Back to running and checking off on goals

I have gotten back on track with my C25K and I am feeling great. I am still in shock at how much I am enjoying going out and running. It just feels so wonderful. I never did run back in P.E. during my school days. I had an excuse, asthma, at least that is what I told myself. I just hated exercise and did not think I could ever enjoy it.

On the C25K training schedule you do not run two consecutive days in a row. On my off days I have a hard time not getting out there for a run. Today I officially started W2. I know I have said this before but remember when I first started I could not run a full minute so I started at week 0 by running 30 seconds, and I did that for a while. Then I stopped running altogether when it got so hot here in Texas, and went to just working out on the elliptical in my room. But the date for the 5K in August keeps getting closer and I realized that I have to train regardless of the heat.

Today was the 3rd run in a row where I got up early and got my run in before it was so hot that I melted away. The weather was actually very nice this morning and there was even a refreshing breeze as I ran south. I could not wait for the moments when I got to run under the shade of some over hanging trees. That was like heaven and a much needed break from the blazing sun.

I did very well during the first half of the run. I had been so worried about increasing my runs to over a minute because I just could not see how I would be able to make it. But I did it and it was not so bad. This week I run for 90 seconds and walk for 2 mins. After the walk I am ready to run again, in fact could probably run sooner than the 2 mins. but I follow the schedule. Now the second part of the run got a little tough. My thighs started to burn and during the last 2 intervals I had to really push myself and not give up. The feeling of accomplishment is like nothing else. I love that feeling more than I do when I drop a size (and that is an amazing feeling on its own).

The last 2 days I have weighed and my weight has been up at some times 5 lbs. I know I should not weigh all the time but I do it anyway. I have found that I am one of those who likes to see how my weight fluctuates. I am not letting the added weight get to me too much. I have increased my water intake so much the last few days I thought maybe that was part of it. When I weighed earlier I was up just 2 lbs. I did eat out yesterday and had 2 adult beverages (vodka tonics with a splash of cranberry juice). My older sister was in town to celebrate her birthday. At the restaurant my mom and I split an order of steak quesadillas but I did have some fried jalapeno slices as an appetizer.

I also did not work out on Friday or Saturday. I did a run on Thursday and then like I mentioned earlier I ran today. I also did 20 mins. of strength training today. I have decided that I am going to focus more on just eating right and the exercise and that the weight will come off as it does. I know that was really the plan all along but it is so easy to get all focused on the numbers. I just had to remind myself to focus on the good feeling of working out and eating healthy. Everything else will come naturally from that.

As for my goals for the mini/booster challenge. I have been drinking and tracking my water intake. I have been hitting the 64oz. goal and even got 80 oz. in on Thursday. The bathroom has become my new best friend! I have not eaten any peanut butter and honestly have not even craved any so all is good in that department. So, far I have not worked out on the elliptical since I started the runs again. I am planning to use the elliptical on my off days from the running, so tomorrow I will be hitting the 5 resistance. And this blog counts as a positive post. So all is good in the goal department.

Keep having a rockin' good week!!

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

MLHAS Weigh in: Week 7

This is going to be a quick post because I am trying to hurry and head out for a run before it gets too hot.

Last week I weighed in at 112 lbs. This week I am down 2 lbs. to 210 lbs. I am excited about that. It looks like I have found exactly what where I want to be to maintain a steady 2 lb. loss.






For exercise minutes this week I completed only 180 mins. I took 2 days off and the other days I worked out for around 35 mins. Of course I do want to increase that number but I am happy with at least getting in 30 mins. for 5 days.

This week The Exquisite Christine has thrown us a Booster Challenge (a challenge within out challenge) and has asked us to come up with 4 goals for the next 4 weeks. My goals are as follows:
1. Drink a minimum of 64 oz. of water everyday and track it.
2. Push myself to get up to a resistance of 5 during every elliptical workout.
3. Blog more and when I do blog I want to stay more positive than negative.
4. Eliminate all peanut butter from my diet. (luckily this is for just 4 weeks!)

I have found out that I really do love peanut butter. I normally eat just half a serving (1 tbsp. for 90 calories) but that is a pretty big hit when you are only eating 1200 calories a day. So for the next 4 weeks I am not going to eat any peanut butter. I can do this!!

Ok, I am off to go run. Hope everyone had an awesome week.

Live it, rock it, own it!
Lisa

YumJared Challenge - Please donate

I hope that everyone can find at least $1 to donate to finding a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.

Thank you to The Anti-Jared and Yum Yucky for providing us with the challenge.

My Biker Hubby, Plus Saying Goodbye to Clothes

Not sure if I mentioned it on my blog but I did say something on FB, but my hubby got himself a motorcycle yesterday. He has to go take the motorcycle safety class this weekend to get his license so he has not driven it yet. I am debating on riding along or not. Maybe I will eventually when he gets more experience, and when I am lighter! :)

But I had to come and post some pics that I took yesterday afternoon. I am wearing one of my new dresses from Old Navy and I just love it. I debated getting this one and a random lady in the dressing room area talked me into it. So glad that she did because I do like it a lot.

I also could not resist having hubby take a few pics of me in my size 24 jeans. I was going through the closet and getting rid of everything that is too big. I had been holding onto a lot of clothes and using belts, because otherwise I would have been going naked. But here lately I have been slowly buying up new clothes and now I feel like I have enough stuff to wear without resorting to old, baggy, clothes that are huge on me. (Note to Kelli: I got everything together last night to send to you, finally.) I think that the capris looked much bigger in person. They are especially big in the thigh/leg and butt area. I had to hold them up or they would fall right down. My hubby asked me if I was happy or sad to get rid of all my clothes. I told him that I was both. I am so glad to be in a smaller size but at the same time I had to let go of a lot of clothes that I truly loved. Plus a lot of the clothes I have had for a long time and had some great times and made good memories in them, so yes it can be a little hard to let go. But on the bright side now I have tons of room for new stuff. Bring on the shopping!

I was so very excited last night because it has finally hit me how much weight I have really lost. I am the perfect example of an apple shape and I normally wear my shirts a size or two bigger than my pants size. It normally takes me forever to lose enough weight to even make a dent in how my shirts fit. You know that I had bought some new clothes from Old Navy and was so excited to wear "normal" sizes. Well I had heard that their sizes do run a little big so I was not all that surprised that I could wear their clothes. But yesterday as I was out shopping I realized that I can wear shirts from the "normal" section at pretty much all stores. I am now no longer having to shop in the plus-size section.

In fact I bought some shorts from Wal-mart, just some cheap running around shorts, and I didn't even need the XXL size 20, nope I got to get the XL size 16-18. And I bought a shirt in a size XXL but it is going to be big pretty darn soon. This is just so exciting and so much fun. This is what makes all the hard work so worth it.

If you are not there yet, it will happen. And it can happen almost over night. I swear it was just a couple of weeks ago that many of the clothes I just got rid of, fit me perfectly. Do not give up because you will see the results. It may take weeks, months, or even a couple of years but you will get there. If you give up then you can forget it, you have no hope of getting there. Do not do that to yourself. You deserve to feel this good, we all do. So please keep fighting and just stick with it. I honestly believe that 90%, if not more, of weight loss is mental.

Now go out there and-

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

Xerxes Paramonos (a strange post)

I have been wanting to name my elliptical for a while now. This morning I finally sat down to try and come up with a name. I know, I am such a big dork, but hey that is me. I have a Pro-Form XP so I wanted to incorporate the XP. Yes, I am aware that makes me an even bigger dork, oh well. I came up with the name Xerxes Paramonos. I had to do a little research since X names are hard to come up with in the first place and to top that off I wanted some meaning behind the name. A big order but it was done. Xerxes in Greek means "ruler of the heroes" and Paramonos also in Greek means "endurance". I found the names to be very fitting of my exercise equipment.

You might be thinking that I have lost my mind or that I am on some type of drugs right now. I assure you that I am not. I can be a strange bird and this morning I am letting that side of me shine with pride. I have known others to name their exercise machines and/or their car, so I don't think I am too out there with this one. Have you ever named an inanimate object?

I have an orange Scion XB and when we first got it my husband and I tried to give it a name. I think we decided on "Orange you glad to see me?" or maybe it was something to do with UT Longhorns. I don't really remember the final verdict but it whatever it was it never stuck. Now it is just called "my car" when I refer to it or "your car" when hubby refers to it. He has the truck and as of yesterday a new motorcycle. I have not named all my cars but I do remember the first car that I had was a hideous green color and I called it "Booger Green". Fun times.

I gave Xerxes Paramonos a rest yesterday. I did get some exercise in by doing some strength training for 30 mins. I concentrated on my arms and it felt great. I had not done any strength work in a week. I have no clue how I let that happen but I have to do better this week. I can see real changes when I use the weights.

I am about to get off from work now, so I am going to go and try to catch a few more zzz's. Have a wonderful Friday. I have a busy weekend. Saturday is my nephew Jacob's birthday party, he just turned 3. My grandmother will be in town and I am excited to see her. She has not seen me since the end of March and I know that I have changed since then. We also have Dakota this weekend and Jeremiah has to take a motorcycle safety class both Sat & Sun from 7:30am - 5pm so I will have Dakota during that time. We also have our weekly grocery shopping and I really need to get my hair trimmed so I guess we will see if that can be worked in somehow. Ta, ta, for now!

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

MLHAS Weigh in: Week 6

I really did mean to be on her more this past week but it seems like time just slipped by so fast. I did not have that great of a week. Last Friday my sister was in town and took us out to eat and then she took my younger sister and me to our favorite bar and we had some drinks (and a I had a few, quite a few, bites of spinach&artichoke dip and sweet potato fries). Then on Saturday my husband and I went out to Johnny Carino's where I had the angel hair pasta and artichokes, along with 2 glasses of raspberry italian sodas (no cream though). The rest of the week I ate right around 1500 calories a day and my workouts were not as intense.

Despite all that I did lose 2 lbs. going from 214 down to 212. I am very happy with that. Losing 2 lbs. a week is very healthy and has been my goal all along. If I can do everything I did last week and still lose 2 lbs. then I know that I can do this for the rest of my life. I had weighed the other day and was down 3 lbs. so I was hoping for a 3-4 lb. loss this week. But do not get me wrong, I am over the moon happy with this weeks scale.

I exercised for 285 minutes. That is way shy of my goal to exercise for 420 minutes. I am still going to work towards that but working out 60 mins. a day every single day is just a lot for me. I think I can realistically do 30 mins. a day and maybe even 45 mins. I need to put in more effort and focus on my endurance.

So this week I am going to work on just that. When I do work out I am going to push myself and really aim for a good hard workout each and every time. I am going to stay on plan this week but I am going to allow myself to eat more in the 1200 - 1500 calorie range. I was able to do that last week and still lose 2 lbs. so I think if I do that again but work out even harder then I will see a could loss next week. I am trying to mix things up to keep my body guessing and my metabolism moving along. My other goal is to keep on drinking more water. I only drink water or water mixed with crystal light but some days I still do not drink enough.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week as well.

Rock it, live it, own it! (This week I printed this out and taped it on my wall where I can see it while I am on the elliptical, so motivating!)

Lisa

Beautiful Blogger Award!

Way back at the end of May my very dear friend Aylilith at Making My Way To a Better Me, honored me with this blog award.

I am so thrilled because it is my first blog award that anyone has chosen to give to me. I am just sorry it took me so long to get this posted. This award came with two rules. First you have to pass the award on to 7 other bloggers. I had to really think about this because I follow so many blogs and really do love them all. But I came up with a list. Here are the 7 bloggers that I am awarding. They are listed in no particular order.

1. Kelli at My Journey to a New Life.

2. Patrick at Responsibility 199.

3. Erin at Yes Yes Ya'll , & Ya Don't Stop.

4. Kelly at Kelly is Losing Weight - A Future Thin Girl.

5. Emilia at [238] And Shrinking.

6. Lyn at Escape from Obesity.

7. Tricia at Fight Fat Phobia.

Now if any of these wonderful bloggers already received the award, well all I can say is that you deserve another one so here it is!

Ok, so now onto rule #2. You have to list 7 things about yourself that others did not know. Here we go.

1. I am a huge True Blood fan. I read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books and now I am hooked on the show. Actually, I am now a very big vampire fiction fan in general and I am currently reading the Anita Blake series.

2. My husband and I ran off to Las Vegas to get married. Our anniversary is July 4 so that not only can we always see fireworks on our anniversary but also so my husband can never use the excuse that he forgot our anniversary!

3. My dream is to one day live in NYC.

4. My husband and I have struggled for the past 6 years for me to get pregnant. That is one of the reasons that I wanted to lose weight and get healthy.

5. I lost my best friend to a drug addiction. She has not died but she did choose drugs over everything else. In fact I found out that in the past couple of months she has gone to prison over a drug conviction. It is sad to see a life throw away in that manner.

6. I was an honor student all throughout my school years but then in high school I dropped out and got my GED when I turned 17. I have gone on to college but I am still working towards my bachelor's degree.

7. Not sure if I have mentioned all of this or not but I have fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, depression, and insomnia. I am hoping that all of my medical problems improve with my continued weight loss.

Wow, that was really hard to come up with. You usually can not get me to shut up but when forced to list something I draw a blank.

Thanks again Aylilth! You are the best and have impeccable taste in blogs. :)

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

LHAS Weigh In: Week 5 (Holy cow!)

All I can say is WOW! I am just about speechless. I now see what is possible if I stick to the plan and exercise every single day. I did not necessarily exercise for an entire 60 mins. all 7 days but I did do at least 15 mins. I exercised for a total of 380 mins. Here is the #'s by day.

6-2 Wed. Elliptical for 50mins.

6-3 Thurs. Elliptical 50mins. and Strength training 20mins.

6-4 Friday Elliptical 55mins.

6-5 Sat. 30-day shred video 15mins. (Was in a hurry and had work so I had to cut it early)

6-6 Sun. Elliptical 60mins. and Strength training 20mins.

6-7 Mon. Elliptical 85mins. (I did one session at 65mins. and then later did 20mins.)

6-8 Tues. Elliptical 20mins.

It has been so freakin' hot and humid here in North Texas that I have not wanted to go outside and walk/run. I told myself that I would get up early and do it but find that a little hard. :)

So what did the scale show for my work. Are you ready? I lost 8 lbs. Woot! Woot! I am so proud of myself. I knew this was going to be a killer week when I weighed last, can't remember if it was Fri or Sat and I had already lost like 3-4 lbs. I have been so serious and not let myself deviate one single bit. My willpower was right on and honestly I was on fire this week. I am now at 214 so I have lost a total of 18 lbs. Sheesh that is just unreal to me, but I knew it could be done because I have done it before. This time I am not EVER putting the weight back on.

This is my face in shock. I just could not believe what I was seeing.

Darn scale is still off 2 lbs. so I am really at 214. Wish they would hurry and fix it.

Here is the scale showing the 2 lb. difference, yet again.

Now I have to keep it up for next week. My goals for next week are simple. I want to stick to my calories again, but next week I am aiming for 420 mins. of exercise. That is an average of 60mins. each day for the entire week. I know that I can do that. I just have to push it hard again.

I also had my hubby take a few updated pics of me. I can see a difference and can not wait to see how I look under 200!! The shorts that I am wearing in the picture I just got this week and they are a size XL 16-18 but I had to take them in by tying up the draw string quite a bit so I may need to go try on the size L 13-14. That is just insane! It is so cool to be shopping on the other side of the store. I bought some really cute dresses at Old Navy that I need to take pics of. I have not been able to shop in the women's section there ever. I have always had to get men's T-shirts in the past. Now I get to be girly like I am meant to be!! All of these were taken tonight, in fact just a few minutes ago.

I hope everyone else had an amazing week. I am going to go jump on the elliptical and then I am going to try and catch up with everyone's blogs. I am sorry that I have been so absent and I promise not to be so mia in the future. My netbook died on me so it has been tough to get online a lot lately.

I want to apologize to my wonderful and very awesome team who I have not been there for. You guys rock and really do inspire me to keep going. I also owe an entire post to Aylilth because she has bestowed me with a blog award!! I am so freakin' excited about this. It is the first award that someone has actually chosen to give me!!!! I have some conditions to meet if I want to accept the award and will fulfill them when I devote a post to the award. Promise that it will be my next post.

Until then,

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

Back on track

So far so good for this week. I think that I am going to have an astounding weigh in next Wednesday. At least I am hoping so. I have been on the elliptical every day for at least 45 mins. Today I stayed on for 55 mins. When on the elliptical I have been doing intervals where I go at resistance 2 for 4 mins. and then down to resistance 1 for 2 mins. It is killer but I can see the results.

In fact just today I was told by someone that they can really see how my running is paying off because my legs are skinny! What get out of here, skinny used in a sentence about me. That is just insane to me. But I do have to admit that my legs are looking darn good. But then again I have always had nice legs. That was always my favorite body part. Back in highschool I got hit by a car on the school parking lot and was thrown about 15 feet and then had my leg stuck in the car's bumper. I have had 8 surgeries on my left leg. When that happened I thought it was some cruel joke by God to damage the one part of me that I liked. I have sense come to terms with it and don't really even think about my leg or notice it too much. I have a horrible scar and lost quite a bit of muscle so my left calf has a chunk missing out of it. I also have a metal rod in that leg and one day I do plan to have it removed and get some more plastic surgery done. I was supposed to have more surgeries but the insurance company ended up denying it.

On weigh in day did I mention that I found that my home scale is off by 8lbs.? I thought it was off just 5 lbs. but nope it is off by a whooping 8! I was not going to weigh everyday but just find it so hard not to jump on the scale. So far by my home scale I am down 4lbs. today. Guess we will see come next Wed.

I have been very good with my eating and I am back into the right mental state. Nothing is going to make me waver. I just love the results so much more than I love the food. It just is not worth it to me.

I know readers have expressed concern once again about my 1000 calorie diet. You do not have to worry because the Doctor is still monitoring me. I would not ever advise anyone to go so low calorie wise without being under a Doctor's care. The way my Dr explained it to me is if you eat the right foods and get your nutrients you will be fine, especially since I am already carrying around so much extra fuel already. I also take supplements and vitamins. I get extensive lab work done to check everything.

Like I have mentioned before I have hypothyroidism and that has always made it extremely difficult for me to lose weight. If I kept my calories at 800 a day and did no exercise at all then I would lose approximately 2 lbs. a week. Instead I have increased my diet to 1000 and I do exercise almost every single day. This works for me.

Also I just wanted to let everyone know my philosophy on diets vs. healthy lifestyle. I truly believe that the word *diet* has received a bad rap. To me diet means what I eat. It does not mean some quick, get thin with no work, type of fix. It is instead a way of life to me. I just do not like the terminology of healthy lifestyle all that much. I have used that term myself because really it is just that "in" but to me it is just too politically correct and a fad term. But who am I to judge? I do want to be healthy for the rest of my life so I know that the term is accurate.

I also believe that when we go through weight loss we are going through many stages. What I do now to lose weight is not what I am going to do to maintain. And as I lose and hit plateaus then I will have to change things up then too. When someone asks me if I can manage at 800-1000 calories a day for the rest of my life well my answer is probably since I am really not hungry but I am not going to want to lose weight forever. Once I get closer to where I want to be I will have to adjust both my calories and my exercise to see what works for me.

All of us are different and I do not believe that what works for me will be what works for you. That is one of the biggest problem with the "diet" industry. They try to create and sale plans and claim they will work for anyone. That is not always the case. Weight loss is very individualized and there are so many factors that weigh in (no pun intended).

I do know that I am loving my new lifestyle and I feel terrific. I really like learning more and more about nutrition and fitness and I am considering switching my major from psychology to nutrition. At one point I was planning to be a nurse but a lot of things went in to changing my mind on that one. But I do still love science, anatomy, math and everything health related, so I think it would be a good fit.

Well goodnight everyone!

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

LHAS Weigh IN: Week 4

I have gone back to my original scale. It was just too much using my new one during a challenge and it seems to be off by around +5 lbs. or more. I am going to get a new digital one that is not some cheap piece of junk. But for now I am going to weigh using the old scale. The only problem is now it is 2 lbs. off instead of just 1. Ughhh, these darn scales are tormenting me! I also confirmed that I really do not like having a scale in the house right now at all. Like I said I am going to get a digital one, eventually, one day, maybe. I just do not like the temptation to get on the darn thing every time I go into the bathroom. I am already fighting temptations with food so I sure do not need another fight with my willpower.

So what happened this week with the scale you ask. Well I ended up weighing in at 222 lbs. So, I did still gain weight last week but this week I am down 3 lbs. I worked out for a total of 250 mins. I have learned quite a bit from all of this. For one I really never thought that I was an emotional eater but now I think maybe I am. I found that when I was sick and not feeling good I ate very poor food. I am thinking that I ate some bad food to try and make myself feel better. That and at the time I just didn't care about much at all. Not a good combination at all. I ended up eating KFC fried chicken (a leg and a wing) along with some potatoes (no gravy) and some of their mac-n-cheese. Then another night I had takeout Chinese food that included 2 eggrolls, fried rice with chicken and shrimp, and some broccoli and beef. Then there was Saturday night when I ate buffalo wings, and lots of chips and dip. All of that, no exercise, and stupidly running out of my Synthroid caused the gain.

I was also eating more "regular" food (what everyone else was eating for dinner, which is not always very healthy) during the past few days. I have not been sick these days and have gotten my exercise in and did lose some weight but I still think that I need a strict diet for now. I am just not to the point where I can eat even somewhat like a regular diet yet. As one of my favorite bloggers Lyn was talking about the other day, I am in the stage where I am losing weight not in the stage where I will be when I am maintaining. I have had many people comment about my low 800-1000 calorie diet but I am finding that my body needs that calorie range to lose weight. Maybe it is partly due to my hypothyroidism but I just can not eat that many calories, period. I think that the week I was sick I really gained more like 8 pounds and not just 5. I am not exactly sure since I was using the *new* scale and not the usual one. I think that is a pretty big gain for one week. Yes I ate some unhealthy choices but the day I ate the KFC I still ate under 1200 calories and the other days besides the Chinese day and Saturday were all right around 1100-1200. Overall I was not totally off the wagon and only missed 3 days of workouts, however I did only workout for around 30 mins. the other days that week.

I am not trying to make excuses. I am trying to figure out what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how to make sure it does not happen again. I know that I have been allowing myself too many small *cheats* as well. Two nights I indulged in a flavored coffee from the machine at the gas station and then yesterday I had a cookie when I was at my mom's. I was still right at or just over 1200 calories but all the cheats do add up, very quickly.

That brings me to my goals for this week.

1. To stick to a diet of no more than 1000 calories.

2. To eat my Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice meals. (I get the new ones that are not processed)

3. To continue focusing on getting more fiber in my diet.

4. Consume less sodium.

5. Eat more protein.

6. Workout on the elliptical for 45 min. sessions. (And increase the resistance this week)

7. Alternate strength training daily from arms to legs/abs. (Minimum of 15 mins. daily)

8. After workouts drink whey protein and frozen fruit shake

9. Do not drink any chocolate soy milk (I can't afford the 140 calories in a drink, plus too much soy is not good when you have hypothyroidsim)

10. And work in some running again this week.

Here are the pictures of my weigh in. Sorry they are pretty blurry, at least the one of me is, but I just could not get a clear picture for some reason and I did try several times. This was the best so you can just imagine the others.

I can really see the weight in my face in this picture. I am ready to lose the chins.

So with the 2 lbs. that the scale is off my weight is at 222 lbs.

Why is all the scales around me are inaccurate?

I am going to end on a positive note. My brother-in-law and his new wife and her kids were in town on Memorial Day and they did notice how much I have lost. I have not seen them since right around Christmas. My brother-in-law told me that I sure have been shrinking and that I had better not lose too much or I will disappear. This coming from a guy who is I don't know 5"11 maybe and weighs probably 130 if even that much. I told him that I have a very long weigh to go that I want to lose around another 80 lbs. and he was astonished. He said there is no way that I could need to lose that much. I told him yes I do if I want to be in the healthy weight range for my height. Nobody can ever believe how much I weigh.

In fact my mother and I were just talking last night and I was talking about a friend who is wearing a size 24 and that I can not believe I looked like that. I mean I knew that I was big and still am but sometimes I just do not really see it (until I see a picture and even then in some outfits I still don't see it). We then were talking about how everyone's body is different and that she said even when I was my heaviest at 276 I still did not look that big. I guess everyone carries their weight differently. A couple of times on The Biggest Loser I have not believed the size that some of the contestants claimed they were wearing when I knew what their weight was. I have since learned that it was possible. Another friend who is over 300 wears a size 24. That is just crazy to me because at 276 I was in a 26/28 and my clothes were quickly getting too tight. I know that your height has a lot to do with it. Back when I got down to a size 12 I was weighing probably at least 25 pounds more than my mom and she was also in a 12 but was an inch shorter than me.

See how quickly I get onto another subject and just one little story turns into enough material for an entirely new post. What I was really trying to get at earlier with the story about my BIL was that it is very nice to get compliments and to see that others are noticing the changes in me. I know I wanted to end this on a positive note but I just have to vent one frustration with some of the comments I hear. I keep getting told not to lose too much and that boy I am going to disappear or blow away. What the heck is with that? I am still over 220 lbs. and I am obese. Can people not grasp that concept? I am sure they are well meaning and all but it does get on my nerves, especially since I hear it ALOT.

I am still going to end this on a positive note. I was looking at myself in the mirror and one of the places that was just gross to me is finally starting to look firmer. You know on the inside of your thighs, right up at the top of your leg? Well that area has been one of the most despised areas, besides my upper arms and back. It just looks disgusting to me in a kind of perverted way. I can't really explain it exactly, gross is truly the only word. Well, it is getting much much better. The flabbiness has gone way down and I can see my upper thighs in general getting tighter. It really is cool to see how your body changes shape as you get healthy and fit. That is a change that I can live with.

Wait. Come back. As I was loading the pictures I remembered one other point that I forgot to mention as to why I think I had the gain. I have not been reading everyone's blogs and I have not been blogging. I really do think that is one of the keys to my success. I get very motivated by all of you and writing helps me to get a better perspective on my own life. So keep blogging and let's all keep fighting the good fight!

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa

I am alive!

Hello all my blogger-licious friends! Sorry for my long absense but I was pretty sick. I felt horrible all last week and still have yet to get over the stuffy head and sore throat all together, but I am better. :)

The last 3 days I have been back to at least exercising. In fact both Sunday and Monday I managed to last on the elliptical 45 mins. I was very excited about that and can feel it in my legs. I have also gone from 3lb. weights up to 5 lbs. so I know that I am making progress.

I really do hate the new scale. It still shows my weight flucuating between 225 - 230 lbs. I think I am going to go weigh on my "usual" scale and see what it tells me. I really do hate changing scales, and especially in the middle of a challenge. Even if I have to trek across town to go weigh I will do it for more accuracy.

I will try and update more later. I do still have the 5K pictures to post. And I have to admit I had a total splurge on Saturday night. We got the UFC fight on pay-per-view and had some friends over. I almost never ever drink but I did that night. I ended up having 4 Smirnoff Cranberry & Lime drinks (kind of like wine coolers, and boy were they yummy), and I had 2 and half shots of Tequila Rose, and a shot of Johnnie Walker whiskey! I can not believe that I did not have a hangover or get an upset stomach. My tummy usually can not handle any alcohol and is one reason I quit drinking. I also ate buffalo chicken wings, some 5-layer bean dip, hummus, and baked lays chips, oh and a little Blue cheese dressing for the wings. I got stuffed but didn't munch at all after I ate. I figured I had not splurged hardly at all and that I was going to have one night. I know I drank probably at least 2 days worth of calories but man did I have a good time!

That night is what prompted me to go the 45 mins. on the elliptical Sunday. Then on Monday since I knew that I could do it, I did it again. I plan to make that my normal time from now on, until I up it to an hour.

Ok, I am really going now. Like I said will update more later.

Rock it, live it, own it!

Lisa