Weight Watcher's- Week One

I spent this week focusing on one thing- tracking. I had already been in the habit of tracking calories on myfitnesspal, but I needed to get back in the habit of tracking points. 

I tracked, with 100% honesty.

Weight Watcher's gives you a set amount of daily points (the minimum you have to eat) as well as 49 extra weekly points to use as you would like. You also have the opportunity to earn activity points.

For now, I'm only tracking activity points by what my Jawbone UP gives me, and I am not eating them back. I really want to work on my relationship with food before I get back into focusing on fitness. My workout plan for July is 15 workouts. No real plan, just to be active for 15 days of the month in one way or another.

My first week ended like this:

And it paid off:

I'm partly shocked that I lost as much as I did, but at the same time, I'm not. I don't want to sound too full of myself, but I worked the plan and it showed. 

I'm beyond excited and ready to take on week 2. I want to keep this momentum going, so in addition to tracking, this week I'm focusing on water and more fruits and veggies. 

In other recent events, Isabel started Tae Kwon Do tonight. She'll be going two days a week in hopes of improving her concentration, respect and discipline. 

I did Tae Kwon Do when I was younger and ended up earning my black belt. I loved it. 

Isabel has been testing her limits, and winning. I'm not proud to admit it, but parenting is hard.. And I've reached a breaking point in my patience. So, Patrick and I are working on our team work and parenting and utilizing whatever outside help we can get. 

Thankfully, the studio near us is having a deal for a 4 week trial (two days a week) and a uniform. We figured if we see a difference in 4 weeks and/or she's enjoying it, we'll continue. Here's hoping!!! 

And another blanket is complete! I finished last night and was able to give it to my coworker today. It's the first blanket to receive a name... 

50 shades of green.

This is just a quarter of the blanket. Even with taking the blanket with me to Mammoth, it still took me 3 weeks to finish. At this pace, I won't be done with my list for another two and a half years. Whoops!!

Time to get back to work on the next blanket..

Living Room- Before and After

I believe I've shared some of these pictures before, however I wanted a place to be able to go back and look at the before and after of all of the rooms of our home.

I wanted to start with the living room, because it is one of my favorite rooms in the house and also the one that is the most complete. There are still changes and improvements happening to almost all of the other rooms, but this one is probably 99% complete. That is, until I decide to change it again..

Before:

 

 

 

After:



 

I'm really happy with how the living room turned out and like the little details around the room. I used to have a lot more "stuff" on the end tables and around the room, but realized that less is more in some cases, and I think I've found a good balance.

 

We decided to do a two-toned wall before we even moved the furniture in and then Patrick added the chair railing himself.

 

I'm pretty lucky that he gave me free range to decorate the house the way I want it. I do my best to include him when I bring something home, at least to get his opinion. If he hates something, I don't keep it, but he's been so flexible in letting me do my thing.

 

I'm really looking forward to sharing the other rooms because I think they've all turned out really well..

Out With The Old

It may be summer, but I'm in a spring cleaning type of mood. 

Ever since we moved into our house a year ago, we've been adding to our pile of stuff to sell at a garage sale. It's been getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, basically taking over a large portion of our garage. 

My parents and in laws both gave us items to sell as well, meaning that the amount of stuff was pretty overwhelming, in a good way.

I got a call from my sister a couple weeks ago that her neighborhood was planning a garage sale. She gets a lot more traffic down her street, so we decided to mark our stuff and bring it over, in hopes of making some money (to be put into our savings and go towards debt) and emptying out our garage. 

But here's the "problem"... 

Now I want to go through the entire house and clean it all out/organize it again. 

There are still a lot of rooms that need to be cleaned, but at this point- since the garage is finally ready to be organized- everything that doesn't make the cut will be donated. 

Win-Win

I'm excited to get the house condensed, cleaned, and organized so that I can finally take some pictures to share. I would like to do a before and after post to show the changes we made from when we bought the house to now, but there's always a project on the list (and I'm sure there always will be).

It's been fun watching our house transform into our home. I continue to fall deeper in love with it everyday, and even though I say that I wish we had more space, I know that this house was meant for us. 

I see a lot of cleaning in my future for the rest of today and tomorrow.. It will be so worth it though.

It's All About The Mindset

It may just be because I'm in the "honeymoon" phase of this attempt and feeling positive is a normal emotion of this part of the journey, but I'm choosing to believe that it is so much more than that. 

I have never started a weight loss program while feeling positive. I've always started because of a negative reason:

I hate the way I look.

I hate how much I way.

I hate the way my clothes fit.

I hate my body.

This time I'm doing it because:

I'm ready to be healthy.

I'm ready to be active again.

I already love my body and what it's done for me and can do for me, I'm just ready to improve what I already have.

I've done this before and I know I can do it again. 

I'm prepared to celebrate my progress no matter what.

I've only just started, but I feel good. I don't feel discouraged. I feel positive that I can do this. I will do this.

I've set a weight goal in my head, but am prepared to be flexible. I have an amazing support team and I know that I can rely on them, but more importantly, I know I can rely on myself. 

I can be my own cheerleader and celebrate my successes. 

It's so different this time. And that feels so good. 

Weight Loss Attempt #327

I'm officially at my highest adult weight (it just keeps going up) and am officially ready to do something about it. 

I decided a couple days ago that I'm tired of being out of shape. I'm tired of getting out of breath after short distances. I'm just tired. I decided that I wanted to make a motivation board for myself to, well- motivate myself. 

I wanted positive quotes, a chart showing my losses, and a bikini to work towards wearing with confidence, etc.

I went out last night and bought the bikini. I didn't want to be unrealistic about a size I would fit into, so I bought a large for both the top and bottom. And then I started thinking about how I was actually going to lose the weight..

That's when we drove by Weight Watchers and the meeting (with my favorite leader) was starting in 45 minutes.

So I signed up. Because, for me, I need the meetings. I need the leader. I have seen success before. I know I can do it again. 

I feel very positive about it this time. Mostly because I'm in such a different place mentally and going into it I actually feel like I can do it. But also because I'm not training for anything right now and won't be. I found that weight loss was extremely difficult for me while running as much as I was, for both the reason that I needed to fuel my body and because I had no self control in how I was fueling my body. But now I can simply focus on my eating while using exercise as something to enjoy.

I'm not going crazy with the goals or plans or schedules. 

In fact, this week I am only hoping to track everything honestly (as I've been doing with myfitnesspal, so it shouldn't be a problem) and drink more water while staying within my points. 

In regards to working out, I am looking at it on a week to week basis and scheduling 3-5 workouts a week. This can include a run, a walk, the bike, strength, etc. Basically whatever I feel like. 

So this week I have strength scheduled today and Friday and cardio scheduled for tomorrow. 

Weigh ins will be Tuesday nights and I will take progress pictures and measurements monthly. I took my "before" pictures last night, but I am not ready to share them.. All pictures will be in my goal bikini. 

I guess I've been in denial. I mean, I know I've gained weight.. I'm not that delusional, but seeing those pictures really shocked me and I am using that as extra motivation.

I'm starting this time at 206.4

The healthy weight range for my height is 135-169

My goal weight is 150

I know my body and I know that when I plateau in the healthy range that's when I will stop, even if it's over 150.

I've done this before and I will do this again.. 

Mammoth.. In Pictures- Part Two