277.2 - Weekly Report

That's right folks, a big week for the scale. I knew I was bloated last week lol. Lost 4.4 pounds this week leaving 27.2 pounds to reach my first BIG goal of 250. Originally I had hoped to reach it by the end of September but it may be close. I have to lose a little over 3 pounds each week to do it, it is possible but likely that I will not make it until the first week of October. That is ok, but I really am going to push for September.

It has now been 11 months since my journey began, and I could not be happier. When I first started I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be sitting here nearly a year later having lost 182 pounds. Some days it does not seem like such a big deal and then I have days like these where I reflect and it is a huge deal. I have lost a full grown man in less than a year.... Crazy!

I know that it is not yet August, but soon enough... I am ready to set some new goals to help rejuvenate my journey. I have been doing this for so long that it has become somewhat routine, and at times feels like I am not doing my best. I was doing Zumba quite regularly and then I hurt my knee. Picked it back up and then hurt my back (moving furniture). My back feels better now and me knee not too many problems so I feel it is time to pick that back up again and leave the excuses behind. I know I made that a goal in my "Slacker" post but to be honest it was an epic fail because it never happened. My goals for August I will make simple 1) Exercise on purpose 4 out of 7 days 2) Drink 8 glasses of water 5 out of 7 days. Seems easy enough, and I know I can do it!

I have not posted since my last report, so I will fill you in a little on this week. Saturday I had an amazing day with my mom, "sister", and youngest daughter. We had a real girls day. We started out at the beauty shop to get our hair cut and styled. My hair that used to reach my butt is now at my bra line. I love it!! It is bouncy and full of life now. We followed up the haircut with lunch at Denny's and then shopping. I used to hate shopping but it is fun! Tried on new clothes and found that I am really close to a size 24 jean, can get them on and buttoned but that darn zipper won't go up lol. I did get something to wear at the swimming pool though, a 2x bottom and a 1x top. I also got a new CD, Kenny Chesney.

This week at home has been real busy, my eldest decided that she wanted to move out, so I've been helping with that and then of course re situating the room for my youngest. Becky is over the moon that she has her own room now, in fact it's all she talks about. She can't wait to have a sleep over in her very own room. The moment is kind of bitter sweet for me as I am a little sad that Sarah is moving because I know we won't see each other as often and am a little afraid of what she will do now that she has no one watching her every move lol. I will admit though after taking a deep breath it is nice because now I can't see everything she is doing. I just have to hope that I taught her well enough that she will stay out of any major trouble. I miss her!

My family needs big prayers this coming week from anyone who believes in the power of them. My mom is having surgery on Monday to have her leg amputated. Her health has not been so great for a very long time. She has been mostly chair bound and on oxygen for the last 7 years or so due to problems with her back, neck, knees, and COPD. She developed type 2 diabetes in the meantime, making it hard for her to fight infection. Last year she underwent surgery for her back and neck which went amazingly well, and regained movement in her leg which they said would not happen. Once she was up and walking around a bit more the need for knee replacement was obvious, so last August she had her knee replacement done. It was a fail, she got a terrible infection and they had to remove the replacement, leaving in it's spot a cement block and a broken femur. When the infection had finally cleared they put in a new replacement and just a short time later, we were facing the same infectious problem. This time it took 3 surgeries just to get her to the point were she could come home, and again she is stuck with the cement block. We are now a total of 6 surgeries into the knee replacement and are being told that she is a carrier of infection and most likely it will return when they put in a new knee. Following her last surgery she almost left this world, her heart and lungs stopped 3 times during the night. She does not want to go through this again and I do not blame her, so she opted to have the amputation, which they would have done if this attempt failed anyway. I am grateful that this should be a cure to to problem and with a good prosthetic, she should be up and walking again. I am worried though because of her health and her state of mind. She has been through sooooo much in the last year, I guess I am afraid that she'll decide she's tired. No one could blame her. I am hoping though that my mom will continue to be tough and will make it through with no further problems. BIG prayers and positive vibes her way please.

Anyway, that is my week at a glance and my reason for not blogging as often as I should. I did get some more great recipes for you though. Enjoy!

Teriyaki Chicken

This is a horrible picture, but not indicative of the flavor, this dish is amazing!

Pita Pizza

281.6 - Weekly Report

I wake up this morning to find I have a visitor, and that I am now bloated... Thinking wow, this is weigh in day, that's going to be unfortunate. I get out my trusty scale and begin the weigh in process, zero out the scale, use the little girls room, and make sure I am wearing as little as possible, fingers crossed I step on the scale and...... Thank the good Lord, even bloated I weigh in at 281.6 for a loss of 2.4 pounds this week. I only need to lose 1.6 more pounds to bring my total loss to -180, I am only 31.6 pounds away from my first major hurdle (250). Wow, that is a lot of numbers LOL.

I have made a decision, since I have been feeling the fast food cravings for quite awhile now, I know that it is only a matter of time before I cave. Rather than caving, I am going to give myself permission when I reach 279 to have one day that doesn't count in my mind. I know me, and I know that if I cave without permission, I will sneak it. From whom I don't know but I will sneak it and hide it and then it will become a habit. This I do not want because I REFUSE to turn back after coming this far. It has been nearly a year since I have had any fast food besides Subway or Papa Murphy's DeLight. I am going to heed this warning and just give myself a day. Why you ask am I waiting to get to 279?? It's simple. You can't have a day like this without some sort of consequence, and I know that the consequence will come in the form of a gain. I am giving myself a 1 pound buffer so that I don't go over 280. Another consequence I am sure will be feeling sick, my body does not handle junk food the way it used to, particularly grease. I am sure once I have this day, I will enjoy it at the time, but when it is all said and done, and I am sick to my stomach, I will remember why I do not eat fast food anymore. LOL

Did you know that it takes 3500 calories to make a pound? I will use myself as an example... I burn approximately 2494 calories a day, now that is if I laid in bed all day. To gain a pound in a day I would have to consume 3500 calories more than what I burn (5994). Or over the course of a week I would have to consume 500 more than what I burn every day (2994). Given this math, gaining a pound really does take some effort. That would be a heck of a lot of calories to eat in a day. I am sure my little day venture will equal at least a pound but I have 6 more days in the week to make up for it :)

I am off to start my busy weekend, but.... I have another yummy recipe to share. I apologize for the quality of photos, I only have 2 sets of plates lol....but you get the idea and the food is amazing!!

Spicy Pecan Crusted Chicken

284 - Late Weekly Update

I know, I know, I said I would try not to be such a slacker, and here I am 4 days late on my update. Go on... Shake your head and tsk tsk.. Ok, now that we have that done and over with, my weigh in was good, I lost 1.8 pounds last week. It was a smaller loss but a loss at any rate, so I am happy with that.

Had another busy weekend, on Friday my youngest did a little performance for her last day of summer school and we had a lot of fun watching her. They did the hokey poky, and the chicken dance (this was adorable). Our mandatory grocery trip also took place this day, and though I am finally beginning to like shopping, I must admit, I don't think I will get over the crowdedness of a Wal Mart shopping center. I arrive in the best mood and by the time I leave I am ready to enter the psych ward. I don't do well with crowds especially rude ones. I should really work on this but... there is nothing more aggravating than being cut off at every pass. I'm not kidding, if half of the people drive like they walk, I am frightened. Later in the evening we attended my little sisters birthday party (she's 17 now) and had a blast. We sang karaoke and hung out. My mom and I even planned out a great girls day for next weekend. Going to the hair salon, lunch, and a little shopping. I haven't had my hair cut in a very long time (almost a year) it is very long (to my butt) and curly, unless I straighten it. I want a cute do, not that you can see a style in my curly hair, but when it is straight I want something cute. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't want to go short, but am willing to lose 6-8 inches.

Saturday was fishing, we woke up early and picked up a buddy to go fishing with. The first place we went was a dud. We sat there for nearly 2 hours and not a bite, so we packed up, and wouldn't ya know.... As soon as we started heading for the car, the fish started jumping. We continued to our new location anyway and am glad we did. I lost count of how many we caught, but we ended up with 5 large catfish that we could keep. I am looking forward to cooking that.

Sunday was church, and the day that we got our family pictures back, and dealt with family drama. Church went really well. I am the 2nd counselor of the Young Women, and was assigned to teach a lesson on forgiveness. The irony of this will come into play in a minute. We had a new young woman so it was nice to be able to actually do a lesson. We are from a branch and not a ward (not enough people) so generally we do not have anyone on Sunday (for young women). Anyway, I get home and find out that two of my siblings have completely thrown me under the ex's bus. Saying things that were so far from the truth it's not even funny. I felt very betrayed, I won't get into any details but I was feeling so angry, and thoughts about the two of them were thoughts that I should not be having. I went and talked about this to a church leader and let him know how ugly I was feeling on the inside. This is not me, I am a nice person, and feelings of hatred are not typical for me. I thought to myself, how ironic, I just did a lesson on forgiveness and here I am feeling that I will never be able to forgive these two. I feel better after talking to our church leader, I don't think I am quite at the forgiveness stage as I am still really hurt. But, I do think there is a reason that I was assigned this particular lesson. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and may not be able to or choose to take away a certain trial in our lives, but he certainly makes sure we have the tools to deal with them. Someday I will be able to forgive them, but I do not know if I will ever be able to let them in my life.  On a lighter note, here is one of our family pics.....

I also have another recipe to leave you with, and a new blog entry to look forward to (Journaling).....

Chicken & Black Bean Burrito

Rub A Dub Dub, I Finally Fit In The Tub.... Another Small Milestone

Mini Mile-Stone

I know this doesn't seem like a big deal to a lot of people but for me it is huge. I have not been able to take a bath in my own tub for so long I can not remember. Getting in and out of any tub was a major feat. I love baths and this was hard. I am happy to say that I was able to take a lovely bath and getting out was a cinch! Showers are fine and dandy but there is nothing like relaxing in a nice tub of hot water.... Calgon, you can take me away now! P.S. The tub in the picture is not mine, but I wish it were.
Since we are on the subject of fitting into things, I also took a trip through a clothes box (ones that were too small) and found that one of my favorite pairs of shorts fit now. They are a size 26 and I have been hanging on to them for at least 6 years. You heard me right, lol, I have hung on to these bad boys for a very long time. Thankfully they did not dry rot like my swim suits. Now I just got to get up the nerve to wear shorts again.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how I can change my perception of myself. I know I have talked about it before, but even though I have lost 170 pounds, I find that I still think about myself as being 460 pounds. Being over weight for so long has forced me to adapt to and avoid certain situations. This is turning out to be somewhat of a bravery test for me. I worry very much about fitting in chairs, even though I fit in most now. I worry about going to restaurants and theaters for fear that their seating will not be adequate. I worry about trying on clothes that look smaller than the clothes I wore before. I worry about what people might say if the "fat girl" goes walking by, even though most people don't look at me the way they used to. I worry about wearing those shorts, even though I've been told that they look nice. In the past few days I have caught glimpses of myself in the mirror and stupidly had to ask... Is that me?? It can't be. It is... Oh wow! I worry most of all about identifying myself as a smaller person, especially when I reach goal. Will I know how to act... Is this normal?? I looked this skewed idea up on the internet, hoping to make myself feel better and I succeeded. I found a piece on MSNBC on just that, a story of a lady who is going through the same thing. Apparently it is pretty common to have this distorted self image after losing a lot of weight. I don't feel so alone now. I need to find some way of changing that perception. I have not made it that far in the thought process yet, so any suggestions would be great.

I will leave you now with a picture of our very first tomato (from our garden).... It was sooo yummy and sweet. I have a new recipe that I will post on Thursday. Hope you all have a wonderful and amazing 4th of July Holiday!

289.4 - Weekly Report

     Oh my... Surprise, surprise... I weighed in this morning at 289.4, much to my surprise losing 2.8 pounds this week. I really didn't think that much would come off after last weekend. I couldn't be happier about this!
     This all being said, I do think some calorie adjustments are in order. My BMR is currentyly 2,092 calories. This is the amount of calories I would burn if I stayed in bed ALL day. Obviously I do not stay in bed all day so that number is probably greater. Right now my Daily Calorie Target is 1,784 (this is also if I am sedentary, meaning if I stayed in bed all day). Now, I have eaten under this nearly the whole time (my beginning calorie target was over 2,000). Under the advice of my doctor I was consuming 1,500 calories a day, allowing for maximum SAFE weight loss. When everything slowed down I figured that because the 1,500 was given to me at still over 400 pounds that I could safely move that number down to 1,400 and be ok. My body is telling me otherwise. I have never felt so hungry during this journey. My stomach talks to me (growls) nearly all day, and I find that I am craving things I normally wouldn't. I never would have thought that 100 calories would make such a difference. I will be moving back to 1,500 where I felt satisfied. Yes this means that weight loss may be slower, but a growling tummy all the time means I am potentially doing more harm than good. For once in my life I think I can trust my body.

Today I am 170 pounds lighter than I was 10 months ago, I am 29.4 pounds away from losing 200 pounds, 39.4 pounds away from my next goal, and only 89.4 pounds away from my final goal. Today, I am happy!

         An average car tire weighs 20 pounds
        I have lost 8 1/2 car tires!



292.2 - Weekly Report

     Well good morning... The good word today is 292.2, I have lost 3 pounds this week. I am kind of surprised because it has not been a stellar week. I must admit that the 5 day challenge was an epic fail this time. Thanks to my non cooperative ankle, I skipped Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. By the time it felt ok on Thursday, I did not want to do it. I know, I know, naughty me! I also struggled with many junk food cravings over the last week. Don't worry it's not as bad as you think. I was able to stave off most of them and stay at least close to my calorie range but I did go over a couple of days and blew the sodium and fat intake on a few. Hence my surprise at a 3 pound loss, oh and bloating on top of that.
     In all my junk food madness, I found some new things to curb the cravings. I will start with what I like to call "Devil's Chips". Special K Cracker Chips are absolutely AHMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I was wanting some potato chips something fierce so I decided to give these a whirl. Almost a mistake, I am super glad that they come in small packages, otherwise I may be unable to stop myself. I paired this little gem with a sour cream dipping sauce made with fat free sour cream and calorie free ranch mix. So for a total of 130 calories I was able to have 30 little pieces of heaven (chips), and some scrumptious dip. This did a wonderful job at curbing the chip craving, however, it did make me crave soda.... Weird, since I don't really care for the stuff anymore. I have decided that I will only buy "Devil's Chips" on the weekends from now on, just to be on the safe side LOL. Another little beauty this week that saved a sweet tooth was Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch, really not as un-healthy as I thought they were. Of course a little high in sugar, I really could have done worse. This is the first time in my whole journey that I have craved things so badly, and junk at that! So considering what could have been, I am pretty pleased with myself.
     Yesterday was my 4 year wedding anniversary, and we have made some plans for this weekend. I am excited because due to finances we have never really done anything aside from going out to dinner. This year our anniversary is being celebrated over 3 days. Yesterday, was just a really sweet day at home. I decorated the car and snuck a card inside of Daniel's lunch box. He made me the sweetest card. Last night we watched movies in our room. Tonight we are going to the Outback Steakhouse where I will have lobster for the first time. I did my research ahead of time to see how many calories I would need to make room for. I decided on the Fillet & Lobster Tail with Grilled Asparagus and Loaded Baked Potato.... It is a special occasion so I am splurging a little. The calories in this meal are huge, a little over 1,000. I have decided that I will only eat half of the meal (probably all I can fit anyway lol) and get out of there for a little over 500. After dinner we are going to play miniature golf and air hockey. Not the most romantic date, but SUPER fun I think. I am looking forward to it. Saturday we have a family reunion to attend during the day and then the oldest is staying with my mom and the youngest will go to Daniel's mom's. We are going to the drive in movies. Again, very excited. The best part.....Coming home to an EMPTY house!
     So my goals for this week are as follows:
-     Get back with the program and exercise 5 days
-     Drink 8 glasses of water
-     Stay on calorie target and not go over (target may be changing, will explain in another post)
-     Clean out the closets (not diet related, but needs to be done lol)

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE


New Recipes And Recipe Pictures Added Today As Well

Favorite Recipes & Snacks

   

295.2 - Weekly Report.... Back In The Game!

     Well, I did it, I stuck to all of my goals that I set last week, and it paid off. I lost 3 pounds this week and am back to being happy about it. Funny how a 1.4 pound difference (from last week) can be such a big deal in my head, but it is.
     My 5 day Zumba challenge is going well and today will complete 5 days, then I get a rest. Thank heaven because I am sore! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be though, taking the initiative was the hardest part. Day 4 was weird because my muscles were the sorest they had been all week but, I had more vigor in my routine. I am definitely feeling it this morning. It feels good!! Tomorrow I will be going on a fishing trip with Daniel (big surprise lol) but we are going somewhere new and there is supposed to be a bit of hiking involved. I pray that my tired muscles won't protest ha ha. This 5 day work out challenge was amazing and I am going to continue it, thank you for the inspiration spunkysuzi ! Anybody else wanna take the challenge?
     The illusive picture (for my measurements) is coming I swear... Excuses, excuses, I know, but I can not locate my tripod so I will need Daniel to take them for me. It will be up this weekend, I must not chicken out! In the meantime, I did find this cool website where you can create a virtual you, it is kind of funny. Other than taking in account for saggy skin it is pretty accurate. It also helped me to put into perspective that I am no longer the girl who started this journey, often times in my minds eye I still see her.

Current                                Goal
My Virtual Model

Like I said, other than putting into account my loose skin, pretty accurate, and fun to create. I wish that I had saved the site because now I can not remember where exactly I got it. If you type in Virtual Weight Loss, there are several different places you can do your own.

Have A Great Weekend Everyone!!