Last week went really well, but I haven't been able to weigh in yet so I don't know how effective I was.

I only went to the gym once but I made it to yoga twice and did some serious walking at lunch time. My goal this week is to make it to the gym five days. I didn't make it today because I drove my kids to school this morning, but I'm ready to get up and go tomorrow.

Food is packed and ready to go. Tomorrow's challenge will be eating out tomorrow night as I have a work meeting that includes dinner... I will go into it prepared!

I've also been listening to "the thin commandments' on CD.. love love love it! I will get a handle on my food issues. I will see progress and KEEP seeing progress.

Oh and my daughter managed to get an absolute AWFUL picture of my butt this weekend. ICK! Talk about motivation.

I'm going to devote some time to blogging... really I AM! I miss my blends so much/!

HI!

Just checking in to let you know that things are going really well.

Last week about thursday I completely crashed I was just pooped out ... BUT I went for a walk and later a short jog. AND I stayed on track food wise the ENTIRE WEEK!

Weigh in this Monday - 205.4. Not a two pound loss but better then nothing!

This week is good as well. I made it to the gym yesterday and had a great shoulder workout. Food's been perfect. I've made lunch each day and have stayed on plan 100% I expect to see the scale continuing to go down.

I'll post more details later but wanted to let everyone know that things are on a roll...

So, I basically had a bad night last night. When I got to bed I found I couldn’t sleep – at ALL. About 1:00AM I finally started dozing off only to discover that just as I would start to relax and drift off, I would get a tickle in my throat and need to cough. I would try not to – spend about five minutes fighting the urge so as to not wake up my fiancé only to end up having a coughing fit anyway. Eventually I left him in bed and went and slept in the living room in a chair. I was still coughing but at least I could do it without worrying about waking him up.

BUT, when the alarm went off at 4:00AM I got up and changed into gym clothes! Right now I’m running on less then 3 hours sleep but I’m managing.

It was leg day at the gym – yay!

Standing Calf raises: 6 x 195 / 6 x 195 / 6 x 195
Seated Calf raises: 6 x 135 / 6 x 135
Squats (+ bar): 6 x 140 / 6 x 140 / 6 x 140 / 6 x 140
Leg Press: 6 x 450 / 6 x 500
Straight Legged Dead Lift(+ bar): 6 x 100 / 6 x 100

A very satisfying workout!

Of my goals today – I’m only going to hit one though and that’s my food goal. That one’s NAILED.

Exercise – When I wrote my goals last night I had planned to hit yoga tonight, but after the night I had last night – I just want to go home!

Water – I gave into the caffeine urge today and ended up drinking a lot of diet pepsi – this makes it nigh on impossible to hit my water goals. I try to hot them anyway but I’m not going to engorge myself to do it.

And that’s it! Two days down and while they haven’t been perfect I’m REALLY happy with what I’ve accomplished so far. I’m not expecting tomorrow to be too hard – the real test will come around Thursday when my body realizes that I’m not kidding and I’m not going to give it anymore food. The cravings should start to hit BIG TIME then, but I’m going to be prepared. I WILL reach my goals – I’m on my way to 2 lbs this week and I’m not going to let a little thing like a piece of chocolate get in my way!(today’s weigh in was 205.8)

Even more good news...

I managed to catch the 'early' ferry today AND it wasn't raining when I got to 'port'. So, the fiance and I strapped on our walking shoes and took an hour long walk before heading home!

Food has been PERFECT today - had a bit of a problem earlier in the day because one of the meals I had planned was a shake - one that had to be 'blended' but I was at a client site and thus couldn't use my blender. I compromised and just ate a little later. At this moment I've got about 140 calories left to eat - a real no brainer - and I'll be at 100% for all my goals for today.

My goals for tomorrow are written out and posted in BIG letters on the fridge.

I still don't have my rewards - motivator planned out. Fiance is pushing me for them. I had thought to use our upcoming 'honey-moon' trip as a motivator (If I didn't reach my goal I wouldn't go) but since my future in-laws are paying for part of it (as a birthday/Christmas present to me) they might not be too understanding if I bailed on it after all the planning. Sooooo I'm going to have to think of something else nearly as important to me as a motivator. Something that will help me when the going gets rough, when I've had a REALLY bad day or when I'm thinking of caving into peer pressure. For years now I've given in to instant gratification. Weight loss was such a far off (and sometimes unbelievable) goal that it's been all to easy to say 'yes' to the chocolate cake. When the going gets tough there's going to have to be some SERIOUS stuff on the line to keep this stubborn gal headed in the right direction.

Just to give you an idea how serious I am about this, some of the ideas I've come up with (and the fiance has agreed to) are:

If I don't reach my goal I will sell my car (my dream car that I bought after my divorce)

or

I have to sell my breyer horse collection (I've been collecting since I was in the 6th grade)

or

I have to sell my barbie collection

Fiance has also offered that if I reach my goal he'll go the Dr and make sure we don't have to worry about a 'late life baby' anymore. (and if you know anything about me you'll know that I'm ALL about worry free knooky)

Now, some of you might think that these seem like some PRETTY serious consequences. But, you know what - that's how serious I am about THIS time getting it done. I'm SICK of looking and feeling the way I do. I'm sick of ALWAYS being on a diet, of always wondering what it would be like if I would just put all I know together and not just PLAN it, think about it, talking about it... but DO IT. Do it 100%. Do it right. No more "Well I ate 'good' but didn't make it to gym" or "hit the gym but ate like crap" or worse "Ate like crap and didn't exercise and now I've gained 5 lbs back" ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Of course there's also the motivation that in September we'll be Flying to London, visiting England and 'Eloping' in Scotland. By sticking to my goals/plan, I could be the same weight as I was when I graduated High School (and have never been since) when we go to the UK. THAT's pretty awesome to think about.

When I get my final list of motivators together - I'll post them here. And no, not all of them will be negative - Things like a brand new wardrobe is in my future. And not all my motivators will be based on my 'ultimate' goal. I've got a few 'milestones' along the way.

First stop is 84 days from now when I will be 182 lbs. Whoot whoot!

I’m back!

That’s right, you heard me… I’m back!

There’s none of this, “I’ll try”, “I think”, or “Maybe” in this comeback. It’s 100%baby! I’ve got the kind of motivation that keeps me up. Where I can’t sleep at night because I’m excited about the plans I have for the next day, week, month.

Last night I sat down and wrote a plan of action – assigned myself calorie limits for the week and put down a workout plan. I packed all my food for the day and input into fitday to verify the calories and ratios. I packed my gym back and set out my clothes – I was ready!

I WILL lose 2 lbs at the end of this week!

This morning I didn’t even think twice when the alarm went off – I was out of bed an off to find my clothes. A quick change and a light breakfast and we were headed to the gym!

Shoulders and Triceps today and I was happy to find that I haven’t lost much strength. Of course I started with a bit of cardio. No running today – I’m still coughing a LOT and have a head full of … well stuff so I figured running could wait another week, BUT I hopped on the treadmill and did 30 minutes of walking – it was over a mile by the time I was done.

After that, it was off to the weight room.

Standing dumbbell press: 30 x 6 / 30 x 6 / 30 x 6
Barbell Military Press (+bar): 40 x 6 / 40 x 6
Lat raises: 20 x 6 / 20 x 6

Tri pushdowns: 120 x 4 / 115 x 4 / 115 x 4
Laying tri extensions: 40 x 6 / 40 x 6
Seated tri extensions (both arms at once): 45 x 6 / 45 x 6

And that was that.

So, you may be asking yourself, why is this time different? Believe me, I’ve asked myself that often enough.

Well – I purchased a book called leanness lifestyle. While it didn’t have much to say that I didn’t already know I did pick up two VERY important things from this book. 1 – I should be trying to create ‘most’ of my calorie deficit through exercise instead of through restricting foods. (as in 40-70% of the deficit) which made me realize that all those times I’ve been telling myself that the gym wasn’t really important – it wasn’t true.

2 – And this is the BEST… he teaches you how to stay motivated. He’s got LISTS of ideas but two struck home with me.

First – Leverage… basically create a list of rewards (or punishments) that will happen if you reach/don’t reach your goal. He puts it this way, “do you think that you could achieve the body of your dreams if today someone told you that if you did not, all of the people you love on Earth would disappear forever?”

Of course not all of his examples are negative but they certainly made sense. So, expect in the next week my list of leverages. My fiancé and I have already been working on what they are and believe me – some of the ones I have ideas on are severe. But – when it comes down to a highly stressful day and staring down a chocolate chip cookie – I think I need something severe.

The last thing I'm doing is being REALLY upfront and honest about my daily goals with my fiance. He's the one who's there all the time - who see's what I'm putting into my mouth (especially on the weekends) So right now on my fridge in BIG letters are my goals for today. # of calories, # of minutes of excercise, # oz of water - he's going to check in with me at the end of the day and see how I did! and no "I'm doing ok" allowed I have to give him specific numbers! gah!

Alright then, enough from me. I’ll keep you posted!

Edit: Almost forgot - 206.3 today so even though I haven't been regular at the gym I have managed to see the scale move a little downward - yay!

Hi hi hi!

Do you remember back in January when I mentioned that things were getting busy and posts may be thin? Well there was a reason for that – you see I started working two jobs then. Both for the same company – but still two jobs. I was waiting for them to hire my replacement for my ‘old’ job and starting to do my ‘new’ job. Needless to say – that took a HUGE toll on my time. In fact – this past month it reached critical mass. For the past three weeks I’ve averaged 50 hours, add on top of that the four hours I spend commuting every day and you’ve got one tired out chick!

Last week – my replacement started and I spent all week training her (as well as doing my ‘other/new’ job). Today – today I FINALLY got to go back to only working one job!

I had such plans – such big big plans for today. I was going to spend all day Saturday making all my meals for the week. Then this morning it was going to be back to the gym with a vengeance. It seems fate had other plans. Friday afternoon I started to feel ‘not right’. By the time 5:00PM rolled around I was sure I wasn’t going to be able to drive myself home – but I managed. I went right to bed and ended up not getting up again until Sunday Morning. I spent the entire weekend in bed with an 102 degree temperature. Needless to say I didn’t make it to the gym today… but MAN were my intentions good.

As for the past three weeks – other then not making it to the gym I think I did alright. I ate REALLY clean. And for two weeks in a row I’ve made it to a yoga class. I really like it.

Other then that – the updates should be more regular now. My work hours a bit more ‘normal’. I want to get into ‘steady progress mode’. But I’ll have to recover from this dang flue first.

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who checked in on me and continued to check in on me… it means the world to me that you would continue to do so. I love you guys!!