Finally, in the 180's!

Boy it took me a while to lose the latest few pounds! I'm .2 pounds away from a 16 pound loss, and I can say goodbye to the 190's!

I'm okay with the slow loss. Slow loss is better than no loss. And staying the same is better than gaining.

I saw someone last night who I hadn't seen in months and she called me skinny! How cool is that. Now I know I am not skinny, but I am skinnier for sure!

Now if only my daughter hadn't woken me up at 4 am, I'd be feeling a bit better. I've been so busy and a bit scatterbrained lately, I'm sure the lack of sleep won't help. Glad I stocked up on healthy food this week! So glad that watermelon and blueberries are in season.

On track and setting goals

Just got my period and have been feeling bloated and crampy. Set my alarm to go to the gym and I woke up at one point and turned it off. But then I woke up again and thought, I'm awake, I'd better go! So I did. Got 3 miles in. I always vary the pace and the and the incline. It felt good. Three days in a row! Can I go for 5 days next week? Could I (gasp) possibly go on the weekend? It's up to me.

I have a little secret goal. Every year my girls run a mile in the fall for their school's fun run. This coming fall, I'd love to run with them. I've never done that, and I never thought I would. The only way I'll feel comfortable enough to do that is to lose weight. In a few weeks, if I get on a good workout routine, I'd love to start the couch to 5k program and maybe even do a 5k in the fall. I don't know if my knees will let me, and I'd be OK with not doing a 5k, but I think I should be able to run one mile on two days to be with my girls. Shhhh, don't tell! :)

Back on track: My great 10 pound mini-goal!

I've not posted in a while. I guess I haven't been too motivated in the weight loss fitness area. I have eaten well, not perfect, but I haven't done well in the exercise area. I'm changing that tomorrow!

The good news is that I seem to be very good at maintaining a weight of 192 pounds. The bad news is I want to weigh less than 192 pounds! Other good news is that I finally, finally took the time to get a checkup exam. It had been a while. All is great! Total cholesterol is 140! Was flummoxed and didn't get the 2 separate numbers, but doctor said it looked great. Blood pressure was good and all was well. No sign of some issues that run in my family.

Not sure exactly why I've lost motivation. As I said before March is always a stressful month for me, and April had vacation. Enjoyed eating and walking on vacation and didn't over do it! Felt good about my choices.

I think fearing the doctor's visit which I had put off for too long was stressing me out. Also, last week had a health scare with my daughter, but all is well. The bottom line is I just need to do it!

So I want to lose 10 pounds. No deadline, but by the end of June would be good. Of course I need to lose more than 10 pounds, but I need to have a reasonable goal to work towards to get me moving.

I dub this "My great 10 pound mini-goal!" I hope tomorrow to be able to post the good things I have done achieve this goal.

I must say, the reason that I maintained my weight and didn't gain any was reading the great blogs of so many people who are on this weight loss journey. I appreciate reading everyone's struggles and success stories.

Getting by

It's been a while since I posted. I didn't have a great week last week, but it wasn't horrible. I was PMS-y, achy, tired and made some deliberate decisions to eat some treats. But I never felt out of control. The net of it is I gained 2 pounds, down 1, pretty much back to where I was 2 weeks ago. The month of March is always crazy around here and I knew that, so I'm not beating myself up. I've been getting good sleep, which is helping me. This week is crazy, and I'm happy that I've gotten some exercise in and made reasonable food choices. One week until vacation and I'm looking forward to being active, relaxing, eating some good seafood and enjoying my family.

I'm hoping that when May comes I can be down at least another 5 pounds. I think that's reasonable.

Slow and steady ...

Slow and steady

March is a crazy month around here, not the least of which was Thing 2's birthday yesterday! And party. Which meant I made brownies and brought cupcakes to school. I confess I did eat a brownie's worth of batter, but all in all didn't do too badly.

I have been spotty with the gym, but work looked slow today so I did go for a 30 minute walk. Better than nothing!

I'm losing slowly, and I have less than a pound to go to reach a 15 pound total loss and to reach a new "decade", so I'm motivated to eat well today.

Also, I am wearing a size 12 pair of jeans! 15 pounds ago I was wearing size 16, although I did have one pair of size 14 pants that just fit. I quickly moved into size 14 and they are feeling a bit baggy. I went to try on the size 14 with the thought that if they just barely fit they would be "motivation" pants but they fit and are comfortable.

I think it's important not to just look at the scale for motivation. And these pants are it!

I feel like this weight loss is moving slowly (certainly by biggest loser standards!), but I'm happy with it. My goal for the next few weeks is to get a few pounds under 190. We are going on vacation at the start of April, and I plan on returning from vacation under 190. And to never see 190 again. I'm planning to be active on vacation and to stock the condo we are renting with healthy options and to enjoy some meals out. I think I can do it.

Whoo hoo!

Even though I couldn't make it to the gym this week, I lost weight! I now have a total weight loss 12.6 pound! 1.6 pounds to another "decade". I'm really happy with how I'm eating. I'm planning ahead, enjoying my food, trying to eat healthy. Tonight I am setting everything up I need to get to the gym early tomorrow. It's going to be a crazy week at work and with activities, but I feel prepared!

Survived the weekend

I got through the weekend enjoying myself and even losing weight. This was with eating at an Indian buffet on Friday, going out to a big charity event with a huge buffet and drinks on Saturday night, and eating homemade pizza yesterday! I really believe that if you try to do your best 80-90 percent of the time, that "relaxing", not bingeing, and enjoying yourself will not do any damage.

The Indian buffet is a place my husband and I like to go to lunch every once in a while. How do I manage to either maintain or lose weight the day after eating at this buffet? For one, I think it's healthy. There are lots of veggies in these dishes. A lot of them are in sauces, but I don't think the sauces have too much fat. The sauce just is not greasy or oily on the plate. I also don't think there is a lot of salt. Lots of spices yes, but not too much salt. Finally, as much as I love the naan bread, I just don't have it anymore. And no rice. And no dessert.

As far as the charity event, it was fun! I knew all week I wanted to relax and enjoy this event so I really was good eating all week. When faced with this huge buffet, I first filled a plate with raw veggies and fruit and a bunch of shrimp with cocktail sauce and some salad. I love shrimp! Then when I was ready to attack the buffet again, I wasn't ravenous. I had some pasta with marinara sauce, a spring roll and some green beans with almonds. I think that was it. I had a bit of my husband's dessert, which wasn't that great. I had two glasses of wine. I met Elvis and Marilyn Monroe! Had a nice time out. When I was putting on my dress, I thought to myself I wished how much I weighed less. But I was so happy that I weighed 10 pounds less than a month ago.

And as for the pizza, I had a great day of eating. Bad on exercise, though! I realize that not getting enough sleep really really affects me. We stayed up later than usual and then Thing 2 woke me up in the middle of the night. So I was tired on Sunday. While my husband took the girls for a bikeride, which would have been good exercise and just a fun thing to do, I took a nap. Because I needed it.

We made homemade pizza. While I could have made it healthier, we always make a nice thin crust, so I think that helped.

I did not go the gym today, bad me! And tomorrow is the only other day I can go. Busy work week and husband will be out of town so I can sneak out of the house early. So I'll do the best I can and hope for the best!

10 Pounds Down!

Whoo hoo! I am 10 pounds down today! This just a bit over a month after I started this journey. I am quite happy and feel good. I think the pumping up the exercise yesterday and drinking lots of water helped. And this while I am feeling slightly PMS-y. Which is why I didn't make it to the gym this morning. That and I have a crazy day today and there was a lot on my mind.

But, I have a plan! Tonights my night to take Thing 1 to swim team practice. Usually I sit in the waiting room and read or sew something if I need to (girl scout patches, etc). But tonight I will do a few loops up and down the staircases at the aquatic center. And I will drink lots of water. I think today I will add bits of frozen fruit to my water to make it "fancy". I've been having egg whites and veggies for breakfast, but today I think I need my comforting oatmeal with peanut butter.

Tomorrow is my big night out to a charity event with my husband. I had scheduled to get my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow. I was planning to save the highlights as a reward for the 10 pound weight loss, and what do you know I made it!

New week, new motivation

I had a good weekend. Yesterday was my official weigh in day, and I weighed in at 196.2 for a 7.8 pound weight loss in almost a month. Not bad. Of course today I was up a little, but I attribute that too mexican lunch out. I made good choices (OK maybe I ate a few chips), but I special ordered my dish without sauce, left the tortilla and only half the rice. Also, I hadn't exercised in a number of days, so all explainable.

But I had a weekend of good choices. And I was surrounded by girl scout cookies everywhere! I have them in my house! I helped deliver them! I helped sell them in front of a store! They were serving them after church! Just didn't touch them, so hooray for me. I wonder what year I'm going to break down and just ignore the cookies and write the girl scouts a check! I support them, but my goodness all you read about is the childhood obesity epidemic. Surely we can think of a better way to support these girls!

Didn't really have anything too junky this weekend. Got to grocery shop by myself, and bought tons of veggies. Fresh, frozen, you name it, I've got it in my house! Think I'm going to roast a bunch of them today just to have to snack on or add to meals quickly.

Today I got to the gym bright and early. Did my 3 miles on the treadmill in 40 minutes. Added some inclines and did intervals of fast and really fast (for me). Was nice and sweaty when I'm done. Tomorrow I hope to do 2 miles on the treadmill and start with some weight machines.

And I have some new short term motivation! My husband and I decided to go to a black tie optional charity event on the weekend. We never do things like this! I tried on a black cocktail dress I wore to a wedding last year. I was disappointed to see that it fits just right and is not too loose. Last week I had to go to size 14 in my pants, down from 16. I've been in 16 for a long time. But the dress fits, I don't feel like spending money on a new one, so that's what I'll wear. Motivated to work out hard this week so I look and feel my best on the weekend and I can enjoy some of the food that will be served then.

I have a busy month or two ahead of me, and I need to carefully shop so I have healthy meals in. This week I'm set and ready for what comes my way!

Planning

Friday evenings are my turn to take Thing 1 to swim practice. So i quickly leave my desk and make sure she has her suit on, swim bag and we run. We leave at 5 and don't get home until 7. Oh and some instructions yelled out to my husband as to what he can make for dinner (really his one night to make dinner).

So we get home and there's pizza. Kids were happy, I was tired and would have preferred something else, but we didn't have anything else. So I ate a slice, and then finished my daughter's slice (something I said I shouldn't do in a previous post)! I was going to beat myself up, but was really too tired. I weighed myself today and no damage done. I think eating well the rest of the day and most of the week helped. I know as I drop pounds I'm really going to have to exercise more to ensure slip ups or indulgences like this don't result in a weight gain.

So what will I do differently next week? I know next week is going to be a busy work week, so I am going to make sure I stock up on healthy foods. I really like garden burgers, but didn't have any in the house, so I'll make sure I have those in as a quick meal for myself. Also lots of veggies, frozen too. I need to come up with some other make ahead meal ideas that we can all have or that I can have when I don't want to join in on the pizza. Or maybe have a small slice of pizza with something else healthy of my choosing?