Saturday Thoughts

Today was a fairly good day as far as my eating went. I have 203 calories left but I ate a bite of Ryan's hotdog at lunch and drank a sip of soda and a few things I didn't track. So, rather than eating more, I am just going to hang in there and drink some more water. I have only had 2 bottles. So at least 1 or 2 more would be good.

My reason for posting is that Justin has gotten on the weight loss bandwagon and I need to remain focused. I have a 20 pound lead over him but I really don't want him to overtake me again. There of course is the question of whether or not he will seriously try to lose weight but I know that if he is seriously focused he can lose way faster than me! I hope he is serious and I hope it is motivating to me.

Have a great rest of your weekend guys!

Technical Difficulties

I tried to post yesterday but blogger and I got in a fight and it claimed it no longer existed. By the time it had decided to come back into existence I no longer felt like blogging because I was tired and needed to go to bed. So, anyway, yesterday my weight was 171.0. That's down 2 pounds from Monday, but only .8 from last Friday. It's a loss and I'll take it, but I was hoping it would be bigger. Yesterday I wasn't feeling very well and I ate a lot of crap and didn't track it. I really need to stop treating the weekend like it's an eating free-for-all. It's one step forward and two steps back. Tonight I'm going to play bunco with those old family friends I mentioned several days ago. I'm going to go to the gym this afternoon and do the elliptical for a bit. I always feel better about myself right after I work out. And then I won't feel so bad about partaking in the delicious goodies that will be served tonight.

Goals for today:

drink 3 bottles of water
workout
track calories

Same Old, Same Old.

No weight change, which is something I kind of expected considering that I haven't really been watching what I've been eating. I have gone swimming 3 times this week, so that is a positive, and I'm getting better. There is a foreign trainer that is there in the morning when I'm there and he came over to me out of the blue and started giving me tips on technique. Then I asked him if he would train me (if I paid him of course). I start on Monday, and I am really excited. I have found such a love for swimming. The water is so peaceful, its like you can workout and meditate at the same time. But it totally tuckers me out. I am tired all of the time it seems. This is where diet comes in. My goal this week is to drink an adequate amount of water each day and track all of my food. Ugh, I've got to get my eating under control!

Friday Weigh In - Moving in the right direction

So this morning's weight was 217.2 which is down 3 pounds from two days ago which leads me to believe I was having a sodium problem. So overall I have lost 31 pounds. I have 2.2 pounds to go to my next goal which is 215 and I am buying new makeup for myself. I am pretty happy I am moving in the right direction. Of course I also have this whole thing of "yeah but if you had been doing what you should be you would already have your new makeup and be on your way to your next goal." Ah well, what can you do right? You can't go back and change what has already happened so we might as well move on.

Today's plan:

track and stay within my limits
Drink 4 waters

Friday, my first weigh in since I started blogging. 184.0. Also, took my blood pressure but that is boring. Molly, hope enchilada night was good, both with family and food. Yesterday, since I read Mallory's article about high frutose corn syrup, I've been checking the foods I've been eating. Also, checked candy bars that other people had. Wow, I was really craving chocolate by the end of the day and the 1/2 grapefruil didn't stop that craving. Did not eat any; however it was close.

Goals: 3 bottles of water
NO sugar
track on livestrong
exercise (probably won't happen however if I keep putting it on here it might:-)

Good day to everyone

Molly's Thursday

I went to kickboxing class this morning! I thought I was going to die and/or throw up, but I stuck it out and made it through the entire class.

So, my goals for today are as follows:

- track calories on livestrong
- keep net calories under 1200 (it's enchilada night and all the family is going to be here and those people stress me out. But tomorrow is weigh in, so I'm going to try really hard to be good.)
- drink 4 bottles of water. I'm already almost finish with my 2nd 32 oz. bottle. Thank you kickboxing.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Thursday, going better

So this morning I was at 154.8, so 2 lbs down from yesterday. Does it seem like last week to anyone else?

Anyway, I took the memory foam topper off my bed last night and took a pain pill before I went to bed. AND I ACTUALLY SLEPT! And so did my kids! It's a miracle! :) So I'm feeling much better about the world today. I think the memory foam thingy is just worsening my back problems b/c it doesn't hurt near as much today as yesterday. Yay!

So my goals for today:
4 bottles of water (already 1 & 1/2 down - thank you Crystal Light)
track my calories (which I haven't done in quite awhile, oops)
get working on baby shower/gift stuff. ACK! I can't believe it's tomorrow!

Thursday

So I am mad at myself. I have had an entire month of bouncing back and forth between 218 and 222. This morning when I weighed myself I was 220.2 which means I am almost 2 pounds up from my lowest weight. I am just sick of myself not doing what I know I need to do. I have good food, I just need to get over myself and do it. Today's plan:

Drink 4 bottles of water
Get some exercise
Track on livestrong

It has been great reading everyone's posts. The article Mallory posted about sugary drinks was just the information I needed since I have been battling what the doctors are calling gout. Thanks for that Mallory! I ate 3 tablespoons of chocolate ice cream in a sugar cone last night, after I counted my calories and was ticked at myself. After I ate it, of course, I thought I should have mixed some frozen strawberries in some plain yogart, frozen it and put that in a cone. Next time. I just have to remember the mantra Maureen told me . . . "nothing tastes as good as being healthy". Sorry, Maureen, I changed one word because the word "thin" really bothers me. Not sure why. Probably some past hang up I have.
Goal for tomorrow . . . DRINK MORE WATER and EAT BREAKFAST

Wednesday

It seems my little plan for the week is working. My weight was down .8 again today. Yay! However, we have relatives here for the next couple days and it's always difficult to stick with healthy eating when you have guests. My mom already made a giant pan of creamy delicious chicken enchiladas and I have very little will power when it comes to those things. But, I am going to kickboxing tomorrow (Lori, I swear I will be there!!), so maybe it will all be ok. I just need to keep away from the bbq potato chips, which I desperately wish had never been brought into the house. And try not to stress eat. I'm having a hard time controlling my anxiety right now and my tendency is to hide away and eat. So, I'm going to keep working out, try not to eat my feelings away, and try to get out and do stuff.

The evils of sugary drinks

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/26/Sugar-May-Be-Bad-But-This-Sweetener-Is-Far-More-Deadly-Part-2.aspx

Tara Brown posted this article on facebook this morning and I thought it was really a very interesting article.

Up, again.

So I've been having a little mini pity party for myself lately and it NEEDS to end. Aaron left for his trip to Manila (and Toyko) today and I've been feeling sorry for myself about that. Then there's my back. My dumb, stupid, damned back. So every once in awhile it goes out and I can't do much. Sometimes it fixes itself quickly, other times not. Most the time it just hurts in the morning and then it's over. However, I pulled it out (by sneezing of all dumb things) the other day and it's been terrible ever since. I can't lean over, twist, or sit down w/o it hurting and then when I go to stand up, I'm kinda like the hunchback of Notre Dam for a few minutes before I can fully erect myself. Anyway, I saw the orthopedic back surgeon yesterday and to make a long story short, there's basically nothing that I can do about it. My disks in my lower vertebre got squished b/c Sophie's birth was so tramatic and fast and he said I probably have a tear in at least one of them. Super. I can get an MRI done so they can make sure and then figure out what pain management options are available to me. Super. It's so disheartening to have the dr tell you that you're 29 and will most likely always have back problems/pain and that it will only get worse as you age.... so last night I had Qdoba... and some cinammon bears. And the problem is, is that I just want to continue to binge eat. But I weighed myself this morning and I was at 154.6. Damn again. So that's 6.4 lbs up from my lowest. Damn again.

So I'm trying to get back on track today, although I'm still not sure if I'll actually do it. (Isn't that horrible? I can't even resolve myself to get on track!?) Anyway, my goals are a little paired down b/c of that.

Goals:
4 bottles of water.
Clean the house.
Make good meals (and now that Aaron's gone, I'll have leftovers to use for other days, so that's a plus)
Don't scream at the children. This one might be hard as Brielle was up for almost 2 hrs last night.

Interesting Article

I thought this article was interesting, it reminded me of you guys who are so busy at your jobs during the day!

You Skip, You Gain
Why skipping meals is such a bad idea!

By Cheryl Forberg, RD, The Biggest Loser nutritionist

Contestants arriving at The Biggest Loser ranch for the first time are often surprised to learn that one of the reasons they've gained so much weight is because they've had a habit of skipping meals. It sounds counterintuitive, but skipping meals can actually contribute to weight gain, not loss.

Metabolism journal documented a meal-skipping study at the National Institute on Aging. They found that people who skipped meals during the day and had all of their calories at one nightly meal exhibited unhealthy changes in their metabolism, similar to unhealthy blood sugar levels observed in diabetics. The non-meal skippers on the other hand, consumed the same number of calories each day, but the calories were distributed throughout the day at 3 regular meal intervals. The non-meal skippers maintained healthy blood sugar levels.

Another problem with skipping meals is that by the time meal time rolls around, you're so hungry, it's easy to eat too much and very often choose the wrong things. Who wants to nibble on carrot sticks when you're starving? Fat has more than twice as many calories as protein and carbohydrate. It satisfies hunger very quickly and often plays a big role in unhealthy meal choices made by meal skippers.

Motivation

I am having a hard time with motivation. I get really excited and ready to lose these next 3 or 4 pounds so I can achieve my next goal and then I have a hard time maintaining that excitement. I am going to eat well today and tomorrow, drink lots of water, and try to get in some exercise. I hope that I will be at least 218 or maybe 217 which would put me close to my goal of 215 to get the new makeup I want.

The good news is we don't have any more candy in the house. LOL

Well, I'm starting out with small steps, I'm shooting for three 24 oz bottles of water a day. That's a stretch for me. I can sip on two bottles a day but I think three bottles will help me stay full longer. I started journaling tonight and wrote down everything I ate. I'm also going to snack on three pieces of fruit throughout the day. It's a start.

I hope everyone had a good eating day!

Tuesday Re-Weigh

Today I weigh 172.2. Down .8 from yesterday, but still up .4 from Friday. So, that's a little better.

Goals are basically the same today as they were yesterday:

track calories
keep calories between 1000 and 1100
drink at least 3 bottles of water

I may or may not work out. I randomly got sick in the middle of the night. I felt fine when I went to bed and I feel fine now. I don't know if it was something I ate or what. Very weird. Anyway, I was awake for several hours after that, but I finally went back to sleep. Unfortunately, I slept right through my alarm and Chisel. Oh well, there's always the next Chisel class. I might do the elliptical after work. We'll see.

Hope everyone has a great day!

I am ready for bed. I want to thank you for allowing us to join your blog site. Maureen and I discovered we are three to five pounds (depending on the day) different in weight, me being the heavier. Mallory has been telling me how much this blog has helped her. She has done a fantastic job setting goals and keeping them.

My goals are: no sugar (cookies, cakes, etc.) not natural sugars
drinking at least 3 bottles of water a day
Getting 3 days a week of exercise

Man after today just sticking to the no sugar thing will be a miracle. It seemed like there was candy, cookies, even a pie at work today. EKKKKKKKKKKKK every where I turned there was something tempting with sugar in it.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how I stay away from those things?

A big thank you to Mallory for the invitation to join the blog and for helping me get started!
I think this is just what I need to help me stay focused and motivated.

I've been struggling with sticking to any healthy eating and exercising habits for quite some time. I'm at a point where I'm tired of being overweight. I don't recognize or like what I see when I look in the mirror. I'm tired of being uncomfortable in my clothes and tired of avoiding social gatherings because I'm self concious of how I look.

So here I go, step one, I weigh 180.3 lbs and my goal is to lose 40 lbs! YIKES!!

And yes, today's the day, I'm ready to make a commitment to good health and change.

I'm looking forward to sharing and hearing about our successes and challenges on our joint weight loss journey!

Hi, My name is Maureen and Peggy and I have been trying to figure this out for the last hour!!! Can you tell I'm new at this? But Mallory is on the phone talking us through this. I think it's going to work!! Keep your fingers crossed!!

Hi, Maureen and I are trying to get this working so that we will be able to blog.

Welcome Maureen and Peggy

Hey everyone!

We have two new members to our blog:

Maureen and Peggy

If you guys would introduce yourselves and talk a little about your goals, etc. We post our weights, but that's entirely up to you guys! We weigh on Fridays and Mondays.

Welcome guys!

Hi! I am Mallory's mom Peggy. I am having problems sticking to my goals. I am hoping that blogging will help me.

Monday Weigh-In

I swear I'm not copying Mallory, but I did really well this weekend until last night. Then I had a ton of processed cheese and chips and guacamole. My sodium was so high that I didn't even bother to track most of what I ate after it reach 3000. That's bad. I did drink a lot of water yesterday, but I was up 1.2 from Friday. So my offical weight today is 173. The whole time I was scarfing stuff down last night I kept thinking, "I'm going to be sooo mad at myself in the morning." Yet I kept shoveling it in. And sure enough, I was rather irritated at myself.

So, here's the thing: this coming Saturday I'm going to be seeing some family friends that I grew up with that I haven't see in several years (like 5 or 6) and I really wanted to feel good about myself. My motivation is similar to our high school reunion time. So, I have basically five days to try and mitigate the situation. Here's my plan for the next five days:

Drink 4 bottles of water everyday

track calories, keep it right between 1000 and 1100 - just for these five days, then I'll go back to my regular livestrong goal, which is 1290.

work out at least 4 of the 5 days

use my positive affirmations - I really think they help.

Monday Morning

So I did great all weekend until yesterday night and I ate so much food. I had pizza and a few hot wings and a crunchy lava cake thing from dominoes. So this morning my weight was 221.2 up 2 pounds ish from friday. Today's plan is to drink lots of water and weigh again in the morning. Kids are still sick and driving me nuts but Justin is off today so that's good.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy was amazing! I hope I can describe it correctly because it was a great experience.

When I first met with Sally I thought she was nuts, she is a little,but in a good way. She was so excited about hypnosis and the power that it has over the subconscious. She started out by talking to me for about and hour and a half to figure out what I want to get out of my sessions with her. I told her that I have had a weight problem pretty much my entire life. I eat when I have any emotion and I have a binge eating problem. It's a problem when you hide the evidence in the outside trash can so that your husband won't find out what you've eaten. I told her about my religious background, what I believe in and the effect that it can have on my body image. I have a problem with drinking energy drinks because I never have any energy and that is something that I wanted to quit. Every time I told her something new about me she got really excited that she got to see deeper inside of me, and it really helped her for when she going to be making suggestions to me. She thinks that I keep the extra weight on because I use it as a shield to keep people away from me.

Getting hypnotized is not like how it is at a hypnotist show. I was completely aware of what was going on around me the entire time, I was just in a total state of relaxation. She had me think of a place that made me feel open and comfortable and the first thing that came to my mind was a waterfall with a pond and had my jeans rolled up with me feet in the warm water. Then she had me think of my body as a completely different entity, and she had me have a conversation with my body and how my body feels when I put junk food in it. She had me think of a color and had it slowly flow through every muscle in my body she new that I have been trying to get pregnant so she had the color wrap around my uterus and my ovaries, and the weird thing is that ever since the session I have been having cramps, very strange. Anyway, there was a lot more that went on, but overall it was great. I haven't had the urge to drink an energy drink and when I went back to work by black bean meatless chili tasted like it was a Big Mac, it cured the same craving. She also gave me a disc to listen to everyday for the next 10 days that covers the food hunger scale. It gives you a scale from 1-10. 1 being the most hungry and 10 being as full as you can get. It suggests that the only time you will eat is when you are a 3 or lower and that you will stop before you get to a 7. So far so good. I feel great, I am thinking a lot more about my food and why I eat. When I have heavy emotions, like stress, My mind automatically goes to my waterfall place of comfort and it helps me to cope with those feeling and really think am I hungry or am I eating because I'm feeling an uncomfortable emotion.

Anyway, before hypnosis I had a rough week so I'm not going to weigh myself until next week. I'm feeling positive and so far this has been a great experience!

OH HAPPY DAY!

I just wanted to share with you that I had my first person who had NO IDEA about my weight loss ask me how much weight I had lost and tell me I looked great! Whoo hoooo!!

Today I did another child care for the yellow ribbon group and a girl that I had met only one time at the beginning of December asked me if I had lost weight. It was so exciting and it motivated me to keep on keepin on! HOORAY.

Saturday

This morning I went to the gym to take the "getting started" class which basically walks you through all the machines I guess. As part of the Move It To Lose It thing I signed up for, you get points for taking the class. Plus I would like to start lifting a little, but I thought it would be helpful to know how the weight machines work. Anyway, when I signed up the chick told me 10:15 on Saturday. Well, on Saturday, the class is at 9:45. During the week it's at 10:15. Since I had missed about half the class I decided to just take a different one sometime this week and do cardio instead. So, it wasn't a total loss, but it was still annoying. And it would have been such a great day for taking pictures of The Bookcliffs and the Monument. The clouds and the snow were gorgeous! But I felt obligated to go this class since I had signed up for it and I didn't take my camera with me. So by the time I got home from the gym the clouds were mostly gone and it was way too bright. Oh well. Next time we have a storm I'll be all over it!

Ok, I'll stop complaining now. Goals for today:

Drink 4 bottles of water
track calories, stay under 1300

Molly's Friday Weigh-In

Today's weight is 171.8, down 3 pounds from Monday and 2 pounds from last Friday. Yay!

Goals for today:

track calories, stay under 1300
drink 3 bottles of water

Mallory's Friday Weigh In

Good Morning! My weight this morning was 219.8 which was up a little over one pound since last friday, overall I am not too unhappy with it because I was expecting worse.

Today's goals: get some exercise
Track my food
Drink water

I hope everyone has a great day today!

Carrie, I can't wait to hear how hypnotherapy went yesterday!!

Thursday

Cannot believe it's already Thursday. Holy Cow. Anyway, goals for the day:

Drink 3 bottles of water
track calories, stay under 1300
go to the gym

Thursday Morning

Ok, I am here and I am tracking

Drink water
Track

Thursday

Hey all - this morning my weight was 150.2, so it's definitely going the right way. I hope by tomorrow I'm back in the 140's.

Goals:
lots of water
calories btwn 1250 and 1300 w/o cheating ;) (you know, those couple of little goldfish here and there)
Generally try and clean up.

I'm hoping that by Monday I'll feel well enough to go back to the gym - we'll see.

I'm back on the wagon too.

I haven't had the courage to weigh myself yet but we went out to eat 3 times this weekend. And I generally have been crazy snacking and having excuses for myself. Plus, I don't know what this is all about, but I don't WANT to think about it.

Excuse #1 - I don't have much food in my house. So I am now officially out of chicken, and so I am just using excuses for why I shouldn't have to plan and eat healthy. Last night we had sloppy joes because I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't chicken or eggs. I also didn't plan what I was going to eat until the last second, so I just grabbed what I could think of.

Excuse # 2 - I have been doing really well, I "deserve" to go out to eat. And not just go out to eat, go out to eat and eat whatever I want. If I would go out to eat and decide what I was having before I went etc, it wouldn't be bad at all.

So, those are my rationalizations for eating bad in the first place, at least the ones I can think of, and then it just kinda goes downhill from there. Once I get to the place where I am eating bad I can justify by saying, well I ate bad this morning blah blah blah.

So anyway what it boils down to is I don't want to do it. I want to eat whatever junk I want when I want to, and however much I want. But here is the problem, I don't like being fat anymore. I feel more self confidant, happier, healthier and I am overall a better wife and mom when I am eating good. I have been feeling good that I can fit into more clothes. Almost all stores have clothes in a size 16. I like it that I can jog on the treadmill now for a longer time. I like being more active. So while it was nice to not think about what I was eating for a few days I am back on the wagon and I feel good about it!

All I know is that there are times when I forget why I want to lose weight, and the work that I have been putting into it seems like it's just too much. But then 5 days of eating junk reminds me, that feeling better physically is totally worth the time and effort. So, in the spirit of getting back on track, I am going to the grocery store tonight to fill my fridge with yummy fruits and veggies, and I will be back with the plan!!

Wednesday

Goals for today:

Drink 3 bottles of water
track calories
stay under 1300
make appt to get my hair trimmed

Back among the living

Hey girls! I'm back home (although I've been here since Sat) and I'm trying to get my eating back on track. When I was staying at my parents' house, it was simply horrible. I mean, geez, cinammon bears are totally a weakness for me and I might have eaten a few... pounds worth. And then when I got home and my house was still a wreck, we were trying to paint, do the floors, (the trim still isn't up and the painting still isn't done), watch the kids, etc. it all became too much to try to eat good too. I was feeling a little overwhelmed and then... bum bum bummmmm - Brielle started puking and having diahhrea. And then Sophie started. And now I feel like crap too - although no puking, so that's good. I HATE puking!

Anyway, there was some Qdoba's mixed with lots of crap at my parents, no working out, and mindless snacking when I was at home, and now my weight is 152.4 which is 4.2 lbs up (if I remember right) from my lowest weight. So, it's back on the wagon for me. Yesterday I drank lots of water and ate good protein, but ended up snacking on *everything* and still feeling completely starved all the time. Today I'm totally recomitted and WILL track everything that I eat. NOw if I could get my house back to liveable, it'd help. Ugh. I just can't seem to get everything done that I need to.

Positive Thoughts

I've been trying to think positive things and I've been told by numerous people (and I know it's been mentioned on this blog) that positve affirmations can actually help. I need to change my neural pathways so that the path of least resistance is a postive path for my thoughts to go down. These are the affirmations I have come up with:

I am a BRAVE, STRONG, SMART, BEAUTIFUL Woman.

I have the POWER and COURAGE to change for the better.

I control my destiny.

I can do this.


I wrote them down on a piece of paper and every time I start to be mean to myself or tell myself I can't do something or start to chicken out of doing something I want or need to do I'm going to recite these to myself. Hopefully it'll help. Can't hurt, right?

Tuesday

Goals for today:

track calories, stay under limit
drink water
do elliptical after work

AAAARRRRRRHHHHHHHGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

I think I just set myself up for failure on the weeks that Dustin doesn't work. I make it easy to not hold myself accountable for the things I eat because Isn't every week that he's off a vacation week? Got on the scales this morning and was up 2 pounds 171.2. How disappointing! It could have been a lot worse if I hadn't have gone swimming 3 times last week (which I'm getting better at btw!) I love swimming! It is so easy on my joints. Half the reason I hate getting up early in the morning to workout is because my bones are all achy and stiff. With swimming its low impact and takes weight off of my bones for an hour. Love it!

I'm going to start hypnotherapy on Thursday. I am so excited. Not that I think that its going to magically make me drop weight, but it will help me to control it with my subconscious. At least that's what I'm hoping. My first session is 2 1/2 hours long. The first half hour she talks to me to get to know me and then she puts me under hypnosis for 2 hours. She will also be giving me a cd so that I can do hypnosis at home. If anything it will be a good relaxation technique.

So far I've eaten really good today so my goals this week are:

Have different salads for lunch everyday.
Swimming on Wednesday and Friday.
Make dinner at home.
Drink Water.
DON"T BORED EAT!
Finish knitting baby blanket.

Monday Weigh In

Gained a pound over the weekend, which puts me at 174.8. Grrrr. It could be the entire chocolate bar I ate yesterday, but more likely it's vast quantities of processed cheese and tortilla chips I ate at 10:30 last night (all while watching The Biggest Loser on hulu). What was I thinking??? I drank 4 bottles of water yesterday and worked out, but still could not exercise some self control. Oh well, it's a new day. And I already slept through kickboxing, though my back is hurting so I probably wouldn't have gone anyway.

All righty, goals for today:

Drink 3 bottles of water
track calories
stay under 1300 (seriously!! no screwing around, Molly!!! You can do this if you try!!!)
Stretch

Monday Goals

I didn't weigh myself this morning because I know it was terrible. We went out to eat 3 times this weekend and not one of those times did I order something that showed any restraint.

So this morning my goals are:

Track
Drink water
do some trackable exercize

Move It to Lose It

Today I joined the "Move It to Lose It" contest at the gym. It's a six week contest that starts tomorrow and ends March 1. They put you on teams and you get points for going to classes. You set a weight loss goal and if you reach it, you get points. I set at 10 pound loss goal, but would really like to lose at least 12 (that would be 2 lbs per week). Losing 13 lbs would put me at my 160 goal, which I originally set for Feb. 26. Feb 26 is still going to be my primary goal. I just thought this contest would fit pretty well with my timeline and will hopefully help keep me motivated. Lori has me talked into doing kickboxing with her tomorrow morning. I'm kind of scared and my legs are tired from doing the elliptical this morning, but if I die, well then I'll dead and it won't matter if I lose 13 pounds, so really what do I have to lose?

Out of Practice

Getting back to my normal eating plan has been more difficult than I thought. I've been unconsciously eating things. Or taking little extra bites here and there while cooking or putting food away. I've been trying to track everything, but I keep remembering things that I forgot And I've been adding salt to everything. It's lite salt, but still. This morning I woke up super thirsty and chugged down a bunch of water. Then I remembered it's weigh-in day. Awesome. So, I weighed in at 173.8, which is up .2 from Wed. I feel all puffy and bloated and yet dehydrated.

Goals for today:
Drink 3 bottles of water
workout after work
track calories
stop adding salt

Friday Weigh In

So this morning my weight was 218.4 which is my lowest weight ever! I lost .2 lb since last week but that's good because one day when I weighed myself it was 222.2 so I am back down from that. I do want this week to be a little more productive than last week.

One of my problems, I think is that I have been wanting to eat at night after dinner. So this week's goal is to not eat at night after dinner.

Also my goal is to recognize when I am eating for emotional reasons vs hunger. I really had a hard time with it on tuesday and wednesday.

I really hate that I do well with my eating plan 5 days out of the week and I am so bad the other two that it means virtually no weight loss. I think if I followed the plan 7 days a week I would lose so much faster. And if I were doing something fun or seeing people or something that I was benefiting from it would be ok too, but it's just that I am sad so I eat.

Molly's Thursday

I don't feel like doing anything. Seriously nothing. I feel extremely restless and yet entirely unmotivated. I hate this feeling. And I know that when I feel this way I really just need to do SOMETHING. So goals for today:

drink 3 bottles of water
track calories
make appt with my counselor
run some errands that I've been putting off

Thursday

Today's goal is to drink as much water as possible. I did well yesterday, however I have a lot of puffiness still in my fingers especially. I am hoping that when I weigh on Friday I will at least be under 220 again. I bought some groceries last night as I was down to my last 2 eggs. I have some chicken to cook today, I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. I also bought some alfredo sauce and mushrooms so I might make chicken with that.

I saw some makeup that I want to try so that will be my reward when I (finally) reach 215! Then when I get down to 200 my reward is going to be having my hair colored.

Today's goals:

Track Everything.
do some sort of exercize
Drink 4 bottles of water

Odd side note:
I had an egg white omelet with some ground turkey then I put sour cream, cilantro, and salsa on the top this morning and it was so gross! Seriously it tasted fishy or something. Everything was fresh and I tasted everything separately and it all tasted fine but for some reason putting that combo together, YUCK!

New Goals

I weighed myself this morning for the first time in a little over two weeks: 173.6. That's up 2.2 from my last weigh in. And while I don't have hard data, I know it's down from whatever I managed to get my weight up to by eating mostly cheese and bread and qdoba for the past two weeks. But I'm going to be a glass half full person and just be conent (and surprised) that it's not higher.

So, on to the new goals:

Mon., Feb. 1, 2010 - weigh under 170. Even if it's 169.9.

Wed., Feb. 10, 2010 - weigh 165.

Fri., Feb. 26, 2010 - weigh 160. That's right about 2 lbs per week for the next 6 weeks.

I'm committed to this. And I'm really excited to get going and feel good about my body. Thanks for your support, you guys! It means a lot to me!! I can't wait to see what we all can accomplish in the coming months and this year! :)

Wednesday

148.6 this morning. Only .4 off of my lowest so far.

So, big thing in my world - - drumroll pleeeaaseee........

We're getting new floors this week/weekend! :) Vanessa's little brother is helping us (of course we're paying him a considerable amount) replace our floors in our entryway, dining room, hallway, and kitchen! I am SO excited I can't tell you! We're going to stay at my parents' house for a couple days while our house is torn to shambles and we'll start tonight. What I'm hoping to do is: put the kids to bed tonight at my mom's and then Aarond and I come back to the house and take up the trim and move furniture and stuff. Then PAINT since we'll have the floor trim up anyway and won't care if the carpet gets paint on it. Cross your fingers that we can get a considerable amount done tonight b/c I'm hoping that in the morning Aaron can rip up the carpet, etc and then Bryce will be here after 2 or so to help, then they have all day Fri and Sat and hopefully it'll be done. In my perfect world, they'd also do the hall bathroom (we already have the materials for it, but it wasn't in the original agreement w/Bryce), but I doubt that'll happen.

So Molly, if you're feeling up to it, wanna help Aaron and I paint tonight? lol

The bad thing about it, is we'll be staying at my parents... and we all know how well I do there. lol

Mallory's Wednesday Goals

It's always amazing to me how easy it is to have a "bad day". Yesterday our sewage was backing up into our bathtub and I had all four kids. Thank goodness Justin didn't have to go to work until 3 yesterday and he was there, so we called a plumber, and he quoted us over 350 dollars to take our toilet off and snake the drain out to the street. So we sent him on his way and Justin went to Home Depot and rented the 100 foot snake. We took the toilet off (which was 125 dollars of the price and took 5 minutes) and snaked the drain and now it seems great. So the total we spent was 60 for the rental and then 5 for a new wax ring and some new caps to cover the bolts.

But, when things like that happen I use them as an excuse to eat. I mean a handful of animal crackers here and there, coffee with milk, then a pb and j sandwich on kid bread, and it just kept getting worse. Ah well, here I am today and ok with it because it was the best I could do yesterday. Today is gonna be great.

Today's goals:

Drink water
Track all food

I'm a Work in Progress

I haven't even looked at this blog since I left for Denver on Dec. 28. It's so great to see that you all are carrying on and seem to be doing well. :)

Right about New Years Day I had, for lack of a better word, a breakdown. And it felt just like this whole past year of healing and trying to crawl out from under the rock I had been living under hadn't even happened. There were several factors as to why this happened (none of which were related to weight loss) and I'm not going to go into it, but basically I spent a week in a house in Denver by myself (except for the cat and thank god he was there) feeling incredibly sad and alone and scared of the world. It was horrible and I don't expect any of you to understand. What I want to get a across here is that I wasn't able to be there for people I wanted to be there for, including posting on this blog. I couldn't bring myself to even look at this blog. My anxiety disorder is such that I try to protect myself by not interacting with people and then I feel more isolated and more anxious and it spins out of control. I wasn't able to answer the phone or even check my email. I spent much of 2008 - and 2007 and 2006 -living like that and to feel that again was really scary. I wanted so badly to come home and move on with my life. Because the thing is, I am a work in progress - aren't we all? Before New Years I was thinking a lot about how far I had come the past year and how well I was doing. And while that's true, that breakdown made it very clear that I still have a lot of work to do and a lot of life to live.

I've been thinking about goals for this year, not just in weight loss, but in all areas of life. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions - too easy to set myself up for failure. So, I'm going to post something about that later this week. I'm going to start back with daily goals tomorrow and I'm going to rejoin the weigh-ins on Friday.

Happy New Year, everyone :)

Tuesday

I weighed this morning, and if I remember right, it was 149.8, which isn't too bad. We had sushi last night and then went somewhere else for dessert. Aaron and I each got one and when they came, they were gigantic! I had two bites of Aaron's (yummmm, bread pudding!) and about half of mine (yummy brownie and ice cream). I soooo wanted to eat all of it, but I was starting to feel sick. In fact, I want to eat it now. I'm wishing I had brought the rest home in a box. I had even considered it last night but Aaron was the one that said "no, just leave it. You'll feel better about it." Good for him keeping me on track.... if it was here, it SO would have been eaten already.

See, this is the problem with me and sugar (and probably everyone and sugar). If I live w/o it for awhile, then I'm fine but the minute that I have it, say in the form of a gooey brownie and ice cream, that's all I think about and all I want. DAMN you SUGAR! .... ok, maybe that was overreacting, but seriously, it's like my drug of choice.... that and caffeine.

Here are my goals for today:
*Stay away from sugar - a lot easier when I stay at home, so that's what I'm doing today
*drink lots of water - I'd better get on this
*Calories around 1250.
*Track all my food.
*Make some chicken to put in the fridge for easy lunches and dinners.


In other goals:
*Keep my house clean and get it cleaner. This is hard to do with two hurricanes running around. But they are CUTE hurricanes.
*Work on baby shower stuff. CARRIE - you're invited to the baby shower for Jaime, and should have an invite on Sunday, if not before, but it's Fri the 29th!

Quick Post!

Weighed in at 269.8. So glad to be out of the 270's, that was scary and a little depressing. Lower than Friday, but I can't remember by how much, the point is it's lower than before, yay! The tough part is being good on the weeks my husband is off which would be this week. Going swimming tonight at the college, I am loving swimming! I always lose weight the day after, and I don't even feel like I'm working out.

So the husband wants me to get some therapy to work on the reason why I am gaining weight. I guess I have issues, but then again, who doesn't? I have gained 100 pounds since we got married 7 years ago and have been maintaining that weight for the last 3 years. I have this brilliant idea that I am going to go and try hypnotherapy. I am pretty excited to do this, I'm just right now looking into how much it will cost and such. Anyway doing good and feeling good!

oh yeah and, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday...

I didn't weigh myself today. I meant to, but lucky me, my hubby and kids made me breakfast in bed (even my normal 3 egg whites, 1/4 c. 2% cheese, and mushrooms - awesome!) and so I didn't want to say "hold on, let me pee, strip down and weigh myself before I eat this yummy breakfast that you so nicely made for me." lol BUT yesterday I was at 148.8 which I was totally happy and a little surprised about since I had a big Mexican meal out for dinner on Friday night. However, yesterday I made brownies for Vanessa, my birthday sister, and... well, you all know where this is going. I didn't eat the brownies, but I did eat the yummy mint truffles that I put in the middle of the brownies. That and some toffee. And tonight I'm going out to dinner (yay), so I might just wait until Wed to weigh, we'll see.

ok, back to cleaning. My house was somehow thrown in the middle of an earthquake, then magically transported back here. That's the only logical explanation for how messy it got in such a short amount of time.

Monday

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LORI!!!

I weighed 222.2 today, it was a pretty bad weekend but I am back on track for a great week!

My goals for today are to:
Track
Be on track with my protein and good carb ratios
Stay on track with my sodium.
Drink 4 bottles of water

How is everyone feeling today? It has been a couple of days since everyone blogged so I hope everyone is doing/feeling well.

Mallory's Sunday Goals

well I went out to eat last night and had a salad, then was going to have one slice of pizza and I ended up having 3. Ha ha. So today's goal is to drink lots of water and go workout.

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Only the Beginning

So I weighed in today at 270.6, that's down 6.6 pounds from Monday! Yay! This week I really focused on writing down all of my food in a food journal that I drug around with me in my purse. It seemed to help. I am also doing the 21 day Vegan Jump start diet, or I should say my version of this diet. Vegan is a little extreme for me, and the only dairy I've had this week is a little Parmesan cheese on my whole wheat spaghetti, mushroom and spinach spaghetti sauce. I did have a little sushi on Thursday, this is what I mean by "my own version". I feel great! I have not felt sluggish all week long and I have had great energy and decent sleep. I think cutting out dairy has really helped me with my energy level. I haven't done a whole lot of exercise this week, I went swimming once, but I'm hoping that next week I will be able to work this in. I've got to start using the Wii fit or Dustin is going to kill me, besides the Wii is super fun.

Goals for next week:
Exercise at least 3 times
Continue journaling
Keep with my own version of 21 day kick start!

Salsa Recipe

So while my dad was in Mexico he went to this guy's house and watched his mom make salsa and I tried it last night and it was yummy and super easy so I thought I would share it with you all!

In a small sauce pan put about 1/4 cup of water or so, enough to cover the bottom of the pan by about 1/2 inch and turn it on med-high, cover.

2 large tomatoes
3-4 serrano chiles
1 clove garlic

cut the core out of the tomatoes, peel the garlic and cut the tops off of the chiles. When the water is simmering, put the ingredients into the water and steam for 5 minutes. Take all of the ingredients in the pan (water included) and dump them into the blender. Blend until smooth.

I'm not so fond of hot salsa so I refridgerated it until cold.

It has 16 cal per 1/4 cup and .9mg sodium

Friday

It's a <> day for me too. I was at 149 this morning, so that's up .8 from Wednesday. It could totally have been worse, but I was hoping that the cake and whatnot would have been worked out of my system in two days. I didn't weigh yesterday so I don't know how much it's a loss (I'm assuming) from yesterday.

So, my goals for today:
*drink lots of water
*try exercises for my back
*track and keep calories at 1250.
*update bodybugg calorie tracker. Why has this been so hard for me lately?! I've been logging into livestrong, but not doing bodybugg. Maybe it's b/c I normally do it at night and since Aaron's home he's normally on the computer at night. Too bad they don't make an ipod touch app.

Friday Weigh In Day

This morning I weighed 220.4. SIGH. It's that time of the month and yesterday was kind of a salty day but I drank sooooo much water. I was really hoping it would balance out for me. So that's up 1.6 pounds from yesterday. That is down 2 pounds from 1 week ago. Overall down 28.8 pounds. Yesterday I was down 30.6 pounds!!!

Today's goal is to:
Track
Drink 4 bottles of water
Go workout

Thursday

Our dinner party went well last night, but I still don't know how to track it. I just need to suck it up. And I did really well while they were here, but then they left and left the tres leche cake (she's from Costa Rica)... and I miiiigght have had another piece... or two. Overall, it could have been much worse. I let Aaron keep it today and eat it throughout part of the day and then threw the rest away. Ahh, what a shame. Don't tell them though ;)

So I made mostaccoili and ate it with spaghetti squash instead of pasta, had a few small pieces of french bread, some great salad that I have waayy to much left over (so I ate it for lunch, but there's still a ton), and then the cake. If I would have stopped when they left, I would have been GREAT... but you know me and food when we're alone. lol Ahh, I wonder if I'll ever get over that.

Anyway, I didn't weigh myself this morning but will tomorrow for our official weigh in. I did go to the gym and did my kickboxing class. Yay! Although, I've been having some pretty bad lower back pain lately and kickboxing only exasterbated it. Ugh. BUT when class was over, the instructor (Paula, in case I refer to her again and you don't know who I'm talking about) came up and asked what my first name was and then proceeded to tell me that she loves watching me b/c my form is always so good and I really throw strong punches. Yay me! lol

Goals:
Um, it's already 3, but here are my goals for the rest of the day:
Keep eating good
Eat a lot of protein for snack and dinner tonight since I've only had 29 grams so far today.
Drink lots of water.
Research exercises I can do at home to strengthen my lower lumbar, which seems to be the problem with my back (?)

Thursday Fun Day

Judah is sick again. Fever. I hate life today. I want to eat and cry and read my book. And leave my children in the cellar. Blah.

Ok today's goals:

Track food
drink water

Wednesday

So Mall, how did tracking EVERYTHING go? And are you still weighing yourself every day or are you just doing it twice a week now?

I was at 148.2 this morning, so back down after Red Lobster, plus some. So that's good.
When we lived in Louisiana, I did LA WeightLoss and I didn't start at my highest weight, but when I started, I was at 219. It's kinda hard to believe that I've lost 71 lbs since then. (Well, more if you count the ups and then back downs with pregnancy and whatnot, but I'm not) Aaron and I were talking about it and from my absolute highest, at my delivery date with Sophie, (at 235) I've lost 86.8 lbs and Aaron goes "That's a backstreet boy!" LOL

Anyway, enough reminiscing... and I really hope that this post does not get seen by a ton of people... like ex-boyfriends, people I went to school with, ya know. Seeing it written down there is a little crazy.

Ok, so we have company coming for dinner tonight and I'm making Mostaccoili sauce with both noodles and spaghetti squash, french bread, a big salad, and they're bringing dessert. So I suspect that it won't be a great day for my calories and sodium, so here's my goals:

*lots of water
*try to track everything, even if it's not completely accurate (I have a habit of not doing it if I don't know exactly)
*eat low calorie, low sodium for the beginning of the day so it won't add up so quickly
*do a lot of cleaning. I'm hoping maybe I can workout after the girls go to bed tonight too, but it'll depend on when the other couple leaves

Wednesday goals

Today Justin is home, so those days are always harder. I am planning to make potato soup later today. Yum.

So today's goals are to:

Track everything I eat, drink 4 bottles of water, stay within my calories.

I am not weighing every day but I did happen to weigh today and my weight was 219.2!!!! I am out of the 220's Whooo hooooo!

I have 14.2 pounds to reach my goal of 205 by Feb 14th and I have 5 and a half weeks to do it in! I am pretty sure that as long as I stay focused I will make it!

Have a great day everyone!

Stinkin' Red Lobster

I was at 150.0 today and I know it has to be from all the fat/calories/and especially sodium from Red Lobster last night. I even thought that I ordered middle ground - not too low calorie b/c of course I wanted to eat something that I wanted, but not high calorie either. Of course, when I got home and added it up (one thing that I have to give them is that they have a great website for the nutrition facts, which a lot of restaurants STINK at) it was 1565 calories total. Wowza. That's more than I eat in a day. So, added to the calories from the rest of the day, I had 2351 calories yesterday. However, I went to the gym and workedout and so I burned more than that, so I'm thinking all the weight gain from yesterday is mainly just working all the salt out of my system.

Did you know that ONE cheddar bay biscuit has 150 calories? Yup. And I ate three of them. Ah well.

One thing that I wasn't suspecting, is that I felt like C.R.A.P. afterwards. All the salt, grease, and fat that I'm just not really used to having made my stomach feel like a tarpit of ungoodness. I'm hoping that I will remember that and not want it as much in the future. (Of course, we wouldn't have gone there anyway if we didn't have a gift card, I'm not the biggest Red Lobster fan.)

Goals for today:
track everything
update bodybugg's tracking
lots of water
not yell at my girls as much. Another wowza for how bad they've been lately. Sophie was such a punk yesterday that she was in timeout for like a half hour straight... but that's another story.
Be more grateful. Yes, I realize this is a weightloss blog, but hey, it's my goal and I'll write it if I want to. ;)

Tuesday, The Biggest Loser Starts Today!

Today's goals:

Today I am only having one goal but it's a big one:

Track every piece of food that goes in my mouth. Along with this goal I am going to clear out one of our cupboards and it is going to be the snack cupboard, with things to give the kids that I don't eat. The goldfish, any candy, pretzels, animal crackers etc.! That way they are out of my sight, and I can get them out for snacks then put them away.

I also am committing to logging in tonight and letting you all know how I did!

Self Sabotage

Ok, so I just wanted to discuss my problem I have been having, I am doing relatively well as far as what I am preparing for my meals. I have been getting a good balance of healthy carbs, proteins, low-ish sodium etc. My problem is unconscious eating.

I mean, just shoving things in my mouth, even when I am not hungry and don't really even like them. Seriously I need to get a grip. Today's example: I went to pick my mom up and she hadn't had breakfast. This was at 1030 mind you. So she comes out with a can of SALTED , ROASTED mixed nuts. I kid you not. Now I don't really care for salted nuts, but as I was sitting next to her in the car I sure shoveled half of them in my mouth.

That brings us to later, when I sat down at the computer to track the nuts. I looked them up and as soon as I saw the calories per serving my heart dropped. My nuts that I ate were more calories than breakfast and my clementine. Twice as much. It's ridiculous. Thank goodness it was nuts and not butterfingers. Cause I would have eaten those too, I'm sure.

I also had a couple goldfish which I am sure that 5 gold fish isn't that bad but added to all the other things and over time, all I am doing is cheating myself. I can't get a grip. Short of not being around those things, I don't know what to do. Thanks, you guys for letting me ponder out loud!

Monday Morning

So today my weight was 221.0, which is my lowest official weight (it was the same yesterday but doesn't really count since it wasn't an official weigh in day).

I have been in the 220's since November 16th (I was 229.2) this is my week to get out of the 220's. Although I must say I am pretty proud that I lost 8 pounds over the holiday season, I think that part of all of this is having a lifestyle that I can live with forever, so I am proud!

Today's goal, drink water.
Eat good and track what I eat.

OH BTW - has anyone used the New MyPlate tracking on livestrong? There are still some annoying kinks that they are getting worked out, but I really like it! It is even easier to use!

Monday weigh in

Hey there peoples! Good morning - and good Monday.... neither of those things do I like, so I'm trying to stay positive... I just wish my baby liked sleeping in as much as I do, or even just until her sister got up! lol

148.6 This morning. I am officially stoked. Definitely uncharted teritory, lol. I am almost at my bodybugg goal of losing 12 lbs since I started bodybugg. (I was at 160 when I started) I'm super happy that even though I haven't made it to the gym in two weeks I'm still losing. Tracking and my high protein I think are to thank.

Aaron and I are going out to dinner tonight. We got a Red Lobster gift card for Christmas and he called his mom and asked her to babysit tonight, so we're going out! Just for dinner though, but fun nonetheless! :) So, tomorrow I will probably be up some. Not that I will go crazy and eat my weight in pasta, but I luuuuv their biscuits. yum. It makes me a little sad that I'll be up from my lowest on Tues when I have a dr's apt. I know it's kinda silly, but I wanted to show him how far I've come, lol.

Ok, the natives are restless. I hope you guys have a good day!

Here's to New Beginnings

277.2........How depressing. As you can tell, I showed absolutely no restraint over the holidays, and now I'm up a lot from the last weigh in, my joints hurt, I'm having trouble sleeping, and I am no closer to getting pregnant than I was a year ago. This has got to stop, and the cycle needs to be broken. So like I said previously, January is a new beginning, and I feel like this is my year! Me and Dustin started the 21 day Vegan kick start, starting today. I am going to start walking to the City Market at lunch to have their salad bar, and I'm going to start wearing my pedometer today. Exercise is pretty much killing my joints so until I lose a little I'm going swimming at the new Mesa State pool. Me and my co-workers are dedicating at least 2 days to swimming and then on the off days I'll use my Wii fit I got for Christmas. I just can't bring myself to go to the gym right now. This is officially the heaviest I have ever weighed, and I am determined to get it under control.

2010 IS GOING TO BE MY YEAR!

Sunday Wonderfulness

Wahoo - this morning I was 149.4. Yes, that is .4 lower than my pre-Christmas weight :) Yay!
And except for a dinner party w/another couple that we're having over here on Wed night, we don't have plans that require us to eat out or at other people's houses, so I'm thinking it'll be a great week! Plus, I *finally* am feeling well enough that I'm going back to the gym tomorrow! Woot - woot! I'm pysching myself up for a good week of eating and working out.

So, I also thought I'd share something - mushrooms. I might have mentioned this before, but I am eating mushrooms in practically everything lately and it's wonderful! They add so much flavor and allow me to eat eggs w/o gagging on my own vomit. ;) lol I'm putting them in alfredo chicken too. They're just great. (Also, the low-fat alredo sauce is wonderful.)

Oh, I was also going to say that eating a lot of protein has helped a bunch. Yay for protein!

Ok, gonna go. I'll do my offical weigh in tomorrow too, but here are my goals:
12 (at least) glasses of water
stay w/in my calorie limit
track and weigh my stuff

Sunday Goals

Justin has to work and I don't have the kids, so my goal for this morning is to drink water! I am going to relax and read my book until Iget back with the kids! Then the plan for the afternoon is to do laundry, and hopefully shovel snow (If the ice melts enough).

Today's goals
drink water
track

Re-Commitment to livestrong and blogging

I meant to write this blog yesterday, however my total lack of commitment yesterday was not really great for tracking. The fact of the matter is that I am not going to lose weight the way I have been handling things. I need to realize that I need to make a serious commitment or I am just going to hover right around the weight I am. Or gain. Ack. So do I want to make a commitment? There are always justifications in my mind for why I should be able to eat what I want. The fact of the matter is this: if I could just BE skinny there is no question, I would chose skinny. So, I need to achieve that for myself.

I need to drink 4 bottles of water a day
I need to track my food on livestrong
I need to stay within my calorie goal
I need to go workout 3 times per week

Fortunately, I did apply some self restraint over the holiday season and so when I weighed myself this morning I weighed 222.8. So, I have been thinking about what I want to lose by Valentines day. My official Valentine's day goal is 205 pounds. My first mini-goal is 215 pounds, at which point I am going to buy myself some new makeup.