Being Healthy Isn't Just For My Own Benefit

I keep forgetting to blog and I feel terrible about it because I feel like this really does allow for me to keep myself straight and let others have insight (what little there is) into my small brain. Today was weigh in day at work (as we started another weight loss challenge - provoked by me - for 2012). This challenge ends at the end of March and at that time I will probably promote another one.

Anyway, Results:

Down 1.9 from last week
Total: 36lbs
Long Term Goal: 39 lbs to go
Short Term (Work) Goal: 13 lbs to go

I may not be the healthiest person, but when I get on my kicks to start eating right again and walking, I feel like I can conquer the world (or at least Georgetown and Lexington). Eating right and exercising (even just a little bit) can benefit more than just yourself. I see all these beautiful women (who were bigger in the past) losing weight and just looking amazing and their progress motivates me. When I see them putting their walking shoes on and eating their healthy meals, it puts that bug back in my head. I hope that when people see me do the same it puts the bug in their head as well. I know that when I am at home and I get an apple and start eating it versus the nutty butter bar I could grab, Bryson sees that (and so does David although I think he looks away). Bryson always wants to eat my apples! Love him!
I know I don't have to preach it but eating right and exercising is not easy. If it was, we would all do it and America wouldn't be a fat country with over half the population obese. Seriously! I add to those statistics and I don't want to anymore. Eating right isn't available through drive-thru, I guess if I went to McDonald's I could get a salad. However, there are always those nice juicy burgers and french fries staring at you asking you to cheat! The best way to avoid that is to just not go!

Anyway, my goal is to win the @ work challenge like I did before Christmas. I want to be the two-time champion! :-)

What is the Caloric Value of Family???

As I am sure you all know, it is extremely hard to diet on the weekends especially if you have company! Family and Friends are great for the soul, but BAAAD for the diet! :-) Love you! Even though I spent the weekend going out to eat and enjoying the company of my family, I still did pretty well as far as sticking to my diet! See the below for a synopsis of what happened this past weekend:

Okay.. so I slipped a little for Breakfast on Sunday, but you can only pass up Cracker Barrel breakfast so many days in a row. Grant it, this is not all I ate, but just a high level view of the dedication I showed to reaching my weight loss goals! And the proof is in the pudding my friends!

Weekly weight loss (Thurs-Thurs): 4.6lbs! You read it right! :-) And even though my badges say I've lost 30lbs and have 44 to go.. It is actually:

Total Loss: 34.6 lbs
To Go: 40.4 lbs

Even though my goal is a total of 75lbs. I have curtailed that to 15 more lbs by mid-January. After that I am focusing on Manuel Baby 2012 (nope not pregnant... not yet at least)!

Did You Feel That?

Did you feel that? That was my fat @$$ falling off the dieting band wagon.. and it hurt! You know why? That would be due to the fact that I have put on a terrible 9-10 lbs since I stopped this Blog!! What else have I stopped? Probably the one last thing that made me feel better about myself & my body --- Running..

However... I am back. Maybe not at full speed, but I am definitely back. I have an end in sight.. As many of you know, I am the proud mother of a 2 1/2 year old little man named Bryson Alexander (the absolute love of my life). My husband and I would like to be the proud parents of two, but I cannot proceed down that path until I have a lower body weight. If I was to get pregnant right now, at my current weight, I think it would do more harm than good.

So as of tomorrow, I am starting an actual diet plan. I am paying for this (for real). I am joining a few ladies at my work with this program... Hopefully the support from fellow dieters and family and friends, will help me get back on track to where I need to be. Even though I won't be able to meet my ultimate goal of 75 lbs, at least I will get on track and have healthy eating skills engrained at the same time.

Wish me luck and I will talk to you later!

(Also, this is the new sign I am putting up @ my desk - haha)

Truth Be Told Tuesdays -- Don't Hate!

I know I haven't posted in a while.. but there has been a lot going on....
I've been to Southern Shores (OBX), NC beach with my husband's family.. Which was a blast but very exhausting... Then I left the beach half way through the week and went with my family to the Big Apple! An amazing trip, if I must say! If you ever make it to NYC, go see The Lion King on Broadway! AMAZING!

After all the traveling and somewhat decent eating, I came home on Tuesday last week and realized.. "Oh Shit! I have not trained at all for the Bluegrass 10K.. That is freaking 6.2 miles and I have only ever gone 3.1"! I definitely slacked in the running department while on vacation.. I ran about 2 miles at the beach one morning and then ran 2 miles in the Gym at my hotel in NYC... But I did tons of walking there... Still not enough to be prepared for the big race on Monday, July 4th!

As we are all aware (but just in case some of you don't own a calendar or go by the dates in a year), July 4th has come and gone.. and may I first say "God Bless America" and thank you to those who to this day still fight for our freedom and rights as Americans... There is no better place on Earth than the United States...

The Bluegrass 10K was by far the most fun race I have been in (although I only have the Possum Ridge 5K to compare to)... It was bigger, there were people cheering, there were a ton of water stations with people holding out hoses to soak yourself with... it was just bigger! The start and finish lines were "OFFICIAL" looking.. it was overall exciting!

I am so proud of my friend for her time.. she did AMAZING.. She finished in about 1 hour and 4 minutes... she did amazing and she RAN the entire time! I am so proud of her! Me, on the other hand, ran it in 1 hour and 33 minutes... I wanted to make it in 1 hour and 30 minutes, but I will take it. It is my first 10K and I had not run in several days. My friend and I did a test run on Thursday and it took me 1 hour and 47 minutes to finish... Several factors playing into that time: no practice in a week, it was at 5:30 pm, it was 88* and was on the Legacy Trail which I think is a harder course... Small victories.. I beat that time by 14 minutes.. They keep telling me baby steps, but my competitive side (which knows I will probably never win any of these races -- unless I am the only one in it), says I can do so much better! See the results below from the race...
Bluegrass 10K Results

BTW.. Weight results for the week ... down .4 lbs since the last weigh in! I will take it because I haven't weighed in in 2 weeks and I was on a crazy vacation for 1 1/2 of those weeks...

Also.. my dad has joined the game of life (as we should all refer to is as).. cause if we want to live longer, we have to treat our body with respect so we have a nicer ride along the way... He has gone on two walks with David, Bryson and I... And needless to say it has been a little bit of a struggle for him, but he has stuck with us until the end.. He walked about 2.2 miles the first time and 1.8 the second... I am very proud of him... He also lost 3.8 lbs since last week! That is 3.8lbs less that he has to worry about... and 3.8lbs worth of energy that he can spend on his grandbabies! Go Papa!

If anyone is interested in joining my friend and I in some of these races, let us know... We are having fun doing this (never thought I would say that) and the more people we get involved, the better we feel about what we are doing for ourselves... Even if you have to walk, then at least it is better than nothing.. Right!?

See you next week!

Official Race Results from the Possum Ridge 5K

Official Time: 41:52 (sweet because I thought it was around 42:30 something.. the seconds count)!

Official Page with Results

Truth Be Told Tuesdays ~~June 14~~

Well.. another week has come and gone with a lot of things going on in between! I weighed in today with an official weight loss of 1.8 lbs! Yea! I have broken into a lower weight range. I felt like the last few weeks have been a struggle for me to see any progress in my weight loss goals... especially since I have started training for my half marathon...  Things are getting better though!

If you read my previous post, I completed my first 5K this weekend with an unofficial time of 42:32. Official time will not be posted on the website until Friday-ish (which is when I leave for vacation- Beach and NYC here I come- Don't be jealous! wink wink)! I also saw my friend for the first time since she has lost 72 lbs! I've said it before and even told her that she is my "Thinspiration"! Seeing her look like a sexy momma gives me hope and faith that I can get there too! She has worked long and hard and I know she is happy! :-) Good job to her! I love her!

I put together this handy dandy chart today (as I pull my hair out at work in frustration at other things) ... I wanted to see my weight gain/loss since the start side by side... I have another chart that does the calculations and tracks my weekly and to-date weight loss and percentages, but nothing that has just the lbs +/- since the start... I thought it was an awesome picture of the journey I have been on.. Definitely some ups and downs, but the downs out weigh (no pun intended) the ups! :-D ~~Also.. Note that the chart is purely gains/losses and not the week to week ups and downs... Anything below the green line is a loss...

Until next week (which may be a little delayed to Weight a minute Wednesdays (as that is when I fly back to town from the beach and will have an opportunity to weigh in before I fly back out to NYC)!

Possum Ridge 5K - 6/11/11 - Taylorsville Lake State Park

My friend and I ran our first 5K on Saturday.. She could've finished with a faster time but instead she was a good partner and stuck with the slow poke! We finished in 42:32 (unofficial time) which was under my 45 minute goal... Check it out!

Half Marthon... Here I come!: Possum Ridge 5K - 6/11/11 - Taylorsville Lake Stat...: "Wow! My friend and I finished out first 5K this morning! Needless to say I am tired now! I definitely did not run the whole way, but I did..."