The Ramblings of a Wannabe Healthy Girl

So I went MIA over the past couple weeks. I just had too much going on and not enough time or energy to do it. I'm exhausted and I just can't get myself together eating or exercising. As of this morning I'm sitting at 169.4 which is up 2.6 lbs up from my last official weigh-in on December 6th. Not even nearly close to where I wanted to be for the new year. I saw numbers as high as 172.something last week which frustrated me so unbelievably but yet I still can't motivate to really get my ass in gear and do something about it. I have been trying to make little positive changes, like drinking water instead of anything else besides my morning coffee, but the cookies that I can't bring myself to throw out keep calling to me. I know I need to throw them out but I just haven't been able to do it which means that I've been walking by and grabbing one 2 or 3 times a day. Not good.
The other thing I have going on is starting January 1st, I'm not only going to be attempting to lose my body fat I'm also going to be attempting to get my household to be more financially fit, following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. I've done some reading and his approach makes alot of sense to me. Has anyone done this and have any feedback or suggestions?

My gift swap partner Lyndsay's package finally arrived to her today, YAYYYYY!!!!

Since we're technically 3 days into the gift swap I got to open not one, not two but three gifts today - wooooohoo :)

While I took pictures of gifts 2 and 3, gift #1 was partially liberated by my hubby before I was able to take a picture.

Day 1's gift was two bags of peanut m&m's(one dark chocolate and one regular) The regular were on the counter for just a moment before being grabbed by the hubby who insisted on "trying them". The dark chocolate ones were promptly poured into this cute little guy

I love him, he's such a happy little snowman :)

It didn't take me long to rip into my next gift which was the awesome set of cookie cutters pictured below. These are perfect since I bake with my daughter all the time, and actually only have like 3 cookie cutters for the holidays and they're huge. I love that these are smaller and make much more reasonably portioned cookies.

I'm hoping that Lyndsay likes her gifts as much as I like mine and I can;t wait for day 4 tomorrow.

I had my weekly weigh in yesterday before heading to NYC for the day with a friend and am ashamed to say my weight was 166.6 which is only a .2 loss from last week. I'm really not on track to hit my December 31st goal of 159.9 and since I woke up this morning with a bad head cold/possible sinus infection it looks like it's probably not going to happen. I'm not giving up yet though. I have 17 more days and there's always a chance that a miracle could happen.

Yesterday I headed to NYC with one of my friends for the day. The plan was there was no plan :) We were going to see how the day went and enjoy whatever came to us. We hopped on the Metro Morth train from New Haven to Grand Central around 10, arriving just about 12 and promptly realized we were both starving. Now mind you I haven't been into Manhattan in years and I knew there was going to be no good choices made on the eating front yesterday. We ate lunch at the Heartland Brewery, shared a quesadilla appetizer, had two mixed drinks and a chopped salad for lunch. Then headed out for some shopping, followed by more drinks, more shopping, an appetizer, drinks, and then dinner. We did get a chance to have a drink at the Igloo Bar at Rockerfeller Center where we got to watch people ice skatig and actually saw a marriage proposal....awwwww. Here's a few pictures from the day :)



I would be posting my gift swap pictures today except it appears that the USPS is holding my gift swap partners package hostage and I've decided that until I know Lyndsay receives hers their will be no opening on this side either. I shipped it Thursday and I feel awful that it hasn't gotten their yet. I've got my fingers crossed it will finally arrive to her tomorrow.

Thats it for now, I'm hoping the Nyquil I just took will guarantee me some good sleep tonight. Until tomorrow, sweet dreams.

We took the kids to Bright Nights at Forest Park in Springfield, MA last night to see the light display and of course, chat with the big guy

The camera on my blackberry isn't working for some reason so I don't have a picture of my weigh in but it was 166.8. Not good but not nearly as bad as I was expecting, mostly because I think I got myself back on track Saturday and Sunday after a week of very bad eating. So while that's a gain of 1.2 lbs, I know its not nearly as bad as it could have been.
I'm on track so far today for eating but haven't done any real exercise since I spent most of the morning getting caught up on laundry and dishes. I'm not sure I'll get in any either since there's half days at school this week for my daughter which limits my me time alot.

Tomorrow's my weekly weigh in and I'm absolutely dreading the thought of it. My eating has been horrid this week and my exercise has been nonexistant, so I'm pretty sure it going to be a BIG FAT FAIL. If the scale looks anywhere near as bad as it has all week, I'll be seeing a hefty gain this week. I'm very disappointed in myself. I know I can do better and I need to because I still have a long way to go in this journey. I've got the tools to do it but the motivation is just not there.

I'm participating in a gift swap that Janna and Kenz started and you have until noon central time today to sign up :)

Here is a list of the particulars that you need to know if you plan to participate:


* You must have a blog to participate! It's important because participants will be asked to post about the event on their blogs too. We want to see what everyone receives! :)


* This swap is only open to bloggers in the US. I heart my international friends, but shipping will be too complicated at this time of year. We should have come up with this idea sooner, right? ;)


* Don't be cheap! The gifts don't need to be expensive! They just need to be thoughtful and fun to receive. Fill the package with gifts that you'd like to receive. :) Think about how you want to feel when you open your package, and add a little "wow" to your gifts. You get the idea, right?


Here are some ideas in case you need examples:
~your favorite lotion
~Christmas ornament
~favorite candy or healthy food item


Find out things about your partner...this is also supposed to help you gain friends :) Have tons of fun with it!


* Each gift MUST be individually wrapped. You can number the gifts so your partner knows what to open each day or just write a note that it's okay to open them in any order.


* The package must be mailed out by Thursday, December 9...so that they can start opening their 12 days of Christmas on the 13th...please don't be that person that sends it late...

Please excuse the tremendous need for a pedicure. I'm down 2.2lbs from last week and finally feel as though I'm back on the right track. I'm planning on hitting the gym during my sons nap time today and trying to get some running time in on the treadmill.

As fars as my goals for the past week go, I haven't done great on any of them but apparently I'm doing well enough.

I'm on day 2 of my personal challenge to get back on track and get my butt in gear. Day 1 went well though my calories were much higher than I'd have liked resulting in a deficit of only 525 calories, but that was mostly due to having such a large breakfast and not compensating for the calories in the afternoon. I did manage to get in at least 80oz of water to thats a score for me. The scale is starting to slowly move in the right direction again and I'm hoping even with Thanksgiving and my daughters birthday parties this week I can squeak out a 2 lb loss this week.
This morning has started out very well with me and my lil guy walking 4.87 miles in an hour and fifteen minutes this morning. Unfortunatly I wasn't wearing my bugg since it was charging so I had to estimate a calorie burn for it. I'm planning on soup and a sandwich for lunch and actually only had coffee for breakfast but am thinking of sharing an english muffin with peanut butter and banana with my son after finishing this post. It will be a nice healthy yet sweet treat.

167.8

This picture annoyed me when I pulled it up to post here because sitting right above it was my weigh in from 9/24 of 167.6 - so for the past couple months I have made no progress. I think that just stinks. On the other hand I guess maintaining a 25 lb weight loss is good, but I know I can do better.

I went out for breakfast at a local coffee shop this morning with a couple new friends and tried to be fairly good in my ordering. I ended up with a spanish omelet, wheat toast and home fries, water and about 3-4 mugs of coffee. It was yummy, very yummy and I finished all but 1/2 a slice of toast. The portions were not huge like at chain restaurants and it s 4 hours later and I'm still full, so I'll probably just have a light lunch later.

When I got home from the coffee shop I took my 2 year old for a 1.7 mile walk which took just under a half hour to complete. Its just about time for him to go down for nap and I'm going to run out to the store quickly so I can make it back in time to get another couple miles in before I have to pick my daughter up at school because if I don't get the exercise in before she gets out it won't happen today at all.

I'm not sure why I just can't kick myself back into gear. I don't know if its because I've hit a comfort level with my current size now that I'm wearing jeans that I haven't fit in since I met my husband or if its just laziness or what. I just can't seem to get back on track with my eating or my exercising. I'm maintaining for the most part still floating around 166.5 which is about 2 lbs up from my low, but seems to be a comfortable resting spot for me. I'm annoyed by my lack of motivation and need something to get me back moving and eating right.
We had our first Thanksgiving dinner this year at my in laws today and while I don't think I overdid it I certainly didn't make the best choices I could have, including the two smores I just ate about 15 minutes ago with my kids. I mean really s'mores? What made me think it was a good idea to make those? Ughh I annoy myself.
The one positive thing I have done recently is signed up for a local race on Thanksgiving. It's just about 5 miles and while I'm only walking it, it should at least help to offset any Thanksgiving indulging. We also have my daughters fifth birthday parties this upcoming weekend. This consists of both a party with her friends at the local bowling alley early Sunday afternoon and a family party Sunday evening, two meals, two cakes - not awesome. I know that even if I continued to not pay too much attention to my eating and just started exercising I would start losing weight, albeit very slowly, but I also know myself well enough to know it has to be all or nothing. I'm either going to watch what I eat and exercise and lose weight at a noiceable rate or I won't have the motivation to exercise.
That being said, this is the plan:
Goals:
1. Exercise at least 1 hour 4x weekly, either walking/jogging or playing Just Dance on the Wii.
2. Track all food that even touches my lips - aiming for a maximum of 1600 calories a day.
3. Drink at least 80oz. of water daily, eventually upping that to 100oz, once I get back into the water habit.
4. I will post daily - even if its just a check in on my mood for that day - just to stay i the habit and stay accountable.
5. Weigh In Weekly on Mondays - starting tomorrow 11/22/10. Lose 8 lbs from tomorrows weigh in by 12/31/10.

And since I need all the support I can get on this I'm going to set a challenge for myself that benefits all of my huge group of 32 readers, lol. On December 31, I will give away a $20 Amazon.com gift code/card. For every lb I above of my goal I will add $2 to the value of the card. I will pick a random number from all the comments received from followers on any post until my final weigh in on 12/31.

I got my workout in tonight. I played Just Dance 2 for 50 minutes and my bugg told me I burned 341 calories. Not too bad for a really fun work-out. My challenge now is to learn the dance moves on the songs. I danced to a bunch of songs including Proud Mary, Toxic, Tiktok, Girlfriend and a few others. It was a blast. Looking forward to trying some more tomorrow.

Picked up a copy of Just Dance 2 today for my wii and I can't wait for the kids to go to bed so I can play. It will be the first exercise I've gotten this week, and the scale is really showing the lack of exercise. Am expecting a gain on Sunday. Oh well back on the horse :)

Good morning!!!! I decided to do my weekly weigh in a day early, not because of the intent to eat tons of candy tonight, but because the husband and I are headed out tomorrow for a day and night to ourselves and while I'm sure I'll weigh in tomorrow morning, I won't have a chance to blog again till at least Tuesday night. So without further ado......drumroll please......

164.4 - A new low!! That's a loss of 2.8 lbs from my starting over weigh-in last week. I can't remember the last time I saw this weight. I vaguely remember weighing 158 for my 10th grade physical. So I probably weighed 164 when I was 16 or so, so it's been about 15 years. And I am so so close to escaping obesity. I have .6 lbs to go to get my bmi to 29.9. Almost there. As long as I lose that much this coming week I'll be thrilled. If I can lose 1.4 lbs I'll hit an even 30 lbs lost. That would feel amazing. I'm looking so forward to giving myself a new HYC Badge for 30 lbs and for no longer being obese.

I'm still waiting to restart the Shred. I've got a chest cold that has been hanging on. I hope to restart on Wednesday. Also my wii should be back from being repaired on Tuesday and I'm hoping to be able to buy Just Dance 2 and start dancing away some more weight. Hope everyone has a great Halloween!!!

Please don't lol at my toenail polish, I asked my daughter whether I should do green or purple and she said both, so I did a witches French manicure, green with purple.

Anywho I haven't started shredding yet, mostly because I've got a head throat cold thing going on but I did walk 3 miles today so at least I feel like I managed some sort of movement today. Eating has been good also. I feel like I'm ready to roll :)

Alright, this time I mean it. I am finally back in the saddle and ready to start losing some weight. From what I've see when people disappear from the blogworld for awhile it generally means that they're not on track. That's only partially the case for me. I am indeed not on track, but am not sooooo far off track that I've been gaining weight back, not really at least. I'm going to do a new official weigh in tomorrow but have been sitting somewhere between 166 and 168, which is only at most 3 lbs up from my lowest. I haven't been tracking as I should which is probably one of the biggest reasons I haven't lost weight or at least that combined with the complete lack of exercise.
I fell off the shred wagon at about workout 6 or so and I plan to get back on it tonight after the kids are in bed starting back in with Level 1 Day 1. My short term goal for the next 2 months is 12 lbs by Christmas. I have 60 or so days till then so 10 lbs should be completely possible. The number I'm aiming for is 155 and while I know these next couple months hold a ton of temptation I'm prepared to handle it and let's be honest if I make it to Christmas with even a 5 lbs loss that will be a huge victory during the holiday season.
So who's with me?

I completed days 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday. It certainly gets easier pretty quickly, at least for me it has. I planned on doing day 5 last night but my On Demand was not working. I was quite annoyed that I didn't get to do it but I remedied that today by going to Target and buying the dvd so I have no excuses to not do it today. I'm thinking about actually trying level 2. I'm sure its much harder than 1, I hear rumors of planks.....to be honest I have no idea what a plank is I just know that I've heard much moaning and groaning about them so we'll see how it goes. I plan on doing it in a few hours after the kids are in bed for the night.
Tomorrow is weigh in and I know that I'll be up from last week, partially from the shred, or at least I'd like to think so, and mostly from my continuation of poor eating habits. I feel like I've hit a weight where I feel comfortable and I'm fitting in clothes I haven't worn in years, size 12 jeans? seriously, and I'm not being very diligent. I know I still have a long way to go but my motivation is seriously lacking. I can't figure out how to get back on track.
Any serious challenges going on? Perhaps that will help my motivation, who knows.
This weekend should be pretty busy. My husbands brother is getting married and I'm attempting to make the wedding cake. I'll post pictures when its done. I'm wearing a dress for the wedding that I had actually bought for my wedding shower and it never actually fit me, but it fits now and looks pretty cute. I'm not sure if thats part of whats mentally holding me back. I'm unemployed and we don;t really have alot of money for extras and I'm currently wearing the smallest clothes I have stored. If I lose more weight I'm going to have to buy clothes and thats not really an option right now. I know its a good problem to have but still it could be part of my lack of motivation.
Anyway I'll update later after my Shred workout. Looking forward to seeing what these plank things are :)

I broke down and did it. I watched a movie with Roger from 8-9:30 or so and then came upstairs with the intention on checking blogs, but there was only a couple new posts so I started to poke around on the computer. Wasn't long before I the thought of how lazy I was being yet again and I had told myself this was a new month and I was going to get my butt in gear so I changed into workout clothes and went downstairs to shred yet again. I made it through workout 2 with just a few breaks, more because my quads were burning bad than for any other reason. I'm sure I'll barely be able to walk tomorrow, but I hope that the effort will be worth the benefit. Anyway off to read a couple chapters of "Eat, Pray, Love" (yes I know I'm late but I want to read it before seeing the movie) and get to bed. Have a great night!

Ok ok, so I should have actually shredded today, but have been busy taking care of the kids and a sick hubby, soooooo I just didn't get to it. I did turn it on earlier but into the first set of jumping jacks the screams of "MOOOOOOOOOM, Aiden bit me", from upstairs derailed my good intentions and I just didn't get back to it. I know what you're thinking that its still early but I don't get a lot of Saturday nights when my hubs is home, so I decided it would be best to hang out with him after the kids go to bed.
Anyway the pain from Shred Day 1 is definitely present but not nearly as bad as I was expecting. My quads burn when going up the stairs but besides that its not too bad at all. I was actually looking forward to Day 2 but it will still be there tomorrow :)
I figured that the best way to track my results from the shred is from my measurements which I have been keeping track of but until now have not posted on here. So as of this morning my measurements are as follows:
Waist 33"
Hips 39"
Chest 35"
Left Bicep 11.5"
Right Bicep 12"
Left & Right Calf 15" each
Neck 13.5"

I'm hoping to see some improvement in my waist and hips. I have quite a bit of belly bulge left from my two pregnancies. As my husband was kind enough to point out when I was getting dressed today, besides that area I'm pretty in proportion. Umm, thanks honey.

Hope you're all enjoying the weekend so far. I'll be back with an update on my actual Shred Day 2 soon.

Ok so I've been pretty much a sloth for the last 6 weeks or so and while my eating has been reasonable my exercise, or lack of exercise stinks. I've been sitting pretty much still with the weight loss and I'm tired of it. I'm ready to start losing again.

I did have a loss this week and finally made it to a new low of 165.6 a loss of 2lbs even to make a total to date loss of 27.4. Not bad but I know if I was giving it my all or even half my all I could do alot better and thats what I plan to do this month.

Goals for October:

1. GET SOME EXERCISE!!! I want to get at least an hour and a half of exercise 4 days a week. This will be at least 5 hours more than I've been getting the past month and a half.

2. TRACK FOOD EVERYDAY - I've been lax on this and wearing my bugg lately and I know that combined that has a ton to do with the fact that I've lost less than 4 lbs since the beginning of August.

3. BLOG 3 TIMES A WEEK - This helps to keep me focused and I've been lacking in this department too. I've been only posting my weekly weigh-in and thats just not enough.

4. GET ORGANIZED - I've been a stay at home mom since January and while you'd think that my house should be spotless with all the time I spend in it now, with a 2 year old underfoot all day that hasn't even become close to a reality. I'm now going to be watching a couple classmates of my daughter for an hour or two a few days a week and I need my house to be better organized so I feel like I've got things together here.

5. DECIDE ON A PAINT COLOR FOR MY KITCHEN - I've been wanting to paint since last year and I just can't make decision on what color I want so it's time to suck it up and decide.

I think these are all reasonable goals and very attainable ones.

I'm looking forward to October 17th for Just Dance 2 to come out for Wii so I can burn some calories dancing my @ss off in my living room. Is anyone else looking forward to the release of it?

Last but not least I'm planning on a giveaway within the next few days - keep your eyes peeled, it's sure to be a good one :)

Weigh in this week summed up in one word: Boooooooo

I know why the scale showed this, it most likely had to do with 3 too many pumpkin spice lattes, a fast food lunch, a night out with the girls and various other things that I justified by saying " hey it's TOM, the scales going to be bad anyway....why not enjoy myself" So enjoy I did and now I'm looking at a 1.4lb gain as a result.

I'm trying to get myself back on track but the fall is tough for me. I love to bake and it's apple season so my daughter and I have been doing alot of afterschool baking AND fall in New England is Fair Season which means plenty of opportunity to gorge myself on corn dogs, fried dough and various other things. We're going to the Big E on Monday which is this huuuuge fair about 45 minutes north of me featuring all kinds of unhealthy diet busting food including...... The Craz-E Burger - a bacon cheeseburger sandwiched between a grilled Krispy Kreme donut. 1500 calories and who knows how much fat. Gross, needless to say I will not be partaking in that. Luckily I have both my husband and 2 kids coming with me to the fair, so most of the things we buy to eat we share.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. I'm going to try to get back on track this weekend and show up with a good loss next week. I'd like to see 165 point something so I hit a new low. I know I can do it.

Another .6 lbs down. Still working on reaching my just plain overweight and no longer obese goal. I'll reach that at 163.6 so thats what, 2.6 lbs to go? I can do that. I hope to see that next week as this weigh-in was week. If I can get myself back on track I can do that.

In other news I dropped off a ton of clothes at a local consignment shop yesterday since they no longer fit. I figured I could use the credit I get from whatever sells to buy some new to me winter clothes that actually fit.

I have a night out with some friends tonight and I honestly don't plan on being too mindful of what I eat tonight but am making the effort to keep things light during the day today.

Fall has finally arrived in New England and I am absolutely loving it. The cooler weather is beautiful. I love being able to sleep with the window open and my comforter on :)

I'm walking in a 2 mile walk with both my little ones for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on Sunday on a team from my mothers work on Sunday. Looking forward to it, besides the walk itself they're having all kinds of events going on (face painting, meet and greet with Uconn Mens Basketball Team) so it should be a fun morning. If anyones interesting in sponsoring me you can do so here.

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend!!

Wooo hooo a loss!!!! This is a new low for me. I can't remember how long its been since I weighed 166. I'm getting sooooo close to no longer being obese. Just a few pounds to go!!!!

My daughter started kindergarten last week and my son turned two this week, I feel like my babies are all growing up too fast.

I started school last week also and my online class is alot more difficult than I was expecting.


Oh yes and I received an award from Sam @ Believe in Yourself . Thank you so much :) I think you're pretty awesome!!


The rules:
1. Post who gave you this award - Done
2. State 10 things you like.
3. Give this award to 10 other bloggers and notify them with a comment.

Things I Like:

1. Cuddling with my babies
2. Trying on clothes......finally
3. The Sookie Stackhouse books. A guilty pleasure, I've finished all that are in paperback but can't bring myself to buy the newest hardcover.
4. Vacations - My favorite family spot is Sunset Beach, NC. I've been going there since I was 12.
5. Reading blogs. I love to hear about everyones lives and progress....good or bad.
6. Taking walks. My favorite way to exercise and what I've been doing to lose the weight.
7. Hanging out with the hubby and watching movies and tv shows on dvd. We love Dexter, Rescue Me, Son's of Anarchy.
8. My down comforter. Love cuddling up under it at night.
9. My car. I have an Burnt Orange Mazda Tribute and I absolutely love it.
10. Girls nights. We all need some time to hang out just the girls don't we?

Ok and the bloggers I'm giving this to are as follows:

1. http://nevertheskinnygirl.blogspot.com/
2.http://infatuationwilleatyou.blogspot.com/
3.http://fatcheerleaderdiary.blogspot.com/
4.http://iviemarie.blogspot.com/
5.http://muffinfixation.blogspot.com/
6.http://inweighovermyhead.blogspot.com/
7.http://katiejweightlossjourney.blogspot.com/
8.http://destinedfor150.blogspot.com/
9.http://kyokocake.blogspot.com/
10.http://operationsize8s.blogspot.com/

And there you have it!!!
I'll be back tomorrow with my official weigh in post. Good Night!!!!

A gain of .8 - I didn't post the week previously but it was a stay the same with 168.2.

I'm back on track now. I had set a personal challenge to myself to hit 200 miles on my daily mile tracking a couple weeks ago and I didn't even get close. I'm going to renew that challenge and up it to 225 miles by 9/7 - which is both my anniversary and my sons birthday. I'm currently at 182 miles so thats 43 miles in 11 days. It will be tough but I'm determined to hit it.

Hannah from My Motivation!!! Congrats Hannah. Please shoot me an email at mparadis718@gmail.com with your address so that I can get your prize headed out to you.

Hey all - First off hello to my new followers!!! I'm a day late posting for my weigh in but spent most of the day yesterday at my cousins great big Italian wedding where there was enough food to feed a small army. I weighed in yesterday morning and while I'm seeing a gain on the scale today as a result of way too much food last night we'll go with my Friday weigh in for this week.

Weigh In was 168.2 - I'm now firmly entrenched in the 160's with this weeks loss of 1.2 lbs. I'm happy with that. Last weeks 169.4 was kind of a precarious place for me, so close to the 170's still but now I really feel like I've gotten into the 160's for good.

My exercise has been pretty poor this week. I just haven't been into it, but I'm going to ramp it up this week. I've got my eyes on 163 - which means that I will have A. Lost 30 lbs and B. Will no longer be classified as obese. I'm almost there and honestly it tastes better than any cupcake or pizza I've ever eaten ;)

As far as ramping up the exercise, I just noticed that as of today I've hit 168 miles on my dailymile tracker, so my goal is to get in 32 miles walked before Saturday the 21st so I can hit the 200 mile mark.

Lastly, please don't forget to enter my giveaway. I'll be picking the winner late Monday night, so there's still plenty of time.

I had mentioned some time back that when I hit 25 followers I wanted to have a giveaway. Well I got my 25th follower on Monday I believe so here goes........

There are a couple ways to enter giving people multiple opportunities for winning as follows.

1. Follow my blog publicly and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite on the go snack is.

2. Mention the giveaway in a post on your blog and link back to it. You can do this once a day, today through Monday for multiple entries.

I'll pick the winner on Monday night. Good Luck Everyone!!!

Happy Friday!! I've decided to once again change my weigh in day. Since I have two challenges I'm currently in that have Friday weigh-ins I figured for at least the next month or so I would do my weekly's to coincide with the challenge weigh ins and see if I still do as well as I have been. I do have a little concern that the change might affect my weekend eating, but as I said I'll try it for a month and see how it goes. Sooooo without further ado..........................

Woooooooohaaaaaa - I made it to the 160's!!!!!!!!

That's a 3.4lb loss!!!! So excited!! This is seriously a great way to start the weekend.

I love challenges. I love having even more of a reason to lose weight and get healthier and I have a seriously competitive spirit which is why with the Awesome by August challenge that Kat Does Diets ending tomorrow, I have already signed on for two more challenges.

Wooohoooo a loss! I came back from my gain of last weekend to not only take off the 1.4 lb gain but to take off an extra 2.4lbs on top of it for a total loss of 3.8lbs. Goooo me. I'm so proud of that. I had a good week with both exercise and eating and didn't feel deprived at all. I walked with my kids to the local ice cream shop and a had a cone 3 nights this week but had budgeted for that during the day. I also went out to lunch with my mother one day and choose wisely from the menu. I'm thrilled with my progress so far. I'm down 20.2 lbs since March and this weeks weigh-in also means I've taken off 10% of my body weight.


My next goal is to get a badge for no longer being obese. I've got 9.8 lbs to go to reach that and while I know it may not happen quickly, I'd love to do that before my little girl starts kindergarten the end of next month.

I am loving my bugg sooo much. I love knowing exactly where I stand every day.

I signed up for my first 5k tonight!!! It's called the Union Street Tavern Trot and scheduled for Sunday September 19th. It benefits Alex's Lemonade Stand which if you haven't heard of is an awesome charity named after an amazing little girl. At this point I honestly don't know if I'll be running or walking but I know I'll be finishing it either way. I've been walking a minimum of 5 miles almost every day and 10 miles some days so I'm not to worried about completing the race. I'm hoping to be able to run at least part of it. We shall see!!!!

I've been a very bad blogger lately. I haven't really been posting as much as I should though that doesn't mean that I've strayed off track at all. I've been wearing my bugg religiously for the last week and really love seeing what I'm actually burning in a day. Each day I'm motivated to move more and more as a result. I've been aiming for 20,000 steps a day and on my exercise days I'm reaching that, unfortunatly though on the days that I take off from my long walks I barely hit 10,000 if I'm lucky.
Eating has been good, though I'd like to get the calories a bit lower but I've been having good deficits everyday almost so I'm not too worried. For example today my calories are as follows:
Burned 3512
Eaten 1895
Deficit 1617

Not too shabby. I also hit my first 100 miles tracked today on dailymile.com, something I'm pretty proud of. I walked 10.13 miles total today and have also added crunches into my before bed routine. I'm up to 125 tonight and I'm trying to increase that at least 5 a day. I'd like to do the same amount in the morning but with the kids getting up the same time as me things just start moving too quick for me to get them in right now I think.

My peeking at the scale has told me that I've dropped the weight I had put on from the events of the weekend and I'm still hoping for an overall loss for the week that gets me back on track. I'm really hoping to hit my 10% of body weight lost this week which would mean I'd need a loss of 2.9. That sounds a bit high to me but I think if I stay on track I should be able to pull it off and perhaps even a little more than that. The 160's don't know it but I'm gunning for them.

I can't remember if I mentioned it but I'm in the Awesome by August Challenge and as of right now it looks like I have no chance to win, but I'd feel like a winner anyway if I could see 169.9 before August 6th. With my ramp up in activity I'm hoping to get there.

I've been hiding out for the last week or so, busy with school and getting ready for my weekend away this past weekend so while I've been reading blogs on my blackberry I haven't posted in a whole week.

But its still a loss, so I'll take it.

Water intake still stinks, I don't like feeling like I have to remind myself to drink so I haven't been getting as much as I should.

Tracking calories is on point. I didn't do this yesterday at the party, there was too many munchies stuff, a couple prestzels here and piece of bruschetta there, but I did focus on not overdoing it.

Exercise was also great I got 615 minutes of activity, mostly walking with my little guy.

I'm happy with the progress so far though I wish the scale was showing up a little lower. My bodybugg should be showing up tomorrow so I'm hoping that helps me a better read on where I actually am with calories burned.

This weekend is my birthday and I'm lucky enough to be headed away for a weekend with the girls in Ogunquit. I don't plan on tracking calories and I'm not sure if I'll be weighing in Monday when I get back or skipping a week. We'll see how I feel when I get home.

I walked just under 6 miles with my little guy this morning, temps were already around 90 degrees.
Hot weather + 6 miles = a very sweaty me

It was soooo hot here today. I believe we hit a record breaking 102 degrees. Not exactly comfortable working out weather. I managed to get in two 40 minute walks today though, one at about 9am and a second at about 7pm, not exactly what I was hoping for but it will have to do. The temps are going to be slightly lower tomorrow so I'm hoping to get my 4.5 miles in between 9 and 10:30am before it gets too disgustingly hot, we'll see though as I take my little guy with me if it's too hot we'll be skipping it. I can always hit the gym after class tomorrow night.

I wanted to say a quick welcome to my new followers, 4 more and I'm going to be doing my first giveaway and I'm sure you'll all be disapointed to hear it will not be for that Bodybugg I ordered :( I do however hope to be able to pass that on when I reach goal, however long that takes.

The scale was doing some pretty exciting things for me this morning. Hopefully I can keep things in that direction through the upcoming weekend which includes a big barbeque and fireworks. If I can get the scale down to 173.7 in the next week and a half I can award myself with a 10% of body weight lost badge from the Healthy You Challenge I recently joined. Now that would be a pretty good birthday gift for myself,, don't you think?

I decided to buy myself a birthday present and figured it should be something to help me on my journey so .................................... I ordered myself a Bodybugg. Now I can't wait for it to get here!!!! I'm a total gadget girl, so I'm looking forward to getting to play with it. Anyone have any tips or suggestions for me to help me use it right the first time?

Week four started out a bit rough with some major bingeing on Sunday but I seemed to push through it with good eating and exercise the rest of the week since I managed to pull off another loss.



Sorry for the dark blurry pic, but at 177.2 thats another 1.4 down. I've been trying on clothes that I wore back in January or so when I still was working and at the time they were getting tight but they're all too loose now. I've officially moved down from size 16 to a size 14 and hope to be sliding into a 12 pretty soon.

Water hasn't been great. I've been drinking way too much diet coke and am aiming to work hard to get back to water this week, because I can definatly see a difference in my weight loss.

Tracking food has been excellent. I did it everyday except Sunday when I gave up after I got over 2000 calories.

Exercise was great. My son and I walked 20 miles this week. Total exercise time was 455 minutes. I'm hoping to hit 500 this week.

Hope everyone elses week went well. I look forward to seeing everyone's updates.

Any suggestions on what to do with my too big clothes? I was thinking about giving them away through here. I saw someone had done that on their blog. I would just have to get motivated and take some pictures. I have a whole bin of work clothes, jeans and some capri's/shorts all around size 16 or XL. Anyone interested in them?

Last but not least, Happy Independance Day to all my fellow Americans.

Hey all!!! First I want to thank everyone who commented and told me not to beat myself up over one bad day, the sentiment was much appreciated and helped me realize that one bad day does not have to spoil a whole week. In fact I think it's made me make an extra effort to do even better this week both with eating and working out. Thanks also to Karen @ muffin fixation for pimping me out and attempting to get me some more followers. I'm slowly working my way up and am anxious to do a giveaway.
I've been able to get in some great long walks with my son this week. My daughter started day camp and since my son is still in a stroller we can walk much further and faster without her than with her. I believe that at this point we've already clocked 16 milestotal for MTW. Tomorrow will possibly be a day off from working out as I'm headed to the beach with Theresa from Always a Bridesmaid since my son will be spending the day with my mother in law. I'll try to get a walk in tomorrow night with the kids but it most likely will be a short one. I think at this point my legs will be thanking me for a night off.
The scale has been working its way back down to the area of my last weigh in and I'm hoping that I can still pull off some kind of loss on Sunday for my weekly weigh in. I'm still aiming for 174 by July 16th and that will be tougher to do with no loss this week.

Last but not least I'm joining in on the Fat to Fit Blog Hop this week. Come on and join the party :)

Yesterday I had a good weigh-in in the morning as I mentioned in my previous post but I'm pretty sure I completely and totally already ruined any chance of this Sunday's weigh in being a good one by my actions yesterday.

I went to a bridal shower where I started by taking one glass and then a second of champagne punch(mistake #1), there were better options ie. bottled water, coffee etc. but I chose what was probably the worst option there. I then waited a bit and sauntered over to the appetizers choosing one coconut shrimp, a tomato/mozzerella slice and a antipasto skewer (mistake # 2), I hadn't even been hungry and certainly could have skipped one or all of these items. Shortly after the "real food" came out. Salad with lite balsamic dressing (my one good choice) chicken marsala (booooo), lasagna (double boooooo), mixed veggies dripping in butter and roasted potatoes (again boo)(mistakes 3,4,5 and 6). I also had a slice of cake. Maybe I should be proud of myself for skipping the eclairs but I'm not.
So all those mistakes I probably could have handled and moved past but folks I had yet another event planned in the evening.

Today's hubby's 33rd bday so last night we went to my parents house for a family cook out to celebrate. I made a carrot cake (hubs fave) and the menu was cheeseburgers (I had 1), hot dogs (again I had 1), cheese tortellini (I had a small scoop), macaroni salad(I had a small scoop), salad (I had a large scoop) are you noticing a trend? I ate some of everything there including a few chips and dip, cake and ice cream and who know's there's probably something else I'm forgetting......all this equals a complete and total FAIL ----- of epic proportions. I honestly didn't even finish tracking my food yesterday because I got to 2500 calories and quit. I didn't even want to think how high the number really must be.

I'm trying to not let it get to me and have went back to positive habits today, eating within my calories and taking my son for a combined 95 minutes worth of walks today, but the scale doesn't look pretty and I'm pretty sure there won't be any kind of loss this week. Honestly at this point the scales showing back around 181.5 and I'll be absolutely thrilled if I can get it back down to the 170's by Sunday.

Soooooo the plan is waterwaterwater, as musch exercise as I can get in and healthy calorie intake for the rest of the week.

Wish me luck......

P.S. I'm hoping to get my followers up because I've got a few things I'd like to do a giveaway when I reach 25 so if anyone has suggestions on how to gain some new followers please let me know :)
Thanks!

Thats a 2.4 loss from last week and I got to says goooooood bye to the 180's. I'm looking forward to hopefully welcoming the 160's hopefully before the end of this challenge
Exercise - I ended up with 255 minutes of activity. I know I could have upped that a bit more but just wasn't feeling into it this week.

Looking ahead, my daughter starts day camp this week, which leaves me and my little guy home together all day and ensures we can get in some nice long walks this week. I think we'll probably log a solid hour a day at least and I have at least two gym trips planned this week so hopefully I'll see a solid loss next week even though TOM is on its way. I have a mini goal in my mind of 174 by July 16th and I still think thats entirely possible. And of course my goal for this challenge was 19 lbs to be down to 163 which is probably stretching it a bit but thats why it's a challenge right?

Miss E at This Time... tagged me in the Funky 5 Meme and I've been so busy I didn't notice till just now. Here goes..................

My Funky 5

Where were you five years ago?

Five years ago I was pregnant with my first child and had just found out days before that she was a little girl.

Where would you like to be five years from now?

I hope to have finished my degree and be working doing something I enjoy as opposed to be in a job just to make ends meet. I also hope to be at goal weight so that I can enjoy doing things with my family.

5 Things on My To-Do List Today
Write my paper for class tonight
Figure out what to make for dinner
Go to Walmart
Pick up Ariana from daycare
Go to the gym after class

5 Snacks I Enjoy
Peanut butter and bananas on an english muffin
Quaker Creme Brulee Quakes
Grande Non Fat Mocha - Starbucks - I know technically a drink but with the calories I consider it a snack
Cucumbers with Italian Dressing
Apple Slices with Cinnamon and Peanut Butter

5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?

Renovate my house to add a bathroom and make it so the kids had their own rooms as well as creating a mancave for the hubby.
Pay off all my family and friends mortgages.
Travel the world.
Pay for my children to attend better schools.
Create more help for the people that need it in this country as opposed to taking care of all the rest of the world.

And the 5 I'm Tagging

Theresa at Always a Bridesmaid
The Road to 28 -----who has incidentally just hit her goal weight !!!!!
Jen at 40 Weeks/280 Days to a Healthier Me
Simone at In[Fat]uation
Lindsay at PriorFatGirl-Lindsay

The past couple days have been a bit trying. I've been hungry alot more than I had been over the past few weeks and I'm trying my best not to do any munching but I haven't been completely successful, although I have stayed within my calorie guidelines for the day.

Yesterday I had planned on stopping by my inlaws with the kids to bring over my father in laws birthday cards and let the kids wish their pepe a happy birthday and then be home for lunch. Before we headed over my mil called and asked if we'd like to join them for lunch , so we did. My inlaws are both thin but they don't really eat the healthiest meals. For instance lunch yesterday was hot dogs, kraft macaroni and cheese and garlic and olive oil pasta roni. I had a hot dog, a smaaaaaalll scoop of the mac and cheese and a smaaaalller scoop of the pasta roni. When I got home to enter my food, I was in shock. I can't believe that there's seriously almost 300 calories in a 1/4 cup of macaroni and cheese. After entering my 600 calorie lunch, I was glad I had skipped breakfast.

A couple hours after my unhealthy lunch while I was writing my paper, I got that munchie feeling and instead of grabbing an apple I decided to grab a slice of the srawberry bread I had made a couple days previous and had resisted up till then. Oh yeah and of course I wanted a little butter on it....so on top of my ridiculous lunch, I chose a 300 calorie snack.
Dinner was better, salad, potatoes and pork tenderloin.

And I did go to the gym last night after class and do 45 minutes on the treadmill at 3mph with a 5% incline for a burn of 328 calories, which at least covered my afternoon snack.

Ok, enough moaning about my crappy food choices, I'm doing better today and am hoping to walk with the kids this evening and possibly head to the gym after the hubby gets home at 9.
So onto the NSV - Last night I got an email from Old Navy with a 20% off code good yesterday only, so I went to their website and ended up ordering a few smaller shirts and a couple pair of size 14 shorts, not knoing if they were going to fit me, though I know that the size 16's I bought in April for my Florida trip are getting a bit baggy. After dropping my daughter off at daycare I headed for Old Navy to try them on and they do indeed fit which is fabulous and now I know I'll have some new shorts that actually look good on for my trip next month. Very excited about this!!!

Yesterday went by in a blur, between working around the house, spending time with the kids, grocery shopping, school and going to the gym, there wasn't a whole lot of breathing room for me. I'm very proud of myself for going to the gym last night after class ended at 9:30 for two reasons. The first is that I was exhausted and in the past would have used that as an excuse and the second that I forgot my lock and also in the past would have used that for an excuse to hightail it back home to the comfort of the couch, but thats not my new style, lol. I headed to the gym, changed and stashed my bag in a locker figuring if someone wanted to steal my clothes, then they could have them since everything valuable was on me.
As I was leaving the locker room I stopped to wash my hands and the girl standing next to me happened to be a classmate from the class I just left. The background on the class is that it's an English class at the local CC and becuase it's summer session a good portion of my classmates are college kids either making up credits they failed this year or trying to ramp up for next year, which also means that the majority of them are at least 10 years younger than me. So this girl says hi to me and then proceeds to say,"I'm so exhausted, I'm just going to do a weak workout tonight", I smile and nod and we both leave the locker room. Meanwhile I'm thinking, "hmm sure weak workout, she'll probably be here working out alot harder than me for a lot longer" Well she did the treadmill for maybe 30 minutes and left. I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and another 40 on the treadmill. When I got on the treadmill all I was thinking was how bad I didn't want to be at the gym, but I wasn't going to let her workout longer than me. In my mind me and the skinny little college girl were in competition, and there was no way I was going to let her "win". I figure anything that drives me to workout is good even if it's slightly insane imaginary competitions in my head, right?

I'm not sure what exercise will be today. Probably a walk with my kids, perhaps so they can get an ice cream cone and some "Just Dance" on the Wii after they go to bed. I swear I love this game, it's so much fun you don't even feel like you're working out, but the sweat I work up is a pretty good indicator just how hard I am actually working out.

I'm really tired but want to make sure I get some kind of activity in. I know it's going to be a late night, the hubby's going fishing and I have 2 -2 page papers to write that are due for tomorrow night. So tomorrow is guaranteed to be a tired day too. I was hoping the exercise would help with my energy level but so far it hasn't helped at all. Any suggestions for an energy boost?

So week one of the Summer Slimmin Challenge has come to a close and I have to say I did quite well on my goals.

In the last week I've logged 355 minutes of exercise. I was aiming for 45 minutes a day six days a week which would have been a total of 270 so I actually exceeded my goal, yay me!! Considering 3 weeks ago, I may have been getting 60 minutes a week I consider this a huuuuugggge accomplishment.

Goal # 2 was to track my food daily - accomplished this one too, I tracked everything and stayed on target all week. I even tracked the whopper junior and onion rings I ate before class the other night, even though I didn't really want to admit to it.

I decided to move my weekly weigh-in's to Sundays so it would coincide with the challenge and while I did lose, so I am working toward my goal for the challenge, I didn't lose nearly as much as I had hoped. But a loss is a loss right?



I've decided to add one more goal onto this challenge for my self and thats to drink more water.

It seems that every blog I read where the blogger is successfully losing, they are drinking there water everyday. So I'm adding in the drinking water goal. My goal is to drink 100 oz of water a day. I starting workin it yesterday and let me tell you, I haven't peed this often since I was pregnant, but I'm pretty sure after a few days that will regulate itself, or at least I hope it does.

After already taking a walk with the kids this morning, I headed to the gym for a little cardio. After my workout I decided to check my weight on the scale in the locker room assuming since it's like a doctors scale it had to be more accurate than my 17.99 home scale. So I hop on, adjust the weight thingies and lo and behold it weighs me in at 174. Ok so thats 8lbs less than my home scale. I had a good workout but it certainly wasn't that good. Now I confused as to what I actually weigh. I think I'm going to keep tracking on my home scale, just for the ease of it but in the back of my mind for vanity, I think I'll call myself the real number. Kind of like the weight you put on your drivers license vs. your real weight.
In other news I've decided to change my weigh in day to Sunday in order to coincide with the check in day for the Summer Slimmin challenge I'm doing. Hopefully I'll see some good progress in the scale.
It's a nice day here, I think I may take the kids for a walk to get ice cream later, for them, not me. It will be a good excuse to add some more exercise into my day as roundtrip it's just under two miles, and they're certainly not going to complain about ice cream.
I feel like I'm finally getting used to this exercise/activity thing. I'm actually starting to look for reasons to go walk places and be more active. It honestly feels really good.
Between the exercise and the food tracking, I feel like I've finally figured out the tools I need to stop being the fat mom and become milf material.

I decided to join in on Diminishing Lucy's Fat to Fit Blog Hop once again, since I found so many new blogs to gain inspiration from last week. Come and join me!!

I decided to jump onto the Summer Slimmin Challenge, a little late but better late than never. The rules and info for the challenge is posted here. It runs from June 6 - August 6, plenty of time to make some real progress in our goals and there's several options to choose from.


My goals for this challenge are to lose 19 lbs. While that may seem like a very random number, losing 19 lbs would get me to the point where my bmi is just "overweight" as opposed to "obese". That would be huge for me, or as the case may be I would not be so huge for it :)





My next goal is getting some form of exercise for at least 45 minutes a day 6 days a week. This is a big one too, I need to get a routine going and I've read it takes 6 weeks to make something a habit so these 8 weeks should be great for making exercise a new healthy habit.



My final goal is to track every bite of food that goes in my mouth. I've learned from experience that I need to do this because I need to keep myself accountable. It's the only way I'm going to lose weight, I know that about myself.

I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone does on their chosen challenges this summer, looking forward to seeing lots of success stories and of course smiling photos!!