About Me

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I am a small town girl living the big city life with my superhero hubby and our superhero- in-training son! I love Jesus and junior mints and have a secret addiction to Neil Diamond and Cat Steven's music. I love a good theme party, the smell of pretty stationary, a good book and a glass of ice tea with an orange slice in it. I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world.

Friday, July 27, 2012

No turning back


I will persevere.  I do not give up based on emotions and hormones.  I have a son I'm training up and what example would I be setting if I did not carry on even the most difficult of times? Oh, I have my days, we all do but despite that crazy scale number on Wednesday I did not stay in bed all day eating Hershey bars.  I just carried on as usual. 

Despite the fact that I had 2 different dreams last night that involved chocolate chip cookies from Tiff's Treats, when I got on the scale this morning I was quite thrilled to weigh in at 183 pounds! That's 17 pounds lost to date!

I've gotten a lot of calls, emails, texts, posts, etc about Wednesday which really means the world to me.  Two things that people said really hit home for me the first being I am "more than a number on a scale".  I have clung to that truth the past couple of days.  So true.  God created me (and all of you) in His image and my worth is not found on that scale.  The second was that I am "too hung up on the scale".  I've reevaluated this and I think that person is right.  The scale is my friend and my enemy.  It helps me gage how I am doing but at the same time I do not want to be a slave to it.  For my own sanity I'm going to just weigh in randomly from here on out and post results every other week so that you can see my progress.  One of the reasons I haven't been writing as much is we're out playing and enjoying our summer and there's just not a lot to say.  I'm not struggling as much with my snacking in the afternoons and my sweet cravings have diminished so much that they're almost non-existent.  Eating more vegetables, fruits and whole grains has become second nature and I enjoy trying new recipes (which I'll be posting later). 

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday.  The boy and I are headed out to swim again this morning...my swimsuit is getting so loose I am tempted to purchase another one!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

About to call it a day....

I can barely see through the tears to type this and quite honestly this may be the last time I weigh in and post for a while.  I weighed in yesterday at 184.8 but this morning for whatever reason I was greeted with this horrible number:

really? I find it hard to believe I gained over 2 pounds of fat in a day.  What really angers me is the fact I went out to eat last night with friends at a Mexican food restaurant where I ate shrimp and squash and one tiny tortilla chip.  If I knew I was going to gain over 2 pounds in a night I would have eaten the basket of dadgum chips!

Angry, defeated, frustrated, sad, completely HUMILIATED in front of all of y'all right now.

ugh.

P.S. If I thought it wouldn't wake up my husband and son I'd hurl this scale through a window out onto the street for someone to run over.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Wednesday weigh in

Unfortunately, there's not a lot to report here...


I'm up by .2 of a pound but I'm still counting calories, carbs and fat and after working out every single day last week except for one, I really believe that's water weight.  The women out there will believe me and know exactly why it is so.

I'm clearly approaching my plateau which is a little discouraging because I have soooooo many more pounds to go.  Any tips you have on how you have personally battled a plateau and won are greatly welcomed! In the meantime, I will just keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully that number will go down next week!


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Weight loss to a "tea"

I recently watched an episode of Dr. Oz where he was answering audience health issues/questions from "A to Z".  During the course of the show he discussed weight loss issues and techniques and one of the things that caught my attention was the claim that drinking certain types of teas can help boost the metabolism and  help in the weight loss process.  I've done some more online research on the Dr. Oz website and last night made a trip to Central Market to purchase a few boxes of some of the teas that are suggested.

That tea is so light! It almost looks like water!

I am Texan which is almost southern which means we drink a lot of tea.  Since starting my weight loss journey I've given up sweet tea, artificial sweeteners and use either agave or honey if I need some sweet to my tea.  But I don't drink herbal teas so I'm making the switch just to see if there's any truth to the claim that drinking certain teas at certain times of day will help boost my metabolism.  I don't see that it can hurt and if nothing else I'm getting plenty of fluids and enjoying some really great glasses of tea...warm and iced! Here is a link to one of the articles I was reading along with tea suggestions:  Metabolism boosting teas

I decided to start simple with Oolong, White and Green teas but am thinking of also trying the Pu-erh tea because it is apparently a great weight loss tea.   I would love to hear from my friends and the types of tea you drink or recommend or any types of fat burning foods that have helped you so feel free to share.  In the meantime, I need another glass of tea because my son decided he wasn't interested in a nap today and I need a cool sip of happiness right about now.

Wednesday Weigh In


I keep telling myself that slow and steady wins the race and a .6 pound weight loss is really slow.  But I'll take it! Overall to date I've lost 14.8 pounds....I'm getting so close to my first goal of a 10% weight loss...only 5.2 pounds to lose to meet my first goal!

Monday, July 9, 2012

Monday morning confessions

I'm not proud of this but I had a moment yesterday afternoon where I almost got into my son's jelly bean jar (his incentive/reward for when he uses the potty).  I had to stop myself from shoveling all those beautiful sweet colorful chewy candies into my mouth.



I am in the process of making major changes to my lifestyle including the way I eat but that doesn't mean it comes easy to me.   Mindless munching happens to me all the time in fact it is my biggest obstacle to overcome.  Combine that with the fact that I really do not like exercise (it's inconvenient and it involves sweating) it just seems as though I was destined to carry extra pounds.  I guess what I'm trying to say is while I am glad the last few months have brought healthy changes to our home and my body it is not easy and I struggle daily to make better choices than I did the day before.
Sometimes my heart just isn't in it and I let my stomach guide my choices.  The past week has been what I'd call an "off" or "junk food" week.  We've had a lot going on so it was easy to pick up Sonic burgers one night so I wouldn't have to cook or clean up a mess afterwards.  We hosted 36 people in our home for a hot dog cookout on Saturday evening and I had to be ok with the fact that I only ate 3 brownie bites and a slice of watermelon  for dessert instead of what I typically would have eaten which would have been a slice of pie, cake and 5 brownie bites. This of course meant saying no to people and what they made and brought and at the end of the party I delivered leftover cupcakes and cookies to the neighbors on both sides of us so that I wouldn't be haunted by temptations. I honestly call that progress for me because I'm just not to the point where I cannot eat a brownie bite at a cookout.

I still tend to lean into food for comfort even when I'm eating a healthy food like fruit.  Being a homemaker and stay at home mom can be a very lonely job, fulfilling and fun...but lonely.  Sometimes it's nice to sit down with grapes and cheese or a cookie because it makes me feel better.  These are the things that I am working on.  Learning to lean into God when I am lonely, calling the friends I have been blessed with to talk things out and to sometimes just walk away from the food when I know I am not really hungry are all things that I am trying to do.

I have loved having this blog to write out what is on my heart, my triumphs and shortcomings.  It's hard but it's been good and as always I thank you for your continued support and encouraging words.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go scrub the marker ink off my son's face and arms.


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Swimming, bbq and the scale

We had a great 4th of July and hope you did too! I did weigh myself yesterday but there wasn't a camera handy and since it was a holiday I just wasn't as motivated for my first picture of the day to be my scale! I am happy to report that I stayed the same weight, no loss, no gain.  I weighed this morning for picture's sake and am even happier to report after some bbq, wine and s'mores yesterday I am still 185.8...no loss, no gain! (Please, do not judge my floors, my toes, or the fact that I really need to wipe the scale clean!).



I really am great with that weight.  I have some clothes that are starting to fall off of me and a couple of t-shirts that I haven't been able to fit in for a couple of years that now fit perfectly!

We went swimming yesterday morning and when I woke up this morning every single part of me aches.  I didn't know I did that many laps pushing the boy around the pool!




Enjoy your day! I'm off to eat some breakfast and no, I won't be eating leftover s'mores ;)