The I Lost Weight This Week!!! Weigh In

Today's weigh in for the Sisterhood was one I wasn't really looking forward to. Over Thanksgiving I really threw caution to the wind and ate a lot of crap I don't usually eat and I ate ALOT of it, too! So this morning when I got on the scales I didn't know what to expect. I did know that the past 2 days I had eaten well within my calorie allotment and I had drank ALOT of water. I also stayed on track with my exercising at least 1 hr a day. The rest of the week I was lacking in many of these areas...ok how 'bout all of them?? if I'm going to be honest!

So..onto the scale:

Last week's weigh in: 197.6
Today's week's weigh in: 196.6

I could hardly believe my eyes!! But I was happy to see that I had lost! This told me that I can lose weight any time....all I have to do is be dedicated to working out and eating right and even if I blow it for a few days I can recover quickly!

YAY!!

A couple other victories for me this week...my hubby told me it looks like my stomach is getting smaller now that I am running so much! That really made my day!! He's told me that several times this week so that tells me that it really is happening!! My stomach seems to be the one area of my body that (to me) is staying the same or at least getting smaller slower! and I have been keeping on track with my C25K training and ran 5 minutes in 3 different sessions on Monday. I'm about to head out to run for Wk5D2 now and I'm supposed to run 8 minutes twice! I'm a little nervious about that but I know if I just decide I can, then I will! My true test of how far I have come with the running will be Saturday when I am supposed to run for 20 minutes without walk breaks! This will be during my 5K with That Kid, too so that will make it even more special!!!

Ok...off to run...and all the other mom stuff slated for today. Hope ya'll had successes this week!

Week In Review: Shredding, Weigh In, and Work!

Wow! This is going to be some kind of mixed up jumbled post...kind of like my week!!
Hope ya'll are ready for a lot of different topics to be covered in one post. If not, then maybe you can just pretend that it is several posts and break it up in your reading time!

First of all I will start with my "work week". This was the first week of work for me and it was a doozy. As I mentioned before I haven't worked in nearly 7 years and I have NEVER worked at a job during what is known as the graveyard shift...10 p.m. to 7 a.m. It has been over 20 years since I worked a 40+ work week, too. I have a new respect for police, firemen, and hospital staff that are required to work this shift. It is not for the wimpy! I have been a night owl for years but when it hits 1 a.m. I turn into a pumpkin and go to sleep. Not now....no, now I am just getting started at 1 a.m. My responsibilites are varied from night to night but for the most part I am moving for most of my 8 hour shift. Thursday night/Friday morning I logged nearly 5 miles in the 8 hours I worked. Not only did I walk but I carried, lifted, bent, and pushed and pulled. Plenty of exercise going on at work for me. It is physically demanding but not so much that I can't handle it. Boy am I glad that I have been working out over the past 11 months! I would never have been able to do this job if I hadn't at least started on this journey of weight loss and exercise! There are some younger women (and even men) there and they are wiped out after their shift and they didn't work nearly as hard as I did! YAY for exercising!!

The hardest part of the job is not actually the job it is getting enough sleep and getting my schedule adjusted so that I don't want to sleep before my shift is over. I have a good friend who is helping me with That Other Kid a couple of days a week by having him at their house. She is working on school with him and letting him play with her little boy. I got to sleep uninterrupted from 8:30 to 3 the day she kept him...Pays to have friends, let me tell you!!


As you know the Sisterhood started doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred Monday. Never one liking to feel left out and one who apparently likes the pain I decided to do the Shred with everyone! I have to say I am glad to be doing it but I am not going to be able to do it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY like I want to and like it is designed for, but I am doing it as much as I feel I can. It only takes about 25 minutes and it is a GREAT workout! I did it Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday of this week. So I say 4 out of 6 days is pretty darn good! I really do love exercising and working out now...it keeps my body healthy and keeps me from being depressed and mentally "blah".

This week's weigh in --- let's just say it SUCKED, shall we? Of course, I know in my head that this was going to be a bad week and with all the changes that occurred this week I was bound to have a sucky week but man I did not like looking down and seeing that I had bounced UP 2 WHOLE POUNDS!!

Last week I weighed -- 189.0
This week I weighed -- 191.0

I'm hoping that it is a temporary gain and with all the working out, walking, lifting, bending, pushing and pulling that I am doing these 2 pounds plus more will come off by this upcoming weigh in. Everyone I know has said that the first week of a change like this plays the biggest havic of your system, so now that the first week is over it's time for my system to kick it up a notch so I can continue losing weight. I am eating healthy at work (fruit, cheese, peanut butter, and crackers) and only succumbed to a coke 1 night. I am looking for alternative caffeine injections!! I hate coffee so don't even suggest that! I'm not really a iced tea person, although that may be my best option. I am drinking between 32 and 64 ounces of water during the night so that is a big deal for me. Of course, I am 'dying of thirst' at break times though because I am used to drinking water all day long and now it is reserved for break and meal time or when I am at home awake!

Just one more thing before I move on. Please pray for my dh as he continues seeking work as an architect. He is starting to really get depressed and down. Now that I am working I think that he is feeling even more down. He doesn't sleep well when I am not in bed with him and now that I am ALWAYS gone at night he is having problems sleeping. If this continues I'm afraid that he will get sick and then not only will he not be working but he will be sick. BAD combination, let me just tell you!

He had an interview on Friday and he felt it went well but we won't know anything for awhile about it. He has a couple of possible "contracts" (independent contractor type projects) that are supposed to happen this week. We NEED these projects. Not just for his well being but for our financial obligations and needs as well! Thanks so much for your prayers and friendship!!

My SuperHero Alter Ego

Today's Monday Project is to create an alter ego that is a super hero for myself and talk about some of the super powers that she would have. This one was kind of difficult for me so I enlisted the help of my dh.

As a stay at home mom who has poured almost 20 years into caring for her kiddos, as well as homeschooling and taking care of the home management side of being a homemaker, my dh has often called me "SuperMom". I never really thought of myself as supermom but as I have been thinking about this alter ego I decided that this would be my ideal super hero character. As SuperMom I would definitely NOT wear a cape....A cape would just get in the way of my constant movement! Because as SuperMom moving all day long is just part of the role!

Although I have been a stay at home mom for what seems like forever it is what I always dreamed of doing as a kid. After I got over the idea of being a nurse the first time I saw a bunch of blood and a broken bone (my own) -- of course, because didn't every little girl want to be a nurse back in the 70's??

I would change MANY things though, if I were the SuperMom in my head...

1)I would not be lazy EVER!! I would never go to bed with a dirty, cluttered, unorganized home.

2)I would enlist my kids in a healthy lifestyle from Day 1. Sitting around just watching tv would be for OCCASIONAL days...not days where I just don't want to do anything, which sadly is more often than I would care to admit!

3)I would homeschool my kids the way THEY learned best, not how I learn best! I would take more walks, do more nature studies, do more things that incorporate the lifestyle of our ancestors. I would also teach them more about the finer things in life; art, music, and caring for others.

4)I would make sure that my kids were actively moving EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Even when it is cold, rainy, snowy, windy or too hot! I would teach them that the most important part of their day needs to be to take care of their body by moving it and caring for all parts of it...from the top of their head to the bottoms of their feet!

5)SuperMom would also have time to help others in her life. Friends, family, and the community around her would benefit from all that she accomplished.

6)One of the most important things that SuperMom would do is to put herself FIRST; NOT LAST...Because she would realize that the mom that is healthy and happy is a better mom.


I am accomplishing much more of these things as I continue to get a grasp on my own health and raise That Other Kid but the way I see it there is always room for improvement. Maybe by the time I am a grandmother (which better be A LONG TIME FROM NOW).... I will be where I want to be and I can be SuperGrammy!!

Moving On - Weigh In

According to ChristieO this is the Final Weigh In for the Rethink Your Shrink Challenge. I personally am glad to be done with the Challenge. I have learned an amazing amount of things about myself during this time period. I have proven to myself that "I CAN DO IT!!" Whatever 'IT' is! I can go way past my comfort zone. I have learned that when I am under great amounts of stress (like dh not working for going on 7 weeks and no unemployment monies available) I faulter A LOT!

But I also learned that I CAN walk away from the kitchen and that bag of chips that are supposed to be for That Other Kid! I learned that during the past 10 1/2 months I have inspired a lot of people to get on the band wagon and give this weight loss journey a shot. Several of my friends 'who could never lose weight' are NOW losing weight, because they are following my examples of exercising consistently and eating a lower fat, higher fiber diet; ie., a well balanced diet. They are no longer wondering why it's not happening for them! I also, as of last night, got my dh to start exercising again!! He has been watching me workout now nearly every night for the past 10 1/2 months and he kept saying "wow! I am impressed with your dedication!" Finally last night I set up a routine for him to workout with on the WiiFit Plus!! He actually said it was challenging and FUN!!

I did not meet my goals during this challenge, but I know why! Am I disappointed? Of course, I didn't set the goals to fail. However, I learned so much about myself and what I can and can't do that I consider it a victory anyway.

My goals for this challenge --

Eat at least 5 servings of fruits/veggies a day. I almost made it for this goal. I probably missed 7 days of eating the right amount of fruits/veggies.

Keep my house decluttered. I can happily say that I did accomplish this goal! Every night I went to bed with a mostly cleaned up house! Please don't get me wrong, I have dishes in the sick and laundry waiting to be folded as I type this, but the mess and clutter is not so bad that I wouldn't feel comfortable inviting a friend over for a visit! Before this challenge I can't say that would be true! So
come on over and we'll have a visit...and if I know that you are coming I will even get that load of laundry folded and put away and dishes loaded into the dishwasher before you get here!!

My third and final goal for this challenge was to lose 10 or more pounds. Sadly, I didn't even come close to this goal. But, as our lovely Jillian keeps telling us stress will kill the weight loss! That has indeed happened to me.

My starting weight for this challenge was 192.2.

Today's weight was 188.8.

That's only a loss of 3.4 pounds, BUT I can safely say that if it had not been for this challenge and all the lovelies over at the Sisterhood I would have GAINED ALOT of weight during this time, instead of losing those 3.4 pounds. So Thanks to everyone for keeping me on the path to healthy living and losing weight!

We will be starting a new challenge REAL SOON (like Friday) so come back and get started with us at the Sisterhood. I'm sure we will be learning new things and challenging ourselves in new ways to meet the goal of healthy, fit human beings! It will be an Olympic Blast because all the girls over at the Sisterhood are creative and know just the right ways to inspire us to live a healthy lifestyle!! And we may even learn some more things about ourselves!!

Christie asked us to take a before and after picture....I have my before picture but tomorrow is my 'normal' picture taking day so I am going to go ahead and wait. I will post it tomorrow, so ya'll come back, ya hear!!

Have a great Wednesday....and remember whether you meet your goals or not as long as you set them and are working toward them you are doing something that is good for you!!

Now Is the Time To "Toot God's Horn!"

For the most part my blog focuses on my weight loss journey and the boys and their activities. Yesterday's assignment at the Sisterhood was to "Toot My Horn", tell people why "I Rock"! It was challenging but a great exercise for me, but today I am going to post a bit of praise for GOD and Toot HIS Horn!! Before I do, I will be giving a little background info...If I don't you'll be confused and I don't want that. I want this post to be "clear as a bell" so to speak. I want this to be a visual reminder of the good and bad!

Here goes...My dh is an architect, who has been working as a contract designer for the past 5 years. Before 2009 he rarely had to "look for work". It always came to him, or he would make a few phone calls and "boom" he had work, so his marketing plan was to pick up the phone and talk to a few people. Throughout the first half of 2009 business slowed down to basically non-existent. He lost client after client until August when there was "no more work". The beginning of September he started seriously looking for work and "just happened to drop in" (co-incidence, I think not) a former client's office. He talked to the owner and a few days later he started working there. He was promised work for 2 months' time, but the longer he worked there the longer the owner wanted to keep him working. About 1 1/2 months after working there they asked him to continue working till the end of the year. We were excited! We now knew we would have income through the end of the year and the way it looked it would be extended even further. He was so busy working in this office he didn't really think much about marketing or looking for more work. It didn't really look as if he would need to worry about it.

We thought he would be working for an extended period of time and we had figured out how to lower our expenses so that we could afford for him to work there and not worry about "extra work". Then on December 18th, dh was told he would not be needed to work over the weekend. Come back in on Monday, the 21st. Most people would be excited to be told "not to work over the weekend" but we are not most people. This seriously cut into our income (paid hourly) and we really needed that income to meet our budget. We started freaking out a little but he welcomed a break to hang out at our new apartment, since he hadn't really gotten to spend much time there yet. We took it in stride.

He went back in on Monday, the 21st and was told he would only be working Monday and Tuesday and then there would not be a need for him! HELLO....Can you say FREAK OUT??
Where was our income going to come from? How were we going to pay bills? How would we live? You can imagine how my life turned upside down, can't you? Keep in mind that most people when they get laid off from a job can go file for unemployment and collect a bit of a check for 6 months as long as they are looking for work. As a self-employed contractor, dh couldn't do that!! UGH!! Not to mention, guess what? It's the end of the year and the Christmas holiday break! No one hires at this time of the year! UGH!! Again!!!

Time for me to really stress...Strange thing is, dh wasn't really stressing out too much. I guess I was doing enough for both of us! We spent a lot of time praying for God to provide for our needs. We also spent a lot of time trying to find ways to "not spend money". The first part of January dh started making phone calls and started looking for work. He didn't really have a game plan, just start making phone calls to all the people he knows and telling them he was looking for work and sending out resumes. He has an amazing number of contacts. He has an impressive resume. He also has done some impressive work during his 20 years doing independent contract architecture.

This past week, dh finally got into contact with some offices that actually are hiring. He got 3 interviews this week. He feels like he will be offered at least one of these positions soon. Problem with this scenario...we "were" down to about $20 in the bank. No credit cards. Little food in the house. And no idea how we would pay rent on the 1st of the month. We borrowed money from That Kid (who has a great job) so that the cell phone (the one that dh uses for making business contacts) bill could be paid without disconnection.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday in probably one of my worst funks ever. I spent a lot of time crying. I spent a lot of time telling God, "I just can't do this anymore". I spent a lot of time complaining to God that we had endured enough of this "no money stuff". I told God that "we can't live on nothing". I broke down and cried while talking to a couple of friends. I just basically had a "melt down". Strangely enough, I am following a Bible Reading Plan and I started reading Job on Wednesday. Then another friend emailed me a quote from Job. Hum....maybe God was trying to make a point, huh?

I woke up feeling better on Friday. I decided I would just hold my head up and make the most of the day. A friend of ours from That Other Kid's hockey team was coming over and taking us to the new movie The Tooth Fairy. It was right up our alley. We were excited and looking forward to spending some time with friends doing something fun. That Kid also got some tickets to a hockey game that he couldn't use so he asked me to sell for him. He told me to keep half the money from the sale of the tickets since he couldn't use them and the money had already been spent. I started sending emails to people I thought might want them. I didn't hear back from anyone right away, but just decided that I would hang on and believe that they would be sold!

Early in the afternoon dh got a phone call from a "new" client. She asked if he could do "xxx" and would it be possible to "meet with her this afternoon?" Ugh...YES!! He wasn't doing anything else...and the possibility of a contract job that needed to be started SOON!! Can you say, "YEAH GOD??!!!" So dh started getting ready for meeting with the client. That Other Kid and I started getting ready for the movie with friends.

About this time, one of my contacts I had emailed about the hockey tickets said he was interested if they were still available!! Thank you, God! Tickets were sold!! I could meet them Saturday morning and they would pay for the tickets then and we had some cash to get through the end of the month...some grocery money, gas money, and able to pay the water bill. Now to just pay the rent...where would the money come from for that? (Hang on, my story is not finished yet!)

My friend called and said she would be here in a few minutes. We went out to meet her and she handed me an envelope from her sister. Inside this envelope -- $500 CASH!! (Not enough to pay rent, but I believe my story isn't told!) As I opened the envelope FULL of cash from a lady that I had only met a couple of times I just stood there and cried. My friend also gave me money for gas so that That Other Kid could go play hockey tomorrow with the team. After taking us to the movie and dinner at Chickfila (TOK's favorite place to eat) my friend stopped off at the grocery store and bought us almost $50 of groceries. God is soooooo good! He used my friend and her family to BLESS MY SOCKS right off!

At this point, Saturday late afternoon, dh is sitting in his office working on a proposal to present to his new client and we still have 10 days to come up with the money to pay rent. My faith and trust that "God will provide all I can ask or think" has been restored. So I am sitting here at my computer waiting for God to bless our socks off again! HE CAN AND I KNOW THAT HE WILL! I will be reporting back as God blesses us more....

How has God blessed you recently??? I would love to hear your story!!

Garage Sale

I'm sitting out in my garage on a nice cool fall morning in North Texas playing on my Blackberry phone that dh graciously bought me this summer. I didn't really "need" it but really "wanted" it. Now that I've had it for a few months I am hopelessly addicted to the convenience of it. As I said I'm sitting in garage watching over my garage sale and playing on my phone! Doing facebook, blogging, and checking emails are just some of the wonders of technology that I'm blessed with. People are coming and going and buying things and I'm enjoying the pleasure of taking their money for what I perceive as my "junk". None of it is really junk but I don't need it and they can use it or they wouldn't buy it, or would they? The neighbor behind us (age 9) came by yesterday with $20 from the "tooth fairy" and bought $10 of stuff. The day before he spent another $10 on stuff. Did this 9 year old really need $20 of my stuff? I think not? Why did he buy it then? Because he could is my guess.

Something the past few months have taught me is that we can live with a whole lot less "stuff" than we think we can. As I was going through the house preparing for this sale I continually asked myself, "do I need this? Have I used it recently? Is there a benefit to keeping it?" If I answered no, then it is now sitting in my driveway or garage waiting for someone else to take ownership of it. I hope it doesn't just sit in their house collecting dust! I hope they are buying it because they truly want it!

I Goofed Big Time....

When I first started this blog I wanted to use it as a place to vent my frustrations and have a place just for me to be me. Over the past couple of years that I've had the blog that's pretty much what I have done. But over the weekend it came to my attention that I was hurting someone with the words I was writing on some of my entries. So I will be looking back through my blog entries over the next couple of days and I will be deleting negative and hurtful things about my family. There may be times when the blog will be down or unaccessible during this time, don't worry I'm not shutting it down, just revamping it some.

The majority of my blog has been about me and the boys and the day to day life of raising 2 boys growing up in 2 different generations. I will continue discussing the challenges that come up with this and the things they do. I will continue to write about my weight loss and exercise routines, as a means of journaling and possibly helping someone else going through these same challenges. However, from this point on there will be things that I won't discuss -- personal stuff about dh, or the boys. I will also make an effort to leave the reader wanting to come back for more instead of leaving here and thinking I need therapy.

Hope ya'll have a good day!

Today's My Birthday!

and the day started out great! Just as I was getting ready to hop into the shower, a good friend of mine stopped off at my house to surprise me and go out for a quick lunch with our boys. She didn't even realize it was my birthday, but that made it even more special! So I went in and took a shower and prepared to go out for a fast food lunch and let the boys get all hot and sweaty...always fun! After lunch we went back home and let the boys play for a bit.

After they left to go home, dh and That Other Kid and I went to lunch at a nice mexican food place, Blue Goose Cantina. It was about 3 p.m. so we were one of 3 groups in the restaurant so it was nice that we had good service and we didn't have to worry that That Other Kid would disturb anyone. He was not in the mood to sit and be still and quiet, but he did eat 1/4 of a tortilla which was a food first for him (remember he has food allergies, so a lot of "normal" kid foods he doesn't get and hasn't tried). It was so yummy and they had Fried IceCream, the most delicious dessert to ever be created! What could be better, ice cream, cinnamon, whipped cream, and a fried crust??!!

After stuffing myself to the gills, we went over to Target and dh bought me this Wii game which is the only thing I really asked for. See how serious I am about getting back into shape??

After shopping for a few minutes we ran an errand for dh then came home. Since then I have basically done NOTHING!!! I did warm up some dinner for dh and That Other Kid, and I got TOK to bed. I decided I wanted a night off from my exercise routine, since I am pretty much exhausted and wanted to vegg out some.

To top off this wonderful day, it has RAINED the WHOLE day, with temperatures only in the low to mid 80's! How great is that for Texas in late July??!!

Tomorrow it will be back to normal, with loads of laundry to fold, bathrooms to clean,exercising and errands to run! Today was my day off, though and it was fun!

You Capture -- Black and White

I just LOVE black and white photos...they remind me of the "olden days" when that's all there were. I used to always look through my mom's photo albums and some of my early pictures and imagine what all the colors were that were missing. It made some interesting color combinations in my head. hehee!

Anyway, this weeks photo meme with Beth was black and white photos. I thought about it alot this week but never got around to taking any pictures of anything this week...I know, I'm bad!! Enter a photo meme and don't take pictures, what is wrong with me, huh? Anyway tonight That Other Kid was goofing off, as usual, and I decided to take a picture of him using my phone, cuz it was next to me and I would have had to get up to find my camera!

Also included in my pictorial display are a couple of pictures that dh took last week while he was driving around West Texas looking at libraries in small towns...ya know there are a lot of small towns in West Texas, right??!!

Enjoy...and don't be dismayed there are a ton of better pictures to be seen over at Beth's so click on over here to see a wide assortment of great and awesome pictures!

Happy Father's Day....

Just in case dh figures out the name of my blog and decides he wants to go to the trouble of reading it, I thought I should write a little bit about the man I call dh and my children call "dad".

Dh and I married young, both barely 19...which really scares me, cuz ugh! That Kid, guess what? He's about to turn 19!! I can't imagine him being ready to be married. Maybe we weren't either, we were just too stupid to know that we weren't...who knows??!!

Anywhoo, when we first married he was adamant...he didn't want to be a dad. He didn't want to deal with the responsibility. Ya know...kids are a lot of work! He didn't have a very good childhood and he felt that he wouldn't be properly equipped to be a dad. But you know, things change and life happens. I talked him into agreeing to at least 1 child and hopefully 2! Guess what?? I got 2, which is what I wanted!! Right before we turned 25 years old, nearly 6 years after we got married That Kid was born. I had always thought we would have a girl, and that's what he thought he wanted too, but ya know God has other plans most times!

That Kid was born and dh cried, "oh no, we have a boy. How am I supposed to treat him? What if I end up treating him like I was treated as a boy?" Well God knew what he was doing and helped him to become a better man and a good dad to his little boy! it helped that That Kid thought dad hung the moon and proclaimed that he was "daddy's little man" from a very early age. When That Kid was about 2 1/2 years old they sat on the couch together and watched Star Wars and that was the beginning of a Star Wars and movie watching bond that still exists. When That Kid was about 3 or 4 years old he decided he was "big man self" and was no longer "daddy's little man" but by that time they had a special bond. This bond has changed over the years but they are still into the same kinds of "manly movies".

Before That Other Kid was born, we found out he was a boy and DH's response was, "well I guess I'm not good a making girls!" So the adventure began with That Other Kid. Now, That Other Kid has always been a "momma's boy", but sometimes he gets a little put out by all my "unmanly ways" and wants to hang with dad. These are the times that dh really love, and I think he lives for these times when he can develop this relationship with That Other Kid. TOK already loves Star Wars, Batman and all those other manly guy types of movies and shows. This is wonderful for the 3 of them to have this bond and it gives me a break from all the testosterone in the room!

Dh was afraid of becoming a father, because he didn't want to be a "terrible dad"! I didn't worry about him being a terrible dad because he has enough "sweetness" to knock out the bad from his terrible example growing up. I knew that he would be the best dad that he could and he has been....

So Happy Fathers Day, DH!!

Day 8 and 9 Are Done!!

I got home from my trip did tons of laundry, slept and then at the end of the day I EXERCISED AGAIN.... Yeah for me!! Done with Day 8 of the 30 Day Shred!
Got up yesterday and goofed around on the computer catching up with my blogging friends, took That Other Kid to karate class, out to lunch at Chick-fil-a, then went to the chiropractor. Ran to the grocery store, paid a bill online, fixed dinner, goofed off some more, put That Other Kid to bed and EXERCISED AGAIN!! I'm on a roll!! Day 9 was done! I have to say my heart wasn't in it last night...my body hurt and I felt 'blah'!! I really wanted to go to bed, but I perservered and I'm glad to say I did...I went to bed feeling good about myself.

Today is the final weigh-in of this go round with my Sisters at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. I'm waiting for dh to get home with the car so I can weigh in at the gym!! I'm hoping that I am down a total of 15 pounds, but I know that this week may have been just enough slacking that it didn't happen....just waiting is tiresome, though. So ....what I'd like to do is take a nap! But that's not gonna happen, since a certain little 5 year old wants to be constantly entertained.

I'll let ya'll know how I did after I go to the gym and weigh myself!!

Edited with Today's Weigh-In: Kind of bummed again -- but I will not be discouraged and give up.

Starting weight March 30, 2009 -- 225.8
Today's weight May 20, 2009 -- 214.6

Total weight loss during this challenge 11.2 pounds.

Now granted I am thrilled with the fact that I no longer am carrying those extra 11 pounds around I am discouraged because that means I still have 70 more pounds to lose and it has not been easy the past couple of weeks to continue to see the numbers stay the same or even go up. However, my dh gave me a pep-talk and told me that it is not ALL in the numbers...it also is in the way my clothes fit. And they do fit ALOT different! Some of my pants are literally falling off if I don't wear a belt. All of them require a belt to stay on me comfortably! So I will continue doing what I know is the right thing and wait for the numbers to start cooperating with me!

This challenge is over but a new one will be starting back up in a couple of weeks...come join us as we Shred and Shrink into healthier and happier bodies!

Update For Today's Challenge

My Dh bought me the WiiFit for Christmas and I've only used it 3 times prior to tonight...but this challenge has encouraged me to get it out and use it. I did it tonight for 25 minutes!! yeah for me!!

I had only done the hula hoop event for 2 spins before tonight! Pretty pathetic doncha think? Anyway, I practiced and practiced and practiced tonight and got up to 21 spins!! 2 times!! so at least I'm improving...I know it's not much but any improvement is IMPROVEMENT! and besides I actually worked out on the WiiFit today!

I also started cleaning out the garage which needs some major overhauling and restructuring! Think President Obama would give us a stimulus package since our garage is in such sorry shape?? Sorry I couldn't resist!!

This weekend That Other Kid had some major hockey events! I have a great picture of him before his final game of the season that I just knew you would want to see....



Thanks for humoring me!! Btw, if you like this picture and live in the DFW area you can have your kids pictures taken by the man who took this one. His name is Trey Hill and his website is here. Tell him Ann sent you!

A Weight Loss Challenge

Over at the Sisterhood of Shrinking Jeans they are having a fun Challenge to help get you exercising this week. It sounds like a ton of fun and I've been needing a good excuse to whip out the Wii Fit that DH spent the whole weekend before Christmas looking for so I'm gonna participate. So far my total spins on HulaHoops has been 4 --- but I've only been on the WiiFit 2 or 3 times so I don't guess that is too surprising. Let's see how I can improve, between now and Saturday night!

I had a great weekend, and I'll share that with you a little later tonight. But I will say that I haven't had any coke or caffeine since Wednesday afternoon!! Whooohoo!!