The New Me….

What a great start to my day!!  I had a delay this morning for work, I don’t have to be there until 8:15 rather than my usual 6:45, and I took advantage of it.  Instead of sleeping in that extra hour and a half, I got up and did a 20 minute workout video.  It kicked my butt!  After my shower and getting ready, I still have about a half hour to chill.  Thursday is one of my busiest nights, I don’t get home until about 6:20pm and then have to make dinner.  With my spare time this morning I decided to throw together a crock pot meal.  Chicken, onion and potatoes in Salsa Verde, and then I have a veggie steamer bag in the freezer that only takes about 3 minutes.  Now I don’t have to quickly put something together or think, ‘I’ll just get take out tonight’.

It is snowing like crazy today, lots of school delays and closings.  I’m hoping it calms down soon because I was planning on bringing the girls I watch to the play place at the mall.  I don’t want to be cooped up in the house all day.  :(

I guess if we are, we can watch another Disney Princess movie.  Miss Moo is experiencing all these for the first time and it’s pretty fun to see.  We watched Cinderella last week and she loved it.  Usually ‘watching’ a movie with her is like 2 minutes looking at the screen for every 15 minutes playing with some toy but she barely took her eyes off the TV for a good 45 minutes of Cinderella.  (And who could blame her?)

Off to work now.   Enjoy your days!

I started this post yesterday but all I wrote was the title.  :)  Guess I was right.

I’m in the middle of week 2 of my Math class.  I think things are going pretty well.  I am trying to get into a routine with school work, since every week is the same.  (A pre-test on Monday, homework assigned and then due Friday, discussion questions due Wednesday and then the test by Sunday)  I’m trying to get some homework done at work but it is a challenge.  Maybe once I get into a class that has a book I can just quick open and study, rather than my e-book for this class.   I still can’t believe sometimes that I’m taking college classes.  I never thought it was something I would (could) do.

My diet has been going pretty well too.  I lost another 1.5lbs this week (I weighed in on Tuesday) which brings my total to 7.5lbs in 2 weeks.  I’m liking the calorie counting thing I’m doing.  I don’t always write everything I eat down but I stick to my 400/700/900 goals for meals.  If I go over/under a large amount (on purpose) I do write that down to make up the difference later.  I had a rough weekend with eating.  Saturday we celebrated my birthday, including dinner at a restaurant and then a carrot cake.  Of course I brought the extra cake home, like a dummy and ate it.  Then on Sunday, Heather left for the week and I was alone in the house.  I feel like I ate everything in my cupboard and refrigerator!!  I hate that.  Just because I had some cake for breakfast, doesn’t mean that I needed to let my whole day go.  I jumped back on the wagon first thing Monday and have eaten VERY well since then.  I need to start my exercising.  We went to the gym once last week Monday and I haven’t gotten a workout in since.   I’m ready for Heather to get back from vacation and get this party started 100% on both our parts.  (Do you hear me Heather?!)  Actually, screw that.  I have a late start tomorrow for work.

I am GOING to workout in the morning.

Today was my first weigh-in and I lost 6lbs this week!!  I don’t expect a number like that every week, I realize it’s because I made such a huge change in my eating and drinking habits, but it sure is fun to see.  :)

I started counting my calories yesterday and I think this will be a good thing.  I noticed that just thinking about eating better portion sizes actually made me NOT eat enough.  I was cutting back a little too much, I guess. I ate just under 2500 cals and drank tons of water too, which is my goal this week, to drink my 8 glasses a day.  (I’m already on my 3rd glass today!)

Yesterday was a very busy day.  I went to work, Monday is my easier day as I only have Baby Kay all day, The Bean goes to school and Miss Moo attends a daycare once a week.  However, I also started my math class.  I had to review some material (while Baby Kay slept) then take the prereq Quiz.  I got 100% and said, ‘WooHoo!’ out loud to myself.  Then, during Baby Kay’s second nap, I started reading chapter 1.  I needed to pick The Bean up from school, which made me leave for home a little later than normal.  After picking up Heather we headed to the gym to meet with one of the trainers.  He wanted to walk us through some things since we just joined the gym.  We sat and talked to him about our goals and challenges and then went for a 30 minute workout.  I was sweating like crazy!  After the workout, he pulled us over to the table again to talk about prices for personal training.  I’ve got NO money, but it sure would be nice to have a personal trainer.  Luckily he also teaches a free Bootcamp class on Saturday mornings.  I’d like to try and go a few times!  Anyway, almost 2 HOURS later, we finally left the gym, grabbed some subway for dinner (it was almost 7pm) and I got home in time to review a little bit more and then take my weekly pre-test before sitting on the couch for 10 minutes to watch the end of a show and then headed to bed.  Wheewwww…  WHAT. A. DAY.

On to Tuesday, counting my cals, drinking my water and playing with the girls.  :)

My cold is almost gone!!  It’s been a few days of lots of kleenex and cough drops and sudafed but now I’m on the mend.

I’ve been doing well watching my portion sizes.  I have not been able to exercise though but it’s ok.  I’m looking at some information about counting calories.  I think I need just a little more accountability and structure than watching portion sizes.  I’m glad I did this week that way though, as a start.  I looked online at a few places and it looks like I need about 2500 calories a day for my weight and activity level, to lose about 2lbs a week.  It says to try it for a week and see your results and then adjust by 100 calories or so to find a good fit.

I’m going to attempt:

400 cal - breakfast
700 cal - lunch
900 cal - dinner
500 cal - snacks (not to exceed 250 cals in junk snacks or 10% of my daily calories)

I will try it this way for a week, starting Tues, which is my weigh-in day.  If any of you are calorie counters and have suggestions, I am open to listen! (and would appreciate the advice)

On the school front, I start class tomorrow!  I’ve gone onto my Blackboard account (which is the program used for online classes) and looked around a bit.  I’m taking a 7 week math class.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m ready for the challenge.

Hope your weekends are going GREAT!

I hate having a cold.  I can only breathe out of my left nostril.  I slept on and off all night, part of that time with a kleenex in my nose, which is super sexy.  (Good thing I sleep alone, huh?)  I had a cold at the beginning of December and here it is, back with a vengeance a month later.  Fun..

I had a pretty good day minus the cold.  I started work again after being off for 2 and a half weeks.  The couple I nanny for are both teachers, so I got a nice long winter break.  It was nice to get back into a schedule though.  Miss Moo (who is 2.5 years old) was just potty trained and it is SO nice not to have her diaper to change anymore. However, I heard ‘I gotta go potty’ 50 times and then after dropping everything and hurrying to sit her on the potty, I heard ‘I don’t have to go potty’ 45 times but NO accidents!  Once she gets more used to it, I think the false alarms will become less and less.  Baby Kay (who is 10 months) is just getting into feeding herself puffs and finally eating baby food off of a spoon, rather than just bottles of formula.  It’s fun to watch her discover what foods she likes and which she gags on.  LOL

After work, Heather and I went to the gym and signed up!  We get a free membership with the lease of our townhouse.  We only moved in about 4 months ago, it was about time we went.  I’m excited to start working out again.  I used to go to the gym 4-5 times a week for anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours.  I’m going to start working out 3 days a week, 1 day at the gym, 1 day at home, in the morning before work and then at least 1 other workout, home or gym.  I feel like I can achieve that goal.

We made another new recipe tonight, individual Turkey Meatloafs.  They looked a bit gross before we baked them but actually tasted really good.

Before baking:

After baking:

If you want the recipe, I’d be happy to pass it on.

Today was a productive day.  I weighed in for the first time in awhile.  I’m not all the way back up to my highest again and for that I am psyched!  I was a little nervous about the possibility, dodged that bullet though.  I bought a new crock pot, which I’m excited to use, and then went grocery shopping for some healthy food.  Then I made a new recipe from my Hungry Girl cookbook, Chicken Enchilada Casserole.  It was very good.  (Only would have been better with a dollop of sour cream on top, mmmmmm)

Heather and I got this great idea from someone on Pinterest the other day.  It’s a visual reminder of all the weight that we lose.  We have a large vase full of colored gems and some flowers in the middle and on each side, we have an empty (for now) vase for ourselves.  Each gem represents .5lbs and every week we weight in, we’ll take from the center jar the amount of gems that equal how much weight we lost.   It will be a fun way to see our achievements!

Here are a couple pictures for you!

My jar has the green ribbon.  It matches my bedroom.  It’ll be a fun thing to keep on my dresser once I have lost all my weight!

It has been almost 2 years since I was posting on a regular basis.  My life has changed in both positive and negative ways in that time.  Let’s start with the negative first.

I GAINED MY WEIGHT BACK!

Uggh…  I just re-read my post from April 2010 and in it I said, “Am I going to end up 300+ pounds again.  Hating my life?”  Now here I am.  300+ pounds and hating it.

I don’t exactly hate life though.  I do have some positive things going on.

I moved from my small, terrible apartment that I hated to a beautiful townhouse with lots of space and upgraded, ummm.. everything.  I have a dishwasher and washer/dryer for the first time since moving out of my parents house after high school.  My sister, Heather and I still live together and are very happy with the new digs.  We lived in our last apartment for 6 years.  6 years of walking up 3 flights of stairs with groceries and laundry, white walls, a cramped kitchen and 1 bathroom.  Our new place has all nice sized rooms, we got to paint the living room and dining room (which is a big deal if you’ve ever lived in an all white house), got new furniture and an extra bathroom, along with a basement and upstairs.  We really like it!

I have a new job, which I love, as a nanny for 3 kids.  It’s relatively new (about 2 months) but has really been a fun change in pace and environment from my previous job, working on a heavy machine for a fulfillment team.  My days now consist of getting a 6 year old boy (The Bean) ready for school and then spending the rest of my day with two girls, a 2.5 year old (Miss Moo) and a 10 month old (Baby Kay).  Their parents are close friends of mine, so I have known these kids since they were born.  That has really helped, as I already love them all so much, spending my day with them is enjoyable.

Along with my new job, I am about to start college for the first time!  (I’m going to be 29 next week but we can talk about that later, barf)  I have finally decided that it’s time.  I’m taking classes to become a Medical Billing and Coding Specialist.  I start my math class on Monday and am actually VERY excited! (Even if math sucks)  I’m only taking 2 classes my first semester and then I’m going to see if I can handle more at a time.  I’m hoping to complete the program in under 2 years.  School was never my specialty, mostly because I was too lazy to study or do my homework, and I’m thinking I can handle the responsibility now.

Now it’s time to get my weight under control again.  I can’t do Weight Watchers again, the thought of counting points makes me want to die.  Instead we are focusing on eating clean (whole wheat, fresh fruits and veggies, smart dairy and fat choices, lots of water), eating proper portion sizes and getting exercise.  We get a free gym membership with out lease and are about to take advantage of it.

Here’s to starting over…. again, for the last time.  :)

Wow.  It has been a while since I’ve been here.  I was going to cancel my account but just couldn’t bring myself to delete everything.  I’ve been blogging on and off about my weight loss since Sept of 2008.  I feel like I have given up.  I used to KNOW it was possible to hit my weight goal but now I feel like it’s lost and will never be found.  I got down to 219 in December and am currently back to 255.  I know that I gain weight fast and yet, I’m doing nothing about it.  I have my first 25k race coming in 1 month.  I am NOT ready.  I was training very hard at first, then I let my eating slip.  Once I stopped eating right, the running started to go from 3 times a week to maybe 1 time.  Then nothing.  I have excuses, of course.  I just started a new job.  I work different hours than I was used to.  We have been working long days and fitting a run in at night isn’t what I want to do.  But I have to start.  It’s starting to get scary.  Am I going to end up 300+ pounds again.  Hating my life.  Where is the determination I had last year?  Where is the person who lost 100 lbs in 11 months?  Where is the person everyone says motivates them to eat right or get exercising?  I feel like a hypocrite.  I talk about my training, I give running advise, I encourage people to go for their goals and yet I sit on my couch at night and eat McDonald’s.    Which person in this picture do I want to be?

This past week was good.  Saturday, we went skating for my birthday.  I got a nice little workout in.  My friend brought her 4 year old and I helped her husband take him on the ice because she doesn’t skate.  What a workout!  The first 2 laps we had him holding onto the little kid helper thing. (it looks like a walker, they can hold it for balance)  It helps, however, to have a “little” balance to start with and he didn’t.  So Bill (her husband) grabbed onto the back of his pants (think major wedgie) and I went backwards and in a crouch to help him hold the walker and move forward.  TALK ABOUT A QUAD WORKOUT!!  Then we lost the walker and each grabbed a hand.  That was much easier.  I could skate forward, for one!  It worked my bicep though to hold him up.  Whatever, he had sooo much fun and so did I!   Then we went to that mediterranean restaurant.  I had a grilled chicken pita wrap (approx ~ 9pts) and a greek salad (~2pts) and half a grape leaf roll (~1pt)  Everything was delicious and CHEAP, my too favorite things about eating out!

I ate well the rest of the week too.  Only used 8 flex for the week but I earned 11 activity points.  (I don’t eat my AP, I just like to see how many I earned through the week)  I was down .8lbs this week and after the major loss last week, I’m just glad I didn’t show a gain. 

I got in 3 runs this week.  Yesterday’s was my fastest 2 miles, ever!  19:33, I’ve never broken the 10 min\mile marker before!  :)  I decided to try my run out on the treadmill today instead of the track because there were many basketball players this morning.  Not good.  I just can’t find a good pace.  I did just over 2 miles in 30 mins but at least 15 mins were walking.  I did walk at a fast pace and still got a nice sweat but it really makes me mad that the treadmill messes me up so much!  Ohhh well, track it is, I guess.  Bball players or not.

I did something out of my comfort zone today.  I went, alone, to meet the local running group for their Saturday morning training run.  My friend Laura was going to come with me but told me last night that she couldn’t get a sitter for her kids.  I decided that I would just run by my house instead because I’m a chicken and didn’t want to go by myself.  Then while I was getting ready for bed, I realized that I am freakin’ 27 years old.  I can go without a friend.  I always tell myself that if I go the first time with someone, then I’ll be comfortable going alone after that.  Why?  Pretty much I used to do this because I didn’t want to get there and be the fattest person, standing by myself, with no one I know there.  If I had a friend, I was just comfortable enough to go.  I really am trying to stop thinking like this.  It’s getting better, obviously, because I went today!!  I feel very proud of that step.

I’m hoping to be able to follow the weekly training guide they have and get to a few of the Saturday group long runs.  I did the 4 mile run this morning and got some good advise from the running mentors in the group. 

Tonight we are going out for my birthday.  I planned it and the main event is ICE SKATING!!   Usually I just pick a restaurant, like Applebee’s and we celebrate with food, not this year. There is an outdoor skating rink in the center of Downtown Grand Rapids and it only cost $1 to rent skates!   Then we are going to  Parsley Mediterranean Grille, which is a small restaurant down the road from the rink that serves all homemade, fresh food.   It should be fun!!