one at a time

Quick post--I was down a pound at TOPS last night. We had a visitor who read about us in the newspaper. Today is the first day of our new family schedule (we homeschool, so a schedule is good, else we will be too slack)...and therefore my computer time is limited, thus the short post. Have a great day!

No news really, but replying to comments

I just approved some comments that deserve a reply :)

First of all, I keep getting congrats on losing 75 pounds. There is a POINT in front of that 75! LOL Last week I lost 3/4 of a pound or POINT 75 pounds LOL. That was last week. This week I stayed exactly the same. My TOTAL weight loss from my highest weigh is 33 & 1/4 pounds.

The other comment asked me what a mexican tv dinner is. (They weren't from America) Well, it is basically rice, refried beans and an enchilada that are cooked, frozen on a plastic tray and put in a box and sold at the grocery store. You take it home and mircowave it and there ya go. :) Full of preservatives and not very healthy, I'm sure.

I have ~*HOPE*~

My friend from my old chapter, who is a KOPS, taught last night's program. She taught about hope. Can you REALLY visualize yourself at your goal? Do you REALLY believe you can do it? You won't do it if you don't believe you can. It was a great program.

I lost .75 pounds. I am now 297.25 pounds.

I have some girlfriends who are doing something called a "Daniel fast". For 21 days, you eat nothing but fruits, veggies and nuts. I think that's too big of a leap for me, but I may do SOME of it. Anyway, we had a party of sorts with these ladies last night and I ate some things I had never tried: raw carrots, raw broccoli, potato soup, celery. I can't say I LOVED any of those things, but it was nice to realize that I CAN eat these things. Perhaps I would like them more if I ate them more, such as was the case with bananas.

I am out of my funk. YAY!

We dug out of the snow on Saturday and it was a wonderful weekend. ANOTHER snow storm hits tonight and the tv is saying we will be snowed in at least until Friday. So, schoolwork is being postponed while we spend the day paying bills, buying groceries and preparing for the storm. I bet town is swamped with people doing the same. Schoolwork will easily be made up this evening or during the next 2 days of being snowed in.

blah

Monday's TOPS meeting was cancelled due to snow. We are snowed in and have been for days. It is really getting on my nerves. We have to eat what we have on hand (blah) and although I am all for family togetherness, you can actually have too much of that stuff LOL.

The snow-in started Monday and aren't estimated to be able to get out and drive until Saturday and then would you believe it is supposed to storm again next Monday? ugh.

yeah.

I'm just in a funk.

Pneumonia

BOTH of my children have been diagnosed with pneumonia. It's been rather chaotic and off schedule at my house. I keep thinking I wish things would return to normal, but then again, what is normal? It seems like there is always SOMETHING going on.

Missed my TOPS meeting

Yesterday was TOPS but since we have been fighting the flu, we stayed in and I let our co-leader handle it. She's 18 and she was THRILLED to be in charge LOL

So....no official weight, but on my scales, by some miracle, I'm still showing the same as last week. That is surprising because I was sick all week and ate a lot of comfort food, didn't exercise and didn't journal.

I am better now! yay!

It's so hard to get back into the swing of things after you've let up. I thought I had formed solid habits (exercise, water, journaling ) I found out they weren't as solid as I thought!

Tomorrow I MUST MAKE MYSELF get back with those things, whether I FEEL like it or not.

sick

Oh my goodness I am so sick. (the flu?)

I think this is day 3. I am miserable.

I am trying to find people to help me with activities the kids have today (field trip, library, church youth group). Funny, when you need help, your friends suddenly disappear and pretend they don't see. *sigh*

Anyway, I am in survival mode for sure, as far as diet goes this week. I am just hoping to survive this week without a gain...to maintain what I have lost so far.

pray for me!

On a roll again (3 pound loss)

Well, I'm doing well again :)

Weigh-in at Monday's TOPS meeting was 298, so that is a 3 pound loss for this week.

We each drew a slip of paper with a challenge on it and we have to report how we did at the next meeting. I drew "increase fruits and veggies" so that is what I'm working on this week. I needed that one. I don't eat enough fruits and veggies. :)

Here we go!.......................

7 things & a blogger award

Seven random things about me:

1. I am 6 feet tall. My husband is 5'4" :)

2. I collected precious moments for years and then got tired of them. I don't want any more but I will keep the ones I have because most were bought for me by people I love on sentimental occasions.

3. I wear out shoes quickly.

4. I love staying in fancy hotels.

5. I love to make lists.

6. I quit public school at age 15. Walked out of class and walked home, never to return. I'd had ENOUGH of the bullies and the teachers who turned their heads. (The next year I went to a private school, from which I graduated)

7. In 1999, someone broke into our home. They stole my husband's video games and my underclothes (gasp!) and left my credit card untouched, sitting in plain view on the kitchen table.

By accepting this award, I have to:

* Post and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
* Share seven things about yourself.
* Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers (or as many as you can).
* Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won!

And so, my 7 things are posted above. I received this award from Laryssa at Dillypoo chatter http://dillypoo-chatter.blogspot.com/ (sorry, I don't know how to do links very well!)

I'm passing this award on to:
Katie J http://katiejweightlossjourney.blogspot.com/
Debbie http://justquiteating.blogspot.com/
and Darla http://mywinningyear2011.blogspot.com/

_--------on another note, I will post either later today or tomorrow about how I did this week and our TOPS meeting. hint hint: it was good :)

Now I need to get off this computer and get busy!

Love Letter

So...yesterday hubby gave me a love letter. One of the things it said was:

"I think you are pretty"


You know me........I love that :)

On another note, I have peeked at the scale and I am pleased with what I am seeing :) Official weigh-in is Monday evening.

Have a great day!

Up again.

The past couple of days were very down and negative, although my last post was very truthful.

However, I didn't mean to give the impression that I'm giving up, because I'm not. There are 2 ladies (both KOPS, and one is a queen) who are emailing me and helping me to shake this off and to live to my potential.

Maybe it is the fish oil supplements, maybe it is God, maybe it is hormones, who knows....but for whatever reason, I'm feeling less negative today and I didn't want to leave my blog hanging on a negative note.

Cheers! *clinking our water bottles together*

(FYI: When I changed the name of my blog, it somehow stopped showing my new posts on people's blog roll...so...even if you are a follower...you may need to REfollow me.. I don't know...I'm not sure how to fix that)

I'm so mean to me

There is a blogger, you may know him, named Allan and a couple of weeks ago he was laughing about me on his blog. He enjoyed it. He's really going to enjoy this post. :/

I am so fed up with ME. ugh! What is my deal? I have great plans, great desires but I cut myself way too much slack and therefore I am not accomplishing ANYTHING.

How do you FORCE yourself to STICK to healthy choices? How do you MAKE yourself have willpower? I know it is a matter of willpower and I'm so mad at myself because I really seem to be lacking. :(

The past several few weeks I *have* been much more consistent with water consumption, exercise and not buying sweets for the house. I'll give myself that much. However, I am having times of just "oh well, I don't care" and then I don't journal and I eat whatever I want (binge on eggs? sounds crazy..but I did). I get in to these "whatever, I don't care" moods and do this to myself, but deep down, I DO care. I'm so mean to me.

I weighed 301. That's a one pound gain.

Go ahead, Allan. I know I'm not shining tonight.

My jean skirt travels. ;) (and I'm glad)

I have such an all or nothingness about me. It seems I either have a 100% successful day or a pretty much 100% floppy day. And weird, I know, but for me, it usually depends on how I START my day.

Hubby usually wakes me at 6 a.m. to pray with him before he goes to work. Then I have two choices: go back to bed or stay up. You wouldn't think that choice would determine my whole day but it sure seems to.

Probably 75% of the time, I go back to bed. I am a night owl. I get my 2nd wind around 9 p.m. and I just don't want to sleep! I can stay up until 2 a.m. or so most nights. So, of course, I don't want to stay up at 6! So, I usually go back to bed and wake up LATE. So late that I am ashamed and I'm not even going to tell you how late. Then I wake up after HOURS of sleep and I feel SO unenergetic. I think "I feel so tired--do I have cancer? Am I sick? Am I dying?" DRaaaaaaaaag.....like..a....snail. I also think "We are getting such a late start on the day, I really don't have time to exercise" and I jump into getting the kids fed and starting our schoolwork. Then the whole day is a whirlwind, I feel like I have been busy all day trying to get things done, and after everyone's in bed, I get on the computer for some ME time and........wouldn't you know it........stay up half the night. VICIOUS, TERRIBLE CYCLE.

But some mornings, I force myself to stay up (like this morning). I get dressed and do my Lesle Sansone dvd before the sun even rises. I eat breakfast and have some ME time before the kids are even awake (like, right now). I have a lot of housework done before the kids wake and the whole day just goes better. Then I'm usually so tired that night that I can go to bed at a decent hour and rest well. However, I never wake up feeling rested, so once again the next morning, it is a struggle to make myself NOT go back to bed. If I stay up, my energy increases.

Weird. but true.

One of the above pics is me after my workout this morning--the sun was just coming up. :) Concerning the other pic: Look how loose my skirt is! yay! When I exercise, it scoots itself around and I end up with the zipper not being in the front. Compare that with the older pic (full body, black top) --see how snug the skit was? That was October 21st. I was 310 then and as of this morning, my scale at home says 298, so that's 11 pounds. I haven't lost a lot of pounds but I obviously have lost some inches, so yay!

Dream big. {then DO it}

{hubby fixed the computer--yay! The pics in this post have been posted before, but they are just some of my favorites}

I'm hating the Christmas time yo yo that I did! I wasted so much time with that! I had gotten down to 297 point something. Then all the goodies of Christmas and I gained up to 302 point something. Last night I was back down to 300 even. I wanted to start this year in a lower weight division...but...it is what it is. You really can't give "bare minimum" requirements and expect maximum results.

Yesterday's TOPS program was great. It was "Dream big {then DO it}" We wrote down our goals for the year and sealed them and I will hand them back out in a year. I talked about how it is important to have a dream. Then I discussed that just a dream isn't enough. You have to DO it, no matter what is going on. Because life is stressful and hectic. It always will be. If you wait for the perfect timining, you aren't ever going to get it done. I talked about how I've had the queen dream ever since I joined 2 years ago and how I am only 27 pounds less than then. Yep. Dreaming isn't enough. You have to DO it.


I think I'm going to change the name of my blog to "Dream big {then DO it}" because I HAVE been dreaming big. I just need to DO it. I've been honest. And I will continue to be honest. It's not always easy to be honest....when you flop.

Hubby bought a new Leslie Sansone dvd and it is much more involved than the other one we have. *whew* I can't do it all...yet...but I did 31 minutes of it today.

I'm off to DO something now,

Amy,that TOPS lady, future queen

My computer died :(

My computer has DIED. It was like a cat--it had 9 lives. We have resurrected it several times over the years but when it caught this last virus a couple of days ago, we decided to let it rest in peace. So, with the exception of occasional library trips, I won't be online again until we recieve our tax return (mid or end of Feb). Surely by then I will quite the success to blog about! That's probably about 8 weeks.

In the meantime, I'm hoping Dawn texts, so I can still report to her and stay accountable.

So..............this blog is on *pause*.........but my healthy choices are not. :) See you in a few!

Today was great :)

We went to my grandmother's today and visited with a lot of extended family and ate beans and cornbread. No one can cook beans and cornbread like grandma can! And homemade coconut cream pie! (I only had half a piece but yum I could have eaten it all :) I love my grandparents so much. They are getting way up in years. My aunt and uncle moved in with them to help them. I know their time with us is coming to an end.....what a somber thought. Love your families.

clarification

There are two things I think people misunderstood in recent posts, that I want to clear up.

#1 I'm not going to go eat a whole tube of dough when I reach 290. One tube makes about 12 cookies. Divide that by my family of 4, and we are talking 3 cookies each. Three cookies, people. Three. Calm down. :)

#2 My "one sweet per day" plan is NOT an everyday thing! I am only talking about THIS week, aka the week of Christmas aka the week that no matter who comes to your house or whose house you go to, they are going to shove something sweet and yummy in your face and say "have some!". So, in that senerio, if I only allow myself ONE sweet per day, perhaps it will be easier for me to tell myself "I'm not going to eat that, because I've already had one sweet today, and that's my limit". Does that make better sense? This is just a "till Christmas passes" plan. :)

cookies = weight gain

Yep. Ate a lot of sweets this week. Had a gain of 2.25 pounds last night at weigh-in. With so much holiday stuff (parties,general sweets roaming the area)...6 of our 8 members had a gain.

But I have slapped myself silly and told myself to straighten up! I have a plan to survive all the goodies of this week: Allow myself ONE sweet per day.

Also, because cookies have been my weakness lately, I commit to NO cookies until I reach 290. Then I give myself permission to get a tube of my favorite cookie dough and eat cookies without guilt....just for that one day.

eyebrows and sugar challenges

Well, I *finally* went to have my eyebrows done...and I wasn't all that impressed.(top pic is before, bottom pic is after) I mean, they look fine, but really not much different than what I sometimes do in my own bathroom with little scissors. But at least now I know what it's like to have them done. I wish I could have my chin waxed instead.. now THAT is a problem area. ugh! I am allergic to nair and the wax at home stuff I got before didn't work on me. I must have determined hair. Why am I say this to the world? LOL Moving right along....

Last Monday we had a no gain meeting! With 7 members weighing in, we had a loss of 14 point something pounds. I weighed 297.25 for a weekly loss of 1.75 pounds.

I tried to have a "sugar free" day twice last week. Both times, I ended up freaking out and eating a lot more sugar than I normally would. One night I went and bought a cookie mix and ate about 700 calories of cookies!(and boy I felt sick afterwards) No sugar challenges for me for a while! I don't handle them well! LOL

(I want dentures) and (I feel like a sloth today)

(What am I thinking? Posting pics that point out the flaws in my teeth? Anyway...more on that later in the post)

Hubby has been sick for days. Yesterday afternoon I started feeling totally exhausted. I just wanted to go to bed. I went to bed early, slept well, didn't go to church this morning because I decided I was sick and now at 1:30 p.m. I still have the energy of a sloth. BUT I don't think I am "sick". I think I am having mental stuff making me tired. Perhaps I am jealous that hubby is sick. Perhaps it was the stress of the inlaws that came. I don't know. Weird. I'm trying to pick myself up and shake it off. Easier said than done. Blah! (suggestions anyone?) I must be, and AM, DETERMINED to not let this throw me off track with my weight loss. I don't have any time to spare.

I am planning to get my eyebrows done TOMORROW! yay!

I do not have dental insurance and I really want my teeth "prettied up". *sigh* I have a gap between my two front teeth. It doesn't bother me as much as the tooth that is missing on the side. I want dentures on the top. I am going to start a "denture savings jar" and hopefully before I am queen, I can get that taken care of. If not, at least I could get a partial to take care of the side.