Momma's Sunshine

Instead of posting about my dread over tomorrow's weigh-in, I'll just tell you that I came in at 1460 calories today, and I walked 2 miles at the park. I could have walked another 2 or 3 miles tonight, but I chose not to. I've read so much about how hard workouts cause your muscles to retain a lot of water, and they're a bad idea to do right before a weigh-in.

Now I'm going to post some pics of my baby girl. It's hard to make them line up, so we'll just see how it turns out....

These are from last December when I first got her. She was 4 months old and weighed 4 lbs. Now she is a year old (birthday is Aug. 8th), and she weighs 9.5 lbs. She's a peekapoo and I just love her ears. I refuse to let them cut them much when I take her to the groomer. She's Momma's baby Ewok. :)

Hope you enjoyed the pics. I'll be back in the morning with the weigh-in results. 'Nite nite everyone. :)

Quote For The Day:

"It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do'." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sunshine On a Rainy Day

I lost 1.2 lbs. this week....I am down to 242.8. Woo Hoo! I'll take it! Any loss is a good loss and one to be proud of!

It's raining out so I just watched the news. They said it's going to be raining in the entire Northeast all weekend. Great. Sounds like all of my stuff is getting soaked tomorrow morning in the move. Oh who cares! I just want it done and over with. Thankfully, I've already moved over 90% of the boxes on my own...the movers are taking all the heavy furniture and maybe 8-10 more boxes. So I won't have a bunch of wet cardboard boxes to deal with. That's a plus! :)

As you know, my goal for each month is to lose 10 lbs. That puts me needing to lose 3.4 lbs next week to wrap up this month. I'm going to push myself hard to get it done....which means 1500 calories a day and a good walk on the treadmill each day. If I fall short, that's okay.....at least I know I'm still moving in the right direction. I like giving myself goals to keep myself motivated, even if I do set them a little high. The important thing is that I'm slowly but surely experiencing the mental changes that will help me reach and SUSTAIN a healthy weight for the rest of my life.

I'm off to do some last minute packing, laundry and cleaning. I've just about got it all done. It's going to be a great day! I'll try to do a post tonight to let you know how my day went before I pack up my laptop. If not, I'll definitely drop in tmrw night and update you. If it's raining where you are, then I hope you find a little sunshine in your day, too. :)

Ants In My Pants

Today is a win! Only 10 calories over today and that's not enough to fret over. I had some trouble on the treadmill this morning. I was shooting for another mile like I did yesterday but couldn't make it that far. I wore blisters inbetween two toes on each foot yesterday and when I hopped on and started walking this morning they were killing me. They are so raw. I pushed myself as far as I could and made it 3/4 of a mile. Then I had to get off because my toes were just too squished together in the tennis shoes. Tomorrow I plan on wrapping all 4 toes in band-aids before I head down to walk. Hopefully that will take care of the problem.

I've had cabin fever for a while, feeling ancy, wanting to get out and do stuff but don't have anyone to do anything with. My friends all have JOBS (imagine that), my sister Brandy lives too far away, and my Mom is off for the summer, but stays insanely busy. So this morning I sent Dwayne a text msg and told him he should take the day off and go with me and the puppy to the park for a picnic. I knew he wouldn't, he's got a very good work ethic and very rarely plays hookie. Then he called me at 11am and said he's coming over and we're getting out of the apartment today. Woo hoo!

I ran to Publix and got him an Italian sub out of their deli, stared at their Mojo chicken wings (my favorite thing in their deli), drooled for about 5 minutes, then tore myself away and ran back home. I made myself the turkey burger that I had already planned on having today, packed us some watermelon and bottles of water, and off we went! We went to Kennesaw Mountain Civil War Battlegrounds. We had a nice little picnic under the shade of some beautiful trees, then drove to the top of the mountain. We got out of the car with Scarlette, my baby puppy dog, and walked the rest of the way to the top.

It wasn't far, but it was definitely uphill. Dwayne, with his skinny little chicken legs, went scurrying up the mountain like a spring lizard. I was so jealous. I huffed and puffed and followed up behind him, grappling for every breath. My thigh muscles were ON FIRE, but I was happy. I was out of the apt, spending time with my honey bunny and my baby girl, getting some sunshine, I ate within my calorie limit, and I was exercising in the middle of some beautiful scenery. I knew I sounded like I was about to keel over, so while struggling for air I told Dwayne, "I know...(gasp)...it sounds like...(gasp)...I'm dying here......(long gasp)......but...(gasp)...I...(gasp)...really am...(gasp)...enjoying this." He turned around with a sweet look on his face, chuckled a little, and said, "I know you are baby....you're doing great." I forgot to tell everyone the sweet thing he did last week. I called him last Friday morning after I got on the scale and squealed in his ear about my 6 lb. loss. He was extremely proud of me and congratulated my hard work over and over. When he came over that night after work, he had in hand the food processor that I've been wanting FOREVER and couldn't afford to buy. I was so surprised and excited...I was jumping up and down and squealing again like it was Christmas morning. He told me that he knew how bad I wanted to make Pam's homemade hummus and other healthy stuff and that this was a little reward for my first 6 lb. loss. How sweet is that?? :)

I appreciate all of you who offered me suggestions on the two topics I asked about last night. As far as the calories go, I'm going to go with Pam's advice. She suggested that changing it up every week would probably prevent a plateau from happening as soon and that makes perfect sense to me. Changing it every single week should keep my body from being able to get used to anything, so I'm going to give that a shot. Her, Rebecca and Mom also suggested that I not use food as a reward (the big plate of seafood I mentioned), so food is out. Thanks ladies! I'm thinking of taking an overnight trip about an hour and a half north of here, but have to talk to my friend Lori tomorrow to see if it will be possible. Her Aunt owns a lakehouse in Blairsville, and we don't have to pay to stay there, so I'm going to see if it's available either next wknd or the week after, provided I hit the 15 lbs by next wknd. If not, definitely by the week after. The only thing I'll have to pay for is my food, so that makes it a nice reward that I can actually afford. I hope it works out. :)

Goal stats:

Calories 1550
Carbs 250
Fat 60
Protein 136

Today's Stats:

Calories 1560
Carbs 158
Fat 36
Protein 172

Pam gave me such a wonderful, incredibly low calorie/low fat recipe for dinner that I had enough calories left over for a yummy little egg white/canadian bacon/chz sandwich this evening. Dinner was chicken florentine and she'll be listing it on her food blog soon.

Here's my food intake for the day:

Breakfast casserole
2 c. coffee

Turkey burger (Arnold's whole wheat sandwich thin, turkey burger, tomato, onion, lite mayo)
6 baby dill pickles
1 c. watermelon

Chicken florentine w/ brown rice (I added yellow squash and zucchini to get some more veggies)

Salad (romaine, spinach, broccoli slaw, onions, tomatoes, carrots, celery, hummus)
1 tbsp. lite Italian dressing
1 pc. Russell Stover Sugar Free 60% cacoa dark chocolate
protein water
lots of regular water
1 c. orange pomegranate red tea, mixed 2/3 unsweet, 1/3 sweet
sandwich (2 egg whites, 2 pc. Can. bacon, reduced fat ched chz, whole wheat sandwich thin)

Well tomorrow is the most important eating day of the week.....the day before weigh day. I still have the same feelings of wanting to gorge myself on big fat roast beef sandwiches and curly fries so let's hope my resolve stays in tact. I'm hoping to see a good loss this week. I'm signing off so I can go email Lori about that lake house. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)