Oops! ... and goals...

As you can see from the lack of posts since February, this blog ended up being a big failure.  I lost interest and well, wasn't really dieting for the last several months.  However, it's time to begin anew.  Here are my motivators...

• I just turned 36 and I really should get healthy...
• My best friend is getting married in a year and I'm in the wedding.
• I'm taking a trip next summer to visit old high school friends AND go to a book conference.
• I've also been really bad about getting in any exercise and just falling back on fast food for my meals.  And it is definitely noticeable in the fit of my jeans.

*sigh*  All this leads me to get back on track.

We'll see about getting some measurements taken, but my weight as of this morning is 294.6... which is obviously creeped up.  And that 300 mark is looming and I NEVER want to be there again.

My goals for the new week 1:

• Lose 2 pounds
• Eat out no more than 2x
• Get in 3 workouts.  These won't be too elaborate since I'm seriously out of shape, but I just need to get moving.

I'll check in next Monday to see how it went...

Oy vey!

I know I've been horrible at keeping this blog updated.  Last week was a bad diet week and the 2/16 weigh in came in with a 3 pound gain which of course depressed me. 

I can't say I did anything different this week, but my weigh in came in at 288.6, which a two pound loss.  I'm just glad that I didn't have to pay anything in this week.

Now I need to find the motivation to keep going down.  I've joined a second challenge (Romances Biggest Winner) which starts next week and runs for 6 months. *crossing fingers* this works.  I really need to lose these pounds...

Weigh Ins

Wow... my motivation totally sucks right now.  I just weighed in at 287.6, which is almost a pound gain from last week.  *sigh*   I don't think those peanut butter cups I binged on last night helped.

I really need to get on track.  One month of the challenge is gone and I can't seem to get started and moving in the right direction.  I think what I need is a good smack upside my head...

Words of Motivation

Be specific in what you want, and use specific words.

Empower yourself, and become the person you dream about.

It comes down to a simple question: what do you want out of life, and what are you willing to do to get it?

You won't fail if you're not perfect, you'll fail if you're not committed to improving yourself slightly each day.

Rather than aiming for being perfect, just aim to be little bit better today than you were yesterday.

Anything is possible, It's your choice whether or not you choose to make IT happen.

We can reverse years of damage to our bodies by deciding to raise our standards for ourselves,

then living differently. Old wounds heal, injuries repair, and the whole system improves

with just a few changes in what we put into our bodies and how we move them.

What would you attempt, if you knew you could not fail?

I've been a slacker...

I just realized that I've been AWOL for a couple weeks.  Whoops!  And while I've been absent, I've not exactly been doing all that great with the weight loss.  I'm still finding it hard to get motivated.  At first, it was my not feeling well... and let's be honest, who wants to work out when you can't breathe.  But lately, I've been finding it hard to prioritize and exercising and such is just getting pushed to the back burner.

With that said, here are some words of motivation that I can only hope and pray will flip that switch...

A win!

Granted, I've been sick the last two days, but I was at work long enough today to do my biggest loser weigh in.  Today's weight is 286... which is 5.2 pounds lost this week.  I'm not sure what I did because it wasn't exercising or not eating out that did it.  But I'll take it and hopefully this is the push I need to continue on in the right direction.

Now to get healthy so I can start exercising...

More Words of Motivation

I've been slacking in my posting, so here are several days worth of motivational phrases.

Your past does not equal, nor does it dictate, your future.

 

One definition of insanity is: Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.  

 

Do you choose to simply know the path, or do you choose to walk it? 

 

We fail because we don't strike the iron while it's hot. We don't take immediate action toward achieving what we want. We decide to wait until tomorrow, or next week, or even next month. 

Well, crap...

The first week of Biggest Loser didn't go so well.  Of course, I didn't really do anything to take off the pounds (like say... exercise).  So my official weigh in is 291.2 which is a .2 loss.  It also means I had to hand over $2 for not meeting my goal this week.  *pout*

I also discovered I like my scale better.  I weighed in on it immediately after the official weigh in (since I have my scale at work) and was at 288.2.  That's a 3 pound difference, darn it.

Now to figure out how to get some exercise in... especially with this icky snow falling outside.

Today's Words of Motivation

Make the decision, then do something -

no matter how small -

toward accomplishing what you want.

In all your adversities there lies

the seeds of equivalent advantages.

In every defeat there is a lesson

showing you how to win the next time.

Today's Words of Motivation

What are stumbling blocks and defeat before you,

can be stepping stones to victory

if you remain determined.

Today's Words of Motivation

When you get to a plateau, think of it as a landing on the stairway
to your goal.  And maintenance is a lifelong plateau,
so a bit of "rehearsal" for maintenance isn't the worst thing in the world.

Biggest Loser... as so it begins

I decided that to help me along my journey, I need a little healthy competition.  So, I've joined my company's Biggest Loser competition.  There are approximately 30 people signed up to battle the pounds and each other for the prize money.  Each of us have put $20 in the pot and the winner at the end of 3 months will win 75% of the cash (roughly $450).  We're also each setting a weekly goal.  If we don't meet that goal, we have to put money in a sidepot and the weekly biggest loser wins that cash.

So, my first weigh in was today and (on that official biggest loser scale) I weighed in at 291.4.  I set my first weekly goal at 2 pounds.  We'll see how I do this week and then adjust as needed next week.  :)

And so it begins...

Today's Words of Motivation

I wake up every day with the realization that this is it,

that there's only one shot at this life and I can either enjoy the ride

and live it to its fullest and to my highest potential

or I can stay the way I am.

The little things...

Yesterday the company I work for (Ecova, in case you were curious) had a meeting on the first floor of the office building where we're headquartered.  After the meeting was over, I slipped and had a small chococlate chip cookie.  However, I hiked up the 5 flights of stairs to get back to my desk instead of waiting for the elevator.  Yay!

And today, I've overcome peer pressure for eating lunch out and will stay in the office and re-heat my leftover potato soup. 

Now to get rid of all those candies and such at home that are taunting me day after day...

Today's Words of Motivation

Any experience can be transformed into something of value. Everything depends on the way you look at things. You cannot have the success without the failures.

Recipe: Fruit Smoothie

I'm going to try this one as soon as I figure out how to do it without owning a blender. :)


The SparkPeople Special Smoothie RECIPE

Ingredients

• 1 4 oz. container of strawberry nonfat yogurt
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen cherries
• 2 cups orange juice
• 1 cup fruit punch Gatorade

Nutritional Info

• Fat: 0.7g
• Carbohydrates: 32.4g
• Calories:138.4
• Protein: 2.5g

Purée all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Makes 4 servings.

Focus on the positive

Today's step towards changing my habits is to focus on the positive and not dwell on the negative.  That doesn't mean I'll not make mistakes along the way.  It's more that I'll acknowledge them, learn and then move forward and not berate myself for stumbling.

Yesterday I had a win and a slip.  While at work, a co-worker brought in cupcakes to celebrate her birthday.  I was able to refrain from having one.  But I had pizza for dinner and had a slice too many.  So it probably evened itself out in the end.  But I'm not dwelling on it and as it's a new day, the slate is wiped clean.

Today's Words of Motivation

Every day is a good day to SUCCEED.

Today's Words of Motivation

Success is achieved and maintained by those who try-and keep trying.

Today's *win*

Today I took my nephew, Devin, and his friend Dakota to a hockey game.  It was Devin's birthday present from me (it's sort of become a tradition).  At any rate, knowing these boys are growing and would hound me for something to eat, I gave them $10 and told them it was theirs to spend however they wanted, but that's all the money they were getting.  They chose to get these delicious homemade (or perhaps Arena-made is more accurate) mini-donuts.  The boys got way too many (I don't think they understood the concept of 2 dozen... each) and I managed to resist not finishing off the bag.  In fact, I only had 2 and we ended up tossing the rest.  Waste of money (remind me to never just give them money again)... but a win when it comes to the diet.

Go Jen!