Had A Great Halloween!!

I had such a great time tonight with my family and my good friend Tammy and her daughter Meghan! I took a 1/2 hour walk to the post office and back today to make sure I got all my steps in today. Well, turns out I did great and walked over 14500 steps today!!



I ate a few pieces of candy and consumed a smidgen over 2000 calories. I think this is great considering this is a big sweet holiday. We traditionally go to McDonalds after trick or treating on Halloween, so I enjoyed some dinner their tonight, too.

All in all, a great night of fun and a good day of exercise. I feel I did great with eating considering the day. My goal was to stay around 2000 calories and I did it! Here are some pics of our Halloween fun!

Detective and Spy Girl!

Batman & Robin!

Morgan, Marcus & Meghan

Weighed In This Morning

Well I weighed in this morning to some more good news! I was down about another pound to 206.4! so I lost a total of 6.1 pounds this week. Looks like my gain last week was definitely water and stress related! I finally took some screen shots with my phone. I use the WII to do my weigh ins. Sorry for the large photos, but anything smaller was hard to view.

 

My weight just a week ago! Such a horrible gain of 7.7 pounds!

My weight loss today for the week is 6.1 pounds! Got rid of most of that nasty gain, thank goodness!!

I'm only 1.6 pounds away from getting back to the weight I was before last week of 204.8! I hope to do that and then some this week. Now let's see how I do tonight as it's Halloween! Stay tuned....

Having A Great Week Of Moving!

Tuesday I was down another 1.3 pounds!! Yay! That makes me 207.7 pounds!

I have had a really good week of moving! I have managed to hit my 10,000 step goal every single day, including Tuesday! I've also had between 2700-2900 calories burned each day. So I feel like I've been doing much better moving and my deficits are the best they have been.

Tuesday, my husband Brad and I went on a nice walk with Savannah in Middlebury. I then went on a walk with Coqui in East Middlebury on Wednesday and today I took Savannah out for another walk to the post office and back in East Middlebury. I figure these are the last days I will be able to do this with them because it's going to start getting too cold!

Tomorrow I should get plenty of exercise as we are going trick or treating with the kids. I may take a quick walk tomorrow as well during the day. I will most likey do Zumba again on Sunday.

Tomorrow I weigh in! Not matter what, I just need to remember I have already lost almost 5 pounds this week! So I must keep positive! Until then....

Reviewing My Goals

When I started this blog I came up with a few goals for myself and I thought it would be nice to review those goals and maybe create some new ones!

Here were my goals I set in January:

1) Calorie goal per day: 1500 or less
2) Exercise at least 3 times a week
3) Burn at least 2700 calories per day
4) Get down to 180 lbs in 2014
5) Drink less Diet Coke
6) Eat less McDonalds
7) Eat no more then 2 pieces of chocolate a day.
8) Not to weight myself more then once a month.

Here are some of my new goals for the rest of the year. 

1) Calorie goal per day: 1500 or less (Except For My Cheat Day)
2) Exercise at least 3 to 5 times a week
3) Burn at least 2700 calories per day, but aim for 3000 calories per day!
4) Get down to ONEderland (Out of the 200's) in 2014
5) Limit Diet Coke to twice a week.
6) Limit McDonalds to twice a week.
7) Continue to fast twice a week.

Although I've had my struggles during the summer months, I have still made some progress in my weight loss for the year. I can't complain as I am technically down over 20 lbs for the year so far and that is not too shabby! I am going to continue to work on keeping my calories below 1500, except on my cheat day. I am going to continue to fast twice a week, so one cheat day shouldn't effect me tremendously as long as I don't go crazy and stick around 2000 calories that day.

My goal is to try to have a 1300 to 1500 calorie average deficit per day for each week and that should give me some good results! I really want to up my exercise. I haven't really done much "extra" exercise at all for a long time I've pretty much burn my calories from just stuff I do on a daily basis at home and at work. But I honestly know deep in my heart that it's just not enough and I need to do more! So this one is a big one I really want to improve!

I really really want to get to 199 and stay their. My hope is to never see the 200's again after this year. I'm afraid to put a larger goal in right now because you never know where life takes us. But let's just say, I would love to see me get down to 190 by the end of the year. That would give me a nice cushion to avoid the 200's FOREVER! But first I will focus on 199 then I will set a new goal at that point! Small goals are always more attainable and can feel like big accomplishments!

I've gotten really conscious about how much diet coke I drink. Some weeks I have more then I should, but for the most part I try to limit it to twice a week. I enjoy it and I feel as long as I am not drinking a tone of it everyday, a couple of times a week should be fine.

McDonalds is about convenience for me, not to mention inexpensive. Yes, it's not the best food for any of us, but there are better choices that can be made there. I love the Sausage McMuffins and McChickens! I won't lie! LOL! I will try to continue to limit how often I go for these items to just twice a week. But I am not limiting myself to salads, parfaits and other healthy options they have available. Again, this is something I am very conscious of and will continue to work on it the rest of the year.

As for the chocolate, I have become very aware of what I put in my mouth while at the shop and have been able to really keep my candy calories to a minimum. So this is no longer a goal for me, because I pretty much feel like I have that in check.

The scale is a good and evil thing at the same time. I do like seeing my progress, but I want to continue teaching myself not to let it play tricks with my head! So I am going to allow myself to weigh in one to two times a week and only on days after I fast. I just find the scale to be very motivating when I can see progress is being made. And look what happened when I did gain 6 pounds, it put my butt in gear! So even though I don't always like what I see, it doesn't mean it's going to make me quit. Because I am certainly not at that point! When you work so hard to lose the weight, seeing that number drop just helps you keep going. I have to take the bad with the good and know that if I keep trying, the weigh will come off!

Ok, so those are just a few things I want to continue to work on the rest of this year! It was nice to do this review so I can see how far I've come and where I need some improving. What's the use of making goals if you never go back and review them, right?

Revving Up For A Great Week!!

My motivation right now is just through the roof!! As you know I managed to get started on my Zumba videos yesterday. Well this morning I got up at 6:30am and did Zumba once again! Now mind you I am not an early bird by any means. I don't like getting up much earlier then 7am. But I don't like sleeping much past 8am either. LOL! So to get up at 6:30am was a bit challenging this morning, but I did it. And I am so glad I did, because I feel great after working out this morning!



My numbers were great yesterday:

Calorie Burn: 2927
Calories Consumed: 1529
Physical Activity: 1 Hour & 8 Min
Steps: 10928

I feel like I did a great job yesterday and hope to keep it up until I reach my goal of 199!



To meet my step goal yesterday I did about 8 minutes on the treadmill with my sweet Savannah girl! She didn't know what was going on and chose to hang out on my shoulder! She was my little treadmill buddy and it was great to have the company.

I will try to report in again tomorrow. It is my day off, so not sure when I will get on the computer. But I will try my best!

Let's Zumba!

So I was motivated enough to get up this morning and start my Zumba videos again! My shop does not open until 11am so now was my chance to have no excuses and just get started. Because once I get started, it motivates me to continue!!

Here I am in my outfit, ready to go!

Me in my exercise outfit before I got started! I think I look pretty good in spandex! Never thought I would say that. LOL! Just shows how far I have come! ;)

My after exercise glow!

Here is the Zumba video I own. It's an older version and I really like it. I have a newer version I bought on ebay, but this is by far my favorite set. I bought this version used on ebay as well only to find out it was a pirated copy. So buyer beware if you plan on finding Zumba on Ebay. Be sure it is someone selling their original set NOT a pirated copy!  I then found this pretty much brand new set at the Goodwill for only $5.00!! What a steal!

3 DVD Pack

3 DVD Pack Open

3 DVD Pack Showing DVD's. My favorite is the "Cardio Party"!

Zumba Live & Flat Abs DVD

Live & Flat Abs DVD View

Sculpt & Tone DVD

Sculpt & Tone DVD View

Light Weights. I have yet to use them.

All in all I found these DVD's to be very fun. On average I do about 4500 steps during the Cardio Party DVD. Doing the video this morning I had about 20 minutes of vigorous activity and 20 minutes of moderate activity. This is one of the few videos I own that I get a lot of vigorous activity. The more I do it, the more the vigorous activity will go up as I get back into the groove of doing the video.

I can tell I haven't done it in awhile as I felt it this morning. LOL! But I got through the entire 45 minutes! I will try to keep going all week long!

Let's Zuuuummmba!!!

Moving Forward & Staying Positive!!

My weigh in on Friday really upset me BUT it also motivated me to try harder! I went to Texas Roadhouse Friday night as we couldn't go on my birthday because we wouldn't have been able to make Morgan's swimming practice. I wanted to get it out of the way so I could start fresh on Saturday. I managed to stay under 2000 calories on Friday. Which was great considering I went to Texas Roadhouse and enjoyed their delicious dinner rolls and peanuts!

Unfortunately I began to feel like I was coming down with something on the way to dinner. By time I got home I had a 101 degree fever.  I felt a little better by Saturday mid morning so I took a shower, cleaned the bird room and headed into work to make some chocolate. I continued to not feel so well in the afternoon and chose to take it easy!

This morning I weighed in to see if any of that nasty weight decided to drop off. Well I was down 3.5 pounds, so I am hopeful the rest will drop off quickly as well. I ate only 1000 calories yesterday as I wasn't feeling very well at all. I also did Zumba this morning! See my next post to read all about that!

Feeling more positive today and hopeful for a good week! 

Starting To Get Very Discouraged!

My week has not improved at all when it comes to stress levels! Morgan came home sick on Monday with a horrible stomach bug and was out of school Tuesday & Wednesday. Monday  night I thought my laptop died, but the good news is, we have it working and all seems normal now. But when you see "No bootable disk" pop up on the screen, well, that kinda freaks a person out!

I then slammed my sons hand in the car door. Not full force mind you as I stopped when I saw him put his hand back up on the car, but the door still got him and his middle finger was swollen. It seems to be doing fine now. Thank goodness!

The biggest pain of all was I gained 6 pounds when I weighed in this morning! 6 Pounds!!!!! This really sucks and I am just about fed up with these stupid weight fluctuation! That makes me 212.5 pounds!


Granted I did give myself a break from fasting this past week. But I kept track of my eating everyday. Yesterday, since it was my birthday, I didn't track and I enjoyed a few of my favorite treats. But the rest of the week I really didn't do half bad and there is just no way I gained 6 pounds. I pretty much ate not to gain or lose weight this week! I am probably retaining water, but I am just so tired of these fluctuations!

With that said, I am even more determined to get this freakin' weight off and off for good! My plan for the week is to eat as healthy as possible. Lots of fruits and veggies and to add in some exercise to help get my last few pounds off to meet my 199 goal. I just don't want to get to 199, I want to get to 199 with a vengeance!! I want to blow that number out of the water and get to 195 quickly so I have some wiggle room so I never have to see the 200's again!

Time to step up to the plate and not let these hurdles take me down. I can do this! ONEderland! Here I come!

Enjoyed Time With Mom!

Yesterday was my 11th Wedding Anniversary  and since Brad is in North Conway this weekend I had my Mom spend the night the last couple of nights. So we've enjoyed dinner out the last couple of nights and also watched a good scary movie both nights. My Mom and I both enjoy a good scary movie. ;)

I will confess that I've just decided to enjoy my meals out with some of my favorite munchies. I had buffalo wings and cheesy garlic sticks Friday night and enjoyed potato skins and nachos last night! It was so good and I am glad I just let myself enjoy! Sometimes you just need to give yourself a break from being "good" all the time! 

I'm not sure how this will effect my week, but I will make an effort to either have a small weight loss this week or just not gain as my birthday is coming up on Thursday! 

I hope to take a nice walk with Savannah after work today if my hubby and kids are still not back from North Conway by then. I will also take it easy on the calories today in hopes of making up for the last couple of days! 

As of right now, I'm feeling pretty good and hopeful for a good week. It should be better then the last stressful couple of weeks, I hope! Fingers crossed! 

Ok, The Body Is Protesting AGAIN!

I have had a stressful week this week! As you may have already read, my computer crashed on Monday! The new one arrived on Thursday but it took us the entire day to get my POS software up and running. On top of it, my weigh in did not go so well. I lost .2 pounds this week which is about a 1/4 of a pound. Pretty sad I must say!

I had a good day Tuesday and Wednesday and stayed right around 1600 calories. I figure I had about 700 to 800 on my fast day as I had to attend my daughters Harvest Festival at school and it was all about tasting food they made with the veggies they harvested. But I think I did pretty well considering! My mom was in the hospital on Thursday as well. She went in at 6am because she had fallen. She was fine but they discovered she was low on blood and had to give her a transfusion. Now she has to get a colonoscopy to see if they can figure out why she is losing blood. 

So all in all it has been a really stressful week and I don't know if that is effecting my weight this week. Plus the day before I weighed in, I started my period and sometimes, although not always, that can effect my weight. So I will give it until Tuesday and weigh in again. That leaves me at 204.8. I know I won't make my goal by my birthday, but I sure as hell will try to get there as soon as I can! 

I was comparing some numbers from the week before when I lost 2.5 pounds to this week when I only lost .02 pounds and there are no huge differences. 

Here is the reports to compare:

(Amounts are daily averages)

Week Ending 10/9/14                                      Week Ending 10/16/14

Daily Burn 2602                                              Daily Burn 2646

Daily Calories Consumed: 1431                      Daily Calories Consumed: 1563

Daily Calorie Deficit: 1171                             Daily Calorie Deficit: 1083

Daily Physical Activity: 44 Min                      Daily Physical Activity: 37 min

Daily Number Of Steps: 7531                          Daily Number Of Steps: 8660

As you can see there is not a huge difference between the 2 weeks. I had an 88 calorie per day difference in my deficit for each day. That would be only 616 calorie difference for the week. So I should have dropped more weight. I wish the body wasn't such a mystery sometimes!

I will soldier on as usual and keep trying to get the weight off! I've got to have a better week this week.....Please! 

Computer Crashes Are Never Fun!

I'm sorry I haven't check in for awhile. My computer was having lots of issues for the past few days and decided to finally crash on Monday! I am using my laptop at work to get me through the day. We have someone working on my computer and ordered a new one since the one I had was 7 years old. Upgrades never hurt! ;)

Since Friday I have done ok with my eating over the weekend. I had more calories each day then  I would have liked. I had 1877 on Friday, 2015 on Saturday and 2209 on Sunday! I did have an excellent fast day on Monday.

But I did stop and evaluate my weekend so I tried to be careful yesterday and managed to have 1594 calories. Usually my average on my day off is about 2600, So I figured I made up for some of my pitfalls over the weekend. I hope to have another good day today!

I am 205 pounds and so close to my goal. I really want to see this weight disappear so I am hopeful I will have a decent drop on Friday! 2 pounds is my goal. I will do my best to finish the week strong!

Things Are Moving Right Along!

I am happy to report that I was down another 1.1 pounds this morning to 205.00 pounds. The lowest I have been since I started this blog and in 11 years!

Woohoo! I am going to really evaluate my eating the last week in hopes of continuing this pace of weight loss until I am to 199!!

Down Again!!

I know I said I wouldn't weigh in again until Friday, but I had such a good weekend, I couldn't resist! I am down to 206.1 a total of another 1.4 pounds down!

I did really well this weekend. Probably the best weekend eating since I started a few weeks ago! This is definitely motivating and I hope to keep doing well through Friday!

Well...At Least I'm Down Again!

I had a great couple of days! I ate under 1600 calories on Wednesday and had a great fast day yesterday, taking in only 490 calories. Right on target! I weighed in this morning and was down to 207.5. That is a 1.3 pound weight loss since last Friday!

It is apparent, unless I exercise more or eat less that this is going to be my average. Unless I can fit more exercise in, I am willing to except that this is the pace I will lose weight and will be happy with just going down and not up! I am not prepared to eat less and don't think I should.

I do think that there are areas I can work on to keep my calories below 1600 calories every day and no more then 2000 on my cheat day. I found Friday through Tuesday (excluding my fast day) I was over my 1600 calorie goal every day and I was over by 190 calories on my Monday fast day. So I do see small areas that could use improvement and who knows, these small changes may help me get a little bit better result on the scale.

I also hope to get in more exercise then I have been. I did walk twice this past week. Sunday & Tuesday we took the birds for walks. I did run around a lot last Saturday and figured that counted for a good amount of exercise! But I would like to get up to 3 walks per week around the house. I may even order some cute little hoodies for Coqui & Savannah for when it gets a little cooler! ;)

Ok, I am doing well so far and I am hopeful for a good weekend of eating and moving! Onward I go!

The Ups & Downs Of This Journey

Monday I had a decent fast day. I took my daughter out after school to have a Mother/Daughter day. We went out to dinner and I had Pot Roast at Denny's. My calorie intake was 690. Should be around 500, so I was a bit over. She chose Denny's so I made do and I really didn't want a salad! LOL!

Tuesday I weighed in only to be up .4 pounds!



I have come to realize that the number is not so important anymore. Do I want to get under 199 by my birthday you ask? HECK YEAH! But I can do only what I can do. I'm still shooting for that goal, but if my body doesn't want to cooperate and drop the weight in a timely manner, so be it. But that doesn't not mean I will stop trying!!

I am sure I will be down by Friday. I have decided NOT to weigh myself more then once a week after Friday's weigh in. It just ticks me off and that does not help my moral! I do have a plan of action to help get that number to drop and I am hopeful it will help!

This is a TMI moment, so don't read on if you don't want to hear it! :P ~ Anyway, I have not been "regular" lately so I am going to try to really watch the fiber in my diet to get back to being "regular". They say on this fasting diet constipation can be an issue. Well it has been for me. Once a day is what is normal and I have been averaging every 2 or 3 days. So I plan to eat more greens, more fiber and try to clean out this body of mine. So I am really going to be focusing on being careful about what I eat to help with the process!

Yesterday was my cheat day. I did have a nice salad at Subway for lunch. We did go apple picking and sat and enjoyed apple cider and apple cider donuts after picking apples and buying some pumpkins. We had a great time!

We also tried Taco Tuesday at Two Brothers Tavern last night and really enjoyed the tacos! We hope to go back at least once a month! I did make the mistake of having 2 Sausage McMuffins yesterday morning. My very big weakness! I am going to allow myself to have them once a week and no more. Preferably on my cheat day and I am going to try to stick to just one. I also ended my day with a bag of Cheez It's! So I ended up with 2600 calories yesterday!! The only positive note to that is I burned almost 3000. So at least I still had a deficit!

Each day is a battle, but a battle that CAN be won!