The one where I embarrass myself...

Ahhh...this is an exciting, but an embarrassing one. I hopped on the scale this morning and it read 143!

That means 40 lbs down!

With 40 lbs I have lost 8" off my waist, 8" off my hips, , 2.25" off my arms, 1" off my neck, 5" off my chest (my husband still cries over this), and 3" off my thigh..for a total of over 30"...I wish I had measured my calves at the beginning, but oh well!

I have lost 3 pants sizes...


I tried on the same pants I was wearing in January...the ones I had to go out and buy because nothing else fit, and when I saw the size, I cried and realized that it. was. time. Time to lose the extra weight for good! I lost a bit in January, and put most of it back on...it wasn't until April that I really got my head in the game.

I decided to video myself in my "18s" today..this is an embarrassing one, but it shows what 40 lbs gone on my 5'3" frame looks like. Keep in mind, this is first thing in the morning before I showered or did my hair/make up..and those lips desperately need some chapstick!

And since I've already embarrassed myself enough with that little video (thank goodness there's only about 20 of you that read this!!) Here's something to embarrass me even more. First of all, this is just a bad picture to begin with. The sun was making me squinty, but this is a very true and accurate, never before seen (except by the photographer) picture of what I looked like last year. When we took family picture last October, I very carefully picked ones that hid my bulk with a kid. Enough talking, but seeing this picture made me..and still makes me want to cry!


Ack! Awful, awful, awful!! The whole pose and everything is just awkward here, but the most awkward thing would be that i look 8 months pregnant, when I am in fact about 8 months post baby. My arm is the size of my face, rolls down my back...you get the picture. AWFUL. I've had a lot of people say, I can't  believe you were a size 18...or 183 lbs, you just didn't look that big...well they obviously didn't see this picture. Trust me, I was there. It was gross, and something needed to be done about it. Good thing something IS being done about it!!

Here is a picture of me 40 lbs lighter...

Awhhhh..Much better. No rolls, my arms don't look like they are going to take over my body and I can look at this picture without cringing. I still have a ways to go, but I have a feeling I won't look back at this picture and cringe someday.

18 more lbs to go!

{Weekly Weigh In}

I'm in a rotten mood today and almost didn't even post this, so I'll make it real quick.

144.2

A measly .6 lb down from last week. I was at 144 on Friday. I allowed myself a couple treats Saturday night when we were camping and one splurge meal Sunday and then I worked my butt off when I got home and I'm still up. 2 lb since Friday. I'm mad at myself. I'm so close to 40 lbs gone and I could have reached that this week. I already know I will be way short of my birthday goal. That and a few other things have put me in a rotten mood today.

I'm going to go workout in effort to not give into my desire to stuff my face today. I already allowed myself a treat after lunch, but I'm seriously tempted to go out and buy some serious junk food.

What a blah day!

{weekly weigh in} I Could Cry!

Happy Tears!

OK, I'm not really going to cry, but I am thrilled with what I saw on the scale this morning!!

144.8

Can I get a Woo Hoo!! I lost 3 lbs exactly this week. My goal was to get to at least 145 but I really wanted to lose 3 lbs and I did it! I'm finally under 145 and I'm not looking back, it's a number I hope to never see again unless I'm very pregnant. This puts me at 38.2 lbs gone, with less than 20 lbs to lose!

I gained a little again over the weekend...I ate really good as far as calories go, but it's the sodium and carbs that did it again. I was at 145.6 on Friday and came home to 146. I guess that just might be life for me.

This last week I really limited the processed snacks I had been eating daily (i.e. all those yummy 90-100 calories snacks) and I upped the veggies and exercise. I did allow myself some treats, I ate frozen yogurt twice this last week, but I measured out my serving each time and stuck to it, no seconds! and really frozen yogurt doesn't have a ton of calories compared to ice cream. I even ate a s'more when we were camping Friday and survived. :) Everything in moderation.

I'm realizing it's about time I take a new picture since I haven't posted one since I was at 23 lbs gone. I'll work on that this week!

Keep this up and I just might keep ya...

I just might keep my scale if it keeps being this nice to me, as opposed to chucking it out the window like I want to some days!

These last two days since I weighed in on Wednesday have been great and my scale has been nicer to me than it has been in weeks. I'm *hoping* I am getting past this plateau it seems I've reached. I am .6 lbs away from a happy number. I've set a mini goal for next weigh in and I'm so close, I won't post it now because as of late, every time I post my goal, I don't reach it. Do I sound superstitious or what??

We are going up to the canyon tonight to possibly camp and make dutch oven pizza and s'mores. I've pre-figured what I can eat to stay in my calories and I better stick to it. If I can make it through the weekend then I should be home free making my "mini" goal next Wednesday! Maybe even more!

Good luck to all you other losers...weight losers that is :) May the weekend not be too tempting for you! I know that's always where my weaknesses always surface!

Happy Friday!

21 lbs in 21 days

I spotted a book called 21 Pounds in 21 Days at the library today and picked it up.

I've browsed through it and it seems to talks a lot about detoxing and from what I gather you just drink a lot of juice and soups. The book says "It is not a starvation diet, it allows you to drink tasty, nutritious cocktails all day." It also talks a lot about laxatives and colonics.

I'm not meaning trying to bash on anyone that has done this or a similar diet, but I got to thinking, as much as I'd love to lose 21 lbs in 21 days (I'd reach my goal for sure!) I don't think I could go through with it. Not because of will power, but I think I would be pretty miserable on it. I didn't really see anything about protein, except during a 9 day maintenance section and I saw nothing about carbs. Again, I've just browsed through it, but I don't want to "diet" in anyway that I can't see myself doing for the rest of my life.

I've been getting down over my slow weight loss, but at least I know that when it all finally comes off, I should be able to easily keep it off. I'm still eating real foods and I'm not miserable losing weight. I'd love to drop a big number to help reach my goal, but at what cost? If I'm not eating enough protein and calories will I be losing more lbs from muscle or fat?

I haven't been posting what I've been eating lately, but a typical breakfast for me is either a protein shake or toast with peanut butter, an egg and fruit. Lunch is normally an open face turkey sandwich or pita pocket or some kind of salad. Snacks are raw almonds, yogurt or fruits and veggies. I've not been dieting perfectly, the weekends tempt me to splurge a little, but I've not been miserable either.  I'm not taking away anything from my diet that I'll have to "re-introduce" later on.

I'm rambling now, but I think I'll stick to my no fad diet rule and keep going the way I am, but try harder. I still need to up my exercise and I'm going to try to do better on the weekends. My husband always has 3 day weekends and for some reason, him and food temptations go hand in hand.. Those 3 days have a way of setting me back! I would need to lose 3 lbs a week from here to my birthday to reach my goal, which isn't impossible I guess, but it's going to be hard. Wish me luck!

This is taking for...ev..er!

I did really good last week, then saturday we had a yard sale/bake sale which left me with leftover brownies...not good, the brownies were good, but having them around was no bueno... and then we went to Winger's for dinner. I don't know how many calories my meal was, but I'm positive it put me way over my calorie limit for the day. It's frustrating that it seems if I allow myself one splurge meal it sets me way back. AND I am pretty sure I'm dealing with an ovarian cyst right now which tends to make me bloated and gain weight. I was happy the scale showed a loss this week, even though it was a small one. At this point, I know I won't be reaching my goal by my birthday, but I'm trudging along and hope to get as close as possible.

Today I weighed in...

147.8

Boo. My goal was to get under 140 by the end of the month, I have 3 weeks to do that.

{Weekly Weigh In}

Whew! It's been awhile since I've posted and I was seriously dreading this day.

The week I left for vacation I was at 149.2.

We spent endless hours on the road and camping. Saturday-Monday I did pretty good. Then the camping food and snacks presented themselves and I had a hard time resisting cookies, smores, chips and jerky. Blast that food.

We got home Saturday night just before midnight and first thing I did was hop on the scale, with clothes on and saw:

155.6

Holy. Crap.

The next morning I weighed myself, without clothes (which is normally how I weigh myself) and saw:

152.4

Crap-ola.

I can't say I was totally surprised, but I was secretly hoping I had gotten away with eating what I did the last week. Sunday wasn't much better, but Monday morning I jumped back on the bandwagon, starting eating right, drank a ton of water and I've worked out pretty good the last couple days.

This morning I weighed in at:

148.2!

This puts me at just .2 lbs shy of 35 lbs lost total. I know a lot of the weight I had gained the last week was water weight which explains why it came off so fast, but I'm thrilled to have lost everything I gained last week, plus some.

Could I have done better last week? Definitely. Do I have regrets? Not a lot.

I was on vacation with my husband's family that we don't see very often. Although the scale would seem that I did, I know I didn't overly indulge, there was plenty I said no to, so I know it could have been worse... and I dropped the weight back off pretty fast.

It's crazy we are already into August! My goal for this month is to get under 140.