Measurements

Well, I'm going to have to do the 30DS when I get home from work tonight because this morning I didn't get a chance. Saturday mornings we have to flee the house so Jeremy can get some sleep from working the night shift. So, we went over to a friends house to hang out for the morning. By the time we got back from there, I only had enough time to take a quick shower and leave for work. This stinks because it's already the 4th and I have yet to do a single session of 30DS! --I know I only found out about all the wonderful girls doing it 2 days ago but still...

Right Arm:
Left Arm:
Right Thigh:
Left Thigh:
Chest:
Upper Waist (smallest):
Lower Waist (at belly button):
Hips (biggest part):

Anyone can join us and I hope you will. If you do you will love the end results. I am so excited to see the results. They say you can lose around 10lbs and a dress size. Want to know what to do?

We are all doing before pictures and measurements. For your measurements take a soft measuring tape or some yarn and cut to the sizes then you can use a flat ruler to measure the yarn.

Where to measure?

•Each arm (thickest part)
•Each thigh (thickest part)
•Upper waist (smallest)
•Lower waist (at your belly button)
•Your hips (biggest part)
Write this info down, or put it in Excel so you can come back to it after 30 days. After we complete the whole 30 days we are going to remeasure and take after photos.

Day 1 of 30 Day Shred....

I set my alarm to get up earlier... something I've done many times! but!... this time I actually got up when it went off! haha I got up and zombie-like walked around aimlessly, trying to wake up. I decided to open the drawer that held the DVD of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I pulled it out and walked over to the recliner and sat down. I sat there holding it with my eyes closed hoping just holding it would give me some momentum to actually get up and do it. Finally, I opened my eyes and started looking at it, reading everything on it. Then, I opened it....to find no disc! What the heck?! I knew it had to be in one of the 100 other DVD cases and I def. wasn't going to go searching thru all them cause who knows if it's even there! I did search around a little tho... that stinks! So, instead of doing something else productive, I checked out Facebook for a little bit...made B some breakfast and started getting ready for work/clinicals. On my way to work I decided that I should just get another DVD, if it's cheap enough. I could spend the next 30 days looking for the one I already have somewhere or get another one. I figured when I find the other one, I will give it to my sister. So, I pulled into Target, ran in and found where they were and it was only $9.00! -So I got it! I know I could have gotten it cheaper on Amazon but I didn't want to put off starting any longer. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better "Day 1"! haha

In food world, I went over my daily points by a bit. I know I have the weekly extra points to fall back on, but I am going to try to work towards not using them.

This weekend I work, but I still want to make sure to get some working out in my day! Beyond the 30DS I want to do my other 2 days of walking I promised myself I would do this week. I told myself I would do 3 days of walking this week.

So, my friend, Kylee, is getting married this coming October. I am using her wedding as my goal date. I would LOVE to be the weight I was at when I got pregnant with Brayden....274 lbs. That would mean I would have to average 3.5 lbs per week until her wedding. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can! I'm not sure if this is a goal I want to set for myself or not. I think a secondary goal (haha) should be 289, which would be lower than I have been since I had Brayden. A couple years ago, a couple friends and I (Kylee, actually) worked out quite a bit and I ended up losing a good amount of weight...but it was so hard to keep up that workout schedule and still have time to be with my family, so, it kept slowing down until it finally just stopped. Anyways, the DVD of 30DS says you can lose up to 20 lbs in 30 days... that would pretty much be 5 lbs per week. So, I figure, if I can do that, that would take down the average per week to almost 3 lbs per week. ....I think too much about all this. I should just get to work and see what comes of it! lol Another note about the wedding is the dress I ordered. I took my measurements and called them in. I said I wanted to order a size smaller than what the measurements suggested but she didn't think that was a very good idea because "it's a lot easier to bring in than let out". I figure they have a lot of girls that say they will lose weight before a wedding and end up having problems with the alteration. As long as it all works out...I don't care!

Weekend Goals
-track all points
-do not go over daily points
-walk 3 miles Saturday and Sunday
-do 30DS both days
-get measurements and "before" pictures taken and posted
-burn some calories doing some housework!

30 Day Shred Challenge

My friend Mandey and a bunch of other girls in the blogging world are starting a challenge... Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I am going start along with them! I will post my pictures and measurements as soon as I can.

I will take a minute to catch up... I spent the last 4 months or so not moving outside of work and eating whatever, whenever. I gained back quite a bit... (insert extremely sad face.) My only excuse is the toll of being so busy with work, family and school x2... I guess that's a decent excuse...I will tell myself that anyway.

The WW location that I was attending closed down and started back up in a church, with meetings only a few times a week. The times they had meetings I could not attend because of work and school conflicts, so I basically just paid for my membership and ...that's about it. Where I work has an at work program. They were starting up a new session and I decided to join it! It started three Monday's ago. The first weigh-in I was at 337.8 lbs. -ugh. My first week I stayed dedicated to my points. At the second meeting I weighed in at 332.8... 5 lbs in the first week and can you believe I ate pizza a couple times, McDonalds once, and had some Oreo's.. ok several Oreo's... but I just tracked the points and look where it got me! :) This last Monday was Memorial Day so there wasn't a meeting. I'm excited for next Monday to see how I've done. I do have to say I believe I feel better already and definately, without a doubt am not as hungry all the time! That obviously has a lot to do with my food choices... I'm eating a lot more protein and a lot less carbs.

In the last couple years, during the times I have been working on being good to myself and trying to lose weight, I always go back to wanting to start running. I will do this! I am going to start small... that's the only way! I guess I should start with walking. haha

Goals:
-get out and walk at least 3 times this week
-track points all week (including weekends)
-start the 30 Day Shred

I almost forgot! I have an added pusher... I have to not only fit into but look good in a bridesmaid dress this fall! I still cringe when I see photos from the last wedding I was in.

It's A New Year!

A lot has happened since my last post! I actually thought about quitting this blog but it's kinda fun for me to look back and see how far I've come.

My family has not slowed down at all! If anything we have gotten more crazy!! Jeremy is taking a couple classes and so am I! I started CT training Jan 3rd and started EMS classes a few weeks ago. I may be crazy but in a few short months I'll be done with those and have somthing to prove for all my hard work.

Last October I started Weight Watchers. I LOVE it!! I have the monthly pass so I can use the online tools and go to as many meetings a week as I like. Since I started at the beginning of October I have lost 18 lbs! Which brings up an important topic... since I started WW and weigh in there once a week, I now use whatever that scale says as my current weight. I was weighing in at work in MRI and that scale is off from the WW scale... by about 5 lbs. So, the MRI scale always reads about 5 lbs. less than the WW scale. So, really, my actual weight loss is about 40 lbs!! That's pretty awesome, I think!

Well, right before Christmas I went to a meeting and didn't go to meetings for the next 3 weeks or so... not on purpose I just got busy with life! I decided I needed to get back to a meeting because I felt like I was spiraling out of control. I just knew I had undone all that I had accomplished and I did not want to weigh-in. I went anyway and had to weigh-in with the receptionist (whom I don't really like) and she looked at me with a frown and her judgemental eyes and said, "You're up a pound." I was like, "REALLY!!" I was so excited that I hadn't gained all my weight back I didn't care what she thought. HAHA I spent the next week not really tracking and didn't feel motivated to do anything but knew I HAD to get to the meeting. Both of these meetings were days of blizzards and I walked in just in time to weigh-in and go. This time I stepped on the scale and got my book back and was shocked, embarrassed, and mad at myself. I was up another 2.6. GRRR!! That was on a Friday and I spent the weekend trying to be more careful- still not tracking, though. Monday I went down to the WW at work meeting a little early so I could talk to Marilyn- my wonderful leader. I had to talk to her and figure out how to get out of this rut and how to get myself back in control. I talked to her and she told my how it was a great week to try to get back in control and the weeks meeting was all about it! I couldn't stay for the meeting but took the weekly to read. She told me to check out my weight and start from there. I stepped on and cringed... then I realized that I was down 3 lbs! Over the weekend I had fixed everything and gave me a positive attitude and definitely gave me a jump start to get on plan again. Marilyn was like, Wow! See, you are always too hard on yourself! I got to thinking, I am sometimes too hard on myself. I set my goals too height and beat myself up if I don't reach those goals. So, I decided to set my goals low. I thought if I make a goal of losing 5-7 pounds a month for the rest of the year that adds up to a lot of weight! If I could do that I would be down to the weight I was before I got pregnant with Brayden! I have never really thought about how much the little things add up. A goal like that means that I only have to rely on myself to lose somewhere between 1-2 pounds a week, which is acceptable.

We got a Wii for Christmas! I LOVE it!! I love the Wii Fit!! Added bonus is that Brayden loves playing it, too so it's a fun game for us to do together. I played a game on there for about 30 minutes straight one day and found myself to be sweating. Jeremy and I played the boxing game the first day a lot and both of our arms were so sore we could barely use them for the next few days! haha

So, now that I'm back on track, I'll try to keep this blog updated! I know there are a few of you out there that like to read and see what I'm up to in my weight loss world... most of you I work with everyday and are just nosey... JODI! LMAO

MIA

Hey everyone! I know I've been MIA for the last few months. I have been so busy! Jeremy has been finishing up school....he will be graduating with his RN next week!! YAY! I have been busy chasing around my now crawling twins...EEK! Also, my little guy turned 5 years old... can't believe it. I feel like I have had a stressful but fun summer, so far. There are still so many things I want to get before fall....fishing, State Fair, biking among other things. One thing I have been really working on lately is getting my life, house, finances, and health in order. I discovered flylady.com at the beginning of July and have been using those tools to get things in order. I have been working on de-cluttering my house. It's been fun seeing things leave my house and seeing areas get all cleaned up. Today I worked in the pantry. Junk had taken over the entire counter. I got it all cleared off and then went through the cupboards. It's amazing how much stuff I had accumulated in there! I threw away stuff that had expired in '07! haha I have a long "to do" list but one thing that flylady is a big believer in and really promotes is "baby steps." If you take your time and work a little at a time, slowly developing good habits, those habits will become part of your everyday life.
I think this organization of my life was something that I needed to get done before I could make any true progress on loosing weight. If I didn't feel like I had enough time to go to the gym because I needed to do laundry or make supper, I would most likely not go. Part of my organization process is making a grocery list. If I can have all the groceries I need and a menu planned, I will be more likely to make better choices. All of this comes with being organized. So, slowly but surely I am getting there.
AND to top it all off... I haven't gained any weight! :) To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I weight right now...but I know it's right around where I've been all summer. I would be lying if I told you I'm not dissapointed. I am a little dissapointed that the last few months haven't brought me to a lower weight. I am proud that I'm getting my life in order...everything else will fall into place! :)

H2O

Why do I title my post "H2O"? ....because that is one thing I need to get more of! I usually drink water when I'm at work but when I'm at home, for some reason, I don't really get any water. Tonight we filled up our water pitcher to keep in the fridge. So far, it has gotten all of us to drink a lot of water tonight! We just have to remember to keep it filled. Brayden has always been an awesome water drinker. The kid is always drinking something.

So, goal for this week: Drink more water. To be more specific... drink at least 64 oz of water. That is nothing...if I'm at work! I sometimes drink three 32 oz. glasses of water during my shift. However, when I'm at home... I might only drink one 16 oz. glass. When I'm at home, I seem to consume more pop. That's not good, I know. That's why I'm making my "drink more water" goal. The pop issue will have to be addressed at another time. That will be a hard one.

So, wanna hear the good news? ....... I am down another 2 lbs! I'm pretty excited! :) So, that brings me to 332 lbs. ...I realized that I need to start putting the current weight in my post because I change my weight along the side. 332 lbs is pretty exciting to me because the lowest I've been since I started losing weight in January is 327 lbs (and that was on an off scale...my actual weight at that time was 334 ...I'm pretty sure.) Yes, I gained a little weight back...but I'm getting myself back on track. I'm going to say that my May weight gain was due to stress... just thinking about May gave me a little hot flash! ...truly! HA

Tomorrow, I have the day off, so I need to get a little exercise in. The rest of the week is going to be pretty busy, so I need to get it in when I can.

I hope to have good news again next week. I'm getting closer and closer to my short term goals. I like to think that I'm only 7 lbs away from one of my short term goals. I guess it all comes down to who I am. I am a immediate satisfaction kind of girl. Having short little goals gives me something to celebrate more often. Most importantly, it works for me.

I'm a Loser

Really! I am! LOL! I'm down 4 lbs. from last week. :)

To be honest, I don't feel like I really did much to lose the weight. I ate a little better this week compared to the couple weeks before. That's about it.

I bought a new DVD to try out. It's a Biggest Loser Workout. I have yet to try it out. I want to try that one out this week and I want to use Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD I have. I have done that one before and love it! It's only like a 20 minute workout but you definately feel it! Those are a couple workouts I'd like to try this week.

I also bought Jillian's Hot Bod in a Box. It's a collection of excersice cards. A friend of mine uses them a lot and I thought I'd check them out, too. I should get it in the mail pretty soon.

I need to get out for walks and bike ride, too! All the kids love to go on walks. Tomorrow I'll try to leave early before taking them to daycare and go for a walk.

Goal check: I'm only 9 lbs away from getting some new clothes! I only want a couple things, to start with! New clothes are a pretty good incentive. I think it would be a good incentive for almost any woman! I don't have many clothes and love getting new things. Sometimes I don't like shopping because the way the clothes look on me. I think, I'll just wait to get that. I'll wait till I've lost some weight before I get that. That's probably why my closet looks the way it does. It's full of clothes that are either ugly or too small.... and by full, I don't really mean full. My closet is pretty sad, for a girl... or a boy! It doesn't help that there are only a couple places that have clothes that fit me. It would be nice to at least fit in the size 14-18 range. You can usually find a few things in those sizes.