And the winner is.......

Good morning! Let me just start out with a little venting. I woke up this morning to see 2 inches of SNOW on my lawn! What the heck! I know Spring in my part of the world can be a bit temperamental, but this is just downright ridiculous! I am so glad my 5K is not tomorrow. So far the forecast for next Saturday looks to be okay. Thanks for all your comments and advice on yesterday's post. I will let you all know my plan for next week on Monday.
On to the good stuff. The winner of my Yoplait Yogurt Nourish Your Inner Goddess giveaway was randomly drawn by my daughter this morning. The winning comment was #21. That is Ashley, a new follower of mine. Congrats, Ashley! Email me your mailing address to barbgetshealthy@gmail.com and I will send the info off to the people at blogspark and Yoplait so they can send off your gift pack.

I have more to giveaway today. It may not be as exciting as free stuff but it means a lot to me. A few days back the lovely blogger from Journey Beyond Survival awarded me this award on her blog:


If you haven't read her blog, go check it out. I really admire the honest way she blogs about her journey and the different challenges she faces. I think she is one courageous, graceful woman.

Here are the "rules" for this award:

1-Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER! — So wonderful. (Check)

2- Choose one of the following and post it on a blog post.

(a) Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus. (That could be entertaining, but I don't drink alcohol)

(b) Write about your most embarrassing moment. This is the one I choose. If you have been following me for awhile you probably remember this post about my shoe fitting. I think that whole situation has taken over the top spot of my most embarrassing moment EVER! And I sure hope it stays as my top embarrassing moment. Since I already shared that one, I'll share another.
In 9th grade my Spanish class was participating in some kind of competition. I can't even remember what I did for it, but a couple of my friends were doing a skit and being judged on that. After my competition was over, I saw my friends sitting down and having a conversation. I ran up to them and said, "How did your skit go?". My friend looked at me and said, "We're still doing it." That is when I looked off to the side and saw the judges lined up watching them. Duh! I grabbed my mom and left as quickly as I could and cried on the way home I was so embarrassed.

(c) Write a “Soundtrack of your childhood” post. (I'm not that creative)

(d) Make your next blog a ‘vlog’/video blog. Basically, you’re talking to the camera about whatever. (I would love to do this, but my camera has had probs downloading video)

(e) Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc)and post it. (NO WAY! I'm too vein for this. :) But look for new pics soon.)

3. Pass the award on to at least three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers as yourself. Don’t forget to tell them.

It is always hard for me to choose which bloggers to recognize because I love so many! I think I will just make a short list here, so I don't include too many, thus leaving out only a few. Does that make sense? Anyway, I award the Oh My Bl0g! award to:

1. Lisa at No more Diet Drama- I just love her! She is funny and always encouraging. We started our blogs at about the same time and I consider her a great comrade in this battle.

2. Leah at My new Ending- I always appreciate her comments of encouragement. And I really like that she has just done her first 5K and offers great encouragement that way. Also, I think the name of her blog, "my new ending" is just fabulous!

3. Erica at Run Mommy Run- She just makes me smile! Her posts make me smile and so does her picture that sets alongside her always upbeat comments.

4. Kyle at Getting Better and Better- I don't want to be sexist here and he seems to be my only male follower. That isn't the main reason though. I really appreciate his posts and comments, they truly help others to get better and better.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Calling All 5Kers!

Okay, I'm starting to get really nervous about my 5K that is a week from Saturday. I shouldn't be so nervous. I've done a couple before. I guess this time I have higher expectations for myself and have actually trained for it the past 3 months. I don't want to let myself down.

Anyway, I know a lot of you out there have trained for (like me) and have already done a 5K. Some of you do 5K's regularly (you rock!). So I am looking for any tips and advice you can give me as far as how I should prepare for it this last week. Should I not run the couple of days before the race? Did you start the race out running or with a warm-up walk? Etc...Any tips would be appreciated.

I do know one thing. I don't think I'll attend my strength training class next Tuesday. This past Tuesday about killed me and my legs are still sore! In fact, I had not done cardio since Monday so I knew I needed to do it today. It was pretty hard to convince myself to go get on the treadmill when my legs hurt so bad just walking down the stairs to get TO the treadmill.

I'm happy to say that I talked myself into it. I knew I should run, but was a little skeptical how that was going to go with my legs and glutes being so sore. I was able to run for 15 minutes at a fairly slow speed and that is it. I'm okay with that for today, though. I walked the rest of the way and did about 2.25 miles. That is less than what I have been doing, but I can live with it.

I think next week I will go to my Monday morning class and then skip the T/TH strength classes. Thursdays are mostly upper body, but she still throws some lower body in there. I will focus on getting ready for my 5K the rest of the week.

Again, any advice will be greatly appreciated!

Today is my oldest child's birthday. She is turning 11 and growing up way too fast. We will be celebrating with some ice cream cake later and tomorrow I will be taking her and some friends swimming (indoors, there is snow on the ground today...grrrrr!). I will make cupcakes for that celebration. I am definitely going to enjoy me a piece of ice cream cake tonight, but will skip on the cupcakes. There I wrote it down! I am skipping on cupcakes! :)

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter the giveaway. Check back tomorrow to see who the winner is and also I have an award to dish out!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Good morning everybody! I'll get right to the point. Today is my weigh-in day. And.......the scale read 180, for a 1.5 pound loss. That brings my grand total to 25.5 pounds lost! Woo hoo! It took me a little longer to get to the 25 pound mark than I would have liked, but I made it. This puts me halfway to my 2010 goal of 50 pounds lost.

I have to admit as I have inched closer to the halfway mark I have felt a little frustrated. Definitely happy to be losing 25 pounds but a little discouraged that I still have 25 pounds to lose. Do you ever find yourself asking "how and why did I let myself get here?". It sits in the back of my mind, but I try not to dwell on it. We have to focus on what we are doing now, not what we did in the past.

Anyway, I'm past the frustrated feelings. I have taken a new perspective. You see, I once lost 25 pounds before and then proceeded to gain all of the pounds +25 more back. I guess, I just looked at my dieting and exercise as a means to lose pounds and once the pounds were off I stopped exercising and went back to old eating habits.

This time around, I don't think I have been "dieting" as much and I have definitely been exercising more. I have made exercise a big part of my life and I think I could really eat like this for the rest of my life. I think this time around it is a definite lifestyle change and not a diet.

Having said that, I think if I had reached my weight goal today I would be in danger of falling back to old habits. I've decided that it is a good thing I have 25 more pounds to lose! Crazy, huh? I figure at the rate I'm going it will take about 6 more months to meet my goal. I feel confident that if I can keep up what I've been doing for 6 more months, this will be a lifestyle for me.

Losing the weight will be a huge incentive to keep me going and the new healthy lifestyle will be a lifelong benefit. I will no longer beat myself up for small losses. It is all part of the plan :) ! Slow and steady wins the race.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, it ends tomorrow.

Have a great day everybody!

Making Progress

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope you had a fabulous weekend. Mine was great. Two soccer games and a birthday party for my daughter on Saturday. A relaxing day on Sunday. I did not exercise. I just can't seem to get up early enough on Saturdays to exercise when my kids have early soccer games. Despite that, and eating some really yummy chocolate cake and ice cream on Saturday and Sunday, the scale is being kind. I really think I will hit the 25 pound mark this week!

This morning at my exercise class we worked on abs and arms. Have I mentioned how much I love going to this class? :) I never know what to expect from week to week. Well, I was glad that we didn't do much with legs today because I really wanted to do some C25K training this morning. I plan on doing it on Tuesdays,Thursdays and Saturdays but knew that I have a commitment early tomorrow and wasn't going to get a chance to do it.

I last attempted Week 6, Day 3 on Thursday. Well, I didn't really attempt to complete the day because I have gotten a bit off track and know I need to work my way up a little again. I ran for about 18 minutes straight/1.25 miles. Then after walking awhile I ran another .25 miles. I was pretty happy about that.

Today, I was able to run for 1.5 miles and 20 minutes. Then I walked for awhile and ran for 5 more minutes and a bit more than a 1/4 mile. W6D3 is run for 25 minutes or 2.25 miles (not quite my pace) straight. So I am getting there. I ran for 25 minutes today, just not all at once.

Also I decided to walk fast the rest of the time until I reached 3 miles. My 5K is in just 2 more Saturdays! Ahhhhhh! Anyway, it took me 42.38 minutes to do 3 miles. I ran more than half of that. I did the same race last year and did it in about 40 minutes with my daughter, who was ill. I would expect myself to be able to do it quicker this time. In Sept. 2008 I did another 5K and my time was about 39 minutes. That was without much training at all so I really expect to do better than that.

Having said that, I have set 38 minutes as my goal for this 5K. I don't think it should be a problem, really. I think I will make more progress over the next 10 days or so. Also, I'm sure the adrenaline will be pumping come race day. I have been surprised that my times weren't better on the treadmill compared to my previous 5K's, seeing how I have never really trained before.

I don't know if I really pushed myself hard in those races, or what. Could it be that my 10 year-old treadmill isn't completely accurate? We shall see.

Have a great day everybody and don't forget to enter my Yoplait "nourish your inner goddess" giveaway here. It ends on Thursday!

A Giveaway!

Happy Thursday! I hope you all have had a great day. My day has consisted of an early morning strength training class, spending all day on a field trip with 2nd graders and three sports practices this evening. I'm tuckered! But I wanted to catch up on some blogs this evening and let everyone know about my very first giveaway! I am so excited! Why am I so excited?

Well, let me tell you. I love free stuff! And I love to give things away!

This particular giveaway excites me for even more reasons. I have read a lot of blog posts that have mentioned greek yogurt. I had never tried the stuff, but vowed to try it someday. Also I love Yoplait Yogurt. I eat their light yogurt quite often.

So when the people at MyBlogSpark and Yoplait Yogurt gave me the opportunity to try the new Yoplait Greek Yogurt for free I was all over it. Yoplait and MyBlogSpark sent me VIP coupons for 2 free yogurts.

They also sent me all this:



They call it the Yoplait Greek “Nourish Your Inner Goddess” gift pack. It came with slippers, a washcloth, a few bath sponges/brushes and a wrap-around terry cloth towel. When I received it, I thought to myself "I'm ready for the spa!". I was a little sad that I had settled for a master bathroom without a jetted tub when we bought this house. It is all pretty cool and did I mention FREE!And you get your very own for free, too!

I signed up to do the giveaway a few weeks ago and was anxious to receive it. I actually ended up buying some yogurt before I received the free coupons just so I could tell you all what I think about the yogurt and do the giveaway as soon as I received my package. Although Yoplait and MyBlogSpark sent me the package and coupons to try the yogurt, I am to freely comment on the product without any restrictions or other compensation.

I bought 3 flavors of the Yoplait Greek Yogurt; strawberry, blueberry and honey vanilla. They also make a plain flavor, but I am not a fan of plain yogurt so I did not try that. I first tried the strawberry flavor. My first tastes impression was not so good. I could really tell it had a lot of protein in it. The texture was a thick, kind of pasty texture. It reminded me of when I get smoothies with added protein. Once I got over the difference in texture from my regular yogurt, I actually liked it quite well. It tasted pretty good! I liked the blueberry flavor, too. The vanilla flavor was not as good for me, though.

At 130 calories this yogurt has more calories than my usual Yoplait light yogurt. With 12 g. of protein it has more protein. I'm not sure I would switch to the greek yogurt, as it costs more, unless I am looking for ways to add healthy protein.

My kids do like me to make them smoothies. I usually blend yogurt, frozen fruit and milk together for their smoothies. I think using this greek yogurt would be a great way to add some protein into the smoothies and give the kids a great start to their day.

Now on to the giveaway. The giveaway will end on Thursday, April 29th . I will announce the winner on my blog on Friday, April 30th. If you would like to win the VIP coupons and the "nourish your inner goddess" gift pack there are 3 ways to win. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. Here are the three ways:

1.) Become or be a follower of my blog. Leave me a comment and tell me you are.
2.) Leave me a comment on how you nourish your inner goddess (or inner Greek God). I like a good pedicure myself. A day at the spa helps bring the goddess out in me. I don't do it enough. :(
3.) Link this giveaway on your blog and leave me a comment telling me you did ( I very rarely do this myself, but if you want to you deserve an extra entry).

And everyone can click here to receive a coupon for a 30 cents off a cup of yogurt.

***Please note that the coupon offer for a free cup of Yoplait Greek yogurt is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Tennessee. If you live in those states you could still enjoy the gift pack, but you would not get the free yogurt .

Good luck, everybody!

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Today is Wednesday, which for me means weigh-in day. Today I weighed in at 181.5, for a .5 loss and 24 pounds total lost. Last week I was hoping to reach the 25 lb. mark this week. As the week progressed I realized that was not going to happen. I am happy with a loss, but am tiring of puny .5 pound losses. However, I know that my effort as far as eating goes has not been on track the last few weeks. This past week, I feel like my eating got back on track but my exercising was a little off last week.

With my new exercise routine/plans that I outlined in yesterdays post I think things will get better. I better see my 25 lb milestone reached next week or I'm going to have to kick my butt that's for sure! 25 pounds lost will bring me to my half way mark towards my weight loss goals for this year. It will feel great!

I usually ramble on about something, but not today. I have to pick up my son from kindergarten in 15 minutes. I just wanted to post my weigh-in results. All part of holding myself accountable. Have a great day!

The Good & The Bad

Good morning, bloggers! I hope everyone has had a great past few days. I have been enjoying sunshine and trying to get back into the groove of sports season. My daughters are playing soccer and my son is playing baseball. It can be kind of crazy! In fact this Thursday, they all have practice at the same time at three different parks. Hmmm...still not quite sure how that is going to work out. My son has several neighbors on his baseball team so I may have to call in a favor.

Anyway, this post is about the good and the bad. Let's start with the good news. I attended my exercise class again yesterday. It was a great workout! We did football drills, high knees, side jumps (?), push ups, and lots of other stuff. I can sure feel it in my calves today. After class, yesterday my friends and I were talking about how we wished he did another early morning class on a different day because that is the best time for us to workout.

Well, when I checked my email yesterday there was an email about a class that is being held at my church on Tues. and Thurs. ! It is a resistance/light weight training class. It is at 6:00 a.m. and the best thing about it is it is FREE! It is just what we were looking for. So today we got up and went there. The instructor attends the same church as I do, but at different meeting times so I don't really know what her background is. I do know this wasn't her first time instructing an exercise class because she was great and seemed to know what she was doing.

I'm so excited to have the opportunities to attend early morning exercise classes. The Monday mornings are a mixture of cardio/strength and T/TH are all strength. Strength training is something I have been struggling to fit into my schedule so I am so happy and feel blessed with these new opportunities.

Okay, the bad. My C25K training has kind of fell to the wayside. I have been trying to fit it into my schedule and last week had a hard time doing so. After my morning walks with my friend, I wouldn't always have the energy or time. Last week's Monday exercise class left me really sore so that attributed to it. Last Monday, I completed day 2 of week 6 and did not really attempt another day until today. That is more than a week in between! Not good. I have ran a little on my walks, but not much.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect today. I think I did so-so. I was able to run for 1.25 miles and for about 17 minutes. That is way off the 25 minutes I need to run to complete week 6, but not too bad for not having really ran for a week. The 5K I signed up for is on May 8th. That is less than 3 weeks away! I really need to step my training up.

I think it will get better from here on out because I now have a new set schedule. Monday, Tuesdays, Thursdays exercise classes first thing in the morning. I will do the treadmill on those days after the kids go to school.
Wednesdays and Fridays I will walk with my friend. We plan on doing our long 3 mile walk those days. About a mile of it is at an incline so it is a pretty good walk for us. On those days, I may or may not hop on the treadmill later.
Saturdays can be tricky now because of soccer games, but I plan on getting on the treadmill on Saturdays as well.
I will do my c25K training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I think this plan will be great and am excited to have some new exercise goals.


Here is a follow up to my last post. I bought this chocolate bar at the store yesterday:

So yummy! It is one of my favorites. I do not have a Trader Joe's in my state so I cannot try some of the wonderful chocolate you all suggested. I got this for now and saw some others I may try down the road. Anyway, I am happy to say that I did not eat any yesterday between 2 and 4 p.m. Of course, I was at the park with friends for most of that time period so that helped ;)! I did eat a couple of squares last night. And I enjoyed it all, guilt-free. I had made good food choices all day long so I could. The package says that one serving is four squares. I feel good limiting myself to just two a day.

Thanks to everyone for listening to me ramble today. I really appreciate you all. I was feeling very discouraged last week and wondering if I could really make it on this journey. All of your supportive comments really uplifted and encouraged me. I'm feeling much better about the whole thing now.

Have a great day!

Reality Bites!

Thank you everyone for your comments and advice on my last post regarding my problem with chocolate and the 2-4 p.m. time period. I appreciate all the suggestions for alternative snacks during that time. I am happy to report that yesterday I stayed away from the hot fudge in the fridge and had some apple slices with natural peanut butter instead. I hope to be able to skip the peanut butter next time.

The comment that resonated most with me was Kyle's. Here's what he said:

"Ok..here is some strange advice on your 2-4 period...give up chocolate. For awhile anyway...treat it like an allergy.If you can create that level of discipline to substitute a different item, then you'll really demonstrate to yourself that you control the chocolate, it doesn't control you.After you have proven it, you can add it back in, because it'll be your choice and not something a craving is compelling you to do."

The reality of his comment hit me. Yes, I need to be in control of my eating and not let the chocolate control me. Yet at the same time I was mad (not really) at Kyle for even suggesting that I give up chocolate because that is not something that seemed reasonable to me! Um...yeah...I think the chocolate has been in charge for too long.

Back in January I wrote a post about self-discipline and about how great it felt to be exercising self-discipline in my new journey. I think I need to get back to that. I have lost a step regarding my self-discipline and eating over the past month or so. I need to prove to myself that I eat what I eat because I choose to and not because "a craving is compelling" me to eat it. And I need to learn to choose to eat more healthy things. I would love to get to the point where I choose to eat healthy things because I want to not because my weight loss goals compel me too.

I am not going to give up chocolate totally, but I do think I will outlaw it during that 2-4 p.m. time period and substitute a healthy snack. I liked Margie Ann's comment about getting the highest quality of chocolate I can afford and only having a couple of pieces. I think I will do just that. I will get some great high quality dark chocolate and allow myself one or two pieces each evening as long as I have stayed true to my eating plan throughout the day and only if I actually want to eat the chocolate. There may be some days that I actually don't want to eat it.....yeah right!

The reality is that this journey is hard! In fact, in some ways it gets harder...harder to maintain the gusto I had in the beginning. Harder to kick it up a notch when it is time to. Harder to be happy with .5-1 pound losses each week. Harder to blog every day. Etc.......

Thanks to Kyle for his wisdom and for giving me a big dose of reality! It's time for me to take control of my eating and not to let it control me.

Weigh-In-Wednesday and Other Stuff

Happy Wednesday, everybody! Today is the day I dread and look forward to each week. It is my weigh-in day. Today the scale read 182 for a 1 lb. loss. That brings the total to 23 1/2 pounds total lost! I am happy for the loss, but wish it was more. I felt like my eating was a lot better this past week. Oh well. I'm going to cross my fingers for at least a 1 1/2 lb. loss next week, that will take me to 25 lbs!

I have pinpointed the time of day that is hardest for me to stay on plan. The time of day that is hardest for me is between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. It is during this time that I have the most "free time". I guess, maybe I get bored a little. By that time of day, I have exercised, the household chores (that I want to do) are done, my son is home from kindergarten and is playing with friends, I am starting to think about dinner preparations and find myself in the kitchen, etc..

Anyway, it is during this time that I seem to be craving sweets. I have often turned to the open bag of chocolate chips in my pantry. They are so yummy dipped in my all-natural peanut butter. You see my problem. Today my problem was that there were no more chocolate chips in the pantry, until I discovered an open jar of hot fudge in my fridge.

Yes, I am a choco-holic! I love the stuff! I don't think I can (or want to) totally swear the stuff out of my life. At the same time, I don't seem to be the type of person (yet) that can just have a couple of Hershey kisses and be satisfied.

Now that I have pinpointed the weak part of my day, I just need to do something about it. I will try distracting myself. Maybe reading. Maybe blogging. Maybe eating something more healthy. Any ideas? What are some of your favorite tasty, yet healthy, snacks? Have you pinpointed the hardest part of your day? What are you doing about it?

Another thought. I noticed that yesterday I reached 50 followers! I can't believe there are actually 50 people who care what I say or do. Can you believe this blog almost never happened?

I had decided to start a weight loss blog and got it all set up. You know, it's kind of a pain to get your layout set and such. And I had created my first post, which was fairly long. Anyway, I decided I wanted to have an email associated with the blog so I set one up through gmail. Then I realized that the address I set up used my full name. I did not want my first and last name associated with the blog. So I tried to close the email account and in the process ended up deleting the blog! Not just this blog, but my family blog that I had been posting on for a couple of years. I was so sad! I tried everything I could to restore the blogs and was especially concerned about the family one.

I could not restore them and I was very frustrated and deflated. Anyway, I ended up creating a new family blog, which I rarely post on now. And I also created this blog, even though I really wanted to chicken out on the whole thing. Boy, am I glad I did! I am so grateful for my followers and especially those that comment regularly. You are such a great support system for me. I never knew that I could feel so close to people who I have never met.

Sometimes I click on my followers pics to see who they are and where I can see them and support them in their efforts. Sometimes the followers do not have links listed on their profile. If you think you are one of those and I have never commented on your blog, please leave me a comment with your blog address. I would really love to support you!

A First For Me

Today I did something that I have always avoided doing. I actually exercised out in public.....at 5:30 a.m. ! I don't have a problem walking (or even a little jogging) in public but I have always shied away from any kind of exercise class. I've posted about my two left feet before. I am very uncoordinated and am self-conscious about exercising in public.

A couple friends in the neighborhood have been talking to my walking friend and I about the kickboxing class they take on Monday mornings @ 5:30 a.m. We decided to skip our walk this morning and check out the class. There really wasn't any kickboxing going on today. It was actually a core fitness test day! We did all kinds of exercises I can't remember the names of and kept track of how many we could do of each exercise in a minute. Needless to say, I was not the most fit person there. Oh well. I still feel good about the effort I put in and I can just imagine what it would have been like had I taken the same test back in January when I started this journey. I think I will keep going to the Monday classes. The test will be given every month so I will be able to see my progress.

I completed Week 6, Day 1 of the C25K on Friday. So I knew I really needed to attempt day 2 today. After coming home from the exercise class I wasn't so sure that was going to happen. My whole body was pretty sore. I got the kids off to school, had some breakfast and got on the treadmill. To my surprise, I was able to complete day 2 of week 6! I did have to run at a lower speed than past weeks because the muscles in my legs just couldn't go as fast as usual. But I did it! The next four days of the training are running for 25 minutes straight. I think I may have to repeat a few days, but I'm optimistic that I will complete the training.

I'm happy about my two NSV's today! I may not be seeing the pounds melting away each week, but I feel like I am accomplishing a lot more than just losing pounds. Have a great Monday!

Will it always be this hard?

On the sidebar of my blog in the About Me section one of the things it says is "learn to love to exercise and eat healthy foods". I'm beginning to wonder if this will ever be achieved. Yes, that is a bit discouraging, but I might as well face the facts now. This healthier lifestyle I am trying to adopt will probably never be easy for me.

What brought all this on? Well today I read this column by one of my favorite sports/fitness columnists. This woman has run marathons, participated in triathlons, biked hundreds of miles and is someone I would consider to be very fit. Click on the link to read her column. She is great! In her column today she wrote about how she sometimes struggles to get to the gym and that once she's there she struggles to complete the goals she has set for herself for her workout. She tries to renegotiate with herself regarding goals she set, whether it be miles to run or # of circuits to complete on weight machines. I can so relate! Can you?

Although, it was a bit comforting to read that someone of her "caliber" has some of the same struggles I do it was also discouraging. I guess I kind of expected that once the pounds are off and I have run my first 5K it would get easier. I will magically turn into a person that loves to exercise and eat healthy. Probably not going to happen.

The truth is, healthy living is hard for most of us! It should get easier with time, but I don't think it will ever seem as easy sitting on the couch watching TV while eating a bag of potato chips does.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I am worth the hard work. My kids deserve to have a mother that has energy to keep up with and sets a good example for them. I love the feeling I get both mentally and physically after I complete a workout or eat on plan for a day. I really liked shopping for new clothes in a smaller size yesterday. These and other reasons are why I continue to and will continue to do this, not because it is easy.

Weigh-In-Wednesday

Good morning sunshine! Yes, the sun is FINALLY shining around here after a week of wacky winter-like weather. It is still a bit cold out there but the sun is shining. And we are expected to get into the 60's later this week, woo hoo!

Today was my weigh-in and I was pleasantly surprised. The scale read 183, for a .5 pound loss. That brings my total to 22.5 pounds lost. I really expected to see a gain. I know I have been saying that for a few weeks now, but today I REALLY expected a gain. I'm glad to know my metabolism is working!

Tuesdays are always a great day for me. I always stay on plan with eating and exercising. I do this because I know the next day is weigh-in day for me. I need to start treating every other day as the day before my weigh-in! Today, so far so good. I tend to take a break from exercising on Wednesdays. I think I do this because my next weigh-in day is a week away and also it is the middle of the week so it seems like a good day to take a break. Today, I did skip the treadmill but I did do Jillian level 2. So I feel okay about that.

To celebrate my weight loss and my new (old-new) pant size, I went shopping. I went to Kohl's and bought me the cutest jean capris (size 14) and a plaid camp shirt (they seem to be all the rage these days). I will have to post a pic of me in my new outfit in a couple of weeks when the pants are a little less tight. :)

I hope everybody is having a great day and that the sun is shining wherever you are at!

C25K- Week 5 COMPLETED!!!!!

Hello there! I have to thank everybody for their encouraging comments on yesterdays post. I was thinking of you all today while on the treadmill. I REALLY wanted to complete Day 3 of Week 5 of my C25K training. So when it got hard and my legs felt like they couldn't go much further, I thought of you all. I thought about how I REALLY wanted to report to you all that I had been able to do the full 20 minute run.

I'm happy to report I did just that. I ran for 20 minutes straight! My distance was just over one and half miles. My legs are sore right now, but it was totally worth it! I feel great. The first 2 days of Week 6 don't seem too bad. I don't think I will have much of a problem with those days. Day 3 will be a run of 25 minutes. It may take me a few tries but I know I can do that, too! I can't wait to report on that one!

Tomorrow is my weigh-in day. I suspect I may have a gain. Not cool, but probably deserving. I will learn from my past week's mistakes and celebrate my NSV's. I have completed week 5 of the C25K training and I am actually wearing size 14 jeans right now! I hadn't really tried on my 14's in the closet for a couple of weeks. Today I decided to. Some don't fit too well and these are a bit tight in the hips, but they are wearable. Yay!
Have a good day everybody!

Trying to stay on course

Happy Monday, everybody! It looks like I took a break from blogging. That was not my intention, it just happened. The kids have been on spring break. We have been busy doing this and that. Believe it or not, we went sledding on Thursday. That's right sledding over SPRING break! I wasn't happy about the snow, but am glad we took advantage of it.
On Friday, we had an Easter egg hunt with some of our friends. Again, I wasn't happy that we had to move the hunt inside but happy to spend time with friends.
Saturday, was a laid back day. We colored Easter eggs and hung out at home.
Sunday, we actually didn't go to church. The first weekend in April is set aside in my church for our leaders to speak to us. We don't go to our regular church meetings that day, instead we watch on TV or the Internet or in person as our leaders speak to us. It is always a very uplifting time, but a little weird not to be at church on Easter this year. Of course, most of the talks on Sunday focused on Christ's Resurrection so it was very appropriate and inspirational. I hope everyone out there had a great Easter weekend and enjoyed celebrating the season with family.

I have fallen off course a bit the last couple of days, really the last few weeks. My eating has not been great. I fell victim to donuts, orange rolls, too much bread, chocolate, french fries and other things I have probably forgotten to mention. I am still trying to get a hang of this eating in moderation concept. I mean, some people are so good about only having a couple of pieces of chocolate a day. If I have a couple of pieces of chocolate, I want a couple more handfuls! If I eat a donut, I figure I might as well eat another. Not good!

The worse part is I actually skipped exercise 2 extra days last week. Sunday is always my rest day and sometimes I skip another day, but have never skipped 2 days!

Let's put this in perspective; Eating more, Exercising less and not updating my blog. Danger! Looks like I'm in danger of sabotaging all my hard work.

Don't worry, I am not giving up. I have had a good day today. I walked with my friend this morning and then an additional mile on my treadmill. I also did Jillian's Shred level 2. I have had some chocolate. The cadbury mini eggs are now gone so that temptation is eliminated for another year.

I also want to share my C25K progress. Last Saturday, I got on the treadmill with a goal in mind to run 1 1/2 miles without walking. I figured at my pace this would put me at the 20 minute run for day 3 of week 5. Well, I couldn't quite run 1 1/2 miles straight. I ran for 1 1/4 miles and then walked a 1/4 of mile and then ran another 1/4 of mile. This is progress. The last few times I have ran for a significant amount of time I have not wanted to run anymore, even after walking for awhile. So I did run 1 1/2 miles and for 20 minutes, just not all at once. I will attempt W5D3 again tomorrow.

Another NSV (non-scale victory) is that I am wearing some Levi's right now that I have not been able to wear before. I bought them at Costco a few months ago. You can't really try things on at Costco. I bought these jeans when I was still in denial and was not ready to admit that I needed to be in a Woman's size 16 or 18. These are a regular 16, but I would say fit closer to a 14. I hate it when pants run small!

I have been a bit disappointed that although I have lost 20+ pounds, I haven't really seen a drop in pant size. I must have been wearing my pants pretty tight before! But I guess moving from a 16W to a regular 16 is progress. I just hope I can fit in a size 14 pretty soon here. I really don't want to go buy size 16 capris because I don't plan on being in them for too long. I have some cute size 14 capris in my closet. I guess that will be some added motivation!

Have a great day everybody!