Time for a little catch up

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's not because I haven't been making progress.  I have great intentions and then, it just doesn't happen. Life gets in the way. It goes to prove that whatever you make as a priority in your life will get done and the things that aren't a priority won't. And sad to say, this has not been a big priority of mine.

Now, on to the exciting stuff.

My half marathon is tomorrow!!!! I am really excited! I feel that I could be better prepared for it because I haven't walked all week, but the 4+ months prior, I have, so I think it won't affect me too much. My fellow Bacon Lovers (anonymous) are all geared up to leave town around 2pm to go pick up our race packets and spend the night together in anticipation of this big event. Surprisingly, two of the girls in my group are planning to run a full marathon in the spring and two others are considering running a half marathon (because we are walking this one).  I also have been contemplating running a half marathon. I have really been enjoying this form of excercise and I would love to see myself pushed a little farther. I also know several people that I could run with, so that makes the thought of it so much better. Anyway, I will let you know after the race tomorrow how it goes.

On to other news. I have reached my WW goal weight of 155 lbs!! This is not my official goal weight of 100 lbs lost, but only 5 lbs away. I know this sounds kind of silly, but I have a reason. When I first thought about losing all of this weight, I never thought I would really lose 100 lbs. It seemed so unrealistic and out of the question, so when I signed up on Weight Watchers the highest healthy weight for me was 155, so I plugged that in. It seems so long ago now and I am completely amazed that I am about to reach 100 lbs lost. It also seems crazy to think that I might even lose a little more after that. We will see. I am going to do it in a healthy way and not get too crazy with it, so please don't worry about me, but now I feel that it is possible and that is an amazing feeling.

I went shopping last weekend to spend a Macy's gift certificate that I received for Christmas last year, and although very overwhelmed in that store, I had a blast. I tried on so many things and loved that everything fit well, and I wasn't examining myself at the store, just the clothes. Wow. Really, that is huge for me. I hope you are doing as well and finding great things to be excited about. It does take time, but when you reach it, it's like nothing else.

Keep yourself inspired somehow. I am finding new inspiration from watching this season of Biggest Loser. I really love that show and it gives me the motivation to keep going. I have heard lots of people say that they have quit watching because they end up sitting on the couch eating ice cream while watching. I know that feeling. I have done that. But, there is an alternative. Let it motivate you. Let it inspire you. Get up and move a little, even while you watch it. I mean, I have a hard time getting out my step and doing some aerobics while watching CSI or House, but when I'm watching Biggest Loser, I have the motivation to do it.

Weight Watchers

Can I just talk for a minute about Weight Watchers? Why sure I can, it's my blog. I started my weight loss with Weight Watchers in February. I tried it once before, years ago when I didn't have much weight to lose. I went to the meetings and felt very out of place. When I decided to do WW this time, I was a bit skeptical of the meetings, so I signed up for the online version. I was a bit skeptical of that too because I was worried that there might not be enough accountability there to keep me going. But, the online program was really good. There were lots of recipes and tracking features. My points plus allowance was around 40 per day with an extra 49 flex points for the week to use. I also liked that you could earn extra exercise points for each week. I really did well and the fact that the new program allows you to eat almost any fruits and vegetables without using any of your points was a huge plus for me. I filled my day with fruits and veggies and continued to cook a lot of the same things for my family. The online program also has a recipe builder so I could put my recipe into the system and it would tell me how many points it was. So, I could just eat a smaller portion of what I would normally eat, add a big serving of steamed vegetables on the side and feel really good.

After three months on the program, my subscription was up and, being the cheapskate that I am, decided that I knew enough of what to do that I didn't need WW anymore. This was the same time that the Biggest Loser competition was starting and my team was trying to use MyFitnessPal online to be accountable to one another. This website gives you a calorie limit for each day, mine was 1320 and that's it. I tried it for a few weeks, but it didn't seem to be working very well with my personality and what I needed, so I bit the bullet and subscribed to WW again. I knew that it worked well for me. For some reason, I needed to be able to not feel guilty about eating a bowl of strawberries for a snack. I know that it's a great choice, but having to count those calories against my day, just didn't help me.

So, back to WW and the points that I am allowed each day continues to go down each week. Now, I'm allowed 29 points per day, with the same 49 flex points each week. It's getting more difficult to stay within my points allowance. I thought it was hard at 40, but now thinking back, 40 would be so nice. I'm also having troubles spreading my points out throughout the day. Since I am still trying to not eat anything past 7 pm, I need to make sure that my points are used up at dinner. That's a hard thing for me. I don't know why. Early on, I had those extra points left at the end of the day and I would snack on some popcorn or something else after I got the kids in bed, but not anymore. I just need to really work on getting those used earlier in the day. So, that's something I am going to work on in the next couple of weeks. I will let you know how I do.

Committments

It's the second day after the Biggest Loser has ended and I'm still having some tendencies to slack off the diet and do whatever I want. But, I have made committments. I have committed to this blog and if I revert to old ways, I will feel like I have let down everyone who is keeping up with my journey here. I have made committments to my Bacon Lovers. We have decided to continue to keep each other acountable with bi-weekly weigh ins and tracking measurements. I have made committments to WW. I have a goal to get to 155 lbs. These committments are helping to keep me on the right track and not to give up.

Also, I have the encouragement of everyone around me. I have received numerous congrats and compliments from everyone I know. I even received flowers yesterday from an unknown source. Really, who can give up or feel discouraged when surrounded by so many great people. I truly am feeling the love and I think that maybe this is how some of the contestants from the Biggest Loser tv show must feel. It's such an incredible high.

So, I'm going to let all that be the fuel I need to power through this and keep it all up.

On a side note, I want to explain my nickname on this blog. I did not come up with that on my own. A week or so before I started this blog, someone at church came up to me and said that myself and a friend of mine were like the incredible shrinking women. I kind of liked it and it stuck with me.

If you are trying to lose weight, make sure you make some committments, whatever they may be. They can help you to power through those little road blocks that could otherwise trip you up. And one more thing. I want to share with you a quote that I have seen multiple times lately that has also stuck with me.

"Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels"

The thiner I'm getting, the more I see this as being true. Don't give in to that temporary pleasure of something that you think is going to taste great, but think about the long-term effects of that food and decide to make the best decision.

Bad Day

Yesterday, I was having a bad day. I'm not really sure why. I just woke up feeling sleepy and ready to crawl back in bed. I couldn't of course because my three sons (ha, wasn't that the name of a tv show?) were awake and needed me. I also felt like eating everything I could get my hands on. For some reason, I couldn't decide to eat things I knew I shouldn't, but I did lounge around on the couch for most of the morning. When my husband got home early in the afternoon, I decided to get out and go for a walk and that seemed to boost my mood. It's amazing how excercise can turn my day around, and that I let excercise be my go-to thing instead of frozen dairy products or choclate. Fortunately, I had salvaged enough of my attitude for the day that when my husband suggested pizza for dinner, I was able to make a smart choice. A fellow bacon lover told me that when her family gets pizza, she always orders a small thin crust veggie pizza for herself and so I remembered that and fought every urge I had to give in to soft, doughy crusted meat pizza and went for the veggies. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my little pizza. From Dominos, the small veggie pizza is only 6 WW point plus for 1/4 of the pizza. I ate a little more than I probably should have because I was exceptionaly hungry, but I made the best choice given the circumstances. I also knew that it was best if I got full at dinner time rather than be hungry again an hour later and give in to something less healthy or end up eating after my cutoff at 7 pm. Funny thing is that if you check out the nutritional information on Dominos website, they give you suggestions on how to lighten up your choice, and they had no suggestions for me. I guess that's because I made some pretty good choices. I feel that even though I was in a crumy mood at the beginning of the day, I stuck with the good habbits that I have formed and didn't cave to old habbits. I'd say, all in all, that was a pretty good day.

Working hard

Just in case you are really curious, I am still working on getting a picture taken so I can show you my progress. A friend has volunteered to take some for me tomorrow, so hopefully, you can see soon. But, before I show them, I just want to make sure you know that this did not happen to me overnight. I know that sometimes it's hard to see that transformation in someone else and forget that it took a lot of hard work to get there. Before I started to lose weight, I felt like this was something that would take me "forever". And I think that's one of the reasons I waited so long to begin. I thought the road would be way too long and way too hard. Well, it has been long, and it has been hard, but nothing beats the satisfaction of all that hard work paying off. The weight does come off slowly and so make sure that you have small goals set for yourself to prevent getting discouraged. For me, it was hard to see that 240 lbs go to 238 lbs. It doesn't really seem like much of a difference, but I didn't gain all that weight in a few weeks and it's not going to come off in just a few weeks. Just know that all those little successes do pay off. Each pound lost is one less weighing you down.

Another thing that I have learned to do is to get rid of all those clothes that I used to wear. I mean really, why would I want that stuff clogging up my closet. I think it would be too easy for me to slip back into some of it if it was still hanging around, but now that it is gone, I have no excuses. And let me tell you, the thrift store has seen some big deliveries from me lately. And, instead of going out to buy clothes for myself during this transitional time, I have relied on some good friends who used to be this size. They have lent me their items that are too big, so at least I have something. If I bought a pair of size 16 pants, I think I could have been tempted to stay in them a while and get my money's worth out of them. So, if you have lent me clothes, bless you.

One more thing for today. I found the Weight Watchers official Facebook page the other day and noticed that they are looking for people who have met their goal weight to star in some commercials for them. Now, I am not looking for fame or stardome and I'm not really sure if I would be comfortable with that, but I am bummed that I am not eligible because I haven't hit my goal weight yet. I am about 20 lbs away from my WW goal. I just love being able to share my story and find someone that can relate and realize that they can do it too. I think that is what helped me get started. Finding someone that I could relate to and watch them make those changes.

Kids

I love to talk about my kids. I have three wonderful boys. Chase turned 7 last week, Joel will be turning 2 in September, and Isaac will be 1 in October. They are a handfull and keep me very busy. I guess that's one of the ways I stay active. And, now that I am feeling better, I want to be more active with them. They love to be outside and go to the park. When I was heavy, I used to sit on the side at the park and not want to exert myself at all. Now, I look forward to playing with them and letting them help me stay active.

They also help me to eat less. Joel is best at this. He is always by my side wanting to take a bite of whatever it is that I am eating. I have said a few times that I think WW needs a "shared with a toddler" option so that it takes away a few of the points for your serving. It never fails that I fix myself a sandwich and I end up with only 3/4 of it. But that's ok. Before I thought about what I was eating, I would probably have fixed a second sandwich to make up for what I had shared and probably ended up eating about 1 and 3/4 sandwiches. Now, I still count my whole sandwich even though I lost a few bites and call it good. So, if you don't have your own hungry toddler at home, I highly recommend getting one, they are great to have around.

Chase, who is the oldest, is a great helper. I can ask him to do just about anything and he is willing to do it, but I used to use this as a reason to sit on my rear end and do as little as possible. I would ask Chase to go get me this and take care of that. I even made sure Joel knew how to throw away his own diapers and get a kleenex when I needed it. Now, I am very conscious about asking the kids to do something that I know I am capable of doing. In a pinch, I will still ask for their help and I do still expect them to help out around the house, but it's not because I am being too lazy and don't want to get up. Before I ask them to help, I really think about if I really need assistance or if I could do it myself and get moving a little more. I believe all those little things really do add up to make a big difference in getting active.

More tales from the beginning

So, I just got back from my morning walk and had my breakfast. I am in training to walk a half marathon in October. It's not something I ever thought I would be doing, but I am part of a weight loss competition through my church and my team (namely Crystal and Chrisy), decided we should train for this, so I am. It has really been a lot of fun, but when I started my weight loss journey, I didn't do much excercise.

Ok, so when I started my faithful journey on Valentine's Day 2011, I didn't really tell anyone other than my husband that I was trying to lose weight. I felt that if I ended up failing, at least no one would know and (gasp) judge me. So, the first 20 lbs came off and I was waiting. Waiting for somebody to say something about this change in me. But, nothing came. I faced the harsh reality that 20lbs just wasn't that noticable. Which hurt. But I didn't let it stop me. I knew that I just had to keep plugging along.

When I started, I wasn't as hard core as I am now. I started pretty simple.

I cut out all other beverages and drank as much water as I could get in. This really helped with the hunger (which wasn't that bad).

I found some healthy recipes for me and my family on the WW website and cooked them for my family. My husband was very skeptical at first because he doesn't like "diet" food, but he loved the recipes so much, that he was insisting we add them to our normal meal rotations. I cooked things like pork loin, tilapia, salmon, and of course, chicken.

I added lots of fruits and veggies. I know this is an expense, but I told myself that this expense was worth it. Money has been tight for us several different times through this, but I decided this was one place I was not going to let that be a problem. There are so many times and so many different reasons to say that I can't do this right now, it's too hard, I have a good reason to cheat or put it on hold and I wasn't going to let that be my future. I sucked it up and bought all those healthy expensive foods. And made sure I ate them. I mean really, when you spend $11 on a bag of cherries, you're gonna eat those suckers.

That was pretty much it, along with following the WW points plus program and not going over my allowances. I did have days which didn't include the most healthy of foods, but I don't consider it cheating. With WW, I was able to make it fit into my day and my week and maybe make some sacrifices to help make up for it.

One more thing I must mention is that if you are looking to start losing weight, keep some records. Take your measurements, record a starting weight and maybe even take a picture. The measurements will be a good motivator later if the scale isn't cooperating like you think it should. I did not get a picture of myself at the start, mostly because I avoided cameras like the plague and wanted no part of that, but looking back I really wish I had it, so do it. Hide it somewhere if you need to, but take it, you will never be at that place again.