On Vacation!

Well, I'm backing out of the comp this month. We're leaving for So. California for 10 days and I'm pretty sure I don't want to pack the scale! I probably won't be blogging either so I guess I'll be disqualified for April too....but it's still good to remember I have accountability for my eating choices with this comp. I can't believe the change in what I'm packing for out snacks for the LONG car trip! It's so great to be focused on better health! Have a great Easter everyone!

I'm stuck!

The darn # on the scale won't go down! I'm exercising 5-6 days/week, eating tons of veggies, trying to drink enough water and not eating treats (really....I promise!). But I'm still stuck at the same # I was at the last weigh in. I know there are lots of things I could be doing better (like blogging & journaling) so I'll try to work on that, but I just wonder what's going on. I KNOW I'm not very good at eating every 3 hours, do you guys think that is REALLY that important? I usually have a green smoothie and egg whites for breakfast. Then a protein shake after I exercise (which then turns into lunch since I'm not hungry). I eat lots of veggies for snacks and then a decent dinner with the family which includes a big salad. We are all trying to go very low sugar, no bad carbs and all that. I just don't like being stuck.

BUT I shouldn't complain too bad. I ordered some summer capris from Kohls. I'm wearing a size 12 pant (that's quite loose) so I ordered a size 10 and size 8 (for inspiration). Guess what! The 8's ALREADY fit!!! They are a bit tight but I COULDN"T believe it! So I pulled out my tape measure to check things out. I really wish I'd measured that the start of the comp. I didn't measure till 3/2 and I'm already down a whole inch in my waist! In only 3 weeks! I quickly checked a few other places and they're all smaller! So, it's good, but why isn't it showing in the scale?

GREEN SMOOTHIES!

So, last week the nice lady at Costco looked up all the BlendTec demos for me to find who had the soonest one. Today I drove 40 minutes to the store that started their's today. I figure it was worth it compared to ordering online....I couldn't find any smokin deals (and believe me, I'm a bargain shopper so I know how to look.) I thought the Costco deal sounded great. It was $20 off the regular price and they extend the warranty 4 years for a total of 7 years! At the store my 2 and 5 yo boys tried the carrot icecream he made and LOVED IT! So tonight, we too had carrot ice cream and even better I made GREEN SMOOTHIES! Everyone loved the smootie more than the icecream. They weren't green, I was hoping they'd be purple but since I also added some red fruit they were kind of a yucky brown color.....but they did have like 10 cups of spinach in them!!!! We will definately have these everyday (if I can come up with a little more appetizing color.)

Now I just need some more recipes and ideas!

I can hardly wait!

I'm counting down the days till I get my BLENDER! Hubby & I are way excited to start making green smoothies and next Friday Costco is starting the Blendtec demo! Does anyone else do green smoothies. I can't wait to try them!

another confessional

I really am coming to dread blogging since I feel like all I ever do is make excuses and admit to not trying very hard. I just can't seem to "say NO" to the sweets. We've had way too many family parties with way to many treats.
And I just eat them.
They are yummy.
I am happy at the moment & only feel slightly guilty.... but then later I'm frustrated that I don't have the WILL POWER that everyone else gets to brag about. What's wrong with me?

Last Friday my little boy said "Mommy, why don't you ever make cookies?" He's right, I don't...so we did. And now I've been snacking on cookie dough EVERY DAY! WHY can't I just throw it away? Why can't quit thinking about it and sneaking some? Does eating a HUGE salad everyday magically balance out the cookie dough? Please tell me it does! LOL!

The funny thing is I had the weirdest dream last night. I don't remember it very well but I was at a "fat camp" or something where we were all trying to loose weight. It was really easy for me to push away the french fries they tried to feed us for lunch and then I went out to do my 4 HOUR WORKOUT!!! Can you believe it! Too bad for me it wasn't real life!

(Now my girls just came in and read my blog and now they know I've been eating the cookie dough! I guess my secret's out....maybe now I'll go up and finally get rid of it now that I've been outed!)

UPDATE: I really did throw the cookie dough away!

Yea! It's gone.

But I'll still probably miss it tomorrow....but at least I can NOW say that I've said "NO" to a treat. I may be taking baby steps but at least they're in the right direction!

1st "noticeable change"!

I can't believe I forgot to tell everyone! I FINALLY noticed that something fit looser! I've had a slow start to this weight loss thing and despite exercising 4-5 times a week I hadn't noticed a change in my clothes. I feel stronger, and the scale's gone down a little but .... then on our vacation I put on my swim suit and my cute ROXY boardshorts WERE LOOSE! I immediately noticed and ran out to show my kids so they could tell me YIPEE! It was so great! I still have a long way to go but I'm headed the right direction!

Vacations get me down...(but not in #s on the scale)

Well, I just can't keep up my "healthy eating" when I'm on vacation! I guess I'm not a true convert yet...LOL. I "tried" to be good but when the hotel has a yummy breakfast buffet and we go to a DELICIOUS pasta place i really shouldn't be too surprised that the scale went up a few pounds by the time we got back. BUT I was still so MAD! Then to top it all off there was no healthy food in the fridge the first day we were back. So yesterday I was so ticked off at the scale that I took a trip to Costco to get the yummy veggies that would hopefully get me back on the right track. We had pea pods, carrots, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, 3 types of salad (spring mix, baby spinach and lettuce), pears, bananas, and MORE. I put out a little hummus and ranch and the kids ate so many veggies before dinner they could only eat a small portion of fish! It felt great! So, slowly but surely we continue the journey to being healthy! :)

Help

Maybe I'd enjoy this blogging thing if I understood it a little better. I dread coming on because my blog isn't very user friendly compared to others. Remember how I said this is my 1st blog...I don't even read the blogs of my family so I'm really "dumb" about all this blog stuff. It would be much easier for me to keep up with everyone's blogs if I had that little master list running down the side with the links to everyone's blogs. Right now I have to link through my friends blog to even access Karilynn's competition blog. I need help! How do you set that up? TIA!

As far as competition....I'm happy to have lost 6 pounds last month. It's not huge but I also didn't deprive myself either. I'm happy with a slow and steady loss as our family becomes more conscious of what we eat and work on the "moderation" thing. I am proud to have been 17th of the 42 "losers". Especially considering that I'd already lost 10 pounds since thanksgiving all on my own!

I need to get some of the books that others are reading to help me "kick it up a notch" perhaps. We kind of bailed on the south beach diet thing....so we're not on a "diet" per say but are making lifestyle changes to help us a lose weight and become healthier?

My Turbo Jam dvds came today! I'm so excited to try them out.

I can't wait until my period gets off the week that we do the weigh in. I don't feel like exercising and I do too much "emotional eating" during this week of the month....ugh!

TURBO JAM!

Can I just say how much I love those workouts! They are so awesome! I've had the 5 workouts set for the last few years and did them on and off, but I've done them EVERYDAY this week and feel so strong! They are fun and fast entertaining. I don't get bored and work out really hard with them (which is the opposite of how I feel on the treadmill).

Yesterday I ordered 2 more sets and the ball set workouts! I'm so excited! I'm getting like 8 more dvds!!!! I hope there's someone out there who can appreciated my excitement for a workout that you actually look forward to doing.

Well, nothing like a vacation to ruin a new eating plan. Ugh.
We went to Bear Lake with family over the long weekend and while I was TONS better than I would have been if I hadn't been trying to eat better....I still broke alot of new habits AND got out of my exercise habit AND ate junk yesterday and today. MAJOR SLIP UP! But, I realize that the junk food wasn't that great and made me feel kind of icky and REALLY guilty. Maybe the guilt will force me back onto the "plan". I did exercise today...so here's hoping for a better tomorrow.

Well, I've been trudging along. Exercising 6 days/wk...not really LOVING it but still feeling good knowing that I did it. I hope that as the weight comes off, it gets easier and I have more energy.

I've been EXHAUSTED by the end of each day. Lots of new things are hitting all at once. A diet, daily exercise, getting up with the 5 kids at 6am to have breakfast with Dad & a little morning devotional. I should have also given up my diet pepsi.....BUT HEY! I had to have something help me get through the day (yea, I know it's all in my head but i really do love my "liquid joy". Oh and I didn't mention I just started watching my sister's 2 month old for 10 hours a day/3 days a week. Thank goodness grandma takes him the other 2 days.

We're not loving our no carbs for 2 weeks on the So. Beach diet. The end is approching and we'll move into Phase 2....might not be something we stick with but it's helped us become VERY aware of what we eat. We're becoming converted to TONS more veggies in our diet and more "organic", "whole", "real" foods...not junk. (but I still kind of miss some of the junk, it was really yummy). LOL.

Well, the competitions started! Everything is official now, I took the dreaded picture of the scale and HERE WE GO! I've been lazy on the blogging part but not on the HEALTHY LIFESTYLE part. Here's a quick recap of what's been going on.

Wednesday 12/30- took all 5 kids on a BIG shopping trip to Costco and got LOTS of fun & yummy stuff!
Friday 1/1- told my hubby I was going to do this weight loss competition. He announced that we were going to start "the south beach diet" as a healthy life style change. (UGH - I was still hoping to eat some of that yummy stuff I'd got from Costco, even once the comp. began.)
Saturday 1/2- went to Target for another BIG shopping trip to get the fancy yummy stuff that goes with our So Beach plan. And I started to bemoan the fact that we were officially on a "diet".

I've never BEEN on a DIET. I'm sort of embarrassed to say that I've never really set any limitations on my eating...just hoped for being "healthy" and trying not to eat to much. Well I guess that doesn't work, does it. Or maybe it's just me. I'll admit that I have serious self control issues.

BUT, I've actually found that I LOVE the limitations that the diet sets. I LOVE feeling a little hungry before my meals rather than constantly snacking. I LOVE all the veggies we're eating and that I don't go to bed feeling guilty about anything!
I LOVE the 75 calories (translation= 17 jelly bellies) that I get to eat each day. We're in Phase 1 which pulls all STARCY carbs out (no juice, fruit, bread, crackers, flour, dessert, etc). It's 3 good meals and 2 snacks and even a small 'dessert'(their terms not mine cause flavored ricotta cheese isn't my idea of a dessert, but I will admit that DH(dear hubby) had the almond flavor with toasted almonds and it was yummy!)

So, I'm enjoying my "diet" and hope it starts to show results. AND I've been exercising EVERYDAY (except Sunday is my rest day)! I did intervals on the treadmill on Sat, Mon & Tues. Today I did TurboJam. I love those TURBO JAM DVDs. They are super fun and I don't DREAD the workout. I would love to know what other DVDs people are using and like. I'd really like some great TONING ones....so please....let's share ideas. Anything is better than the treadmill, right?

So why do I want to write about being "chubby"?

After having my kids I got "too busy" to be healthy. Without realizing it, I got "chubby". I like to snack, I pretend that running around doing housework counts as exercise, and chocolate (or any treat) helped me through some of the trials that life hands you.

But NOW I plan to make some serious changes. A friend told me about this fun "weight loss competition" she was going to do and I knew I should do it! I want to get back to my healthy weight. I want more energy. I want to like looking at a photo of myself. I want be a good example for my family. I want to succeed! I'm hoping that a little accountability through blogging and weighing in will help me follow through.

DH is with me on this! He took up running last year and loves it, but wants to lose 20 more pounds. So we're going to make some major changes in our eating habits and also try for more exercise time as a family. Hopefully our 5 kids don't mind too much. We haven't told them about all our plans yet! LOL