Same thing

I weigh the same as last week.  I didn't eat well over the weekend and went up to 143 and then dropped back down this week eating no sugar.  I'm going on day 4 of no sugar.  I will hopefully keep it up until next Friday when I need to weigh in for my health challenge and then I have my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary luncheon, ward party that night and a baptism for my nephew on Saturday.  Then we leave on vacation on Sunday.  Here's to a lower weigh in next week!

Starting Again

I really need to get back on track and without a lot of accountability and hip surgery, things have gone downhill (or uphill ha ha) for a bit.  I need to eat better and exercise consistently in order to be more healthy and get to a weight that I like and feel good about.  Here is my weigh-in with measurements starting today.  I'm leaving on vacation for 8 days to Cancun in a few weeks so I don't have much time but after that I'm good to go!

Weight:  141.6

Neck: 12.25
Right bicep: 12
Chest: 36
Under chest: 32
Natural waist: 29.25
Waist belly button: 31.5
Hips: 36
Right thigh: 22.5
Right calf: 15

I would love to get under 140 before my trip so here goes!

Health Challenge Complete

Well, the health challenge and has come and gone.  This time I was not as diligent at eating right all the time so I struggled some at the end.  Last time I lost weight so easily that I was able to take a little break and indulge and then work a little hard at the end.  This time I indulged some each week and as a result, I had just under 4 pounds to lose the last week, eeek.  So, I buckled down, followed their 1500 calorie a day meal plan and pulled it off, well kind of.  Today was the first day you could weigh in and as of yesterday I still had 0.8 pounds to go.  This morning I had a pound to go so I went running first and then weighed in and was even 0.2 pounds under where I needed to be.  So, did I cheat a little?  Maybe, but I was ready to be done.  It causes me stress and I don't love stress, so I like to weigh in as soon as I can.

I worked out so hard this week that I feel exhausted right now.  Also, I have a cold and a slight fever although I don't feel sick, I just feel exhausted in my muscles.  I did several high intensity interval training workouts this week and my muscles are so sore and tired.  Anyway, moving in to maintenance mode and hope to stay there for a while.  I'm tired of always trying to lose weight.  Hopefully I can just eat well most of the time and stay under 135 and indulge some as well.

Here are my measurements that I took when I started and then again this morning:

January 10, 2015   Weight:  140.6

Neck: 12.5
Chest:  35.5
Under Chest:  30.75
R Bicep:  11.75
Natural Waist:  29.25
Waist:  32.25
Hips:  35.25
R Thigh:  22.3
R Calf:  14.75

February 20, 2015   Weight:131.8  (down 8.8 pounds)

Neck:  12  (down 0.5)
Chest:  35  (down 0.5)
Under Chest:  30  (down 0.75)
R Bicep:  11.5  (down 0.25)
Natural Waist:  28  (down 1.25)
Waist:  30.5  (down 1.75)
Hips:  34  (down 1.25)
R Thigh:  21.6  (down 0.7)
R Calf:  14.5  (down 0.25)

A total of 7.2 inches lost :)

I went down in every measurement so that's great.  Here's to a healthy, weight maintaining year!!!

Health Challenge #2

Hey, I'm back sort of.  I've kind of lost my desire to keep up on this blog seeing as no one really reads it anymore.  Oh well, here goes.  I started my second health challenge almost 2 weeks ago and I weighed in at 140.6 and have to get down to 132 to win.  As of today I am at 137.2, down 3.4 pounds and right on track.  By tomorrow, I needed to be at 137.6 and I'm a little below that.  This time around I haven't been as motivated to eat super healthy all the time and I have had a few desserts and pizza once.  Oh well, I'll just have to work a little harder at the end in order to make it.  I took my measurements and I'll post those soon.  By next week I need to be down to 136 so I'm on my way! 

By the way, my husband and sister joined me in the challenge.  My sister joined to lose weight and my husband joined to maintain his weight.  Also my good friend Sarah is part of the challenge.  It's fun to do these types of activities with friends and family!

Christmas has come and gone.......

Well, I didn't quite make my goal of staying under 138 for the holidays.  After Christmas I stepped on the scale and saw 139.2.  I keep trying to eat better and now that the treats are dwindling down that helps, but I am very munchy.  I have gotten used to eating whatever/whenever and now I need to change that mind set and only eat when I am truly hungry.  I seriously ate SOO MUCH this holiday season, more than I normally have in the past.  It was getting out of hand.  Like a half bag of holiday candy a day, wow!

Even though I only gained 5 pounds over the holidays, I feel so poofy and uncomfortable.  My waist has grown and my pants are all fitting a little snug.  My face is more double chinned than ever and my energy has waned.  Plus, my back has been hurting more and when I eat a lot of sugar, I get yeast infections much more easily.  When I did my health challenge, my yeast infections became a thing of the past, that was really nice.

So, I know I won't be perfect until after New Year's but I will start a new health challenge and I need to decide if I just want to maintain or lose 6%.  If I lose 6%, I will likely have to get down to 130 or even a little below if I lose any weight before it starts.  As of today, I would have to get down to 130.8 to lose 6%.....:) That would be cool.  Anyway, I'll decide when the time comes but until then, I'm am going to try harder to make better food choices. 

Happy Holidays!

On Friday I weighed in at 135.4, up 1.4 pounds from a few weeks ago.  Enjoying that holiday food!  I have been eating a lot of junk but it's kind of fun to just enjoy eating junk for a few weeks.  However, it has caused some stomach aches so I started to dial it back a little and start eating better and that of course helps.  Less than 2 weeks until Christmas :)

I'm back...kind of.

So it's been a month since I wrote my last post on Halloween.  I did the health challenge and lost all the baby weight and more and it was great!  Over the past few months I gained back a few pounds with Halloween, my birthday, and Thanksgiving.  I usually stick around 134 and 135 (I was 134 this morning).  So, for this holiday season I'd really like to stay under 140, ideally under 138.  That allows me to gain a few pounds which I know will happen, but also encourage me to not have to lose so much come January.  I am planning to do the health challenge again in January and while it would be nice to lose another 6%, I will likely choose the maintain option and lose a few pounds.  If I start the challenge at 138 and had to lose 6%, I would have to get under 130, whoa.  That sounds cool but also a little scary.  Plus, my clothes will start to be baggy etc.  Anyway, I'm just rambling now. 

Here come the holidays!  Wish me luck, so far I haven't had much self control :)  Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

So, this week I finished my challenge on Monday morning and I have been eating lots of treats this week but my weight has still gone down, funny.  I haven't exercised much either.  I'm sure it won't last but I don't plan on eating badly after today with it being Halloween and all.  This morning I weighed in at 132.4, nice!  This the lowest I have seen since getting married. Next Thursday is my birthday and I plan to eat whatever I want all day :)  Woo hoo!

Meltdown Challenge Complete!

So this morning I weighed in at 133.4 and was so close so I ran and started the laundry and weighed in again at 133.2, yay!  I made it to my goal and lost 8.6 pounds and did it in a little less than 6 weeks.  I celebrated with eating fun size twix and it was hard and not good, oy.

So, here are my before and after pictures and my measurements.

Scale before and after:

Full length me before and after:

Full length on scale before and after:

Measurements:

Neck:  12 (same)
Right Bicep:  11.5 (down 0.5)
Chest:  34  (down 1.25)
Under Chest:  30  (down 1.75)
Natural Waist:  28  (down 1)
Waist:  30.5  (down 1)
Hips:  33.8  (down 1.2)
Right Thigh:  21.4  (down 0.6)
Right Calf:  14.75  (down 0.05)


Overall, this challenge was awesome.  In the past I have always done no sugar and then I would have major cravings because I didn't have a specific goal to reach, just don't each sugar which I guess is too vague for me.  Having this concrete challenge where I had to lose 6% of my body weight in a certain amount of time took away the sugar cravings (for the most part) because I knew if I ate them I wouldn't make it and lose $20.  So rather than saying I couldn't have sugar, I chose not to eat sugar because I knew it wouldn't get me to where I needed to be.  (I wasn't perfect, there was one weekend I ate a lot of candy and went back up a couple pounds which I had to work hard to take back off.) 

I  was very motivated to win and get back my cash and more and fit better into my clothes.  My clothes fit awesome now, hooray!  I am not really going to try and lose more weight but I would love to stay at or below 135.  Feeling good today.

4 More Days!!

So, I think I weighed 133.6 on Thursday and I was only 0.4 away from my goal so I ate well and exercise and was 133.4 on Friday but then the next few days I went back up to 134 (I need to weigh in at 133.3 but since my scale only shows increments of 0.2, I need to get to 133.2).  So, I still have 0.8 to go and 4 days to do it.  I'm not too worried, I'll get there.  I ate lots of pancakes on Friday night and I ate tons of bread on Saturday and had cake that night at my dad's wedding but I'm planning to forgo dessert tonight and hopefully make it soon.  I loved this challenge, it was the best thing!  I'll post when I'm done!

Meltdown Challenge Weigh In

On Thursday I was the same as Sunday, 134.6 although in the past few days my weight has just gone up and up.  Bugger.  Oh well, I am still eating well and moving a ton so I hope it will go back down and more :)  This usually happens for a few days every month....my weight just goes up for a few days and then goes back down if I keep eating well and exercising.  I sure hope so!  I'm so close to finishing but still have about 3 pounds to go and only 11 days to do it.

Meltdown Challenge Weigh In

Hmmm, I am trying to remember what I weighed on Thursday and I think it was 136 although today I was happy to see 134.6 on the scale!  Only 1.4 pounds to go to my goal weight for this challenge.

So, this past week has been more of a roller coaster.  I ate really well and then on Thursday I attended a gala and was planning to eat this fabulous meal and enjoy it immensely!  However, the portions were tiny tiny tiny and I left not even full.  Crazy!  So, needless to say, I wasn't satisfied with my cheat meal so on Friday when I got out some Halloween candy for my son who is potty training I started eating it and couldn't stop!  I ate probably 8-9 treats, plus some whipping cream plus some peanut M&M's with my family watching a movie.  Whoa, whoops.  Oh well, I have since gotten back on the band wagon although I had some cake Saturday night too.  Today I did well although we had crepes for dinner, yum. 

So, I am still on track to win this challenge and I hope I can stay strong.  Just under 3 weeks to go.  My resolve to eat well and exercise has really been challenging me.  (It also didn't help that I strained my neck on Wednesday and it has been hurting like crazy so I haven't been able to exercise.  It is finally feeling a bit better today, finally.)  I hope I can continue to stay strong!

Meltdown Challenge Weigh In

It has now been 2 weeks since I started this challenge and it's been awesome!  Yesterday I weighed in at 136.8, down 5 pounds from starting and down 1.4 pounds from last week.  I have now 3.6 pounds to go and 4 weeks to do it :)

I also took my measurements they day after I started and here they are:

Neck:  12
Chest:  35.25
Under Chest:  31.75
Right Bicep:  12
Natural Waist:  29
Waist:  31.5
Hips:  35
Right Thigh:  22
Right Calf:  14.8

On track and doing well.  This is just the motivation I needed to lose these last few pounds!

Meltdown Challenge Weigh In

I started this challenge 1 week ago and the results are showing!  This morning I weighed in at 138.2, down 3.6 pounds from last Thursday.  That feels good :)  I now have 5 pounds to lose in 5 weeks, awesome. 

I have tried very hard to eat well which includes eating a carb/protein balance 5 times a day.  I have breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner.  I am also trying to exercise every day.  Tonight I get to play volleyball, yay!  It's my favorite sport.  This past week I have had a bad cold and I have had some nausea which was weird.  It started on Saturday and didn't let up until Wednesday so that was a bummer.  I finally felt good on Thursday and ate less thankfully and I've been working on cardio and strength training. 

I have allowed myself 1 treat per week, probably to happen on Sunday.  Although some weeks I know I have events that will not occur on Sunday so it's all good.  I got to make my own eating plan and that will work for me.  Until next week!

Meltdown Challenge

A friend of mine is starting a meltdown challenge and I've decided to join her.  To start, you have to take some before pictures and a picture of your scale and then lose 6% of your body weight and earn enough points by logging in and doing different activities over the course of about 6 weeks.  I am starting today at 141.8 and finishing around Oct 28.  To lose 6% I have to weigh in at 133.2 (losing a total of 8.6 pounds), something I've not really been able to accomplish without crazy dieting.  However, I would love to get there the healthy way and earn some money in the process.

My goal is to eat very little sugar, eat small balanced meals throughout the day and exercise every day that I can.  

So, here are my beginning photos and I'll post more when I know more about it.  I had to pay $20 and I will hopefully reach my goals and get it back plus more :)

Photos taken by my 8 year old son :)

 I am also going to take my measurements tomorrow morning and post those and again when I finish.

Enjoying a break......

So, I haven't posted in the past few weeks.  I went back up a few pounds and I'm staying right around 140-141 and it's all good.  Just enjoying life for a while without being so concerned with weight loss and stellar eating :)  I'll be back in a bit.

Friday Weigh In

This morning I weighed in at 138.2, down 1.2 pounds from last week.  How I pulled a weight loss is beyond me?!  Over the weekend I had 3 large dinners with dessert on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and woke up Monday morning gaining 4 pounds.  I ate really well on Monday but was having some downer days so on Tuesday I ate a bunch of crap.  When I woke up on Wed I had lost almost all of the 4 pounds and I continued going down until I lost 1.2 pounds, weird.  I'll take it though!  This weekend I am going to Leatherby's which I love and will have a not-good-for-me ice cream brownie sundae, yum!  I'm not really going for weight loss right now, just maintenance so it's all good.

Friday Weigh In

Well, I finally made it and thing are still going well!  This morning I weighed in at 139.4, down 1.2 pounds from last Friday and down 0.2 from Wednesday.  I'm still so excited!  I tried on all of my pants and shorts and all of my pants fit....some shorts are still snug but they were snug even when I weighed less. 

Last Friday I did have cafe rio style sweet pork salad and after my stomach hurt soooo bad so I no desire to eat anything, let alone dessert or treats on my retreat.  Then on Saturday morning I had french toast and it was great, but that was the only option for breakfast besides bacon, sausage and fruit.  So, I ate it.  I then had chinese that night and I ordered sweet and sour chicken, my favorite.  My stomach was still feeling weird and it was the only thing that sounded appetizing so I ate it.  I'm sure it didn't help my stomach issues but oh well.  I ate some of the leftovers on Sunday and it was 3 days of eating sugar.

After I made it down to my per-pregnancy weight on Wed, I ate a few bites of ice cream and some spoonfuls of light canned whipped cream, yum.  So, when all is said and done, I've done no sugar for 2 weeks but only had treats one day.  The other days it was just food and not dessert so I feel like I'm doing pretty well.  I am going to a catered BBQ dinner with Justin's work and I will do my best to avoid dessert, but it's usually yummy.  I'm feeling weak and really want a treat today.

I've also exercised pretty well this week.  I ran on Monday, mowed on Wednesday, trimmed on Thursday and today I walked 2.3 miles with my neighbor.

Still hoping to go down a few more pounds but for now I'm content to just stay below 140. 

I Made It!!!

I needed to write today and let you know that I finally made it!  This morning I was at 139.6, just slightly below my pre-pregnancy weight of 139.8, hooray!  I will continue doing no sugar for a few more weeks, but I'm so glad I finally made it :)

Friday Weigh In

Well, this past week I kicked butt!  I am now at 140.6, down 3.6 pounds from last week!  I have stayed strong in my resolve to not have sugar for a month and it is certainly paying off.  I have still been exercising almost every day and feeling really good about myself.

So, just as I am so close to my goal.....I am going out of town tonight with the women in my ward.  We are having sweet pork cafe rio salads for dinner with cookies, and then french toast, bacon etc for breakfast.  I don't think I'll be able to avoid all sugar but I am going to try and avoid the cookies for dessert and eat in moderation.  I am soooo close!  After I make it to my goal (which I feel super confident about this time), I am just going to try and stay under 140.  The end is in sight, I can taste it!