Memorial Day

Today was a VERY challenging day! With the family get-together, a family sleep-in, messed up eating schedule... YIKES! But overall, I can say I did very well. This, of course, was thanks to a very supportive family! :)

Did I work out? No. I was very sore upon waking up from Yoga yesterday. I decided to give myself a day off of working out. My shoulders were KILLING ME! Which was very unexpected, because I thought my knees or wrists would be bothering me today. But my shoulders were so sore! I'm telling you, it was a tough class! No Joke!

As far as food, I had a successful day. I started off with some organic cereal, which was super yummy and filling! For lunch we had our cookout. The options for food were: Ribs (yep... yum!), Hummus and Pita bread, Veggies and dip, Chips and Dip, and the leftover macaroni salad from yesterday. I may have overeaten slightly on the Chips and dip (thanks, Moloneys! LOL), but that's ok, because I didn't really overeat for the day. When I came home from work, I had 2 pieces of vegetable pizza and a piece of carrot cake. Now here I am!

I apologize for yet another boring blog.... still exhausted from work. I put in 5 hours today, which is significantly less than I did last week each day, but still... on a holiday. :-\ So anyways, off to bed I go. I have orientation again tomorrow, and I start guard practice! Extra small workouts once a week! Wahooooo! :) See you tomorrow. Have a great night!

No-Go Yoga

Yep, you heard me! NO MORE YOGA! Ouch! Great workout, but VERY hard on my wrists and knees. Yowza! I think our instructor was mixing Yoga and Pilates, which is great for the workout! But a lot of it was new to me, and I've done Yoga before. I just won't be able to go back until I have more weight off, because my wrists and knees are in bad shape from guard, and until I get more weight off, I'm going to kill them even more doing Yoga! But I did break a sweat, and it was so fun to go work out with my mom again! :)

Mom and I tried some new things today with diet. We had smoothies for lunch. We bought 2 different kinds of smoothies. My favorite was this off-brand. I'll have to get the brand to post on here... but all it is is fruit and ice. But it was sooooo good! And healthy. :) The best kind! We also wanted some macaroni salad, but we wanted to make it healthier. So mom used 1/2 lite mayonnaise, and 1/2 regular mayonnaise. And, if I'm not mistaken, she used whole wheat macaroni, too. Yum!

Overall a great day! I think I'm making the life change I need to. I'm just changing my decisions as I go along. And I scheduled my appointment with a personal trainer, I'm going to be with Brenda at St. James now! :) Big Dave was all booked up, but that's fine. I trust all the trainers there! It's such a great place to work out!

Tomorrow is the first holiday since I started this up... we will see what happens. I know I'll be fine, but I always get nervous around holidays, because I know there's usually pressure with eating bad food. I just feel different this time around. Like I can do this. Anyways, that's all for tonight. Have a great Memorial Day! :)

Another one bites the dust...

And here we go again! :) Another great day today! It was nice and relaxing to not work today. I actually got a minute to reflect on things, and it's a good reflection.

Mom and I went grocery shopping today. She enjoyed me actually being involved in selecting healthy foods. I am trying to make a transition to organic foods. I'm giving it a shot this week in some meals. We got some organic lunches for when I'm working, and an organic cereal. We will see how this works out!

I got to talk to Julie (personal trainer) today. She is like super duper busy and I have been wanting to get back in with a personal trainer. I asked her who she would recommend, and she recommended "Big Dave" (hahaha, I've seen him before, and he is "big") for me. We are going to talk tomorrow morning because I'm going to go into the club to work out tomorrow... maybe spinning or body pump? We will see! Body pump is later in the morning... ;-) And I'm thinking tomorrow I am going to start really keeping track of calories. Not obsessively, but enough to where I have an idea of how many calories I'm eating!

Anyways, I hope your holiday weekend is going well, and I will see you tomorrow! :) Happy Saturday!

Who said that?

Today was a wonderful day in the life-changing world all too commonly referred to as "dieting". I hate that word. Anyways.... for those of you wondering, YES, I did work out. I didn't go to the gym as I thought I would, but I did even better in my opinion. I chose to use my Biggest Loser Wii game, and I did a moderate 30 minute full body work out, and I have to tell you, my heart was POUNDING, I was sweating like I have never sweat before (gross, right?), and I am already feeling it. It was an amazing work out! :) Plus, Jillian was yelling at me, and that was part of the overall Biggest Loser experience! HAHAHA!

My food choices were great today, as well. I started off the day with my new favorite, oatmeal. I used splenda brown sugar and skim milk in it as well. For lunch I was trying to be creative with lunch and dinner since I had a long day of work ahead of me. So I went to Subway and got a $5 footlong with chips. I also packed some extras like the fruit crunches and a Kashi granola bar. I got the Black Forest Ham on Wheat, lettuce, cucumbers, green pepper, and oil and vinegar (to which I said "Wait... who said that?" because usually in this situation I get light mayo.... not today, my friends!). This was when I realized that this is real. I'm doing it without even thinking about it! AMAZING!

This weekend I'm off of work, so I will have lots of extra time on my hands. I want to make it in to a spinning class at some point, and I would really love to get hooked up with a personal trainer again. The determination is driving me crazy, so I'm thinking I need to utilize this energy for woking out! :) And for those wondering, my birthday is exactly 3 weeks away! WAHOO! Goodnight, my friends, and have a wonderful and healthy Memorial Day weekend! See you tomorrow!

Believe in yourself, trust the process, change FOREVER!

Thank you to Bob Harper for speaking those amazing words. It's great how when you really find yourself in weight loss, those words speak true! Needless to say, I have had yet another amazing day. Let's explore it together, shall we?

I started off my day with all intentions of going to work out. However, silly me, I forgot to set my alarm last night when I went to bed. I woke up at 8:00, and had to be at an appointment for work at 9:30, then had to work from 12-9. The workout in the gym didn't quite fit into that plan if I didn't get it done early. OOPS! However, at work today we were working on lifting and range of motion. So I definitely still fit in a workout! :) I'm sore from yesterday, and fatigued from today! Yeesh!

The food plan was a bit rough today, but not too bad, really. I just let myself get hungry. I didn't get a break today, so that proved to be difficult. I had oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich and veggie chips with a banana for lunch, around 2 I had a sandwich and chips, then I just ate a BLT and had a dish of frozen yogurt! SOOOOOO GOOD! :) And much better for you than ice cream! (not to mention that it really filled my chocolate craving!)

The determination is definitely getting stronger and stronger as the days go on. I really think this is it. I think I'm achieving my goal! :) I did, as previously mentioned, write myself letters. I chose to not just do one for when I reach my goal, but I wrote 4 (yes, 4!) letters to myself to get me through this process. Each of them has a certain milestone.

My first letter is to me at 216 pounds. This was a reminder to myself that I started my weight loss plan that worked in high school at 216 pounds. So this is my reminder of how far I let my weight gain after that go, and to remind myself that I've been here before, and won. Then I wrote a letter to myself at 199 pounds, to congratulate me on making it into the 100's, which I haven't been at since 2006 when I performed at world championships for winter guard! My next letter is a major milestone, a letter to myself at 175 pounds. This is a major milestone for me, this is what I weighed in high school, when I was miss hot stuff! :) LOL! This was when I got my first boyfriend, found myself, and was voted on to homecoming court. This is also when I quit losing weight because I settled. I didn't hit my goal, but I was happy. In this letter I tell myself not to quit this time, but to reach my goal. Then I wrote myself a letter at my goal - 130 pounds. Some of you may be thinking yeesh, you will look so thin at that weight! But truth be told, I'll look great. I have the muscular body that if I get to that weight, I will look healthy still! I was told I should weigh 115 pounds. That is too thin. I would look sick. But anyways, back to the letter... LOL! I wrote in this letter to congratulate myself on FINALLY reaching my goal that I've never reached before. And to remind myself of how unhappy I am now with my body, and how great this life change will be for me. And also to make myself promise to NEVER gain my weight back. This is good. I can feel it. It's really, really good!

Anyways, I am totally and 100% exhausted from work today (my first day with the residents), so I am going to go to bed. The plan is to work out in the morning. Someone text me to remind me to set my alarm, LOl! Have a great night, everyone!

Here we go again... :)

Again, I suck and am short on time. I had to watch American Idol and see if Crystal won! So sorry!

I had a great day today. I turned down cookies tonight! Seriously! Mom and Dad can confirm it! I had a glass of milk instead! Wahoo! And I started off my day a little bit different with Oatmeal for breakfast instead of toast! :) As you can tell by the exclamation points, I am so happy with my day!

After work I came home, changed, and went straight to the gym. I had a great workout today, as well! I felt good about it. I did 4 jogging intervals, so that was great! :)

More to come... tomorrow I work until 9, and it's training with my residents tomorrow, so my update may be slightly later tomorrow. I promise to update a bit more tomorrow! Have a great day tomorrow!

Self-Determination

Lots of determination is going on with me lately. I don't know what it is, but I'm loving it! I have to work in a little bit, so this will be short but sweet. Basically I'm going to put together everything I have learned about weight loss, and lose it. For real! Starting weight is 274. I am going to work until 4 today, come home and change, then go work out at the gym. My goal weight is 130. :) Here we go. Starting a new, long journey that will end in serious happiness. See you later today! (p.s. I wrote my notes to myself last night. I will explain more later!)

First day of work...

Well, today was the moment of truth. I started work, and I have to tell you, after sitting through a 9 hour lecture, the last thing I wanted to do was work out. Not to mention I've had to take care of Grandma tonight.

I had a slightly larger breakfast this morning not knowing when I would be eating lunch. So I had 2 pieces of toast today :) Lunch was at 12, and I packed a sandwich and sunchips. So yummy! And my major success of the day - I avoided the vending machine!! The guy next to me took like 3 trips, and the M & M's smelled soooooo good, but I didn't get any! Grandma and I just had stuffed chicken breasts and potato salad (needed to finish it off - but there wasn't much left, so we split it).

As you can probably tell by my boring blog, I am 100% exhausted. So off to bed I go... or at least time to relax...

Rough Day...

Day 5 proved to be slightly more challenging, and I'm not sure why. It was a weird day. My allergies were AWFUL to start with, so I took some pills, and I'm pretty sure they made me a bit sleepy. I took a 2 hour nap this afternoon! So I'm pretty sure that's what ruined my day... but who knows!

I did stick to my 5 meals today... though some were slightly smaller than others. French toast was our breakfast (family breakfasts on weekend mornings), then I had a PBJ and a banana around 11:30, then I had a tuna fish wrap with crackers, then some carrots and peanut butter, and for dinner I had a turkey burger (no bun), pasta with veggies, and a medium blizzard from dairy queen (my real weekend splurge, lol).

I did not get to work out today. I figure I've been pretty good the past couple of days with working out, so I took a day off to just kind of chill. Plus that medicine really threw me through a loop! Oh well, tomorrow is a whole new day!

Tomorrow brings another major challenge... I am now officially working full time starting tomorrow! Yikes! So I work 8am - 5pm tomorrow, and I get a lunch break. I will take extra snacks just in case we are allowed to eat snacks or whatever, just to ensure my 5 meals a day! We will see how this works...

Day 4 = 3 meals :-\

Well today was a bit different from the others... I WENT AND WORKED OUT! As in I got in the car, drove the couple of miles to the gym, got out of my car, got on a treadmill, got on an arc trainer, got back in my car, drove home! So proud of myself! :)

I didn't do as well with my meal plan... I only had 3 meals today. But that's just a Saturday for you! :) I had a late breakfast (mom made coffee cake, SUPER YUM!) at like 11:30, so that kind of threw me off a bit because I'm used to 11:30 being my second meal! Oh well... still feels like a successful day!

My workout was was great. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5, then I did the weight loss program on the Arc Trainer for 20 minutes! But let's not talk about how 1/2 way through the Arc Trainer workout my iPod went flying and I had to pause my workout, which then cancelled the workout... I went back and finished the last 10 minutes of course, but I was ticked for the first like 2 minutes! LOL!

That's all for now. Kind of an uneventful day. Tomorrow will probably be much the same. Then I start work on Monday! WAHOOOOOO! Have a great day tomorrow!

Day 3

I forgot to post my update last night... oops! So here I am to post about my day yesterday! :) First of all, I got a very exciting phone call yesterday to start my day off - I got a full time (part time, but I can pick up shifts to be full time) job at Sunshine, and I start next week!

I started off my day with the usual - toast with peanut butter and a banana. I wanted to change it up, but I wasn't in the mood for anything else. (I'm changing it up today, though. Mom is making coffee cake! YUM!) A couple hours later I had a cheese quesadilla (again, YUM!), then a couple hours later I had 2 turkey hot dogs (no bun) and fruit salad. For dinner we had pizza from walmart, which actually isn't as bad as other pizza. I stayed in my calories, and got in 4 yummy meals! Oh, and I forgot my cookies and milk! It doesn't sound like I'm dieting, does it? LOL. Love it!

I am dog-sitting Erica's dog, so he has been my exercise! Chasing him around this house is a job, for sure! But today he's more comfortable around the house, so that's good. :)

Have a fabulous day, everyone!

SUCCESS!!

Thank you to those of you who have stuck with me through this process, and please know that your time has not been wasted! Despite my "failed attempt" as I thought it was, I have lost 8.6 pounds since January! The stress must have worked with me while student teaching! :)

So, as you may have guessed, I played a little bit of Wii today. I did Wii Fit today and clocked 9 minutes of exercise! I could definitely feel that I hadn't worked out in a while, because I didn't do much, but I felt it! I realized how bad my balance was, which was a point of pride for me! With guard, I knew I always had my balance, but YIKES! It left me! :( So here's to some serious hard work on the Wii to improve EVERYTHING, including my balance!

Today I didn't get to my "5 meals" still... I have had 3 meals, but 2 of them were fairly good sized meals instead of small meals. I started off my morning with toast and coffee (the toast had butter and peanut butter this time around), then a couple hours later I was at Erica's house and we went to Panera for a pick two! I had the Sierra Turkey sandwich and my Broccoli Cheddar soup (and let me remind you, the soup is low cal! It's not as bad as you would think!) But now I'm thinking I may have some of that Greek Yogurt (YUM!) with granola and craisins to finish off my day! :)

Positivity is key, and it's working! :) I feel good! Day 2 can officially be marked as success!

Here we go... Day 1

Well, day 1 of the new beginning has been successful (despite being knocked down by a migraine...). I know I said I was going to work out, no excuses, but come on, I had my first true blue migraine. It was not fun, and I did not enjoy myself, that's for sure! The headache is still holding strong, but not even half as bad as it was a couple hours ago!

I stayed true to my word and tried the whole "5 meal" plan, and it worked! I wasn't half as hungry as I usually am, and I found myself making better choices! I started off with breakfast (toast, banana, and coffee), 2nd meal around 12:30 (ham sandwich with carrots), 3rd meal around 3:15 (crackers - this was when the migraine really set in), 4th meal around 6:30 (bbq beef sandwich, veggie straws, and bread & butter pickles), then my 5th meal was just about an hour ago (egg whites scrambled with toast). I hope my migraine didn't contribute to the fact that I wasn't hungry. Hopefully tomorrow will be the true test of how this works out for me.

Tomorrow I will work my way in to working out again. :) Should be fun! I think I'll start it off on the wii so that not only will I be weighing in, but also getting in a mild workout for my first time in a while! Wish me luck!

And so it is...

Well, life (again) got the best of me, and I lost track of my goal. But, like I said, I'm determined this time. So I had a bad week. It happens. Anyone who has dieted knows that. But, a week later, I'm feeling it again. That itch to lose weight. It's going to happen. I know it is. I can feel it!

I have started thinking ahead. This morning I woke up and gave myself some time to think about what would be a good breakfast. So I started off my day with a piece of toast and a banana. Not the best choice, but I needed to start small. My goal is 5 small meals a day, like it's supposed to be. So I'm getting ready for my 2nd small meal, and I'm thinking a half of a sandwich and carrots.

I was going to go to the gym today, but I'm really not feeling it. I do want to get in exercise, so I'm thinking I'll do some of my Biggest Loser Wii game to get in some exercise. :) Plus it will give me a starting weight to track my weight loss.

Here we go.... take 3! :) See you tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow!

Well, it's official, tomorrow is my official day of kicking things back into gear. I have teamed up with a friend from school, Kylee, and we are going to start working out together. :) I'm super excited to have someone to work out with again! Especially someone that's under the same workload I was under, so she totally gets it. It's awesome! No excuses this time!

Tomorrow the plan is to go on a nice 5 mile walk at Wildwood (if not, backup plan is to go to the gym) right away in the morning. Plus, I'm beginning the whole "counting calories" plan again. I feel determined this time. Call me crazy, but this could be it.

I got the idea from The Biggest Loser to send myself a message. They do it via video, but since I'm not all into advanced technology (videocamera, haha) I'm going to write myself a letter. Starting at the end of week one (my usual "I give up" or "I've done it for a week straight, let's take one day off", which turns into giving up....), then one month in, then halfway to my goal, then at my goal weight. Just to remind myself of why I am doing this. Good stuff.

I'm going to start this off on the right foot, I am going to get lots of sleep tonight! Going to bed early, getting up usual time (8am... teacher time!). Wish me luck! (p.s. I will get a new starting weight in the morning via Jillian Michaels Wii)