Obviously I am not keeping up with this blog.  But I am keeping up with my weight loss!  I'm at 26 pounds down. :)  Doing good!

I am now down about 16 pounds.  Whew.  Wonder how long I can keep this up. :)

Going great!

I have lost 11 pounds in the last 10 days!  Wahoo!

I cut out all carbs and sugar (excluding those occurring naturally in fruits and vegetables) and am eating tons of veggies, with some protein and dairy.  Yesterday was the only really hard day so far, and I muscled through it.

Next week I start exercising again, and I am pumped! :)

I am 5.5 lighter now.  Hooray!

I'm 2 pounds lighter than when we got home from the wedding last week.  Probably not eating wedding cake every chance I get is working in my favor. :)

Guess who's back? :)

Me!

I took a short hiatus to have a baby.  Now baby is almost 3 months old and I can no longer use him as an excuse.

My goal is to lose 40 lbs by Christmas, or break the 200 mark. I haven't been under 200 since before my first baby! I really want to do it.  I think I can.

Jeff and I worked out my plan.  Pretty simple, but I should see a lot of changes to my body if I keep up with it.  Here it is:

NO candy
NO soda
NO sweet carbs (desserts are a killer for me!)
LIMITED regular carbs
LIMITED diary
LIMITED fruit
LOTS of veggies
And enough meat to keep me from being hungry
And a prenatal vitamin. :)

That along with exercise should make a big difference for me. I'm not sure about the exercise plan yet. It's probably going to depend on the schedule of my son's preschool. I may only go to the gym on days he is at school; I don't know yet.

But there are no more babies planned in the immediate future, so I am ready to get as close to my old body as possible!  This is finally the time and I CAN DO IT!

The Fat Girl is Here to Stay

Because she's having a baby ... again. :)

Yeah, that's what I do.  Weight loss can come later!

Due May 21st.

Day Four

Congratulations to me!

I have reached my goal weight of 223.8.

And I only burned the 500 calories once, due to crazy schedules and sick kids. But I met my nutrition goal everyday, and boy is it working!

I can't wait to see what my weight is at the end of the week. This is fun. :)

Day Three

Go me! I did great, again. Only the three shakes and no other food. I almost caved today though. Jeffy is sick and I wasn't feeling great myself and I really wanted to snack. But I didn't!

And this evening I weighed myself and I was only .2 lbs away from my goal for the whole week! That is very good motivation!

But the best motivation of all is my handsome hubby coming home from a deployment and telling me I look smokin'! Definitely going to keep this up. ;)

Day Two

A success! Mostly.

I totally achieved my eating goal. And this was no small feat. There were two dinners in my evening. Some friends of ours came over and we made a meal together for a family at church, and all ate together before we took it over to them. So I fed the kids, and didn't eat any of it myself (including chocolate cupcakes!). Then I went out to dinner with a lovely bunch of ladies for a Pre-FRG Planning Meeting, where, again, I DID NOT EAT ANYTHING! Luckily, I was able to hold an adorable little three-month old who distracted me quite nicely from the yummy food around me. So total victory for food today.

But today was such a busy day that I did not make it to the gym. Bummer. I will make it up, I promise. :)

Day One

I totally did it.

I ate three slim fast shakes for my meals today, and that's it. No other snacks, no other food, period. I had to catch myself while I was feeding the kids. It's so easy to just snack away I'm feeding them, but I caught myself in time and didn't eat anything.

I ate breakfast at 9:00 am, lunch at 1:00 pm, and dinner at 5:00 pm. The shakes are supposed to keep you full for four hours, and this schedule seemed pretty good. I wasn't starving, which was great.

And I burned my 500 calories. I did my 5-k workout, and some eliptical time at the gym, burning 400. I thought I had done 500, but did my math wrong, so I had to do some exercising at home to make up the 100.

Day One = Awesome! Hopefully day two will too. :)

A Little Math

My weight right now is 226.8. My goal this week is to lose 3 pounds, bringing me down to 223.8. Let's do some math to figure out what I have to do to make this happen:

1 pound of fat = 3500 calories

3 pounds of fat = 10500 calories.

I need to have a total deficit of 10500 calories this week.

This week I will be eating slim fast powder shakes with 8 oz whole milk 3 days a week = 780 calories per day = 5460 calories in this week.

And I will be going to the gym and burning 500 calories 6 days this week = 3000 burned calories.

5460 calories in - 3000 calories out = 2460 calories in my body usually.

Let's assume my body is used to eating 2000 calories a day = 14000 a week.

And burning roughly 2000 a week.

14000 in - 2000 out = 12000 calories in my body.

12000 calories in my body usually - 2460 in my body this week = 9540 deficit!

Synopsis: If I eat three slimfast shakes per day with nothing else and burn 500 calories M - Sa, I should lose close to three pounds of fat.

I can do it!!

I'll let you know next week how it went. :)

[Disclaimer: I know eating 3 slimfast meals isn't the best option. But it does provide me with 100% of many important nutrients And paired with a glass of whole milk, I don't feel too bad about it. :)]

I Have Lost

12 pounds. Go me!

Two More Days Down

Yesterday I went to the gym twice and burned a total of over 800 calories. It was fun. :)

Today I was feeling really tired and only burned 300. But that felt good too. I think a nap is in the plan today. :)

I am really proud of what I have not been eating lately. I'm on my way to making this a permanent lifestyle change and am feeling confident that I can do so successfully.

I'm Back!

I joined a gym about a month and a half ago and am back on track with my weight loss, so I'm thinking it's time for me to start this blog back up!

I started really exercising as a way to stay busy while my husband was deployed. Of course for health benefits too, but I love the chunk of time going to the gym eats up. A good friend of mine introduced me to this gym and I was sold at the words "free tot drop." Wahoo! I get me time without having to pay big bucks for it! And since the membership is only $34 a month for families, you really couldn't find a better deal. :)

I've been doing pretty well at being consistent. I do a lot of elipticals, some treadmill, and I'm slowly branching out into weight machines. I've lost 8 pounds. At first I was disappointed by the slow results, but now I'm energized by it. These are real pounds of fat I'm losing-- not just water weight or something. And I realized that I am close to being 20 pounds lighter than when I got pregnant with Rebekah. Now THAT feels good. :)

I am also down a dress size, so I know changes are happening in my body. I love it. I usually go with my friend, but even when she can't go, I go by myself. I really do enjoy it.

And we're training for a 5k in November! Wahoo!

New Goal

So, I've beaten my soda addiction. Yay for progress!

Now my next one to beat is sugar. My current goal is to drastically cut my sugary carbs, focusing on eating lots of proteins, fruits, and veggies. Carbs won't be gone completely, just a lot. And that's a good goal for me, I think. If I can really get to where I don't even want to eat all the yummy sugary carbs, I think that will be a great lifestyle shift that will make me healthier and help me lose weight.

So there you go. :)

Weigh-in

weight: 234 (down 6 pounds!)

waist: 41.5" (down 1 inch!)

everything else the same

New goal: only weigh myself once a week instead of every day, so the fluctuations don't drive me crazy!

Getting Harder

Today I miss food. I just want to eat all day long.

No! Don't do it! That's how you got into this mess!!

I have things I don't want to do today (clean) and by way of procrastination, I want to eat. And I'm feeling grumpy which also makes me want to eat. And the list goes on. I really like to eat!

But I'm stronger than that want. Seeing the scale and inches go down is much more rewarding than whatever is looking yummy at the moment. I can do it!!

Lunch is over and I can't eat again till dinner. I guess I should go clean to get my mind off eating!!

"Fast-Break"

I've been exploring sparkpeople.com trying to get acquainted with all its features. One thing I found breaks down your weight-loss journey by stage.

Fast Break: weeks 1 - 2

Healthy Diet Habits: weeks 3 - 8

Lifestyle Change: week 9 - 18

Spread the Spark: week 18 on

I think you get the general gist of it all, but since I'm in the Fast Break stage, I delved a little deeper and found some good stuff.

The Fast Break Stage is a springboard that gives more power to the other three SparkDiet Stages. Just a little prep and practice give you a head start without the need for manic, life-altering changes. This Stage has three main purposes: Create momentum before tackling “heavier” dieting Stages. Build confidence and the knowledge that you can “make this dieting thing work.” Allow you to get used to your dieting and website surroundings without pressure.

And then to help you get the hang of things, you work through these--

6 Fast Break Strategies

1. Do you know what you are eating?

2. Finding the Time

3. Setting up shop

4. Site Tips and Tricks

5. Keeping Goals Top of Mind

6. Which Diet Strategies Will Work for You?

My favorite of these strategies is the Setting Up Shop, which focused on:

Prevent Temptations

Promote Convenience

Purchase Wisely

Anyone who has ever dieted knows that a kitchen full of treats is a recipe for disaster. So that's my goal for this weekend: get the kitchen full of healthy yummy food and clear of junk!

Yes!

The jump start has finally kicked in! Today is Day 4. For the first three days, I was ready to do this, but still very much missing my junk food. I wanted to eat all the yummy stuff I used to. (And with it being valentine's season, there's a lot of good stuff out there!!) But, today that changed.

I stepped on the scale this morning, and I've lost almost 2 pounds! Hooray! That means it's working!! So the desire for junk food is gone. I'm hungry and I love it! I'm sore and I LOVE it! I am looking junk food in the face and daring it to try to tempt me!

I am the master of my fate! I am in control of my destiny! I will become the person I want to be!

Ok, maybe I'm getting a little carried away in my enthusiasm, but every journey begins with a step, but in this case it was more of a running leap!

:)