I'm Still Alive and Losing Weight

I know that I've been a bad, bad weight loss blogger. The good news is that I have lost a ton of weight since the beginning of the year, between 14-15 pounds to be exact. That was enough to get me back to what I was this past August which meant I got to dig out some smaller clothes to wear! 

An outfit that hasn't fit for a while that I wore this week.

So even though I haven't been posting as regularly, I've been keeping up on eating right and working out. Most of the time I go to the gym 2-3 times a week. I do the weights two times and go on the treadmill once. I got a "warm" day this week and took a walk outside which was a nice change of pace. I took some pictures of the machines that I use at the gym, so I hope to get a post up about that soon.

I thought I'd use this post to write about a few things since my last post from my daily life. I've gotten a few rewards for my weight loss recently. I got a Chuck Berry CD and a $25 iTunes gift card as part of my rewards system that I set up for myself. I spent my iTunes card on Young the Giant and the newer Fleet Foxes albums. The video below is for "Cough Syrup" by Young the Giant which is the song that got me to listen to the band and buy their album.

I'm about 1.8 pounds away from my next reward of a key chain photo album which I can use to show the doggies off to people. I also won a weekly raffle for the walking challenge at work. I think I'm supposed to get a $20 check, but I haven't seen it yet. I can't remember if I talked about my last Diet Bet, but I did complete my goal of losing 4% in a month and got $21 (I put $10 into the pot).

 

Way back at the end of January the hubs had to go to a conference for work in Orlando for a week. Some people were even taking their spouses with them, but I couldn't go. :( I can't take off of work for a week for one, and secondly I can't miss my grad school classes. The hubs was nice though and bought me a present. It is a Cheshire Cat pillow pet.

 

 

We've actually seen a few days of winter weather (aka snow) since I last wrote, but we haven't really had a blizzard or anything like that. I'm kinda thinking that we might get away with a mild winter for Northwest Indiana.

I've been spending more and more time doing things for grad school such as reading and writing assignments on Blackboard. Both of the classes I am taking have big group projects that we are starting to work on, so grad school will be taking up more and more time. I'm happy to have two monitors though, because it comes in handy for having Blackboard on one screen and Word on the other.

 

The bed in my office works great for stacking papers and books.

The dogs also like to help me with my homework...

Lilly barks at me until I put her in my lap which isn't always convenient.

Sebastion likes to take over the bed and make a mess of the pillows.

And this one, Benjamin, likes to...

tear the futon mattress apart while I'm in the other room.

Here are some random pictures of meals and snacks from the past two weeks that haven't been posted on here yet.

My Four Day Fall Break Weekend of 2012

I had Friday and Monday off, so last weekend was a four day weekend. I was much busier than I thought that I would be, but it was still a lot of fun.

Friday I went out to eat at Olive Garden with some friends from work. I didn't know about taking pictures for the blog in front of them, so I didn't. I got the soup, salad, and bread sticks which was a mostly healthy and very filling meal. Afterwards we went to the mall and did some shopping. Well everyone in the group except me bought something. It was fun to hang out and see them buy stuff, but I just don't have the money to buy frivolous stuff right now. It really shocked me to see how much money people are willing to pay for things. I would rather have savings and investments. I guess that makes me a "weird girl" which I kinda already knew that I was!

What I wore out with my friends on Friday.

The black painted stripes are starting to wear off, but I love these earrings!

Saturday was spent running some errands, doing a little cleaning around the house, and having fun with my St. Joe friends at a Halloween party that night. One of my friends has a house in Rensselaer (which is were St. Joe is and that makes a halfway point from my house and Lafayette) with the perfect yard to throw a party. In the back yard there is a small "shack" or "shed" with a kitchen in it and an an open space on the other side which has a booth, tables, chairs, and just enough room for a TV and karaoke machine. There was tons of tasty foods and drinks such as chili, sandwiches with apple butter, chips, dips, desserts, a punch with a "brain" in it, and mixed drinks with fun names such as purple people eater.

Our entertainment was a scavenger hunt, a costume contest, and karaoke. My costume didn't turn out like I planned, because my pink flared jeans were too tight to wear and I couldn't get my pink feathers to stay in my hair. That would've made my hippie costume be more costume-y and less like a modern day hippie wannabe. Oh well, I've already got an idea for next year as long as I lose some weight!

Sunday I spent getting some organization and cleaning done around the house. I went through all the stuff I took out of the linen closet in the bathroom and either reorganized back into the linen closet or tossed it because I didn't need/want it anymore.

I finally picked up the guest bedroom and reorganized my "motivation" closet.

I also got rid of clothes in my "everyday" closet that didn't make me feel or look good. I don't have much left that fits now, so I really need to get back on track this week now that my stress is lightening up.

Monday was spent running errands, doing more cleaning around the house, and getting ready for the workweek. I first went out to Wanatah to my parents house to pick up some of my old "bigger" pants from my sister that she didn't need right now. How embarrassing to gain back enough weight to ask for your bigger clothes you gave away back. Now if that isn't motivation, I don't know what is! Anyway, I felt like taking pictures so here are some pictures from my drive out there:

There are lots of farm and country pictures. I grew up in the country and am kinda starting to feel like more like a "town person." I still miss the country though.

This picture and the one below are the Porter County Fairgrounds. I was a nine year 4-Her and am kinda missing it. I think it would be fun to be a group leader.

This is a doggie spa I passed on the way to Valpo. I bet my dogs would love to run free in there!

I stopped to see if there was anything interesting, but I took a picture and included it to share a little fact. I used to work at this Wal-Mart for about six months after I graduated college.

This isn't a good picture, but that car in the distance is awesome!

That afternoon I had a dentist appointment for a check-up and cleaning. Everything is okay this time which is nice.

Clean teeth before I eat and ruin it. They used key lime flavor to clean my teeth which was tasty yet kinda weird.

I spent the evening cooking some food for healthy lunches, watching The Voice, and typing up lesson plans. Here is to a fresh start on eating well this week!

My Confession

Another One Week Challenge

Since this is my second week back to work, I'm getting used to my schedule enough to start challenging myself again. I'm giving myself another "one week challenge." This time I want to focus on my eating plan and making sure to get some kind of exercise in five days a week whether is finally finishing C25K (I owe myself two more 30 minute jogs.) or sanding/painting walls in the bathroom. I want to make sure to be accountable by writing about what I eat and do for exercise here on this blog. I might not make it to the computer every day, but I will be sure to write about it later.

My Confession

Today I thought I would start off with a confession. Some of you may have noticed by now that I love to go shopping, and I love to find a good deal. Especially when it comes to clothes and accessories. I also really love fashion (although it isn't much fun when you are big).  I love spending hours on the weekend searching sales and clearance racks at several different stores. I love going by myself and with friends. My confession is that I've been doing too much of that this summer. Isn't it funny how people who are overweight have a tendency to have excesses in other parts of their life? That is the emotional/psychological part that a lot of us have to work on otherwise the weight will never come off/stay off.

My goal for August was not to buy any more clothes. I needed to focus on losing weight and fitting into the clothes I already own. I made it pretty far, but I had a little slip up this weekend. I found clearance racks with an extra 40% off at K-mart (don't laugh- some of my most complimented clothes come from there) and an extra 25% off at Meijer. I got clothes not the best ever prices, but pretty close. I brought the stuff home and tried it on with the clothes I already had. I even took pictures.

Then I realized that after looking through my closet I could probably survive without these new clothes. I don't have a lot that fits well right now, but I can make it through a work week. We were told (all the teachers in the corporation) to dress more professionally. Most of us already do with me being one of them. I found these great clothes that were almost all work clothes and I would've worn them all many times. I returned almost every piece. I kept a couple of shirts since I have a ton of dress pants. I bought $90 worth of sale clothes (probably worth $150-$200 regular price) and returned over $70 worth of it.

I found out that I must really have a thing for knee length skirts. I have four of them right now. In the loot I bought and returned, I saw I had five of them. I always worried about wearing skirts since my students sit on the floor and I stand up and walk around them most of the time. It isn't the issue that I thought it would be. It is also much easier to find skirts that fit than pants. Alas, it doesn't matter since they all went back to the store.

I also worked on my motivation closet this weekend after seeing how I just need to get organized and work with the clothes I have for now. The sad part is a lot of the clothes I put into the motivation closet fit back at the end of last school year and they don't now. I can't wait to fit in them again and bring my smaller clothes back up out of the basement.



Before.

After.

I wore one of my new shirts today with a pair of old black pants. I accessorized with some earrings that were my grandma's (on my mom's side- she passed away a while ago) and a bracelet I got at Fashion Bug for I think $2.

My Day in Food and Exercise

 

 



Breakfast

Snack

Snack

Lunch

I had applesauce instead of a cookie.

Snack

A new to me flavor. It was okay but not my favorite.

Dinner

Turkey burger with a 40 calorie piece of colby jack, ketchup, mustard, and a whole wheat bun.

Snack

Don't worry- I didn't have the healthy stuff like the carrots. Just a doughnut. ;)

Exercise- mowing the yard