Days Eight and Nine: Disappointment and New Motivation

This picture is from yesterday, Aug. 15, but MM and I were exhausted at the end of the day and went to bed early. By the time I remembered that I needed to post a picture, I was too lazy to get out of bed and do it.


I'm going to call yesterday's picture "Disappointment". That about sums up my entire day. Remember all that yard work I completed on Saturday? Well, I had the intention to do the same in the front yard on Sunday. God had other plans and my yard work was put on hold. I took this picture from the front window showing the waiting-to-be-cleaned patio furniture just sitting in the yard. At that point, the lightning was extremely close and I never made it back outside to at least put it away. I know that we needed the rain, but I have to admit I was really bummed to not get the yard looking as spiffy as I could have.

The second reason that disappointment was welling up inside me yesterday is that I was quite fed up with not reaching my weight loss goals for the past few months. I am so tired of not getting anywhere. To be honest, MM and I argued over it because I wanted to do something drastic, like go away to a weight loss camp or hire a therapist. We went to bed on a pretty sour note last night.

I woke up this morning, still heavy-hearted, but I knew that God could carry me through even something as petty as my weight issues.


Readers, please meet my workout shoes. I love these things. They look a little frumpy, but they keep my feet in tip-top shape while I work out. These guys are going to have to get me where I need to go. Today's picture represents so many things; working out, putting my best foot forward, and etc. From this day on, my workout shoes are staying out, in a place where I will see them the second I walk in the door. Maybe if I get my working out consistent, my eating habits will follow! That is my fervent prayer; that I will have the power to change everything I need to in order to be a healthy person.


Update on MM: he went back to the doctor today and the diagnosis was fluid in his ear. He had a steroid shot and is on some over-the-counter meds until the fluid, hopefully, drains out.

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak." - Isaiah 40:29, NIV

Being Courageous

I've been kicking around the idea of starting a weight-loss blog for a while now. I don't think it's a secret to anyone who knows me or has read this blog that I have some pounds to lost. I've finally put things into God's hands and decided to mark that occasion with a new blog. It seems that a good portion of my day goes into making healthy changes whether that be by working out, cooking meals, prepping food, grocery shopping and searching my cookbooks and the internet for new recipes and articles. For the most part, becoming healthy has pretty much become a full-time hobby for me. If you'd like to read about my journey, please do. You can find my new blog here: Remodeling The Temple.

That being said, it is entirely possible that I begin to neglect this blog even more than I have in the past. I will still be following all of you, though!

Thanks for reading and God Bless!!

Climbing Out

I have been in that seemingly unavoidable weight-loss, eating right, motivational rut for the past week-and-a-half. I was feeling sorry for myself, succumbing to the dull pain in my hip and just making DUMB choices. The Girl Scout cookies showed up at the office and I ate them. I was out in the field, snacking on road food and I ignored my pear and string cheese for the chips and Skittles I bought while gassing up. The scale was not a slap in the face at all this weekend because I was expecting it. I was actually pleased that I didn't gain wait through this period of what I can only describe as gluttony.

I'm doing better today. I did a full 80 minutes of exercise yesterday and 60 minutes today. I made some more dumb food choices at work this afternoon, but I plan to purge the office of the bad things I have laying around and get back to righteous eating tomorrow. I feel so crummy when I get so far off the beaten path and I just don't know why I keep doing it.

I'm putting my best feet forward tomorrow and they will be wearing tennis shoes so I can rack up some steps. Thank goodness we don't have to start over at the very beginning every time we slip up. If I had to lose 34 lbs. again to get where I am now, I don't think I'd be able to muster the drive to climb back up.

Weight Loss Journaling - Day 32

Today was a great day. The morning started with my weigh-in and I'm down to 191 lbs. The last time I remember being this weight is before I went into the hospital in December 2005!! I didn't quite make it to my goal loss of 10 lbs. for January, but 8 lbs. is still great!

I did a hard and heavy workout this evening. Jason and I increased my Sunday cardio from 45 minutes to 60 minutes which ends up being 75 minutes straight of movement once you figure in my warm-up and cool down. I then did a rigorous strength session of core work. My abs better be BEAUTIFUL when I get this excess fat off!!

February is going to be a trying month for me as I have to be out of town for work for a week at the end of the month. My goal weight for Sunday, March 1 is 183 lbs. which would be an 8 lb. loss. Getting my workouts in while I'm gone isn't usually a problem. The biggest struggle is making healthy choices while I'm at restaurants and etc. I'm preparing now for that week because bad choices then could make a BIG difference on the scale for the month as I'll be getting home one day before weigh-in.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Getting through last night without falling off of Jason's plan means that I actually accomplished a New Year's Resolution. I NEVER keep them and this year I did. Now my resolution is to do the same for February!

Well, I'm off to read a new magazine until I doze off!

Weight Loss Journaling

DAY 28:

Things are still running fairly smoothly here. I'm anxious to see what the scale is going to say on Sunday morning, but I'm hoping to take advantage of the next few days. I'll be working out hard and at a high intensity the next few days to make my final push to weigh-in.

I still struggle with my eating habits. I'm not eating anything bad, per se, but it's important that I stick to a strict schedule. My goal is 1900 calories a day or fewer, with a majority of my calories being eaten before workout time. That means that I need to eat small portions for dinner. I think that, for a lot of people, that's the opposite of how we've been raised. Growing up, breakfast was a bowl of cereal and some OJ, if I ate breakfast at all. Dinner was always a big (from-the-box) meal with all the helpings we wanted. I think the concept of eating less at night is such a paradigm shift for me because I was thin and healthy until college, when I met my hubby. I forget to take into account the fact that I'm 27 years old and my metabolism is different. Add to that the PCOS I developed after getting married and rarely exercising and, DUH; I need to change the way I eat. It's still hard and I do fight it more than I should, but I'm getting better.

Here's what my daily menu should be:

Breakfast is usually 2 eggs scrambled with some veggies, 2 slices of turkey bacon, a whole wheat tortilla and coffee.
Mid-morning snack is a piece of fruit and a piece of part-skim mozzarella string cheese, although I usually only have one or the other because I'm never hungry in the morning.
Lunch is a BIG salad with some sliced deli meat, homemade vinaigrette dressing and lots of pumpkin seeds on it. Sometimes I'll have a piece of ww toast or another tortilla.
Mid-afternoon snack is a piece of fruit.
Pre-workout snack (at about 4pm) is two slices of ww toast with peanut butter.
Dinner is always a small serving lean meat, usually baked, with a big salad or some sauteed veggies and, every once in a while, some brown rice.
Dessert, at least an hour before bed, is usually some low-fat vanilla yogurt mixed with a few frozen berries and a banana.


See? It's a lot of food if I eat it all. And that day usually comes in right at 1900 calories, which is the amount needed for me to lose 2 lbs a week without working out. I just need to keep it going. I'm always on the threshold of not eating enough for breakfast and lunch and eating too much for dinner. However, as long as I'm losing and making positive changes in my body, I guess things are going well.

DAY 27:

I'm on Day 27 of my 31 day commitment to allowing Jason to plan my workouts and monitor my meals. It has been such a great experience and I'm pretty positive I'll be asking him to do the 28 days of February for me as well. I'm not sure what my loss will be for the month, but I'm pretty proud of all that I've accomplished:

1. No sodas in 27+ days.
2. Not missed a single workout except for four days when I was too sick to.
3. Increased my sprints from five laps per 20 minute period to 8 laps.
4. I need new undies...these are too big!
5. I'm getting the right amount of sleep; not too much like I used to.
6. I have a better attitude in general.
7. I recognize my cravings and do my best to curb them with healthy alternatives.

I'll have to come back on Sunday to report what my total loss for January is. I weighed 199 on the first and weighed 225 this time last year. I'm hoping for 189, but I'm SUPER happy to be consistently under 200!

Number 50!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen! This post is my 50th! I wanted to post sooner, but I had thoughts of grandeur, celebration and complexity! I wanted it to reek with celebration. Then I decide to save that for 100. Lol!


Not really. I'm very excited about getting to post 50 in such a short time. I've had this blog up and active since October 2008 and I've seen some blogs where they celebrate #50 on or around their one year anniversary. I did ponder the subject of this post to an unnecessary extent. I even let the world know about my quandary via MySpace and Facebook status updates! I did have a suggestion that I do a give-away, and I would have loved to, but I have no crafty goodness to offer up right now and I've got two Craftster swaps going on, so there's just no time for that.

I think that this is a good time to post another progress report. So, first things first.

One of my resolutions this year was to work on my relationship with God. It has been broken for far too long now, and I just want the good Lord to repair it. I've been doing my best by doing several paragraph-a-day devotionals throughout the week. I'm not always consistent, but I am working on it. I'm also working on my attitude towards going to church more regularly. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I enjoy slow weekend mornings with no obligations. I know I need fellowship with other Christians, so I'm praying for an excited attitude about church. I want the anticipation of fellowship, worship and God's word to far outweigh anything else I could be doing. I want to have a merry heart;

"He who is of a merry heart has a continual feast." - Proverbs 15:15 NKJV

The next big resolution was for me to stick to my dear hubby's eating and exercising plan for one month. That is going extraordinarily well. I didn't have a loss for the past week, but I've not missed a workout and have not veered from my eating plan. I know that I'm losing inches as all my clothes are becoming more and more loose. My rings twirl around my thinning fingers with reckless abandon nowadays. That's a wonderful feeling!

So, that is post #50. I hope it wasn't too boring, but I felt like the proper content was what was truly going on in my life right now. Where I am now without regards to the past or the future. I'm putting my life in His hands and that's the most important thing I could post about right now.


"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank him for his answers." - Philippians 4:6 TLB

Thanks for reading, and as always, many blessings to you and yours.

Progress Report

So, eight days ago, I started the "Jason Kicks My Everloving Butt Into Shape" plan. Today is Day #9 and I'm here to present the 4-1-1 on what's happened so far.

As of this morning, I'm 4 lbs. lighter than I was on January 1. Yay! This is the lowest I've weighed in a little over 3 years! That is a lot for one week, but most people lose quite a bit their first week of a new program, so I'm not concerned about it. I will be shooting for a healthy loss of 1.5 - 2 lbs. per week after this. That is awesome!

The workout regimen consists of six workouts a week that each take about 45 minutes. The main focus of the workout program is cardio, but there are several strength circuits thrown in to work my legs, arms and core. Some days, I feel like I'm barely going to finish, but I haven't quit once. Jason said he's really impressed and proud of that. I'm having fun working out and I don't get bored since I don't ever do the same workout two days in a row. This past Wednesday was my day of rest, and I tell you what, I was honestly bummed that I couldn't work out. I know it's not safe to push yourself into working out seven days in a row, but I wanted to. That's a great epiphany for me!

My eating plan is very sound and I'm not having problems with hunger or cravings. Shockingly enough, I haven't had a soda since December 31!! I don't think I've gone that long without a coke since before high school! My breakfast usually consists of oatmeal, turkey bacon and coffee or two eggs, ww toast, turkey bacon and coffee. Lunch is a homemade bean and rice burrito with a salad or just a BIG salad, dinner is what we were eating before, just smaller portions. I eat 3 snacks a day, usually some combination of a banana, apple, string cheese, yogurt with fruit and peanut butter toast. Again, I'm not really ever hungry and I haven't had any unbearable cravings.

With week one over, I have to say that my initial optimism has actually increased. I'm really looking forward to continuing our plan over the long haul. I've promised Jason that I'll give it a month, but I definitely anticipate volunteering for much longer.

On a related note, I just had one of my dreams come true. No, Robert Pattinson did not show up and ask me to move to London with him. ;) I just discovered that my local grocer sells some varieties of Ritter Sport chocolate bars. I'm in a "Chocoholics" swap on Craftster, which is not the smartest idea in the world, considering my program, but all our chatting about chocolate has set off some cravings. I'm allowed a "cheat" for every seven days that I accomplish and I was daydreaming about having a Ritter Sport for a cheat when my family comes to visit because I knew that they can buy them in San Antonio and Austin. I stopped into the grocery store yesterday afternoon because I forgot my afternoon banana, of all things, and there they were, right by the register! A whole row of Ritter Sport chocolate bars!! It was a dream come true. I will be having one tomorrow afternoon for my first cheat and I can't wait.