Losing it for the Last Time!

Not Focusing on Health = Not Blogging

2011-11-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

Just read my last blog, which was in March. Yep that was the beginning of the end of me working on my health for 2011. Well, at least seriously working at it. I've tried off and on, but never seemed to stick more than two days of "making the right choices" together.

I've been half-hearted about it. And have found my self back to 237. I think I have finally gotten my head back in the right place. I've started my second week of trying to be healthy. Weighed in this Monday at 234 and I am down from there some already. Looking forward to posting a loss next Monday, and then hoping to maintain over the next two weeks. My main goal, is that I do not let holidays derail me.

I was happily working out last March and eating healthy. Then came that meal with friends where I brought the dessert. Pasta! Then it seemed I was having more and more "cheat meals" and pretty much wanted to forget about my previous efforts. I was always intending to get back to it. I just never seemed to want to for more than a day or two. Ha! sometimes I was great for breakfast, and then by lunch I was eating peanut butter, etc.

Got to run. Wish I could spend some more time analyzing where I went wrong.

Week 12 Gain and Lose

2011-03-31T23:38:00.000-05:00

Well, I missed a week of blogging. My sister-in-law and kids were here; must have distracted me. We were quite active while they were here. We did couch to 5K a couple days, went on hikes and walks. We were blessed with beautiful weather. Now it is cold and rainy. I can't wait for it to warm back up. Hopefully, Megan and I will go running tomorrow. Oh, Emily too! She's been doing much better with the running. I have encouraged her to slow down so she wouldn't get cramps.

I was good while they were here, then the weekend happened. Dinner at a friends house - chicken alfredo. I brought a dessert that was too good and I ate too much of it. I thought it would just be that one night, you know. However, I was eating bad all weekend after that. Ended up gaining a pound from the last weigh in, but actually had been down even more. I am now back to 210, so I hope I will be good this weekend and have a great weigh in on Tuesday.

Week 10 & I'm Pleased

2011-03-17T21:46:00.000-05:00

I got back on track this week and lost again. Yeah! My 10 week total weight loss is 24 pounds. I am thrilled with my progress.

I look forward to the next 10 weeks! In 8 weeks, my beautiful daughter turns 16 and my son graduates from high school! Wow, I just can't believe it. I've been having fun working on putting a photo slide show together for graduation.

I've begun doing the C25K program again and plan to sign up for a 5K the end of May. Megan is doing it with me, but we have had a hard time scheduling our runs. I am getting my workouts in about 6 days a week, and sometimes twice per day.

Week 9/ My son turns 18!

2011-03-08T19:27:00.002-06:00

My son, Nicholas is the tall one in the back on the right and
my daughter, Megan, is in front of him.

Like I said, I would be very happy with a maintain this week. Unfortunately, I have gained. What a bummer to have undone some of my hard work, but I am hoping that it will come back off quickly. I can't be sad though. I have had an amazing weekend.

My son, turned 18 on Saturday, and we successfully surprised him with a party! He has not had a party with friends since before he turned double digits. In the past year or so, he has made some wonderful friends and I was so happy to see so many of them show up for his birthday. We had over 20 people here! I was so happy for him. Ah, said that twice :) Then the weekend got even better.

Sunday morning, my 15 y/o daughter and my son led the music in worship with their band. It's a new band they got together with, and they have all gotten so much better at playing with each other. My son played the electric guitar very well and sang some back ups. Very nice. Megan played acoustic and led with vocals. She smiled and worshipped. She seemed so at ease. Her dad and I were so proud of her. There were plenty of other youth involved in the service as well. They did a drama to a song and it was so moving. The youth pastor gave the message on forgiveness which I think our church needed to hear. I know I did.

It was such a joy-filled weekend.

Week 8

2011-03-01T23:57:00.000-06:00

Yay! I am down 2.3 this week! I slacked off a bit on my workouts. I've just been really busy. I did workout 5 out of 7 days and am very proud of that, however I didn't burn over my goal of 3200 calories. I burned 2312 with 5 workouts which were 45 min or greater. I plan to start jogging outside next week, so I probably won't worry about keeping track of calories anymore. I'm kind of board with that. I think I will set some new goals with next weeks weigh in.

Uh, next week? I think I will be very happy with a maintain for next week. Tonight was the basketball banquet - at which I had pasta, bread sticks and dessert. Saturday is my son and husband's birthday! So, Friday I am fixing my son's favorite meal and Saturday, there will be cake and lots of yummy food at a surprise party for my son's 18th! I've got so much to do to get ready for the big surprise party.

Ugg! Still working on getting my tax returns completed. I am actually done, but feel like I need to go over them with my husband to make sure I haven't messed anything up. Can't wait until I can send them in and be done with it!

The Big Game & my Week 7 Weigh In

2011-02-23T01:12:00.000-06:00

Tonight, I am so happy for my soon to be 18 year old son! Nicholas played in his last high school basketball game. His homeschool team took 1st place in a tournament tonight. With the game tied, coach had the team get the ball to him and hoped he would either make it, or get fouled. He got fouled and sunk the second of his two free throws in order to put his team in the lead by one! Then they just had 0.8 seconds to stop the other team, which they did! It was a great night for him, and he had 8 friends and his family all there to see him play. It was really a special night! I thought I would cry at his last game, but it was too exciting!
I had a great week. I didn't quite get to 3200 calories burned, but I worked out 5 of 6 days, and one of those days was a quick workout. So, I burned 3179 - not too bad. Still managed to drop 3.4 pounds!!! That's my best since week 1. I have been sick all week - cough, cough!

Week 6 Weigh In

2011-02-16T13:18:00.000-06:00

Another great week as far as diet and exercise goes! I am down 1.6 pounds. I exercised 6 of 7 days and burned 3520 calories. I have increased the intensity of my workout a bit these last few times, and it has felt good to be able to go faster and at a higher incline.

Downside to the week is I am still fighting a cold, and am coughing a lot. I think it is starting to let up, so I didn't call the doctor today. I spent about 4 hours in the ER with my daughter on Monday ( she is fine), and then Monday just before midnight, I took my husband to ER so we could stay up all night getting his heart checked out. He is fine, too, praise God! But now, we are a bit messed up on sleep as we are trying to get over our colds. I think my Tues weigh in may have been even better had I not been up all night. Who knows.

Week 5 Weigh In

2011-02-08T08:03:00.000-06:00

I had a very good week! 3 pounds off :) My clothes are fitting better! I wore a shirt to church Sunday that I had tried on several weeks this year and it had been too tight! In a rush this morning, so later!

Week 5 Goals! This is What Makes Me Feel Good!

2011-02-07T14:39:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine recently facebooked about how easy it is to eat the wrong foods and too much of them. Yep! For me too.

It is very easy and then it makes me feel bad!

So why is it so easy to do something to myself that makes me feel bad afterwards and leaves me with an unhealthy body, but it is so difficult to get myself to stay motivated to eat healthy and workout!!!

Wow! Eating healthy and exercising should be the easy choice!!!

When I do that, it makes me feel so good!

Looking back to 2009, I felt great! I loved being able to tell people I lost 65 pounds. I loved how I could shop for clothes in regular stores and didn't have to choose from the old-lady-looking stuff in the plus department! I was eating healthy foods, and there was still time for treats on occasions. I loved how a regular routine of exercise made me feel like a young person again. I loved it when I came to stairs. They were a piece of cake! : P I enjoyed jogging up them and noticing how I was not winded at the top!

2010 was another story. I ate and refused to stick to any routine for more than a few days. I gained and gained. I was back to being winded at the top of the stairs. I began running again so I could run a 5K in October, but ate back all the burned calories and continued to gain. This really made me feel bad and brought my health right back to where I was in Jan of 09! What a waste, except that I know I have done it before, and

I can repeat either of these two years that I choose.

Yeah, I am motivated right now and am doing the workouts, but I let some cookies get the best of me yesterday. It was Super Bowl Sunday, after all! And, they really weren't that good of cookies. I just kept eating another one trying to quench some desire for a treat. I burned enough calories working out so that my net intake was still very good. But, not a very good nutritional day, and I had another day of maintaining the losses I made earlier in the week. And to top it off, an evening of feeling bad for my choices which were not good!

Tomorrow's weigh in will be good, I hope! I am traveling tonight 95 min away for a basketball game which makes dinner difficult. I need to get thinking of a plan so that I don't eat something high sodium that will blow my weigh in.

Lastly, my exercise goal for the week was surpassed!!!

I set a goal of 3200 calories and I burned 3487 on my treadmill mostly and some on the elliptical! I still like the goal of 3200, and so I will keep it for a while. That was just over 7 1/2 hours of workouts. I am not sure how many weeks I can keep putting that much time in. I am proud of myself for planning the times and working out in the mornings when needed.
Lord, help me to make the right choices this week!

Week 4 Weigh In

2011-02-01T13:05:00.000-06:00

Well, this was a rough week. I let myself have an off day on Tuesday, just after I weighed in of course. I was good until evening, when I went to a friend's house for a moms' night out. She had a delicious creamy soup which wasn't too high in calories, but it had lots of sodium. Then I had some brownies. So, weds was about getting back on track. By Thursday morning, I think my wt was pretty close to being back to my lowest. But then I had a late dinner Thursday and Friday because of basketball games. Strange: even though I stayed within my calories and exercised, I gained wt in the morning after eating dinner around 9PM. It took until Monday morning to get back to my last Tuesday's weigh in. And, somehow, this morning's wt was down 1.5. I'll take it. It's not near my goal for the week, but I am hoping that tomorrow, I will have another big drop. I really worked hard this week and I am reminding myself that the scale is not always the best indicator of short term efforts.

So, how good was I with my exercise? I had a goal of 2300 calories burned. I actually burned 3229! I exercised 6 out of the 7 days. I am satisfied with this number burned, so next week's goal is to burn at least 3200 again.

Week 3 Weigh In

2011-01-25T14:20:00.000-06:00

Yay! Another week of progress! See weigh in's in the right side column. I lost 2.4 this week. I was hoping for 3, but I'll take it! I exercised even more than I had set for my goal: 315 minutes and 2229 calories burned!

This week, I am not setting a minutes of exercise goal, but a calories burned goal. This is because I have realized that my extended cool down walking while watching TV, is not quality calorie burning or heart pumping exercise. So, this week I want to burn 2,300 calories. That is just a little more than this week, but this week wasn't exactly easy. I would be happy if I can keep losing 2 plus pounds/week.

Checking In on This Weeks Goals

2011-01-22T14:56:00.000-06:00

I have already reached my goal for minutes of exercise this week (Tuesday - Monday)! My goal was 45 min, 5 times this week. So far, I have missed only one day of workout and have averaged over 45 minutes, with a total of 225 min and 1580 calories burned! I still have Sunday and Monday to add to those totals!

I have not used the elliptical this week, which I was hoping to add. I just like the treadmill so much right now :) I think I burn calories quicker on there. Maybe elliptical tomorrow.

I have done great with my water on all days, but Tuesday. That was a crazy busy day and no workout either. My wt loss is coming along slowly. I doubt I make 3 this week, but I will keep trying.

Week 2 Weigh In

2011-01-18T08:01:00.002-06:00

I love Tuesdays! It's my chance to see my efforts pay off! The first half of the week, well, actually the first 5 days I really struggled to get any wt to drop. I exercised 5 out of the 7 days and drank 64 oz or more of water all but one of the days. I weighed or measured all of the food I ate and stuck below my calories. Finally, the scale reflected my efforts this morning with a 2.3 pound loss for the week =).

I was hoping for 3, knowing that I was following a huge loss from last week. This week I am going to continue my previous efforts, and maybe start using the elliptical machine a couple times instead of the treadmill. Goal for this week? Drink > 64 oz of water/tea each day. (Decaf ) Exercise 5 days for about 45 minutes which would total 3 hrs 45 min. Would change this to 6, but I have 2 days of long trips and not sure I will be able to work out those days. I would love to see 3.4 pound loss this week!

See weigh-in's in the right side column!

Week 1 Weigh-In

2011-01-11T23:45:00.000-06:00

This has been a great week for me. I love the awesome results you can get on your first week back to eating right and working out! I lost the first 5 pounds in just a few days, then I had a nice dinner out on Friday. So, it took the rest of the weekend and Monday to get back to losing! I was surprised I lost another 2 by Tuesday morning. That's 7 pounds for my first week. Next week I am hoping for 3. I ate a brownie tonight, but not really that much over my calorie goal of 1400, so hopefully I have not gotten myself off to a poor start this week. It was a really good brownie, though! Well worth the 180 calories :) Also, missed my workout because our neighbor came over to play cards; it was his birthday... thus the brownies my daughter made for him.
Highest Weight 248 Last Tuesday 235.7 Today 228.7

My Family's Favorite Healthy Meal

2011-01-10T23:41:00.000-06:00

Pasted my family's favorite on my Recipe page. See tab above.

It appears I can't post to my second page I can just edit one section. I wanted to post recipes on that page and other kinds of posts on my main page. I guess I will just reference it whenever I put something new there. I am not getting the point of being able to have 10 pages, but the layouts have to be the same. It's late and I am too tired to think. If anyone has any help for me, comment away! Thanks in advance!

Tomorrow is my one week wt in! Can't wait to post and share my results!

Alabama Snowball!

2011-01-10T13:41:00.001-06:00

Taking a picture of my beautiful 15 y/o daughter, I announced that I wanted an action shot. So, Megan posed with her thumbs up while I counted 1, 2, 3! I didn't expect she would get smashed by a boulder-sized snowball, and in the face no less! Note, you can see one more snowball on its way and I believe it got her on the neck! She was a good sport and laughed at her brother and friend. Luckily the snow is fluffy and not packing well.

8 Inches of Snow in Alabama!!!

2011-01-10T13:34:00.001-06:00

This was Saturday evening at the major grocery store; The snow was not scheduled to arrive for another 24 hours, and yet the shelves were cleaned out. No broccoli! I did get one of the last packages of celery :) Potatoes were low. Whole wheat bread and tortillas were gone. It was crazy. One good note, there was plenty of milk for our cereal.

We did start getting snow by 8pm Sunday, and it was coming down fast! We actually had thunder and lightning with our snow -- I don't ever remember having that when I lived in MO. Last evening was so fun, watching the snow come down and reading everyone's comments on facebook. It was like Christmas and everyone couldn't wait to see what they would have in the morning, so we stayed up late and kept peeking! I took a few pictures of a ruler and measured the snowfall. In just a few hours we were up to 5 inches. I finally went to bed after my 1 am measurement of just over 7 inches.

My kids spent the morning out there. The first one out at around 8 am was my 17 year old son, and he is still out there (1:30pm). Two of my girls shoveled the neighbor's driveway to be kind and finally came in for lunch. My littlest girl (4 y/o), was out there for a couple hours, but she didn't have snow pants and after a couple of hours, her layers had soaked through and she had had enough!

I've got an awesome picture of my 15 y/o getting smashed by a snow ball. I will have to put it in another post because for some reason, blogger won't let me upload another picture in here.

Now it Springs Up!

2011-01-08T15:17:00.000-06:00

I saw this verse on Mrs. Sheila's blog yesterday. It's been on my heart ever since. So, I just feel like sharing it here.

This is what the Lord says, ... "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."— Isaiah 43:16,18-19 (NIV)

I know I have not perceived it in it's totality. I have not taken the time to listen as I should. But, that is the past on which I shall not dwell! I pray that God will continue working in me and that I will allow him to make His way in me. I do not want to become a desert or a wasteland! May God's joy spring up in me!

May God's joy spring up in YOU!

Wishing you all a joy-filled 2011.

My First Homeschool Graduate!

2011-01-07T09:10:00.006-06:00

My son, Nicholas, will graduate from high school this May which is helping motivate me to workout harder. I really would like to feel healthy and look a lot better by his graduation. (May 14th)

I am so proud of him and all of his hard work these past years. He has been homeschooling since 3rd grade and is now a senior. He has learned awesome study skills as he has not benefited from having a teacher explain everything to him in a classroom. He has had to rely on books and what help I could give him (which is nothing when it comes to his physics and advanced physics courses). His love of reading has been a great advantage for him. When I was his age, I never read the books. I just listened in class and was able to get good grades.

I am so excited for his future plans! He will be attending a college where the teachers will be able to help him learn even more about physics (which he loves). He has already managed an A for his first semester of dual enrolled Freshman Comp. Writing is so hard for me to teach and has always seemed to be his biggest weakness. So, Dual Enrollment has been a huge blessing this year.

I love homeschooling! I love spending my days with them in our home. I am so thankful that in the US, homeschooling is legal and that as a parent, I can direct the education of my children. So much of a child's outcome depends on the parent and family life anyway..... okay, I am getting into a whole other blog topic. Time to get to it. My 4 y/0 wants a book read :)

Three 'Moms"!

2011-01-06T15:42:00.004-06:00

My 4 y/o, Jessie, was sitting next to me as I opened up my blog page. She says, "Hey, you have 3 mom's on there. (Looking at my pictures at the top of my blog page.) So, I just had to ask her which mom she liked the most. She picked, just as I thought she would, the one from Nov 2009. But, she followed up with the fact that she liked me now better than any of those pictures. Then she sang me a beautiful song of all the things she loves me more than :) She is so precious and a very good reason for me to be healthy and active!

Week 1 Day 1 of a Healthy Me

2011-01-05T13:44:00.003-06:00

Well, Tuesday (Day1) didn't go as planned. I was very busy and didn't have enough water to drink. I only did a 20 minute workout on the treadmill last evening, before quitting to go watch Biggest Loser downstairs (My Direct TV is messed up again). I also didn't eat enough and had a headache.

Today, I had a slow start, but did do 30 minutes on the treadmill. I kept the incline between 4 and 6 and did some short runs.

Time to hit the grocery store and stock up on healthy food!

I Am So Excited! 11 Months in 2011!

2011-01-03T23:55:00.008-06:00

I just added those pictures to the top of my blog. Wow! I can't believe how great I had done in 2009, and even more unbelievable, is how miserable I did in 2010. I did have a surprise pregnancy, and then a miscarriage...which was my excuse for awhile, but I should never have let myself undo all of my hard work. Let's see what changes I can make in 11 months of 2011!

I am done with the excuses! I am excited to get moving in the right direction with healthy meals and plenty of exercise! I look forward to November 2011, when I will post a wonderful picture of a healthy, almost 45 year old, me!

Losing It For The Last Time - Take 2

2011-01-03T22:23:00.003-06:00

I am ready for a fresh start! I lost in 2009 and gained in 2010. That is exactly what I didn't want to happen - thus my blog title of "Losing It For The Last Time". Although, I gained in 2010, I did manage to run my first 5K in October. I was slow, but I never stopped. I plan to run another 5k in 2011, and may even go for the 10K.

Tomorrow is my new start weigh in. My goal for tomorrow is to eat smart and drink 80 ounces of water/unsweet tea. Tomorrow will be a busy day, and I am not a morning person, so my workout will not be until evening. I will probably just do a casual walk or elliptical while I watch the biggest loser. That will be a big improvement from what I usually do while watching (eating ice cream in my big, comfy chair) :D