did another early morning class on a different day because that is the best time for us to workout.

Well, when I checked my email yesterday there was an email about a class that is being held at my church on Tues. and Thurs. ! It is a resistance/light weight training class. It is at 6:00 a.m. and the best thing about it is it is FREE! It is just what we were looking for. So today we got up and went there. The instructor attends the same church as I do, but at different meeting times so I don't really know what her background is. I do know this wasn't her first time instructing an exercise class because she was great and seemed to know what she was doing.

I'm so excited to have the opportunities to attend early morning exercise classes. The Monday mornings are a mixture of cardio/strength and T/TH are all strength. Strength training is something I have been struggling to fit into my schedule so I am so happy and feel blessed with these new opportunities.

Okay, the bad. My C25K training has kind of fell to the wayside. I have been trying to fit it into my schedule and last week had a hard time doing so. After my morning walks with my friend, I wouldn't always have the energy or time. Last week's Monday exercise class left me really sore so that attributed to it. Last Monday, I completed day 2 of week 6 and did not really attempt another day until today. That is more than a week in between! Not good. I have ran a little on my walks, but not much.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect today. I think I did so-so. I was able to run for 1.25 miles and for about 17 minutes. That is way off the 25 minutes I need to run to complete week 6, but not too bad for not having really ran for a week. The 5K I signed up for is on May 8th. That is less than 3 weeks away! I really need to step my training up.

I think it will get better from here on out because I now have a new set schedule. Monday, Tuesdays, Thursdays exercise classes first thing in the morning. I will do the treadmill on those days after the kids go to school.
Wednesdays and Fridays I will walk with my friend. We plan on doing our long 3 mile walk those days. About a mile of it is at an incline so it is a pretty good walk for us. On those days, I may or may not hop on the treadmill later.
Saturdays can be tricky now because of soccer games, but I plan on getting on the treadmill on Saturdays as well.
I will do my c25K training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I think this plan will be great and am excited to have some new exercise goals.

Here is a follow up to my last post. I bought this chocolate bar at the store yesterday:

So yummy! It is one of my favorites. I do not have a Trader Joe's in my state so I cannot try some of the wonderful chocolate you all suggested. I got this for now and saw some others I may try down the road. Anyway, I am happy to say that I did not eat any yesterday between 2 and 4 p.m. Of course, I was at the park with friends for most of that time period so that helped ;)! I did eat a couple of squares last night. And I enjoyed it all, guilt-free. I had made good food choices all day long so I could. The package says that one serving is four squares. I feel good limiting myself to just two a day.

Thanks to everyone for listening to me ramble today. I really appreciate you all. I was feeling very discouraged last week and wondering if I could really make it on this journey. All of your supportive comments really uplifted and encouraged me. I'm feeling much better about the whole thing now.

Have a great day!

Reality Bites!

2010-04-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for your comments and advice on my last post regarding my problem with chocolate and the 2-4 p.m. time period. I appreciate all the suggestions for alternative snacks during that time. I am happy to report that yesterday I stayed away from the hot fudge in the fridge and had some apple slices with natural peanut butter instead. I hope to be able to skip the peanut butter next time.

The comment that resonated most with me was Kyle's. Here's what he said:

"Ok..here is some strange advice on your 2-4 period...give up chocolate. For awhile anyway...treat it like an allergy.If you can create that level of discipline to substitute a different item, then you'll really demonstrate to yourself that you control the chocolate, it doesn't control you.After you have proven it, you can add it back in, because it'll be your choice and not something a craving is compelling you to do."

The reality of his comment hit me. Yes, I need to be in control of my eating and not let the chocolate control me. Yet at the same time I was mad (not really) at Kyle for even suggesting that I give up chocolate because that is not something that seemed reasonable to me! Um...yeah...I think the chocolate has been in charge for too long.

Back in January I wrote a post about self-discipline and about how great it felt to be exercising self-discipline in my new journey. I think I need to get back to that. I have lost a step regarding my self-discipline and eating over the past month or so. I need to prove to myself that I eat what I eat because I choose to and not because "a craving is compelling" me to eat it. And I need to learn to choose to eat more healthy things. I would love to get to the point where I choose to eat healthy things because I want to not because my weight loss goals compel me too.

I am not going to give up chocolate totally, but I do think I will outlaw it during that 2-4 p.m. time period and substitute a healthy snack. I liked Margie Ann's comment about getting the highest quality of chocolate I can afford and only having a couple of pieces. I think I will do just that. I will get some great high quality dark chocolate and allow myself one or two pieces each evening as long as I have stayed true to my eating plan throughout the day and only if I actually want to eat the chocolate. There may be some days that I actually don't want to eat it.....yeah right!

The reality is that this journey is hard! In fact, in some ways it gets harder...harder to maintain the gusto I had in the beginning. Harder to kick it up a notch when it is time to. Harder to be happy with .5-1 pound losses each week. Harder to blog every day. Etc.......

Thanks to Kyle for his wisdom and for giving me a big dose of reality! It's time for me to take control of my eating and not to let it control me.

Weigh-In-Wednesday and Other Stuff

2010-04-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday, everybody! Today is the day I dread and look forward to each week. It is my weigh-in day. Today the scale read 182 for a 1 lb. loss. That brings the total to 23 1/2 pounds total lost! I am happy for the loss, but wish it was more. I felt like my eating was a lot better this past week. Oh well. I'm going to cross my fingers for at least a 1 1/2 lb. loss next week, that will take me to 25 lbs!

I have pinpointed the time of day that is hardest for me to stay on plan. The time of day that is hardest for me is between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. It is during this time that I have the most "free time". I guess, maybe I get bored a little. By that time of day, I have exercised, the household chores (that I want to do) are done, my son is home from kindergarten and is playing with friends, I am starting to think about dinner preparations and find myself in the kitchen, etc..

Anyway, it is during this time that I seem to be craving sweets. I have often turned to the open bag of chocolate chips in my pantry. They are so yummy dipped in my all-natural peanut butter. You see my problem. Today my problem was that there were no more chocolate chips in the pantry, until I discovered an open jar of hot fudge in my fridge.

Yes, I am a choco-holic! I love the stuff! I don't think I can (or want to) totally swear the stuff out of my life. At the same time, I don't seem to be the type of person (yet) that can just have a couple of Hershey kisses and be satisfied.

Now that I have pinpointed the weak part of my day, I just need to do something about it. I will try distracting myself. Maybe reading. Maybe blogging. Maybe eating something more healthy. Any ideas? What are some of your favorite tasty, yet healthy, snacks? Have you pinpointed the hardest part of your day? What are you doing about it?

Another thought. I noticed that yesterday I reached 50 followers! I can't believe there are actually 50 people who care what I say or do. Can you believe this blog almost never happened?

I had decided to start a weight loss blog and got it all set up. You know, it's kind of a pain to get your layout set and such. And I had created my first post, which was fairly long. Anyway, I decided I wanted to have an email associated with the blog so I set one up through gmail. Then I realized that the address I set up used my full name. I did not want my first and last name associated with the blog. So I tried to close the email account and in the process ended up deleting the blog! Not just this blog, but my family blog that I had been posting on for a couple of years. I was so sad! I tried everything I could to restore the blogs and was especially concerned about the family one.

I could not restore them and I was very frustrated and deflated. Anyway, I ended up creating a new family blog, which I rarely post on now. And I also created this blog, even though I really wanted to chicken out on the whole thing. Boy, am I glad I did! I am so grateful for my followers and especially those that comment regularly. You are such a great support system for me. I never knew that I could feel so close to people who I have never met.

Sometimes I click on my followers pics to see who they are and where I can see them and support them in their efforts. Sometimes the followers do not have links listed on their profile. If you think you are one of those and I have never commented on your blog, please leave me a comment with your blog address. I would really love to support you!

A First For Me

2010-04-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

Today I did something that I have always avoided doing. I actually exercised out in public.....at 5:30 a.m. ! I don't have a problem walking (or even a little jogging) in public but I have always shied away from any kind of exercise class. I've posted about my two left feet before. I am very uncoordinated and am self-conscious about exercising in public.

A couple friends in the neighborhood have been talking to my walking friend and I about the kickboxing class they take on Monday mornings @ 5:30 a.m. We decided to skip our walk this morning and check out the class. There really wasn't any kickboxing going on today. It was actually a core fitness test day! We did all kinds of exercises I can't remember the names of and kept track of how many we could do of each exercise in a minute. Needless to say, I was not the most fit person there. Oh well. I still feel good about the effort I put in and I can just imagine what it would have been like had I taken the same test back in January when I started this journey. I think I will keep going to the Monday classes. The test will be given every month so I will be able to see my progress.

I completed Week 6, Day 1 of the C25K on Friday. So I knew I really needed to attempt day 2 today. After coming home from the exercise class I wasn't so sure that was going to happen. My whole body was pretty sore. I got the kids off to school, had some breakfast and got on the treadmill. To my surprise, I was able to complete day 2 of week 6! I did have to run at a lower speed than past weeks because the muscles in my legs just couldn't go as fast as usual. But I did it! The next four days of the training are running for 25 minutes straight. I think I may have to repeat a few days, but I'm optimistic that I will complete the training.

I'm happy about my two NSV's today! I may not be seeing the pounds melting away each week, but I feel like I am accomplishing a lot more than just losing pounds. Have a great Monday!

Will it always be this hard?

2010-04-08T12:30:00.001-07:00

On the sidebar of my blog in the About Me section one of the things it says is "learn to love to exercise and eat healthy foods". I'm beginning to wonder if this will ever be achieved. Yes, that is a bit discouraging, but I might as well face the facts now. This healthier lifestyle I am trying to adopt will probably never be easy for me.

What brought all this on? Well today I read this column by one of my favorite sports/fitness columnists. This woman has run marathons, participated in triathlons, biked hundreds of miles and is someone I would consider to be very fit. Click on the link to read her column. She is great! In her column today she wrote about how she sometimes struggles to get to the gym and that once she's there she struggles to complete the goals she has set for herself for her workout. She tries to renegotiate with herself regarding goals she set, whether it be miles to run or # of circuits to complete on weight machines. I can so relate! Can you?

Although, it was a bit comforting to read that someone of her "caliber" has some of the same struggles I do it was also discouraging. I guess I kind of expected that once the pounds are off and I have run my first 5K it would get easier. I will magically turn into a person that loves to exercise and eat healthy. Probably not going to happen.

The truth is, healthy living is hard for most of us! It should get easier with time, but I don't think it will ever seem as easy sitting on the couch watching TV while eating a bag of potato chips does.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I am worth the hard work. My kids deserve to have a mother that has energy to keep up with and sets a good example for them. I love the feeling I get both mentally and physically after I complete a workout or eat on plan for a day. I really liked shopping for new clothes in a smaller size yesterday. These and other reasons are why I continue to and will continue to do this, not because it is easy.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-04-07T09:47:00.001-07:00

Good morning sunshine! Yes, the sun is FINALLY shining around here after a week of wacky winter-like weather. It is still a bit cold out there but the sun is shining. And we are expected to get into the 60's later this week, woo hoo!

Today was my weigh-in and I was pleasantly surprised. The scale read 183, for a .5 pound loss. That brings my total to 22.5 pounds lost. I really expected to see a gain. I know I have been saying that for a few weeks now, but today I REALLY expected a gain. I'm glad to know my metabolism is working!

Tuesdays are always a great day for me. I always stay on plan with eating and exercising. I do this because I know the next day is weigh-in day for me. I need to start treating every other day as the day before my weigh-in! Today, so far so good. I tend to take a break from exercising on Wednesdays. I think I do this because my next weigh-in day is a week away and also it is the middle of the week so it seems like a good day to take a break. Today, I did skip the treadmill but I did do Jillian level 2. So I feel okay about that.

To celebrate my weight loss and my new (old-new) pant size, I went shopping. I went to Kohl's and bought me the cutest jean capris (size 14) and a plaid camp shirt (they seem to be all the rage these days). I will have to post a pic of me in my new outfit in a couple of weeks when the pants are a little less tight. :)

I hope everybody is having a great day and that the sun is shining wherever you are at!

C25K- Week 5 COMPLETED!!!!!

2010-04-06T11:36:00.001-07:00

Hello there! I have to thank everybody for their encouraging comments on yesterdays post. I was thinking of you all today while on the treadmill. I REALLY wanted to complete Day 3 of Week 5 of my C25K training. So when it got hard and my legs felt like they couldn't go much further, I thought of you all. I thought about how I REALLY wanted to report to you all that I had been able to do the full 20 minute run.

I'm happy to report I did just that. I ran for 20 minutes straight! My distance was just over one and half miles. My legs are sore right now, but it was totally worth it! I feel great. The first 2 days of Week 6 don't seem too bad. I don't think I will have much of a problem with those days. Day 3 will be a run of 25 minutes. It may take me a few tries but I know I can do that, too! I can't wait to report on that one!

Tomorrow is my weigh-in day. I suspect I may have a gain. Not cool, but probably deserving. I will learn from my past week's mistakes and celebrate my NSV's. I have completed week 5 of the C25K training and I am actually wearing size 14 jeans right now! I hadn't really tried on my 14's in the closet for a couple of weeks. Today I decided to. Some don't fit too well and these are a bit tight in the hips, but they are wearable. Yay!
Have a good day everybody!

Trying to stay on course

2010-04-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, everybody! It looks like I took a break from blogging. That was not my intention, it just happened. The kids have been on spring break. We have been busy doing this and that. Believe it or not, we went sledding on Thursday. That's right sledding over SPRING break! I wasn't happy about the snow, but am glad we took advantage of it.
On Friday, we had an Easter egg hunt with some of our friends. Again, I wasn't happy that we had to move the hunt inside but happy to spend time with friends.
Saturday, was a laid back day. We colored Easter eggs and hung out at home.
Sunday, we actually didn't go to church. The first weekend in April is set aside in my church for our leaders to speak to us. We don't go to our regular church meetings that day, instead we watch on TV or the Internet or in person as our leaders speak to us. It is always a very uplifting time, but a little weird not to be at church on Easter this year. Of course, most of the talks on Sunday focused on Christ's Resurrection so it was very appropriate and inspirational. I hope everyone out there had a great Easter weekend and enjoyed celebrating the season with family.

I have fallen off course a bit the last couple of days, really the last few weeks. My eating has not been great. I fell victim to donuts, orange rolls, too much bread, chocolate, french fries and other things I have probably forgotten to mention. I am still trying to get a hang of this eating in moderation concept. I mean, some people are so good about only having a couple of pieces of chocolate a day. If I have a couple of pieces of chocolate, I want a couple more handfuls! If I eat a donut, I figure I might as well eat another. Not good!

The worse part is I actually skipped exercise 2 extra days last week. Sunday is always my rest day and sometimes I skip another day, but have never skipped 2 days!

Let's put this in perspective; Eating more, Exercising less and not updating my blog. Danger! Looks like I'm in danger of sabotaging all my hard work.

Don't worry, I am not giving up. I have had a good day today. I walked with my friend this morning and then an additional mile on my treadmill. I also did Jillian's Shred level 2. I have had some chocolate. The cadbury mini eggs are now gone so that temptation is eliminated for another year.

I also want to share my C25K progress. Last Saturday, I got on the treadmill with a goal in mind to run 1 1/2 miles without walking. I figured at my pace this would put me at the 20 minute run for day 3 of week 5. Well, I couldn't quite run 1 1/2 miles straight. I ran for 1 1/4 miles and then walked a 1/4 of mile and then ran another 1/4 of mile. This is progress. The last few times I have ran for a significant amount of time I have not wanted to run anymore, even after walking for awhile. So I did run 1 1/2 miles and for 20 minutes, just not all at once. I will attempt W5D3 again tomorrow.

Another NSV (non-scale victory) is that I am wearing some Levi's right now that I have not been able to wear before. I bought them at Costco a few months ago. You can't really try things on at Costco. I bought these jeans when I was still in denial and was not ready to admit that I needed to be in a Woman's size 16 or 18. These are a regular 16, but I would say fit closer to a 14. I hate it when pants run small!

I have been a bit disappointed that although I have lost 20+ pounds, I haven't really seen a drop in pant size. I must have been wearing my pants pretty tight before! But I guess moving from a 16W to a regular 16 is progress. I just hope I can fit in a size 14 pretty soon here. I really don't want to go buy size 16 capris because I don't plan on being in them for too long. I have some cute size 14 capris in my closet. I guess that will be some added motivation!

Have a great day everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-03-31T10:29:00.000-07:00

Today is Wednesday and you know what that means for me. Yep, another weigh-in day. I have to admit this was my scariest weigh-in ever. I weigh myself every day and after seeing what the scale had to say yesterday I was hoping for just a small one pound GAIN this week and not more than that. The scale was not kind yesterday.

Well, I'm happy to say that this morning the scale read 183.5, which is a .5 pound LOSS and puts me at 22 lbs. lost total. I am happy I did not see my first gain of this journey, although I'm not too happy that the scale was so inconsistent for me this week. I have been very consistent on this journey and the scale has never showed much more than a one pound differential from one day to the next.

I'm not sure if it is because TOM is visiting this week, or what. I do know that TOM has never really affected me too much before so I don't really want to use that as an excuse. I guess the difference may be I have given into TOM's cravings more this month.

March was not a very consistent month for me as far as eating went. I went off plan too much. I need to get back on track. I have worked too hard to lose these pounds to gain them back. And I have a lot more pounds to lose, I am going to have to work even harder.

On a positive note, I jogged for 16 minutes today. My goal was to do a little better than Monday. I decided I would run 1 1/4 miles today. So I did. I think my next run should put me at 1 1/2 miles and I should be able to meet the 20 minute goal of C25K week 5, day 3. Yay for me!

I lost 5 1/2 pounds in March and walked/jogged about 62 miles! I am proud of those accomplishments and look forward to accomplishing even more in April.

The kids are on spring break for the next few days. Too bad it is nothing like spring here! It has been snowing all day! I'm sure in a few months I will be complaining that it is too hot. I just hope we don't skip spring around here. I love spring!

C25K Week 5, Day 2 1/2

2010-03-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Mine was pretty fun. On Friday, my girls and I met my mom for dinner at TGI Fridays and then we went to a college gymnastics meet. Our local gymnastics team is always really good so we try to go to a meet once a year.

On Saturday, we went as a family to dinner at Olive Garden and then to see "How to Train a Dragon". The movie is very cute and well made!

I'm sure it won't surprise you to know that I overate this weekend, considering I ate out at very yummy restaurants twice. I over indulged on spinach/artichoke dip and chips on Friday and also had a few too many bites of the brownie sundae. I did only eat half of my dragonfire chicken over jasmine rice. At Olive Garden I got soup and salad and ate a few bread sticks. I should have just stuck to one bread stick. Anyway, I did not record my food all weekend. Right after I post this I am going to sparkpeople to enter today's food.

For the past three years or so a friend of mine and I have been walking a couple of miles each early morning during the warmer months. Today was day one of walking this year. I love walking with my friend, it gives us exercise and a nice 45 minute, uninterrupted chat each week day. I can definitely tell I am more conditioned now than I used to be. I did not tire as easily on our walk. In years past, I would do nothing during the winter months and it was always a killer to start up again. It felt good to be able to see a noticeable difference in my fitness level.

I know that I will need to do more cardio than just our morning walks so today I decided to get on the treadmill after the kids went to school. I figured I'd do another mile. Then I decided to jog a mile. I warmed up with a five minute walk and then started my jog. I'm happy to say that I jogged 1.16 miles and for 15 minutes! Up until now I haven't paid too much attention to my distance, but I know I've never run a mile straight before! So I was not able to complete W5D3 of the C25K training that is to run for 20 minutes. But I am happy with my progress and running for 20 minutes actually seems doable to me now. I am a believer (finally) in the program...or maybe I should say I am finally a believer in myself!

Have a good day everybody!

Worth Waking Up For

2010-03-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

My "baby" is five now so I am past the time in my life when my nights were mostly sleepless. You know the time when you are woken up 2-3 times a night because the baby is hungry, needs to be changed or just wants his mommy. Unfortunately for me, my kids were never great sleepers and didn't really sleep well until they were 2 or 3. For you moms out there, who are still in the "sleepless nights" stage please know how much I admire you. I admire you for mustering up the energy everyday to still exercise. I admire you for not stuffing your faces with food because you need something to do or you will fall asleep. I admire you for being moms and loving your kids, even at 2 a.m. And know, that it will get better. Someday.

Having said that, my son still gets up occasionally at night. This is the routine. He gets up, comes in our room, stands by MY side of the bed and waits for me to get up and tuck him back in his bed. It is a very short process, but still a wake up. This morning he woke up for his extra tuck in at about 5:30 a.m. I must publicly thank him for doing so. Seeing that it was 5:30 and knowing that the alarm would be going off in just 15 minutes actually got me out of bed this morning to exercise. I haven't exercised that early for a couple of weeks now. I'm blaming it on daylight savings time. Anyway, I was able to do the treadmill this morning. Had I not got up that early, exercise (or maybe grocery shopping) would not have happened today. I had to be at the school first thing to volunteer and this started off a very busy day.

As I headed down to the treadmill I was thinking to myself that I really needed to attempt Week 5, Day 2 of my C25K training. I'm averaging about a day a week of this training. W5D2 really had me nervous because it is 2 intervals of 8 minutes of running with a 5 minute walk in between. Anyway, I didn't commit myself to completing it and wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. After a 5 minute warm-up walk I started running. After about 4 minutes I still felt pretty good and realized I just may be able to complete 8 minutes of running! And I did! I did the first interval and then during my 5 minute walk made commitments to myself as far as how long I HAD to run the next interval as well as at what point I would allow myself to consider slowing down the speed. I have to play games with my mind, you see. Anyway, I am proud to report that I completed the next 8 minute run (at my full speed- 4.7), too! Thus completing W5D2! I should also publicly thank Kenny Chesney (One of my fave singers) for releasing his latest song, "Aint Back Yet" (my new fave song). I think it got me throught the last couple of minutes of running! Have I mentioned how much I love my ipod?

Day three is...run for 20 minutes....what the !!$$($*!! What happened to 10 minutes or even 15 minutes? I may have to add a day 2 1/4 and day 2 1/2 to this week. We'll see. I guess I will just start running and see how long I can go, not allowing myself to stop or slow down before I have ran for at least 8 minutes. Who knows when I will attempt W5D3. It could be Saturday or it could be next week. I'm happy to take the training at my own pace. I have 6 weeks until my 5K.

I'm off to conquer the last half of my busy day. Have a great day everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-03-24T07:42:00.001-07:00

Good morning! Well, today was another weigh-in and I just have to say I could not be more pleased. My official weigh in weight is 184. That is a 2.5 loss for this week, for a total of 21.5 lbs lost! Woo hoo! I'm not sure if my body made up for last week's small loss or what, but this is my biggest loss since week one of this journey. Not to mention, I had a couple of less than stellar eating days this week. My husband said that it looks like my metabolism has kicked in. I sure hope so. I have been back on track with my eating the last couple of days so I'm sure that helped.

Thank you for all the tips on how to use laughing cow cheese from yesterday's post. I will definitely be trying TJ's Alfredo sauce. I would have never thought to put it on a sweet potato, but since two of you suggested it I will try it one of these days.

This is a short post because I have a busy, busy day ahead of me. I just wanted to report in on my weigh-in and celebrate it with all of you. I hope everyone has a great, healthy day!

Things-That I Love-Tuesday

2010-03-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! It has been a few days since I blogged. I guess I haven't had much on my mind to share. My "New Moon" weekend was fun. My friends and I got some chat time while we waited for the movie to go on sale at Wal-Mart. We also stood in line to meet the "stars" but they left before we got up there. Bummer! Then my hubby and I watched the movie on Saturday night. We laughed at the cheezy parts, which always makes it more fun. I don't feel like I can laugh out loud in the theatre when I am watching it with hard core fans. I hope you all had a great weekend and Monday.

I have not been very good with my eating, once again, this week. We went to Chili's on Saturday night for dinner. I was planning on enjoying some chips and salsa and then having something from their guiltless menu for my dinner. I enjoyed the chips and salsa a lot! But then I chose something that was not on the guiltless menu. I tried their shrimp (fried) and smoked chicken mini-tacos. Yummy! I thought to myself that it is okay to have one "free" meal a week. And then later remembered that Wednesday had been a disaster eating day and so I had already had more than my one "free" meal a week. We'll see how it effects the scale. I think I will be down, but not by much.

On the positive, I have made pretty good choices exercise wise this week. I have mentioned before that I can only exercise first thing in the morning and once I'm ready for the day, I don't want to exercise later and have to shower again. This has meant that if I have morning appts., I may not exercise at all. Well, this past week I have exercised two different times when I had other things in the morning. I'm glad to see that I have been more committed to exercising even if it has to be in the afternoon. I prefer the mornings, but know it is important to fit it in when I can.

Today is Tuesday and here is the latest thing that I love:

I had seen Laughing Cow cheese mentioned on a lot of blogs so when a friend of mine offered to bring me a couple of triangles to try, I was excited. And it did not disappoint! I like to spread it on whole wheat toast and top the toast off with Canadian bacon and egg. It has also replaced my hummus in turkey wraps. I did try it on pita chips the other day, which was super yummy, but know that the higher calorie pita chips don't make a great choice.

I love that this cheese is spreadable and that it is low in fat/calories. How do you use your laughing cow cheese? I would love ideas!

See you all tomorrow for my weigh-in. I hope I can finally reach the 20 lb. mark!

It's Friday!

2010-03-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday, everybody! I hope you have some fun planned this weekend. This is what my weekend entails:

Yes, that's right I am a Twihard! I have had so much fun with these books and movies. Yes, they are corny and cheezy, but they are lots of fun to follow. I mostly like the "girl time" I get everytime a movie or DVD is released. I like to plan girl's nights out to watch the movies. Last year, a couple of friends and I even went to Wal-Mart at midnight to meet one of the movie's "stars" (Victoria) and get our DVD.

Well, New Moon is being released at midnight tonight. I wasn't planning on going because my best Twilight friend is out of town. I didn't think I could find anyone else to go with me. And to be honest last year was Craaaazy, with a capital C! I was planning on enjoying a good night's sleep and then going first thing in the morning and picking up my copy. But, another friend just called me and asked if I wanted to go. She was in Wal-Mart today and they were setting up a stage for some unidentified visitors. How could I pass up a chance to stand in line, chatting with friends, for hours all to get my DVD first thing and for a chance to meet with one of the "stars". So I am going! Yes, Twilight gives me the chance a couple of nights a year to NOT act my age. I love it!

I was planning on watching the movie with my husband on Saturday. I would like to say he watches them with me because he loves me so much and wants to be with me. But I think it is just so he can make fun of it with his friends at work and church! I'm not sure we will be watching it on Saturday, seeing how his favorite team is playing in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday night. I think we will probably watch that instead. See how much I love him!

Today has been a good day. I walked for 40 minutes on the treadmill at an incline. I find I burn as many calories walking at an incline as I do when I do my C25K training and walk extra at no incline for the same amount of time. After that, I did level 2 of 30 day shred. I love to hate Jilian!

I have been on plan with my eating, too. And I'm happy to say that the scale results have recovered from Wednesday's disastrous day of eating.

I hope everyone has a fun, healthy weekend!

C25K Week 5 & The reason I weigh everyday

2010-03-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

So after taking a few days off of training for the C25K, I started week 5 today. And....I did day one, no problem! No problem doesn't mean it wasn't hard, it just means I did it and I didn't even have to turn the speed down for the last couple of minutes. This is the first week that each day is different. I'm still not quite sure how I am going to run for 8 full minutes at a time next time, let alone for 20 minutes on day three. One day at a time, right?

Yesterday was not a good day. I know in my weigh-in post I said this week was a new week and I would do better. Apparently, I meant that this week starts today and not yesterday. I did not exercise. I had my exercise clothes on. I had time. And instead chose to play on the computer and watch my DVR'd American Idol. Hmmmm....are you getting a picture of how I ended up here in the first place.

As if no exercising was not bad enough, I also binged. I think it was my worst eating day since starting this journey. I made green rice krispy treats for St. Patty's day to have when the girls got home from school. I ate 1/5 of the pan before they got home!

Then I made Irish soda bread to go with our corned beef and cabbage for dinner. It was so yummy I had to snack on some of it before dinner and then have some with dinner. Speaking of dinner, corned beef and all it's seasoning has soooooooo much sodium in it. It was way salty!

So this morning I knew if I got on the scale I would be up. I almost didn't get on it. But one of the things that helps me is weighing everyday. This keeps me on track. I don't freak out (too much) from day to day if it is up a little. My weight as always stayed pretty consistent, never fluctuating too much from day to day. I guess this is because I have been really consistent in sticking to my exercise and diet plans. Well, yesterday was not a consistent day and so my scale results were not consistent! I had my biggest gain ever from one day to another. Hello! Wake up call! I'm glad I weighed, because I needed to see the results of my choices yesterday. And I think it helped propel me to finish W5D1 of C25K.I know weighing every day does not work for some people, but it works for me! So I will keep doing it.

I'm happy to report that I did not have a rice krispy treat or any irish soda bread for breakfast today! I'm already back on track.

Have a great day everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-03-17T08:24:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody! Happy St. Patty's day! I hope you each received a visit from your leprechaun. I have to say, our leprechaun has been very inconsistent over the years. But, I'm happy to say that he did visit us today, the second year in a row. Although, I don't know why we look forward to his visits so much, he turns our milk green and makes a big mess of our living room! It must have something to do with the gold covered chocolates he leaves in the kid's shoes.

Well, today is my official weigh-in day. I was hoping to get to 20 lbs. down, but that didn't happen. My weight is now 186.5, for a loss of .5. Total pound loss is now 19. This is my smallest loss since I began this journey. Am I disappointed? Yes and no. I am disappointed because my effort was not there this past week. I knew I would not reach 20 pounds this week because of this. I guess I should be happy that I saw any loss and not a gain.

The kids went back to school last week after having a three week break and we are still trying to get adjusted to the schedule again. Having the kids back in school means I am back to volunteering once or twice a week. My son is in morning kindergarten, so mornings is when I can exercise (most easily) and it is also when I can volunteer in classrooms without having to find a babysitter.

Anyway, I met my cardio goals but did not make time for much strength training. And daylight savings time does not agree with me. It takes me a little bit to get used to . I have not been able to wake up and exercise before the kids are up.

Also, I made some poor eating decisions. I am always really good to eat well for breakfast and lunch. It is dinner I have a problem with. It is part of my "plan" to eat the same things I have always eaten at dinner time and just watch portions. I do try to make more healthy dinners now, but we still have a lot of our favorites, which can be high calorie. This past week I made Mexican and had it twice (thanks to leftovers) and I also made some chicken Alfredo rolls. Not low in fat stuff! And I had a hard time controlling my portions, too. Lesson learned. This is still a process, isn't it?

I'm glad for a new week. This week will be better.

I am having C25K dilemmas. I have not started week 5 yet. The weather has been so great around here that I have been doing my walking/jogging outside. I have not found a podcast for the c25k with music that I like on it. I really want to complete this program, though. I don't know why my music is so important, but it is.

I have been running outside though. I think I've mentioned before that during the non-winter months I go on early morning walks with a friend. Well, on those walks we would occasionally try to run some. So during my walks this week, I have tried to run what we would run. I am happy to say that I have been able to run a further distance than before. Yesterday, I ran significantly further. Of course, the "significantly further" was down hill. It sure is easier to run down hill, isn't it? My shins could feel it though, so I am giving them a rest today.

There is rain and snow :( forecasted for the next couple of days so I will start week 5 on the treadmill tomorrow. I can't remember who it was but someone commented on my post a few days back and was wanting more info about the C25K. I forgot to mention it until now, sorry.
Anyway the program is 9 weeks long, although it takes some people (like me) longer than 9 weeks to complete it. For all the info, click here.

Have a great day everybody!

New shoes and a funny story

2010-03-15T13:48:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday, everybody! I am not a big fan of daylight savings time, at least not the first week of it. It is hard to get up when it is dark outside. However, today is a beautiful, sunny day around here so I guess I should be grateful for the extra hour of daylight tonight.

Well, I did it. I bought me some "real" running shoes on Saturday. Yes, I spent $95 on shoes. That is well beyond my usual Payless budget. Okay, I have been off the Payless budget since I got diagnosed with plantar fasciitis last year, but still I have never spent $95 on a pair of tennis shoes before. So here they are:

These are my Saucony shoes

They are great! They offer me lots of support and are very comfortable. I enjoyed walking/running in these today out in the sunshine. My neighborhood has a lot of little trails around it. Today, I found one that has a mile marker so I will be able to keep track of my distance. Yay!

Now, to the funny story. I was going to a running store to purchase my shoes. I had heard from others that the salespeople will watch you run and help you pick out a shoe that fits your running style. So, on my way to the running store I was feeling really anxious. Some of the thoughts that were running, no pun intended, through my head were, "They are going to wonder what the fat lady is doing in the store", "Will they laugh at me when I start running" and"Do I really want them to see me run?". I'm sure joking about my running style with my husband before I left didn't help. We were joking about how I could do the "Phoebe run" for the salesmen. The "Phoebe run" is from an episode of Friends that is hilarious! Do any of you remember it?

Anyway, back to my story. When I got to the store I was happy to see a big "sale" sign hanging on the store. Well, apparently I was not the only one excited by the sale because it was packed. I walked in and there were tons of people.

A salesman asked if I had been helped. I told him no and that I heard this was the place to come to find some running shoes. While we were waiting for an available chair so I could try on some shoes, he asked me, "So have you ever been fit before?". I couldn't believe he was asking me if I had ever been fit/in shape before! Did I really look that out of place, that he wondered if I had ever been in shape in my life. I kind of stuttered and stammered away about how I had never really ran before but had been walking/running for the last couple of months. He just said, "Okay".

Finally a chair was available and he had me take off my shoes and walk for him. He noticed that when I walk my feet tend to turn in a little. He said that is fairly common. Is it or was he just trying to make up for his "fit" question? He went and got three different shoes that he thought would offer me good support. I tried them on and ran a little with each on. Then I decided on the Sauconys. The running part was very uncomfortable for me. I thought, "Do I want to run away from him so he can see my big behind shaking or do I want to run towards him and then I can see him watching me run?" Although it was pretty crowded I was able to tune out the others that may have been watching me, thank heavens.

The whole way driving home I was still anxious. I kept thinking about his "fit" question. I thought that was a weird question and thought he should have asked me if I had ever been a runner before. I mean after all, some people are fit although they are not runners! The whole experience was really emotional, actually. I couldn't believe I had been so anxious. I guess I know one of the reasons I have not joined a gym before. It would take a lot for me to be able to walk through the doors and exercise in front of people.

I got home and was talking to my husband about the experience. I told him how the guy had asked me if I had ever been fit before. My husband got a funny look on his face and then said, "Oh, have you ever been fitted (for a shoe) before." Yes, it took my husband to tell me that the salesperson was not inquiring about my fitness level, but really just wanted to know if I had ever been fit for a shoe before! Feel free to laugh now. My husband and I got a good laugh out of it!

My anxiety level and self-consciousness had caused me to misinterpret what the man had been trying to ask me. I wonder how often we misunderstand what others are saying to us because of our own issues with our weight? Do you think that has ever happened to you?

I hope my embarrassing story has given you a chuckle and that you can enjoy the rest of your Monday!

I did it!

2010-03-12T08:37:00.000-08:00

I don't have much time today, but just wanted to blog that I completed my C25K, week 4 training today! I had to slow down a bit during the last couple of runs, but I did it. Thanks to everyone who offered me advice on this post about not having much energy on Wednesday. I decided to eat some protein with my fruit this morning about an hour before I hopped on the treadmill. I ate 1/2 c. of cottage cheese and 1/2 c. of blueberries. I also drank plenty of water. Week 5 looks a bit daunting and I did struggle with week 4, but I will be moving on. Day one of Week 5 doesn't look too bad actually. They are all 5 minute runs, but with a 3 minute walk in between. It's days 2 and three I worry about. We shall see.

Today I also registered for this:

The Race for the Cure!
Saturday, May 8th

And tomorrow I am going to a running store to be fitted for some proper running shoes. I think registering for the race and purchasing new running shoes are signs to myself that I am committed to carry through with my goals. What are you doing to convince yourself :) that you are committed to your goals?

Have a great weekend everybody!

I went shopping and I think I was hungry because.....

2010-03-11T09:50:00.000-08:00

I really wanted some of these:

But, instead I had one of these:

I wish I could write a post about how I really wanted the cadbury mini eggs and even had them in my shopping cart, but ended up putting them back and went for the Fiber One 90 calorie bars instead. But I can't. The truth is, the fiber one bars were already in my shopping cart. I still wanted the cadbury eggs. I have not had any this year. It was probably the first time I have walked down the "seasonal" aisle since Valentine's. But thanks to wal-mart's poor selection, I could not find any mini-bags of the eggs, in fact I'm not sure I even saw the big bags. I avoided that disaster, didn't I? Even after that, I decided getting a bag of peanut m&m's at the checkout would be just as good as the cadbury eggs. Well, someone must be watching over me because I chose a checkout line that just happened to have no individual sized candy. So when I got out to my car I settled for a fiber one bar. They aren't too shabby! Not quite as good as the aforementioned candy, but pretty darn good.

On my way out to the car I saw a van advertising a weight loss program. In big letters on the back window it read, "Cheat and still lose pounds". What the !?!?! Cheat on what, cheat on who? I know it meant cheat on your diet. Well, if that is part of the diet plan they are advertising doesn't that mean it's not cheating?

I have thought about this concept of cheating. Rather, I like to think of it as lying. I am not on some restricted diet. I count calories, nothing is off limits. So I don't ever really consider myself cheating. If I had eaten the cadbury mini eggs, I would have had to adjust the rest of the day's calorie intake. Of course, I am not always perfect. I have gone over on my calories. That is when the guilt sets in.

However, I have thought about the times I have lied. Lied to myself. I said I would stick to my goals and sometimes I don't. I told myself I would eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day and sometimes I don't. Sometimes, while on the treadmill I make promises to myself like how much further I will run before slowing to a walk. Sometimes (but not very often) I walk sooner than I said I would. I told myself I would only have one helping of pasta last night and I had 1 1/2. And so on.

Would we lie to our spouses, our children, our friends, etc? I sure hope not! So why do we lie to ourselves? We deserve to be honest with ourselves. This may start with re-evaluating goals. Are our goals realistic expectations of ourselves? Once we have realistic goals set , we need to be true to ourselves. We are worth the same respect we give others.

Of course, we are not perfect. Sometimes we mess up. It is in those times, we have to offer ourselves the same kindness and mercy we offer others. Hopefully, we forgive others when they mess up. Hopefully, we can forgive ourselves, too. So I will forgive myself for considering having a bag of mini-cadbury eggs today because I told myself that I would wait until April to have one.

Have a great day and remember to be true to yourselves!

Weigh-In-Wednesday and my excuses

2010-03-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

Today is weigh-in-Wednesday and the scale is smiling on me. I weighed in at 187 for a 2 lb. loss last week and a grand total of 18.5 pounds lost! I don't want to get my hopes up, but I am hoping to reach the 20 pound mark next week. Over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself thinking that my total weight loss isn't really that much. It may have something to do with the fact that I still have so far to go or maybe it is the fact that I have not been looking at the big number for what it is and have just been seeing my 1-2 lb. loss each week. But today, I am celebrating 18.5 pounds. That sounds like a lot to me! I don't think I have been giving myself enough credit. :) I hope you all will celebrate every pound you lose, too!

Now on to the not-so-good news. I did week 4 of C25K training again today and failed miserably. I didn't even attempt the final 5 minute run! The final 3 minute one seemed extra hard today. Here are possible reasons (my excuses):

- I woke up late (once again) and could not get on the treadmill until after the kids were off to school. I had to talk myself into even getting on the treadmill. I think I set myself up to fail. My hubby has been sick and I'm not sure if he isn't setting the alarm or is just turning it off too fast before I hear it. I need to do better and listen for it.
-I only ate an orange before my workout. I usually only eat a piece of fruit before, but I wonder if since I had been up longer I should have eaten breakfast before.
-Once again, I let my mind talk me out of it.

This is all disappointing seeing how on Monday I was able to complete week 4 at my normal speed (walk-3.8, run 4.8). Today, I did walk at a higher than usual speed (4.1) for 8.5 minutes in place of my 5 minute run. And after that I lowered the speed a bit at a time and continued walking until the workout was 45 minutes long. I will try week 4 again on Friday.

Maybe if I had one of the shirts Trisha @ Endurance isn't only physical is giving away it would be easier. :) Check out her giveaway here. Some of my favorite T-shirt slogans are: "Who moved the finish line?", "Slow is the new fast" , "I'm only doing this so I can post a picture on facebook" and "This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago". LOL!

Things-That I Love-Tuesday and the truth

2010-03-09T07:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday, everybody! Well, it is time to come out with the truth from my list of 7 things yesterday. Here it goes:

1- My husband and I are such huge college football fans that we planned our wedding around our favorite team's schedules so we would not miss a game.
** My husband and I ARE huge college football fans but we did not plan our wedding around the season. We planned it around our school schedules. We DO plan our dates around football games during the fall, though.

2- I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to meet Kenny Chesney at an after show party. I love that man!
** I did win a trip to the ACM's and I did see Kenny perform at an after-show party, but I did not meet him. :( Sigh.

3-I spent 1 1/2 years in Argentina on a mission for my church.
**True! I spent 18 months in Argentina serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Next to being a mom, it was the hardest, most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. To find out more about the church, click here. And when you encounter a missionary from any church, please be nice. :)

4-I have never been to the ocean. :(
**I love the ocean! Sadly, I don't go enough....but I have been there.

5-I am the youngest of 5 girls in my family. Talk about drama!
**I'm actually an only child. Not too much drama there.

6-I have been playing the flute since I was 5 years old.
**I do not play any kind of instrument and don't seem to have any kind of musical talent whatsoever.

7-I spent my junior year of high school in Chile as a foreign exchange student.
**My cousin did this and I think it was way cool. Not sure I could have done it though. I'm one of those crazy people that actually enjoyed high school. I don't think I would have wanted to miss junior year at my high school.

Now on to my thing that I love this Tuesday. It actually has nothing to do with exercise, diet or anything usually related to this blog. It is just something I love, so indulge me. It is:

Have you seen this show? Do you love it, too? I LOVE this show! It is quirky, hilarious and makes me smile. I'm sure you have all heard about it. I can't get my husband to watch it. There is just something so "High School Musical" about a show that focuses on a high school glee club. But it is so much more than "HSM"! It is definitely meant for more mature audiences, I would not let my daughters watch it, and it has a lot of great adult characters and storylines, too. I actually downloaded quite a few songs from the soundtrack onto my ipod. I am writing about this today because after a couple of months of a break it is back on TV tonight. Okay, they are not going to show any new episodes until April 13th, but I will be able to get my "Glee" fix for now on after American Idol on Tuesdays. If you have not watched it, give it try.

Today I slept in and decided to forego the treadmill because I realized I had three lunches to make and three kids to make sure were bathed and ready for school. Next time I will plan ahead and prep the night before. So I did my Biggest Loser Wii game training. It was only a light 15 minute workout today. I thought it was my day to volunteer in my daughter's class today so I was planning on that being my exercise today. But then I looked at my calendar and realized it is next week I am scheduled to volunteer. So after the kids were off to school I did my "30 day shred" video, level 2. What a workout!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I was able to do day 3, week 4 of my C25K training at my normal running speed. Hooray! I will repeat week 4's workout tomorrow and Friday of this week before I move on next week.

I hope you all have a happy day!

Shhh......Do you hear that?

2010-03-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Do you hear it? I don't hear anything either! Isn't it great? The kids are all back in school this morning after a three week break. I love my kids and we had a great time together on the break, but the last couple of days were hard! They were errand days. I don't know what our kids think we do while they're at school. They must think I sit around all day, or am always out doing something fun. And somehow, the groceries just end up in our fridge. They really hate running errands with me. Plus, I decided since they were off school it would be a good time to take them to get their Easter outfits. So, yes I took all three of the kids to the mall with me! Duh! My 8-year-old daughter loves to go shopping and try on clothes. Her brother and sister were less than thrilled with her little fashion show, she must have tried on 8 different dresses! At least, we only had to hit two different stores to find what everyone needed. Anyway, I am enjoying my solitude right now.

Lisa @ One Mom's Eating Recovery awarded me this award. Thanks Lisa! It's nice to know she thinks I am a great liar. I don't feel really creative, but I hope I entertain sometimes.

Here are the rules to the award:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell up to 6 outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.

5. Nominate 7 "creative writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Here are my outrageous lies and truth:

1- My husband and I are such huge college football fans that we planned our wedding around our favorite team's schedules so we would not miss a game.

2- I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to meet Kenny Chesney at an after show party. I love that man!

3-I spent 1 1/2 years in Argentina on a mission for my church.

4-I have never been to the ocean. :(

5-I am the youngest of 5 girls in my family. Talk about drama!

6-I have been playing the flute since I was 5 years old.

7-I spent my junior year of high school in Chile as a foreign exchange student.

Can you guess which one is true? I'll tell you all tomorrow.

Now, here are the seven blogs I nominate:

If you have already done this or do not find this kind of thing fun. No worries. I just wanted to recognize some of my fave bloggers.

Have a great Monday!

Time To Step it Up & Some Pics

2010-03-05T12:46:00.000-08:00

Now that I am eight full weeks into my journey I want to reflect on my progress so far. In case you missed it, and I'm sure many of you did, here is a look back at my first post and goals I set. Here's a list of my victories so far:

I have stayed true to my goal to exercise regularly. I think I have only had one week that I did not get on the treadmill five times and that week I did it four times. I have done strength training 2-3 times a week.
I have been faithful about tracking my calories using sparkpeople and have stuck (pretty much) to my food plan.
I have not ordered french fries at any fast food restaurants. I HAVE enjoyed a few out of my kid's happy meals, but really just a few.
I started and am about half-way through the C25K training program.
I have still been able to enjoy foods I always have and will enjoy, like ice cream and chocolate.
I have not drank soda pop since I started this journey.
I am feeling new muscles in my body. I like to put my hand on the top of my legs when I go up the stairs just to feel my muscles. I better have muscles there, considering all the lunges I have done over the last 8 weeks. And I'm pretty sure my husband is tired of me making him feel my biceps.
I have walked/jogged 10+ miles a week, that makes for 80+ miles total!
I have lost weight every week.
I still have tortilla chips in my pantry from SuperBowl Sunday. :)

Shortly after I started this journey I had my daughter take a picture of me. I just had her take one and wished I would have done a side shot, too. Anyway, here is my beginning of the journey picture:

Here are a couple of pics I had her take today:

Can you see a difference? I think I can in the face. I also think this second outfit is much more flattering. I will take the next couple of progress pics in this same outfit for better comparison. After that, I'm hoping the pants will be falling off and I'll have to put on a smaller size.

Now that I've been at this for 8 weeks I think it is time to step it up a bit. So here's my plan:

Continue to track calories on sparkpeople and aim for 1400-1500 a day.
I have been doing the treadmill for about 30-35 minutes each workout day. This has included a 5 minute warm-up walk, my C25K training, followed by a brisk walk and cool down. My goal will now be 40 minutes. This will give me 5 min. warm-up, 30 min of a good workout and a 5 minute cool down. Today I actually did 45 minutes.
Really aim to do strength training 3-4 days a week.
Continue to do the 2nd level of "30 day Shred"
I have not been taking measurements. I will start doing that as well.

Today I completed day 2 of week 4 of C25K. It was a bit easier today and I slowed the speed down for just 2 minutes of the last 5 minute jog. I'm feeling good about it.

Gwenny gave me a sunshine award. Thank you, thank you! This really brightened my not-so-sunny, snowy day! Since I also received this award a couple of weeks ago, I'll direct you all to that post to see links to some of my favorite bloggers. I just accidentally deleted the sunshine award picture......arrgh. You'll have to look at the other post for the pretty pic because I get frustrated trying to upload pics after I've written so much text.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

2010-03-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday everybody! The sun is shining here, it is beautiful! Of course, by tomorrow it will be a different story as storminess is projected. For today, I will just enjoy the preview of spring.

Today was my weigh-in day and I just have to say I am very pleased with the numbers. I now weigh 189 lbs! That is a two pound loss this week, a total of 16.5 pounds lost and I am in the 180's. I really couldn't be much happier right now. I think I've said before that it has been a long time since I've been in the 180's.

I think my victory on the scale and my excitement about it propelled me to a non-scale victory. I was able to complete week 4, day 1 of my C25K training today. I was not able to do it on Monday, you may remember. Today I slowed down from 4.8 to 4.3 for the last 3 minutes of running. I don't know why I didn't think to do this on Monday. Duh! I have been concentrating on running time instead of distance for this training so slowing down was okay for me. I think I will repeat this week, though. I would like to complete it running at the speed I have been running for most of the time.

My girl scout cookies arrived yesterday. I'm happy to report that I only had two thin mints last night and was quite satisfied with them. I did want more, but realized that two was enough. I'm even happier to report that I had none for breakfast today!

Today I am taking the kids to one of their favorite indoor pools. I must say that the thought of getting into a swimsuit is not very exciting for me. Seeing pics of myself in my swimsuit last fall is one of the things that helped motivate me to start this journey. I haven't been in a swimsuit since. However, I told myself a long time ago that I would not let my weight issues effect my kids. I knew I needed to either "get over it or do something about it"! So here I am doing something about it and since I am still far away from feeling good about myself in a swimming suit I will have to "get over it" today and go swimming with my kids. It should be a good day. I hope you all have a great day, too!

Tomorrow I will be posting a progress report about my journey so far as well as some new goals for the next couple of months.

Things-I Love-Tuesday and Level 2

2010-03-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday and I'm all about the things I love. One of my favorite bloggers is back! So my first thing that I love is Lisa's blog. Check it out, although I'm sure you already have. :)

Here are a couple of other things I love:

MY CROCS!!!!

Last year about this time my friend and I decided it was warm enough to start up our early morning walks again. We also decided to start jogging a few minutes of each walk. Unlike, this winter I had not been exercising at home during the winter months. A combination of being overweight, starting up exercising again and running caused me to have plantar fasciitis. Click on the link to learn all about it if you don't already know. I was having a lot of heel pain, especially in the mornings. It was all I could do to get up and walk out to meet my friend. Once I did, I could usually walk through the pain. I was describing my pain to another friend and she recommended that I go see a podiatrist because I probably had plantar fasciitis.

I am so glad I went to the podiatrist. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. As part of my treatment the doctor said I should always wear shoes, even in the house. Wearing shoes in my house has always been a no-no. In fact, I did not even like wearing shoes. Anyway, the Dr. suggested I get some crocs. He said, that they should be the name brand crocs because they really are better than the knock-offs. Well, being the cheap-skate I am I was having a hard time justifying buying a pair of crocs JUST for my house. I had already bought inserts and was planning on buying an expensive pair of good-for-my-feet sandals. So when I was at the shoe store buying some new tennis shoes I was elated to see a pair of crocs on the clearance rack for just 5 or 10 dollars (I can't remember exactly)! Yes, they are pink. A kind of ugly, salmon pink but I love them! I wear them faithfully all day long inside my house. On Sundays, when I've been at church for three hours in high heels I can't wait to get home and put on my crocs.

I don't know if I would ever buy me a pair of crocs to wear outside of the house, but I sure do love the ones I have! They definitely helped cure my heel pain. After a few months of being faithful in my shoe wearing and doing the stretches the Dr. suggested for me before I got out of bed each morning the pain was gone. I have considered it a great blessing not to have gotten plantar fasciitis again once I started exercising and running this time around. I was really worried about it. So the moral of this post is, Crocs are really comfortable and you should always wear shoes! Take care of those feet, people!

Today, I decided to try Jillian's 30 day shred- Level 2. It was hard! But not any harder than the first time I did Level 1. So I am going to stick with Level 2 for now. One bonus is there are no jumping jacks, besides the warm up ones. A downside is all the static lunges and squats in the strength portion of the workout make it really hard for me to get my legs to want to move during the cardio portion!

C25K- Week four,Day one

2010-03-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

Hello, everybody! I hope you each had a fabulous weekend. Mine was great! My husband and I finally went and saw Avatar. We saw it on the IMAX. What a beautiful movie! I was not that excited to go see it, I never am for science fiction, but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I haven't heard one person who has seen it say they didn't like it. So if anyone out there has seen it and not liked it let me know, just curious.

As far as my eating went this weekend, I did a little better on Saturday than I have on past Saturdays. However, I did have a bit of loss of control on Sunday. I won't give you all the boring, yummy details but let's just say it involved tortilla chips and candy skor baking pieces. No, I did not melt candy skor on tortilla chips, sillies! I ate them at separate times. I did get on the treadmill on Saturday morning for a walk at an incline. Exercising a little on weekends helps me stay more on track.

This morning was day one of week four of my C25K training. And....I could not complete it. It looks like I will be repeating it. This week's training is jogging 3 minutes, walking 90 seconds, jogging 5 minutes, walking 2 1/2 minutes, jogging 3 minutes, walking 90 minutes and then jogging 5 minutes. I made it all the way until the final 5 minutes of jogging. I only jogged about 2 1/2 minutes. I knew going into the training that I may have to repeat days or even weeks, but I am still disappointed. I am mostly disappointed because I think I failed this one mentally. From the time I saw what this week's training was (I just looked last Friday) I began thinking how hard it was going to be. I wasn't sure I could do 5 minutes of jogging at once, let alone twice in one session. I was telling my family how hard it was going to be this morning before I got on the treadmill. And then I forgot my mantra, "I can do hard things"! My legs truly were tired by the last 5 minute interval, but I think my mind is really what did me in. I will do better on Wednesday! I will have a positive attitude about it. If my brain is thinking good thoughts and I still can't physically do it, then I will be okay with repeating this week.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday!

My Weight Watchers group & C25k

2010-02-26T13:37:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody!

First of all, I want to thank everybody for your kind comments on my last post. I hope you know how much they mean to me. A few weeks ago I was explaining my blog and the weight loss blogging community to my friend, who does Weight Watchers. And I said, "My blog friends and followers are my Weight Watchers group!".

I have never wanted to spend the money to go to Weight Watchers or on any other type of weight loss program. In fact, I have been holding out on getting a gym membership until the community fitness center near me opens (which I am sad to know won't be until early 2011) because it will be cheaper. Maybe I haven't done these things because I didn't have confidence I could stick with things and I would lose money or maybe I'm just a cheapskate! So far my current plan seems to be working and I will stick to it unless it stops being effective.

Anyway, back to my weight watchers group. I realize that a big part of the success I have had so far has been accountability on my blog and receiving inspiration and support from you all through your comments and reading your blogs. I was going to mention my WW group members by name but don't want to miss anyone. So let's just say that my group is very diverse in age and background. Some in my group are older than me and help me to know that you are never too old to change your ending. Some in my group are younger than me and remind me of how much fun being young can be and make me wish I had half their energy. Everyone has a different background and story. When I read about their stories, I am inspired. Some in my group have lost A LOT of weight and are either maintaining or have just a little to go. These people remind me that I can do it, too and always share wisdom. Some people have been on the journey for awhile and are half-way to their goal weight. These people also inspire me because they have come so far, yet still have far to go and are happily plugging along. Some are new to the journey like me. These people, help me to know that I am not alone. We have similar struggles and similar successes. I love following along with them. Some make me laugh, some make me cry. All inspire me. Thank you for being part of my WW group!

Today I completed week 3 of the C25k training! Yay for me! I only printed off the first three weeks to follow along with while on the treadmill so I hadn't really looked ahead to next week until yesterday. Holy cow, I'm nervous! This week's training alternated between 1.5 minutes running then 1.5 minutes walking and then 3 minutes of each. I did two circuits of this. Next week 5 minute intervals of running are thrown in and there is less walking between each interval. I can do this, I can do hard things!

I have had a hard time blogging and reading blogs the last couple of days. My kids are still on their 3 week break from school. I've been getting in my exercise time, but after that it has been all about the kids. We've done some fun things. Only one more week to go and then maybe I can get back to a regular blogging and blog reading schedule.

Have a great weekend!

Weigh-In Wednesday

2010-02-24T06:34:00.000-08:00

Well, today was my weigh-in. And it looks as if I broke my 1-2-1 pattern after all, just not in the way I wanted to. I was hoping for a 2 pound loss on a one pound week, but instead got a 1.5 pound loss this week, which according to the pattern my body has been following, should have been 2 lbs. That's not to say I am not happy with my loss. I now weigh 191 lbs, I can see the 180's on the horizon and I am just .5 away from a total of 15 lbs. lost!

I want to be able to eat "treats" once in awhile without feeling guilty, as long as they fit into my calorie allowance. This past weekend, I ate coldstone ice cream (kid's size) on Saturday and a slice of coldstone ice cream cake on Sunday. Sunday, I went over my calorie allowance. Now, I find myself feeling guilty and thinking "would I have seen that 2 lb loss had I not had those treats?". The answer is probably, "probably". So here's the deal. I am going to be more careful about the treats I allow myself on weekends. Weekends are not freebies! Even if the treat fits into my calorie budget, the fat may not. I still think treats are okay once in awhile, I just have to learn to moderate more. I don't want to second guess myself come weigh-in day.

Yesterday, was a day off from blogging as I attended my cousin's funeral. It was a very emotional draining day. The cousin was from my dad's side of the family. I have never been very close to my dad's family and really don't know them all that well. Sad to say, I have gotten to know a few of them better on Facebook over the past couple of years than over my whole life. Anyway, seeing all of them under such terrible circumstances was draining. Not to mention, without going into a lot of detail, the family has some definite issues that were magnified yesterday and it all added to the sadness.

I made sure I packed myself a healthy lunch (turkey sandwich and carrots) . I knew I would not be able to stay for the family lunch that the church prepared for us because I had to pick up my kids. The funeral was at lunchtime. I'm glad I packed a lunch because otherwise I would have for sure stopped at a drive-thru and it is pretty hard to eat a salad while driving so I probably would not have picked a salad.

I knew I would be gone most of the day and so I planned ahead of time what we would have for dinner. I wanted something simple, but healthy. I usually eat fish for dinner the day before my weigh-in so I planned on broiling up some salmon. By the time I got home, I was really tired. I started thinking to myself, "I don't want to cook, I've had an emotionally draining day, I "deserve" to not have to cook."I thought about just getting fast food for dinner. Then I thought about my recent challenge with 15 in 15. We are supposed to figure out why we sabotage our goals just because we think we "deserve" to eat something off plan or not exercise. I think Annie's quote is "Why do you think you do not deserve to reach your goals?" No healthy fast food sounded good and certainly not better than broiled salmon. I thought about how eating off plan would have made for an even more crummy day. I also thought about how I deserved to take care of myself, both physically and emotionally. Eating fast food would not help me in either of those ways. So, I determined what I did deserve was a 15 minute catnap on the couch. I took my little nap and was ready to broil up some salmon. Dinner was easy and it was good. Now that is what I call a NSV (non-scale victory) people!

I hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

P.S. Has anyone else noticed that Lisa from "One Mom's Weight Loss" has removed her blog and disappeared. I'm so sad. Her blog was a fave of mine. I hope she is well and just decided to quit blogging but hasn't given up on her goals.

P.S.S.- I almost forgot! I completed Week 3, Day 2 of the C25k program this morning!

A New Challenge and an Award

2010-02-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

I want to thank LeAnne for awarding me the sunshine award! It is nice to know that my blog is not only benefiting me a ton but bringing some sunshine and inspiration to others!

I am supposed to pass this award onto some other sunshiney bloggers. I love reading blogs! In fact, I wish I had more time to do so. Here are twelve of my faves:

Kristin @ A Fit Me
Lisa @ One Mom's Weight Loss Blog
Mary @ Joy for Mary
Tj @ Tj's Test Kitchen
Cammy @Tippy Toe Diet
Kyle @ Getting Better and Better
Dawn @ 365 days to a new me
Ms.Magnetism @Mission to Lose 130 lbs
Alex @ Another Fat Girl
Tiff @ Project 365
This Girl is Losing it
Tricia @ Endurance isn't only Physical

How was your weekend? I hope great! Mine was just fine, nothing too exciting. I did the treadmill on Saturday, but that was all for exercising. And as far as eating went.....well....let's just say I went a little off plan. Pictured below is what I had for desert yesterday. Well, mine had some raspberries mixed in with it, but basically it was a red velvet cake, with lots of chocolate ice cream, chocolate ganache and raspberry filling from coldstone creamery. So yummy, but it my one slice put me over on my calories. Or maybe it was all the garlic bread I ate with my manicotti at dinner time. Oh well, today is a new day and a new week.

I wanted to tell you all about a new challenge I am participating in. A friend of mine started a group on face book called 15 in 15. The goals is to lose 15 pounds between President's Day and Memorial Day. Today starts week two so it is still early on. If you are a member of facebook and want to join the challenge, just click here. Annie, the group's administrator, is a great motivator and sends each group member messages almost everyday with daily challenges. I told her that I think she would be a great weight loss/healthy living blogger and that you would all love her. She thinks she will eventually start a blog, but for now has given me permission to post her challenges here. So far the challenges have been things like , to track food and exercise in a notebook, create an eating and exercise plan, etc. Also we were challenged to make a contract with ourselves and sign and date it. The contract looks like this:

I commit to...

I promise to...

I know how important this is because....

I will do the following...

My reward will be...

Also she had us dedicate each pound of our weight loss to a person. Since the goal is 15 pounds, this was a list of 15 people who inspire us and for who we want to become healthier for. Obviously, for my overall weight loss goal is a lot more than 15 so I will be going through my list more than once.

If I complete the challenge then I will exceed my goal of a 25 lb loss by summer. I can hardly wait!

I'm copying and pasting the next challenge, so you can see it in Annie's own words:

Okay maybe I'm not. For some reason I can't copy and paste her message. Frustrating! Anyway, today's challenge is about how we sometimes sabotage ourselves. We use excuses like, I deserve it or I'm stressed out to eat off plan or not exercise. The challenge is to identify one reason we sabotage our goals, a reason "we don't think we deserve to reach our goals". Once you've discovered a reason think of three healthy ways you can reward yourselves when you think you deserve something great. These rewards will be for times you are stressed, sad, tired, overworked or excited about your accomplishments.

Annie's words are so much better than mine so you really should join her facebook group. I will spend today thinking on the challenge and blog about it in another post.

I hope you all have a good day. Tomorrow would be a "Things That I love Tuesday" post but I don't think I'll post anything. I have another funeral to go to. This will be two funerals in 10 days. ;( A cousin passed away last week. It was a sad ending to a troubled life. I may blog about it later.

See you on Wednesday.

Doing all this for fun!?

2010-02-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

Today I completed week 2 of the C25K training. Yay for me! I did not do it at an incline yet though. So I'm not sure if I want to repeat the week, adding an incline or move on and just deal with the difference of running outside when I actually do start running outside. After reading the comments from yesterday, I have decided to go have a proper shoe fitting and get some new shoes. I hope to do this in a couple of weeks.

Today I had an audience of three while doing Jillian's (yes, we're on a first name basis. Even my son knows her name and who she is) 30-day Shred. My children were in the room while I did the workout. They were mostly playing their nintendo ds', but they were there all the same. Gotta love breaks from school! Anyway, while doing reverse crunches my son (five years old) said, "Look at your bum, you've got a big bum!". Don't you just love the honesty of children? Anyway, my daughters got upset with him and told him that was not nice. I told them, "He shouldn't say that, but it's true. Why do you think I'm doing all this?". To which, one daughter said, "For fun!". I just laughed. But what I really wanted to say is, "Do I look like I am having fun!?, Do you see the sweat pouring down my face!? Do you think I enjoy not being able to walk up and down the stairs without being in pain?! Do you think I enjoy having a hard time washing my hair because it hurts to raise my arms!?". Maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration. I can walk up and down the stairs and wash my hair just fine....now.

Will this ever be fun? I know I can't expect to love exercise and think it is fun after just a couple of months of doing it. I have never liked exercise, which is one of the reasons I'm overweight. Although, I like the way I feel after I do the treadmill or Jillian or BL training I don't particularly like it while I am doing it. Mostly, I dread getting up in the morning to get on the treadmill and if I do look forward to a workout it is mostly because I am looking forward to the satisfaction that comes after I have completed it! I dont' think my dislike of exercising has much to do with the types of exercising I am doing. I just don't enjoy it all that much. I hope that eventually this will change. I hope that one day I will find that I do think exercising is fun! What about you all? Do you enjoy exercising? Did you have to reach a point where you enjoyed it, or have you always enjoyed it?

Two Left Feet!

2010-02-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

Today, I opted not to do the treadmill because my shins are pretty sore and I want to be able to finish week 2 of my C25K training tomorrow. If anyone has any advice on how to cure/avoid shin splints, let me know.

But sore shins is not what this post is about. After I did my BL training I decided to pop in an old aerobic VHS tape to get some cardio in. The tape I have is one that my mom got while she was doing Jenny Craig a few years back. The last time (4 years ago) I decided to lose weight she gave me her exercise tapes. Attempting to do the aerobics workout reminded me that I do, indeed have two left feet. It also reminded me why I have always avoided actually attending a public aerobics/exercise class of any kind. I am so uncoordinated, I really can't follow along with all the dance-aerobic moves. In fact, I wonder if it is doing me any good at all because I have to concentrate on how to move my feet so much that I am probably not moving them much at all. I know that if I did this particular tape often, I would eventually get it. I think I'll stick to my treadmill and Jillian for my cardio, though.

Are all aerobic workout tapes/dvd's that way, though? Do they all contain complicated (or so it seems to me) dance moves? Or is that a 80-90's thing? Let me know. I have a friend who loves Zumba and wants me to attend a class with her. I am afraid I will just embarrass myself. For those of you who love Zumba, will my two left feet get in the way of a good workout?

Have a great Thursday, everybody! The weekend is right around the corner.

Weigh-In Wednesday and a decision about the scale

2010-02-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

So today is weigh-in Wednesday. I weigh myself once every day on my bathroom scale. I do this first thing in the morning in my underwear before I put my workout clothes on. My scale seems to be pretty consistent and today it read a 1 lb. loss. I was a bit disappointed because that is not a change from yesterday and I thought I earned a loss yesterday! Anyway, as you know I have been using The Biggest Loser Wii game for my official Wednesday weigh-ins. So I got on the Wii balance board today and it read 196 for no loss at all! That sucks! So I made a decision...I will no longer use the Wii balance board for my official weigh-ins. I am going to use my bathroom scale. I just don't trust the balance board anymore and I'm sure it doesn't register 1/2 lbs., which I think is just wrong. So my new weight (according to my bathroom scale) is 192.5 for a 1 lb. loss. Maybe I'm just doing this so I can see a loss this week and feel better about myself, feel free to tell me if you think that is just what I'm doing. I figure, I have seen my bathroom scale be consistent over the last few weeks. I weigh myself on it everyday at the same time. I know it reads lower than the wii and the doctor's office scale does, but it is not that much lower. Not to mention, when I weigh myself on the Wii or at the Dr's I am fully clothed and it isn't always first thing in the morning.

About the Wii game. Today I dropped below the yellow line and was in danger of being eliminated AGAIN. I wasn't, but it ticked me off. What more does it want me to do?! I exercise 5-6 days a week and stick to my eating plan. I will still stick with the game, for training purposes and I would really like to complete a 12-week period before getting eliminated but I'm not going to worry about it so much.

About my 1 pound loss. It looks like I've definitely got a pattern going on here. One pound one week, 2 pounds the next. I was really hoping to buck the trend this week but it didn't happen. I know 1-2 lbs. a week is a healthy way to lose weight and that if I lose 6 lbs. a month I will exceed my 2010 goal of a 50lb. loss. However, I also know that most people hit a wall and their weight loss comes at a standstill for a time. I guess I just hoped I could lose more in the beginning before I hit my wall. On the bright side, I have now lost 13 lbs. and if my pattern holds true next week I will hit the 15 lb. mark! The big picture is very satisfying.

Have a great Wednesday, everybody!