New Title

Howdy! Second post of the day! What?!? Crazy I know! This one will be short though I promise.

You probably noticed that I changed the name of my blog. "Jenny's Weight Loss Blog" just didn't seem to have much oomph behind it and was way too generic. "Together We Can Prove Them Wrong" was inspired by the post I read this morning from Jack Sh*t (<--Very funny man ladies and gentlemen). He talked about how even though he can't be next to each of us dragging our butts to the gym or cooking healthy meals for us, to remember that there is always someone fighting on this journey with us. Whether it be your next door neighbor, someone in a different state or even a different country, there is someone trying just as hard to exercise and eat right. No matter what you are not alone. I was thinking about this exact thing last night at the gym. Every time I go to the gym there are a few severly overweight people there walking on the treadmills, the elipticals or lifting weights. Last night there was an overweight man running sprints on the treadmill. The people always look determined but defeated at the same time. I always wonder if they have a support group and I always find myself wanting to give them a hug and tell them they are not alone.

So this blog title and the blog contents are dedicated to everyone out there on this same journey as I am. Just know that together we can prove everyone wrong.

Thin Does Not = Being In Shape

Happy Monday Everyone! Hope your weekend was great! I had a wonderful weekend, it was very busy but very nice.


Friday night I went grocery shopping and got some chicken, veggies, fruits, greek yogurt and some laughing cow cheese. I had an eggwhite omlette and then managed to talk myself out of going to the gym. I just didn't have it in me. I knew if I forced myself I would resent it and the gym would start to become a chore, so I allowed myself to stay home and instead watched a movie with my brother. We watched "I love you man". If you haven't seen this you NEED TO! One of the funniest movies I have ever seen, it's definetly in my top 15 movies.

Saturday was busy busy busy. I woke up at 8:30, showered and ate 2 slices of turkey and laughing cow cheese on a piece of bread with some grapes and cucumbers on the side. After that I headed to my cousins to help her move. We started around 11:30 and we were done about 2:30. I was very impressed with us and how fast we moved them. We had 8 people, 4 cars, 1 truck and a UHaul trailer so I think we did pretty darn good. For me it was a lot of back and forth with boxes (the boys handled the big stuff) and up and down stairs. There were really no stairs moving her out but her and her boyfriend moved in to an apartment on the 2nd floor so moving in was constant stairs. It was a really good workout and I am very happy to report that I was barely out of breath or breaking a sweat. We got lucky with a pretty cool day, the sun came out a little but not too much. Ironically enough, me and my cousin Steve (2 of the heaviest people there) were the ones that were the least sweaty and the least out of breath. How could this be you may ask? Well, we both started working out within the past month and have both lost weight. I'd like to think that it's because we are both in the best shape of our lives thus far. It just goes to show you that being thin doesn't necessarily mean you are in shape.

Saturday night, my friend cancelled our dinner plans because she had homework but it was okay because I was looking forward to just vegging out. My family ordered chinese to eat, which was probably a bad idea but I did my best to eat as well as I could. I ordered a pint of the cashew chicken with steamed rice. I ate it for dinner Saturday, breakfast Sunday morning and breakfast this morning and there is still some left so I think I portioned it out pretty well. We also ordered 6 orders of crab rangoons. I am obsessed with these things!! The chinese place actually knows us by name because of the amount of crab rangoons we get. (Kind of embarassing but pretty funny) Each order has 6 rangoons in it and we usually get about 8 orders which is 48 crab rangoons!! We got 36 this time and boy oh boy was it hard to stay away from those. I usually eat 15-20 when we get chinese but this time I had 5 and that was it. I know I should have had just 1 or 2 or even none but I was proud that I was able to stop at 5. I knew that telling myself I couldn't have any would make me go crazy and only result in a late night binge of 10 or more. By allowing myself to have only 5 it proved that I can still have a treat once in a while in small portions and stay on plan. I probably won't have chinese for another month or two so I think it was just fine. I did make it to the gym Saturday night, which was great for me. To go work out after a day of lifting heavy boxes and running up and down stairs was a huge accomplishment. Funny enough, Saturday was my day for legs to be my main focus. They were sooo beat but I kept them as my main focus and still pushed them to their limit but needless to say the limit came a lot faster than usual. Biceps/back and lower abs/obliques were light that day along with 35 minutes on the bike.

Sunday I slept in until 12:30 and it felt amazing!! I lazed around for the majority of the day until about 4:30 then I got ready to have a dinner date with my friend Chelsea. Our dinner dates ALWAYS consist of Culvers and then Big Brother. At Culver's I got the 4 piece chicken tenders with no fries and water to drink. I only ate 3 of the 4 pieces and refilled my water twice. Yay me! Next time I think I will try to keep it to 2 pieces of the 4 but I wasn't over stuffed with the 3 so I think I did pretty darn good. Food wasn’t the greatest this weekend so hopefully that won't affect my weigh in on Thursday too much. I'm hoping that by portioning it out like I did and continuing to work out that I didn’t do too much damage.

Tonight I will hopefully be taking the Intro to Cycling class at the gym, which I am very excited about and Thursday I start my bellydancing class!

Sorry for such a long post, have a wonderful Monday!!

Who I Want To Be...

Happy Friday! Wow my week was super long, anyone else's? The weekend is going to be busy but I am looking forward to it!

So I had my weekly weigh in last night. Um, hmm I'm not really sure what to say…

Except that I lost 3.8lbs since last Wednesday! :-)
Ahh I couldn't believe it! I was so ecstatic I wanted to do a back flip right there in that locker room. Haha. At first I thought that it was a big number for one week but thinking back to the last time I lost a good amount of weight, I remember that the first 20lbs came off pretty quickly before it starting slowing to about 1-2lbs a week. Initially, I wanted to lose 10lbs before my bday dinner on October 9th but now I may be able to squeeze out 15. We'll see, either way I'll be happy.

Food was good the past couple days, same old stuff. Work out went good last night. Focus was abs with light biceps/back and inner/outer thighs. I always forget to mention the cardio that I do because I do it every day so it doesn't really change. I do about 35-40 minutes on the bike after my weight training. I think I'm going to add a 10 minute warm up walking at an incline on the treadmill before my weight training. I would really like to find a few more ab and butt exercises. I have a good amount of ab exercises but I feel like I'm not working my lower abs enough. I know that it is a hard area to work but I feel like I can do better. Same with my butt. I do lots of squats, which I love doing I just wish I had a few more moves to add in there to maximize my results. Any thoughts?

In the past couple of days, I've realized that this person I'm becoming is a person that I want to be. I've always wanted to be the person that juggles friends, family, work, school and EXERCISE and absolutely loves it. I want to be that person that WANTS to go exercise instead of NEEDS to go exercise. Slowly but surely it's getting easier to get my butt to the gym. About 75% of the time now, I don't try to talk myself out of it. It has become something I want to do and something I'm starting to crave. This morning at 8:30 I realized I hadn't filled up my water bottle yet for the day. The reason I realized this? Because I was craving water. I was craving WATER. Who would have thought that would ever happen? I surely didn’t. I thought, no matter what, fat or thin I would still hate exercise and dread having to drink water and eat healthy. I thought for sure that this journey was going to be a lifetime full of pain in the ass trips to the gym and eating food I hate. I think that's why I was so scared. I was comfortable in my rut eating shit and not exercising at all. Being healthy feels good. I feel alive, I feel accomplished, I feel excited. I'm exactly where I want to be and this time I'm not going back. There will be no more posts saying, "Monday I'm starting my diet, for real this time." Instead, they will be replaced with, "Monday was great, I stayed on track with eating and my trip to the gym was awesome." I used to think of quitting and then I thought, if you quit what's next? Where do you go from here? You surely can't stay how you were or soon you'll be the size of a house. So that means eventually you will have to "start over" again. Well, guess what? I'm sick of starting over. I'm sick of being defeated. It's not an option anymore. I'm not giving myself any more excuses. I'm feeling how wonderful it is to live this kind of lifestyle, why would I go back?

Theres no reason to.
Period.
End of Story.

Have a wonderful Friday!!

Great Success... (In your best Borat voice)

Happy Hump Day! I would like to start by giving this post a disclaimer. I have a lot of fun exciting things I want to share but none of it really goes together so basically this post is going to be all over the place. Hopefully it won't be too crazy, I'll do my best. :-)


Now, with that out of the way, I'll do a quick update on food and exercise for yesterday. Yesterday's food was pretty good. A Morningstar Chicken Patty for breakfast with a little ketchup and milk, cucumbers for a morning snack. Lunch was grilled chicken breasts, cucumbers and a V8. Afternoon snack was wheat thins and yogurt. For some reason my stomach goes insane in the afternoon. I think I need to find a heftier (is that a word?) snack for the afternoon because that growling drives me CRAZY! Dinner was probably high on calories but I did my best to not eat too much. We had spinach ravioli with spaghetti sauce and a couple pieces of garlic bread. I had orange juice and water to drink. I didn't make it to the gym yesterday but I did do my 4 mile walk with my step-mom so I think I did pretty good in that area.


Since I've started working out at the gym and eating better about 2 weeks ago, I've had a lot of great things happen. I forgot what it's like to be successful at this and it feels amazing. If I could have only remembered this a while ago I would probably be 20lbs lighter and much happier. Either way, I'm consistantly working out and eating well now and that's all that matters. Now since I don't really know how to organize this part because, like I said before, it's kind of all over the place, I think I will outline some of my accomplishments and elaborate as I go. Sound like a plan?


1. As of last Wednesday I had lost 1.8lbs. My ticker at the top isn't completely accurate because I never updated it after I gained back the weight I had lost during the 5 week frenzy that Rebecca had. I started almost 2 weeks ago weighing 270 lbs. Last Wednesday I weighed in at 268.2. I'm suuuuper excited!! I'm losing weight and for me almost 2lbs a week is exactly where I want and need to be. I don't want to lose the weight too quickly but I want to be losing enough to be actually making a dent in this mess I'm currently trying to clean up. I'm very excited to weigh in tomorrow and hopefully I will have good news to share. I'm hoping for another 1-2lbs but I will take anything at this point!! I also took some before pics Monday night because I didn't want my body to change too much before I had the chance to do so. I'm not very fond of them so they may not be posted for a while but at least I have them in my possesion.

2. I can tell that my body is starting to change. My mom and my brother have even made comments that they think I'm becoming slimmer especially in my mid-section. Now I know they're family and they are supposed to say nice things like that but I can tell too. My shirts are fiting a little different and so are my pants. It's a slight difference but I can definitely tell. It feels wonderful to see that my hard work everyday IS paying off and I can't wait to see even more changes in my body.

3. So you all know I used to be addicted to McDonald's. I truly was addicted. I ate it everyday for lunch and sometimes for dinner as well. I would crave the chicken nuggets everytime I smelt the glorious scent of fatty fried food. I would devour every bite the second I got my hands on it and I wouldn't feel the least bit guilty (Hence the 270 pounds just hanging out on my body). I had a McChicken last week because my boyfriend was getting it for dinner and I hadn't eaten yet. I chose the healthiest thing I could find on the menu. Before that, I hadn't had McDonald's for quite a while. I can't remember the last time I had the 10 piece nugget meal with honey mustard and a chocolate shake. Last night I faced the biggest test I've had to thus far. My brother had his wisdom teeth taken out yesterday and I told him I would stop by McDonald's on the way home and pick him up a chocolate milkshake. I drove up, ordered a large chocolate milkshake and drove to the first window to pay. It was at that point that I realized I didn't even have the slightest urge to order food, no fries, no drink, no nuggets, no burger, NOTHING! As I thought about it more I couldn't stop smiling. I didn't even take a sip of his shake on the way home. I threw the straw in the backseat and drove my happy little (big) butt home. :-)

4. On the 4 mile walk that my step-mom and I do every Tuesday there are two killer hills. I am always out of breath and dread seeing these hills rapidly approaching in the distance. Last night I could tell that these hills were easier. I actually didn't realize we went up the first hill because I was fine once we got to the top. I was a little winded on the second hill but it wasn't anything near what it usually is. That alone is telling me I'm making progress in my journey.

5. My Thursdays are about to get a whole lot busier. Why you ask? I am going to be taking a Pilates and Belly Dancing class on those nights. I'm so excited!! I've wanted to take both classes and now I am!! Pilates is from 5:30 - 6:30 and Belly Dancing is from 7:30 - 9. How perfect! They start next Thursday for 6 weeks but I have a feeling I'll be continuing after that. :-)

6. And last but certainly not least: yesterday I learned that no water=bad day! I forgot my water bottle yesterday and didn't have time to go home to get it so I tried to drink as much from the water fountain as I could but I was lucky if I got in 20oz yesterday. I felt blah all day. I had a headache, I was tired and basically dragging around trying to find some energy. Everything in my day was the same as it usually is. I got the same amount of sleep, work was the same, co-workers were the same, I didn't have any extra stress so I'm pretty sure it was lack of water. I'm used to drinking almost 100oz a day and yesterday I had barely any. I'm happy to report that my water bottle is with me today, I've drank about 56oz so far and I'm feeling great! :-)


I know that was a SUPER long post!! Sorry about that but I wanted to share everything that's been going on! Success feels wonderful and I hope you are all experiencing it in some way or another as well. Have a great night and I will leave you with a quote that I'm enjoying right now.


"If you care at all, you'll get some results.If you care enough, you'll get incredible results."
-Jim Rohn

Oh, Sweet McDonald's

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday! No post yesterday, sorry! No excuse either, I just didn't post. Oops.

Weekend Recap:

Friday night I had an egg white omelette and then I headed to the gym. Focus was abs with light triceps/shoulders and inner/outer thighs.

Saturday was a verrrry busy day. I've been helping my cousin prepare to move for the past 2 weeks or so and she is moving this Saturday so we needed to do touch up paint and spot the carpet. Her old roommates left their room a MESS. There were HUGE black spots all over their bedroom carpet and one wall was almost completely black (The walls are supposed to be white). They also had scuffs all over the other walls, their closet and the ceiling. (I have NO IDEA how you get scuff marks all over your ceiling!) So we started with putty-ing any holes left by picture frames and stuff. Then we started painting. A couple walls had to be completely repainted, while another couple were fine just being touched up. I also touched up the ceiling and a couple of walls in the living room/kitchen area. After that we scrubbed the carpet for hours! We got all the stains out but boy oh boy was that hard work. We then cleaned the bathroom, swept the laundry room and the kitchen, packed up a few boxes and cleaned some of the refrigerator. It was a very long day and I worked my butt off so I didn't make it to the gym. Oh well.

Sunday my family headed up to the Dells so that my dad could drive a NASCAR for 10 laps. We got him a gift certificate to do so for father's day and since we got rained out last weekend, we headed up there Sunday. He had a blast and it was really fun watching him. On the way home, we stopped at Mexicali Rose for lunch. I had water to drink (almost finished a whole pitcher by myself!) and a grilled chicken fajita salad. I ate half of the salad and saved the other half for dinner while I watched Big Brother. After BB was over, I headed to the gym. Focus was legs with light biceps/back and lower abs/obliques.

Yesterday eats were on point. I had some grilled chicken for breakfast and lunch. Fruit2Day for a morning snack. Some lentils with my chicken at lunch and a yogurt for an afternoon snack. Dinner was a 6inch turkey sub on Italian bread from subway. I got lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, onions and mustard (no cheese). I had about 80 oz of water and some milk with my meals. Went to the gym last night. Focus was arms with light front/back thighs (hamstrings?) and upper abs/obliques. Tonight I do my weekly 4mile walk with my step-mom and I have TONS of laundry to do so I don't think I'll be making it to the gym but definitely tomorrow!

Well this post is getting very long so I will have to tell you about some fun news tomorrow! Very excited about it :-)

Have a wonderful Tuesday! BB tonight!

P.S The other night at the gym I saw a McDonald's bag and drink in the garbage can. Really?! Who brings McDonald's to the gym!?!

Attitude Adjustment

Hey guys! No post yesterday? What?! Sorry! I had every intention to when I got home from work but the boy called me randomly and asked that I come see him cause he was missing his boo :-) Since he lives a little over an hour away my night was basically spent at his house. (Fine with me hehe)

Anyways, yesterday I was going to blog about things I use to crave ALL the time that surprisingly enough I don't really miss now that I'm eating healthy; however, before I went to visit my boyfriend I watched the preview for the new season of BL and was completely taken aback by something I saw. (If you've seen the preview you probably know what I'm talking about) There was a lady on there talking about how she has a wonderful husband and young daughter (maybe 3 or 4?) and a 2 1/2 week old son. Now my first thought was "why are you on the show if you have a 2 1/2 week old at home?" She then went on to say that they were all killed in a car accident. I was speechless. Shocked. I got immediate goose bumps and tears came to my eyes. This woman's life was shattered. The 3 most important people gone forever, yet she is on the Biggest Loser. She is stepping up and taking control of one of the few things in her life she can control right now. If she has the strength and perseverance to get up EVERY MORNING, with a heavier heart than I can even imagine, and work out and eat right, why can't I? What's my excuse? I can't think of anything that even compares to what she is going through. As today progressed I found that I was slowly talking myself out of going to the gym tonight. Then I thought to myself, "Are you serious?! Come on!" I just keep reminding myself of that lady and what she's going through and I remember why I love shows like the Biggest Loser. They give me 20 reasons to be inspired every 6 months. These people beat the BIGGEST odds and they succeed at something I've been trying to succeed at forever. They can do it and so can I. They WILL do it and SO WILL I.

On a lighter note, food has been pretty good. Yesterday's morning snack was a Fruit2Day. I had a Morningstar chicken patty for lunch with some lentils and some horseradish to dip both of them in. I also had some V8 to drink.

Afternoon snack was yogurt. Dinner was a McChicken from McDonalds (ahh I know I know, horrible!) Today, morning snack was another Fruit2Day. Both breakfast and lunch were grilled chicken breasts with some horseradish. Breakfast I had milk to drink and lunch I had a V8. I did have a lot of water yesterday, close to 80oz I believe and today I'm currently at about 28oz.

I didn’t go to the gym last night but I am going tonight. Focus tonight is abs with light biceps/shoulders, outer/inner thighs and butt. Tonight will be the first time since I joined this gym that I will be going alone! I'm kind of nervous but I think it will be good for me as well.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!! :-)

P.S I will leave you with an AMAZING quotation that I read on Hollie's blog.

"When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go. Only one of two things will happen. Either He'll catch you when you fall, or He'll teach you how to fly!"

Staying True...

Two days of blogging in a row! How fun :-) and this time I have pictures!! Woo Hoo!

Yesterday was pretty darn good. Last night I went grocery shopping with my cousin and sister and got some chicken breasts, asparagus, lentils, a 6-pack of V8 cans and 4 Fruit2Day juices. (Love these things! If you haven't tried them yet, definitely do!) Then I went out with my friend Tyler to dinner at Red Robin. It was tempting but I drank WATER and had a SALAD. How fun! I was really proud of myself. I got the Apple Harvest Chicken Salad, which was absolutely divine! I ate a little over half and saved the rest for lunch today. Lunch today was

a Garden Vegetable Boca burger,

1/2 of my salad from last night

and a little Toblerone from my co-worker for desert :-)

I did have a piece of pizza for breakfast though, which isn't all that great but I tried to pick the smallest piece possible. Tonight I'm going to whip up a couple of chicken breasts and cook some lentils and asparagus for dinner and lunch for the rest of the week. Food has been very good and rather easy when I actually put in the effort.

Last night my sister and I went to the gym at about 9:30. For weight lifting, I focused on legs. I pushed my legs pretty hard but looking back on it, I feel as though I could have pushed them harder. Next time I will remember this. I also did light triceps, shoulders, lower abs and obliques. After that was done I hopped on the stationary bike for 40 minutes. I left there suuuuper tired but feeling really good. We have plans to go again tonight but at 8 instead of 9 cause we didn’t get home until midnight last night!

I'm very excited because today after work I get to go check out a Hummer Limo that I'm going to rent for my friend and I's 21st bday dinner on October 9th. (My actual bday is the 17th and hers is the 10th) I wanted the Escalade Limo that they had but it got rented before I had a chance to snatch it up. Oh well, I think the Hummer will be just as nice. Also, here are a couple pictures of dresses that I've picked out to try to fit into by the dinner. My #1 choice is the black and pink one. Which one do you guys like the most?

Now, I'd like to introduce you to a good friend of mine: my water bottle. LOVE this water bottle! Basically because it has a straw but also because it holds about 28oz of water, it's BPA free even though it's plastic and it has a double wall so it never sweats! I drink about 3-4 of these a day but lately I've been lacking and only drinking about 1 1/2. I definitely need to step this up asap.

Alright, that's it for today. Have a wonderful night everyone. Big Brother tomorrow!! (Last night's episode was AMAZING!)

It's Been A Long Time...

*Warning: This post is going to be rather long, since the author of this blog is too lazy to post everyday and she has lottsss of information to update you on. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.*

It's been sooo long! I'm not really sure where to start but I guess I will start with my personal goals regarding this blog.

1. I will post EVERYDAY! Not just once a week or once every two weeks but EVERYDAY. I enjoy blogging so I'm not really sure why I haven't started this already.

2. I will start to post pictures in my blog. I don't know about you but I LOVE reading blogs with pictures in them. They are so much more fun and enjoyable and that is what I strive to be :-)

3. I need to stop being so selfish and start commenting on people's blogs. Every blog that I read is so inspiring and makes me strive to do better; so why not let these people know how much their words mean? It's not hard and it makes me feel good leaving a positive message for someone who has made an impact on my life and on my health journey.

Ahh, now that that's out of the way let me continue with my new found love. Now this man has stolen my heart, makes me feel very good about myself and is helping me on my journey to healthiness. His name is Gym ;-) short for the Harbor Athletic Center. That's right, I joined a gym! I'm very excited and it's exactly what I needed. I knew this all along in the back of my head but I didn't want to admit to myself that I couldn't do it home. I couldn't do it in a place that I usually relax, a place where I lay on the couch and watch tv and just veg out on lazy Sundays or a place where I just roam in my pj's until 1 on a Saturday afternoon. It was too comfortable and that's why it didn’t work. The last time I lost a significant amount of weight was when I belonged to a gym. For me, it's a sanctuary dedicated to being healthy. I love being there and I'm so inspired by everyone that's there. Just being in the constant presence of other people sweating and working their butts off while you're doing the same is just amazing and it's almost like an unspoken bond. My first day going was on Thursday. I went Thursday, Friday, Sunday and I will be going again tonight. I couldn't go on Saturday because I was out of town and I couldn't go last night because I was with the boyfriend. I've found that I don't need a set schedule for what nights I'm going and what nights I'm not going. Basically I just keep track of what I worked on the last time I was there and I rotate my schedule. I think that mentality will be key for me to incorporate this into my life. I know I can do it, I just needed to finally get the right tools in my belt.

Another thing I'm very excited about with the new gym is that they have TONS of classes that are included with the membership. Next Monday my sister and I (she also joined so I have a workout buddy!!) are taking an intro to cycling class. I took a cycling class in college and loved it so I'm hoping to take one class a week after I do the intro. I am also planning on trying a Pilates and yoga class and maybe even a "water boot camp". I just love being excited about something that's good for me. Huh, who would'a thought :-)

Okay, well I think I'm done for now. My brain is getting tired haha and I should probably be working :-/

Anyways, Big Brother tonight! Word on the street says it's going to be a good one! So excited!

..Deep Fried Heart Attack...

So it's about time I post huh? :-) I've been MIA for a while, doing a little soul searching after hearing about Jen's mom. I know it hit us all hard and made us really re-evaluate what we're doing in this whole weight loss thing and just in life altogether.

So starting today through the 16th of August, is the Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. They talked about it a little on the news this morning about what will be there, what you'll see and most importantly what you'll eat. Now of course Wisconsin is known for beer and cheese but I'm starting to wonder if we should also be known for deep frying and putting chocolate on whatever we can. Some of the 'highlights' they mentioned were chocolate covered bacon, deep fried Twinkies, deep fried snickers bars, deep fried cheese (also known as cheese curds) and my mom's favorite: cream puffs. Did I mention that these cream puffs are about the diameter of 2 softballs put together? The first thing I thought of was "gross" and the second thing I thought was "Are paramedics going to be on sight in case someone has an instant heart attack?" Honestly, don't those foods have enough fat, calories and other crap in them without adding chocolate and throwing them in a vat of oil? If you'd like to see why there's a problem with obesity in America just come to the state fair, or probably any fair in the U.S for that matter. Bleh.

On a happier note :-)...

Food has been good. I went grocery shopping on Monday. Got lots of veggies, some Boca/MorningStar patties, egg whites, pitas and some Greek yogurt. I know that the patties are considered processed food which I am trying to stay away from but I've come to realize that it's essential for me to have something like this on hand in case I don't end up making something else. I would rather eat one of these with a salad than ordering a pizza or Chinese, which is usually what I would do. I've also read a lot about lentils lately and how amazing they are for you. I'm thinking about incorporating some of those into my meals with some chicken or maybe with some rice and veggies in a yummy stir-fry. The biggest accomplishment for me right now is water! It might sound weird but for me having the right kind of water bottle is what made the difference. I've discovered that I drink fluids (especially water) more frequently if there is a straw involved. So I found a 28oz water bottle with a pop top thingy that connects to a straw inside the water bottle. This entire week and some of last week I've been drinking between 56 and 116 oz of water a day! (usually it's around 84) Yay! I finally found something that worked for me and I know that's going to be the key for everything in this journey from eating to exercise.

As far as exercise goes, it's getting better. I went on my weekly 4 mile walk on Tuesday. Haven't walked at all the rest of the week but I plan to tonight and tomorrow night about 2 miles apiece. On Monday I did about 25 minutes of free weights for my arms while watching some Gossip Girl on DVD. Last night I did about 15-20 minutes of leg work while watching GG again on DVD. (Have you checked out this show? Amazing!) Tomorrow I plan to do abs and next week I NEED to force myself to get up early before work and either do some weight training or take a walk, maybe both? I'm not sure we'll see. But overall exercise is good and definitely improving. The best part of all is that I'm not really thinking twice about it. Basically I think, "Hmm I should go work out while watching TV" and that's what I do. I've gotten over talking myself out of it and instead actually want to do it.

Hope you are all having a wonderful Thursday! Big Brother tonight!! Live evictions! Sooooo excited! :-)

As most of you probably know by now, jen a priorfatgirl's mom passed away tragically on friday. Jen has been an amazing inspiration to me and hundreds of people in the weight loss community. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. They don't deserve this. I'm so sorry Jen...