June 30, 2008

Alright, so this journey is a learning experience and next in the lesson plan is learning how to splurge responsibly. :o) I believe that it is healthy to splurge occasionally...even once a week. However, the trick is finding the balance between an actual splurge and just justifying eating whatever you want. In hindsight, this weekend was about eating whatever I wanted and justifying it as a splurge. And the scale reflects this decision. But, that's ok. I now know that I can't be trusted yet to splurge without a plan. I will need to plan my splurges. I will need to come up with splurge rules for myself and until I do, I will not be splurging. The same justification I used all weekend to splurge (you've been working so hard, you deserve it) is the same justification I'm now using to not splurge. I deserve to be healthy and not fall back into letting food rule my life. So, here's to a better week!

June 27, 2008

I just came home from seeing the best summer movie so far this season, of course this is my opinion. LOL Wanted with James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie is a great action movie with awesome effects and is a fun ride. I highly enjoyed it. Warning to those on the squeamish side, it is violent and bloody and there is more than a fair share of cussing. But I'm ready to go see it again...maybe I'll do that and make HHT take me to the same movie the next time I lose 5lbs. LOL So he's finally caught up with the movies he owes me. We also saw some trailers of some other movies coming soon (The Dark Knight which HHT is looking forward to and The Mummy which I'm looking forward to and a new Jason Statham movie where he's a nascar driver (they had me at nascar) and he ends up in prison where there is a reality show car race of prisoners trying to win the race with no rules so they can win their freedom. It's called Death Race.). I love previews, especially when there are so many of them you momentarily forget what movie you came to see. :o) Alright, must go and get my chores done.

June 26, 2008

Wowzers! Ok, I've been craving chocolate for a couple of days now. It's totally hormonal in that I'm not a big chocolate fan and the only time I ever actually want it is due to hormones. The other night I resisted the urge, but last night I could stand it no longer and knew the voices wouldn't shut up. So, I grabbed the container of chocolate frosting. Now, old me would have just sat down and ate the whole thing, but new me decided that I only needed a taste to satisfy this ravenous craving. As a compromise with myself I allowed myself 1 tbsp of chocolate frosting and I mixed it with 1 tbsp natural peanut butter and a few peanuts, a deliberate, thought out, carefully planned dessert that I savored lick by lick instead of eating blindly. Very tasty, not too many carbs and best of all it satisfied the craving and I haven't thought about eating chocolate since. :o) I'm proud of me for not eating the whole tub of frosting. It's an interesting journey to a "lifestyle" change. Finding the balance between overindulgence and a treat now and again. Allowing yourself to eat and not feel guilty about your choices...even if you do mess up. And I'm so glad that the more I continue in this lifestyle, the easier it becomes because to be perfectly honest, I didn't believe it would ever get easier when I started. Happy to have proven myself wrong! :o)

June 25, 2008

Took EB to the eye doctor this morning. She's got astigmatism. We ordered her glasses that she'll only need to wear when reading or doing anything else close up. She picked out a great pair and she's really excited and she'll have a whole summer to get used to them. :o) Next week is B's turn for minor dental surgery and ET's turn for the dental checkup. Trying to get into the summer routine...you know finding the balance between what the kids want (only to play and have fun 24/7) and what I want (having a clean house that at the least doesn't look like 4 kids have come through in hurricane fashion). It takes us a week or so to find this magical balance and until then, well, it's not pretty. LOL Worked out yesterday and it was so hot in Curves. I think when I start off warm, it's harder to work out. It will be interesting to see how I do in the cooler times. I picked up some veggie sausage patties. I always thought the veggie patties had more carbs, but they don't and they're lower in calories and fat and are pretty tasty. So a new breakfast item for me! I'm so excited to be almost to the 220s. YIPPEE!!!

June 23, 2008

I bet you are all wondering how Saturday went. Well, financially, probably not so good. I'll put it this way, I brought in $19 and spent $78.50. Doesn't take a math genius to add that up. LOL But it was for a good cause! And I bought some things I've wanted for a while at a reduced price. I also got to try turkey hot dogs and tang cookies. Tasty! I also talked to some people and made some new friends. So all in all a productive, very fun day! HHT was so wonderful interupting his plans for the day to help set up and take down. He rocks!!! As an added bonus, I was able to get my workout in on Saturday as well. Yesterday I slept in until 11:30! I just hung out and did nothing. It was great! HHT and I watched a movie at home in the afternoon and after I picked up B from camping, HHT and I went out to dinner and then went and saw Iron Man. Ok, movie. Your typical comic book character turned movie. I think I would have enjoyed Get Smart just as much which was our 2nd choice. So he still owes me a movie and I think we're going to go on Friday and see Wanted which I've been waiting for. Off to make some lunch.

June 20, 2008

Ok, brain lapse, I almost put 1998. WOW! LOL I'm so psyched that I was able to get the scale moving in the right direction this week. Hopefully I won't have anymore slumps in the near future. To be honest, I'm going to be so relieved after tomorrow is over. I still don't have as much as I would like, but I'm working on letting myself relax about that...without using food. :o) And I helped my mom clean up a lot of her old partylite stuff that I'll also be selling, so there is quite a bit of stuff. I also know that as soon as I get set up and start talking to people, I will relax and be just fine. :o) I better get this posted as there is a scheduled outage due to come up. I'll update and let you all know how it went!!!

June 18, 2008

WOOHOO! Doing good! I haven't binged or blindly eaten in 2 days and wowzers did the scale reflect that in a quick way. LOL Today is the last day of school. B came home yesterday and told me she forgot to ask for money for a yearbook and it was due yesterday. I called the school and talked to the person in charge of the yearbooks. She said they had to do a final count and see if there were even any extras. She would know by this morning. So at 7:45am we drove to the school to talk to her and see if there were any left. So far it looks like they are short for even the ones who pre-ordered. It doesn't look hopeful. But B is the 1st on the list should one become available. It was also a good lesson in responsibility since they've been taking orders for yearbooks since FEBRUARY!!!! I explained to B that now that she's in middle school, we as parents don't get the weekly newsletters detailing everything going on, and that the middle schoolers are expected to relay information to their parents. It's the 2nd time this year she has forgotten something important that she wanted to do. The other was when she wanted to join track and brought me the paperwork (which also included needing a sports physical) 2 days before it was due. She could have picked it up 2 weeks prior to that. Needless to say, she didn't do track this year. Hopefully she's learned her lesson. I told her to pick up the packet for fall volleyball and we'd have all summer to get her sports physical. LOL So really that's not me related at all except that I do feel frustrated with her a little and also sad for her that she most likely will not get a yearbook for this year. Thanks for the vent session! :o)

June 16, 2008

Today was much better. By having my meals ready to go, I stuck to eating what I should and didn't over indulge. It also helped that my family is sharing a small tummy bug. Not too bad, but enough to put that pit feeling in your stomach and let you know it's there. :o) Really helps with the appetite. LOL Now I need to go prepare my meals for tomorrow! Enjoy the day!

June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day! We're kicking back and just having a day of doing nothing...HHT's idea of a perfect father's day. :o) I'm still struggling with the eating out of control. This week will be better. I've come too far to sabotage myself now, so I have a plan! I will go back to preparing my food for lunch and snacks (my weakest areas) the night before. Then there is no thought needed when it comes time to eat and no choices to be made because I've already made them. :o) I CAN DO THIS!!!!!!! No more watching the scale creep up, at least not because of poor choices I've made.

Curves Monthly Weigh and Measure - June 2008

name of measurement
3/16/07 measurement
5/08/08 measurement
6/12/08 measurement
month difference
start to now difference

Weight (on Curves scale)
280
246.5
238
-8.5
-42

Body fat %
48.3%
43.6%
42.9%
-0.7%
-5.4%

Body fat in lbs
135.24
107.47
102.10
-5.37
-33.14

Bust
49.75
47
47
-0
-2.75

Waist
46.5
43.75
43
-0.75
-3.5

Abs
56.5
51.5
49.75
-1.75
-6.75

Hips
55
52.25
51
-1.25
-4

Thighs
31.75
25
25.5
+1
-12.5

(multiplied by 2 because I have 2 thighs)

Arms
15
14.25
14
-0.5
-2

(multiplied by 2 because I have 2 arms)

From the beginning of my Curves membership to now:
42 lbs lost
33.14 fat lbs lost
31.5 inches lost

June 12, 2008

Well, I've been having a hard time not falling into old habits. So last night while I lay in bed NOT sleeping (another sign I'm heading downhill), I tried to figure out what had me so uptight. And I realized that it was the simplest thing. I've been crocheting hats (you can see an example in the above pic) so I can sell them at the Curves fundraiser fun fair benefitting our Relay for Life team. I'm going to have a "booth" that I paid for and I'm selling something I made. Now it might not seem like a big deal and it really isn't in the grand scheme of things, but I realized that this was way out of my comfort zone! I worry that, because I'm a novice crocheter, the hats are going to magically fall apart and not meet people's standards. I'm also placing a flyer and more of my business cards directing people to this blog to follow my progress as well as sell some of the Curves books that I've been using. So again, kind of putting myself out there. So last night I worked out why I was turning more and more to food. I'm proud of myself in that I recognized that there was a problem before it got out of hand and now that I know why I'm feeling uptight, I can work through that in a more healthy way. It's not a bad thing to put yourself out there...it just takes getting used to and you can't get used to it if you don't do it. I am not going to stress about the fun fair anymore, I'm going to focus on having a fun day meeting new people who can help me on my journey and hopefully I can help them as well. Besides, it's for a good cause. :o)

June 11, 2008

Had a really good time on Sunday with some friends. HHT built a fire pit in the backyard and we just had a rip roaring good time...of course Monday I was dragging a wee bit. HHT came home Monday afternoon and we took a nap during his lunch hour. Didn't help too much. LOL

I'm finally back down to the 41lb loss mark. I was having a hard time the last couple of days of not eating what I should, but I'm better today.

I'm just so cold all of the time and it doesn't help that it is still in the 50s here for a high. I am betting this will be the 1st summer I might actually enjoy 80 degree days as not being too hot. Even now in my slippers, my feet are cold. I was so cold last night that HHT got my nice warm fleece blankie so that I could actually get to sleep. Who knew that losing weight could cause such a great cool down. I look forward to getting to my goal weight so that my hormones can level out again and hopefully I'll be back to normal...such as it was. LOL

I tried a new recipe last night per HHT's request. I was going to throw the brisket into the crockpot, but he requested that it at least be cooked in the oven. I found this recipe for the grill and brined the meat, made the rub and the mop then proceeded to slow cook it on the grill for 3 hours. It was my 1st attempt at something like that. Anyway, it was a hit! In fact I think that HHT, the girls and myself ate 2lbs of the 3lb brisket. We finally had to slice the rest and quickly get it into the refridgerator or it would have all been gone. Guess I'll have to remember that one. :o)

June 7, 2008

Yep, I'm changing the format of this yet again. :o) I'm no longer going to list all my food, unless there is a huge outcry or I start to slip into old habits. It was becoming tedious and I was therefore less likely to blog because I didn't want to do it when all of a sudden it dawned on me that this was my blog and I could put whatever I wanted in it. :o)

The smart machines at Curves are definitely going to help the progress I believe. They are kicking my butt! I was able to move to the intermediate fitness level after 1 full workout and after today's 2nd full workout, I burned more calories than I did last time...roughly a little over 600. Not bad for a 30 minute workout. I weigh and measure next week, so it will be July's weigh and measure that will show a full month on the new program.

And another exciting note...I've been wearing the same workout pants since I started in March 2007. They were a 3x, but they were so comfortable that I was reluctant to buy another pair of pants especially when I couldn't find any long enough. On Thursday, doing the new workout, they kept falling down and were actually becoming a hinderance, so I broke down and tried on some of Curves workout pants. I took in a 2x and an XL. I figured what the heck we'll try the XL first...THEY FIT!!!!!! And they weren't even tight like I was struggling to get them on! I was so excited that I splurged and bought them. LOL So today's workout was a little easier in that I didn't have to keep pulling my britches up. :o) Enjoy the weekend!!!!!!!

Still around...project almost complete!

Yes, once I get an idea in my head...it's stuck! I finished my initial project of building and setting up a library of bookcases in the living room, but then I looked around and saw that now one corner looked really neat, but the next corner could use some work and it's gone on like that all week. I've hit my final corner today and with HHT's help should be done in just enough time for church tomorrow. :o)

The pic above is what the corner with the library looks like now. :o)

Well, it was just a quick update. I put on 3lbs in one day due to TOM and a very enjoyable evening out with the girls. I'm hoping to be able to lose 0.6lbs by tomorrow so that I can at least stay in the challenge I'm currently participating in. I've been entered into the smart equipment system at Curves so I'm off to my first full workout using it...that should help with the weight loss. :o)

Day ? - down 40.2lbs

I am still here! I had a good weekend...I reached half way to my goal!!! I know this isn't my usual format, but I wanted to let everyone know that I'm still sticking with it, but I may be scarce the next couple of days as I've started a remodeling/decluttering project and once I get focused on a project (which doesn't happen often and why HHT was very patient yesterday helping when I needed it so I didn't lose momentum) I have to get it finished and pretty much everything else gets forgotten. I will be on soon...hopefully within the next couple of days and be back to the regularly scheduled program! :o)