Mind of a Freethinker!!

Come visit my other blog!

Splurge!!

We all need a moment here and there to indulge ourselves. I have the perfect site just for that occasion. I personally guarantee that these are the most scrumptious and delicious treats ever!! The caramels are seriously to die for!! And the best part is you can have them sent right to your home.

Another cool thing is the party planning feature. Laura, the owner, is simply amazing and you will have the most memorable party and more fun than you can imagine. Her children's birthday parties are always "The even of the year" and heavily anticipated.

Here's to the sweetest sweets! Enjoy!!!

Happy New Year!!

I am starting 2011 with a renewed sense of determination. I will get below 200 pounds this year. I am going to take this one day at a time, one step at a time, and one bite at a time! I pledge to keep looking forward and not to dwell on the past. We can all accomplish our goals!!

A new post...finally!

I am still around. I have been meaning to post something for a long time now. I have gained some of my weight back, but not all of it. I am trying to get back into exercising. I even ran again, and it did feel good to get outside and move. I am looking forward to starting a new year and keeping at this weight loss goal of mine. I think the most important thing I have learned is that even if you fall off of the wagon it does not mean you give up. I am not discouraged and will just keep at it and WILL reach my goal. My first big goal is still to get back under 200. I may never get "skinny" but I do want to be under 200 again. I saw some pics the other day of me back when I was 172 and I did look pretty damn good. I was thin and the sad thing is that when I weighed that, I still thought I was fat. I am not going to make that mistake again. This time I am celebrating every single pound lost and I am recognizing how great I look at every weight. The # is not what matters, it is how I feel that counts.

I will try to write more from now on. I hope some of you are still around to keep me going.

Thanks!!

Rock it, live it, own it!!!

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