Fasting Failure

I am so disgusted.  I felt like I did a good job fasting yesterday, but I must admit defeat if Livestrong says I'm over my calories for the day, right?!?  Here's the rundown:

• Breakfast: Coffee only, but I have been making the mistake of using cinnamon creme powdered creamer at work...that cost me 100 calories :(
• Lunch: Progresso lentil soup (entire can b/c who in the world eats half a can of soup?) and celery with Jiff to Go
• Supper: Shrimp ramen noodles and carrots and grape tomatoes with ranch

I was starving when I went to bed, but maybe that was just mental...as disappointed as I am, I think at least this put a few things into perspective.

In other Lenten news, I did dishes last night as stated and went to Ash Wednesday service.  Tonight my goal is folding clothes in addition to dishes.  Baby steps...

Idling

Even if you're on the right track, 

you'll get run over if you just sit there. 

-Will Rogers

You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you...don't you?...don't you?

I know, I know, enough already, you are sick of this from me.  But I am trying to make a record for myself!

April 2010:

 May 2011:

This picture reflects a loss of somewhere in the 7-11 pound range.
(The story behind this pic is too much to explain.)

YAY! :)

Previous documentations here and here.

Pick up the phone! It's me calling!

My new sister-in-law's married name bears a shocking resemblance to my name as it was pre-marriage.  So when I put it in my phone, I made sure to add her maiden name also so it wouldn't look so odd to me.  You know, in case the phone should ring and I think my 1999 self were calling.  So in the "If I could write a letter to myself" style, what would my 1999 self be calling to say?  A few thoughts:

Wow, why are you so fat and out of shape?

What do you mean you have credit card debt?

YOU NO LONGER DRINK DR. PEPPER?!?

I see your housekeeping prowess hasn't improved.

Wait, you drive WHAT? (Contributed by Sara)

It is time to fully embrace reality.

What would YOUR 1999 self say to you?

Editor's note:
Leigh-Ann, my NABWW (New Age Barren Work Wife) says the following were missing:

How awesome is it to still be with the man you love? 

How does it feel to finally be a mom?

Do you enjoy being a homeowner?

Did you know you would love a work wife so much? ;)

Hmm, an optimist amongst us.

Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise - Take 2!

I want to take the accomplishments of 2010 and make them bigger smaller and better in 2011!  In regards to healthy, wealthy, and wise I want to:

• Lose more weight and be a smaller (and healthier) me
• Exercise more
• Eat out less
• Get a firm grasp on my budget and become fanatical about it
• BE IN LESS DEBT!
• I want my hubby to get healthy again and stop going to the ER :(
• I want to provide an environment (and good example) of being active for my son
• I WANT TO START ADOPTION PAPERWORK!

 I realized just the other day that I had hit another major accomplishment sometime over the course of last year: I no longer sit down to pay bills with fear and trepidation.  In fact, I have that list out all the time studying it.  It is still F  A  R from perfect, but if I can ramp up the current diligence, watch out!

Here's Looking at You, 2010

I need to go on record as saying I have never witnessed a year go by as quickly as 2010 did.  I mean, WHOOSH!  So here is what I accomplished in and some of the happenings of 2010 (I'm attempting a chronological list):

• Doug landed his dream job
• I turned 30, as did 2 of my BFFs
• Doug and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary
• My baby brother got engaged (this time for keeps, ha!)
• My baby boy started 4k in big school and turned 5
• I made no charges to my credit card during 5 months of the year
• We paid down our debt ~48%
• I WENT THE ENTIRE YEAR WITHOUT DRINKING A DR. PEPPER
• I lost >10 pounds

Could I have done better?  Yes.  Will I continue my forward progress into 2011?  You bet your balls I will.  More to come on that...

30-Day Blog Challenge: Day 13

Day 13: Goals

If only you knew how much I've been struggling with a related issue lately.

Personal goals:

• To be the best mother and wife I can be (insert all other familial relationships here)
• To get out of debt
• To continue to lose weight and keep it off
• To become one of those annoying people who LOVES to exercise
• To keep a cleaner house
• To be a better friend

Professional goals:

I have been trapped in a Sara ping-pong match here, and the match was only intensified by my work trip last week.  Do I want to stay in distance education?  If so, I need to take some big girl steps forward.  Is my dream of working in adoption supposed to be a long-range dream?  What is the likelihood that I will leave the state retirement system (or the state, for that matter) before my 30 years are up? 

• To be able to articulate my professional goals

300

300 days without Dr. Pepper! 

What a Difference Three Years Makes

I only want to talk to the new me.

REFOCUS!

Goals for October - December 2010:

• Hit 1#0 pounds by Christmas
• Go down one pant size by Christmas
• Be in a smaller width bra by Christmas
• Be able to run 1 mile without looking like an asthmatic imbecile

Workout Schedule:

• Mondays - Walk on treadmill at home
• Tuesdays - Zumba or softball
• Wednesdays - Kettle bell workout at home
• Thursdays - Zumba
• Fridays - None
• Saturdays - Bob Bootcamp workout at home
• Sundays - Stability ball workout at home

These are all very ambitious for me, but still measurable and attainable.  I just realized that I made a list of goals on a Tuesday (not the magic Monday we all talk about) at the end of a month (not the magical "I'll start on October 1" motivation).  Huh, that makes me really happy.  So here goes...

Secrets from a NON-Domestic Goddess

Most everyone knows that I'm not a very good housekeeper.  But I do have a tip or two from time to time.  For instance, everyone wants more room, right?  I have a magical trick for making your rooms seem larger.  Step 1: Pile up lots of crap into the desired room.  Step 2: Leave it there for several months.  Step 3: Walk around it, often stubbing your toe, for several months.  Step 4: In a moment of insanity, clean up said room.  You will be amazed at how much bigger your room now seems!

Apparently, the same concept can be applied to weight.  I've been at my current weight before.  But when reaching it the first time, it was unattractive to others.  But since passing it and then returning to it, apparently it's a fantastic weight.  Go freaking figure.

The (Excrutiatingly Slow) Shrinking Woman

November 2008 - 10-Year Class Reunion

December 2008 - Disney World

Behold, my fattest year (above). Lost 10 pounds over the course of 2009:

September 2009
November 2009 - Vegas

June 2010
A total of 19.5 pounds (or possibly more) lost since 2008-2009.

15 pounds to go to get back in my weight range!

Welcome to the Family!

I have now left behind 2 weight families! (Well, I've probably left behind 3, but since I never saw the highest family number - since I was avoiding the scale at that point - I have only seen 2 weight families repeatedly from the view of the scale.) It feels so good to leave behind another weight family! I have now lost 9.5 lbs in 12 weeks on WW (5% of my starting weight + 1 additional pound). Add that to the 10 lbs I lost and kept off last year, and that is pretty substantial. Slow, but substantial. And I'm starting ZUMBA class on Thursday! I'm super excited about it. Next week I have to cancel WW (my 3 months of pre-paid will end), but I am going to go back to tracking with Livestrong. And with fall Sanderson classes back, I am excited about new numbers to come.

I'm also working on a compilation of pictures showing me at my biggest (2008-2009) and my very slow shrinking journey.

My pants actually look a little ridiculous today through the hips and thighs - a little like clown pants. But my tummy and waste are being stubborn! Hello, Zumba!

The Return, and Subsequent Squashing, of Sassy Pants

As you may have noticed, we leave for the beach tomorrow! And I'm wondering if the fact that today I felt like I had my sassy back is really good or really bad timing. In addition to all the weight numbers I threw at you just days ago, I'm 0.6 pounds away from what I like to call a new weight family (or a new set of 10's if you will). In other words, IF I weighed 130.5 lbs, then I would be 0.6 pounds from the 120's family. But I digress.

Today I feel like there is hope for this fattie. Today I feel that in the near future I can breakthrough the badness. B-u-t. In just a day, I will be faced with the personal manifestation of my failure -- the childhood friend who moved away, while still the chubby kid and turned out super hot. I mean, I don't want to be harsh, but she is the real life Ugly Duckling into the Swan (not that she was ever ugly).

So, I will attempt to be sassy while faced with hotness. Oh dear.

Stories to come after next week!

Fro Yo ~ Ho Cho ~ Pi Yo

I also rejoined the Sanderson Center (1 year and 1 month after giving up my membership to go back to school). Going back to group classes is like dating -- you have to check out the instructors, see if he/she is going to be a good fit, etc. Last week Sara and I tried kickboxing...except the normal instructor was out and it was taught by a yoga instructor. It was interesting, and it was a good workout. But kickboxing it was not. Today we went to PiYo, a mix of pilates and yoga. Yes, it has definitely been over 400 days since I had been to yoga. Youch!

By the Numbers

Confession: I have been doing WW (again) for the past 7 weeks, and I have lost 8 pounds. I have a great support network this time (though I'm not outing anyone on here), but I'm still having trouble committing 100%. Even the high of losing - and the frustrating fact that I should be losing 2 pounds a week instead of a little over 1 - has not pushed me to give it my all. I need therapy.

But anyway, in an effort to pump myself up, here are some updates:

• I am now 0.4 pounds away from the first goal set by WW.
  
  
• I am 3.5 pounds away from what I consider my first goal - the weight I was in 2002 (or was it 2003?) when I first joined WW.
  
  
• I am still 16.5 pounds away from the top of my weight range (based on height and my self-categorization of a medium-sized frame). I am using this chart: http://www.healthchecksystems.com/heightweightchart.htm
  
  
• I am down around 6 pounds from this time last year.
  
  
• I am down 10 pounds from the beginning of 2009.
  
  
• I am down AT LEAST 20 pounds from my heaviest weight (2007-2008). Like most women, I don't truly know my heaviest weight because...say it with me...we stop weighing when it gets really bad.
  

Sara and I are about to kick up our exercise schedule, which I'm really excited about. Oh yeah, and my pants are threatening to fall off today, even PMS'ing...which is a rant for tomorrow.

200 Days

200 days without Dr. Pepper. And I was just thinking this morning how I'm FINALLY beginning not to crave it. Though the logo recognition tug on the heart may never die.

Half a Year

Well, ladies and gentlemen, today marks the 180th day of no Dr. Pepper...half a year...wow. Imagine a slide show of photos of me and DP over the years...big gulps, obviously.

Treating Every Day as a Special Day

The above sounds really positive, doesn't it? You may be expecting me to launch into some rainbows and puppies gusher about life. But in this case, this title is a negative. Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but allow me to explain.

A year ago, my coworker met Bill, the Season 4 winner of The Biggest Loser. The lesson he stressed was that so many people say/think, "Well, I worked out today, so I can reward myself." But the thing we don't realize is that one day of doing good does not even make a dent in the special occasion splurges we make. He said when we go to a wedding we may over eat to the equivalent of four days worth of calories without realizing it. But then we have one "good" day, and we want to treat ourselves. Hence, the balance is completely shifted into the overindulgence column all the time.

The women in my life, nearly all of them, are all about some justification. We love food, and we love to socialize around food. It's always someone's special something. It's a birthday, an anniversary, someone's last day at work...the list goes on and on. Just last night, we went out with our BFF family, the Turnips. And as always, we had a great night. But I FAR EXCEEDED my allotment for the day.

It all boils down to me RE-learning discipline...in all arenas of my life. Sure, I can celebrate all the special days of life, but that does not mean I can celebrate with cheese sticks and dessert. I have to make lifestyle changes (all credit to Weight Watchers), and I have to stick with them. I have made some progress (no DP, no sweet tea, etc.), but I have many more to go. So I'll toast myself with a glass of water with lime. And maybe, just maybe, a ribbon baton.

Lunch Lessons

I found another breadcrumb on my path of self-discovery. I love to tell the story, as does my dad, about what I believe is the reason for my big love of fountain drinks. On rare occasions as kids when we went through a drive-thru, we could only get food not drinks. So now as an adult, I make up for that by getting the biggest drink.

I took my lunch to school for 99% of my K-12 career. Buying my lunch was a treat. And I vividly remember Heather W eating chicken strips and french fries EVERY DAY in 11th grade. And I ate a sandwich and chips almost every day. Then senior year, we had lunch privileges, i.e., we got to leave campus during lunch. And my friends and I would go hang out at my grandmother's house, and I would eat my packed lunch while Lucas would eat a BBQ cheeseburger from a shack and Heather W would eat a chicken-on-a-stick and caramel cake from the gas station.

Apparently I've been over-compensating for feeling left out. So, if I felt left out for 13 years, and now I've had 12 to make up for it, I should be almost even! :)