Medium Me

So I feel the need to inform you all that as I'm writing this I'm sitting at my kitchen table in a sweatshirt, pj pants and a blanket. Why am I not at work you ask? Oh, ya know because we got 18 inches of snow last night! We were under a blizzard watch and the governor called a state of emergency for the entire state of Wisconsin. Holy guacamole you should see the snow! I work for a company that is contracted with the State of Wisconsin so the only way we get snow days is if the state closes down. Well, in 30 years they've only closed once and today makes it twice. Maybe that'll give you a better idea of how crazy it is out there!

My mom, my brother and I went out earlier to clear out the end of our driveway from what the snowplow lovingly pushed there. It took us 1hr 30min and boy oh boy was it quite the workout.

We also went outside last night in our tshirts, pants and socks as it was beginning to snow and made snow angels. We do it every year in honor of our "snow angels": my mom's friend Dave that died from cancer about 4 years ago in January and my mom's cousin Terry that also died from cancer about 3 years ago in November. It's so much fun to just run out there, make a snow angel and then run inside quick before we catch pneumonia haha. It's a great tradition we started to make sure that we remember them always and to let them know that they're always in our hearts. RIP DH, TG we miss you both!!

A picture from last year that we did.

So back track to Saturday (I know it was quite awhile ago!!) my step-mom, my dad, my brother and I went out to dinner at Qdoba and then to see "The Blind Side".  I decided that I wanted to look nice so I tried on a dress shirt that my grandma got me last year for my birthday that I could only (barely) wear once because I was too big for it. And guess what? It fit! Not only did it fit but it fit really well! It felt so amazing :-)


And now if you rewind a little, not as far back, to Monday, I went shopping for Christmas with my Grandma. It's a tradition every year for her to take us shopping for Christmas since she wants to know that we will like what she gets us. We almost always go to Kohl's to get some clothes. I picked out two tops that are absolutely gorgeous. Here are pictures from the Kohl's website of them:

I decided that I wanted to buy the shirts a little on the small side so that by the time January/February comes around they will fit perfectly. Well, I decided to grab mediums in both and try them on just to make sure that I liked how they would look once I could fit into them. I was very suprised that they were both only "slightly" too small. Me fit into a medium shirt? Serious? How crazy is that?! I'm so excited to be able to slip these on and wear them out knowing that I, formerly weighing in at 270 pounds am wearing a medium shirt. :-) My sweet Grandma, bless her heart, asked me probably 3 or 4 times if I was sure that a medium would fit. I just smiled and nodded knowing that she must think I'm absolutely nuts.

I hope you all are staying warm!! I know I am :-)

Snow! Pizza!

Happy happy Friday!! Gosh I am sooo happy to finally see Friday, especially since we got our first official snowfall yesterday. It makes me want to go curl up on the couch and laze around but I am here at work instead. Poo.

I am the type of person that HATES snow, with a passion. Not because of the actual snow per se, more because of how it affects roads and driving. I'm a big driver. I'm always driving and quite frankly I love driving. My gym is 20 minutes away, my boyfriend is an hour away the mall is 15 minutes away etc etc. (luckily work is only 5 minutes away!) Hopefully this winter won't be as horrible as last winter but I guess we'll see. Since I live in Wisconsin and I'm stuck here for at least another year (then hopefully California!) I decided that maybe this year should be the year I try to kinda sorta enjoy the snow. Crazy I know! That is why I'm going to try to get into snowshoeing. I figure that maybe if I can get in some good exercise outside during the winter it'll be more enjoyable to have snow around. We shall see, we shall see.

Last night I made a pizza! Now don't freak out, this was a healthy pizza! Yes, there is such a thing :-) Let me walk you through the wonderful steps.

I used a Flatout Flatbread Light Italian Herb crust. These things are sooo good, if you haven't tried them please do you will not be disappointed!

Here are my toppings. A nice Hunt's all natural pizza sauce with no salt added which is great because I believe that one serving of the sauce only about 20mg of sodium. Score! Some Pennsylvania Dutchman canned mushrooms. Also with low sodium! And some Black Pearls canned black olives. Once again, low sodium. I'm a big low sodium person. If I can get the same item with half or more less sodium, why not? I don't need all that extra salt especially since I still have slightly elevated blood pressure.

On top of everything else I put on half Sargento reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese and half Crystal Farms reduced fat mozzarella cheese.

Here I started to add the sauce. I was making one for my mom too and decided to have a little fun.

Here are the pizzas all cooked up! The "meat" on there is a cut up vegan Boca patty. I used one patty for both of our pizzas and it added great flavor. I cooked these on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes at 325*.

If I calculated correctly, this whole pizza came out to about 350 calories. Sweet! Aaand it was delicious! Like honestly I don't have to eat regular pizza again now that I've done this. I was very happy that I made the last minute decision to do that last night. This will definitely be a regular on the menu!

I'm going to try to push myself to do the Pilates classes tomorrow morning and Sunday morning at the gym. I'm still a little nervous but I just need to suck it up and do it and everything will be a-ok.

I hope you all have a fun and safe weekend! And stay warm to everyone running the 5k tomorrow!!

Apparently My Body Could Care Less...

...that I haven't worked out for a week because I lost 4.6 pounds this week. The scale read 229.2 pounds. That's great, that’s wonderful, I met my goal for Christmas (I'll be re-doing that goal shortly) and I have officially lost 40 pounds in 4 months but I have mixed feelings about it. Call me crazy but I do. I am the type of person that over thinks EVERYTHING. So I will share my thought process with you. Ready?

 

Here goes nothing, hope I don't gain too much.

Wait that says 229.2. The scale is obviously broken, let's try that again.

Nope still says 229.2. Hmm.

Well now I have to redo my Christmas goal.

Woo hoo!

Wait, I didn't do anything this past week.

Can I really lose 4.6 pounds by doing nothing?

Maybe my body just needed to be caught off guard.

Caught off guard? You're not an athlete, you work out 4 times a week, it wouldn't shake it up that much. Would it?

I hope that was all fat and not muscle.

Do I even have 4.6 pounds of muscle on my body?

I should probably start reading more.

 

There is a glimpse into the wonderful head of mine. Fun isn't it? That was all within about a minute of seeing that number. I'm obviously new to this whole weight loss thing so some of you more experienced peeps can chime in if you want. Is it possible that by only working out twice in two weeks that I lost some muscle? Is it possible that I lost 4.6 pounds of muscle or do you think some of that was fat? Could it be that my body is just responding well to the food I'm eating and the fact that even though I didn't work out much I did work out? I have at least 70 more pounds to lose so I know that maybe it's just fat that was ready to come off? Ahh, I hate when I do this to myself haha.

 

Anyways any advice would be greatly appreciated :-)

And I hope you all are well on your way to healthy happy lifestyles.

 

 

P.S - Does anyone know anything about snowshoeing? I would love to try it and know nearly nothing about it.

Maybe I Should Gain...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was great. My family traveled about 1hr 45 minutes south of here to Elgin, IL for my mom's side of the family's celebration. I ate pretty darn well. I had a little bit of turkey, a lot of salad and fruit, a little bit of this amazing corn casserole thingy and a small piece of pumpkin pie. When we got home I snacked on a cookie and 2 pieces of this taco roll up thingy my mom makes. I made sure to fill up on lots of water (about 3L) and overall I think I did pretty darn good.

 

Food has always been the easy part for me. If I try hard enough I can easily eat healthy, eat less and stay away from junk. It's the exercise that kicks my butt and boy oh boy has it been whopping me lately.

 

The last time I worked out was exactly a week ago today. And I'm angry. Absolutely infuriated with myself. I had the chance to go Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night and last night but did I? No, I didn't. Why didn't I go? I don't know, throw out an excuse I'm sure I've used it. The worst part is that I know better than that. I know that I will not get results even close to what I want by exercising once a week or even twice or three times a week. My body needs exercise 4-6 times a week for me to make any progress.

 

Maybe I will gain this week. Maybe I should gain. Maybe it would do me some good. Snap me back into reality. Maybe it's about time I did what I need to do. Exercise is not an option, so why do I act like it is?

 

I know we all struggle and that I will have many more struggles before I've even made a dent in my journey. I guess I need to just get up, brush myself off and move forward. That's the only way I can go, right?

Is It Worth It?

Hello all, this post has nothing really to do with my weight loss or anything of the sort it's just something I felt the need to write about. I will be back to regular blogging tomorrow :-)

 

I found out today that a co-worker of mine passed away last night from lung cancer. I wasn't close to this co-worker but I saw her around a lot and I knew who she was. Two of her daughters also work where I do. One is in her late 20's and the other is 16. 

For some reason I was very affected when I heard the news of her passing. I think it was because she worked up until last Friday, 2 days before she died. I'm sure she had some idea that her time here was getting shorter and shorter but I'm guessing she had no idea that Sunday would be her last day to see her daughters or her grandchildren. She had no idea that Friday would be the last time she was at work. 

I got irritated with my boyfriend earlier because he has a habit of rescheduling the nights that we see each other. I thought about how I was feeling and asked myself, "is it worth it"?

You never know what will happen. You never know when the last time will be that you hug a parent or close friend. I don't mean to sound morbid but it's the truth.

No one is perfect. I am not and neither are you. There will be plenty of times in my life that I will fight with someone or have an argument. I will say things I don't mean and apologize more than I should have to. You will do that same. 

From now on I am going to do my best to pick my battles. Decide what is worth fighting over and what is not. I will do my best to "agree to disagree" without hurting the feelings of someone I love. 

I ask you to do the same.

I care about each and every one of you.

I don't want any of you or me to have any regrets when the inevitable happens and we lose a loved one. 

Ask yourself if it's worth it. If you really should be angry about whatever you're angry about or if it would just be easier to let it go. I know that for me 9 times out of 10 it's not worth it.

I don't tell my loved ones enough that I love them, that I care deeply about them and that I appreciate everything, big and small, that they do. 

Eloise,

I hope you are watching over your daughters and giving them some comfort in this terribly hard time in their lives. They love you dearly and so do many other people. You will be missed, I hope you are resting in peace.

Turkey Eve

Happy Turkey Eve!! I am so excited to spend a lot of quality time with my family tomorrow and maybe be a crazy person and go shopping Friday? Haha, we'll see.

 

 

Yesterday was a really good day. Did anyone see Biggest Loser? I won't give anything away in case you didn't but I was sad to see the person that went home go home. They were one of my favorites but oh well I guess everyone has to go home at some point and that person looks awesome now! I'm soo excited to see the "Where Are They Now" special episode tonight! I hope the person that Bob goes and talks to is Eric because I heard he gained all his weight back and I always loved him so I'd like to see him try again and succeed this time.

 

Food was pretty normal yesterday. More Boca burgers! Haha. My dad made chili for dinner which was suuuper good! I had a little fettuccini alfredo for breakfast with grapes and a glass of milk. I think the fettuccini was a bad idea, I felt horrible after eating it. It's crazy how my body reacts to food like that, now that I don't eat it anymore. Won't do that again any time soon. I have to go cash my check at lunch so I'm going to swing by Subway on my way back to work.

 

I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike at my dads and then headed to the gym after BL. It was soooo nice to be back! It felt like "going home" in a way which makes me feel good. I love it there, I'm comfortable there and I love the people there, especially the staff. That's probably part of the reason I've been successful in the 3 1/2 months I've belonged to that gym. Last night the focus was abs with light bicep/back and inner/outer thighs.

 

I weighed in last night at 233.8 pounds. That's a .4 pound loss. I'll take it! =) I didn't work out at all last week and still lost almost a half of a pound. The scale is moving in the right direction and I'm excited to kick my own butt next week and see a great number! I can definitely see my Christmas goal of 230 in plain sight. That would be 40 pounds lost! I'm very excited for that day, I've never lost more than 20 pounds before when I was trying to lose weight. To lose twice that will be amazing and when I get to the 50 pound mark I think this will all start to become real. I still feel like I'm slightly in a daze surrounding this whole weight loss thing. I've lost 36 pounds but I don't think it has completely sunk in yet. I don’t think I truly realize yet that one day soon I will be at my goal weight. In less than 35 pounds I will be out of the 200's. Forever. I'm very excited about all of that =)

 

I'm in the process of making an appointment for a private Pilates lesson at my gym. It costs $60/hr so I will probably only do this one lesson but I felt like I wanted to have more one on one time before I did a group class. I'm thinking of doing it on Monday and scheduling it right before the intro to cycling class starts so that I can do the palates and then go straight to that class. We'll see how I feel come Monday. I'm still nervous about doing a group class alone. Have you guys ever taken a group exercise class alone? Were you nervous about it?

 

 

Anyways I hope you all have a FUN and SAFE Thanksgiving!! Remember to just relax and enjoy yourself. Don't let your food thoughts consume you. Make smart choices and be CONFIDENT in those choices. We will all be just fine =)

Wall of America

Are you surprised that it's been so long since I've posted? No? Me neither. I know I say that ALL THE TIME but I WILL start posting more. Promise.

 

 

I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on this past week but I think I'll start with Friday because that's when the fun started.

 

Friday was my friend Kim's 21st birthday party. We started out with dinner at P.F Chang's. I got 4 steamed pork dumplings (also known as pot stickers) and water to drink. I was very proud of myself because let me tell you, Chinese food is a BIG weakness of mine. Everyone else got some sort of fried rice and one person got sweet and sour chicken which is my FAVORITE. It was hard to resist but I was glad I did =) After dinner we headed back to her apartment for drinks, dancing and girl talk. I didn’t have any drinks because it was too many empty calories that I wasn't in the mood to work off. I didn’t get home until 11pm so needless to say, I did not make it to the gym.

 

Saturday, my fun, crazy weekend started. I began the day with an hour long "Introduction to Pilates" class. It was a lot of fun and I'm excited to start taking mat classes regularly. After class I zoomed home and made myself a late breakfast/lunch. I had a Boca burger topped with fat free shredded cheddar cheese. On the side I had a bowl of steamed green beans, asparagus and mushrooms and a handful of grapes. I also had a glass of 1% milk to drink. At about 2:30 my brother, his friend Tyler and I headed to Winona, Minnesota to visit my brother's girlfriend at college. We got there at about 5 and headed to a restaurant called Bubs (pronounced boobs oddly enough haha). I got the Hawaiian Chicken Sandwich with a side salad. I ate the whole sandwich (the menu said the chicken breast was about 5oz) without the bun. The sandwich was topped with guacamole and a pineapple slice and was absolutely divine! I drizzled a little bleu cheese dressing on the side salad and ate all of that as well. I had water to drink of course. After dinner we headed back to her dorm for about an hour then said our goodbye's and headed about 1hr 30min north the Red Wing to spend the night in a hotel.

 

Sunday morning we woke up and got a free breakfast at the hotel. I was pleasantly surprised with the food that they had there. I ended up getting a low fat blueberry yogurt, 1/4 bagel topped with a little butter and honey, 2 hard boiled eggs and a carton of 1% milk. It was very satisfying and filling. After breakfast we said goodbye to Tyler, he headed home and my brother and I headed an hour north to Minneapolis for the VIKING GAME!!! We were sooo excited to go to this game. I've been to 2 games before and he's been to 1 but this one was special because we had 4th ROW TICKETS on the 35 YD LINE!! It was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t believe how close we were to the players! Here are a few pictures that I got during the game of the players.

 

Jared Allen (my new boyfriend haha) During The National Anthem

The Quarterbacks Talking

Our Amazing Defensive Line, "The Wall of America"

Vikings Score!!

Brett Favre Looking At Us, He Kept Waving To Our Section

 

 

And to make things better, the Vikings won of course! =)

 

After the game we headed to the Mall of America for a bit before heading home. We didn't end up getting home until about 11pm so, again, no work out. Poo. I must say, any of you that live in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area, I commend you. I could not handle driving on the highway there everyday, it's nuts! I'm used to driving in Madison and Milwaukee which are pretty decent size cities but there were so many highways criss crossing and exits here and there my head was spinning haha. It was fun though despite the crazy traffic.

 

Yesterday was back to normal with food but still…no exercise. I went to visit my boyfriend last night and didn't get home until 11pm. Hmm seems to be a pattern this past week.

 

Tonight will be my first and only night exercising since my last weigh in. Because of that I think I might see a gain on the scale. I ate fine and I did do that Pilates class on Saturday but only one day of exercising won't help me lose weight. I guess sometimes life throws crazy times at you and you just have to deal with it and move on. If I see a gain, I won't lie, I will be disappointed; however, it's expected and I know I can only improve next week. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Not only because I get to spend time with family but so I can prove to myself and everyone else that I can make it through without throwing my new lifestyle off track.

 

 

It's just another day, so what's all the fuss about? I will eat normal, get in a workout and continue on as I have. It's one day out of 365. Bring it on Thanksgiving, bring it on.