310

Yesterday’s calories= 2192

Yesterday’s exercise= 60 min elliptical (775 calories)

Today’s weight= 291.0 (-.4)

Of course I know the days of feeling so fat and disgusting and that is why everyone is looking at me. Well I don’t feel that way anymore. Nowadays when I’m walking along, I feel strong, confident, and almost cocky. I don’t feel the need to shy away or make everyone like me. I feel more like staring them down if they wanna have a showdown. SO what ARE  you looking at?! I’m wondering… Do they see a strong, confident, happy woman or do they still see a FAT b****? Surely I don’t look unhappy, surely I look strong..afterall, I feel it. I can see how much faster and stronger I can move compared to others, as well as compared to how I used to move. I’m SO pleased with the results I get from exercise. At night and when I wake up, everything hurts at first but it tends to go away for the most part, or I’m just getting used to it. Afterall , I ‘ve been in pain for years. Why be sore and hurting from being fat and inactive, when you can be sore and hurtin’ from exercise and as a bonus lose weight and get stronger, and all the other good stuff that goes with it?

Heartburn is gone. Some chafing is nearly gone, another embarrassing feminine issue is gone… my old clothes that were tight fit nice, if not a little loose; my bras that made the third boob are still a little tight but doable and will soon fit perfectly… I’m so excited!

We were watching the video of Christmas morning which I transfered to dvd yesterday and I wasn’t bothered by my weight. instead I said it’ll be interesting to see where I’m at with it next year. then a shot of my hands made me say, ‘Look at how fat my hands are! I’ll be glad to get rid of that, too.’

Today’s exercise= 10 min bike, 30 min elliptical (400 calories)

Today’s dinner is turkey burgers! My favorite new healthy dinner that tastes like junk. I think I can say I might even perfer this over the old burgers I used to make with hamburger meat. Thanks to Eileen who directed me to ZeusMeatball’s recipe of this. Everyone in our family likes it. I really did it up today, so it was 490 calories… but you can leave off the cheese and make a 4 oz patty vs the 5 oz I made and save yourself 155 calories. In doing so this sandwich would be 335 calories.

grilled mushrooms and onions= 40

french bread (2 slices) = 120

turkey patty with onions, garlic powder, garlic salt and Grill Mates BBq = 220

cheddar= 110

total=490

Thanks everyone for your great support!

Saturday’s calories= 1785

Yesterday’s calories= 2760

Today’s weight= 291.4 (-1 lb)

I was tired last night and went to bed at 9:30pm. My usual time is more like 11pm-12am. Then I was able to sleep until after 7am. So why I am still tired and draggin’ butt? If I didn’t know any better, I would think I was pregnant.. but no, that’s not possible, at this time. We’ve put the stomp on that because we’re out of money and space to keep them! We have five people in a 2 bedroom home. The teenager has a big room to himself and the other four of us fit actually really well in the master bedroom. But having a baby (as much as we LOVE them) is out. My hubby is 50 now and at 36, I’m finally on the road to a healthier lifestyle after gaining consistently over 15 years and three childbirths. I guess there’s no more babies for us, until grandbabies! Oh I’ll be a (hopefully, smokin’ hot) smotherin’ grandma!

Leighishs‘ battle with a Lindor Truffle is funny. (She won the war.) That brings me to my own little battle I had yesterday:  I went to McDonald’s so the kids could play in the playland and I was determined to not eat a single bite of their food! In my purse, I packed 3 California Cuties, one banana, and some pretzels! I ate everything but the banana. Out of the dozen times that I handled their food, I was extremely tempted 2-3 times to take a bite and I resisted. WHOOOO HOOOOOO! It’s totally awesome when we make these little victories… over such BIG battles. I think the more we do it, the smaller the battle will seem.

Actually, I did win two battles yesterday. I also battled the chocolate and coke temptations and those moments were NUMEROUS! Not one drop of soda, not one bite of chocolate, unless you count the ex-lax

Today’s Exercise= 60 min elliptical (775 calories)

Today’s weight = 292.4   This week’s gain = +5.0 lbs

Oh well, what are you gonna do, except pick yourself up and keep going. I’m feeling particularly lazy and borderline moody, so I’m off to the gym as soon as they open to put in my max of 2 hours (the alotted time allowed for child care). I don’t care if I have to stroll as slow as a snail on the treadmill, I intend to do the full 2 hours. Usualy when I feel this way and make myself go and do it, I end up doing really well. Hopefully that will still prove to be true.

My other plan today is to eat good foods like alot of fruits, water, juice, cheese, yogurt, nuts, and veggies. I wanna make this blue cheese dip someone posted and have some veggies with it. I’m craving to eat healthy foods after having eaten so much junk for days, if not, weeks!

My husband called from work to say Good Monring and was saying to do well during the week so we can enjoy New Years Eve. But I’m feeling funky about all that and ready to leave it all behind right now, vs waiting til New Year’s Day. I don’t know if he has somehting up his sleeve or not, but our usual is just staying at home and having snacks and a party for the kids and their friends. My days of trying to get drunk are over as it rarely works anymore, I usually get tired before I get drunk! I think the past couple New Year’s Eve, I was probably in bed by 12:30am. 

I am  planning to take down the Christmas tree today because it’s looking and feeling extra crispy! But I wish I could leave the lights up all year. They are so pretty and festive. Probably will take those down Jan 2nd. 

Updated @ Noon: I did the full two hours. I was tempted (as always) to increase something but left it alone and instead tried to get in as many different machines as I could. I highlighted the ones I am especially pleased with.

Today’s exercise=

5 min stairmaster ( 61 calories, 15 floors)

abdominal- 180 @ 65 lbs.

arm curls and butterfly each- 45 @ 20 lbs.

leg extensions- 60 @ 30 lbs.

calf lifts- 15 @ 55 lbs.

leg presses- 60 @ 140 lbs.

elliptical- 35 min (461 calories)

10 squats

Off to the store(s) and then back home to keep busy with the endless amount of things to do.

Have a great Sunday.

I’m home, it’s been a great, relaxing, free-for-me 24 hour break. In the end after everything is paid for, played out, and eaten up I’m still up about $8 for the trip.

I’m back to counting calories and watching what I eat. I got home from the trip at about 12:30pm and went directly to the gym because for their holiday hours this week, they close at 2pm today. I had a tough time with it today. Tougher than I recall having it be in awhile, like beginning stages kind of tough. I only did 30 min on the elliptical (400 calories).

Tomorrow’s my weigh -in day. I haven’t weighed myself since Wednesday morning (Christmas Eve). It’ll be interesting to see what kind of damage I have done for the past three days. I haven’t any plans for New Year’s Eve, so as it is, I’m ready to put the holidays behind me and be back on track!

A Christmas gift to my husband (but of course it’s for me too)

coffee, anyone? This thing makes espressos, lattes, cappucinos, hot chocolates, iced cappucino, reg coffee, and I think even tea!

No weigh-ins until Sunday. We’ll find out the damage done at that time.

I didn’t get to the gym in the past three days, two days of which the child care was closed and we were busy with the holiday stuff going on. Today I left early this morning to leave Las Vegas behind and spend the day and night mostly to myself (free from children and household stress). One of my Christmas gifts from my husband was this night away! CA/NV Stateline aka Primm, NV is running a promotion called Freecation (Free+vacation) to stay for free including two ride tickets and two show tickets to their Sin City Kitties show. Later tonight, my husband is following me down here for dinner and the show and then he’ll return home later this evening. I’m not sure if I will participate on the Desperado roller coaster…. but we are planning to see the Kitties… topless show! Hopefully it will be tasteful (if possible) and I won’t be feeling too awkward!

I went down to play a few slot machines and came up $188 richer! Gotta love that! That will pay for our meal at the steakhouse and maybe some more gambling, but hopefully I can come home with more than I left with. that will make this whole getaway real sweet. It’s so quiet in here, I can hear the keys clacking as I type. I’m so lucky to have a hubby who lets me get away like this (about once a year). Every woman deserves a break from the stress and chaos of being wife, mother, chef, and maid!

So what it is about being turned loose and having a day of freedom that makes me wanna do all the bad things like eat junk and drink alcohol?!

update- 12:30 am. We skipped the show and the steakhouse. Entrees started at about $24. Went to the coffee shop instead and then gambled for a couple hours. I still have half of my winnings. He went home and I get to sleep in without children waking me up at 6am! AH… so Sweeeeeeet!

I loved this moving video and wanted to share with you all. What Child is This 

You can see my full thanks and prayer which was originally posted on Thanksgiving here.

Thanks and Praise to the Lord for hearing my prayers and waking with me through this lifestyle change. It is through Him that all things are possible. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

May your day, your year, and your life be filled with Faith, Hope, Love, Life, Fellowship, Laughter, and all that is Good, in Jesus’ name.

John 3:16- For God so Loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting Life

If you are not saved, want to know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or have any questions, you can contact me at inkheartmeg@gmail.com. If I do not have the answer, I will help you try to find it.

———-

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Today’s weight= 285.8 (change overnight- -2.4 lbs.)

Total progress so far: 25 lbs! Techinally that .8 is in the way but when I started this I didn’t have a scale that counted the points. I’m gonna take it upon myself to call this 25 lbs! Are you kidding me?! How exciting. It does seem to be melting off me, as Joy says. Doesn’t it leave you thinking this isn’t true? It’s not really happening? It’s surreal. As surreal as it snowing in Las Vegas. We’re said to get another snow day, but I’ll believe when I see it since it was already supposed to have happened by now. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we woke up Christmas morning and it was a White Christmas!?

I have most of my wrapping done, all of my shopping done, only a few cards didn’t make it out as planned, and I had the whole kitchen cleaned last night. I wanna make more fudge (since I gave it all away) and a cheesecake. (Something lower calorie if at all possible, but still have sour cream on top!)

—–

Today’s exercise = 53 min elliptical (700 calories)

I took my measurements today. Assuming I am doing it right, I lost 2.5 inches. I updated the weights & measurements page.

Today’s weight= 287.4 (0.0)

Today’s exercise= 10 squats, 5 min stairmaster (60 calories, 15 floors), 30 min bicycle level 2 Hills (165 calories)

I went for the stairmaster first, determined to complete 5 minutes. There was alot of people in that small room, and no one on the stairmasters(something I noticed lately). There’s two guys pedaling on bikes, next to the machines I’m gonna use. I felt self conscious, but went on in there and did it, pretty much huffin’ and puffin’ the whole time, but not as bad as last time. Then I went over to the bikes and was glad to sit down for 30 minutes.

The child care at my gym is closed 4 of the next 9 days. That makes my easy plan complicated. I’ll either have to go while someone else babysits or find things to do at home. I perfer to the gym, though…

Today’s weight= 287.4 (-3.6 lbs)

Week 12 loss= 3.8 lbs.

12 week total loss = 22.6 lbs

Don’t you just love it when it skips a couple numbers?! After a week or more of sitting at 291, I finally went under 290!

Today’s exercise= 15 squats, 62 min elliptical (800 calories)

roni- Thanks for your comments. Can you post your blog link? I am curious! I am more than happy to share everything I can. It was one of my first questions and it took weeks before I happened upon it through ElieenDover. (she recently increased her calorie intake too, so we’ll have to see how it is working for her.) You can also find more posts by about this by putting the word “calculator” or “experiment” in the search box. Here’s one http://3fatchicks.com/diet-blogs/inkheartmeg/2008/11/24/the-experiment/

Here’s the calculator link:

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Our Black lab, Cody

(My little family of five mini snowmen)

Today’s weight= 291.0 (-.4)

Today’s exercise= 15 squats, 180 abdominal crunches (65 lbs), 60 leg presses (increased weight to 140 lbs), 60 leg extensions (30 lbs), 45 butterfly (20 lbs), 45 arm curls(20 lbs.).

I increased a few things again. The stuff in bold is increased.

While I did have two pieces of fudge I made, everything else today was kept pretty good on track, especially by comparison of the past week. (No soda, no chips. That’s enough of that, for now.) I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, if it weren’t for the exercise I accomplish, I would’ve failed and given up by now. It really helps me keep this quest going. It makes me stronger, gives me energy and helps fight moods and stress.

Sterlings blog, concentrated, is one of the best for inspiration, laughs, growth and common sense. A couple of things she wrote about really struck me last night and had an impact enough to make a new page on my blog where I plan to store those inspirational blog entries I find along the way. One is the passage of time: I quickly caught interest in this one because in the beginning of this quest, my husbands piece of advice was to keep doing the right thing and let time pass and I will see results.  And the other is about weight loss mentality and how it makes it possible for us to do this.

Thursday’s calories= 2115

Friday’s calories= 2765

Saturday’s calories= 1605

(Sharing my BFF, Sandys’, beautiful woods with fresh snow in Michigan)