another loss! woot!

I had my 6th loss in a row tonight! 12.75 pounds gone in 6 weeks. Whoo hoo!*happy, happy* (and tired....goodnight!) ~Amy

4 week measurements.

I got a new tracker book and started it on October 1st.

Today, my book said "You have completed 4 weeks. It is time to take your measurements again."

I was happy to report a loss of just over half an inch in my bust, just over one and a half inches lost in my waist,and just over one inch lost in my hips.

It's not huge. But it's something! I'll take it!

Happy music.

I don't know how to link youtube videos but I wanted to post 3 songs that are so inspiring to me and that I've been listening to every day. :) Music can be really inspiring and helps me to stay motivated. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWeRQtj6s2o Today is your Day by Shania Twain. My husband heard this at the gym and came home and played it for me and told me to listen to it every day. It is so true! We CAN do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfP8ygGSMBc I Can by Minnutes. I can do anything today!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpI6Ed02A9o Brand New Day by Tim Myers. (I ignore the milk & cookies portion of this song LOL)

~*Be happy. Be good to you.*~

On an unrelated side note, I've gone on a green bean craze lately LOL I guess that is a good thing ;)

5 weeks of losses in a row :)

I plan to post a longer, better (with pictures) post later but I just wanted to quickly say that I had another small loss tonight at TOPS (-0.25 pound, but last week was rocking at -6 pounds..anyway...) AND that makes 5 weeks straight of weight loss for me. I think I was hindered this week by that lovely time of the month and emotional roller coaster rides, etc..... but I know that I was good...so yeah...

..............keeping on keeping on....... I hope you are too! :)

pics of the big jean skirt & the smaller size skirt

I got the new jean skirt out of lay-a-way. It is cute because it is super long and I have a hard time finding skirts that are super long on me because I am 6 feet tall! So, this was a rare find.

The main thing I like about it is that it is a size smaller-- size 24. It is not big on me and it doesn't really make me look thinner BUT it is a size smaller and I feel like wearing a button that says "This skirt is a size smaller than my last one" just so people will know. LOL

The other pic is me in the old size 26 jean skirt, which I can still wear ok but is really big and I can take off without unbuttoning it. I'm looking forward to the day when my hips will no longer hold it up at all. That day will come!

I'm feeling kind of bloated today (time of the month) so, I'm not feeling much smaller today. The scales were up a pound today. BUT I HAVE BEEN AWESOME with my eating/water/exercise, so I know it will be gone soon.

the big jean skirt & the cutie jean skirt

I'm just *thrilled* with the way I'm losing. It makes me want to do more to promote more weight loss! What energy comes from success and happiness! :)

My jean skirt can now be taken off without even unbuttoning it! It's way too big and just kind of hanging on me. A week or so ago, I put a new jean skirt in lay-a-way. It was more expensive than I usually spend on a jean skirt ($40) but it is SOOOoo cute and I thought "hey...hubby spends $48 per month on the gym for him for his health. I can spend $40 per month on me if I am losing weight too. But I didn't have $40 LOL so in lay-a-way it went and I hope to get it out within a week. But now I'm wondering if I should have put the next size down in lay-a-way and I'm hoping when I get it out, they will still have whatever size I need, so I can exchange it if need be.

Wow........losing weight is fun :)

119 days later....

119 days ago, I said "I will drink no soda, eat no fast food and no dessert for 118 days". I made it! It is over!

I don't know that I will go back to drinking soda. I hate to start again when it is out of my system now. We will see. I know I won't be having any today.

Today I will have one cup of mocha ice cream. I have wanted mocha ice cream the past 118 days LOL.

I lost 14 pounds during those 118 days. It would have been more if I would have been exercising, which I didn't start being consistent with until Oct. 1st. Many of those pounds were lost in the past 2 weeks.

But even though I didn't lose a ton of weight, I have proven to myself that I DO have self-control and self-discipline when I choose to exercise it.

I CAN do hard things. I AM strong.

I am strong and loved and beautiful......and I'm going to be the Oklahoma TOPS queen.

Happy is healthy.

You may remember that my goal for October is: BE HAPPY.

I have been. I am. And it is good.

I haven't messed up with exercise or calories at all this month.

This morning I was 297. Down from 302 on October 1st.

I think happy is a good thing :)

~Be happy~

The boundary line that makes you bounce.

For me and many in our TOPS chapter, there is an invisible boundary line, a number on the scale, that we get down to from time to time but when we do, we bounce right back up. I really have two lines. The first one is 300. I have hit 300 I don't know how many times but 90% of the time, after I hit it, I bounce back up. A few months ago, I hit 300 and then bounced all the way back up to 313 or so! BOUNCING IS NOT FUN.

I guess 300 is my smaller bouncer boundary but my humungo bouncer number is 296. I don't think I have been below 296 since we moved here 4 and a half years ago(February 2007). I have touched 296 before (last April, near my birthday)then boing boing boing.

Do you know how you STOP all the bouncing junk? You ~*BREAK THROUGH*~ and then you ~*KEEP GOING*~ I wish I could write this next word in super, mega-big letters:

>>>>>>>>>>CONSISTENCY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I was 298.9 this morning. I'm ready to break the boundary into tiny little shreds. It won't happen by giving myself some slack. It will happen with WORK. Some people dream of great things. Others get up in the mornings and make them happen.

*Stick with it* EVERY. single. minute.

Come on, get sticky with me. :)

face shots while waiting on daughter in the bathroom

My daughter is 10. Tonight she started in on "I'm scared!" when I said it was time to get ready for bed. So, I just went with her and took self pics while she got ready LOL Now everyone is in bed and I'm feeling quite sleepy myself. zzz goodnight :)

a fun night

I had the best night!

I started with getting a 44 ounce ice water from sonic (I've been drinking THREE of these per day).

I walked 2 miles at my absolute favorite walking trail, mp3 player blaring.

I went to Fashion Bug and found cute new clothes that I put in lay-a-way.

I ran by the store for salad, fruit, almond and kashi cereal (health kick!)

I ate black eyed peas (that I had brought with me) on the way home.

~fun night~

What should I do with my kid-free time? (suggestions please! asap!)

Tonight is homeschool mom's night out at a local restaurant. I asked hubby to be home to watch the kids but I'm not even sure I want to go. For starters, I'm still on the 118 days of no fast food (Sunday is my last day!), so I could only visit, not eat. And I don't know, I just am not excited about going for some reason that I can't put my finger on. I'm feeling obligated to be there because I need to deliver t-shirts to 2 ladies who will be there. But I just can't get excited about going. So, I thought "eh, I won't go. I'll stay home and clean house and work on TOPS stuff". BUT........then I thought of how JEALOUS I get of my husband because he can just go and do as he pleases most of the time and I feel tied down with the kids and I have to schedule and 'ask permission' to go do something that I want to do. Probably a lot of that is the homeschoolingness of it all...because yes, I am with my kids ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY and we get a bit tired of each other. So, if hubby stops by the gym on the way home or to see his mother or even to the library or walmart, I catch myself thinking "That is NOT fair. You never have to ask me to watch the kids so you can do those things. You just do them." So yeah, I think I should take tonight to do my own thing, even if it is just running the shirts by the restaurant and then leaving to go do something without the kids for a couple of hours. But what do I do? Suggestions anyone?

~more later~~

come on, come on, come on...let's do it!

I'm fired up about the lesson I'm teaching at TOPS tonight.

For the rest of the year, we will have a football theme. We are in the 4th quarter of the year and we are talking about how many teams have come from behind in the 4th quarter and ended the game as winners. We can too!!!!

Come on, come on, come on.....GO,FIGHT,WIN!

Under 300 again

Just before I joined TOPS, I weighed 331. I was 327.25 the week I joined TOPS (almost 3 years ago). I lost to just under 300 in December of last year but consistency has been my major issue. I quit trying. I bounced back up to 312 or so.

Anyway..........this morning I am back under 300 (299.8) and I hope to never, never, never, never see 300 again.

Pictures along the way

Ya know, we should take more pictures. My kids make fun of me because I'm always taking pictures of myself. When I'm at my goal weight, I want to have plenty of 'before' and 'in progress' pictures that I can put on a video telling my story (and yes, I listen to songs trying to find the right song to go with it already :)

And so tonight, I wanted to take a pic of myself and the batteries in the camera were dead. I took batteries from the remote. They were too weak. I then took batteries from the wii balance board. I had room left on my sd card for ONE picture. So, I would take it, look at it, decide I didn't like it, delete it and start over.

I wasn't finished. But this is the picture I had just taken when those batteries died, so I guess this is will be tonight's picture :D I can just imagine me, a year from now, looking at this picture and saying "wow...look at how UNdefined my jaw bone was"...

It just gets better from here guys. :) I've got my groove back. I hope you do too :) Thanks for reading!

Weigh in & the "Christy" series

Someone once told me that I remind them of the character of Christy on the Christy series. I borrowed the whole complete series (over 10 hours, I think) and watched the first episode last night. I think they are right. I'm a lot like her, on the inside. If my outside matched how I feel on the inside, I'd look a lot like her.

I've done a lot more exercising this week than I normally do. I admit that I was a bit frustrated to see this morning that I was up 4 tenths of a pound compared to yesterday morning, considering that I walked 4 miles yesterday, consumed over 100 oz of water and was several hundred calories below my limit. (I weigh daily) My nutritionist would tell me that it was a combo of: having too much salt (I had hamburger helper---which my nutritionist does NOT approve of!) and not eating enough calories (as weird as it sounds, she has a range for me to eat in and she says that if I eat below that range, my body will hold on to the weight...and it makes very little sense to me...but it has proven to be true with me.) So yeah, I'm not going to tell these things to my nutritionist (who happens to be a friend and took me on for FREE...isn't that awesome???!!!)

But I AM going to tell her that my official weight loss for the week is >>>>>> 3.3 pounds. yes! I'll take it. I was 300.7 today. I'm ready to be back under 300 again.

The next TOPS fun day is November 12th and I would love to be 289 or less then. :) Consistency is the key for me! The nutritionist thing will help with that because she requires me to text her my totals each night. Be watching my blog..... I'm doing it this time :)


Thanks for reading. Have a healthy day!

October's goals

My goals for October:

Lose 10 pounds. (I was 301.4 on the wii this morning)

Quit stressing over every little decision and just enjoy each day as it comes. ENJOY MY LIFE.

These are the feet....

These are the feet that are doing a LOT of walking this week, even when I don't feel like it.

This past weekend was our area fun day for TOPS. It was fun and inspiring as always. My husband and kids were there with me and they got to meet several of the people from my old chapter. If you remember the reason I left my old chapter, you can assume that the meeting of old friends would be nerve wrecking, and it was, but it all ended up ok. (And if you don't remember, there's no need to search my blog for the story, because I deleted it all. Just know that it was a sticky situation.)Everyone was nice and the 2 other chapters in my town asked if we would all like to get together for a Thanksgiving potluck or something of that nature, and I am considering hosting it. I don't know. We will see.

Awards were given for the April-June quarter and my husband won first place for hours exercised and miles walked. Yay hubby!

Friday is the end of our next reporting period, so our next fun day (Nov. 12th) we will receive awards from July-Sept. You have to walk at least 50 miles to receive a walking award and of course I wait until the last week to even halfway try. I plan to walk the 28 or so miles I have left between now and midnight Friday. I can also receive a weight loss award if I can lose 3 more pounds by Friday. (It is possible IF I work very hard and stay focused!)

Have you heard "Today is your day" by Shania Twain? My hubby told me to listen to it every morning. :) (For those of you who think we listen to country music all the time....NO....... He heard it at the gym and thought of me and came home and looked it up. My heart was touched that he thought of me when he heard it *I love that man*)I think you should listen to it every morning too. It has been running through my head all day and it has been a great pick-me-up when I feel tired and down.

So....that's what's up in my world. How are YOU doing?

When the scale has let you down......keep doing the right thing.

So I have been pretty much perfect for the past 6 days or so. Not over on my calories AT ALL--picked exercise back up--eating my veggies and drinking my water.

And tonight was weigh-in and I stayed EXACTLY THE SAME.

Pooey on the scale for being that way!

Regardless, I will continue to do what I know is right and it WILL WILL will WILL go down as long as I'm staying faithful. Maybe my body has gotten used to me and is saying "There's no need in rewarding her for what she has done the past week because I know she's about to blow it again and deserve this fat." Nope. Gonna prove it wrong.


I'm going to be FAITHFUL.

The rest of the Jehovah Witness story.

A whopping two people commented and let me know what THEY do...but anyway...

Yeah, so they rang my doorbell last week and I was kind of excited because somehow my house always gets skipped. LOL I've heard that they try to back you in a corner and make you doubt what you believe, etc.

However, I sat on the porch with them with MY King James Version Bible (they have their own Bible version) and had a nice, friendly discussion. I was not mean to them in anyway.

The thing that got me so excited about it all was that #1 I feel that I was a good witness because I stayed nice, nonjudgemental and friendly the entire time, #2 I had a scriptural answer every time they tried to get me in a corner and #3 I actually got one of them somewhat in a corner but I was nice and let it go. :)

(I asked them to read Acts 2:38 from their Bible, because I wanted to see how it compared to the KJV, which says to be baptized in Jesus name. I thought theirs would say to be baptized in Jehovah's name because they believe that Jehovah is the name of God and not a title. Anyway, I had them read it and to my surprise, it too said to be baptized in Jesus' name. Then I simply said "So,.......does your church baptize in Jesus' name???" and he just looked at me like "uuuhhhhh...." and simply said "no". I just smiled and let it go but I could have done to them what they do to so many and make them squirm...but I'm not like that :)

Anyway.....I was out there for 45 minutes and they may come back some time, I don't know. But I don't really care to waste 45 more minutes of my time because I for sure believe that their teachings are unbiblical.

That is neither here nor there..........

Now, let's get back to weight loss blogging :)