Thrills, Chills & A Milestone Reached!

Some of you have been asking for some updated progress pics, but I wasn't planning on doing "official" ones until I've lost a total of 60 lbs. I think the effect is more dramatic when there's more lbs. lost between pics. I took my first ones at 30 lbs. gone. I want to do my next ones at 60 lbs. lost (I've only lost 42 so far), and then my final ones at 92 lbs. gone when I reach my goal weight of 180 lbs. However, I will be posting normal ol' crappy pics of myself along the way when I do special stuff.

I've got some pretty crappy ones to show you from last night, lol. Dwayne took me to Six Flags Saturday afternoon for Fright Fest and I had the time of my life! I've written before how when I was about 15 years old, I was too fat to ride on a roller coaster and I had to get off the ride and "walk the plank" while everyone waited for me to waddle off so they could ride the coaster. That was over 20 years ago and I haven't been to an amusement park since. Well tonight we went and I FIT ON ALL OF THE ROLLER COASTERS!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!! GO SKINNY TAMMY!!!!

I have a love/hate relationship with roller coasters. I love to ride them and experience the adrenaline rush, but at the same time, I hate them profusely due to my fear of heights and can't keep my eyes open while I'm on them. I flashed my eyes open 2-3x on each ride and then squeezed them shut tight again, screaming like a banshee the whole way!!! It was awesome. :)

One of the ones we rode I think was called The Acraphobia maybe? The name means "desperate fear of heights", or something like that. I cannot believe I got on that thing. I have a serious fear of heights. It's enough to send me into a panic attack if I let it. You hop up on this bicycle-type seat and then pull the shoulder bars down over you and latch the seatbelt. Your feet don't touch the ground. You're just kind of hanging there til they lift you up. It's a hydraulic system. As soon as the bars latched over me, I started feeling like I couldn't breathe. I told Dwayne I was going to hyperventilate. He held my hand and told me I'd be fine, that the ride only lasts about 10 seconds. And that's true. They raise you up about 200 feet or so, so you can see the Atlanta skyline off in the distance and probably a couple of other states! I couldn't look. I kept my eyes shut tight and just practiced on keeping my breathing slow. The guy controlling the ride sings a little creepy song into the microphone along the lines of "Pop Goes The Weasel"....except his limerick was worded "Drop Goes The People".

Dear.
God.

They hold you up there for a few seconds and in the middle of the song, while you're trying to concentrate on what he's singing, the bottom falls out. You free fall all the way to the bottom, where the hydraulics stop you. Dwayne was screaming bloody murder while I was quietly praying for a quick, painless death, lol. When we got to the bottom I started laughing and shaking, saying, "I can't believe it! I did it! I'm still alive!" I was more disturbed after I got off the ride than when I was actually on it. The more I thought about it, the more shaky I got, completely unnerved that I was that high up and just let them drop me. Insanity. I told Dwayne I would never ride that again, and he's determined to get me back on it. I see some vomiting in my future, lol.

We wanted to ride Superman, but the line was 1 1/2 hr wait....so we passed. We rode the Georgia Cyclone, the Georgia Scorcher, Goliath, Batman and a couple of others I can't remember. The pics aren't that great. Dwayne was taking them from his camera phone, not to mention we were bundled up in our hoodies and my hair was all wind-blown. I almost didn't post these pics...but then I changed my mind. If this blog is ANYTHING, it's REAL. Gotta' post the less flattering pics, no matter how much I don't like them. But they DO mark a milestone for me....being able to fit on and enjoy roller coaster riding for the first time in 20 years....that makes them important. :) These are just kind of sporadic pics...if I had of been the one taking them, we would have gotten a lot more. We were there from 4:30p-9:30p...5 hours. Some of the pics were taken after dark and they just didn't come out. But here's what I've got:

The eating completely sucked this weekend. Just too much. The only thing I'm proud of is that we didn't eat anything the entire 5 hours we were at Six Flags. No kettle corn, no funnel cakes, no greasy cheeseburgers, no footlong hotdogs, no cotton candy. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. We didn't care about the food...we were too excited about the rides. So we ran around in the 50 degree weather like a couple of kids, up and down hills all over the park, bouncing from one ride to another. It was just a fantastic time together. It was perfect. :)

On the exercise front....Billie and I went to the gym Friday morning and I walked 3 miles on the treadmill. We had lifted weights on Wed and Thur, so we didn't do it on Friday. The trainer told us to do it every other day, so we took a break from it. And as sore as we were, I don't think we could have done the weights even if we had to. Saturday I opted out of the gym because I knew Dwayne and I were going to be walking around Six Flags for several hours. Sunday (this morning), Billie and I planned to meet at the gym at 8:45am, and we did. But when we got there it was closed. That's when we read the sign on the door that said the gym was open from 10a-5p on Sundays. Doh!!

I didn't bring a jacket or hoodie with me because I was counting on being inside. It was pretty damn cold out and the wind was blowing, so I just wasn't able to go to the park and walk. So we missed out on the walking AND the weight machines today. I couldn't come back later and do it because my day was already packed. I had to go grocery shopping and get home and start cooking for Mom's retirement party/cookout at my sister Brandy's house this afternoon.

I made 2 pumpkin rolls w/ cream cheese filling for our dessert. The filling calls for 1 c powdered sugar, 8 oz of cream cheese, 4 tbsp of butter and 1 tsp of vanilla. In an attempt to make it a tiny bit less fattening, I used reduced fat cream cheese, and only 2 tbsp of butter instead of 4. But all in all, this still isn't a healthy dessert, lol. I also made a pot of green beans and I sauteed some baby portabella mushrooms, onions, & green, red, orange bell peppers together in a touch of olive oil. Then I made a big bowl of potato salad (Mom's recipe) and this is where I really screwed up. I haven't had any full fat regular mayo in my frig in almost 5 months. The only kind I have is Kraft Lite Mayo. Oops! I had to make the potato salad with the lowfat mayo and I just knew everyone was going to hate it. I held my breath while everyone was eating it and surprisingly, I got even more compliments on it than when I make it the regular way!!! After I was sure everyone loved it, I told them what I did. They were all shocked, but continued to say how good it was, so that turned out unexpectedly well.

I took a bunch of steaks up there that I've been buying on sale for the last month and putting in my freezer. I wanted Mom to have a special retirement party meal, but I also took up 6 chicken breasts, so that I could have something a little healthier. I don't know why I bothered, since I'd already eaten too much this wknd to salvage anything. But I passed on the steak and had chicken.

The cookout was at my sister Brandy's house up in Ellijay, which is in the Northeast Georgia mountains. Our leaves have just started to change this week, but they're not at their peak yet. I took some pics from her back deck:

Next are some pics of my nieces and nephews; Grace and Carla are both 4 years old. Elijah will be 3 years old next month, and Cyress turned 2 years old this past June:

Here's a pic of my sister Amy and her daughter Carla (I call her Ladybug):

Next is a pic of me and my niece Grace:

Here's a pic of Mom and Dad...the best parents in the entire world:

Next is a pic of my sister Brandy and her husband Steven. He grilled the steaks and chicken for us. I'm basing my goal weight of 180 lbs on Brandy. I'm 5'10...she is 6' and weighs 155 lbs. I prefer not to be that thin. I want to be a little more full-figured than her:



Here's a pic of my roommate Shane and his girlfriend Billie...the weight loss blogger at "Let The Skinny ME Out" that I joined the gym with:



Here's a pic of my mom and I, my sisters and I, and then just a pic of plain ol' me:







And last but not least, here's the pic of my pumpkin roll, and the plate of food I had to eat...a spoon of potato salad, a spoon of green beans, and a big helping of onions, peppers and mushrooms. The grilled chicken wasn't ready yet, so I took a pic of that afterwards:

I can tell I'm developing a cold. My nose is stopped up one minute, and running the next. These usually come on me pretty fast, so I will probably feel like total crap when I wake up in the morning. Bummer. Time to go drink some OJ!! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend...I know I sure did! :)

Quote For the Day:

"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." -Eleanor Roosevelt