Has it REALLY been that long?

Since I last blogged. Wow. I'm so sorry. I hate that I have neglected this and my weight loss efforts for this long. I am nearing the end of planning a very stressful conference and dieting and exercising has been near impossible. I am about to really kick this into high gear again. I wish I was now. I'm doing the best I can which unfortunately isn't good enough. I'm back and will definately be here with another post Monday.

Hi

I've been going through a lot personally and professionally and have been way too busy to do much of anything out of the ordinary. I have been super stressed with work and have practically been living there. I am also emotionally in a rough place but I am working to climb out of my funk. It's hard though when I am sleep deprived but I am working on fixing that problem. 

I am hoping to get back into the routine of things by tomorrow. I just got my office under control this morning and I am hoping to regain control over my house tonight. I think once I do that I will be good to go. I just feel so out of control of everything right now. I am so overwhelmed.

I will weigh in tomorrow morning which I am not looking forward to. I have had a lack of time to take care of myself and I am very worried that after all my hard work its going to show on the scale. I'm just going to have to work that much harder.

Catching Up

I think my body is finally getting the idea on this whole weight loss thing. I am starting to lose the weight a little better and dropping a little faster. I am so excited. 

There is no weigh in this week because I weighed in twice last week. I'm starting to move up in our family weight loss competition. I am now positioned in 8th place from about 15th place. I am starting to gain on the others. It feels good to feel like I am back in the competition.

I started getting up earlier to get to the gym. I figured if I got there earlier I could get a longer work out in. This is the first day to make it out of bed almost on time and I feel like I have been run over by a truck. I hope my body can get used to this routine. Going to bed early is the really hard part especially now that it doesn't get dark until close to 9:00 now.

Much to talk about...

Sorry I am a little late. I had an insane weekend which left me not too well on Monday. I'm still not feeling great but I am a million times better.

The gym is going great! I am LOVING my new treadmill routine. My hour and a half on there flies by. So far there has been no agonizing times while I'm on it. I am slowly getting into the Curves routine. it's been hard since I'm at my other gym so much and I don't ever feel like Curves is adding much. I need to make it at least 3x a week to give it a fair chance.

I did great on my weight loss this week. I lost nearly 5 pounds, 4.8 to be exact. I am hoping to pull ahead some in the weight loss competition. We will have to see how the next couple of weeks go but I think my body is starting to catch on to the weight loss thing.

Last night I went to go get fitted for a bridesmaid dress. I need to lose about 10 inches in the waist and 20 inches in the hips to even fit in it. Which means I have to hit this whole thing even harder than I already am. I have a new focus, new determination and a new game plan. Here are the pictures. I HATE the color and this is not the dress. I am so glad that the color looks better in pictures because its terrible in person.

Can you feel the sarcasm?

Hmm... Is there anything that I am missing? I think I've covered it for now. See you later.

Words of Affirmation

Last week was a good week. Not necessarily in pounds or inches but in spirit. I am really getting my fun groove back at the gym. It was really enjoyable for a long time but getting into it this time around has been terrible. I've gotten into 3 forms of exercise that I am just digging and I have the best set of music I've had in a long time. I am not looking forward to the day where I lose interest in the music and it stops working for me.

This week I got 3 random compliments from people at the gym and some advice that really confirmed what I've been doing at the gym. One of the compliments came from a cute boy and i have to say that I was glad that he finally got off the treadmill so I could run again. My heart rate would not go down far enough with him there running next to me. LOL.

I am only down .2 this week but that's ok because I am having some major PMS issues right now. So its all good. As long as I didn't gain.

That's more like it

I am down nearly 4 pounds!!! Yay for me!!!

So I am really proud of myself. Things have been different for me this time around. I have noticed some really great habits coming out of me lately. The first one, I am an emotional eater. I eat when I am happy or sad and I eat when others are happy or sad or anything in between. I have made many conscience choices to not eat emotionally over the past several weeks. I've had some pretty challenging situations lately. I have also been careful to reward myself with food for good diet behavior. I don't want to think of food as a reward.

Then there is the gym. No matter what I have made going to the gym a top priority. I've pulled many late nights just to make sure that I go. On the weekends, I have been trying to go twice a day. It's hard because I live pretty far from the gym but I am still trying to do it anyway. I've changed the treadmill routine. I am walking at a slower pace without an incline and then on a few occasions during the workout i will bump up the speed and run in 2 min. increments. I can't do it any longer than that because my heart rate starts to get too high. Running is a big deal for me. i am pretty clumsy and accident prone so running for the most part is generally out of the question. That ad its kind of uncomfortable with your fat flying around. LOL. Surprisingly that hasn't really been an issue. I'm also varying what I'm doing. I take water aerobics now, swim, and play racquetball. I actually thing the treadmill is beginning to miss me a bit ;O) This week I actually start using my Curves membership.

Well that's it for now. Here are this weeks stats.

last Week: 328.0
This Week: 324.2
Weight Lost: -3.8 pounds

I better be losing inches..

because I am definitely not losing pounds. I've been working my ass off at the gym and staying in my calorie range and still have nothing to show for it. Well not really. My clothes are fitting better and I did buy a smaller size pant. I really don't count the pant thing for too much until I can fit into a smaller jean size not casual workout clothing.

Is it too much to ask to want to see pounds too?

I weighed myself on Friday afternoon and I was down to 326.2. I was thinking it would be at least that if not a few pounds lighter. I dropped 2 1/2 pounds in one day so I was thinking I would have a great weigh in. So I guess that was were the disappointment was. I have been really good and making it to the gym sometimes twice a day. Don't take this as discouragement because I'm not discouraged. My clothes are fitting better and regardless of the kind of pant I bought it was still a smaller size. That alone is worth celebrating!! I'm just wondering when I get to actually see the pounds come off?

Oh well, it will happen, I just need to practice some patience!!

This week's goals. I refigured my calorie intake. Which hasn't really changed since I haven't lost much but I balanced the calories out a little better. I just gave myself more to eat during the week and less to eat on the weekend.

Have a great week!

I have a new love!!

And it's called racquetball. On Superbowl Sunday, I was over at a friends house and I got to experience the Wii for the first time. It was so much fun!! My best friend and I played tennis. We had so much fun and I remembered that we have racquetball courts at our gym. So I recommended that we pick up the sport.

Vanessa and I have two weekly dates. Lunch on Wednesday and the gym on Thursday after her kids are in bed. We never miss lunch and always forget the gym. I think we've made it to the gym twice over the past 2-3 months. We have finally found our motivation for our Thursday night gym time. I am so excited. It's also great exercise. I looked it up I burned about 1000 calories playing last night. I felt great but by the time I got home and showered I could hardly walk. So, i pulled out the myoflex, motrin and heating pad and got busy nursing my wounds.

This morning, i tried something new... water aerobics. I've been wanting to try it out for almost a year now but either forgot about it or I was too tired to get out of bed for it on Friday morning. I got my ass kicked. I was pleasantly surprised. I was still in some pain from racquetball the night before so the nonstop leg exercises in the pool were pretty brutal. Nothing the hot tub water fall couldn't fix :O)

See you on Monday, unless i come up with another reason to blog!

What A Week!!

So between traveling and PMS I gained .8 pounds. I stayed within my caloric intake and I wasn't bad at all. I even had about 6 moments this weekend where I was proud of myself. I guess that's ok. It could be worse. So much for that 8 pound loss. It's a new week with hopefully new determination. Thank you guys for all of your love and support. I love it when you comment on my blog.

This week I really need to concentrate on actually making it to the gym. For some reason that has been a challenge for me this time around. I think it has to do with the condition of my back and my left foot. I bought some new tennis shoes over the weekend so hopefully that will help my foot. I really hope that my shoes were the problem because if not then I just wasted money on shoes that I didn't need. Then there is my back. It's in terrible shape. For those of you that don't know this about me, I trained to become a massage therapist and let me just say that ignorance is bliss. I would probably still be in pain but I wouldn't be as aware of the pain. Does that make sense? I decided this morning at the gym that I was going to get better about doing an all around stretch. I've been stretching just not every part of me.

I signed up for Curves! I am NOT a morning person and the morning lady at Curves is a little irratating to me. So I just need to bite the bullet and go.

So this weekend was extremely stressful. I was put in a horrible situation during my business trip to Dallas. On my way home I was extremely distressed and upset and I wanted a sweet tea from Chickfila to soothe my pain. You would be proud of me. I passed them all and never stopped to get one. You have no idea how hard that was. I am an emotional eater, happy or sad. I was in an emotional crisis and completely passed up the opportunity to feed my pain over and over again. Yay for me!

Please keep my back and foot in your prayers. I am already off to a difficult start this week. It is now Tuesday and still haven't made it in to the gym. We have our first weigh in for the family competition on Thursady and I would like to drop a little more before then.

Have a great week.

Curves

So I signed up for Curves yesterday. I thought it would be great to add that to my exercise routine. I do have to say that I feel a little out of place. I am by far the youngest person I have seen in my two days there and my mother assures me that will be the case from here on out. The lady training me this morning was excited because I was young and picking up quickly. We will see how well this goes.

Bittersweet

This weigh in was bittersweet but mostly sweet. I lost 4.2 pounds. Yay for me. The reason why it was a little bitter is because I weighed myself on Friday and I was down about 5.5 pounds and was thinking I would be able to hit the 8 pound mark by this morning. Oh well. What can you do? The weekend was a little off but I stayed the corse regardless. All that matters is that I hit the 4 pound mark. My goal for awhile is 4 pounds a week. So I am patting myself on the back.

Last Week: 333
This Week: 327.8
Total Loss: -4.2

This weeks goal is to hit 320 pounds. That means I need to lose 7.8 pounds. I don't believe that is too far out of reason. Last week I only made it to the gym 4x and the workouts were very short. Here are the things that I am going to add this week to boost my weight loss efforts.

1. Make it to the gym everyday with regular length workouts.
2. Sign up for Curves and attend if I am signed up early enough in the week.
3. Continue to drink all of my water.
4. Continue keeping a detailed journal.

Can you hear that?

No. Ok. I guess its just me. I am at work right now and the Chex mix is calling my name. There is nothing I love more than snacking on Chex mix and sipping a cold Dr. Pepper in the afternoon. Mmmm. My best friend said I should threaten it with violence. Not a bad idea if the Chex mix belonged to me. Somehow the peanut butter bar and apple are not cutting it. Sigh....

I made it to the gym!!

Yay! It actually happened. I made it to the gym this morning. This was extremely hard for me. I haven't been myself lately and as much as my head is ready for it all of the my heart and body have had a hard time catching up. I figured if I didn't make it in today it probably wouldn't happen again until next week. My determination is starting to come back. I am definitely a work in progress right now but I am determined to beat my lack of determination and will power.

My dear friend, Sasha

There is no weigh in this week. Yesterday, instead of weighing in I had to go say my final goodbyes to a friend I grew up with. She passed away one week ago, today. It was sudden and unexpected. Sasha was very well loved and will be missed.

As for the diet, last week was just rough. Emotionally and just lack of time. It was unexpectedly crazy busy. Oh well. I did watch what I ate but I didn't count calories or journal. I was even snacking on carrots, cucumbers, avocados and tomatoes instead of other crap in the midst of all the sadness.

So you might be thinking, what will Shannon be doing to snap out of the funk. I have two motivations. Yesterday, I found out what dress and color I will be wearing in a wedding in July. The dress is beautiful, the color is burnt orange. There are 3 colors and this was the color I did NOT want. I wanted the wine colored dress. Oh well. It's not as bad as I imagined but I am going to have to change the color of my hair a bit so that my hair doesn't look orange and lose a lot of weight so I don't look as much like a round pumpkin. I am hoping for 80 pounds. I have a little more than 5 months to kick ass in the losing weight department. That is about 16 pounds a month. My dream is to lose about half that within the next 6-8 weeks. My dress needs to be ordered by then and the less they will have to alter, the better. I am a big girl so the 80 pounds is a lot to lose but not a complete stretch either. That would also put me at 250 pounds. Still not light but compared to what I look like now, I will be smokin' hot. Or as the blog says, I'll be...

Bringing Sexy Back

The second motivator is the $1000 weight loss competition that I have organized. That's right, you read that correctly. The family has started another weight loss competition that will extend through May 7. Check out the competition blog thebiggestfamilyloser.blogspot.com. This time around we addded friends to the competition.

I am currently, as we speak, in the process of posting pictures of the burnt orange dress all over everywhere. So far the refrigerator at work has 6 dresses taped to the inside and outside of the refrigerator. I have one on my monitor and soon there will be one over my phone. I am going to go searching for pictures of a $1000 bill to add to the collection. I think I will post a picture of the dress on this blog. It will be everywhere I am at all times.

See you next week with my new weigh in results.

A little bout with depression

So this week is not the outstanding first week that I wanted. It's been a difficult week to start. I've had unusal circumstances almost everyday this week beginning with Monday and a late work night. Tuesday was my Dr's appointment followed by an all day celebration of my best friends Vanessa's birthday. Wednesday was rough. A friend of mine that I grew up with passed away along with Vanessa's grandmother. Her grandmother raised her and was the only family she has left. Thursday was just filled with sadness and Friday through Monday will be filled with working and seeing lots of old friends and remembering Sasha. I'm a little down and allowing myself to be that way. I am giving myself through Monday night and then first thing Tuesday morning it will be back to the daily grind and routine.

Please keep Sasha's family in your prayers. She was an only child an really close to her family. Also keep her friends in your prayers too. She was too young to dye and there are a lot of people having a hard time with her death. Also keep Vanessa in your prayers too. She is having a really hard time as well. It's been really hard on her too.

I'll see you either late Mondy or sometime on Tuesday with week one results.

The Joys of Starting Up Again!!

I'm back. Sorry for the lack of communication over the past several months. I've been here, there and everywhere. Literally. So I am back in the swing of it all and already have a story for you. It only happened a couple of hours into my first day back into dieting. But first before I go into that let me tell you what kind of things I've discovered about myself and dieting over the past few months.

I LOVE Jillian Michaels and her approach to fitness. Jillian was one of the trainers from the Biggest Loser. I watched the show for the first time from start to finish. I've watched it before but usually just an episode or two per season. This year was different because my sister was college friends with one of the contestants on the black team. Anyway, I purchased Jillian's book Winning by Losing which is absolutely amazing and would recommend it to anyone of any fitness level. I now have a lot of direction for what I need to do for myself.

To make a long story short, I think my problems with losing the weight earlier in the year came from all the things that were going on and the stress I was putting myself under. I had a Dr.'s appointment today and she seemed to agree that that was more than likely the cause. I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and discovering a smaller me!!

Not much is changing with what I'm doing. I was able to find out how my body metabolizes food and the formula for figuring out what my calorie intake should be. So now I know what foods to eat and what percentages of fat, proteins and carbs to consume per meal. I think that is the short of it all. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

Ok. So back to the funny story. Well, I thought it was funny. I'm not sure you will think so. Jillian has this water she recommends drinking for 7 days to help rid your body of 5-7 pounds of excess water weight. It consists of distilled water, sugar free cranberry juice, lemon juice and dandelion root tea. All of which I am not a huge fan of. So I made the drink Sunday for Monday. I knew it was going to be terrible so I automatically plugged my nose and decided to just do it. That's what I did but at what I thought was more than half way through the glass, I need to stop for air. Well, I was barely a fourth of the way through it and I started feeling a small gag reflex coming on. I decided to start drinking it again and stop thinking about it so much. So within the first gulp I puked the water up all over the kitchen. So much for that. At lunch I decided to try again. This time I decided not let the tea sit so long in the water. I am now ready to try again except this time I decide not to unplug my nose if I needed to come up for air. I got that second glass all the way down. Yay for me!!!! So I attempted a third. I pushed my luck on that one. I barely made it through a fourth of the cup before it all came back up agian. I am waving the white flag! I tried and won't try that again for a very long time. LOL.

Thanks for sticking this out with me and supporting me through all of this!!

Happy New Year!!

I know its been awhile. I've been working a whole lot lately and haven't had time to do much of anything with my site, diet and healthy living. It has been crazy to say the least. I can't say that I haven't been completely lackadaisical on the issue. I've been doing a lot of research, reading and planning. I just haven't had the time to execute the plan but that all changes on Monday. I will probably have a large post sometime this weekend or first thing Monday morning. Those are the plans anyway :O) See you soon.