A Little Advise....

These were apropos this AM in my email...

How Not to Look Like You're Hungover

*very proud of myself for getting up and doing my 4th scheduled workout via EA Active 2 this morning.  I could've easily forced myself back to bed, but I didn't.  I stuck with it, and I feel better for it!!!

and the ever helpful

Hangover Prevention (possibly for tonight.  Ha!)

The day went off without a hitch, unless you count some tears shed around 5:45pm when a certain girl realized she was stuck at home (no car, and couldn't drive if she wanted), and her usually fun husband was overtired and not leaving the house.  But other than that, fun was had and I even got in about 2.5 miles of walking.  Although I am sure the corned beef and beer offset that as even a remote possibility of counting as exercise.  Already counting down until next year.

In other news, I completed my first full week on Weight Watchers, as well as my first full week of moving atleast 30 minutes per day.  Yet I am afraid to get on the scale and see if I show any changes.  I don't feel any lighter - and I forgot about taking my measurements, thus the reluctance.  I know I worked for it, but I am not too sure how well I actually accounted for my points the past day or so (I may or may not have shoved an entire red velvet cupcake into my mouth before I could even think about what I was doing.........).  I guess tomorrow AM will tell....  Stay tuned.  

 Have a good weekend!

Time to (wo)Man up!

This week on RFBLC I blogged this.  See somewhere between last year at this time, and right now, I forgot how to be motivated.  It is a big difference - last year I was gung ho, balls to the wall about getting healthy and making lifestyle changes that would last a lifetime.  I couldn't for the life of me think of why I am so much less motivated this time around...  Until I was looking through some of my digital photos albums from the past year - and it hit me like a giant exercise ball right in the head!  I lost 30 pounds last year.  I no longer look at photos of myself and think "fat thoughts".  I like the way I am looking these days - and that is huge for me*.  Sure, when I catch myself in our full length mirror getting dressed for work, I can point out all of the areas that need major work, but clothed and put together, I like where I am at.

And than reality sets in...

While I am really liking where I am at these days, I know I am only half way to my original goal of 65 pounds.  and if I think I look (and feel) better these days, I had to remind myself to think about how good it will be to look/feel even better a year from now.  I cannot settle for where I am now, when I can do so much more!  I have four weeks left of our family competition, and the good thing is, I will have even more weeks after that.  But for the sake of right now, and the wonderful thing that is short term goals, lets just take these next four weeks into account.  It is time to woman up and get motivated to reignite those changes I had been making and loosely following for the past year.

So here goes...  My short term goals for the next four weeks:

1. Food.  Logging my food daily (yes, that means even those sneaky glass(es) of wine after dinner!) Sticking within my caloric count for the day.  Fruits and veggies.  Water and tea.
2. Exercise.  No excuses.  30 minutes of exercise daily.  Walking.  Wii fit/Just Dance/Active 2.  Jillian, Theresa and Leslie. Work in 5,000 steps a day (yes, I realize the recommendation is 10,000 - but currently I barely break 2,000 in my normal routine.)
3. Sleep.  Start a routine.  In bed by 11:30pm LATEST during the week.  Out of bed by 7:30am workdays.  

There are more aspects I could be working on, but I find that baby steps and journaling seem to keep me on track - and these are my first steps.  No one can make these changes for me.  I have to want to make these changes, and have to make the choice to stick with it.  I WANT to make the changes, and I WANT/need to stick with it.  

I am sick of writing about the same roadblocks (roadblocks=excuses.  excuses I make to myself to justify not doing what I know I need to do) in every post.  And I am sure your sick of reading it.  Time to make some changes, time to do a Spring Cleanout, and keep moving forward.  I was looking at some old blog posts and I came across this line that I really love....  It refers to motivation, and while I have to be the one to want to be motivated, alittle help never hurts!   (Special shout out to my twitter peeps that are HUGE inspirations, and motivator helpers - yes I just made that word up.)

Help keep me motivated, and if I get too down on myself about anything-slap me through the computer!

*I got to the point in my life that I did not like what I looked like.  I was big.  Bigger than my friends (not that they would have ever told me that - but pics don't lie), and getting bigger.  It really does put a big dent in the ole self esteem when you really start to look at yourself in disgust.  It took me a while, and a few tries, but I am getting there...  and that is good! 

Mid-April Showers and Other Musings...

So, as I sit here and type at quarter of 1am, it is not lost on me that my last post touched on the fact that I am not sure why I cannot wake up early... I just finished a work project and some contracts that should have gone out a week ago, so I was clearly doing important stuff! However, I am still going to try to get up and fit in about an hour of some physical activity, as my day is not looking like I will be able to fit it in tomorrow on lunch. Guess the library will have to wait until Thursday.

Well, the Biggest Loser 2.0 has commenced, and at the first weigh in I realized I had gained back almost 6 pounds of what I had lost during the last round. It really is amazing what I can do to this body in a matter of two weeks! I realize that I was "treating" myself (if you will) to McD's breakfast, and maybe overdid it on the fried rice when I should have stuck to just sushi - but I needed those two weeks. Seeing it now, it wasn't that I needed it as a reward -- but as a realization. I realized that during those two weeks, even while keeping up with my physical activity (walking, and other various forms), the foods I put into my body made me feel like "blah".

The bad news is that once you succumb to those fast food cravings, it almost turns into an addiction. I had it one morning, and the next morning I was craving it! The good news is that since I started eating home cooked/prepared foods again for all three meals, and replacing my snacks with healthy choices, I have since lost 4 of the said gained pounds. With weigh in three days away, I think I might be able to show a significant loss just due to being back on track and eating the foods my body is now starting to crave (happily, not fast food!).

Also - not sure if this is related at all, but I had THE.WORST start to my period this cycle. Today I woke up with not only crazy allergies, but major cramps! Again, this could just be a bad month - but coming off of my two week binge, I feel that my body is trying to tell me something. As I have not had cramps in a long while, and today - they made a comeback like no other.

In other news - J and M DJ and Karaoke is back in business! We have recovered all of our music, and are slowly working on the karaoke files. We are now in the process of updating to a new laptop for DJ purposes only. Anyone out there have one of the mini's? We need to find something with a large hard drive, and enough ram to run our DJ software. No other bells and whistles. Suggestions are welcome! We had our first gig of the year last Saturday at St. Johns all school social and I think it is safe to say that not only did the kids have a BIG time, but the parents did also! Shameless plug: We are booking into the end of the year for Birthdays, BBQ's, Grad Parties, and holiday parties - check us out at the link above, and shoot us an email or give us a call!


Busy weekend ahead - I have to find some time to get my OPI Axxium nails touched up. So far, they lived up to the claim of lasting three weeks. The growth is annoying, but I found I can paint over them and you can't even tell (only had to do this for week 3, as the growth was out of control for me - and I just can't afford a manicure every two weeks). I desperately need them cut down though - as typing has become quite challenge. My misspellings are even more ridiculous than before. (Spell check please!)

Enough for now... Goodnight, and happy early mornings to me! HA!

ME on A Diet!

So, today was our weigh in, and I am down another 3.0lbs - bringing me to a total loss of 17.6lbs since January 15th!!!

I finally got through the book YOU on A Diet by Dr. Oz - after taking the What is my REAL AGE Quiz - I realized it is time to get moving everyday to try to get this age down... Can you guess what my REAL AGE was??

Take the REAL AGE Quiz here: http://cls.realage.com/ct/my-realage/

What I REALLY like about the site as a whole is that it offers SO MUCH information, and guides...FOR FREEE!!!!! You don't even have to have read the book to check out the site, and follow along with suggestions, etc.

In addition to all of the info this site shares - you can also access the Fitness/Workout videos online that you can follow along with at home. Here are a few I have been trying for a few weeks:

WALKING PART 1and 2 - Get Started/Aerobic Walking and Stretches

--Dr. Oz recommends walking EVERYDAY for atleast 30 minutes. Living in Cleveland, we all know this is easier said than done with the weather. These two videos combined give you not only your 30 minutes total, but some aerobic benefits and you accomplish 2 miles by the time you are done!

http://www.realage.com/videos/?bcpid=30402252001&bclid=5030523001&bctid=16661825001

http://www.realage.com/videos/?bcpid=30402252001&bclid=5030523001&bctid=16661820001

They also recommend incorporating their 20 minutes stretch workout every other day, you can check it out here:

http://www.realage.com/videos/?bcpid=30402252001&bclid=5030523001&bctid=14990668001

*I am not thrilled with this guys voice, as he kind-of sounds like a creep-o, but the workout is short, and you feel great afterward! And - what a great excuse to buy a cute yoga mat!

As I noted yesterday, I am also incorporating some awesome arms into my routine (courtesy of T-Tapp, one of my favorite go to workout videos):

Today, I am going to work on a schedule for doing these exercises, as well as making sure I schedule my 30-45 minute walks outside so I don't get bored with the videos. While I would like to say this is what I have been doing faithfully - I am not going to lie. However, I have been sneaking in atleast 2-3 days of this activity, and it is clearly making a difference!

I set my goal for 20 lbs in 12 weeks when I started this competition - not knowing whether this would give me a chance at winning or not. I wanted to be realistic. And so far I have. The eating, I have made a habit. Now it is time to work on the exercise, atleast doing something everyday. I've got to fit it in even if it means waking up early in the morning (if you have any tips on this, send on over, as I can use them!).

Go me! And here's to the last weigh in of this competition in the next week!