Two Days in a Row

Look at this, two posts in a row! Not too much for me to say today though. I ate almost on plan like I posted yesterday, but I did substitute something else for my dinner. I had one last microwave dinner left, so I ate it tonight. It was chicken nuggets and a couple of smiley face fries. My dinners for the rest of the week will be turkey burgers and sweet potato fries. I also had a couple of junk food items, but I made sure to eat my healthy snacks first to fill me up more. I had a couple of sugar cookies and one cupcake.I know that may sound horrible, but it is really nothing compared to the amount of junk I have been eating in one day. 

As for my goals... 

• I drank all water today, so that was good. No pop and no fake sugar, no calorie drinks. 
• No fast food!
• Ate almost on plan except for dinner (explained above).
• I didn't really get too much movement in, but I am feeling sick. I had a horrible sore throat and now it is more irritated than sore. I'm also really tired and achy. I'm not going to push it since I need to make it through the workweek and class on Thursday night.

Since I'm tired and not feeling well, the plans for tonight are to get everything ready for work tomorrow and then watch The Voice. Hopefully the rest will do me good since Wednesdays are my busiest day at work.

I'm Back...

To put it simply- I've missed blogging. I also have missed the success that I had when I was blogging. Even though things can get crazy between working full time and graduate school, I really would like to take some "me time" to blog again. 

Since New Years (and even before) I've been cycling between being successful for a few weeks/month and then completely falling off the wagon for a few weeks/month. This leads to losing and gaining the same few pounds over and over. It would be crazy to think about how much I would have lost by now if I kept going down in weight instead of see-sawing back and forth. 

I've also been thinking about how I told myself I was going to be at a healthy weight and in shape by the time I was thirty. I've been thirty since the end of November, but I'm only eight pounds away from my heaviest weight. Not exactly a great feeling. Thirty is a big deal birthday and it starts hitting you that you are not as young anymore. I think that my thirties will be awesome since there should hopefully be some big milestones such as having children, getting a master's degree, and possibly being a counselor. I don't want to forgo those things or be uncomfortable doing them because of my weight and lack of being in shape.

I've found the motivation to start working on weight loss again. I lost six pounds in January just by eating right. Then I proceeded to gain four of them back in February and up to now in March. I want to change many things right now, but I know if I do too much I will want to give up. Here are some goals for the rest of March:

• No more fast food (unless in a total bind, but I shouldn't be)
• No more pop (I was drinking diet, but still not good for you)
• Try my hardest to meal plan, cook for the week, and eat everything that I made
• Try to move a little bit everyday (even if it is just a short walk or cleaning)

I did meal plan this weekend and food prepped for the week. Here is what I'm eating this week:

Breakfast:

I'll also have a vitamin and a fruit strip with this.

Snack:

Snack:

Lunch:

Whole wheat spaghetti with ground turkey in the sauce.

Snack:

Dinner:

Turkey burgers - sweet potato fries will be the side

Snack:

If you add some chocolate chips, honey, and peanut butter, it kind of makes the yogurt taste like a cookie.

Something new I'm trying to drink instead of pop:

I added one lime, one cucumber, and some mint leaves. It tastes really good.

Getting Back on Track Part Three

If you missed it, I've been writing about what I will do to get back on track after a not-so-stellar March in weight loss land. Part One was about my meal plan and part two is about my exercise plan.

Part three will address my goals that I have in mind for the next couple of months- basically until the end of the school year for work (not grad school). I have a page with the "big picture" when it comes to goals and rewards that you can view here. The following list is my next few months goals:

• I will to stick to my eating plan and exercise plan consistently until the end of the work school year (beginning of June - I can make new goals then). I will allow myself a little flexibility on the weekends and if there are any "super special" occasions.
• I will not let stress influence how I treat myself and take away from my weight loss, exercise, and wellness goals (aka grad school and work excuses will not ruin this for me again).
• I will weigh in more regularly (at least once a week) but not obsess over it.
• I will let myself relish in non-scale victories (NSV) such as clothes getting too big, fitting in smaller clothes, getting compliments about looking like I lost weight, etc.
• I will reward myself for every 5 pounds lost as set forth on my goals page.
• I will lose some kind of weight every week, but would really like to lose two pounds a week.
• I would like to be a size 12 by the beginning of June for several reasons such as...
• I would would be about 20 pounds down from where I am at now and 40 pounds down overall.
• I can finally fit into all the clothes sitting in my motivation closet and maybe even some smaller clothes that are still in my basement.
• I might have enough self-confidence to wear some shorts and a real bathing suit (instead of the dresslike one I have now).
• I can sell all the clothes I'm wearing now at the big garage sale my mom, sister, and I will be having (and use the money for something fun like new clothes or to cover the price of my Alice Cooper ticket).

Although this isn't a weight loss goal, I hope to have enough credit card points to get a $50 Amazon.com gift card to use to buy an iPod shuffle for when I work out. I know I won't need the whole $50 for that, but I want to basically get a free iPod shuffle. I'm already checking out the purple and pink colors. An iPod shuffle is so small and will be much more convenient for working out than my big ol' iPod original.

Reverse New Year's Resolution

I have been avoiding a New Year's resolutions post, because I only partially meet my goals from last year and don't really have many changes in the ones from last year. If you would like to read them, they are here.

I would like to try something different this year for my resolution post. In the book Life is Hard, Food is Easy by Linda Spangle (the one I've been reading and doing exercises from off and on for years now...), there is an exercise called Reverse New Year's Resolution. I'm supposed to think about what I would like to be like a year from now and fill in the blanks to the sentences given to me. So here I go...

Reverse New Year's Resolution

The date is... 1/6/2014.

Here is what I have accomplished:

• I now weigh... 135-155 (with 135 being my goal weight and 155 if I can lose a pound every week this year).

• My body feels... smaller, toned, healthy, in-shape, comfortable to live in.

• I'm exercising by... going to the gym 2-3 days a week to use the machines and treadmill/elliptical if it is cold, walking/wogging/jogging/bicycling outside when the weather is nice. I might sometimes use the Wii Fit or a Kinect game as well when I don't want to go out.

• I'm pleased with... not stressing out about small things or things I can't control, working out on a regular basis, finding balance in my life between work and grad school, eating to fuel my body.

• I've learned... better ways to relax when I'm stressed out, how to mange and utilize my time better, how to not eat when I'm upset or bored, to take time for myself.

• One sentence that describes my life today (The book says you can "dream big" on this one)... I'm happy that I have reached my weight loss goal, am physically in-shape, and found balance in my life between work, school, and my needs.

I hope to check into this post a year from now and see that I've either met the items on my list or am on my way to meeting them.

Meal Plan for the Week of 1/7/13 to 1/11/13

And as a side note, here is the meal plan for this week:

I had this for dinner tonight:

Beginning of November Update

October was such a busy month for me at work and personally. When things finally slowed down, I crashed into being lazy. I actually watched more than just The Voice, surfed the Internet a lot, and slept in or got extra sleep whenever possible. I haven't lost sight of my goal of losing weight, and have started to get back into some of my good habits again. I'm using this post to catch everyone up on all of my news, so here it goes...

On the 3rd I got lunch and went antiquing with my retired teacher friend Chris. She asked me to stop by K-Mart and pick up a cute Cheshire Cat hat and she would pay me back for it. I decided to just give it to her as an early Christmas present. She was really happy with it and end up buying me a ring that I liked while we were antiquing.

I also now have my own dedicated, new-to-me computer set up in my office. Since I will hopefully being going to grad school this winter, my husband thought it would be a good idea for me to have a fully functional computer. He was going to buy me one as a birthday/Christmas present, but I didn't really have need of a fancy computer. He found one on sale that fits his computing needs, so I got his old one with a new keyboard and mouse. I can now blog whenever I want since I'm not sharing a computer anymore!

Speaking of grad school, I have a group interview with the other potential candidates and faculty in the department on the 19th. When I got the e-mail about it I was really excited and happy, so I think that I have made the right choice on this. I'm still quite nervous and a little bit scared about working and going to school for so long, but I guess I won't worry about that until I have been accepted.

I found a wonderful and easy recipe on Pinterest to help with the sweets cravings. Instead of brownie mix and pumpkin, cake mix and pumpkin. I guess if you use regular cake mix and a can of pumpkin (no eggs or oil), it is two Weight Watchers points per cupcake. A can of pumpkin with sugar free cake mix is also yummy! In fact, I've been eating too many of these, so I'm going to take a break for a few days before I make any more.

The weight loss has been good and bad this week. The good news is that I lost two pounds this week. The bad news is that I'm only down 20 pounds total (instead of the 35 that I was last spring). I got to use my other poundpuncher bracelet for 12-20 pounds lost. I'm hoping to lose around 8 pounds by my birthday by the end of the month. If I can keep up around 2 pounds down a week, I can be around 35 pounds down by the new year.

A bead for another ten pounds gone for my jar and future bracelet.

You can see the peace sign bead in the jar.

I've also found some fun, comfy, and warm clothes for around the house.

Pink and black zebra striped sockasins.

Beatles sweatpants!

My Niece's Birthday Party

I know it has been a while, but I've been busy with work and am now at home sick. :( I thought this might be a good time to write a post or two to catch up on what has been going on recently.

On Saturday of last weekend I met up with a retired teacher friend of mine for some lunch. We actually both ended up eating breakfast, but it was really good. I had a veggie omelet which I forgot to take a picture of as usual. We haven't gotten to see much of each other since early last summer. We kept planning on doing stuff and it always fell through. I was really happy to be able to do something with her though even if it was just a meal on a rainy day.

Last Saturday was also my niece's (JJ) 3rd birthday party. My sister and brother-in-law moved into a new house about a week before the party, so they were pretty brave to get unpacked and have a party in the same week. The party turned out very well and their new house is nice. I was also looking forward to seeing my aunt that goes to the concerts with me, but she was sick and unable to attend.

My sister made a pretty cake for a girly three year old:

Look at how thick that cake was!

 

There was also more than enough food which I didn't get a picture of again. There was taco salad, lasagna, cheesy mashed potatoes, meatballs, rolls, and macaroni and cheese. I was really good that day and just had a little bit of lasagna, potatoes, and a piece of cake.

The fun part of any little kid's birthday is watching them blow out candles, eat cake, and open presents. I didn't get a super good picture of JJ with the cake, but I got a ton of pictures of her opening presents.

Opening up my present which was a ton of princess play stuff.

And some hangers for her new closet.

Showing off her new winter boots from me to great grandma.

Playing with some princess jewelry.

My mom gave her this stuffed animal cow with a pink tutu. How cute is that?

The one good picture I got of her with the cake.

I stayed until after 6:00 which I didn't intend on doing, but I was visiting and it just happened. Needless to say, I didn't get much done on Saturday. At least I did follow through with my goal of not overindulging while at the birthday party.

October Challenge Week One Results + Photo A Day Challenge

Weekly Results

I will be doing weekly results for my October Challenge (Tighter Belts and Even Tighter Wallet). I should have written about Monday, well, on Monday. I had a lot to write about this weekend, so I chose to cover that yesterday and delay results for a day. Anyway, here are the results

End of Week One (Oct. 8)

• Weight: 196.8 (I don't know how since I was actually "good" this time!)
• Goals (Highlighted parts tell whether I met the goal or not.)
• Lose two pounds a week (Didn't lose a darn thing!).
• Follow my eating plan wholeheartedly (I only had two slip small ups, so I'm happy with meeting this one).
• Walk at least 8,000 steps every day as part of the fall walking challenge at work (I only met this goal 5 days out of seven).
• Eat fast food/eat out only on weekends (I did this one! Yay for me!).
• Eat on plan meals at events and have a standard size amount of one dessert (I met this one too!).
• Don’t buy frivolous things this month and spend less time shopping on weekends scouting for good deals (I went shopping for things we needed. I did buy a $3 shirt for part of my Halloween costume, but this is as frivolous as it got. Yay again for me!).
• Focus on fitting into clothes I already have and not buy new clearance rack clothes to get by at the weight I am at the beginning of the month (I think I met this one since I only purchase one thing for my Halloween costume and not every day clothes).
• Blog more often and post weekly updates on this challenge (Another one bites the dust!).

 

October Photo a Day Challenge

 

I have skipped a couple of days in this challenge from The Lean Green Bean. I couldn't do day six even if I wanted to, because I'm in no shape to do a tabata workout. I'm going to skip ahead to 7, 8, and 9.

 

Day seven was go makeup free. I'm terrible about having to wear makeup to feel comfortable in public. I've had acne since I was nine and I think that plays a large part in it. In fact, I'm getting close to 30 and am still using prescription strength topical acne creams. My dermatologist says that my skin looks really great now, but I still don't completely feel it. Since I wasn't paying attention to the challenge, I by accident went makeup free that day. I didn't take a picture that day, so here is a picture of me post shower with no makeup.

 

 

Day eight was eat at least 3 different colors. That is easy enough, especially when I follow my eating plan. These photos aren't new by any means, but it shows that I eat 3 or more colors everyday.

 

 

 

Day nine (finally catching up) is to spend 15 minutes stretching. I need to do my shoulder/neck stretches on a daily basis again. My neck and shoulders are tight, but not to the point of pain yet. It is better to get back in the habit before I get stressed out and in pain. Here's a picture of me doing one of my stretches.

 

 

October Challenge- Tighter Belts and Even Tighter Wallets

I have let myself gain back ten pounds this summer and still haven’t worked on losing them. I have also spent too much money this summer on frivolous things and recently on eating fast food and junk food. I want to have a smaller waist and more money in my checking account by the end of October. That is why I named the challenge what I named it. Here are some of the details…

Goals

• Lose two pounds a week.
• Follow my eating plan wholeheartedly.
• Walk at least 8,000 steps every day as part of the fall walking challenge at work.
• Eat fast food/eat out only on weekends (to save money and eat healthier).
• Eat on plan meals at events and have a standard size amount of one dessert (one wedding, one birthday party, and one Halloween party).
• Finish C25K- I have two 30 minute jogs left. If I can’t do 30 minutes at once, then work on building my endurance back up and complete these two jogs.
• Hook up my xBox 360 in my office, so I can do my workout video games on it.
• Don’t buy frivolous things this month and spend less time shopping on weekends scouting for good deals.
• Focus on fitting into clothes I already have and not buy new clearance rack clothes to get by at the weight I am at the beginning of the month.
• Blog more often and post weekly updates on this challenge.

Rewards

• 195- Chuck Berry CD

 

• 190- Singstar Legends game

Beginning Weight

•  On Sunday, September 30th I weighed in at 196.8.

Beginning Measurements

•  On Sunday, September 30th...
• Neck- 13"
• Arm- 14"
• Bust- 39
• Waist-37"
• Hips- 46"
• Thigh- 24.5"
• Calf- 16.5"

If there are any of you out there that want to join in with this challenge, message me, e-mail me, or find me on Facebook.

September Girl

I named this post September Girl after the Bangles song "September Girls." The reason why follows after a video:

The simple reason is that I want to rock it out in September with weight loss, exercise, and eating right. I would like September to be the month that I make goals and stick to them for a change. Really go back to the good habits I formed when I first started losing weight. I've strayed quite far from some of those good habits over the summer and it is time to get back on the wagon. On my weigh-ins page I've highlighted the weeks that I gained weight in red. There weren't very many reds if you go back to the early days and there are a ton of reds now. I used to lose 5 pounds in 4-6 weeks, not months. I'm still in the obese category, so the weight should still be coming off like that. The problem is that my motivation and willpower have faded. They aren't gone, but I feel like they are a little candle with a small flame blowing around in the wind instead of a roaring fire. I've been trying to find some new blogs to read, because some of my favorite bloggers aren't writing as often or taking a break. Reading blogs is what sparked my fire the first time. I've also been on the hunt for some motivational quotes and found a page with a ton of them. Here is one that has resonated with me:

"Anything is possible, It's your choice whether or not you choose to make IT happen."

I'm working hard on choosing to do great things this month in weight loss land. It isn't something I have to do, it is something I'm choosing to do to make myself a better person. So here are the choices that I would like to work on in September:

• Lose at least 30 pounds (again!) and get down to at least 190 by the end of September.
• Focus on following my eating plan again with cooking more of my own meals at home.
• Finish C25K (only two more 30 minute jogs) and decide on whether to continue jogging.
• Work out five days a week. Working out could be jogging, walking, biking, walking the dogs, cleaning around the house, or playing Wii Fit or xBox Kinect.
• Keep blogging as I have time about my September choices. I might not be on every day, but I will try to keep up to date.

If I choose to do these things, the weight loss will follow and my habits will be good ones again.

I've also given myself a non-scale victory to work towards. I would like to fit into this dress sometime this fall/winter. It would be super cute with some black leggings, my mid-calf black swede boots, and these peace sign earrings.

Thank goodness this picture is blurry and a front view. Yes the dress is on my body, but believe me, it ain't pretty from the side view.

I also haven't been giving myself some the rewards that I have for meeting goals. I should've given myself a CD for getting to 195, and I never did. When I lose 0.8 pounds and get to 195 again, I choose to give it to myself and feel good about a step in the right direction.

And maybe I should choose to do things to make me sweat as much as Chuck Berry is in this picture. Johnny B. Goode!

I also bought a CD with five songs from Phillip Phillips (winner of American Idol last year). I wanted to give myself a song for every pound lost between 195 and 190 as a small reward which I never did as well. It sucks to be losing the same weight again, but I do think I deserve a little bit of reward for putting the effort in again.

If I find myself struggling (which I'm sure that I will) I will have to remember this whole choices thing and push myself to make better choices until they become second nature. If I'm hungry while driving home from work, I could choose to stop and get a doughnut like this week or I could choose to get a protein bar, veggies, or a piece of fruit. If I'm tired after work, I could choose to watch TV or sit on the computer or I could choose just do to a little bit like a short walk or some laundry.

Now that I'm feeling some motivation, I'm going to choose to make the most of this day off of work. I'm going to cook a healthy dinner and snack. I'm going to get up and move by mowing the yard, doing laundry, and mopping the kitchen floor. I'm going to work on my grad school application. Maybe I'll even be writing a post again later today to let you know how all this goes.

Summer Break Goals

Now that almost a full month of summer break is done, I thought it might be a good idea to set some goals for myself. ;) Last summer I didn't start until July and was able to lose 20 pounds. I would love to lose another 20 pounds this summer, but this is the goal I set for myself instead...

If I could get to 177.5, that would be my halfway to my final weight goal (the higher end of my final weight loss range). That is only about 11.5 pounds from where I am now. My goal is to get to this weight by August 20th. That is my first day back at work and would be a lovely day to celebrate such a goal. If I happen to lose more weight than that by then, I'd be okay with that too.

I have set up several rewards for reaching this goal and some smaller ones along the way which you can see on my goals page. My big reward for reaching the goal of 177.5 or halfway to my goal weight will be season seven of House on DVD. I will take a few hours to relax and watch some of my favorite episodes from the season.

This is the season of the Huddy hookup!

I will also allow myself a mini shopping spree for some new clothes and/or shoes for work. I'll go through what I have and see what holes need to be filled wardrobe wise. It would be a great time to do this with all the back to school sales! My sketcher mary jane style shape ups that I have in black and brown are worn out from last year, so I'd love to replace them.

They even have holes worn into the inside heel part of the shoe!

I've been in a bit of a slump throughout June with barely losing any weight. I hope this along with going back to basics with my eating plan will help me to get back on track to weight loss land.

Weight Loss Weekend

The weight loss has picked up this weekend. I finally broke my little plateau of 187 and was down to 185.8 this morning. Nearing 185 means that some of my clothes are too big, so I went through my stuff in my regular closet and my motivation closet. I was able to weed out some big clothes and find some out of my motivation closet to take their place. Other exciting news is that I have some size 14 dress pants that didn't before and now do as long as some size 12 jeans! They are K-mart Route 66 curvy fit jeans.

I left this picture wider so you could see Benjamin. It looks like is running into the fan!

I also opened this CD and put it on my iPod for my reward of reaching 186. At 185 I get Singstar Legends.

I spent this weekend getting a lot of things done around the house. I mowed the yard, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, and organized my clothes. I also went grocery shopping and shopping for supplies and a present for a co-workers wedding shower we are throwing on Thursday. I can't spill any details yet in case she reads it, but I'll have some pictures for you later.

Some lovely poppies from my yard. They bloomed this weekend.

I am doing much better with eating smaller portions and trying to wait out the hunger in between meals and snacks. Now I just got to keep on keeping on to lose some more weight. Here are some eats from this weekend.

Grilled chicken tenderloins from Cracker Barrel.

A piece of BLT pizza that I made from my 300 Under 300 Calories Hungry Girl cookbook.

A blueberry yogurt crunch from McDonalds. Under 300 calories and yummy!