This is Bad

I gained 4.6 lbs. this week. That's right. How is that even possible? I can probably tell you a few ways that it's possible because I sure did it!

I could go on with excuses, but who cares...

I'm going to keep trying and that's all there is to it.

Weekend Review

This was not a good weekend for me, eating wise.

But it was a good weekend for me, exercise wise.

If I could just get the eating under control, then I'd be ok! I'm really afraid I'm going to have a gain this week. I'm actually pretty sure about that. But I'm going to give it my best and hope I didn't do too much damage.

I think all of the sweets for my birthday really threw me out of wack. I started to crave sweets again and then gave into the cravings, which made me crave other things. You get the picture.

I did make a WW Taco soup recipe tonight and it was DELICIOUS! I froze over half of it for a later date! I love this time of year where it's nice and cool. I start craving soups...and baked goods. That part isn't so good! ;)

I purchased a Polar Heart Rate Monitor watch off of eBay so I'm excited for that to arrive! :) I've really been making progress with my running. I'm still working on week 2, but I can feel myself improving. I think I've been on week 2 for almost 2 months now. Slowly but surely!

I'm trying to think of what I should do for my next goal. It'll be the 50 lbs. lost mark! Any ideas?

Crossbow Advantage

Ok, need some more help here! The home gym that my husband's coworker is selling is a Crossbow advantage. I understand it's a lot like a Bowflex. Anyone have any experience with these? What do you think?

Heart Rate Monitors and Recommendations

I'm looking for suggestions on what brand to buy for a heart rate monitor? I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I also want to get one that is reliable.

I really want a Go Wear Fit or a Bodybugg, but I don't like the idea of having to pay a monthly fee after you purchase the product. I already pay $16 a month for WW online.

I'm looking for ways to spend my birthday money. :-P I'm not a big saver when it comes to my birthday money! I went to Walmart today and invested in 4 new sports bras and some new socks for running.

Does anyone have a juicer? Do you like it? Do you even use it enough to make it worthwhile?

I'd really like to get a home gym and my hubby's co-worker is looking to get rid of one, so that may be an option. I know I need to strength train as I don't do it at all. What recommendations do you have for strength training? What products could I buy to help me out? (Look at me trying to spend money! lol)

All recommendations will be greatly appreciated!!

My Birthday Weigh In

I did it! I did it! Ok, here’s the thing. I got up this morning and weighed in at 248.4. That’s right, .4 from my goal! I was like nuh-uh I am not taking that, you dirty scale! So I went for a nice long walk, as for some reason I lose weight when I do that. I was like, come on, .4? That’s not even right. I can change that THIS morning. So when I hopped on the scale post walk, I weighed in at 247. That’s right, a 1.4 lb. difference. How did that happen? I have no clue. Maybe some water weight. But I stepped on the scale about 10 times to make sure it was right, and sure enough! Is that cheating? I’m going to say no and that I met my 40 lb goal! It's actually 41 lbs. total. That’s a 3.6 lb. loss this week! I felt like I was in control this week, so I was glad to see that loss!

Meeting my 40 lb. goal means I have accomplished the goal I have been working FOREVER to get to. MY COACH PURSE FROM MY HUBBY!!!

I absolutely love this purse and I’m thrilled to finally get it!

I took the day off today to just take it easy. I’m going to clean the house and work on homework. I came downstairs this morning to find this from my hubby:

A dozen beautiful roses, a $15 iTunes gift card, Lindt truffles, and a birthday card. We write notes to each other on paper towels, napkins, whatever, so that’s what’s in the front. haha :) How cute!! He’s already given me a book, and 2 new WW food and dining out books. He said he has a couple more gifts for me tonight. I’m spoiled. Can’t wait to download some new songs on iTunes!

By the way, I turned 24 today. I feel so inspired today as I am changing my life. I’ve been thinking about what I will look like next year. I’d love to be another 40 lbs. lighter!

Starbucks Vivanno Smoothies

My sister gave me a gift card for Starbucks for my birthday. So on my way home from school this afternoon I decided to try a Vivanno Smoothie. I chose the Banana Chocolate, as I am a sucker for banana's and chocolate- YUM! The picture below is from the Starbucks website.

It was delicious. Turned out to be 5 points total, but that includes an entire banana, so you're also getting a serving of fruit out of that! I didn't realize this when I ordered, but if you go with non-fat milk, you could reduce the points to 4. To quote the website, the smoothie is, "Freshly prepared with a whole banana, bittersweet cocoa, 2% milk and our own proprietary whey protein & fiber powder and ice." While drinking it, I was reminded of a slim fast. It was like a slim fast mixed with a banana. After I saw the ingredients, it all makes sense! This is a great healthy option for something sweet yet healthy when you're on the go. I'd probably buy it again, but wouldn't make a special trip for it.

Weekend Damage

The results: Gained 1 lb. since Friday. I can live with that!

I'm not feeling well again. I have a sore throat, achey ears, head and just a general ache throughout my body. It seems to be coming and going, but it definitely wears me down and hinders workouts. I know a lot of stuff is going around, so I hope I don't get anything again! The H1N1 has made it's first case at my school...ick!

Sunday

Made it back home with 3 weekly points to spare! Let's hope the scale is so kind! Whatever I weigh, I'm positive it will be off by Wednesday. If not, so be it!

Saturday

I had a great Saturday! My Mom and I did a little shopping. We're both a little broke right now, so we went to Good Will instead of our usual places. The Good Will here is amazing. I can always find brand new clothes because a lot of area stores donate clothes to the store. So I got a brand new (with tags still attached!) shirt that is from J C Penny's. Get this...it was size XL and fit PERFECT. Ok, I know the sizing must be skewed, but I was happy!! I also found an Old Navy size XXL shirt that was in brand new condition also that I fell in love with. It's a little snug in the hip area, but I can work it! Besides, I'm going to be getting smaller. This one was long sleeves also. Guess how much both shirts cost total? $3!! Turns out they were having 1/2 price day on all of the clothing. Score!

After that we headed to the Apple Orchard. This is a Fall tradition for my hubby and I. We enjoy going there. We actually don't buy apples, no matter how messed up that sounds, because we get them for free from my in law's from their trees. But we do treat ourselves to their donuts, that's the main reason anyone goes there...they're amazing apple cider donuts. I only ate one and felt content. We had a glass of apple cider also. We picked up a few other things at the store, including dried cranberries, apple cinnamon chips, and I won't mention the other things. lol But All with moderation! Everything is very expensive there and it's always PACKED with people. But we love to go.

From there we headed out to my niece's birthday party that was in WI at a RecPlex. I wish we had gyms like that here! They had a track that was on a balcony that ran around the top of the basketball area. They had an awesome swim area, ice skating rink, and I'm sure more but that's all I saw! It's right on a lake so they have triathlons there also. The party was short, but fun to see all the little girls dress up in their princess dresses for the princess party. :) Cute! I ate a very small piece of cake there.

On the way home, we stopped at Olive Garden. I had whole wheat linguine with Portabello mushroom marinara sauce (which I ate half of), salad, and 2 1/2 bread sticks. Went a little overboard on the bread sticks. But it was delicious. By the way, they have unlimited pasta bowls (no need to eat more than one) for only $8.95. Fabulous deal! On the way home we had an ice cream cone.

I totaled out 52 points, Oops! But I still have weekly points left over, so I'd say I'm still ok. Today should be a little easier eating wise.

A Challenge

For me, that is. I am at home (where I grew up) this weekend and I'm sure there will be lots of opportunities for delicious, and maybe not so good for me, food. But I will make good choices and eat smaller portions.

Today is my niece's 3rd birthday party. That will be so much fun to go to. My sister will be serving cake, so I will eat a piece of that. So that means I need to watch what I eat a little bit throughout the day.

My Mom mad a cheesecake for my birthday, so I will eat a piece of that tomorrow, of course. Yum! Wow, I'm going to be eating a lot of sweets this weekend! Not to mention the cake that my MIL is making me next week! It's all in moderation, right? Only eat one piece. :)

Last night was a NSV for both my husband and I. We have a 4 hour drive out here and we ALWAYS stop for ice cream. This time we both agreed that we didn't need to. Save some money while saving some calories!

BTW, the hubby surprised me and said, "I think I'd like to start getting up with you more often to go running in the morning." Turns out that he really enjoyed it. So we got up yesterday morning and went for a run. It's absolutely beautiful out there. It's still dark out and I live in a small town, so we have a GREAT view of the stars above. We even saw a shooting star! Can't get much better than that. And you know what, I forgot to make a wish! I'm not sure if he'll be able to continue this or not because he has to work in a different location next week. But we'll see! I sure hope so because I LOVE running outside and don't want to do it by myself quite yet.

Hope you all have a FABULOUS weekend! :)

More to Love

I just got around to watching the season finale of More to Love, which was actually aired on Tuesday. I've never watched a dating show before, so I wasn't really sure what to think of this one. The only reason that I watched this season was because of the whole concept of there being "plus size" women on the show, and being that I'm dieting and all, sometimes those shows can be motivational. I've already found my one true love, so no problem there! But, these women were not plus size. They were gorgeous and maybe not stick thin, but I would be THRILLED to have a body like some of those girls have, who cares about being tagged "plus size."

I have a few issues with this show. Keep in mind that I have never seen a dating show, so maybe I'm out of the loop. How can anyone possibly date more than one person, fall in love with more than one person, and not feel bad about it? If you're truly falling in love, you don't want to make out with another person. There's a definite moral issue with this show, but what show doesn't have moral issues anymore?

Secondly, almost all of the girls on this show have issues. At the beginning, all that the girls ever talked about was how hard life was for them because they were bigger. How no one ever liked them because they were bigger. These girls are gorgeous, and if I, a non-gorgeous person, can find a man who loves me and thinks I'm beautiful, these girls could DEFINITELY find a man to love them based on looks alone. Obviously, they've got some personality issues. If you don't love yourself, no one can love you. Being larger does pose some difficulty in finding someone, I won't deny that, but it's not a complete limitation. Whatever size you are, you need to learn to respect yourself or you're not going to get anywhere in love or elsewhere.

Thirdly, I think Michael is an idiot. Why else would you keep someone like Malissa on the show until the very end? She was one of the most cruel girls I've ever seen. She put on a act around everyone she was around, including Michael. His pick of Tali was a good one. She has a really cute personality and is gorgeous.

Ultimately, this show is stupid. You can't fall in love with someone enough to marry them in a matter of weeks. You also can't assume that the person you're going to fall in love with is going to be a certain size. How about having a show where there is a mixture of sizes and colors of women. After all, isn't love about what's inside and not on the outside? I'm confident that any man looking for true love is not going to chose a skinny beautiful woman over a plus size beautiful woman, over size alone. Love is a lot deeper than that. Give it more credit.

What do you think?

Weigh In Day

This morning I weighed in at 250.6! I'll take that. It's a new low for me and a loss of 1.8 lbs. this week.

I really wanted to meet my 40 lb. goal by my birthday next week, but that would take a 2.6 lb. loss. I know it's probably possible, but I never lose that much in one week. I'm not going to get disappointed in myself if I don't get there. That's exactly why I don't usually set date goals.

Last night, hubby and I went for a nice 30 min. walk. It's always nice to talk and walk. I even convinced him to get up with me at 4:30 this morning to go running outside! Wow, did that feel great! It was so pretty as it was still dark outside and you could see the stars. I don't think I'd want to go by myself though, kind of scary alone! Since we went for a walk last night, I only missed Monday's workout, which I will make up on Saturday. That way I won't have skipped another week of workouts!

Thanks for all of the great snack ideas. I have a list started so I can bring it when I go grocery shopping the next time. Very helpful!

Snacks

I'm feeling a lot better today. Although my one thigh is still sore from painting. I know, weird that only one hurts, huh? I've already left a message for my hubby that we should go for a walk tonight. I'm ready for that activity!! It's been over a week now since I've worked out. Taking last week off was intentional as I had a cold, and the last 2 days because I have been way too sore and not feeling well again. I think I'm ready to get back on the wagon again!

Tomorrow is weigh in day. I'm hoping for the best but as of today I am slightly up from last week. Although last night we went out for Mexican. NSV- I cut my burrito in half and only ate the one half and didn't eat the sides! So Who knows what the sodium did to my weight this morning. I'm hoping for the best. I know I can do better than I have this past week though.

What do you eat for snacks? I always think that snack foods are for snacks. Not necessarily unhealthy snack options, but snack foods in general. I was reading someone's blog who mentioned the different meals they have every day, a total of 5. I wonder if I treated my snacks like smalls meals, if I would end up eating less points and being more satisfied. What's wrong with having a half chicken breast for a snack? Or something along those lines. Let me know your thoughts!

What a Headache!

I'm on day 2 of a headache. I can take Ibuprofen and numb it down so it doesn't hurt so much, but it's back full force when it wears off. I'm thinking it's getting better, but I'm really not sure as I have been laying low. It gets worse when I get up and walk or do anything else physical. Needless to say, I did not get up and work out this morning. But I think I'm being healthy by NOT putting that extra stress on my body, so be it!



This isn't really anything NEW for me, but it's not COMMON either. I think it may be a hormonal thing, as I had TOM (actually I don't get it monthly as the BC I'm on makes it so I don't get it at all for some reason), last week. Yesterday morning I was very emotional for no reason and have just felt out of sorts in general.



I'm exhausted and it may be because of the painting, or maybe the chiropractor misaligned me. lol. I hope I feel better soon though! Eating has been on track, so I'm happy for that. :) It's amazing how I can see some things becoming habits for me. I ALWAYS count out serving sizes now. Yay for a NSV!

I'm so sore!

Ok, I posted that yesterday I was going to go for a run- well that didn't happen!

Here's the thing. I painted ALL day yesterday. I was up and down ladders. We have 9 ft. ceilings in our living room, so there was a lot of stretching with the paint roller too. Bending down to the floor to touch up, etc. I think I got a better workout doing that than I would have running, so no worries! I am extremely sore this morning. The painting is ALMOST done. I am in love with it! I'll have to post pictures when it's done to make sure I didn't do anything too crazy and ugly! haha :)

Eating wise, I did wonderful yesterday. I'm looking forward to jumping on the scale this morning. Yesterday, I weighed in at my lowest ever, but I can't tell you what it was because it wasn't my official weigh in! ;)

Update on Hubby's weight loss- 16 lbs. So proud of him! :) He really has changed his eating habits around. It makes me feel a lot better to know that he is healthy. Not drinking so many sugary pops and eating bad foods. He can hardly believe how much weight he's lost just since eating healthy! :)

Ready to go!

Today I am getting back to exercising and I'm more than ready. My hubby said he'll go running with me today, so can't wait for that! I love the way that I feel afterwards. We're doing some renovations in our living room, which is where I keep the treadmill. So we've had to move the treadmill into another room and our house has all wood floors. I don't want to run on the treadmill and ruin the floor, so I'll have to figure something out for this week until we get new carpet installed in the living room. I love running outside, but I'm a little afraid to go out by myself at 4:30 AM in the dark. Maybe I could run downtown, there's always a sheriff sitting there. lol

I never heard anything about my blood work, so I called the doctor yesterday and spoke w/ a nurse who said that she thinks everything is ok and if it wasn't, the doctor would call me. They're so unprofessional at this hospital, I hate it. They should have called me either way. But it's good to know everything is ok, I knew it would be. Sometimes makes me wonder if Doctors order blood work to make extra money...but we won't go there.

Hope you all have great weekends!

Holey Donuts...hmmm Holey no!

I signed up for a giveaway of Holey Donuts. Ever since then I've been receiving emails from the company about discounts on their donuts. Well, I got another email today and it had a link to a video on YouTube, about these donuts and cinnamon rolls.

Well, they looked so delicious. They're much lower in fat and calories than the traditionals. Wouldn't be so bad for a planned treat, right?

Well...they looked so delicious and reminded me of the donut I stuck in the freezer so I wouldn't eat it. Yep, I had a donut in my freezer when it should have been in the garbage.

You can probably guess what happened then. I put it in the microwave, just like you do with Holey Donuts, and devoured it. Not a good choice, but it was pretty good. I'm satisfied now and don't want to eat anything else. But that was a really bad choice and another indication that I don't know how to control my eating.

This is just a confession of a diet sin. Scale, please forgive me once again. :)

W.I.D

I lost what I gained last week, so that’s good. I lost 1.6. This puts me back at my lowest weigh in again. I’m happy with this loss for the week. Any loss at all is good in my book.

I’ve been so busy now that I’m back in school. I’m having a hard time keeping up with the blogs, and I miss them! But for now I need to read all of my literature first, and then the blogs 2nd. :(

I’ve also been having a hard time getting everything planned and tracking my points. I need to get that down or I’m going to be gaining weight! I haven’t been eating the wrong foods though.

I haven’t gotten up this week to exercise in the morning. I’ve had a cold and I’m waiting for this to pass. I’m enjoying a 1/2 hour extra of sleep. But come Saturday morning I’m going running. :)

Hope you’re all doing well and losing lots of weight! Hopefully I have some more time to post more often!!

Same Old Doctor Story

Thursday morning I had my yearly appointment at the doctor. I saw a different doctor at the same clinic because the one I saw last year wasn't able to see me on any days I was off of work. Not a big deal for me and I liked this doctor, too.

According to the scale, I had lost 33 lbs. since last year. They had me at 287 last year (I started dieting at 288) and I weighed 254 (with all of my clothes on). She just commented, I see that you've lost some weight, and that was about it about my weight. Which is fine, I get tired of them telling me to lose it anyways! :-P

But then she addressed my BP again. It was 138/78 this year and 138/80 last year, so about the same. Last year she told me to go back to my doctor about the BP, so I did, and she changed my meds around. I get so tired of going back to my BP doctor because she tells me that it's just fine. I have had 3 other doctor's tell me that it's not "Just fine." No matter what she changes my BP meds to, I still get right around the same readings, like above. She said that I definitely wouldn't want to get pregnant right now with this BP. I don't think it's severely high? but they act like it is. She said they're willing to prescribe me birth control pills, but I need to get the BP meds figured out. So she looked into my file and told me the other doctor didn't do very much blood work on me, like I had thought she had done. So she ordered that I have blood work done to check my kidneys. She wanted me to have my sugar checked, but I had eaten a little bit of breakfast that morning, and you had to have fasted to take that test. So I don't know when I'll hear about those results, probably next week, but I'm sure that it will come out just fine.

It's a little disheartening not to see any changes w/ the BP. I was hoping with working out so regularly now and eating right, that it would have maybe gone down. I guess I'm still overweight and need to get more weight off so maybe eventually it will go down. Just feels like the same old story everytime I go to the doctor and I'm tired of hearing it!

W.I.D

Today was just as expected. I gained 1.6 lbs. this week. Hard to believe that I was about 4 lbs. less than where I was today, on Friday of last week! I'll get there again soon, so no worries!

I took off work at 11:00 today. So happy about that! Hubby and I have the rest of the week off through Monday. We're going to go on a little getaway starting tomorrow. So eating will be interesting, but since hubby is eating healthy too, that helps! By the way, he has lost about 11 lbs. He looks and feels great. So proud of him too! :)

I'm ready to get back on track today and I have. I picked up Subway on my way home and had that for lunch. I also met my goals for sales, etc. at work so I got a $50 WalMart giftcard. I splurged and bought some Oikos Greek yogurt w/ honey. It was good, sweet, satisfying, but I'm not sure I'm in love with it like so many are.

Time to get my reading done! That's why I left work...so I better get busy!! I have a Dr. Appt. tomorrow, so we'll see what she says about my weight and how much I've lost since last year!

Update

It's been a few days since I posted last, but I'm still here! We were pretty much gone for the later part of the week and I wasn't able to plan my meals, etc. etc. I gained a few pounds, which is upsetting because I was really starting to lose! But, it will come off if I stick with it. The problem is, today was my first day to go to work and then go to school without lunch, etc. that I blogged about before. I was starving after class. I ate my healthy snacks in the car and still came home hungry. I had a serving of chips and salsa, yogurt raisins, popcorn, and a bit of chocolate. That is not good at all. I'll have to figure something out yet and get that under control. But I was so exhausted I fell asleep on the couch for an hour. So much for getting some homework done!!

On a brighter note, the hubby said he would go running with me outside. Now this is a big deal for me. I haven't run OUTSIDE since I was in high school and forced to run around the track. I have never run outside for fun, on my own free will. and I DID IT! I did my couch to 5k and it was liberating. My hubby was like my own personal trainer. He would definitely go much faster than me but he went along beside me and helped cheer me on. He's really proud of me. We did that twice. :) Hopefully we can do it again on Saturday! I have been doing my 4:30 AM workouts inside.

I'm a little worried about weigh in tomorrow, and it's the first of the month one too. Hopefully I can meet that lose 4 lbs goal I set!!