Long, strange trip. Long post. Year in review.

Whoa. I've been at this for a year, y'all!  Don't want to read all 50-something posts to catch up? Well here's the review for you:

On October 7, 2012 I had had enough.  I was about to turn 35. No chair was comfortable. I couldn't sit like a lady. (And you all know I am a proper lady)  My monster calves had eaten my ankles.  I couldn't walk up the stairs or through the parking lot at work without huffing and puffing.  The last time I had been on a roller coaster, the Rams were in the Super Bowl and Pau Gasol was drafted by Atlanta.  

I was on 4 different medications for different issues.  I was wearing a size 26 (sometimes 26/28).  I knew I wanted to change things but really had no idea how I was going to do that. -So I started typing.

As I began to write blog posts and receive tremendous report from those close to me and strangers alike, things started to fall in to place. I started to research, move, make different food choices, and try to establish even a hint of a good habit or two.  I set some reasonable "loose" goals so that I wouldn't set myself up for failure.  My husband supported me 180% (because he's wonderful!!) and I joined forces with two great friends to start Weight Watchers and have a support team in them that cannot be beat! Go Team JAG!

In January I was finally brave enough to join a gym - Anytime Fitness.  I could barely go for more than 2 minutes on the elliptical machine.  I did have the desire to do things and get stronger, but I realized I needed some help.  Enter Big A, the trainer. My coach. My gym security blanket. My homey for life. And, now, a wonderful friend both inside and outside of the gym; along with his family.  I started training last winter with Big A and have been challenged and sometimes frustrated.  I have, however, gotten stronger and I continue to do new things and get better at tasks I could barely do a year ago.  I keep wondering how this is working when nothing else has?  First, there was no intimidation, only encouragement.  Big A has been a crucial part of my support system. Why? Absolutely. No. Negativity.  -And she smacks me down why I try to let anything negative slip out.  Second, there has never been pressure about specific goals or specific weights (unless it came from me), but instead he helps me focus on challenging myself and simply getting better every day and remembering where I started.  -That simple.  He has to remind me of that often.  The man also has the 'patience of Job' to be able to deal with me and my bullshit multiple times per week. I will never be able to thank him enough. I share my silliness and my little victory moments with him all the time, but I don't know if he'll really ever know just how much I appreciate him for helping me save my life.  Big, big fist-bumps to you, Big A. 

Yes, it has put a financial strain on us to train, etc. but it is worth it many times over.  Thank God for my sweet husband and his support of all that I do.  

Outside the gym and training, I have learned to love running and want to get better at it. 

So a year is now behind me. I turn 36 in a few days.  My God, 36 seemed like an eternity away even just a few years ago!  So I'll spend a few days by the water to celebrate (thanks to the bestest friend ever!) and then I'll get back to work to begin a new year of challenges.  I will continue being coached by Big A. I will continue with WW and my Team JAG girls.  I'll learn to be a better runner, especially with my new running partner, Bear Cavanaugh. I'll continue to FEEL BETTER and get stronger.

So what else is there to say? Oh yeah - F I N A L L LY -  

I hit 50 pounds lost. When I wrote my first post I was sitting at 288 pounds on my home scale.  I stepped on that same scale on September 30th, and saw the cutest number ever: 237.5.  Exhale! That's huge. Huge! I've never, ever lost more than 5 or 10 pounds and it always came back and them some.  This is so, so promising.  It definitely doesn't mean that I'm finished. -But it means that I can do it and I can keep going.  I have (probably) about 70 more pounds to go before I can say I have reached my weight goal and can start working to maintain that.  There's another year or two of work to be done to get there I think.  I'm happy with slow and steady; though I still reserve the right to complain every now and then if I'm frustrated.  :) Oh, and the Redskins shirt - I'm not quite there yet but almost.  It goes over my boobs and my guts now! -Just too tight to wear to the Food Lion, though I'd fit right in on some days. I'll get there.  I'm happy with my size progress. I'm now in an 18. In fact, my friend just gave me a pair of size 18 jeans. Button fly. That's never gone on this body before, and I may never take them off.  I told her I was so excited because I didn't even have to lay down to try and button them! 

Side Story:   When we were in high school and even a little after, I was always so sad that I couldn't shop at American Eagle with all of my friends.  That store was the stuff in the 90's in Charlottesville.  If you didn't have a few outfits from there, at least, you could kick rocks.  I owned one, ONE, item from that store back then. It was a men's flannel shirt (I LOVED that thing) that I wore, unbuttoned of course, to death.  Guess where those button fly jeans are from, y'all? Now I may be to too old to shop there, but I don't care, I will anyway. I promise, though, not to go out and find a HyperColor body suit on Ebay to wear just because I may be able to.  


I'm also happy with my general health progress. I'm taking no meds, except for the unexpected few I had to get this past week.  Grrrr! -But I'm done with those and learning to de-stress. Hopefully that won't happen again. 

My cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure and thyroid levels all came in at "Girl, who are you? Did someone else take this test for you?"-numbers a couple of weeks ago at my latest screening. 



I feel good right now. I'm so thankful for all of the support that all of you (who take the time to read my craziness) have given me.

Stay tuned for more updates; major, minor, odd, and unecessary. It's going to be a good year.

I'm not one to wait 'til the end of a project for thank-you's.  Thank you all (and I hope I forget no one) for the help, the kind words, the laughs, the Tweets, the challenges, the "just checking on you", the "I'm proud of you", and the thoughts/prayers you sent my way this past year. Many of you have/had more important things to worry about but you took time out for me and I appreciate it.

Puddles, my sweet husband          Alfred (Big A) and Julie
My Momma                                  Genevieve
My Momma-In-Law and Pops          Sloane
Missy                                           Michelle                                       
Jaime                                         The 2 Angies in my life - Angela & Angie
Corey                                          Erin
Ana                                             Gloria
Rosita                                          Lynette
Sharon                                         Jenna-Jean
Teresa                                         Butch
Amanda                                       Flip
Heidi                                           Justin
...plus anyone I can't think of right now with Sunday brain, and of course many of you who sent me private messages who would kick my butt if I mentioned you here. 

Progress...

...is a good thing!

Pardon the interruption...

Sorry to pull you away from whatever you're doing, but I have something to say.  I am not the girl who's going to lose 100 pounds in 6 months or anything close to that example!

To me, this whole journey is about creating a new life. New behaviors.  New habits.  It's not about how fast I can lose a bunch of weight, or how much I can torture myself to get there. (Not to say that some days are downright awful)  Yes, I think it's awesome that you lost 20 pounds in 2 weeks eating nothing but canned tuna and water with lemons and cayenne pepper in it.  I also am excited for your niece (or friend, momma, aunt Fannie....) who recently went on a baby food diet (Slim Fast, cleanse, insert other food replacements here...) and lost 60 pounds in 2 months.  I think it's awesome that you lost 30 pounds in a month going to the gym 3-4 times a day.  -But that's not me, sister.

Those quirky quick-fix diets are interesting solutions, but they are temporary.  The faster the pounds fly off, the faster they can come back.  People tell me about all of these "success" stories when I'm having frustrating days, like recently when I keep hovering around 50 pounds lost!  Yes, I could grab of these solutions and sail past 50 this week....but it'll be back next week as soon as I put down the cayenne pepper.  I'm a slow and steady kind of girl. And that's working for me.  I know I'm approaching a year and there are folks who have lost a lot more weight in less time, but I'm doing this slow-jam style so it sticks! I would love nothing more than to be able to go to the gym for 1/2 a day every day but I am not fortunate enough to be able to do that.  -More power to those of you who are.

Just remember that it's not fast; it's not easy.
But that way, it's permanent.
I know I'll get there.
So don't rush me.

Now. I did say slow-jam, up there somewhere.  So I have to post one of my all time favorites! (Woohoo, 1995!) Jon B. (Featuring Babyface) - Someone To Love.

Happy Thoughts and Green Armpits

So I washed off the funk of weigh-in day with my next 5k.  We did the Color Run in Richmond and had a ball.  Not only did we get to get messy, (My armpits are still green and I'm still digging purple out of my ears.)  but it was our best 5k yet!  There were a few little victories had:

1. Ran 2 miles, no stoppage.
2. Only stopped (and was walking briskly) for a brief moment on a hill but got back to it immediately.      

3. PR!! We did the race in just over 40 minutes!  Big deal for these girls!

Yesterday's race makes me feel better about jumping to 8k and 10k soon.  We are going to do a zombie run next month and then I'll be starting to train for a longer distances.   Wait. Who am I?

Jaime and I all clean pre-race.

3 miles later...

Duck face. Yes, evidently I'm a 12 year old!

@&!?@$!!?!

Weighed in today. Up almost 2 lbs! And I've been good! Eff you, cankles! I reserve the right to NOT be a Sally Sunshine tonight. So there.  I'll return to optimism tomorrow.

Progress

I've been fiddling with those collage apps.  I'm going to start making some progress photo files to keep myself more organized. Here's a peek!

Here's what you're looking at.
1. 7/2012- between 287 & 300lbs.
2. 10/2012- about 285lbs. 
3. & 4.  9/1/2013 - 237lbs.

1. 10/2012 - about 285lbs.
2. 7/5/2013 -248 lbs.
3. 9/1/2013 - 237lbs.
4.  9/7/2013 - 237lbs.

I'm going to hopefully be making a lot of these soon showing different things.

Under The Table And Dreaming....of lots of stuff.

Oh hi! 

Making friends at Pike Place Fish
Market in Seattle,WA

Intrigued by the gum wall at first.

Ew! Too close to the gum wall!

I'm back from our little vacation (for a few days now) and I still keep looking at my pictures and videos.     If we could have had our dogs and cats come out there I would have stayed in the Pacific Northwest forever! Only having a few days, he had to cram a lot in a small amount of time and got little sleep but it was so worth it! Seattle is a great city and the Seahawks fan base is crazy dedicated, even in the pre-season! Even at 75% stadium capacity at a Thursday night pre-season game, their crowd was by far the loudest crew I've ever experienced at a sporting event. I can't even imagine being with the 12th Man for a playoff game on a cold January night. Oh man! I am a die hard Redskins fan, but do love Russell Wilson. I have followed him (through both sports) since early in college.  I LOVE FOOTBALL.

My try at a panoramic view of The Gorge Amphitheater - Quincy, WA

Now - Dave. Carter. Boyd. Stefan. Jeff. Tim. Rashaun.  

Me with perma-smile at what's in the background. 

That guitar usually means one thing - Gravedigger

Dave Matthews Band at The Gorge was simply awesome.  Jaw dropping, tears in my eyes awesome.  DMB has always had a special place in my heart, and seeing them at The Gorge as always been on my bucket list.  Those of you who aren't Dave fans (and I totally get it and don't judge if you aren't) may not share the same feelings about seeing his crew but you have to see a show there.  I don't care who it is.  It is an amazing venue. It's hard to describe.  My pictures don't do it justice.  When we crested the hill after the hike to get in the gates, I was just awe -struck.  To be able to listen to music in the middle of the mountains and by the water like that is just so cool for me.  We saw two nights of shows and I seriously could have sat there on the side of the mountain for a week straight.  I could seriously keep typing about it for days.  



WW.  With vacation and our busiest work week of the year intertwined, it had been almost two weeks since I weighed in at WW when I went this past Thursday.  Sometimes you can find satisfaction in nothing.  I maintained my weight - no gain/no loss! No movement.  That's a win for me!  I'm still itching for 50 though! Soon. Very soon. I'll update this weekend about what results I see this week.



Gym sadness.  Now the tough part about this week and the next couple, is that I am without Big A.  This will be a big test for me to try and make some progress with out him with me on training nights at the gym.  I told him he's my "fitness security blanket".  He's gone for good reason, though, fulfilling his U.S. military requirements, so I can't be mad.  Though I know he and his family will always remain a part of our lives it just makes me think about the day, a while down the road, when I won't have or "need" my Big A blanket three or four times a week.  It's a little scary.  I have many, many more pounds to go before we have to worry about that though.  Hurry back, Big A!

Our Saturday home from Sept.-Nov.:  Camp Wahoo

College football is back kids! If you follow college football, you probably saw that #2 Oregon railroaded some east coast team on Saturday.  Yeah, that was us.  Virginia lost on Saturday but I am not worried.  We have some very talented young men and some of that shined through.  It's tough to play a west coast team who happens to be about the best there is in college football right now.  It was such a good learning experience for our kids.  Wahoowa!  Loss aside, we had a great day with our friends tailgating and catching up (before work duties called, that is).  We have a great crew of people that we see each game day.  Many of them I hadn't seen in a year or even a little longer.  I wasn't even really thinking about my current self-improvement project Saturday morning but I was so encouraged when quite a few of my friends took me aside and said two sweet words to me:  "I noticed."   It was nice.   It seems as though more folks than I realize are keeping tabs on me.  Very cool.  There are 12+ weeks of football season and I'm hoping to make some more visible changes by the end. 

With my adorable husband on game day.

Beautiful Scott Stadium on a September
Saturday in Charlottesville, VA

Well, it's time to get ready for another week.  
Where do the weekends go? I'll leave you with one of my favorite moments from our DMB weekend.  This was the encore from night one- Ants Marching with a quick transition to Halloween (both 'old' favorites of mine!) It's not my video though, because I couldn't sit still or stop sining long enough to film that long with my phone, and this was the night we were sitting at the tippy top!

(Credit to YouTube user SoCalMusicLover for this!)

What's on tap for this week?  

-Getting back on track with properly timed meals (and not eating vacation food).

-Kicking my own ass in the gym.

-Doing another 5k with my girl Jaime - one where they throw color bombs at you! 

11-ish months and counting of TFGL...

So before I hunker down for a busy few days at work, and then a cross-country flight I need to stop neglecting TFGL.  -Especially since I realized that I'm almost at 11 months of this! I don't know that I've ever stuck with anything this long, except for my husband.

I finally had a break through with the scale this week.  If you've been reading, you'll recall that I had a couple pesky pounds sneak back in on me over the past three weeks.  Thank God - This week I was down 4.6 pounds! That got rid of the creepers, plus a little extra for good measure.  This is definitely is not typical and I won't continue like that, but it is nice to be back in the right direction.  I think I had tired a bit of my structure loosened the strings a little too much, especially since I had some time away from my training sessions during those weeks.

Now we're good-to-go.  It felt really good to have Big A push me a bit last week. I was even frustrated, which means I was working hard.  Speaking of Big A- I am so proud of him and his Mrs.! They really do inspire me.  They have small children, a business, other jobs and have made the time over the past couple months to complete a training program for a fitness/bodybuilding competition.  That competition was this weekend and they did great! It's amazing how food and certain training can shape your body in a short period of time.  I know it was tough - I'm so proud of my friends! Way to go, y'all!

I'll be able to get some training time in this week before we take off and I need to make the most of it!

I will weigh in before vacation and I hoping for good results.  It'll be hard to stay on trip during our trip because I can't make/take all of my own food so I'll just have to make the best choices possible.  Great news though; Seattle = seafoooood!!

Thanks to all of you who continue to check in on and encourage me; even when I'm not reporting all kinds of exciting break-through news! 

I guess that'll wrap it up until I get back from the other side of the states.  Except for this:

This is a couple of years old, but it still in heavy iTunes rotation!! I'm excited I get to see them next week. 

Commitment

Not too much to report on this PGA Championship Sunday.  -Just trying to remember this for the coming week! 

Can You Stand The Rain?

I. Can. Not. Stop. Singing. That. Song.  (Sunnnnny days, everybody loves them. Cannnn youuu staaand the rainnnn?)  It's mostly because it was in a movie preview (Oohh Taye Diggs, I can't wait until Christmas time. We'll be reunited soon.)  I saw this weekend but it also  rolls right in to this week's blog post.

So last Wednesday we weighed in at WW - up 0.4 lbs. Really? 0.4? Grr. That's ok.  We'll get that straightened out this week I hope.  After that buzz kill I really was ready for our Downtown Mile run with Jaime and my friend Amanda. As the day went on, other hurdles (other than that blasted 0.4) kept popping up.  Stupid me let lunch time get away from me so I opted for a protein smoothie and a banana for lunch  before heading downtown after work.  Big mistake. Big. Huge!   Let's just say the natives got restless in my digestive tract.  It was game on with every bathroom I crossed (and I have a HUGE public bathroom phobia. Ugh. Ew.) for the next hour and a half.  As we trekked up to the park for our race start we hit another hurdle- a giant, close-by, lightning strike followed by a hellacious thunder storm! That lightning strike really did almost make me poop my pants!

Post race wet t-shirt girls- Amanda, Me, Jaime.
Note that my boobs kept the rest of my shirt dry.
Who needs an umbrella?

As the storm went on, the thunder and lightning calmed down. The rain did not.  -But the race must go on, so off we went for our best mile time try in the pouring rain.  I might add, here, that our friend Missy (bless her heart) was waiting on top of a roof bar in the weather so she could video us running by! She showed up with cute flat ironed hair and everything, and we repaid her with a thunder storm and a soaked cell phone.  Some friends we are, huh.

We ran in the rain. Jaime kept me going along, only stopping for a few little shuffles, and were able to finish in 13 minutes! Big deal for these girls and we weren't last! It was a blast and I'm proud of our time considering I was basically praying not to poop my pants for the second half of the mile.  I know. TMI, but you'll all get over it.   After the race in our soaking wet running clothes we had a great dinner with dear friends, old and new and it was just an awesome night! {I recommend The Whiskey Jar if you're in downtown Charlottesville!} I really appreciate the support these girls give me and my other friends on the new lifestyle train with me.

Leroy Jenkins too proud of
his self after blocking my run.

I haven't had Big A training hour at the gym since last Tuesday. He's on a much needed family vacation until later this week and I've been trying to keep up the good work in his absence.  We'll see what happens we he gets his paws on me this Friday.  I've been doing mostly cardio - walking, running intervals, inclines on the treadmill, etc. and keeping up with our 100 squat challenge.  It's my off-day for that today but I'll be on 85 tomorrow! I'm almost there.  I'm not sure what we do after 100. I guess we'll see.  I had a great day out today -  2.92 miles in 47 minutes doing 30-60 intervals; running as fast a possible for 30 seconds and then walking for 60 seconds.  It was such a perfect evening for it with the lack of overkill Virginia humidity.  It was much better than my outing yesterday, which ended after about 1 mile and 1/2 with my dog lying down in protest in the middle of the street until I picked him up.  He's such a mess and he was too proud of himself.

What's on tap for the next week?  

• Back to beast mode training.
• More running outside. 
• More deep breaths as our busy season at work gets going. All of our student-athletes are coming back to school and we're gearing up for fall sports; starting with our football team which reports for training camp this weekend.  Fall fun is fast approaching!
• Hopefully I'll be a loser rather than a 0.4 gainer.
• A yard sale at my momma's house - because I can actually get rid of some clothes that are too big, rather than too small!
• I'm going to listen to this over and over: 

Out of the fog...

Well I have been totally smacked down for over a week with a nasty sinus AND ear infection.  Today is the first day since last Friday that I've felt I'm not in a fog and returning to my normal oddball self.  I tried to push through and work and work-out as much as I could but it did get me pretty good.   Thankfully, as much as I hate to take them, I finally got some good drugs on Friday and I'm much, much better!

So I was able to weigh in Wednesday morning at WW and I was a loser! -Down another 2.4 pounds.  I can see 50! 50 isn't the end-all, but it's a big number and it will be a place to almost start over and set more goals.  I also said I wasn't going to get another tattoo until I lost that much weight, so there's that.  Don't worry; no roses on my butt or tiger paws on my boobs.

What else is up? Fitness-wise I'm plugging along.  We added one of those 100 squat challenges to go along with everything else I'm doing in the gym.  So I started at 25 (with 60lbs) and move up in increments of 5 each day (3 days on and 1 off) until I get to 100.  -Then we'll do another challenge.  I'm up to 60.  I haven't been able to do them all with the full weight because of being sick, or the bar being occupied in the gym but I use the heaviest weight I have close by- which could be my full gallon water jug, a 25lb kettlebell, or a heavier free weight.  Why? I'm sure Big A needs to keep be occupied and challenged. Also, I am trying to lose all this weight but I still need a big girl booty. ;)

What's up next?  Well I'm going to train Monday and Tuesday and also try to rest as much as possible for the next couple of nights.  This sick business has drained me!  I have a 1 mile race on Wednesday with Jaime and we're hoping to greatly improve our mile time.  We'll see!


This week's obsession? Two things.

First, this.  The song's been out for a bit but I just love it, and I love this band!

Second, this picture of myself from a month or so ago.  I found it on my phone today and it cracks me up for no good reason.  You're welcome. 

Countdown to fabulous...

I love countdowns. Even dumb ones.  I think it's been too long since I counted down to some things I'm looking forward to! Don't worry, I'm at least making it snazzy.

Football season is right up there with bacon cheeseburgers and Christmas- my favorites!

Weddings are actually fun now!

I can't believe I'm only 90-ish days away from being at this for a year! (Yeah - I'm shocked too.)

I know you all will be glad when I go, come back, and shut up about it. I can't wait for this trip! We've finally just set up everything we're doing on our whirlwind, sleepless, music and sports extravaganza trip to the greater Seattle area. I really just can't wait y'all. -Music, NFL football, NCAA football, outdoorsy stuff, and lots of self portraits with or without duck-face. We can sleep on the plane.

Who doesn't love this face? His eyebrows ooze sex appeal.

Ok, ok I'm done. (Seriously, though, Neil's the man.) So other than my oddball countdowns I'm also still looking forward to 50lbs, and I am 2.2lbs closer as of last night's weigh-in. Our team is now over the 100 pound hump! We are kicking butt and chewing bubblegum...and we just ran out of bubblegum. We'll all be big losers before we know it! Two more things before I go. 

First, I actually went shopping and bought 3, yes 3 dresses! -Hot momma dresses! The news here is they came from Talbots. I normally think of that store as being for a more ah-hem seasoned lady but they had lots of cute choices. (Plus a huge sale that didn't hurt). Try them out girls - and p.s. go to the store if there's one near you because I would have NEVER purchased any of the dresses I got based on their website photos. They're not good. 

And second, here is what I'm obsessed with right now. Well ok, for the past like month and the foreseeable future. This kid is like 16 years old and she's a little sassy.

When you have a day that goes to the crapper...

The last time...

First, tonight, let's give me some cyber pats on the back for posting two days in a row! Second, I've had some conversations with different people lately about the last time I did something, or wore something, etc.  Some of these folks are life-long friends and some are more new in terms of years.  It really had me thinking about all kinds of things.  So let's play the little question-and-answer game called "The last time..."  The idea is to show y'all what I was missing out on before all of these life changes, and to remind me we're not going there again, people!

The last time I wore a size 20 (before today)-  my senior year in high school I'm pretty sure. I remember having to go to Harrisonburg (which seemed like a whole other country, even though it was really only about 35 miles away) to find a prom dress because no one around me had the big girl sizes.  I did love that black velvet dress though, even though it probably could have upholstered a love seat.

The last time I wore heels- Oh I can pin point it! It was Jaime's wedding in 2004 and they were so cute and so horrible! I know what your next question is - NOPE. I got married in flip flops, are you kidding?

The last time I went out in "gym" clothes- Yes, I owned them before  but usually used them as pajamas.  The answer is I have no clue.  I do know though, that I wear them everywhere now and no, my butt isn't always covered, so there.

The last time I ran in to someone from my past who was shocked at my weight-loss....not ever. But y'all know that'll happen one day. I still have lots of work to do before I have a Maury Povich moment with anyone.

Ok so I'm sure that's enough for you all.  -Back to school work.  Have a great week! 

Back to the blog: The case of the bad time manager

Oh. My. Stars.

It's been too long since I've posted! I've meant well all along, taking notes and making notes but man life has smacked me in the face hard-core.  By the time I'm home from work and/or the gym and I finish school work, I'm toast.  Dry, crusty, tired toast.  I'm going to pencil in more time to blog - because it helps me stay accountable and some you actually enjoy reading it, though I don't know why!

Me and Jaime at our latest 5k in June.

First, it's my 9 month mark of starting this crazy business, and my 6 month gym anniversary.  I didn't think I'd ever be typing that. That said, doing this and walking through those gym doors are the best decisions I've ever made, next to marrying my sweet husband.  I had another little victory in June with completing another 5k.  It was tough because it was very hilly and it was 200 degrees out that day.  Thank God for Jaime who made me shuffle my feet.

So let's start with the latest "breakthrough" moment. Jason and I went to a beautiful wedding yesterday and had an absolute ball!  What's the big deal?  I've been to very, very few weddings since my own.  A year or two ago I would have tried like hell to find something else to do (sending a gift, of course), or prayed for diarrhea so we wouldn't have to go.  Why? Shopping for dress clothes is horrible and should be outlawed! It got really old trying to find dresses in size 26, etc. as most them fell in to two categories:   moo-moo and great-grandmother-of -the-bride.  Who wants to wear those? And also, God forbid someone might snap a photo. Ew.

So lately I feel better, and am wearing a size 20 and even a smaller shoe size oddly enough.  I was able to find a cute dress and heels (yes, Lord, heels!) and I didn't feel like a big weirdo.  We had a great time with friends, and happily got over this little past hurdle.  Any night that ends with you walking with your shoes in your hands was a good one.

Me and the Mr. at the wedding 7/5.

I hope I'll be breaking the size barrier soon, and getting down to the 'teens.  I've got to step up a little bit to get back on the pace at which I was a few weeks ago.  Vacation was great - I managed to eat fairly well, exercise, and when I came back I had lost a few pounds.  Woohoo! That was mid-June.  I've had both up and down weeks since then but I'm still moving in the right direction.  I am starting to flirt with a big number - 50 pounds. (Did I say that out loud?)  I may actually be there by the end of the summer. I have about 12-ish pounds to go.  My team JAG girls are doing well too, and as a team we've lost almost 100 pounds between the three of us.

Training is still great. My trainer is still great because I'm a pain in the ass and he puts up with me. I'm being challenged a bit more and I'm hanging in there.  I love it. I may be a little addicted. And I know I'll keep getting better.  Where I need work, again, is with food.  I haven't been following my food plans as closely lately and it directly affects the scale.  Working on that....starting....now.

Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and other great philosophers

"Thinking I will live another 24" <<Ice Cube voice>>

So ok, I bent the rules last week and and it was soooo good - but I don't feel good about it.  I did have a piece of Papa John's pizza. And shrimp tacos. With guacamole.  But I was twitchy and itchy and I really needed to! I'll tell you how I paid for the Papa John's later, two-fold.

Aww yeah!! Don't act like that
wasn't hot!
P.s. I DID have hair
under the hat.

The good news is it didn't totally derail me.  I did get back on track and was down over 2 lbs. this past week! I haven't seen under 250 lbs (as best as I can guess) since I graduated high school, eh-hem, 18 years ago. Damn. Even then it wasn't much under that.  As of last week I came in at 250.8/251.5 respectively ( 2 different scales ).  Hopefully one more week and I'll be under 250, and back in those horribly awesome bib-overalls, wearing Adidas Sambas, and listening to Gin & Juice (laid baaaack).  Interesting image, huh.  It's funny, when most reminisce about their back-in-the-day self it's much different - they want to get back to 120, or size 4. I just want to get back to 250. Dang.  No, I'm not really going to put the bibs back on.  I would, though, if I still had them.  I do have a picture.  I at least cropped the other two pour souls out. They'd kill me!  We'll see what the scale holds this week!

Let's move on to the gym.  We're getting there.  With every session comes something that I'm not so good at.  I get so frustrated! -But, I'm still here doing the best I can.

 ...Now, the punishment for for that Papa John's...


My training had a little unintended payback for me last Thursday.  Big A treated me to sprints (granted, my sprints are not as sprinty as others) alternating with walking around the building.  The good thing: he did it with me, rather than just watching me go in circles which was nice.  The bad:  I paid for that slice of pizza with every lap because the smell of that baking crust was overwhelming! Torture! I worked off the pizza, and saw how I can do much better with running. It was rewarding, and Thursday ended up being a good day after all.

I'm making progress - maybe I'll "see the lights of the Goodyear blimp, saying I'm a pimp" :) soon too.

Because I'm A Lady, Damnit.

I just submitted my miserable final paper for class, I had to miss my best-good friend's going-away bash, AND baseball; so I thought I'd write something fun! 

Things are great since my last post.  I weighed in Wednesday at WW and was down 6.2 pounds for the week! I'm now down over 30 pounds since the beginning of all this now.  I have to say my new food switch-up is working! I'm thinking that was the little jump start I needed.  Now that my um tummy has um adjusted to all of my new meals and I've figured out how to cook sweet potatoes (don't judge me man, I don't cook things) I've added some new vitamins and such.  I didn't want to do it all at the same time.  The problem over the past month or so was not that I wasn't working out, or sticking with my WW points plan, it was the I had figured out how to 'work the system' food-wise.  I was staying within my points (and still eating SOOO much better than I used to) but everything was packaged, processed, 100-calorie pack, frozen, blah blah blah. I had moved away from the 'real' food and hadn't even realized it (see post about those blasted gnomes). Lots of little pieces are coming together again to work for me- gym, food, support.

Now, in WW land, this was a really big week! With this loss I hit my 25 pound mark on their program and my 10% mark! -10% of my starting body weight is gone! You can't see me now, but I'm doin' the Roger Rabbit dance in celebration! It's almost as good as a fat-man touchdown dance.  I can do that too.

I'll also say it again - and you're all tired of it I know, but walking in to the gym was the best thing I ever did. EVER.  I'm moving right along with my training sessions and loving it.  We 'boxed' for an hour this week and let me tell you- you have a beer or something at the end of a crappy day that's fine, but knocking the hell out of someone or something really takes all of the crud away! Ok, so I know I wasn't really boxing like the big boys but it really does work.  Also, I'm sure I think I was hitting Big A harder than I really was.  I'll stick with my ass-kicking version. :)

So all of this is great, but I had a little ohh-la-la moment this week.  I've been sitting, crossing my legs all the time. What's the big deal? I am, after all, a lady, dammit, so I should be sitting with my legs crossed! Well here's the deal - I couldn't do that before.  I could put my foot up on my knee and that was about it.  I was sitting in the chair at the gym just as comfy as can be and I realized what I was doing. I almost teared up a little bit.  I'm so excited, I think I'm just going to go around crossing my legs willy-nilly everywhere! Look! Here I am crossing my legs at work. And here- there I am crossing them in the gym!  Now, the thighs are still full of thunder but we're working on that. 

Summer school for me starts tomorrow and I'll be taking 3 classes.  I have no idea how I'm going to fit everything in each day!


And finally - Happy Mother's Day to my momma! She just turned 60 and deserves a major award for dealing with me for 35 of those years.

Me and Momma Joyce in July 2012- We'll have to take a picture with the work-in-progress me . This is the most recent one I can find. 

Those darned gnomes.

Whether you'll admit it or not, you all know you have them in your house.  Underwear gnomes. Dryer gnomes. Sock gnomes. And...in my house...refrigerator gnomes. 

Those little bastards have infiltrated my fridge again.  If you read my older posts, I did a sweeping clean-up of our fridge and pantry a few months back and it was awesome.  Well, the little buggers have slowly been sneaking things back in there that just don't belong and they are totally sabotaging me.  They thought I wouldn't notice, I guess, because I'm still plugging along and doing well.  I looked and there they all were -  soda, bad cheese, whole milk, more bad cheese.  Those are all the things that 'I can have just a little of as a treat.' yet they kept hanging around.  I still haven't figured out how they gnomes got them from the store to the house in those tiny wheelbarrows.

So this morning, coupons in hand of course, we did a clean up again and went shopping for my new food adventures.  It was good and I saved $58 by the way!  I think I can do it.  It will involve, though, two things that I'm not so good at:  getting up early, and preparing the night before.  I spent about two hours tonight cooking some things and getting them ready for tomorrow and the rest of the week.  It's just a new habit, I guess, that will take some getting used to.  Just pray for patience for my poor husband who has to wake me up a little earlier in the mornings now.

Keep calm and don't eat the cheese fries...

This is one of those good news/bad news posts; though I have to remind myself that there really is no bad news as long as I am working hard.

Well let's start with the good news:
I was down 2 pounds at WW weigh in this week.  That was an unexpected gift because I didn't feel any lighter! (You laugh, but sometimes you do feel when you're a pound or two down.)

And now, let's call it the other news instead of bad news:
Big A and I had a date with the measuring tape yesterday.  We revisited the measurements and info. he took down in February to see how I had progressed.  I was disappointed.  I didn't cry.  I sure as hell wanted to, but I prefer to be a tough character if I can because all crying does is make my nose run.  Some numbers were better, some the same, and some a little worse.  Based on my gym work-ethic I just really thought I would have progressed a little bit more on paper.  
Bummed.  
Totally bummed.  
It didn't change anything.  I still want to do this, and I'm still working/going to work hard.  So what do we do? We're still going to work hard 3 times per week, and I need to work a little harder on my own (between work, homework, husband, sleep...). I'm also going to try a new food plan courtesy of Big A. I'm still a proud WW girl, and this new plan should fit just fine in my points system. I'll do yet another cleansing of the fridge and pantry this weekend and start from scratch on Monday.  This may be what I need for a new jump-start, especially after a lot of eating out this week.  

There's a little motivation for this new start too. Our gym is running a "biggest loser" style contest that started this week (that's why we started over with new measurements and such). I want to win it. Period.  Ask my husband, there's not much I like more in this world than winning.  We'll see - I'm going to bust my butt, though, that's for sure.

So I just need to remember that I'm doing well - and I've come a LOOOOONNG way since that first time I walked in the door of Anytime Fitness in January.  I feel better.  Measurements aside, my clothes are starting to not fit or fit differently.  I also worked out with person who is new to the gym this past week and, even though she is quite a bit smaller than me, I was able to spot areas where have improved a lot compared to someone just starting out.  (Thanks, Big A, for pointing that out to me.)

What else?

As usual, school is kicking my butt but my two classes end next Friday.  That means this coming week is going to be tough.   Whew!   Then I'll get a school break for a whole weekend before two more classes start up for eight weeks; oh yea, and then a third will overlap the last two weeks of those two classes. Good times. Deep breaths.