Reflection

Hey guys happy hump day! I have Friday off because of my birthday party so it's almost like Thursday for me. Yay!

 

So last night was my weekly weigh in. I weighed in at 248.9 which means I lost another pound. Am I happy about it? Ehh, yea sure. It's one pound I had last week that I don't now and it's better than nothing. Am I ecstatic about it? Ha far from it. The funny part is I was actually feeling pretty light yesterday and thinking maybe I pulled off another 3 pound week. Guess not. I've thought about it a lot and I feel the need to use this post as a reflection on what I did this past week that was good and what was bad. What I need to do more of and what I need to stop now. I'm not throwing a self pity party I'm just trying to figure out what happened so I can move forward with a killer week next week. So here goes. Let's start with the good.

 

 

 

Good:

- Breakfast, lunch and dinner during the week have been pretty darn flawless

- No soda except for sips of Pepsi Max when I visit the boyfriend once a week

- Water has been 64oz + for the past week.

- I was offered a gyro on Monday night and an ice cream sundae last night and said "no thanks" to both

- I worked out Saturday, Sunday and Yesterday. Saturday I went out of my comfort zone and went to the gym during the day with lots of people instead of at night. I also took the dog on a 1 mile walk when I got home from the gym.

 

 

 

Bad:

- Two words: Weekend food. I only ate half of my meal when I went out to eat Friday night but I can only imagine how many calories were in that half. I also had 2 pieces of bread with lots of garlic butter. Saturday at the movies me and my friend shared a small popcorn but there was lots of butter on it so that didn't help this weigh in either.

 

-For some reason I've started snacking a lot lately. It's always in small quantities and healthy for the most part but a snack here and a snack there does add up over time and I know that. This includes having a glass of high sugar juice that I know I need to stay away from but since it's in "small quantities" I feel its ok.

 

- I didn't work out Monday. I know it doesn't seem like a huge deal but I definitely feel like working out 3 days instead of 4 can and will make a difference.

 

- Monday night and last night I ate TOO much for dinner. I wasn't stuffed but I know that I could have eaten much less. Monday we had burgers and I could have easily taken off the bun and half the cream cheese that my dad slathered on top. Last night we had tacos. All 4 of us had 4 hard shells apiece and I could have easily stopped at 1 or 2 but why deny it if it's right there right? WRONG.

 

 

 

Lame excuses I know I shouldn't use but I'm going to anyway:

- Last week I weighed in on a different scale then I usually do because the locker room where my scale is was closed for cleaning. I know this excuse is lame and it may have made no difference but it may have made some difference as well. Every scale weighs differently and I knew that was a chance I was taking by using a different scale instead of just waiting an extra week to weigh in.

 

-TOM is here. Since about February when I was in the process of gaining 50 pounds in 8-10 months TOM has been pretty MIA which is extremely weird for me. I'm the type of person that can tell you the exact day almost to the hour that TOM would arrive that's how "regular" he was. Since February he has shown himself twice, right now being one of those times. I'm not sure if my body trying to balance everything out again would have an effect on the scale this week or not but anything to make me feel better huh? Haha

 

 

 

Things I need To Work On:

- I need to get in my 100 oz of water a day. I do awesome at work and get in the full 64oz that I need but the second I get home I drink no more water and almost no water on the weekends either.

 

- I need to get a handle on my weekend eating. I eat out about once a weekend, which I'm fine with, I just need to make healthier choices when I do go out.

 

-Snacking is stopping now. I'm not talking about cutting out my planned snacks because that's not something I could do but getting up and grabbing something out of the fridge quick and then doing so again in 30 minutes is not something I can afford to make a habit again. The thing is I'm not hungry when I'm doing this, I'm just bored and I know that making this a habit can go very bad very quickly.

 

- I need to get more exercise. I'm not talking about heading to the gym more because I basically go every night that I'm able to. I could add in Friday nights on most weeks though so I'm going to do that. I also will be adding in 20 minutes of morning exercise during the week with my 10 minute solutions DVD's. Other things I am thinking of doing is hooking up my pedometer to try to get in 10,000 steps a day and joining a few classes at the gym. I would like to take spinning, Pilates and yoga classes once a week. They have classes on the days I'm usually there so it would work out pretty well.

 

 

 

Sorry for such a long post I just needed to reflect on my actions and decisions this past week to see what's been going on. This next week will be good I'm sure of it. :-)

Monday Night Football

Hello my lovelies! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was very relaxing and very successful. I'm learning more about my self everyday and I'm loving it.

 

Friday I went out to eat and shopping with my friend Erin. We ate at this Italian restaurant called Bucatini. I had the Paglia e Fieno Boscaiola. Here's the description: Fresh house made spinach and white fettuccine mixed together and sautéed with sweet onions, olive oil, ham and mushrooms finished in a light Pinot Grigio cream sauce. It was very very good but I only ate about half of it and gave the other half to my mom when I got home. I had water to drink and a piece of bread with garlic butter. While we were out and about I bought the 10 Minute Solutions DVD for Buns, Thighs and Abs. I haven't done it yet but I watched 3 toning segments of it and I think I'll like it. The other 2 segments are cardio and I've never been a huge fan of cardio workouts on DVD. They always seem so jumpy and all over the place and I can't do a lot of jumpy stuff because of my knees so I usually skip over those segments since I do cardio on my own anyways. I'll be incorporating 2 of these workouts everyday into a quick morning routine before work. I figure I can handle a quick 20 minutes in the morning.

 

Saturday I was awoken by the sound of my phone playing the FOX NFL Theme Song (my text message alert sound). My friend wanted to see if I wanted to go to the special 3D Double Feature of Toy Story/Toy Story 2 that night with her. I loved those movies growing up so I thought why not? We agreed to go to the 7:30 showing and my first thought was 'darn I guess I'm not going to make it to the gym tonight.' I quickly stopped myself by realizing that the clock said 11:00am and she wasn't picking me up until 6pm. That's 7 hours to go to the gym and I wasn't going to let the fact that I wouldn't be able to go at my normal time be an excuse to not go at all. So, I hopped my lazy butt out of bed and headed to the gym around noon. Focus was legs with light triceps/shoulders and lower abs/obliques. I then did the usual 45 minutes on the bike. The gym was a lot busier than I'm used to seeing it but it was a refreshing change. When I got home from the gym I was feeling energized so I decided to take our boxer Cassius on a quick 1 mile walk so we could both get outside a little. I love the feeling of wanting to exercise versus needing to exercise. It feels really good :-)

 

Yesterday was relaxing and mellow. I did some grocery shopping and cooking. I cooked up some spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs. I threw on 1/2 of a cup of Prego mushroom spaghetti sauce and had 4 of the meatballs with the squash. It was very very good and I will be eating this regularly! The turkey meatballs were to die for as well! Yummy!!

 

Tonight is the Viking Packer game at the Metrodome! I'm suuuuper excited!! Anyone else?!?!?! Since the game starts at 7:30 and I have to clean the bathrooms after work I won't be able to make it to the gym  but I will be doing my "Workout" DVD tonight before the game instead. I also think I will be getting my pedometer hooked up and seeing if I can walk 10,000 steps a day. We'll see how it goes.

 

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!!

Friday Couldn't Come Soon Enough!

FRIDAY!!! FRIDAY!!! FRIDAY!!! Sooo happy Friday is here! How about you?!

 

Food and exercise have been good lately. Tried to cook some spaghetti squash last night but needless to say I bought the wrong kind of squash. Darn! I will try again this weekend.

 

Tonight I'm getting together with my friend Erin to do a little shopping and probably get a bite to eat. I like that with every meal I eat at a restaurant, I'm slowly getting more confident in choosing the healthiest option possible. It doesn't scare me nearly as much as it used to. I'm making "lifestyle changes" and it feels good. I think I'm going to buy 2 of the 10 Minute Solution DVD's tonight as well so I'll let you know how they are once I give them a try.

 

I posted my progress pictures on my pictures page (link on the right hand side) last night. It was very scary to actually post them and I almost backed out last minute but I'm glad I didn't. I was thinking that I might put the pictures into the paint program to make it look a little nicer and then repost them but for now they are up there. I could tell there are some slight changes, nothing major yet since it's only been 20 pounds. I think the change I saw the most is that it seems a lot of my rolls seem to be slowly "smoothing" out haha. I don't know if I see any change in my arms or legs yet. Maybe a little? I'm just glad to know that I will never be at either of those points again and it will only get better from here.

 

Oh aaand I am in LOVE with my new water bottles! I don't think 100 oz a day will even be a problem with this one. It has really helped that it holds 64oz at once. A lot of times when I get done with one of my 28 oz bottles it takes me hours before I get my butt up to refill it again. With this one I won't have to refill it once throughout the day which will really help. I'm really glad I got these!

 

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope your Friday is fabulous and so is your weekend!

Happy October

October 1st!! Can you believe it? Where in the heck did September go? Anyone know? Well all I can say is 8 days until my bday party! And 16 days until my birthday!! Woot woot!

 

So I'm not sure if you noticed or not but at the top of my screen that little bike seemed to have moved a smidge to the right again….

 

Because I lost another 3.7 pounds!! It's official, I have lost 20.1 pounds since I started this on August 13th! I made my goal with a week to spare. I was so excited I kind of just sat there and stared at the scale in disbelief haha. My next goal will be to get down to 235 by Christmas. That's another 15 pounds and I'm excited because I think I can do it. I lost 20 pounds in 7 weeks and theres 12 weeks until Christmas so now that I think about it I may up that goal a little to make it more of a challenge. I know that the more I lose the harder it will be to lose weight but I'm not going to let that stop me.

 

I'm thinking of buying a few of the "10 minute solutions" workout DVD's. Has anyone used these before? I've heard great things about them and I want to try the abs and pilates ones. I think these will come in handy for a quick workout in the morning and on days that I don't go to the gym I can still do a little something at home. I would really like the abs one because I feel totally lost when it comes to ab exercises so I NEED HELP! Haha.

 

I've noticed on numerous blogs that A LOT of people are making goals for the month of October so I thought I would join in on the fun! My goal is to drink at least 100 oz of water a day. Now this goal isn't only for the month of October because I plan on continuing this after October is done. I need to use October to get used to it so I can continue with it as part of my everday life. My main problem is that after I leave work I don't drink any water. I've been trying to cram 100 oz of water in during work and it just isn't happening. I know that it will be a lot easier if I use the hours after work to get this amount in as well. I went to Kohl's and picked up 2 new water bottles to make this feat easier.

I saw these on Erin's blog and instantly fell in love with the bottle. They were half off so how could you resist? These new water bottles hold 64 oz of water, they have a handle and a straw! You all know that I NEED a straw or I won't drink that much water. I plan to keep one at work and one at home. My goal is to drink a whole one at work everyday and a whole one at home every night making it about 130 oz of water. I love my old water bottle and don't want to get rid of it so that water bottle will be my gym buddy. I currently don't bring water to the gym (I know, I know NOT good) so I figured this little guy would be a perfect companion.

 

Oh aaaannnd I almost forgot! Since I'm down 20 pounds I took some progress pictures and will be posting them very shortly to my pictures blog. There's a link on the right hand side if you want to check them out.

 

*Disclaimer* These pictures were taken in my sports bra and shorts so that I can really see the changes in my body. You will see stretch marks and the fact that I currently have more rolls then a bakery. I've made a lot of progress and I'm slowly trying to be comfortable with posting these pictures on here but quite frankly I'm not yet. Be patient with me and if you don't like it, don't look at it.

 

 

And with that I want to say happy Thursday! One day closer to the weekend!

Proud

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was very quiet and relaxing.

 

Friday, my mom and I went shopping. When we got home we ordered subs from Milio's. They have the most amazing subs!! I always get the "Californian" which has turkey, cheese, sprouts, lettuce, guacamole and tomatoes. It is soooo good but it's about 750 calories for the entire 8inch sub. Don't worry I didn't eat the whole sub in one sitting! I cut it into 3 equal parts and had one for dinner, one for lunch Saturday and one for dinner Saturday. I also paired this with super yummy strawberries and cucumbers. 

 

 

Saturday was pretty lazy. Got up around noon to an empty house and after eating another third of my sandwich from the previous night (with strawberries and cucumbers of course) I decided to take our dog Cassius on a walk. We walked a little over a mile in 25 minutes. It wasn't a fast walk I just had the urge to get outside and enjoy the fall weather.  I lazed around for the rest of the day until about 6 and then I headed to the gym and after that rented the movie "I love you man" with my cousin. This is an amazing movie that you should definitely see if you haven't!! We ate some popcorn, drank some water and just had a fun time.

 

Sunday was more of the same. Did some laundry, cleaned the bathrooms and watched football. Did everyone see that amazing finish to the Vikings game? :-) I then went grocery shopping and back home for some family time before the gym. About 7:30 we heard a super loud banging on the outside of our house so we looked outside and hail was falling! Yea, that's right hail and it isn't even October yet! Ugh I'm not looking forward to winter!!

 

Last night at the gym I was sitting on the oblique machine taking a quick breather between sets when I looked to my right and saw a man that had just gotten done using the shoulder press machine and was writing on his paper his sets/reps. This man had to weigh close to 400 pounds. I looked to my left and saw a woman walking on the treadmill who probably weighs as much as I do and on the treadmill behind her was an athletic looking man running. On an ab machine in front of me there was an elderly man doing crunches. A smile immediately came to my face because I felt proud. I was proud of the heavy-set man because at 9 o'clock on a Sunday night he was at the gym instead of at home sitting on the couch. I was proud of the other two for the same reason. The elderly man just blew me away with the amount of crunches he was doing. He could easily use his age as an excuse to sit on his butt; however, he was slamming out those crunches like nobody's business. The gym inspires me because every time I go there I know I am surrounded by people who made the same decision as me get up off the couch, put down the chips and be healthy. Whether they've never been overweight or they've been overweight their whole life they all made the decision to put their health first. I'm proud to say that I am now part of this "group".

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Happy Happy Friday! This Friday is just turning out to be wonderful! More on that in a minute :-)

Yesterday was very nice and relaxing after work. Did a little blogging, grocery shopping, caught up on other people's blogs since I can read them at work but when I try to leave a comment my work computer freaks out (not sure why?) and watched some of my Friends DVD's. I was craving something different for dinner so I whipped up 2 little zucchini pancakes and some chicken salad. If I remember correctly the zucchini pancakes were like 70 calories apiece with about 2.5g of fat apiece? There were small about twice the size of a 50 cent piece but boy were they yummy! I whipped up some chicken salad for me and my mom with 1 can chunk chicken (5 servings in 1 can), 5 tbsp of low fat mayo, chopped up grapes and a sprinkle of celery salt since we didn’t have any fresh celery. It was yummy! I had one serving and I think my mom had one as well. Didn't make it to the gym last night (wasn't planning on it anyways I needed a little break) but I did take a 20 minute walk with my mom and our 2 dogs. My mom walks our Boxer Cassius but I have to carry our Chihuahua Emmy because she's blind. Haha I got in a good arm workout as well since she's about 8-9 pounds.

The grocery shopping trip was quick but very successful! I got some new marinade for my chicken, a 6 pack of Pepsi Max and a 12 pack of mini sour cream and onion Pringles. I usually use Mrs. Dash salt free Roasted Garlic and Herb marinade (which is absolutely divine!!) but I decided to try out the Mrs. Dash salt free sweet teriyaki marinade. I'm hoping it's delicious, I'm sure it will be!!

Every time I go visit my boyfriend (about once a week) I stop at the local gas station and pick up a Pepsi max and a mini container of Pringles just to keep me alert on the hour long drive home. I drink about half the Pepsi and eat about half the Pringles each time and this is the only time I allow myself to have either of the 2. It costs me about $3 every week to get these which isn't bad at all but I got the 12pack of Pringles for $4 and the 6pack of Pepsi Max for $3 at the grocery store. That's only $7 for 4 months worth of Pringles and 1 1/2 months worth of Pepsi. I was very excited about that :-). It's the little things I swear.

So on the subject of the tattoo, I've decided to wait to get it. I will probably get it for my birthday next year but I'm slightly undecided if that's what I want and I'm not going to put something permanent on my body until I'm for sure that it's what I want to do. I also think that waiting until I have lost a more significant amount of weight will make it more meaningful. I plan to be at or near my goal weight at this time next year so maybe it will be my gift to myself for reaching that? Another reason I decided to wait is because me and my brother took the plunge and made a major amazing purchase last night! We bought Viking tickets on the 35-40yd line only 4 rows up! It's for the Seahawks game on November 22nd. I'm soooo soooo excited!! I've been to 2 Viking games before both of which were in the upper deck seats that cost about $80 apiece. To be honest with you there's really not a bad seat in the Metrodome but to be so close is going to be amazing! The tickets were $198 apiece (it came out to about $230 apiece with tax) but it will be WELL worth it. That'll eat up most, if not all of the money I will be getting for my birthday so even if I was ready to get the tattoo it's not in the cards money wise at this point.

I'll leave you with a picture of my yummy lunch. Not sure why I took this but I guess I was in a picture mood today.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

VIII XIII MMIX

Hey guys long time no post! Sorry about that, I've been super busy and sick as well.

Tuesday was my weigh in day. I ended up working out on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so I was pretty confident about stepping on the scale. Well, apparently I had every reason to be confident because the scale read 253.6! Another 3.3 pound loss! Woo Hoo! Looks like I'm back on track compared to the week before and crazy enough only 3.6 pounds away from having lost 20 pounds so far! Ahh I can't believe it but I am sooo ecstatic.

Food has been good. I've been good about eating correct portions if I'm going to have something that isn't the healthiest. I'm doing my best to really try to incorporate real life into this and know that I'm not going to be able to eat chicken and veggies all day everyday for the rest of my life. I'm always going to be put into situations where I will have to make less "favorable" decisions that what I'm used to but I know that I'll be able to make sensable choices when I come to those situations.

Now for an opinion question that I'm hoping you lovelies can help me with. So this year for my birthday my mom is buying me a tattoo. I have 2 other tattoos, a heart on my ankle that I got right after I turned 18 and the words "Rispetto, Amore, Desiderio" on my wrist (It means Respect, Love, Dream in Italian). I've been mulling over ideas for awhile about what to get this year and I'm not sure I'm decided yet. Today I thought of an idea that I really like but I need your opinion on it. What I was thinking of getting was the Roman Numerals of 08.13.2009 on the inside of my fingers. It'll look something like this:

This is the date that I officially started working out regularly and eating healthy on a daily basis. I know that I WILL continue on this journey and I feel like this is one of the most important things I have done for myself and my future health. I know that this tattoo will not allow me to ever give up or ever stop because this will be a permanent constant reminder of what I started, how far I have left to go and how important it is to continue to live like this. The thing I worry about is having to explain to people that I got the date I started my "diet" on my hand. I feel kind of embarrassed even talking about it and I'm not sure if I'll feel embarrassed having to constantly explain it. I feel like a lot of people will throw doubt at it saying "What if you don't stick to your diet this time, then what?" That would be a valid point except for the fact that this time I will not allow myself to fail. This is my lifestyle now and I will NEVER go back to how I used to be. EVER. I think I just have to remind myself that this tattoo is for ME and no one else, just like my decisions to finally get healthy. What do you guys think? I know some of you may not like tattoos in general but if you could just tell me what you think about the idea? Please be honest even if you think it's not something I want to hear.

Thank you everyone for your continued support of me on my journey!