I'm normal baby! AND..I can't believe I'm posting this picture...

I'm finally at a normal BMI, for the first time in my teenage-adult life! I weigh less now than I did in jr high-high school!

Today is my 25th birthday and even though I didn't reach my goal, I'm proud of how far I've come so far.

Weighed in at 138 lbs this morning! I started off at 183..45 lbs gone so far!

I'm still keeping my goal of 125 for now and will keep going after this weekend is over, I'm going to indulge a bit for my bday first!

I woke up to find a new pair of jeans on the kitchen table from my sweet husband. I had to go exchange them, just for a slightly different color and I snapped a couple pictures in my new pants since I had my camera with me.

(hey cutie in the background!)

I've been walking around in baggy capris the last few weeks so it was high time I got some new jeans! No more saggy bottom for me! Yay! :)

And I can't believe I am posting this comparison picture, but I am, I saw this picture of me today and thought 'hey, I'm not totally disgusted with my arms anymore!'

I've had a few friends say they can't remember me being a size 18, or xl-xxl. well...let me remind you what that looks like...eek.

Here's me today...

And here's me at the end of March, right before I started competing in Season 4 at Win, Lose, or Blog.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I laugh at my husband, but I about cried when I saw this picture of me at Sea World!

Yeah...it was bad...bad. bad. bad.

My arms still need some work, but they have come along way!

13 lbs to go! My new goal date for that is December 8th! I better get there before then :)

5K- 9/24!

Saturday I ran my second 5K. I met both my goals! My first one was to beat my first 5K's time (38 min 52 seconds) and my second goal was to run the whole time!

I ran the 5K with my friend Tina again and we both finished at the exact same time this time, 36 min 30 seconds.

My hubby was there to snap a couple pictures of me coming around the corner to the finish line...

She's hiding beside me in this picture, she's just so skinny you can't see her! :)

Here's us right before the race, she got the post race picture, but it won't let me upload! Pretty much the same picture, but sweaty in the post one. ha :)

I love having a running buddy and highly recommend running with a friend if you can! We don't even talk when we run, we just plug in our earphones and listen to music, but it's nice having someone to encourage and be encouraged by. There's been plenty of nights where one of us hasn't even wanted to run, but the other encourages to go...and there's been several times where one of us has wanted to stop running a mile in, but kept going because the other one was still going.

I know I really need to work on my stride, if I could just stretch those short legs of mine just a little bit more with each step, I'd cover more ground and I'd be faster.

We're already gearing up to do another 5K the end of October and then there's the turkey trot 5k on Thanksgiving we plan to do. My goal is under 36 minutes next time! I hope to improve a little each time!

5K goals and a little extra rambling...

Tomorrow morning I'll be running my second 5K! Keyword: Running.

My goal is to run the whole thing without stopping..and I want to beat my time from my first 5K in July, which shouldn't be hard if I run this entire one...I had to walk part of my first one.

I'm hoping to do a costume 5K at the end of next month, and a turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Think I can find one in December in Utah? :)

PS, I found another picture of myself from 2006...not sure my exact weight, but I know I was 4 sizes bigger at the time. Crazy to think about! I'll have to post it soon.

Happy Weekend, and wish my luck that I don't go overboard this weekend!



{Weekly Weigh In}

Well poo, close, but not quite there.

140.2

I was hoping to hit the 130s this week, but I can't say I am surprised after how I ate Sunday. Guess that's my goal for next week!

1.2 lbs for this week, which isn't terrible considering how I did eat over the weekend, but it just reminds me that if I can lose that in a week with eating crap over the weekend, how much better I can do if I stay strong through the weekend.

I think I'll "weigh in" next week on Thursday instead of Wednesday since that's my birthday. I won't be seeing 125 on the scale, but I'm going to try for a happy number for my birthday and then just keep going.

{what you eat today is what you wear tomorrow}

A friend on facebook posted "what you eat today is what you wear tomorrow"..I've heard this before, but boy is it true!

Yesterday I was wearing lasagna, french bread and accessorized in many kinds of treats. I went over to a friends house Sunday for a luncheon and there was lasagna and treats galore. The lasagna was delish, but I'm not sure it was of the "light" variety. I should have skipped the french bread and avoided the dessert table altogether, but I didn't. Darn me!

I keep kicking myself for how I eat on the weekends. I do pretty good on the week, but totally blow it in one meal..or two, or 4...I feel like I'm constantly doing 2 steps forward and 1 step back. I just need to reach my darn goal weight, because I really feel like things will be less stressful then. If I yo-yo a little from week to weekend for the rest of my life, I think that will be normal, but right now I feel like I'm leaning more toward maintain mode than losing mode and I need to stop that! I hope that makes sense. I'm not saying that once I reach my goal weight I will be able to eat whatever I want, but if I do good during the week, I will be able to "afford" splurging on the weekends, whereas right now it's keeping me at a "maintain" rate.

This Saturday I'm running a 5K in the morning and that afternoon we are going to a brazilian restaurant to celebrate a friends birthday and mine a little early. I'm hoping to not overdo it too much at the restaurant and do good the rest of the weekend so that when I hop on the scale next Thursday (my birthday), I can still see a decent number on the scale.

My "weight loss journey" doesn't end next Thursday, that's for sure! I might take a few days to indulge a little around my birthday, but then it's right back to getting these last 15 or so lbs gone. I'd love to get there before the holidays hit and since there's about 15 weeks left before Christmas, I shouldn't have any reason not to get to my goal weight before then.

Enough rambling..wish me luck!

{Weekly Weigh In}

Got to make this quick, but no overall gain for this week after all!

I was at 144.8 on Monday morning. 2 lbs gain over the weekend. yikes.

This morning I weighed in at 141.4!

woo hoo!

1.4 lbs away from that "normal bmi" range and so close to the 130s.

Goal for next week. 130s baby!

Biffed it off the bandwagon...

Bad.

If I had just fallen, it might not been so bad, but this was a full blown, unexpected hard biff off the bandwagon. I'm fully expecting a 2 lb gain this week. I've eaten everything I shouldn't have the last few days and in bigger proportions than I should have. I kept thinking, oh well, I'll do better tomorrow...that's been going on for a few days and I realize that attitude is what got me into this mess in the first place. I haven't ran or exercised in almost a week. I did go on a 3 mile walk Saturday, but that's it since last Monday. I was sick for a few days and then we painted our house this weekend which meant lots of eating out. I'm not making excuses, I could have eaten better, but I didn't.

I plan to do a gentle detox cleanse this week and reassess my new goal before my birthday. 125 is out the window for this month I'm sure, but I'm starting fresh tomorrow and want to get as close as possible.

A small loss is better than no loss, or a gain..right?

What a crummy weigh in.

142.8

Only .2 lb gone. I broke one of my biggest rules last night and ate a snack around 9...a fairly low cal snack, but still, that always shows on the scale the next morning. I know because I was at 142.2 yesterday morning, not much better, but I ate good yesterday and painted all day so I was constantly moving with no time for snacks. I'm sure if I eat good today and get a workout in, which will be hard since I'm coming down with a cold, that I'll be down more on the scale tomorrow.

I'm not going to beat myself up over it today. The number on the scale is still going in the right direction...I'm just sooo looking forward to the 130s..another milestone for me. A weight I haven't been since elementary school. Sad to say, but true.

My goal for this week...drink lots of water, not stuff my face with carbs and keep moving as much as possible. I'm hoping this cold doesn't last too long. It's hard to workout when your nose feels like it's packed with cotton :( Off to down some emergen-c. 

5 Years Ago...

5 years ago I married my best friend. It was a crazy day, I was sick as a dog, hated how my hair turned out, and I felt so uncomfortable in my tight wedding dress..but in the end, all that mattered was that I was marrying my best friend.

For kicks, here's a look at some of our wedding photos...

For even more kicks, I tried on my wedding dress today. Most women make a goal to "fit back into their wedding dress". Not me...I knew I was big when I got married, and my goal was to try it on some day and find it to be huge. 5 years later and I got that day...

No fancy pictures, didn't even do my hair or make up (again) before taking pictures. It's only going to get bigger on me from here on out... I never want to fit in my wedding dress again!

{Heaven}

I got a taste of Heaven on earth today. I might be the last person to have tried the stuff in this little jar of Heaven:

Oh. My. Word. How have I not tried this stuff before? Oh yeah... cause I'm cheap and this stuff isn't always so cheap, but I was able to get some on sale with a coupon for $1.78 (normally $3.79 or more here) last night, so I snatched some up.

I put it in my oatmeal this morning, topped it with bananas, and mmm, mmm, mmm. I realized it's made by the same folks of this delicious stuff...

It all makes sense now...the great thing is, it is probably not acceptable to put candy in my oatmeal, but I can throw a spoon of hazelnut chocolaty goodness in my oatmeal or on some whole wheat toast and not feel guilty. It's like eating candy for breakfast. 1 Tablespoon is 100 calories, which is totally comparable to peanut butter...just not as much protein in it.

My little piece of Heaven is now safely tucked away in the back of the pantry where the hubby and kiddos (and I) can't eat it by the spoonful.

33:34

33:34..that's how long I ran last night..without stopping! I've been running with a friend for a couple months now and we have a 3 mile loop we do. Normally we run a mile, walk a mile and run the last mile. Last week we added a little more to our mile before stopping and last night we said we'd run 17 minutes without stopping. It was windy at first and when we got close to the 1 mile mark I was sooo hoping she didn't really want to run 17 minutes. She didn't stop, so I kept going...Then something strange happened..when we got close to 17 minutes, I suddenly felt like I wasn't going to die anymore! I asked if she wanted to keep going to the 2 mile mark and we said we would give it a try..and then when we were approaching the 2 mile mark, I said what the heck...let's keep going. So we did. We ran the whole 3 mile loop without stopping and did it in 33 minutes and 34 seconds. That was a first for both of us! The longest I had ever ran before last night was 17 minutes when I did that 5K in July...and I haven't ran that long since then. Funny that I was soo struggling tonight to even make it to 1 mile, and somehow I wound up doing 3 miles without stopping.

That and my 40 lbs loss yesterday made for one exciting day yesterday. Just the boost and motivation I need to keep going and remind me that we can do things we thought we couldn't..and sometimes sooner rather than later if we push ourselves a bit!

Now that I know I can run 3 miles straight, I have to keep up with it and work on speeding it up!