Goodbye 250's!

This is a pic of the carot cakes, peanut butter balls, popcorn and other yummy foods I resisted last night.

See the yummy stuff I said "no" to last night? It totally paid off!

Last night I went to a PJ party with a group of women I absolutely adore. What are the chances that they would have a "Cake off" and the cakes featured were my FAVORITE kind of cake.  Carrot Cake.  My absolute favorite.  and cookies and ooey gooey popcorn and chips and dip and.... ok I'll stop now, you get the picture. I ate carrots, apples, cucumbers, celery, strawberries, and reduced fat wheat thins (only 16- thats a serving.) I was 250 yesterday and just on the verge of breaking out of the 250s.  I chose not to indulge in those yummy food, and it TOTALLY PAID OFF! I weighed in this morning at 248! Its the first time I've seen the 240s in about 5 years. I am SO EXCITED! I've lost a total of 24lbs in 57 days.  I know that had I made better decisions and not went on an eating binge a few weeks ago I would have a higher number now, and that does hurt a little but I am chosing to only look forward.

Hello 240's.  Even though I was excited to see you, you have become my new enemy.  I will work daily at making food choices that will ensure you must leave.  I will work even harder at exercising to make sure that you have no choice but to pack your bags and go away. Forever.

yay! Slowly, but surely!

I have no will power.  I know its best to weigh weekly, but I've been weighing everyday. The scale just sits on the floor, calling out to me... I have an obligation to that scale to use it every day, dont I? U mean... wouldnt it be a waste of my $14.99 to not use it daily? Glad you agree.  Anyway, I got on the scale this morning and I am down another pound. Total of -21lbs.  Last nights dinner was chicken, salad and green and wax beans. There was so much veggies and very little meat.. but it proved to be good for the scale this morning, so I believe that will be a regular part of my meal plan.

For those of you reading this who are dieting/exercising, please go to www.loseit.com, sign up and request me as a friend.  Its like a facebook site that you can log calories in/out and pounds lost. Its really helped me stay on track.  After you've logged for a while, it can show you graphs of your nutrition, weight loss, and body mass index.  Its been a tool that is very motivating for me.  Friends can see what you've eaten, and what exercises you've done, and how much weight you've lost. It doesnt post your weight however, unless you post it. I, for one, have  no problem with the world knowing how much I weigh.(251)  Its obvious when they look at my body. And I believe that its helped me to become real about who I am, and who I want to become.  I am in no way proud of how much I weigh but I am proud of the fact that I have set my mind to something, and I havent quit yet.  To those of you who dont know me, I am imfamous at starting a new big project, and then quitting half way thru.  Its something I HATE about who I am.  This time will be different. I am 55 days into this weight loss journey (I started on before the first of Jan) and this is as far as I have ever come when I've attempted to lose weight.  I usually make it to the end of January and then quit.  This time will be different.  I have 336 days left to acheive my goal. My goal is to weight 175 by my birthday next year. thats 76 more lbs I have to lose in 336 days.  If I reach my goal before my birthday, I will attempt to hit 150, which is 101 lbs to lose in 336 days.  This weight loss will be free of pills, or drops or any other supplement (Minus 5 hour energy- I use those on occassion -sry Kerri)
I've quoted this before but I love it "Today is here! Yesterday is gone, but today is finally here! This time will be different. This time I will reach my goal. Thank God, that  today is finally here!"

To all of you who are struggling with your weight, come on this ride with me.  I am in no way a nutrition or exercise expert, but I would love to help you in anyway I can.  The first step is so hard, and the second and third steps are harder.. and the 57th step you may feel is going to kill you.  Just keep going, keep pushing, because when you think that you cant take another step, and you cant go any further, and then you do, its the most exhilerating feeling in the world.   Love you all, and God bless.

Last published was too long ago! Whoops!

Ok! My bad! Life got busy and I abandoned my blog.  Instead of shooting for daily, I may do once a week.. Who knows? Anyways, as of today I am down 20lbs. I was down 24lbs and then I had this massive "Lets eat everything in sight" sort of day and I gained four pounds back.  Not good.  However, I have learned how hard it is to lose it and how easy it is to gain it back so I will attempt to avoid that at all costs.  I also have learned in these last few weks that DIET SODA is not my friend.  I was only drinking it about once a week, and then I started drinking it daily.  When I did that I reduced the amount of water I was drinking (not intentionally) and drinking it increased my cravings for sugary deep fried faty foods. (Hence the 4lbs when I could take the cravings no longer.) I am continuing to do a form of the biggest losser diet. Dustan and I have shot around idea's like weight watchers or atkins (keep quiet nay-sayers, I've done my homework.) We may attempt one of those but we'll see.  I am working out Monday thru Friday still. I do have the occassional slip day where I dont go one day of week (Due to life) but I usually have a double workout on Mondays so Im ok.   Saturdays are just not feasible with three kids and a husband and we live 20 miles away from the gym.  Now, oh my goodness, let me tell you about Zumba! Holy mama! I had SO much fun! But I worked my fanny off! I was down 3lbs on the scale the next day! It was awesome.  Due to the gym's schedule of classes, I have yet to go back.  Maybe soon!
My apologies for not posting in twenty days! Maybe I'll do beter this time! Love you all! Angie

Chinese food is my enemy...

So, yesterday I fought chinese food, and it won.  Today I am going to meticulously watch myh calories, and particularly sodium... because you know that there was probably a bucket of salt in that food which made that gallon of water I drank yesterday hang on for dear life.  Todays breakfast is a pc of whole wheat toast, a medium orange, a small banana, and a yogurt.. just under 400 calories. For lunch, I am brinking a  grilled chicken caesar salad with lowfat dressing, fat free croutons, strawberries, and an apple.  On the biggest loser diet your supposed to have 4 fruits and 4 vegetables daily, and I try to eat my four fruits before noon so
Im not going to bed with sugar in my body.  Yesterdays workout, while it was good because it was a workout, didnt seem.... hardcore, get your body sweatin' and I didnt feel like I had energy after it was over.  Curse you Chinese food! Curse you! lol :-P

Day 4

I had an ok day today.  I was feeling kinda blah, and almost skipped the Gym but decided against it.  Today was payday and my gym clothes have been getting rather baggy lately so I went to the store and bought capris and a tanktop, but the exciting thing about it was: IT WAS A SIZE SMALLER! YAY! I was so excited! I've learned to appreciate the small rewards.  I am very pleasently surprised. You get so focused on the number on the scale sometimes that you forget to look at your body and gauge successes by your physical abilities as well! I've just googled my BMI and before I started working out I was 43.9.. Disgusting!! I literally felt gross when I found out that where I was.  Now I am 41.3 I've dropped my number down by 2.6 in about a month! It feels great.   To think that every step I take and every calorie I burn is 1 step closer to reaching my goal is exhilerating! We signed the boys up for baseball tonight and I am looking forward to the weekends we spend practicing together as a family.  Last year I was too fat and lazy to get off my but and practice with them.. This year I want to play with them and practice with them.  There's so much more to weight loss than a number on a scale. :-)

Day 2 and 3

Well, yesterday was awesome, and bad at the same time.  How, you ask? Well, for my last birthday hoorah I went out to dinner with a good friend and had a blast.  Well, "having a blast" does not have to entail so much food! lol I ate Thai, it was kinda healthy kinda not.. and then went to the movies and we snuck in rasberry sorbet, which was only 350 calories, but I should have not eaten the container. lol Anyways, I ended up eating about 500 calories over my goal, so I was still under 2000 calories for the day, but didnt work out.  Boo.

Today, however is going much better.  I have eaten very healthy all day and I worked out at the gym on the eliptical for 45 minutes and burned over 500 calories.  It felt great.  I've eaten very healthy today and my loseit.com tracker says I have over 1000 calories left in my budget to eat! (Thats with the calories I burned.) 

For those of you who havent visited this site, its amazing and you should really check it out! Its like FB for weight loss.. you can post on other people's pages, see what they've eaten, how many calories they've burned, and encourage each other! Its great! I urge you to check into it... and the best thing about it, is that its absolutely free!

Gonna go now, watchin' the biggest loser with my husband... Its so motivating!

Day 1. (well, its actually been 1 month but day 1 blogging!)

Im starting my weight loss blog today.  I started working out and excersizing on Jan 1 and am down 16lbs in a month.  I have 106lbs to lose and my goal is to lose it by January 27th, 2012 (my 30th  birthday.)  In the last month I have worked out almost 5 days per week.  I started out on the eliptical at 15minutes and couldnt do anymore and would have to finish with 15 minutes on the exercise bike.  That was last year in January.  I quit after that because I felt discouraged. This year, I've increased my eliptical time to 45 minutes monday thru friday.  I usually burn about 500calories.  I work out at Club 24 Monday thru Friday.  It is my goal to get to Monday thru Saturday, but so far Saturday workouts have been pretty inconsistant.  Thats something I'd like to change.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I do cardio and strength training.  Every other Monday I workout with my Personal Trainer at a church workout group.  I never thought that working out would become so important and so meaningful to me! After just a month, I have begun to crave that time.  The way my body feels when I finish is unbelievable. 
Now to my Diet.  I am following the Biggest loser diet, with a few exceptions.  A general breakdown of the diet is 4 fruits and 4 vegetables everyday, 3 lean proteins, 2 whole grains, and 1 "other."  I also drink a gallon of water almost everyday.  Before I began this adventure, I indulged on sweets, fried foods, POP (used to be my favorite) and other foods that are only intended to be treats.  Well, the way my husband and I used to eat, we were treating ourselves every day! Every meal! It was sickening.   Now we have done a 180 with our diets.  We dont overeat. We count our calories. We watch sodium.  Sometimes when I am feeling guilty about having a little more, or having a treat (usually low calorie), I stop myself.  This is not about a diet, and its not cheating to have a treat.  Its living a healthy lifestyle.  The fact of the matter is, we are eating way better than we were just a month ago AND if you dont ever allow yourselves treats, you'll binge, and then fall off the healthy living bandwagon.  This journey is not about guilt and doing everything perfectly.  Its about hardwork, dedication, learning to eat healthy and improving our overall quality of life. 
If you havent done so yet, I encourage you to start living a healthier active lifestyle.  You only get one time around, and you want to make the most of every day God has given you.  If you dont know God, give me a chance to introduce you to Him.  Without Him in your life, nothing else matters. Enjoy reading the blogs, please leave feedback, and good luck on your weight loss, healthy living journey.