2012 in Review

I've been putting off doing one of those New Year's resolutions posts or end of 2012 review posts. I've enjoyed reading about everyone else's years or resolutions, but I haven't been feeling it yet myself. Last year I did a top ten of 2011 and ten resolutions for 2012 which you can read here. I've decided that I will just fake it until I feel it about this whole new year thing, so here I go. I'll break this new year stuff into two posts- a review of this past year and goals/resolutions for next year.

Let's start with the good things from 2012:

• getting to see my first NBA game

• the hubs and I getting a king size bed

 

• getting accepted to graduate school for mental health counseling

• remodeling our main floor bathroom (see all the before and after pictures here)

• reuniting with one of my besties from high school at her wedding

• my hubby got a good job in his field which you can read about here

• I almost completed a C25K program and went from barely being able to jog a few minutes to jogging for 30 minutes straight (read about my first jog here)

 

• I didn't go to my ten year high school reunion and was okay with it (which was a tough thing to deal with as you can read here)

 

• my aunt and I went to see Roger Water's perform The Wall at Wrigley Field
 

 
 
• the hubs, FIL, and I went to Disney World for vacation just a few days after school got out

An old picture at Magic Kingdom, but a good one!

• my hubby got his PhD in physics (sorry no pics since he didn't want to go to his graduation) 
 
• I was at my lowest weight since I started this blog back in May (I'm no where near that weight now though...)

I actually fit my butt into a size 12 jean at one point this year! And those jeans are supposed to be distressed and stained.

 

• I lost enough weight and became flexible enough to reach my toes.

 

• I lost between 30-33 pounds and felt great about it as you can read about here and here (and I undid all of that later in 2012...)

 

Part two will be about goals/resolutions for 2013.

New Year's Day and Measurements

I decided it might be a good idea to measure myself again and see how many inches I lost as a part two of my accomplishments of 2011. So here are the stats...

Weight- 210          192ish

Neck:13                 12.5
Shoulders:43       42
Chest:40               38
Bicep:14                13
Waist:36               35
Forearms:11         11
Hips:48                 46
Thighs:26             24
Calves:17              16

Before

Now

I've lost 10.5 inches total from adding all the losses from above together. Not too shabby!




Onto the feast for today... My husband cooked a dinner similar to what we had on Christmas. The difference being that this time I wasn't sick and could eat it. He made a turkey breast, wild rice, asparagus, broccoli, and acorn squash. I had the turkey, broccoli, and squash (wild rice makes me sick and I don't like asparagus).

The feast

My plate

The "vultures" ready for the feast.

Some of the other food I ate today was not so good such as carrot muffins and even a Reese's peanut butter cup. Yikes on those two things as snacks/dinner. I did eat an okay breakfast, my usual McDonald's go to.

Exercise: some cleaning and organizing

Last night as an attempt to stay up to midnight (which didn't happen by the way) I did some more cleaning in the basement. It is almost all organized and just the floors need mopped with some bleach water.

New Year's Eve and My Top Ten from 2011

The one thing that we did special for New Year's was go to Tiebel's for dinner. I exercised portion control tonight, so I am proud of myself for that. Here was tonight's dinner:

I also had a half a cup of peppermint ice cream for dessert and a dinner roll and a few crackers with cheese on them. I saved half of my main dinner and took it home for another meal.

I'm not always big on New Year's resolutions, because often times people expect too much change too soon. Sometimes January isn't when people are ready to do things either. I started my weight loss journey for real this time in the middle of July. All I have to say is that when you are ready to do something, you do it on your own time and don't need a special occasion to do it.


Here's a top ten of things I've accomplished in 2011.

1. I've lost (almost) 30 pounds.
2. I've lost (almost) two pant and shirt sizes.
3. I spent a lot more of my spare time moving around (and/or exercising) instead of watching TV.
4. I've stuck with my weight loss plans, and didn't give up after 10 pounds.
5. I've learned to eat sweets in smaller portions or not at all.
6. I don't crave sweets all the time any more.
7. I can fit in regular clothing sizes again (no more plus sizes!).
8. I don't go on eating binges.
9. I don't use food for stress relief or to deal with emotions.
10. I don't stress out about work as much and let things come as they may.

For 2012 I would like to...

1. Keep working on my weight loss. I might not reach my final goal, but I hope to be halfway close.
2. Develop an exercise plan and do more intentional exercise in addition to all the things I do around the house to keep me moving (and improve the house).
3. Do my shoulder/neck stretches and exercises on a daily basis, so my hands don't hurt and I don't drop things.
4. Spend more time on things that I like such as playing the flute or piano, making jewelry, drawing, or playing video games.
5. Find a church to go to in my town and start going again. I've lived here for a few years now, so there aren't really any excuses left.
6. Spend some more time with friends and not worry about what I should be doing for work or around the house instead.
7. Spend more time on de-stressing such as doing breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, or yoga.
8. Get all of my old pictures scanned, backed up, and shared with family and friends and/or posted on Facebook.
9. Keep on blogging.
10. Enjoy what life throws my way and worry less/stress out less about things.

Food:


Breakfast:

Snack: vanilla cookie stick things that were cheap and tasty


Lunch:

Snacks:

Exercise: walking, cleaning, organizing