Where has the year gone?!!!

I cna't believe it's already September....anyway, you would think that since I’ve now got the internet running at home I would blog more. Alas, I am a lazy creature by nature and I am way more busy that a lazy person should ever have to be. I’m up before 5 am every morning, at work around 6 am where I put in the minimum amount of effort possible (some days it surprises me how hard I work and other days it’s a lazy woman’s dream lol) I then go home cope with a moody teen, who is in luuurrrvve with a boy, and then go and spend at least an hour, sometimes two, at the gym working extremely hard and pushing my limits. By that time it’s close to 8 PM haven’t eaten, so I have to figure that out not only for myself but for said moody teen (not an easy task), clean, do wash, feed the cats, clean up litter boxes and other assorted cat messes (some gross, some just odd. Why do cats like paper so much?) By that time I’m usually too damn tired to do more than play Mafia Wars on Facebook before I give in to sleep.

All that to say, I’m here and Alive (funny that I typed that just as I’m Alive by Flyleaf started playing on my iPod) I’m just too lazy too write a lengthy or not so lengthy post as to what is going in my life.

I did not go weigh in again. I’m a horrible Weight Watcher member. In fact, I’m so horrible I finally decided I wasn’t going to spend $40 a month for it any more. Money is a little tight and I have to start cutting corners. I haven’t been following the program for about 3 months anyway. I have the membership through Oct 3, so I’ll stick it out until then and even discipline myself enough to follow the program so I try to get my 50lb charm, I’m about 8 lbs away from it, so it will be a stretch but I want to try for it.

I haven’t given up on my weight loss, in fact I’m feeling pretty good about everything right now. The Y added another day of Zumba so I get to Zumba 3 days a week now and I try to do Total Body 2 days a week, so my exercise has picked up and while I don’t always make the best food choices, I really focus on portion control. It’s helped me a lot. I’m losing small amounts of weight, not the huge numbers I want to see, but every time the scale shows a lower number I’ve accomplished something good. We’ll see how things go once the WW monthly pass is expired if I can keep it all up on my own. I need to try.

Well that’s all I got… at least that’s all I want to talk about for now. I suck all the air out of the room when I talk about how much my life sucks because my 15 year old has a better love life than I do. ;) And I never know how to express myself well enough not to come off like a desperate middle aged woman who lives with cats when I think about relationships, so I’m just not going there. How the hell is everyone else?

Weigh In

I made it to my Weight Watchers Meeting this week. This is a huge accomplishment for me as I have been avoiding weighing in for most of the summer and I've now gone 2 weeks in a row. The results... not too bad. I'm down 1.6 lbs this week giving me a total loss while on Weight Watchers of 40.2 lbs, and a total weight loss of almost 45 lbs. I'm very pleased with this and feeling much better about things than I have in a while. I think I've worked through the cookie issue. If I want one I'll have one, but I'm not going to continue with this daily habit. I managed to keep myself away from them after I wrote that post about them.

Work is still hectic and I'm thinking of going back for my Master's. My co-worker comes back from maternity leave the middle of Sept. and I think I'll start on my Master's in October. Wish me luck, because I know I'm going to need it!

I'm at a standstill...

I went to weigh in this morning and there was absolutely no change in my weight. Which quite frankly is a good thing considering I was dealing with cake in m house all week, thanks to the teens birthday. And on top of that a birthday dinner for my older brother at Maggiano's... a family style Italian restaurant. Talk about a carb overload. I did better than I expected there and exercised a lot. 2 nights this week, I burned over 1000 calories at the gym. (yes, I was at the gym a long time) And on top of that I completed my first week on the new job. I love it, but am feeling very overwhelmed. I've been being trained on a job that is basically back-filling while the person goes out on maternity leave. Her leave was supposed to start next week, but started yesterday when she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! Congrats to her, but boo-hoo for me as I have not been fully trained on everything yet.

I was woken up out of a dead sleep last night because someone was ringing my doorbell. My first thought was the kids were being stupid and locking each other out of the house. So I let it go, when the hit happened a second time I was all prepared to go off on someone... turns out my kids had been ding dong ditching someone else's house and they followed my kids home and told on them. Needless to say, I was pissed and now my nephew has to spend his last two days out here in MO with my parents because he's not staying with me, my daughter is grounded, for like evah! and my niece can't stay at my house for a while either. The one rule I had was not to leave the house once I go to bed, my daughter knows this, my niece and nephew know this and yet they broke the rule. I am totally an easy parent. I rarely ground my kid, I don't yell all that often. She can do pretty much whatever she wants as long as she asks me first, and 99% of the time my daughter should be like win Child of the Year. And then my nephew comes out to visit and she turns into a juvenile delinquent. Color me frustrated today. And in fairness when my nephew is not around my daughter he's a damn good kid, also a worthy candidate for COTY... maybe even more so because his home-life sucks ass big time. Anyway, I was totally embarrassed and had to crack the whip in the middle of the night and they have no idea how much worse it's going to be for them in the light of the day.

That's my week in a nutshell. How was yours?

Weekly Weigh In...

I went to my WW meeting today. I was expecting to stay the same or gain because I did not exercise as much as normal nor did I track my food. I actually showed a small loss of 3/4 lb. So I'm happy about that and encouraged to start tracking and getting back to my regular exercise program so I can see bigger losses.

I actually spent the whole day exercising. Doing this:

Painting!

My brother-in-law is doing this for me in this room and my hallway:

wood floors... well bamboo wood anyway





I'm currently getting ready to go and see this lady at the Fox Theatre tonight:









Have a great night all!

Weight Watchers Meeting and weigh in

I actually made it to my meeting today. I was going to go in whether I showed a weight loss or not. You all know how incredibly frustrated I've been that I've been showing gains when I've been working so hard at the gym. In hindsight, I can see that while I was working really hard at the gym, I was slacking a bit with my food. An example would be, Well, I worked really hard at the gym, so it's okay if I have another serving of this rice/pasta/cookie/... well you get the idea. It really was an unconscious thing on my part and this week I started paying attention to what I was doing and am trying to curb this new habit. Now that I'm aware of what I'm doing, I think I'll start seeing better results.


I also spent 3 hours on Thursday dancing. I had so much fun and even consumed alcohol. The very first time that I've drank more than 1 alcoholic drink in a sitting since I started WW. It was well worth the points and I'm pretty sure I burned whatever calories I consumed that evening just from all the hip action I was doing anyway. The salsa and cha-cha are awesome that way.

On to my results... I'm down .8 lbs. So yay, finally. Here's hoping July will have more awesome results. When I look back at teh last 2 months, I've only shown a 4.4 lb loss, I should have lost twice that amount and did the first 4 months of the year.

Oh, I also joined Amy's 15 week challenge I did really well during the BLB2 so I'm really looking forward to this challenge.

I'm heading to a Total Body Workout class at the Y that starts at 9:30. I'm actually excited to go to this class. No step but lots of exercises that work ALL my problems areas!

The results are in...

-1.4

I think those results are quie good, especialy because I was a little lazy with my food this week. I made a few poor choices, but exercised 5 days this week that counter acted those food choices. So this week, I'm going to have goals that I'd like to accomplish.

1) No BLT's this week... especially no spoonfuls of hot fudge
2) Exercise at least 6 days this week
3) Cook dinner every night to avoid sodium from frozen meals
4) Eat at least 4 servings of fruits and veggies every day
5) No soda of any kind. Drink of choice is either water or tea

It looks like I'm going to be heading to CA for a vacation in August. When I went last year, I had just quit smoking and hadn't started Weight Watchers or the gym yet. So I was huge, eating badly, and couln't breathe. I visited with lifelong friends. I actually let them see me at my largest! I can't wait to go back there as a completely different person... even if I'm not quite where I want to be weight wise. I have about 10 more weeks and I would love to lose 10 more lbs. Well I'd really love to lose 20! but I'd be happy with 10. So I have a goal in sight. I'm shooting for 10 lbs and for every lb after that 10 that I lose I get to but a new outfit for my Cali vacation! I could end up with a lot of kick ass clothes.

OMG! You mean hard work does pay off?

It's been an excellent week. I worked really hard at the gym, did not go out to a restaurant for food this week, limited soda intake, drank a large amount of water (I'm a big fan of the stuff) and it all paid off people! I am down! A lot!



-3.8

How awesome is that? My goal for next week is 2 lbs. 2 lbs will take me into the last 10 lbs of the 200's. I have about 5 lbs to go before I finally start losing "new weight". That will be all kinds of awesome! Here's to another week of hard work and fantastic successes!

The Weight Watchers meeting this week was all about motivation. I'm so glad I still have mine and even if I didn't I'm in that mindset where I do just have to do it. Thank you A cake for a wife for your post on motivation this week as well.

Weekly Weigh In...

-1.8

I'm feeling really good about my results. I think I might actually have a comfortable summer in St. Louis this year. Last year was miserable and this year I'm well on my way to being almost 50 lbs lighter (which is where I want to be by the 4th of July) I'm pretty sure I'll get there or get pretty close to it at any rate. So Yay me! Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all you Mother's out there!

Weekly Weigh In 04/25/09

I'm just going to get right to it. My results are much better than last week.



3.6

I've done a lot of right things, and there are a few things I still need to work on, but I'm getting more consistent with my exercise and what I'm puttin gin my mouth.

I have not completed Day 3 of the Shred yet. I chose to sleep in today (and it was wonderful!) I'm pretty sore but not like I was last night. Last night I could not do more than a shuffle around my house. I had some muscle relaxers left over from my, now gone, jaw trouble so I popped one of thise babies last night and oday my muscles are not nearly as tight.

I bought a new vacuum last night. It's a bagless one with a hepa filter. I learned two things... 1) my carpets were disgusting and 2) the hepa filter does work becasue I can breath easier in my house.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Weekly Weigh In...4/11/09

-1.6

I'm feeling pretty good about the results. I had to deal with a birthday party and missed gym time. I'm hoping to get back to my regularly scheduled program now. I do have a job interview to prepare for this week. I'm nervous about it but really hopeful that I interview well and get the job. I'd finally be able to put my degree to good use!

Weekly Weigh In...4/4/09

I've posted a couple of times this week about how I've been struggling this week with cravings and water retention. I almost didn't even go to WW this morning because I was sure there would be a huge gain. Since Thursday, I've been sticking to water and watching my sodium intake. I also got to the gym 4 days this week. I took last night off with the exercise because my muscles were sore. So I did start seeing the hand and ankle swelling slowly disappearing over the course of Friday and when I did finally manage to get over to my meeting (I was late! Procrastinate much!?) there was:

NO CHANGE! 0 lbs loss

Never have I been so happy to same the same exact number on the scale before! So now that TOM is on it's way out and my chocolate cravings are finally gone and water retention is a thing of the past, it's time to find my love for fruits and vegetables again and practice eating them instead of cookies.

Oh and I tried these this week.




They are both 5 points each, and I actually added 1 cup of broccoli to the penne and it made for a huge dinner! I was really surprised with how much food there actually was only 5 points, especially once the broccoli was added. Fantastic! There is still quite a of sodium in it, about 600 mg in each meal.

Weekly Weigh In - 3/28/09

The results are in and they are more awesome than I could have imagined.



- 3 LBS

Hard work truly does pay off. After having gotten my 10% and 25 lb charm last week and then getting sick, I really could have found many excuses to slack off. And I did think about it, but I just kept thinking to myself. "why would I repeat old patterns?" That didn't work out so great for me before, so I chose to do something different. And that meant hitting the gym even though I would have rather I had curled up in bed and slept. It also meant that I not stop at Taco Bell and pick up something instead of cooking. (I actually had help on the cooking front this week, because my Mom cooked dinner like 4 days this week so I didn't have to, which was awesome!)

And you know what's awesome about this week's loss? I am now out of the 220's! I have 3 more lbs to go and I will b e back at the weight I was the last time I quit WW's, so I am almost to the point of finally losing new weight. I can't, can't wait!!! Have an awesome (there's that word again) weekend.

Weekly Weigh In - 3/21/09

Gosh, I haven't posted anything all week! I'm not sure why, but I think I've been feeling a bit of lather, rinse, repeat and haven't had anything interesting to say. I've been eating right and exercising all week, so I was hoping for a decent loss on the scale. I even said no to Cold Stone ice cream cake last night when celebrating my brother's 23rd birthday. I ate a skinny cow ice cream instead. So on to my results:

I am


-1.6

and I received this today at my Weight Watchers meeting:



So I feel renewed and inspired to keep going on this journey because I can do this. I can get healthy and thin if I just keep on this path. As a reward for all my hard work I am going to get my hair cut and colored. I haven't given myself any reward yet, even though I was going to do something at the 10 and 20 lb marks. Since I didn't I feel okay with rewarding myself for 10% and then my 25 lb Weight Watcher loss. I just hope I can get an appointment this weekend, I've got lots of gray showing and I've got to get rid of it soon! Then I might post some before and after photos. I saw a picture of me from July 08 (just before I started exercising) and I can not believe that is what I looked like!

Weekly Weigh In - 3/7/09

Much better results this week! I'm down:

1 lb.

So I feel pretty good about this. I found myself at the gym 4 days this week, 2 days where I took a Zumba class. I hard a hard time sticking to my daily points target this week, I went over every day except yesterday. I don't have to wonder at the reason why, I know it's because I worked out really hard so I felt a lot hungrier this week AND my mouth has been having a hard chewing anything that is hard or crunchy so I was limited on what kind of fruits and vegetables I could eat. I did the best I could while dealing with my newly discovered TMJ problems.

I did go to the Dr for the jaw problem, and he gave me a muscle relaxer and something else (Nuerotin) which sort of scares me so I haven't taken it yet, and I'm only going to start it if the pain doesn't go away by next week. He also suggested Botox for the muscle that is having the spasms, but that's a final option for me. I only want botox in my forehead to get rid of the frown lines ;). While at the Dr.'s I did have a NSV. I've been on double blood pressure meds for 6 years and he took me off the Toprol this week, so now I am only taking HCTZ, which is a water pill. Another 20 lbs and I think I might get off all the meds. So, there's a Yay for me! So back to the jaw pain, I am going to get a mouth guard for night to see if that helps. Not the expensive kind from the Ortho but a cheap one from the store and if it helps then I'll dip into my FSA account and get the custom made one.

Today is my niece's 10th birthday. I guess we're having hot dogs and cake and ice cream today. I've already had a really good breakfast so I doubt I'll eat much, if anything, at the party. It's actually kind of nice to be able to go to a party and not feel like it's going to "ruin my diet" ... I don't actually feel like I'm on a diet anymore. I feel like I'm just living my life and making a series of choices that help me lose weight. I think I might actually, finally, be getting it.

Weigh In Results

So I did manage to save my week. Thursday and Friday I stuck to my points and got a bit of exercise in so my weigh in ended up okay. It was not stellar and I am a bit disappointed in myself, if nothing else because I sabotaged myself and only worked hard enough to not gain rather than worked harder to get a good loss. I'm not sure if that makes any sense to anyone but myself. If I'm being honest the only reason I have a loss this week is because I didn't want to embarrass myself with a gain, it's not because I did all the right things and should have had a loss... so if I can work just hard enough to show a loss why in the world am I not working hard enough to show a significant loss? SO with that said... my loss this week is

0.6

I have a lot to think about, because I am really close to my 10% goal. A goal I believe I should have hit this week, but didn't because I made choices that were not wise. I have to figure out why I do what I do and work harder so not only can I hit my 10% and get my key chain, but get my 25 lb charm too because I hit 10% and then that 25 lb mark right after each other.

Weekly Weigh In - 2/14/09

So the results are in and while I can still feel and see the water in my poor abused ankles I did get a really good loss in. So I'm relieved and really looking forward to the rest of February's weigh-ins, because I am so hitting my 10% goal before Feb. ends. So my results:

-1.4 lbs

Happy Valentine's Day all, I hope you have a wonderful day with your special someone. As for me, I'll be spending the day with my daughter after spending the morning having breakfast with the family. I'm thinking the DD and I will head to the movies tonight. My see He's Just Not That Into You.

Friday Post

Tomorrow is weigh in and I'm a little nervous. I haven't been nervous about a weigh in in a while, so it's kind of a weird feeling. I'm dealing with TOM and retaining water like nobody's business... I do take a water pill for my blood pressure so water retention usually doesn't last long, so tomorrow I could have a huge loss or n loss at all. It also didn't help that I ate a piece of pizza at lunch today... after I'd already eaten my turkey sandwich. For dinner I ended up only eating a small bowl of cereal, mostly because I was still full from my extremely huge lunch.

Now normally I'd take all the possibilities of the weigh in and toss it out the window, but I'm really close to hitting my 10% and I want it so bad. It would be an awesome little Valentine's gift for myself, especially because no else will be getting me something special tomorrow. One of the sucky things about being single.

So I think I'm going to send myself to bed now so I can get to tomorrow and find out is I'm going to have a rockin' weigh in or not. Keep your fingers crossed.

Weekly Weigh In...

Weigh in was this morning and I am down!!!

-1.4 lbs

So I'm pretty happy with it. I do wish I had lost .2 more because then I would have made it to the 220's but really it's okay because that just means that this coming week I can keep my eyes on the prize. I am determined to get there so here are my goals for the week.

1) eat a protein at breakfast to keep the hunger at bay
2) Get to the gym at least 5 days this week
3) Make a meal plan and stick to it (i've already shopped for the food I just need to work on some prep to make my job easier!)
4) Drink at least 96 oz of water daily

and my last goal is to get into the 220's but I think that is more like my reward for meeting my goals than anything else!

Weekly Weigh In...

I'm so excited to say that I have lost 3 lbs this week! 3 LBS! I've been back on program for 18 weeks now and most of weight losses have been .08 - 1.2 lbs a week with the biggest loss being 2.4 lbs that I had 2 weeks ago. So 3 lbs is the largest loss I've had in 18 weeks.

I am so excited and I truly believe that the reason I've stuck to the program and exercised consistently is the BLBE, I don't want to dissappoint my team so I've been making better food choices. I realized this morning that I have not been to a Fast Food Restaraunt since before Christmas! That means I haven't been to the evil place that is Taco Bell in almost a month, and I used to reward myself with Taco Bell every Tuesday after Zumba!

So yaay, I'm excited and happy and completely motivated for next week too!

Weekly Weigh In...

So, I'm just going to say I'm incredibly frustrated at the moment because I've just gotten back from my weigh-in and there was.... no change. I neither lost nor did I gain! WTF? This was the first week, that I didn't cave and head to a fast food restaurant. This was the first week that I didn't eat breakfast from the cafeteria at work everyday. This was the first week, that other than spaghetti night (that I had all of my flex points for) that I cooked healthy meals and ate well like a normal person and not the overeater that I am. And the results are no loss? So I say again W.T.F.? The WW leader thinks the loss will catch up with me next week, but hell that just does not make me feel better now.