Commandeered!!!

Holy. Smokes.
It has been entirely too long. I do have to say though, for the past oh, three or four months, my blogger account had been commandeered! I had been using my school email account for this, and there was something with the thing in the deal and I just wasn't sure how to take care of it, but alas! I'm back!

I definitely have not been on top of game with the whole losing weight thing, although I haven't gained any of the weight back. I've been pretty good at maintaining this whole time I've been gone. So this puts me behind on my goals, but that's okay, because maintaining is better than gaining. For. Sure.

So I'm going to set two small goals (considering we're just coming off of Thanksgiving! haha). My goal is to drink 52 ounces of water each day.
My other goal is to blog again on Tuesday. I don't know why I started the blogging thing on Tuesdays, that's just what happened. haha

Here's to blogging again and losing the weight that I need to so I can be healthy!

Also-- I got a Pilates workout DVD. I did it tonight, and I like it already! Woo-hoo!

Until the next time (I promise, it won't be 4 months!). 

Oh my word...

Soooooo I'm not even going to say how long it's been since I've blogged, because I don't even know. The last little bit of school was insane and stressful and these are all just excuses for me to ignore my health.

So I guess here's a little bit of an "update"-- I'm back at home for a couple of weeks, because the semester is over. Then I'll go to Camp for the summer; I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog this summer.
Regardless, I'm blogging now. hahah
I guess I apparently did okay on my goals for this last month, because I still lost some weight. I don't think it particularly matters how much right now-- just that it's coming off. So woo-hoo!
This week, my goal is to keep up on the Challenge that I wrote about last time. It seems to really help, and I like the points.
To be honest, I'm just not focused on writing right now.
Perhaps, I'll blog some more tomorrow.
Have a good evening!   

Crazy

Hello!
Sorry I didn't blog yesterday-- it was sort of a busy day! But I am here now, and that's what matters.

I still haven't been journaling as much as I would like. I'm not sure why I'm not... I need to get on that.
I'm proud to say that I walked FIVE times this week! Holy smokes! One of my friends said that she would walk with me, so she's sort of helped be my motivation. (I listen to her complain, she makes me go on a walk). I also went to Zumba last night. They started having Zumba on Tuesday and Thursday, so at least I can go once a week! I love it!
I am also proud to say that I have stayed away from the dessert area of the cafeteria for 3 (maybe 4?) days straight. No desserts for me! Instead, I've been going to get some vegetables or yogurt and granola (so good!).
I've been doing pretty darn good on the water goal, too! I'm almost certain that I've had at least two bottles of water a day. And that's impressive!

This week, I've also started this 8 week challenge that I found here. It seems to really be focusing on being a healthier person, and not so much just losing the weight. It has a fantastic points system that I just so happen to really enjoy. I just started on Monday, but I'm excited about the results already!
This week for goals: water, water, water (as always).
I will try to journal more.
I will walk just as much, if not more.
I will get more sleep. Let's just say that lately sleep has "taken the back burner."

And now, what you've all been waiting for:
This week I not only maintained the last three weeks' weight, I lost three pounds! I'm going to sum that up to walking and eating more healthy. If I lose again this week as big as I did this last week (and even a little less!), I will have hit my five pound goal for the month!

Spring!!

It's the first day of spring!! Hoorah! (Although, I'm sort of waiting for the infamous March blizzard.)
I'm back at school from spring break.
I tell you what-- after not being in class for just that short amount of time... Well, it was hard to get my butt out of bed this morning. I did. And now today is almost over. Classes are always so slow, but the days are so fast!

I didn't journal as much as I intended at home (read: I wrote once). I did not eat copious amounts of snack foods in the afternoons, which is awesome. I also did not walk three times. I suppose my excuse for this was that I just got busy and life got ahead of me, I just need to catch up.

When my roomie got back from break, she was very excited because she did a lot of baking over break, and she brought stuff back for me. I told her, "I can't eat that." And she replied with what I had said in my head, "One isn't going to hurt you."
But here's the thing. ... "Just one" has been hurting me for years and I didn't even realize it. A very close relative recently was diagnosed with Type Two Diabetes.
It runs in the family.
This scares the (insert expletive here) out of me.
I know what I can do to prevent it. Diet and exercise (I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't the answer to life...). But it isn't going to work if I have "just one." Because I can't have "just one." Because just one turns into that ten thousand cookies that I keep bringing up.
Food is to me as beer is to an alcoholic. I start, and I don't know how to stop. It's a daily struggle.
So yeah. I feel bad that I hurt my roomie's feelings for not wanting her food. But I feel good that I told her no. I know that it's only a small step in a gigantic marathon that I can only wog (a step up from walking, a step down from jogging) in.

I'm going to try and walk/ work out a few times this week. I also want to go back to Pilates. I had such a good time there, but I just haven't gone back since that first time.
I will do my best to stay away from the dessert area of the cafeteria. (It has two "s" because you always want more... hahaha)
More water! I will try and drink two water bottles a day.

I hope you all are having a lovely SPRING day!
Here's a quote for thought (brought to you by google):
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” ~Robert J Collier

Spring Break!

I'm on spring break, and it is glorious!
... Sort of. I still have three papers due when I get back, a play script to know, a project to be thinking about, and VBS things to worry about. BUT I'm not in class all day, which is a plus. hahah
The weather has been awesome lately! It makes me want to be outside all the time!

So a recap from this last week?
I did journal almost every day (except last night, I was too tired). I'm going to continue this goal... Mostly because it's one of my favorites. hahah
I definitely did not work out four times... I don't think I worked out at all! It was an insane week, every one was giving papers and tests and those are just excuses, but it was busy.
I started to sort of write down what I ate, but I forget... a lot.
I also gained a little bit this week, but I'm going to blame that on eating out last night. It was totally worth it, though. I got to see some people that I haven't seen since Christmas. It was lovely. :)

This weight loss journey has been pretty frustrating. It's been a good learning experience for me, though, because I am finding out what my strengths and weakness in this are.

This week, I will walk at least 3 times. (I already walked this morning, so I have a head start on this one!)
I will not eating copious amounts of snacks in the afternoon.
I will eat breakfast every day (this one is harder when I'm at home... I'm not sure why).

I have a pretty optimistic outlook on life today, so I think that these goals are going to rock! haha I hope you all have an awesome day and you step outside and enjoy the weather! 

It's a Beautiful Day!

Hola amigos!

This week there has been a lot of ups and downs, goods and bads. Today the weather is gorgeous-- high of 74! Hoorah for spring!
This past week, I did sort of okay on my goals. I had no fries from the cafeteria, but cookies happened. It's just a vice. And I need to break it.
I didn't journal hardly at all, which is probably why it's been so up and down. haha
As far as healthy breakfast things, I've been eating Dulce de Leche Cheerios (I just really like them! They're sweet and easy to make! haha) and pop tarts (I know, I know... Not good or healthy).

This week, I think that I will keep my journal goal. I just enjoy writing, so why wouldn't I do something that I enjoy?
I will also work out 4 times.
I will try to start to write down what I eat/ drink. I know this will help me keep track of the unhealthy foods and it will help me keep track of how much water I'll be drinking.

Also, I maintained this week! So that's something to be celebrated!

I hope you all are having an awesome day and that you sneak outside for some Vitamin D! :) 

Midterms

Hello!
I know that I haven't been very consistent with my blogging. Sorry about that.
This week here at school it's midterms. What does that mean? It means a lot of tests, projects, and papers for me. A lot of stress. A crapton of stress.
So I've gained since the last time I've blogged. But I've also worked out a whole bunch more since the last time I've blogged.
I think this week I should focus mostly on the foods that I'm putting in my mouth (i.e. cookies, fried foods... basically Cafeteria food).

A goal: No fries. No desserts. (Yes, I did have this goal earlier. No, it did not go well.)
Goal 2: Purchase healthy breakfast things for breakfast (hahahaha that's redundant, but I'm going to leave it).
Goal 3: Journal every day for a stress reliever.

I think this is a pretty solid amount of goals, and I think they're all pretty achievable. I sort of wish I was at home with my mom. We dominate eating healthy when we're together. I also know that I have to start depending on myself rather than someone else.

I hope you all have a lovely day/ week! 

Valentine's Day!

Well, today was awesome. (not sarcasm)

Happy Valentine's Day! I realize I'm about 19 minutes late, but that's just the way it has to be. hahah

This week was much better than the last. 

I have definitely worked out more than just twice this week-- I worked out three times! Woo hoo!

I also drank a significant amount of water. So that's exciting! 

This week I'm going to try and work out about three or four times. 

I'm also going to attempt to eat a salad at every meal that I eat in the cafeteria. 

I will also get back to eating breakfast every day (a semi-healthy one). It's not so much that I've fallen out of that, but that I just didn't make it a priority. 

I lost again this week, so that's exciting as well!! 

Help!

Alright. I’ve been postponing writing this post because I don’t like talking about weaknesses that I have.  Because that’s not how we’re supposed to portray ourselves to the world. So here it goes.

My weakness? Food.

What kind of food? ALL OF IT.

I’m a hopeless addict to food. My day revolves around food—breakfast, lunch, supper, snacks…

Much of my life has revolved around food- birthday parties, family suppers, Thanksgiving, Christmas, going to Grandma’s for dinner. I have many memories attached to food. And thus begins my relationship with food.

It’s not a very healthy relationship—I eat a whole lot, it makes me feel like a failure for eating so much, so then I want to eat more. Food has been my only constant “relationship” for a very long time. [I shouldn't even call it a relationship.] When I’m happy, I eat. When I’m sad, I eat. When I’m bored, I eat. When I’m angry, I eat…. 

Basically, I eat a lot. Food has been a reward. Food has been a punishment… And exercise has not been my friend at all.

So this is me calling out for help.

I need help to eat healthy. I need people to tell me that I don’t need a pint of ice cream (or really even want one…). Food is my weakness and I need a net of people to help me be strong. To help me not eat those ten thousand cookies, to encourage me to work out, and most of all to pray for me to have courage to do this.

Because this is scary.

And I’m jumping in head first. 

La Di Dah...

It's been beautiful weather here lately!! I love it!
So this week, I still stunk on my goals. And it showed this week, I gained a little bit, but not a whole lot which is a relief.
I think that this next week, I am definitely going to not have a zillion goals. Only one or two. haha
The water thing went well, I drank a lot more than I normally do. AND I lost my water bottle!! This was sort of a tragedy for me. However, I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but I went to Pilates for the first time last week, and I enjoyed it so much that I decided that I'm going back. It definitely was nothing like I thought it would be. I didn't sweat at all, but I definitely felt like all the muscles in my body had been used, which was totally cool. I think it's definitely a good replacement for Zumba. :)
For this week, my goal will be to continue to drink lots of water.
The other goal I will have for this week is to work out twice (once will be Pilates).
I think that I should really focus on the working out goal this week. haha I haven't really done that yet, and I know that it will help boost weight loss.
And now I have some awesome news!!!
My total weight loss for this month is... (drumroll...)
6.4 pounds!! Woo-hoo! So This month I definitely accomplished hitting five pounds. I'm not sure entirely that it is an accurate number, just because of that first week, but regardless, this is exciting news!

Sine qua non

I definitely forgot to blog today... Sorry guys! I have to admit, I think part of the reason I've been postponing writing this is because I did NOT do very well at all on my goals for this week, so I'm keeping the some of the same goals:

Writing in a journal every day (I need to buy a new one)
Working out twice (Pilates tomorrow with a friend!)
Stretching
More water!!

Even though I did not do well on my goals this last week, I still lost a pound. Which is exciting!
I hope you all have a lovely day/ evening! I promise, I will do a longer post next week!


P.S. The title is a Latin phrase that stands for "without which not." Sometimes translated as "that which one cannot do without." My sine qua non this week is definitely the Lord. That's just something I have to keep in mind while doing this. 

Zumba

One of times for me to work out this week was going to be Zumba, hosted by my awesome school on an awesome Tuesday night.
They switched the time to Thursday night. Which means I cannot attend because I work on Thursdays. This makes me sad. 

Easy as one, two, THREE..

Maybe taking off weight is not, but that phrase was in a song that I just finished listening to. haha And this is week three!

This week went pretty well as far as the weekly goals go-- I ate breakfast every day. I must say, that this is something that I'm going to keep up. I had SO MUCH ENERGY this week. It was insane. Ask my roomie- she'll testify. hahah I thought maybe it was because I was getting lots of sleep, but even on the days that I hadn't had a good night's sleep, I had lots of energy. So breakfast it is.

As far as brushing my teeth, I definitely brushed them more than I would have, if I had not been thinking about it. haha I know that I skipped a couple of nights, but I brushed every morning. I think that this is just a good habit to be in (My dentist is going to love me.), so I'm going to keep this one up as well.

I'm going to type up my schedule sometime in the near future with "working out" in one of the time slots.

This week one of my goals is to work out at least twice. On the days that I don't work out, I want to do some stretches. I used to be really flexible and now, not so much. So here's to being able to... I dunno. haha I was going to say "being able to touch my toes!" but I can definitely do that fairly well. haha
Another goal this week is to eat fruit in the cafeteria for dessert rather than having cookies. Peanut butter and apples or peanut butter and bananas sounds really tasty (peanut butter in moderation is healthy-- I've looked it up!), and a lot healthier than cookies and cappuccino.
Also, more water!! I'm just going to leave it at that. If I need to drink an extra glass at supper, I will. If I need to drink more out of my water bottle, I will... More water.
For mental health this week, I'm going to start journaling every night again. I got out of the habit over Christmas break, but now I'm back, and it's going to happen.
All in all, this has been a good experience, and slowly but surely the weight is beginning to leave. Someone once told me to not say "losing weight," because that implies that you're trying to find it again. And that's just not on my agenda, so I'm going to "take the weight off" instead... I'll probably forget about it, but I will do my best.

I almost forgot! I tried some ice cream this week-- Skinny Cow's Dulce de Leche. Holy smokes. It was savory. I think it's definitely in the running for "healthy ice cream."
To all my lovely readers, thanks for your support in this endeavor. I still don't know how to transfer the before picture from the one place, to the dealy, to the thing-a-ma-jig, so patience would be appreciated! hahaha This is a pretty long post! Sorry about that! If I have time this week, I am going to write a blog about my relationship with food. Relationship? Yup. That's what I'd call it. haha I hope you all have a lovely week! 

Phew!

So this concludes Week One of this craziness.
I didn't do very well on my goals of the week, but I did accomplish one. That counts for something, right?!
I moved back to school on Sunday, and after a three week break it's definitely been hard to get back into "school mode." There was a fiasco with a tub and water, there was much socialization, and the good Lord has granted me the punishment for Eve's sin. Needless to say, it's been sort of a weird week.
On the upside, I went grocery shopping [I definitely just tried to spell "shopping" "schopping"... Oi. hahah] and nothing I brought back was unhealthy! I did spend WAY too much money on groceries, but I suppose that's the price one has to pay to eat healthy.
This week, as I'm becoming more healthy, one of my goals is to brush my teeth twice a day. Maybe even floss a few times. Silly? Maybe. But "healthy" isn't an exclusive club of food and running.
Another one of my goals is to take a good, long, hard look at my schedule and decide when I want to exercise each day.
A third goal is to eat breakfast every day. [I have issues with eating breakfast, but while I was grocery schopping (haha) I bought some oatmeal (Yum!) and some Hot Pocket breakfast thingys.]

I've been trying to get a before picture up, but I'm having issues with thing in the dealy-bopper, so you are just going to have to be patient for me. Trust me, I'm not going change that much between this week and next week. haha If I do, we might have an issue. Although it does seem that the scale here at school leans in my favor, I don't think I've lost 5 pounds this last week (not without working out).

Confession

I believe I have a few confessions to make already.

I have only walked once so far-- but I still have two days left to walk the other time.
I've only reached my goal of drinking two large cups of water twice this week. That's a lot of water!
And I haven't sent this link to anyone yet...
I'm not entirely sure why, but I think that it mostly boils down to me being afraid. Afraid of what, you ask? Afraid of people holding me accountable. Afraid of actually having to get off my butt and exercise. Afraid of changing the way I eat [I really enjoy food]. Afraid of people judging me [Let's face it-- if a fat girl starts to work out or eat healthy, people are going to notice and judge, that's the way of the world]. Afraid of actually losing the weight. This one doesn't seem so scary, but if you've been overweight your whole life, it's kind of a terrifying thing.
So I'm afraid.
I do know though, that the people I send this to will be super supportive. I know that the Lord wants me to take care of the body He has given me, and the way I'm living now is not taking care of it. I know that I can lose weight, because I've done it before. I know that when temptation arises to eat a pint of ice cream or eat ten thousand cookies [that's a hyperbole, remember people- sarcasm! haha] that there will be people there to help me say no or to offer me a healthy alternative.
So I'm going to do it today. I'm going to post this, and then I'm going to send the link to some people.



AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! hahah 

The Beginning

Hello all! It is the beginning of 2012.
It's the beginning of a new school semester.
It's the beginning of the week [yesterday was declared a "holiday"].
It's the beginning of my weight loss journey.

Today I am heavier than I have been my whole life-- and that's going to change this year. As fond as I am of my voluptuous curves, they've got to go. I have a few goals set out for this year, but before we get to that, here is a little bit about me:

I am 21, going to a small university in Nebraska. I'm a Christian and going into church work, so don't be surprised if God comes up sometimes. My favorite color is red. I love reading. I'm pretty introverted, so writing a blog about weight loss is sort of a big deal for me. I'm pretty forgetful. I'm very sarcastic, and laughter is a hobby.

Ever since I can remember, I've been a heavy person. There is not a time that I can think of that I wasn't big. I have pictures to prove it, too. I'm not sad that I'm big; I'm not angry that I'm big. I'm terrified of the health issues that run in my family, and being obese can definitely cause them to have an early onset (diabetes, cancer, ect.).   I'm not losing weight for those that have made fun of me. I'm not losing weight for others at all, in fact. I'm losing weight for me. Because I am concerned about me. It may sound narcissistic, but that's the way it has to be.

The area of study I have chosen requires me to go on a year long internship when I am done with four years of school. I'm in the second half of my third year. I go on internship in June of 2013. Here are the goals that I've set for the long term:
           1. I will lose 80 pounds by May 25, 2013. [That's just under five pounds per month.]
           2. I will learn to cook good, healthy, and cheap food for one person.
           3. I will find a "healthy" ice cream. [This one's my favorite goal. :)]

Each week, I decided I'm going to have a mini-goal. I will blog about the mini goals as the weeks pass. My first goal is to drink two 30 ounce cups of water each day this week. As you can see below, that's a massive cup. It's almost as big as my head.

This week I will also walk on the treadmill twice, for 50 minutes each. [I know I won't always be able to walk for 50 minutes, but I'm still on Christmas break, so I figured that I can walk longer while I'm here. Why not?!
This week, I will also send this link to the girls on my hall, and a few other close friends so they can help me. Not only help motivate me, but to remind me to blog. :)

I hope that I didn't bore you with my long-winded self. In my next blog, I'll try to have a "before" picture, and I'll write a bit about my addiction to food.

Here's to making 2012 awesome!! Here's to losing myself to find me!