Weigh-In-Wednesday

Today is Wednesday and you know what that means for me. Yep, another weigh-in day. I have to admit this was my scariest weigh-in ever. I weigh myself every day and after seeing what the scale had to say yesterday I was hoping for just a small one pound GAIN this week and not more than that. The scale was not kind yesterday.

Well, I'm happy to say that this morning the scale read 183.5, which is a .5 pound LOSS and puts me at 22 lbs. lost total. I am happy I did not see my first gain of this journey, although I'm not too happy that the scale was so inconsistent for me this week. I have been very consistent on this journey and the scale has never showed much more than a one pound differential from one day to the next.

I'm not sure if it is because TOM is visiting this week, or what. I do know that TOM has never really affected me too much before so I don't really want to use that as an excuse. I guess the difference may be I have given into TOM's cravings more this month.

March was not a very consistent month for me as far as eating went. I went off plan too much. I need to get back on track. I have worked too hard to lose these pounds to gain them back. And I have a lot more pounds to lose, I am going to have to work even harder.

On a positive note, I jogged for 16 minutes today. My goal was to do a little better than Monday. I decided I would run 1 1/4 miles today. So I did. I think my next run should put me at 1 1/2 miles and I should be able to meet the 20 minute goal of C25K week 5, day 3. Yay for me!

I lost 5 1/2 pounds in March and walked/jogged about 62 miles! I am proud of those accomplishments and look forward to accomplishing even more in April.

The kids are on spring break for the next few days. Too bad it is nothing like spring here! It has been snowing all day! I'm sure in a few months I will be complaining that it is too hot. I just hope we don't skip spring around here. I love spring!

C25K Week 5, Day 2 1/2

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend. Mine was pretty fun. On Friday, my girls and I met my mom for dinner at TGI Fridays and then we went to a college gymnastics meet. Our local gymnastics team is always really good so we try to go to a meet once a year.

On Saturday, we went as a family to dinner at Olive Garden and then to see "How to Train a Dragon". The movie is very cute and well made!

I'm sure it won't surprise you to know that I overate this weekend, considering I ate out at very yummy restaurants twice. I over indulged on spinach/artichoke dip and chips on Friday and also had a few too many bites of the brownie sundae. I did only eat half of my dragonfire chicken over jasmine rice. At Olive Garden I got soup and salad and ate a few bread sticks. I should have just stuck to one bread stick. Anyway, I did not record my food all weekend. Right after I post this I am going to sparkpeople to enter today's food.

For the past three years or so a friend of mine and I have been walking a couple of miles each early morning during the warmer months. Today was day one of walking this year. I love walking with my friend, it gives us exercise and a nice 45 minute, uninterrupted chat each week day. I can definitely tell I am more conditioned now than I used to be. I did not tire as easily on our walk. In years past, I would do nothing during the winter months and it was always a killer to start up again. It felt good to be able to see a noticeable difference in my fitness level.

I know that I will need to do more cardio than just our morning walks so today I decided to get on the treadmill after the kids went to school. I figured I'd do another mile. Then I decided to jog a mile. I warmed up with a five minute walk and then started my jog. I'm happy to say that I jogged 1.16 miles and for 15 minutes! Up until now I haven't paid too much attention to my distance, but I know I've never run a mile straight before! So I was not able to complete W5D3 of the C25K training that is to run for 20 minutes. But I am happy with my progress and running for 20 minutes actually seems doable to me now. I am a believer (finally) in the program...or maybe I should say I am finally a believer in myself!

Have a good day everybody!

Worth Waking Up For

My "baby" is five now so I am past the time in my life when my nights were mostly sleepless. You know the time when you are woken up 2-3 times a night because the baby is hungry, needs to be changed or just wants his mommy. Unfortunately for me, my kids were never great sleepers and didn't really sleep well until they were 2 or 3. For you moms out there, who are still in the "sleepless nights" stage please know how much I admire you. I admire you for mustering up the energy everyday to still exercise. I admire you for not stuffing your faces with food because you need something to do or you will fall asleep. I admire you for being moms and loving your kids, even at 2 a.m. And know, that it will get better. Someday.

Having said that, my son still gets up occasionally at night. This is the routine. He gets up, comes in our room, stands by MY side of the bed and waits for me to get up and tuck him back in his bed. It is a very short process, but still a wake up. This morning he woke up for his extra tuck in at about 5:30 a.m. I must publicly thank him for doing so. Seeing that it was 5:30 and knowing that the alarm would be going off in just 15 minutes actually got me out of bed this morning to exercise. I haven't exercised that early for a couple of weeks now. I'm blaming it on daylight savings time. Anyway, I was able to do the treadmill this morning. Had I not got up that early, exercise (or maybe grocery shopping) would not have happened today. I had to be at the school first thing to volunteer and this started off a very busy day.

As I headed down to the treadmill I was thinking to myself that I really needed to attempt Week 5, Day 2 of my C25K training. I'm averaging about a day a week of this training. W5D2 really had me nervous because it is 2 intervals of 8 minutes of running with a 5 minute walk in between. Anyway, I didn't commit myself to completing it and wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. After a 5 minute warm-up walk I started running. After about 4 minutes I still felt pretty good and realized I just may be able to complete 8 minutes of running! And I did! I did the first interval and then during my 5 minute walk made commitments to myself as far as how long I HAD to run the next interval as well as at what point I would allow myself to consider slowing down the speed. I have to play games with my mind, you see. Anyway, I am proud to report that I completed the next 8 minute run (at my full speed- 4.7), too! Thus completing W5D2! I should also publicly thank Kenny Chesney (One of my fave singers) for releasing his latest song, "Aint Back Yet" (my new fave song). I think it got me throught the last couple of minutes of running! Have I mentioned how much I love my ipod?

Day three is...run for 20 minutes....what the !!$$($*!! What happened to 10 minutes or even 15 minutes? I may have to add a day 2 1/4 and day 2 1/2 to this week. We'll see. I guess I will just start running and see how long I can go, not allowing myself to stop or slow down before I have ran for at least 8 minutes. Who knows when I will attempt W5D3. It could be Saturday or it could be next week. I'm happy to take the training at my own pace. I have 6 weeks until my 5K.

I'm off to conquer the last half of my busy day. Have a great day everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Good morning! Well, today was another weigh-in and I just have to say I could not be more pleased. My official weigh in weight is 184. That is a 2.5 loss for this week, for a total of 21.5 lbs lost! Woo hoo! I'm not sure if my body made up for last week's small loss or what, but this is my biggest loss since week one of this journey. Not to mention, I had a couple of less than stellar eating days this week. My husband said that it looks like my metabolism has kicked in. I sure hope so. I have been back on track with my eating the last couple of days so I'm sure that helped.

Thank you for all the tips on how to use laughing cow cheese from yesterday's post. I will definitely be trying TJ's Alfredo sauce. I would have never thought to put it on a sweet potato, but since two of you suggested it I will try it one of these days.

This is a short post because I have a busy, busy day ahead of me. I just wanted to report in on my weigh-in and celebrate it with all of you. I hope everyone has a great, healthy day!

Things-That I Love-Tuesday

Hello everybody! It has been a few days since I blogged. I guess I haven't had much on my mind to share. My "New Moon" weekend was fun. My friends and I got some chat time while we waited for the movie to go on sale at Wal-Mart. We also stood in line to meet the "stars" but they left before we got up there. Bummer! Then my hubby and I watched the movie on Saturday night. We laughed at the cheezy parts, which always makes it more fun. I don't feel like I can laugh out loud in the theatre when I am watching it with hard core fans. I hope you all had a great weekend and Monday.

I have not been very good with my eating, once again, this week. We went to Chili's on Saturday night for dinner. I was planning on enjoying some chips and salsa and then having something from their guiltless menu for my dinner. I enjoyed the chips and salsa a lot! But then I chose something that was not on the guiltless menu. I tried their shrimp (fried) and smoked chicken mini-tacos. Yummy! I thought to myself that it is okay to have one "free" meal a week. And then later remembered that Wednesday had been a disaster eating day and so I had already had more than my one "free" meal a week. We'll see how it effects the scale. I think I will be down, but not by much.

On the positive, I have made pretty good choices exercise wise this week. I have mentioned before that I can only exercise first thing in the morning and once I'm ready for the day, I don't want to exercise later and have to shower again. This has meant that if I have morning appts., I may not exercise at all. Well, this past week I have exercised two different times when I had other things in the morning. I'm glad to see that I have been more committed to exercising even if it has to be in the afternoon. I prefer the mornings, but know it is important to fit it in when I can.

Today is Tuesday and here is the latest thing that I love:

I had seen Laughing Cow cheese mentioned on a lot of blogs so when a friend of mine offered to bring me a couple of triangles to try, I was excited. And it did not disappoint! I like to spread it on whole wheat toast and top the toast off with Canadian bacon and egg. It has also replaced my hummus in turkey wraps. I did try it on pita chips the other day, which was super yummy, but know that the higher calorie pita chips don't make a great choice.

I love that this cheese is spreadable and that it is low in fat/calories. How do you use your laughing cow cheese? I would love ideas!

See you all tomorrow for my weigh-in. I hope I can finally reach the 20 lb. mark!

It's Friday!

Happy Friday, everybody! I hope you have some fun planned this weekend. This is what my weekend entails:

Yes, that's right I am a Twihard! I have had so much fun with these books and movies. Yes, they are corny and cheezy, but they are lots of fun to follow. I mostly like the "girl time" I get everytime a movie or DVD is released. I like to plan girl's nights out to watch the movies. Last year, a couple of friends and I even went to Wal-Mart at midnight to meet one of the movie's "stars" (Victoria) and get our DVD.

Well, New Moon is being released at midnight tonight. I wasn't planning on going because my best Twilight friend is out of town. I didn't think I could find anyone else to go with me. And to be honest last year was Craaaazy, with a capital C! I was planning on enjoying a good night's sleep and then going first thing in the morning and picking up my copy. But, another friend just called me and asked if I wanted to go. She was in Wal-Mart today and they were setting up a stage for some unidentified visitors. How could I pass up a chance to stand in line, chatting with friends, for hours all to get my DVD first thing and for a chance to meet with one of the "stars". So I am going! Yes, Twilight gives me the chance a couple of nights a year to NOT act my age. I love it!

I was planning on watching the movie with my husband on Saturday. I would like to say he watches them with me because he loves me so much and wants to be with me. But I think it is just so he can make fun of it with his friends at work and church! I'm not sure we will be watching it on Saturday, seeing how his favorite team is playing in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday night. I think we will probably watch that instead. See how much I love him!

Today has been a good day. I walked for 40 minutes on the treadmill at an incline. I find I burn as many calories walking at an incline as I do when I do my C25K training and walk extra at no incline for the same amount of time. After that, I did level 2 of 30 day shred. I love to hate Jilian!

I have been on plan with my eating, too. And I'm happy to say that the scale results have recovered from Wednesday's disastrous day of eating.

I hope everyone has a fun, healthy weekend!

C25K Week 5 & The reason I weigh everyday

So after taking a few days off of training for the C25K, I started week 5 today. And....I did day one, no problem! No problem doesn't mean it wasn't hard, it just means I did it and I didn't even have to turn the speed down for the last couple of minutes. This is the first week that each day is different. I'm still not quite sure how I am going to run for 8 full minutes at a time next time, let alone for 20 minutes on day three. One day at a time, right?

Yesterday was not a good day. I know in my weigh-in post I said this week was a new week and I would do better. Apparently, I meant that this week starts today and not yesterday. I did not exercise. I had my exercise clothes on. I had time. And instead chose to play on the computer and watch my DVR'd American Idol. Hmmmm....are you getting a picture of how I ended up here in the first place.

As if no exercising was not bad enough, I also binged. I think it was my worst eating day since starting this journey. I made green rice krispy treats for St. Patty's day to have when the girls got home from school. I ate 1/5 of the pan before they got home!

Then I made Irish soda bread to go with our corned beef and cabbage for dinner. It was so yummy I had to snack on some of it before dinner and then have some with dinner. Speaking of dinner, corned beef and all it's seasoning has soooooooo much sodium in it. It was way salty!

So this morning I knew if I got on the scale I would be up. I almost didn't get on it. But one of the things that helps me is weighing everyday. This keeps me on track. I don't freak out (too much) from day to day if it is up a little. My weight as always stayed pretty consistent, never fluctuating too much from day to day. I guess this is because I have been really consistent in sticking to my exercise and diet plans. Well, yesterday was not a consistent day and so my scale results were not consistent! I had my biggest gain ever from one day to another. Hello! Wake up call! I'm glad I weighed, because I needed to see the results of my choices yesterday. And I think it helped propel me to finish W5D1 of C25K.I know weighing every day does not work for some people, but it works for me! So I will keep doing it.

I'm happy to report that I did not have a rice krispy treat or any irish soda bread for breakfast today! I'm already back on track.

Have a great day everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Hello everybody! Happy St. Patty's day! I hope you each received a visit from your leprechaun. I have to say, our leprechaun has been very inconsistent over the years. But, I'm happy to say that he did visit us today, the second year in a row. Although, I don't know why we look forward to his visits so much, he turns our milk green and makes a big mess of our living room! It must have something to do with the gold covered chocolates he leaves in the kid's shoes.

Well, today is my official weigh-in day. I was hoping to get to 20 lbs. down, but that didn't happen. My weight is now 186.5, for a loss of .5. Total pound loss is now 19. This is my smallest loss since I began this journey. Am I disappointed? Yes and no. I am disappointed because my effort was not there this past week. I knew I would not reach 20 pounds this week because of this. I guess I should be happy that I saw any loss and not a gain.

The kids went back to school last week after having a three week break and we are still trying to get adjusted to the schedule again. Having the kids back in school means I am back to volunteering once or twice a week. My son is in morning kindergarten, so mornings is when I can exercise (most easily) and it is also when I can volunteer in classrooms without having to find a babysitter.

Anyway, I met my cardio goals but did not make time for much strength training. And daylight savings time does not agree with me. It takes me a little bit to get used to . I have not been able to wake up and exercise before the kids are up.

Also, I made some poor eating decisions. I am always really good to eat well for breakfast and lunch. It is dinner I have a problem with. It is part of my "plan" to eat the same things I have always eaten at dinner time and just watch portions. I do try to make more healthy dinners now, but we still have a lot of our favorites, which can be high calorie. This past week I made Mexican and had it twice (thanks to leftovers) and I also made some chicken Alfredo rolls. Not low in fat stuff! And I had a hard time controlling my portions, too. Lesson learned. This is still a process, isn't it?

I'm glad for a new week. This week will be better.

I am having C25K dilemmas. I have not started week 5 yet. The weather has been so great around here that I have been doing my walking/jogging outside. I have not found a podcast for the c25k with music that I like on it. I really want to complete this program, though. I don't know why my music is so important, but it is.

I have been running outside though. I think I've mentioned before that during the non-winter months I go on early morning walks with a friend. Well, on those walks we would occasionally try to run some. So during my walks this week, I have tried to run what we would run. I am happy to say that I have been able to run a further distance than before. Yesterday, I ran significantly further. Of course, the "significantly further" was down hill. It sure is easier to run down hill, isn't it? My shins could feel it though, so I am giving them a rest today.

There is rain and snow :( forecasted for the next couple of days so I will start week 5 on the treadmill tomorrow. I can't remember who it was but someone commented on my post a few days back and was wanting more info about the C25K. I forgot to mention it until now, sorry.
Anyway the program is 9 weeks long, although it takes some people (like me) longer than 9 weeks to complete it. For all the info, click here.

Have a great day everybody!

New shoes and a funny story

Happy Monday, everybody! I am not a big fan of daylight savings time, at least not the first week of it. It is hard to get up when it is dark outside. However, today is a beautiful, sunny day around here so I guess I should be grateful for the extra hour of daylight tonight.

Well, I did it. I bought me some "real" running shoes on Saturday. Yes, I spent $95 on shoes. That is well beyond my usual Payless budget. Okay, I have been off the Payless budget since I got diagnosed with plantar fasciitis last year, but still I have never spent $95 on a pair of tennis shoes before. So here they are:


These are my Saucony shoes

They are great! They offer me lots of support and are very comfortable. I enjoyed walking/running in these today out in the sunshine. My neighborhood has a lot of little trails around it. Today, I found one that has a mile marker so I will be able to keep track of my distance. Yay!

Now, to the funny story. I was going to a running store to purchase my shoes. I had heard from others that the salespeople will watch you run and help you pick out a shoe that fits your running style. So, on my way to the running store I was feeling really anxious. Some of the thoughts that were running, no pun intended, through my head were, "They are going to wonder what the fat lady is doing in the store", "Will they laugh at me when I start running" and"Do I really want them to see me run?". I'm sure joking about my running style with my husband before I left didn't help. We were joking about how I could do the "Phoebe run" for the salesmen. The "Phoebe run" is from an episode of Friends that is hilarious! Do any of you remember it?

Anyway, back to my story. When I got to the store I was happy to see a big "sale" sign hanging on the store. Well, apparently I was not the only one excited by the sale because it was packed. I walked in and there were tons of people.

A salesman asked if I had been helped. I told him no and that I heard this was the place to come to find some running shoes. While we were waiting for an available chair so I could try on some shoes, he asked me, "So have you ever been fit before?". I couldn't believe he was asking me if I had ever been fit/in shape before! Did I really look that out of place, that he wondered if I had ever been in shape in my life. I kind of stuttered and stammered away about how I had never really ran before but had been walking/running for the last couple of months. He just said, "Okay".

Finally a chair was available and he had me take off my shoes and walk for him. He noticed that when I walk my feet tend to turn in a little. He said that is fairly common. Is it or was he just trying to make up for his "fit" question? He went and got three different shoes that he thought would offer me good support. I tried them on and ran a little with each on. Then I decided on the Sauconys. The running part was very uncomfortable for me. I thought, "Do I want to run away from him so he can see my big behind shaking or do I want to run towards him and then I can see him watching me run?" Although it was pretty crowded I was able to tune out the others that may have been watching me, thank heavens.

The whole way driving home I was still anxious. I kept thinking about his "fit" question. I thought that was a weird question and thought he should have asked me if I had ever been a runner before. I mean after all, some people are fit although they are not runners! The whole experience was really emotional, actually. I couldn't believe I had been so anxious. I guess I know one of the reasons I have not joined a gym before. It would take a lot for me to be able to walk through the doors and exercise in front of people.

I got home and was talking to my husband about the experience. I told him how the guy had asked me if I had ever been fit before. My husband got a funny look on his face and then said, "Oh, have you ever been fitted (for a shoe) before." Yes, it took my husband to tell me that the salesperson was not inquiring about my fitness level, but really just wanted to know if I had ever been fit for a shoe before! Feel free to laugh now. My husband and I got a good laugh out of it!

My anxiety level and self-consciousness had caused me to misinterpret what the man had been trying to ask me. I wonder how often we misunderstand what others are saying to us because of our own issues with our weight? Do you think that has ever happened to you?

I hope my embarrassing story has given you a chuckle and that you can enjoy the rest of your Monday!

I did it!

I don't have much time today, but just wanted to blog that I completed my C25K, week 4 training today! I had to slow down a bit during the last couple of runs, but I did it. Thanks to everyone who offered me advice on this post about not having much energy on Wednesday. I decided to eat some protein with my fruit this morning about an hour before I hopped on the treadmill. I ate 1/2 c. of cottage cheese and 1/2 c. of blueberries. I also drank plenty of water. Week 5 looks a bit daunting and I did struggle with week 4, but I will be moving on. Day one of Week 5 doesn't look too bad actually. They are all 5 minute runs, but with a 3 minute walk in between. It's days 2 and three I worry about. We shall see.

Today I also registered for this:


The Race for the Cure!
Saturday, May 8th


And tomorrow I am going to a running store to be fitted for some proper running shoes. I think registering for the race and purchasing new running shoes are signs to myself that I am committed to carry through with my goals. What are you doing to convince yourself :) that you are committed to your goals?

Have a great weekend everybody!

I went shopping and I think I was hungry because.....

I really wanted some of these:


But, instead I had one of these:

I wish I could write a post about how I really wanted the cadbury mini eggs and even had them in my shopping cart, but ended up putting them back and went for the Fiber One 90 calorie bars instead. But I can't. The truth is, the fiber one bars were already in my shopping cart. I still wanted the cadbury eggs. I have not had any this year. It was probably the first time I have walked down the "seasonal" aisle since Valentine's. But thanks to wal-mart's poor selection, I could not find any mini-bags of the eggs, in fact I'm not sure I even saw the big bags. I avoided that disaster, didn't I? Even after that, I decided getting a bag of peanut m&m's at the checkout would be just as good as the cadbury eggs. Well, someone must be watching over me because I chose a checkout line that just happened to have no individual sized candy. So when I got out to my car I settled for a fiber one bar. They aren't too shabby! Not quite as good as the aforementioned candy, but pretty darn good.

On my way out to the car I saw a van advertising a weight loss program. In big letters on the back window it read, "Cheat and still lose pounds". What the !?!?! Cheat on what, cheat on who? I know it meant cheat on your diet. Well, if that is part of the diet plan they are advertising doesn't that mean it's not cheating?

I have thought about this concept of cheating. Rather, I like to think of it as lying. I am not on some restricted diet. I count calories, nothing is off limits. So I don't ever really consider myself cheating. If I had eaten the cadbury mini eggs, I would have had to adjust the rest of the day's calorie intake. Of course, I am not always perfect. I have gone over on my calories. That is when the guilt sets in.

However, I have thought about the times I have lied. Lied to myself. I said I would stick to my goals and sometimes I don't. I told myself I would eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day and sometimes I don't. Sometimes, while on the treadmill I make promises to myself like how much further I will run before slowing to a walk. Sometimes (but not very often) I walk sooner than I said I would. I told myself I would only have one helping of pasta last night and I had 1 1/2. And so on.

Would we lie to our spouses, our children, our friends, etc? I sure hope not! So why do we lie to ourselves? We deserve to be honest with ourselves. This may start with re-evaluating goals. Are our goals realistic expectations of ourselves? Once we have realistic goals set , we need to be true to ourselves. We are worth the same respect we give others.

Of course, we are not perfect. Sometimes we mess up. It is in those times, we have to offer ourselves the same kindness and mercy we offer others. Hopefully, we forgive others when they mess up. Hopefully, we can forgive ourselves, too. So I will forgive myself for considering having a bag of mini-cadbury eggs today because I told myself that I would wait until April to have one.

Have a great day and remember to be true to yourselves!

Weigh-In-Wednesday and my excuses

Today is weigh-in-Wednesday and the scale is smiling on me. I weighed in at 187 for a 2 lb. loss last week and a grand total of 18.5 pounds lost! I don't want to get my hopes up, but I am hoping to reach the 20 pound mark next week. Over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself thinking that my total weight loss isn't really that much. It may have something to do with the fact that I still have so far to go or maybe it is the fact that I have not been looking at the big number for what it is and have just been seeing my 1-2 lb. loss each week. But today, I am celebrating 18.5 pounds. That sounds like a lot to me! I don't think I have been giving myself enough credit. :) I hope you all will celebrate every pound you lose, too!

Now on to the not-so-good news. I did week 4 of C25K training again today and failed miserably. I didn't even attempt the final 5 minute run! The final 3 minute one seemed extra hard today. Here are possible reasons (my excuses):

- I woke up late (once again) and could not get on the treadmill until after the kids were off to school. I had to talk myself into even getting on the treadmill. I think I set myself up to fail. My hubby has been sick and I'm not sure if he isn't setting the alarm or is just turning it off too fast before I hear it. I need to do better and listen for it.
-I only ate an orange before my workout. I usually only eat a piece of fruit before, but I wonder if since I had been up longer I should have eaten breakfast before.
-Once again, I let my mind talk me out of it.

This is all disappointing seeing how on Monday I was able to complete week 4 at my normal speed (walk-3.8, run 4.8). Today, I did walk at a higher than usual speed (4.1) for 8.5 minutes in place of my 5 minute run. And after that I lowered the speed a bit at a time and continued walking until the workout was 45 minutes long. I will try week 4 again on Friday.

Maybe if I had one of the shirts Trisha @ Endurance isn't only physical is giving away it would be easier. :) Check out her giveaway here. Some of my favorite T-shirt slogans are: "Who moved the finish line?", "Slow is the new fast" , "I'm only doing this so I can post a picture on facebook" and "This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago". LOL!

Things-That I Love-Tuesday and the truth

Happy Tuesday, everybody! Well, it is time to come out with the truth from my list of 7 things yesterday. Here it goes:



1- My husband and I are such huge college football fans that we planned our wedding around our favorite team's schedules so we would not miss a game.
** My husband and I ARE huge college football fans but we did not plan our wedding around the season. We planned it around our school schedules. We DO plan our dates around football games during the fall, though.

2- I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to meet Kenny Chesney at an after show party. I love that man!
** I did win a trip to the ACM's and I did see Kenny perform at an after-show party, but I did not meet him. :( Sigh.

3-I spent 1 1/2 years in Argentina on a mission for my church.
**True! I spent 18 months in Argentina serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Next to being a mom, it was the hardest, most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. To find out more about the church, click here. And when you encounter a missionary from any church, please be nice. :)

4-I have never been to the ocean. :(
**I love the ocean! Sadly, I don't go enough....but I have been there.

5-I am the youngest of 5 girls in my family. Talk about drama!
**I'm actually an only child. Not too much drama there.

6-I have been playing the flute since I was 5 years old.
**I do not play any kind of instrument and don't seem to have any kind of musical talent whatsoever.

7-I spent my junior year of high school in Chile as a foreign exchange student.
**My cousin did this and I think it was way cool. Not sure I could have done it though. I'm one of those crazy people that actually enjoyed high school. I don't think I would have wanted to miss junior year at my high school.


Now on to my thing that I love this Tuesday. It actually has nothing to do with exercise, diet or anything usually related to this blog. It is just something I love, so indulge me. It is:

Have you seen this show? Do you love it, too? I LOVE this show! It is quirky, hilarious and makes me smile. I'm sure you have all heard about it. I can't get my husband to watch it. There is just something so "High School Musical" about a show that focuses on a high school glee club. But it is so much more than "HSM"! It is definitely meant for more mature audiences, I would not let my daughters watch it, and it has a lot of great adult characters and storylines, too. I actually downloaded quite a few songs from the soundtrack onto my ipod. I am writing about this today because after a couple of months of a break it is back on TV tonight. Okay, they are not going to show any new episodes until April 13th, but I will be able to get my "Glee" fix for now on after American Idol on Tuesdays. If you have not watched it, give it try.

Today I slept in and decided to forego the treadmill because I realized I had three lunches to make and three kids to make sure were bathed and ready for school. Next time I will plan ahead and prep the night before. So I did my Biggest Loser Wii game training. It was only a light 15 minute workout today. I thought it was my day to volunteer in my daughter's class today so I was planning on that being my exercise today. But then I looked at my calendar and realized it is next week I am scheduled to volunteer. So after the kids were off to school I did my "30 day shred" video, level 2. What a workout!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I was able to do day 3, week 4 of my C25K training at my normal running speed. Hooray! I will repeat week 4's workout tomorrow and Friday of this week before I move on next week.

I hope you all have a happy day!

Shhh......Do you hear that?

Do you hear it? I don't hear anything either! Isn't it great? The kids are all back in school this morning after a three week break. I love my kids and we had a great time together on the break, but the last couple of days were hard! They were errand days. I don't know what our kids think we do while they're at school. They must think I sit around all day, or am always out doing something fun. And somehow, the groceries just end up in our fridge. They really hate running errands with me. Plus, I decided since they were off school it would be a good time to take them to get their Easter outfits. So, yes I took all three of the kids to the mall with me! Duh! My 8-year-old daughter loves to go shopping and try on clothes. Her brother and sister were less than thrilled with her little fashion show, she must have tried on 8 different dresses! At least, we only had to hit two different stores to find what everyone needed. Anyway, I am enjoying my solitude right now.



Lisa @ One Mom's Eating Recovery awarded me this award. Thanks Lisa! It's nice to know she thinks I am a great liar. I don't feel really creative, but I hope I entertain sometimes.





Here are the rules to the award:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you.

4. Tell up to 6 outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.

5. Nominate 7 "creative writers" who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

Here are my outrageous lies and truth:

1- My husband and I are such huge college football fans that we planned our wedding around our favorite team's schedules so we would not miss a game.

2- I once won a trip to the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to meet Kenny Chesney at an after show party. I love that man!

3-I spent 1 1/2 years in Argentina on a mission for my church.

4-I have never been to the ocean. :(

5-I am the youngest of 5 girls in my family. Talk about drama!

6-I have been playing the flute since I was 5 years old.

7-I spent my junior year of high school in Chile as a foreign exchange student.

Can you guess which one is true? I'll tell you all tomorrow.

Now, here are the seven blogs I nominate:

Mary

Leanne

Kristin

Tiff

Alex

Ellen

Shelley

If you have already done this or do not find this kind of thing fun. No worries. I just wanted to recognize some of my fave bloggers.

Have a great Monday!

Time To Step it Up & Some Pics

Now that I am eight full weeks into my journey I want to reflect on my progress so far. In case you missed it, and I'm sure many of you did, here is a look back at my first post and goals I set. Here's a list of my victories so far:

• I have stayed true to my goal to exercise regularly. I think I have only had one week that I did not get on the treadmill five times and that week I did it four times. I have done strength training 2-3 times a week.
• I have been faithful about tracking my calories using sparkpeople and have stuck (pretty much) to my food plan.
• I have not ordered french fries at any fast food restaurants. I HAVE enjoyed a few out of my kid's happy meals, but really just a few.
• I started and am about half-way through the C25K training program.
• I have still been able to enjoy foods I always have and will enjoy, like ice cream and chocolate.
• I have not drank soda pop since I started this journey.
• I am feeling new muscles in my body. I like to put my hand on the top of my legs when I go up the stairs just to feel my muscles. I better have muscles there, considering all the lunges I have done over the last 8 weeks. And I'm pretty sure my husband is tired of me making him feel my biceps.
• I have walked/jogged 10+ miles a week, that makes for 80+ miles total!
• I have lost weight every week.
• I still have tortilla chips in my pantry from SuperBowl Sunday. :)

Shortly after I started this journey I had my daughter take a picture of me. I just had her take one and wished I would have done a side shot, too. Anyway, here is my beginning of the journey picture:

Here are a couple of pics I had her take today:

Can you see a difference? I think I can in the face. I also think this second outfit is much more flattering. I will take the next couple of progress pics in this same outfit for better comparison. After that, I'm hoping the pants will be falling off and I'll have to put on a smaller size.

Now that I've been at this for 8 weeks I think it is time to step it up a bit. So here's my plan:

• Continue to track calories on sparkpeople and aim for 1400-1500 a day.
• I have been doing the treadmill for about 30-35 minutes each workout day. This has included a 5 minute warm-up walk, my C25K training, followed by a brisk walk and cool down. My goal will now be 40 minutes. This will give me 5 min. warm-up, 30 min of a good workout and a 5 minute cool down. Today I actually did 45 minutes.
• Really aim to do strength training 3-4 days a week.
• Continue to do the 2nd level of "30 day Shred"
• I have not been taking measurements. I will start doing that as well.

Today I completed day 2 of week 4 of C25K. It was a bit easier today and I slowed the speed down for just 2 minutes of the last 5 minute jog. I'm feeling good about it.

Gwenny gave me a sunshine award. Thank you, thank you! This really brightened my not-so-sunny, snowy day! Since I also received this award a couple of weeks ago, I'll direct you all to that post to see links to some of my favorite bloggers. I just accidentally deleted the sunshine award picture......arrgh. You'll have to look at the other post for the pretty pic because I get frustrated trying to upload pics after I've written so much text.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everybody! The sun is shining here, it is beautiful! Of course, by tomorrow it will be a different story as storminess is projected. For today, I will just enjoy the preview of spring.


Today was my weigh-in day and I just have to say I am very pleased with the numbers. I now weigh 189 lbs! That is a two pound loss this week, a total of 16.5 pounds lost and I am in the 180's. I really couldn't be much happier right now. I think I've said before that it has been a long time since I've been in the 180's.


I think my victory on the scale and my excitement about it propelled me to a non-scale victory. I was able to complete week 4, day 1 of my C25K training today. I was not able to do it on Monday, you may remember. Today I slowed down from 4.8 to 4.3 for the last 3 minutes of running. I don't know why I didn't think to do this on Monday. Duh! I have been concentrating on running time instead of distance for this training so slowing down was okay for me. I think I will repeat this week, though. I would like to complete it running at the speed I have been running for most of the time.

My girl scout cookies arrived yesterday. I'm happy to report that I only had two thin mints last night and was quite satisfied with them. I did want more, but realized that two was enough. I'm even happier to report that I had none for breakfast today!

Today I am taking the kids to one of their favorite indoor pools. I must say that the thought of getting into a swimsuit is not very exciting for me. Seeing pics of myself in my swimsuit last fall is one of the things that helped motivate me to start this journey. I haven't been in a swimsuit since. However, I told myself a long time ago that I would not let my weight issues effect my kids. I knew I needed to either "get over it or do something about it"! So here I am doing something about it and since I am still far away from feeling good about myself in a swimming suit I will have to "get over it" today and go swimming with my kids. It should be a good day. I hope you all have a great day, too!

Tomorrow I will be posting a progress report about my journey so far as well as some new goals for the next couple of months.

Things-I Love-Tuesday and Level 2

It's Tuesday and I'm all about the things I love. One of my favorite bloggers is back! So my first thing that I love is Lisa's blog. Check it out, although I'm sure you already have. :)


Here are a couple of other things I love:

MY CROCS!!!!

Last year about this time my friend and I decided it was warm enough to start up our early morning walks again. We also decided to start jogging a few minutes of each walk. Unlike, this winter I had not been exercising at home during the winter months. A combination of being overweight, starting up exercising again and running caused me to have plantar fasciitis. Click on the link to learn all about it if you don't already know. I was having a lot of heel pain, especially in the mornings. It was all I could do to get up and walk out to meet my friend. Once I did, I could usually walk through the pain. I was describing my pain to another friend and she recommended that I go see a podiatrist because I probably had plantar fasciitis.

I am so glad I went to the podiatrist. Sure enough, I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. As part of my treatment the doctor said I should always wear shoes, even in the house. Wearing shoes in my house has always been a no-no. In fact, I did not even like wearing shoes. Anyway, the Dr. suggested I get some crocs. He said, that they should be the name brand crocs because they really are better than the knock-offs. Well, being the cheap-skate I am I was having a hard time justifying buying a pair of crocs JUST for my house. I had already bought inserts and was planning on buying an expensive pair of good-for-my-feet sandals. So when I was at the shoe store buying some new tennis shoes I was elated to see a pair of crocs on the clearance rack for just 5 or 10 dollars (I can't remember exactly)! Yes, they are pink. A kind of ugly, salmon pink but I love them! I wear them faithfully all day long inside my house. On Sundays, when I've been at church for three hours in high heels I can't wait to get home and put on my crocs.

I don't know if I would ever buy me a pair of crocs to wear outside of the house, but I sure do love the ones I have! They definitely helped cure my heel pain. After a few months of being faithful in my shoe wearing and doing the stretches the Dr. suggested for me before I got out of bed each morning the pain was gone. I have considered it a great blessing not to have gotten plantar fasciitis again once I started exercising and running this time around. I was really worried about it. So the moral of this post is, Crocs are really comfortable and you should always wear shoes! Take care of those feet, people!

Today, I decided to try Jillian's 30 day shred- Level 2. It was hard! But not any harder than the first time I did Level 1. So I am going to stick with Level 2 for now. One bonus is there are no jumping jacks, besides the warm up ones. A downside is all the static lunges and squats in the strength portion of the workout make it really hard for me to get my legs to want to move during the cardio portion!

C25K- Week four,Day one

Hello, everybody! I hope you each had a fabulous weekend. Mine was great! My husband and I finally went and saw Avatar. We saw it on the IMAX. What a beautiful movie! I was not that excited to go see it, I never am for science fiction, but I really enjoyed it. In fact, I haven't heard one person who has seen it say they didn't like it. So if anyone out there has seen it and not liked it let me know, just curious.

As far as my eating went this weekend, I did a little better on Saturday than I have on past Saturdays. However, I did have a bit of loss of control on Sunday. I won't give you all the boring, yummy details but let's just say it involved tortilla chips and candy skor baking pieces. No, I did not melt candy skor on tortilla chips, sillies! I ate them at separate times. I did get on the treadmill on Saturday morning for a walk at an incline. Exercising a little on weekends helps me stay more on track.

This morning was day one of week four of my C25K training. And....I could not complete it. It looks like I will be repeating it. This week's training is jogging 3 minutes, walking 90 seconds, jogging 5 minutes, walking 2 1/2 minutes, jogging 3 minutes, walking 90 minutes and then jogging 5 minutes. I made it all the way until the final 5 minutes of jogging. I only jogged about 2 1/2 minutes. I knew going into the training that I may have to repeat days or even weeks, but I am still disappointed. I am mostly disappointed because I think I failed this one mentally. From the time I saw what this week's training was (I just looked last Friday) I began thinking how hard it was going to be. I wasn't sure I could do 5 minutes of jogging at once, let alone twice in one session. I was telling my family how hard it was going to be this morning before I got on the treadmill. And then I forgot my mantra, "I can do hard things"! My legs truly were tired by the last 5 minute interval, but I think my mind is really what did me in. I will do better on Wednesday! I will have a positive attitude about it. If my brain is thinking good thoughts and I still can't physically do it, then I will be okay with repeating this week.

I hope everyone is having a great Monday!