Week 15 summary

Woo hoo! This past week I went from 168 to 165.5. Finally I hit 165. FINALLY! My body was hanging onto 167 and 166 for a good month I think. I've broke through the plateau.

But I still have a lot of work to do.

My diet slipped somewhat this week with my starting a new position at work, while keeping up with my old position. I still ate healthy foods, but I did have some rice, a taco, etc...Nothing too crazy, but I wish I had cooked more. I do love cooking, but some days it's tough squeezing it in. It's going to be like this for a couple of months. But I love my new position, and of course I still love my old position, so it's a win-win.

However, I do have to work extra hard to stay on course. I've been doing the ab challenge, but I need to add more weight workouts and get in some cardio in preparation for running.

This weekend I ended up drinking a lot of my calories and that's probably not too healthy. I had a REAL Mr. Pibb which was fantastic. Saturday night I went to see Me Before You with my friend. We had been planning on seeing this for weeks and finally found time to see it. So good, but alas so sad. I had prepared myself for it and didn't cry too much. My poor friend. I texted her Sunday telling her I'm sorry it was so sad!

I also had real movie popcorn, but I didn't go overboard with it.

I also had jambalaya from a benefit for my daughter's friend who has leukemia. And surprise, surprise, her friend was there. Ohhhh those two hugged each other so tight and it was my favorite part to the weekend. She's been at St. Jude for treatments. She looks good, but she's fighting a tough battle.

Yesterday I had a REAL Dr. Pepper because I was dying of thirst and it sounded good. And it was. Luckily I am not a drinker. I literally have one or two daiquiris a year and that's it. Even the "skinny" margaritas and drinks still have over 500 calories. Ahhhh, I'd rather eat my calories than drink them.

This week, going to drink more water, workout daily and eat loads and loads of vegetables.

Hope you had a great weekend and a happy week!

Week 14 summary

I was just looking through my phone and I have no food pictures for this post. I'm sorry! I've now reached Defcom 5 emergency situation with the memory on my phone. I need to download the literally 700 pictures that are on my phone.

Today I started my new job, which I'm still at my same company, but am transitioning into a new department. So basically I'm working 20 hours in my old department and 20 hours in my new department. I love it! It's more challenging and a tad scary because I've done the same thing for a decade now. Gotta say, kind of weird this morning to walk into a new department and not go to my old desk and sit with my coffee. Life is good right now.

However, I've slacked on my workouts - still doing that ab challenge but it's, well, challenging! I'm also BACK to where I was at the beginning of last week - 168. That is frustrating, but not at all surprising. My eating has been OK, but not as clean as what it needs to be to run. But, I'm not giving up.

It seems like my downfall has been restaurant food. A girl can have only so many salads, right? But, I feel good going into this week and am ready for the umpteen challenges I will have. Primarily being tired from work.

I hope everybody had a good Father's Day. We visited all fathers in the family yesterday and had a relaxing day overall. Here are my two favorite people arm wrestling. Her Daddy always lets her win!

Have a great Monday!

 

Happy Thursday and ab challenge!

I hope your week is going well. Mine couldn't be better! I lost the pound that I keep fluctuating with. It's almost the weekend! It's a friend's birthday. I'm about to start my new job. Did I say it's almost the weekend?

This post is to tell you about the 30-day ab challenge I'm joining. It's free, so feel free to join too.

Amanda at Run To The Finish has started yet another great challenge. Hers are free, fun and filled with prizes.

Here is the link to the challenge.

These are the goals:

CHALLENGE GOALS
What should you expect of yourself for the next 30 days??

• 3 full core workouts per week (1 new workout per week provided, plus more ideas)
• Making 1 small food change each week (1 new nutrition topic covered weekly)
• Focusing on the benefits of a stronger core
• Reminding yourself you have 5-10 minutes for key cross training

So there we go. I think it will be a lot of fun. I had my twitter set to private because I get loads of spam, but I've opened it up public now. Look for me: wendylikesbooks - I'll be tweeting about the challenge and I'd love for you to join me.

Hopefully this will get my weight loss continuing since I've seemed to hit a plateau. This week I stubbed my toe, but the problem was I stubbed my toeNAIL on my pinky toe. I will spare you the gory pics. I hate those pics people post on social media of their swollen ankles, stitches, gory bloody noses. Yeah, TMI people!!

The good news is today is much, much better. So I'll rev back up the workouts. Hope you have a great weekend.

Week 13 summary

Before I summarize last week, I just want to say my thoughts and prayers are with those in Orlando right now. I have friends that live there and they are safe, but really shook up. It's a tragedy and I'm honestly not sure what the answer is to all this chaos.

Last week I stayed the same and this weekend I fluctuated back and forth with a pound. I easily admit my eating was not the best. Both me and my husband struggled this weekend. And it's not a matter of stress eating or anything like that. Some weekends are just harder than others when it comes to preparing food and cravings. 

This weekend I made a Barbie wreath for my daughter's friend's benefit. I did something different with this one rather than gluing ribbon and tied ribbon. I bought a Barbie ponytail head (the outline on wood) and I can't WAIT to see how it turns out. I think I'm going to rent a booth to sell all the items my peeps are donating. They have a booth contest and I'm thinking something along the lines of Shopkins because the little girl LOVES those crazy tiny toys. Something to marinate on the next couple of months.

I also plotted out what's left for the wreaths, so there we go. A lot of fun.

Friday we went to see The Little Mermaid at the local theater. This was my daughter's first play and she was a trooper because it was very long. I loved every second of it. I'm not into musicals, but this was amazing. The girl who played Arial reminded me of Blake Lively.

Ursula!! The actress who played her is a fantastic villain. 

We know who these two are. Ahhhh, I just love this picture so much!

I spent the rest of the weekend with friends. This week is my last week of my regular job before I transition into my new job. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. I'm ready for this new positive change in my life.

We went to a New Mexican restaurant and oooh so good! I tried to stick with healthy fajitas. Amazing!

I hope you have a great week of happiness!

Happy weekend and great job news

I am so ready for this weekend! I have plans with friends and of course, another kid birthday party. LOL! I actually don't mind going to kid parties as long as I'm not the hostess doing all the work. ha!

This week my weight loss has stalled. I'll probably be lucky to lose one pound by next week. So it's time to make some changes. This week I have allowed a few things back in the diet that probably aren't helping matters. Bread, fried catfish, hashbrowns. Carbs, carbs and more carbs.

Carbs are not the enemy and neither is bread. BUT when you are struggling to lose weight, those empty calories and carbs should be the first to go. Right?

So next week I'll go back to a more cleaner way of eating. I'm also going to add cardio/weights workouts. I'm going to shoot for five a week till I'm ready to run. I think I've hit a nice plateau so hopefully I can get over that hump.

My husband is also losing weight and oooooh so much easier having support at home. He's always been supportive, but he loves his shakes and chocolate milk just as much as me. So we are able to talk each other off the cliff a lot of times, but we do treat ourselves sometimes. But not daily like we were before. Love him.

He's lost 14 overall. He's involved in a healthy program at work that gave him a digital scale. He weighs daily and the scale then sends the results to his "coach." That's right, he gets a coach! He logs in honestly what he eats each day and his log is hilarious. But it's working. Unfortunately, he hasn't agreed to eat my roasted cauliflower yet, but I'm working on it.

I've had a great week mentally. I resolved some unfinished business and I'm making a change in my job. Over the next few months I'll be transitioning to my new job. I'm soooooo excited. Also, I may be able to work it out where I can pick up my daughter from school and save on childcare. This will work out really good because I can help her with her homework. My husband has had to do that with her this past year because of my current work schedule.

I'll post more about my new job later, but I love how a couple of things all came together this week. God works in mysterious ways, but he's always got our backs. Always. If you don't believe in God, I'll say I also believe in putting our positive energy out in the universe and that will bring something positive back to you. It does work!

And because I can't possibly have a post without pics, here are two salads I've eaten this week.

Peach salad I made at home. Delicious.

Greek salad from the work cafe. I always forget to mix the salad and when I get to the bottom, it's like a surprise of purple onions and olives.
 

Have a great weekend!
 

Week 12 summary

Another week, another summary. I hope everybody had a good weekend. Mine was filled with wreaths, wreaths and more wreaths. I'm making a bunch of wreaths for a benefit for my daughter's friend who has cancer. It's been a lot of work doing these, but a LOT of fun. I just hope the wreaths get more than $5 at the benefit. :)

Here's how I'm starting off my day. Community Coffee mocha. This is a very good coffee and definitely a sometimes treat. People talk about Starbucks prices, wellll, this company is only about 10 cents cheaper. Flip side is it's very close to the new building at work, so heck yeah!

This week's weigh-in: 166.5. This brings me to a 2-pound loss from last week. Rock on! I'm so very happy, but I can tell I'm starting to plateau. I'm going to see how this next week goes, then I may start adding weight workouts.

My total since the Diet Bet in March is 11 pounds loss. I'm extremely excited to see how I feel when I lose another 10 pounds. I feel a lot better than before. My joints are feeling pretty good. My bloat is gone. I'm starting to feel a slight curve in my waist as opposed to a box.

When I lose more weight that is noticeable, I'll take full body shots. For now I present my Resting Bitch Face:

This was right after Mother's Day weekend, so almost a month ago.

In order to not look like an angry white woman on a Monday I attempted to smile. (I'm not a selfie taker, but trying to document progress) My cystic breakouts are clearing up, a bit of the double-chin is slowly disappearing. The inflamation I had under my eyes is also SLOWLY disappearing.

I have zero food pictures this week. I'm having a memory issue with my camera phone. But I can tell you with the exception of one Chik-Fil-A meal (worth every calorie), a Jimmy Johns meal (worth every calorie) and a custard ice cream (yep, you guessed it) I had a lot of chicken, salads, vegetables, more chicken and more salads.

The last two weeks I've had some stress, nothing worth talking about here, but I've done really good not stress eating. That was a big issue for me before. I would start to eat out more because I was stressed and would put my focus on the stress rather than taking care of myself. Not anymore! This is still a work in progress.

What I've found helpful:
* Keep my mind occupied during those stressful days. If I'm at work, I plot out my running plans. If I'm at home, usually spending time with my kiddo helps. I've also committed myself to a few projects and goals so I don't have the time or care to worry about whatever is going on.
* Focus on the main goal - to lose weight in order to run faster. I'm not a bikini girl, so my goal is not to look good on the beach. I'm in this to win it.
* Stop and think - do I want to eat because I'm truly hungry or because I'm upset about something? This has really helped a lot. A lot of times I'll drink a ton of water and it cures whatever is ailing me.
* Memorial Day weekend I had to go to the Urgent Care clinic for sinusitis. I got TWO shots and 10 days of antibiotics. Normally this would be a trigger for me to eat crap and not give a s***. I've not done that this time around and if anything, I've worked harder to care for myself. Perfect.

This has gone smoothly and not-so-smoothly if that makes sense. I am still missing my nighttime snacks. I really had no idea how much I looked forward to those snacks after Emily goes to bed. Saturday I went to a birthday party and I was the ONLY person to not have soda, cake and a cookie. I saved up because I knew I was eating a big salad from a restaurant later that night.

The good part of that story is I explained to the mom next to me why I was not having any (she mentioned how she's started vacation). Turns out, she's a runner! We had a nice conversation about the upcoming races. She's run both of them before and we analyzed if we really had the gumption and dedication to run a full marathon. It was very nice to talk to a real person about running as opposed to my friends on the web.

So that's where I'm at. I'm hoping to make this week a good one on the scale. As long as I'm losing, I'm pretty happy. But I have a lot of fun things planned for this week, so my non-worthy stress can take a back seat. :)

Global Running Day

It's a great day for all runners and wannabe runners (like me). :) Today is the day to talk and dissect and be all lovey dovey with all things running.

Since I'm not running at this moment (losing weight right now), here is a survey I saw at Mommy Run Fast.

Why do you run?
Running is a bit of a numbers game for me. I hate math, but I love seeing progress with my endurance and pace. But I am super, super, super slow. Sloths run faster than me, but you better believe I'm working on it! It also keeps me disciplined. Surprisingly, having a 6-year-old has made life busier than when she was a baby/toddler. Keeping a running plan forces me to be organized in other facets of life.

How do you plan to celebrate National Running Day?
Well, this is it. I'm sticking with my less sugar/more fat/less crap diet today to get me closer to running. (I've lost another pound this week! Woot!)

How many miles have you run so far this year? Do you have a mileage goal for the year? 
Not that many. I have run maybe about 40 so far this year, but I started a base at literally three miles a week. In a few more weeks, I'm getting back to it hopefully a good bit lighter.

What big events do you have on the race calendar so far this year? 
The Louisiana Half Marathon in January and the Our Lady of the Lake Half Marathon in March. I seriously just want to make it to those two, for real.

Before I leave for a run I must have:
Ipod (yes I'm very old school, but it is purple!), earbuds and that about does it.

Do you track your runs? If so what do you use?
I have a Soleus watch I track the pace/time with. But then, I open up my shiny Lauren Fleshman training journal and, gasp! use a pen to write it down in the log!

Who is your favorite running partner? 
Me, Myself and I. And I love it. I'm trying to get my friend back into it, but otherwise it's me. Running can be a lonely sport and for me it is. I cherish the time by myself, there is NO competition other than with myself. I like knocking out the run before dawn by myself. I love it.

What races have you run so far this year?
Nada.

If you have to give someone one piece of advice about running, what would it be? 
Be a patient grasshopper. I've started and stopped so many times for various reasons (usually injury or illness). In all these times, I've realized I have to do a few things first (like lose weight). I hate this time right now, but I have to take this in baby steps. Losing weight will increase my endurance and speed injury-free. It's a year-long project and patience is key.

Describe your relationship with running in one word: 
Goals.