My Favorite Archive

I wrote this post at the end of the first competition I had ever done!  It's probably my favorite.  Hope you enjoy this flash from the past! ;)

When I started this competition we were asked to announce our weight loss goals. At the time I said 50 lbs for the comp. It is a five month comp so why not right? I never realized what losing 50 lbs actually meant, what difference it would make on my life SO... here's a countdown of how losing 50 lbs has transformed my world!

10. I SLEEP at night!! I used to snore from all the weight on my stomach. I always felt tired and woke up a million times in the night! NOW... I sleep. I feel rested. LOVE not being tired all the time.

9. My wedding ring and class ring fit!! That hasn't happened in like 10 years!

8. I can wrap a bathroom towel around my body. This might not be something you smaller people can't even comprehend. But the bigger you are, it gets to the point where you can NOT touch the two sides of the towel together, let alone overlap them.

7. No more of those pictures you see and think... I'm not really that big am I? For the last 10 years, I hide from cameras but for whatever reason, I seem to always be in Christmas pics. It's always that crazy side profile and EVERY year I think... Ugh... am I seriously that big? Now I do the opposite. I don't recognize myself in pics.... Can't wait to get to the point that I just look at pics and not worry about my size!

6. New Friends! This competition has been so incredible for me because I have managed to meet a great group of women!! It's been fantastic to do girls nights and have fun with new people. I am so glad that ya'll have put up with me... even with my obsessive nature! ;o)

5. Belts that fit. Well... I never actually wore belts before because I was squeezed so tight into my jeans that there was no way they were going anywhere. Now I use belts and I they actually fit without increasing the amount of fat that hangs out of my jeans. I owned 2 belts before the comp and couldn't wear either of them. It's so fun to watch yourself shrink via the holes in a belt!

4. Goodbye Mushroom Top If you look at my now pics, you can see that I still have a belly roll. I am going to keep working on that but I just want to say a FOREVER FAREWELL to the mushroom top. (Some of you might call it a "muffin top" but umm... for me it was FAR greater than that... thus I call it a mushroom top!) I think that when you get to a certain size you start to REFUSE to buy bigger pants and then the mushroom top starts to spread. Now I don't mind wearing a bigger size to avoid the look... I have NOT eliminated my love handles, but they are getting smaller.

3. Stamina Okay... take it however you want to. I mean it in any way you can imagine. ;o)

2. Self Control While I do feel like I've lost my mind on more than one occasion during this journey, I have learned that I have an amazing amount of self-control. I've always been one of those people who COMPLETELY BELIEVES that there is no limit to what an individual has accomplished. We are the only ones standing in our way! It takes a lot of self-discipline. And while I'm no master, I've come a long way from where I was 5 months ago.

1. FINISH WHAT YOU START! This concept, that I never followed through with any thing is what I committed to at the beginning of the challenge. It was my number one priority, before weight loss or anything else. I just had to prove to myself i could do it and I'm so excited to say that I FINISHED!! I never gave up. I did not let excuses get in the way. I learned so much in this competition about myself. And I'm excited to take on new challenges. Like college courses. :o) I have always known that this was a huge problem for me and I'm SO glad that at least this time, I followed through!

THANKS TO ALL THE GALS IN THIS COMPETITION FOR PUSHING ME, SUPPORTING ME, AND THE OCCASIONAL SMACK TALK. THIS COMPETITION HAS CHANGED ME FOREVER!! THAT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME!

Week 2

This week was a little insane complete with the placement of braces and a lot of protein shakes.  I laughed out loud when I read the suggestions for what to eat after the braces were placed (mashed potatoes and milkshakes!) REALLY???

Brandy was watching my boys when I went to the orthodontist and when I got back she gave me a gift!!  It was in a cute bag with scented tissue paper and it was.... UNSWEETENED APPLESAUCE!!  And I tell you what it was my savior! 

This week has been pretty good on the exercise and weight loss front with a 4 lb loss!!  I am assuming that some of that is contributed to last week being that time of the month but I am excited to feel a little safer in my "happy weight zone" again!! 

This morning I ventured out on a long bike ride and burned a whopping 1250 calories (according to my heart rate monitor) in 1 hour and 22 minutes of riding!  21 miles on the bike... my butt hurts! ;) 

My husbands job seems to be more and more stressful everyday which means life is being hard!!  But I'm coping and dealing and doing it without double stuffed oreos! :)  Hope you are all doing amazing!

7 days gone!

This past week has been sort of an emotional roller coaster.  Interestingly I was asked by a new friend something along the lines of "but isn't your husband happy that you are doing something you love?" (we were talking about my husbands frustration with being left home so I can workout) to which I responded simply "NO!" I actually felt guilty about this answer as my husband has been willing to let me do things (even though he's not happy about it).  Then DH and I were talking the other day about the triathlon and when I told him it was $60 he took all my guilt away with his response: "I love how you can justify blowing money on stupid shit!" And somehow he managed to roll his eyes and gawk at me in such a way that I nearly cried! BUT I did not respond. 

Here is my justification for blowing money on "stupid shit".

 Reaching a new goal, doing something you've never done, proving to yourself that it's possible, is worth it!! 

So I will blow $60 on a triathlon and it will be worth EVERY DAMN PENNY!!!

On the weight loss front I successfully got rid of 1.8 lbs this week.  At first I had a hard time with this number but really... if I can lose 1.8 every week for 5 weeks that's 9 lbs!!!  I have 4 more weeks before Elise and I weigh in and I'm going to keep up the hard work.  The best part of all of this for me has definitely been putting myself back on my priority list.  Oddly enough the hardest part has been the conflict this causes in my marriage.  BLAH!!

Going for it!!

So in June I ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon and loved it!!  I loved it ENOUGH to make a goal to do the full marathon next year AND qualify for Boston.  What I didn't realize is how REALLY attainable that goal was.  For whatever reason I thought the qualifying time for Boston was 3:30 but it turns out its 3:40!!  This pace in only about 20 seconds below my last half pace so with real hardcore training I could absolutely qualify for Boston next year!!  I'm SO SO SO excited!! 

BRING ON BOSTON BABY!!

35 days of perfection!!

Okay.. so.. my inlaws are coming home from the Phillipinnes in September.  They've been gone for a year and a half which means... when they left.. I looked like this:

That would be me hiding behind the baby! ;)
 We have done a lot of skyping and they have seen plenty of pictures BUT.. nothing is as shocking as reality and so....

I am commited to 35 days of perfection!!  We are talking perfect eating, (as in no processed carbs) plenty of water consumption, 5-7 days of exercise AND some serious p90x resistance training.  My goal??  Basically I want to look like a rock star! I am not only going to be seeing my inlaws but a lot of extended family that I haven't seen since I lost weight! 

Today I made a little wager with  my SIL although I think we need to get a little more specific.. regardless... we are in a 5 week competition and it is ON!!  Honestly though... I would be happy losing NOTHING as long as my body was rock hard and HOT HOT HOT!!!!

So tomorrow starts the beginning of perfection!  I'm thrilled! :)  It's also perfect timing as I'm training for a 1/2 triathlon!!  YAY YAY YAY!!! (Oh not too mention the whole getting braces in10 days thing!!) Maybe if I get brave I'll put up some "before pics" in the next couple of days!!  I KNOW I can do this!!  10 lbs in 5 weeks??  YOU GOT IT!! :)

Life!

I found out recently that we have a lot of money in an HRA that we really need to use or lose.. which started me on my quest to improve my imperfections.  My FIRST attempt was lasik eye surgery.  Basically... I've worn glasses since I was like 7 and I am pretty blind.  UNFORTUNATELY I don't qualify for lasik.  My corneas are too thin for the amount of correction I need!!  They Dr. told me to wait for technology to catch up to me... DANGIT!!
So next I hit the dentist hoping they could give me a quick fix/gorgeous smile.  2 different dentists told me to go to an orthodontist and SO..... I'm getting braces on August 25th at the ripe old age of 30.  It may sound slightly insane BUT it will not only fix my smile, it will fix the misalignment in my jaw.  I still haven't decided if I'm going to do top AND bottom braces or just top but right now.. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to do the top.  The bottom won't show in my smile anyway.. and the orthodontist really feels like fixing my top teeth will help bring my jaw forward.  I'm sure no one but me cares about any of this but i had to write it down. 
Hope you are all doing fantastic!

Exercise and me!

So working at the gym was an exciting way to get new contacts but made it incredibly hard for me to exercise (or incredibly easy for me to make excuses).  While I've always been busy with my children, I've never tried to add work into the mix and while I did a lot of lifting while I was working there.... my cardio was in the toilet.  I HATED the cardio machines there and avoided them at all costs.  Occasionally I would hit a class and LOVE it but for the most part.. umm... cardio was out the window. 
This was also starting to reflect on the scale.  I have a "happy weight zone" 120-125 and lately I've been seeing 126-128.  I've had this weird struggle going on with this.  Like I don't want to seem like one of those pyscho skinny bitches saying "UGH!  I HAVE GOT TO LOSE 5 LBS!! "  But the truth is... when you start to get past your happy weight zone and you let a couple lbs go and then a couple more.. pretty soon you've got 20 lbs to lose etc... I feel so dumb even saying it but seriously... I need to lose a few lbs so I can stay in my happy zone.
In comes cardio.  I LOVE cardio.  I had forgotten that for a while.  I was thrilled to go back to spin classes at my little gym (I had not been because they were on nights I had to be at the other place!) So... 2 nights a week I spin and at least 3 additional days a week my ass will be running country roads!  Last night I did about 3.5 miles with a friend and LOVED it (although my eyes are swollen from the hay).  
I just went to register for the warrior dash and my heart is now in my chest.  Somehow.. since the last time I checked... the price has more than doubled.  I can't even imagine NOT doing it.. but I cannot justify spending $75 for it either.  BAH!!  I feel like such a jackass.. I just totally let life run away from me!!
I think I'm going to vomit.