Thin in 2010

Friday at The Biggest Loser Resort

2010-05-21T22:13:00.001-05:00

My hike today was a disappointment. They ended up taking us on an adventure hike around snow canyon. It started out ok there was sand and lava rocks and some small inclines.

The picture on the bottom was some rocks I climbed up and was scared, but I did it!! Our lead guide today was Megan, this 21 year old little blond dynamite. She is daring, quick, and in my opinion insane. She is scares of nothing. So our next "adventure" too the group along the side of a mountain. She mentioned to me that I might want to go with Dennis another route becuase it would be extreme heights. I took her advise and did that. I missed being with my group. They are so much fun and today was our last day together on a hike. We are doing a hike tomorrow buy it was one we signed up for and I am doing stop sign with sherri. Last time I made it to the stop sign in an hour and half. We have set a goal to make it there in less than an hour.

Breakfast was fruit and egg sandwich with turkey bacon. It was ok.
After breakfast we had another workshop for parting guest preparing for plan when we get back home.
11:15 stretch class. I noticed today I have gotten alot more limber than I was on Monday.

Lunch was a potato and brocolli soup. I forgot to take a picture of it. We also had what they called a sloppy Joe. It was not any kind of sloppy Joe I have ever had. It was turkey and different. Not my favorite
After lunch another workshop, then circuit gym class
Next was my favorite class from the whole week. Johns popular Disco Jam. It was much fun. I let loose and burned tons of calories. Here is a picture of his disco outfit below

Last class of the day was a
Pool class. Erin really worked us in the pool. She had us doing shoulder work with our arms our of the water. They were burning. The wind picked up while we were in the pool. It was COLD. After class alot of us DARTED for the jacuzzi.

Dinner was salmon burger and Brussel sprouts. I made myself eat two of the brussel sprouts, but that is all I could do. The salmon was pretty good
Desert was a fruit skewer. I forgot to take a picture of it. It had a strawberry at each end, kiwi, and pineapple in the middle. It was good.
We did not have a lecture tonight after dinner. They did have movie in the aerobics room but I chose to just come back to my room, shower and relax.

Calories in today. 1260
Calories out today. 3300 plus a pool class.
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Thursday at the BLR at FR

2010-05-20T22:19:00.001-05:00

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Today was a tough day! My hike today was "camel back". Here is a picture of the camel backs from midway up the mountain.

Half way up I made the mistake of looking behind me. I instantly got sick to my stomach and had to sit down. I am scared of heights and panicked a little bit. I told the guides and my hiking group, which I love, that I was just going to wait for them here. We sat and talked moment and I decided to keep going. They were so helpful they would hold my hand and in some cases push! They are so supportive and because of them I MADE IT!! Here is the "vortex" it kind of looks like a funnel. I am the third shadow from the left.

If you read Cat's blog while she was here, you might recognize this beautiful girl, Ivy who decided to go down into the vortex with our mountain goat guide.

And the camel backs

My hiking crew me, Nicole, Elizabeth, Melby, Ivy, and & Julie.

Our guides Don, Margi, and Darrell

Daredevil Ivy decided to climb the camel back as well as Julie

Here's Ivy again. We were calling her Pocahontas and Daryl found a feather and gave it to her. She has it on the right side of her hair.

Breakfast was musselie. Not my favorite but I stuck to my commitment of trying everything. I ate all of it with the fruit until it was all gone. Once the fruit was gone, I stopped!
I had a surprise right before lunch, Tara from the BL season six came by the resort. She pictured below with me and my neighbor BL season 3 winner Eric Choppin.

Right before lunch I had a pool class that is why I am in the robe. Lunch was a mushroom soup and turkey sandwich.

After lunch it was another pool class, ball works, then treading. John taught our ball works class. I am scared of him! I told him tonight. He will work your butt off.

Dinner was stuffed bell peppers. It was filled with something similiar to a turkey meatloaf. I am not a fan of bell peppers but I ate a little bit of them, and all of te filling. It was so good. Desert was vanilla pie

Well i need to get to bed. This is te first night since I got here that I have watched a litte tv. Oh yeah the sun was super hot today. I forgot my hat on the hike this morning and the tip of my head is sunburned as well as other parts some.

Calories in 1260
Calories out. 3385 plus two pool classes

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Wednesday at fitness ridge

2010-05-19T22:24:00.000-05:00

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I woke up this morning wanting to stay in bed. I posted these feelings on facebook and lots of my friends encouraged me. I really appreciated those comments. My hike this morning was the famous stop sign hike. This is the hike I knew would be challenging and I trained for it before coming. I had alot of people in my hike that has been here for multiple weeks and has not made it to the stop sign at the top. I was determined to do it!! The stop sign is 4.7 miles up a paves path. The last 1.5 miles is on the actual road and the incline is like doing a level 15 incline on the treadmill. The guide told me that once you see the guard shack, you only have 200 yards to the stop sign. I did not think that damn guard shack would ever appear, but it did and I was the second one in my group to make it to the top. The guide made me feel good, she told me that me and other girl were smoking everyone.

As soon as I started back downhill, I started feeling like I was going to throw up. I quickly pulled the orange I had brought with me out of my backpack and ate it and felt better. We do all these hikes before breakfast.
On the way down the hill, I ran alot I wanted to see how many miles I could get before our allotted time was up. On the way down I felt invincible! I was really enjoying my iPod. There was no one in site so I was singing and dancing, having a great time. I was really proud of myself. I ended up making 7 miles on that hike. I burned over 2000 calories before lunch today. Here are some of the views I saw on my hike. On the first if you look on top you can see another group hiking. I could see groups everywhere.

Ok, I am rwally tires so I am going to summarize the rest of my day. Breakfast was English muffin with eggs and turkey sausage.

I had two pool classes today one before lunch and one before dinner which allowed me time to get in the hot tub after each class. We ate our lunch on the patio in our swim suits and the awesome warm robes they loan you.

Trista, Julie, Sherri, Carmen, and myself (I can not believe I posting this picture)

Lunch was beet soup and barbque piZza.

After lunch was a lecture, kick boxing, mountain, then another pool class. During mountain Sherri and I challenged each other and put our bikes on level 25 the last 3 minutes. It was a killer but we did it

Dinner was a chef salad with a like wheat tortilla or something. Basically once you ate it down some you could make it on a wrap. Desert was a tropical sorbet. Both were great. As you can probably tell I forgot to take my pictures before digging in. I wad really hungry. Probably the two pool classes

Today was my hardest day. I was really sore, good thing I had a masssage scheduled. I am feeling pretty good now. Ready to put this down and go to sleep. 5 am comes pretty early.

Calories IN. 1150
Calories OUT 3789 plus two pool classes

Tomorrow I have camelback hike. It is supposed to be really beautiful.
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Tuesday at The Biggest Loser Resort

2010-05-18T21:20:00.001-05:00

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I am still alive! I am actually feeling TONS better than I expected to be feeling on what they call "terrible Tuesday". I not saying it was easy, it was hard as Hell! But I did things today I never thought possible.

My hike this morning was "Third Rivine". When we got there the trainers offered us two routes an easier route or a more tougher route. The majority of the group wanted the tougher route, so I went that way as well. It was extremely difficult but I kept up with the group. We were literally climbing big rocks! At one point there was a hUGE rock that I felt stuck. Everyone really helps each other. I had one person above the rock pulling me up and another pushing from behind. lOL. Glad there is not a picture of that!! I am scared of heights but I was concentrating so much on where to put my feet next I did not realize how far up we went. I did not get a picture at the top of the ravine, honestly I was too tires to pull it out of my backpack, but here is a picture once we got to the very top.

At the very top there is rock called the cliff hanger. Here I am posing

The hike was about 4 miles and I burned over 1300 calories. After the hike was breakfast

We had a English muffin and fruit. When I first saw it I did not think it would fill me up, but it did

10:15. Emotional Mastery Workshop

11:15. Stretch class

12:30 lunch

Squash soup and a tomato sandwich with guacamole. I am NOT a fan of tomatos but as I stated I have made a commitment to try everything and I ate it all!!! I figure day two I really need all the protein and nutrients they offer.

1:00 pm calorie challenge

1:30 pm cooking demo from the chef

After the cooking demo, the worst part of the day started.

2:30 pm. Total toning
This class was using free weights and I am feeling the after effects. During that class my calves were hurting so bad it felt like I was having a Charlie horse in both of them at the same time! The instructor said that we will be feeling the after effects in the morning on our hike, rumor has it my van has the stop sign which is supposed to be super hard.

3:30 pm. H2O intervals
This was in the pool. They like to give us excercises in the pool where u have to put your hands in the air and kick your feet frantically to keep from drowning. If you don't think this is hard, try it!

4:30 pm. Cardio intervals.
This is in the gym, so it does not give you much time to change. I think that is a workout by itself. Lol. This class you choose a cardio machine, I chose the treadmill. You start on a certain level you choose and move up the level every 30 seconds eight times. At the end of that time, you do the highest level for one minute, then lower it every 30 seconds. The best I did was run a 5.5 speed for one minute. It felt like an eternity. I wanted to give up but I didn't! I had to do this three times!! Good news is -- my exercise for the day was done!!! Great victory!

5:30. Dinner! Awesome. Soooo good. Pasta, green beans, and for desert the famouse chocolate covered strawberries! I had two but they looked so good I forgot to take a picture before eating them. = )

Now we are in the aerobic ro watching the biggest loser on the big screen. Go Daris!!

Daily totals

Calories in. 1283
Calories out. 4326 plus pool calories I could not log because my hrm does nit work in the water. I still have to walk back to my room, take a shower and doctor my feet. Mote calories to burn!!!
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1st day of workouts.

2010-05-17T22:00:00.001-05:00

Today's menu is above.

Morning started bright and early at 6 am, I ate a banana took my medicine before my 6:30 am hike. The hike I did today was called Barrel Run. Basically u are climbing this mountain and going all around it. It's path zig and zags all over the place. On the way there, someone asked if there were any creature we might see. Our guide Ian who is a riot said that we may see a rattlesnake, but if you do, just keep walking! I am praying that I don't see any snake while I am here. I started the hike pretty strong. I was doing well keeping up with my new friend Sherry but then I started getting thirsty and of course failed to read the instructions on how to use my hydration backpack. So I got slower and slower until there was no one else in sight. Now I REALLY did not want to see a rattle snake now! I did see rabbits and lots of lizzards. The hike was 6 miles long and it took me a little over 2 hours to complete. It was very Rocky and had rough terraine. I had to make sure I put my feet down just in the right spot to not slip. The views were amazing as you can see below.

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After the hike we headed back for breakfast. We had a frittatas and fruit. I was not a big fan of it but it had guacamole on top and salsa available to add to it. I did eat the majority of it.

After breakfast, I had a stretch class. Some of those positions had a couple of us laughing. After that we had a choice of taking a total body h2o class mountain class, since I do have a few blisters, I chose the pool. Never knew I could hurt that bad in a pool. After the pool, was lunch which was our highest calorie meal of the day. It was delicious it wad chili and cornbread.

This was very filling! I was so worried about starving while I am here, not the case so far.
After lunch we had a class ur calorie budget. Without getting into a whole lot of detail, I learned that if I do it right, I could be at my goal weight in 10 months.
At two thirty I had another pool class. This time called deep water submission! Holy cow, I thought the first one was hard. Let's just say, all my friends with pools - start planning it now. We need to get together and I can show you what all we did. Woo!!
After that I had to hurry and change for my next class which was circuit training. Basically every machine in the gym is numbered. Everyone starts on cardio for two minutes, then you go to the next numbered machine which is a weight machine and do that for two sets of 45 seconds. Then you go back to cardio. I started on a treadmill and I ran at a 5.0 speed never done that before. After that class, we were all talking about how great we felt and could not beleive we were not passed out. Well we spoke too soon, next class was step and punch but it is nicknamed step and puke and let me tell you by the end of the class I thought I was going to. It was intense. No slacking here!

YAY I Made it!! Dinner was good but desert was even better.

I don't think you can see it buy it is chicken on top of a mountain of purple potatos. They were good. Desert was grilled pinapple. I could had seconds on that. lOL

I thought would think this is comical, especially my husband. Becuase nuts trigor my asthma I have asked that they omit them from my food. This is what I have to place in front of me at every meal.

After dinner, we had another class, I soaked my feet I'm the jacuzzi and headed to the room. I am extremely proud of myself. I gave it my all today. I am sore but not ad bad as I thought I would be. Tuesdays are supposed to be the worst. Guess I better get some rest, 5 am comes extremely early.

Calories ate today 1148
Calories burned 2268 plus two pool classes I did not calculate. I did not keep my watch on all day, so I bet I burned more
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I have made it to Fitness Ridge

2010-05-16T21:25:00.012-05:00

What an exciting day! My morning started off early. I got up 3:30 am to take a shower and head to the airport for my 7:15 am flight. I faced my first of many fears I will be facing this week, I rode on a plane by myself. I HATE to fly! I did ok. Past flights I have been afraid the seat belt would not fit, but it did with room to spare. And for first time in 10+ years, I was able toe use the tray when beverages came around. That was a good testament as to how far I have come already!

Made it through the flight ok, even got up to use the bathroom! Next step was lugging my two suitcases, the biggest which weighs 48 lbs to get the rental car. I thought it was fitting since the suitcase is almost exactly what I have lost so far. :) Above one of the pictures is the view I saw while traveling on I-15 from Vegas to Utah.

Another picture shows the front of the resort and u can see The Biggest Loser van parked in front. The other red building is "The Villa" which I am staying in since I my stay was an award. It is SUPER nice. I am pretty far from the resort, so I am glad I rented a car. I have feared that I would get lost, but has not happened YET. As you can see there are two comfy queen beds. I wish I could have brought someone with me! Plenty room.

Although I have not had a chance to visit with him yet, Eric Chopin (Biggest Loser season 3 winner, his brother, and father are my neighbors. Today I weighed in and got measured. I have met LOTS of GREAT people already. I am excited about what tomorrow brings and pray that I don't get any blisters. Hike starts at 6:30 am, means I need to be on my way there by
6 am so I have time to get my hydration backpack filled with ice and water. Tomorrow starts their summer schedule, we will not be eating breakfast until AFTER the hike.

Speaking of the food, tonight's dinner was chicken on top of spaghetti squash with broccoli and other veggies. It was really good and filling. I have a picture above. I forgot to take a picture of dessert, but it was tiramasu (sp?) The ladies on their second week told us it had raisin bran on the bottom, and it was vanilla pudding mixed with a drizzle of strawberry. Before I came here I was really afraid of eating the tofu items. I am pledging to try everything served!

We learned tonight that Breakfast is around 300 calories, Lunch 400, and dinner 500. I better get to bed, 5 am is going to come early!

Biggest Loser -- Get Texas Fit 5K

2010-04-27T22:56:00.009-05:00

What an exciting day it has been! I just got through watching the episode of The Biggest Loser that was filmed a little over two months ago in Dallas. I participated in the 5K and had the opportunity to meet and talk to the contestants that were still on the show. At last I am able to share with you about the most inspirational day of my life!

I went to the 5K not knowing if I was going to be able to participate in the actual race, but arrived early JUST IN CASE! At the time of the filming, on TV we had only seen 6 weeks of taping, but the contestants were actually in Week 15. So since it was only 6 weeks I had not really gotten a chance to fall totally in love with anyone in particular. Let's face it, the yellow team was barely on the show after being sent home the first day. The person I most identified within those first 6 weeks was Ashley. She reminded me so much of myself, therefore I was hoping I was going to be chosen to be on her team (plus it would be a COOL PINK SHIRT). Well I was standing in line waiting to get my shirt and God was in control and the lady chose ME near the back of the Line to be on the ORANGE team. I can remember getting the shirt and thinking GREAT this thing does not even fit. I remember walking to the ORANGE team bending with my knees IN MY SHIRT trying to stretch it out. Since there was still two members of the GREY team and YELLOW team, there teams were enormous and LOUD! Our little Orange team bonded and got to know each other a little before heading out to the Cotton Bowl.

Once we got out to the Cotton Bowl, they lined everyone up and instructors from 24 Hour Fitness proceeded to warm us up. WARM up was more like Aerobics! I remember getting out of breath and thinking, "and I still have to run a 5K". After the workout they lined us up in front of the starting line by team colors. We then turned around and could see the contestants at the top of tunnel. It was extremely exciting! I got goose bumps and it may as well been a Rock Star walking down that path! We broke into groups and asked Daris questions. I kind of stayed in the background during that process being shy, but when we were lined back up in front the starting line, I started asking him questions. My concerns were how I was going to overcome the soreness the day after the 5K. I used to do the Susan G Komen 5K every year (without training) and my feet and legs would be killing me afterwards. He had told me to drink plenty of liquids, take some ibuprofen, and ice my knees if I needed. Since I had only seen the first 6 episodes the main thing we knew about Daris at that time was he had never had a girlfriend. Well before the race all kinds of girls kept coming up to him and wanted to get their picture taken with him. I smiled at him and told him I did not think he was going to have ANY TROUBLE getting a girlfriend now! I did not think of it then, but I wonder if him and Ashley like each other more than friends? Their mom's sure were close. Only time will tell.

Since this is "filming", the director had us do the "START" three times. I jokingly told Daris, "does this count as our first mile?". Daris told us that he was planning on running the 5K as fast as he could trying to beat his own time. Then he would be back for every last one of us. I jokingly told him "OK, I will be at the end waiting on you!" He told me not to worry, he would be back for me. So the REAL start began -- and we were off. Daris told us good bye and I told him I would see him soon!

Once out of the Cotton Bowl, the crowd started breaking up a bit and I was able to find my cousin, Amy, who was on the pink team. We caught up with Ashley a little bit up the way, and I told Ashley how she reminded me so much of myself and how much of an inspiration she was for me. She shared some of her own struggles with me, and Amy and I shared ours with her. A little bit later, we started doing sprints with her. She was AWESOME! She was leaving me behind. When I started the race, I had my inhaler in my pocket, but my goal was not only to finish the race, but not have to pull the inhaler out of my pocket. So when I got out of breath, I stopped and walked and my cousin ended up coming back to me.

Next we caught up to Michael. Michael is the one that on DAY 1, Episode 1, I looked into his eyes and told my daughter that HE is going to be ONE HOT MAN! So let me tell you, he made my day! In front of each contestant there was a golf cart with a camera, sound, and producer (maybe that is what they are called). He asked the producer in front of him if he could talk to JUST his team or anyone. They told him anyone, and he did a bee line right to me! While doing so, the producer yelled for him to ask about my story. I proceeded to tell him about my blog and how I was determined to get Thin in 2010. I told him that I have been overweight for the majority of my life, and this is the year! He shared a lot of his own experience and once again my cousin recommended that we do sprints. So we took off with Michael and once again I hung with them for a little bit, but had to back off. My cousin was a full quarter of a mile ahead of me before she stopped and waited on me. : )

About that time, Daris ran by and told me -- "I will be back for you." He was going to make sure there was not anymore Orange members further behind. There wasn't. I was the last and he soon returned to my side. We talked for a while. He asked me my story. I told him that I had gotten above 200 lbs while pregnant with my 1st child at Age 18 and have not been below 200 since. I again joked and told him that I can not blame this on baby weight any longer. : ) He told me that I sounded like his mom. I guess that was her reasoning as well. We talked all the way to the finish line, jogging once we got into the stadium. As soon as we crossed the finish line, I gave Daris a hug!

After crossing, my cousin is yelling for me to come into this tent. Little did I know they had all sorts of freebies in there. I was able to get a Brita pitcher, Brita water bottle, and a Biggest Loser game for my daughter's DS. I had been wanting a workout video and especially the wii game, but those were all gone by the time I got across the finish line. As we came out of the tent, a producer came and tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could interview me. I remember thinking, OMG maybe I will get to be on the show! Well he put his head right next to the camera and told me to look at him and NOT the camera. Do you know how hard that is? EXTREMELY! I was smiling during my interview and I now know WHY the contestants always cry on the show! That man was trying to get me to cry! Seriously! Well the director hollered that the last of runners were coming through so they wanted everyone near the finish line. So I went back to the crowd and joined my cousin. We cheered them on and then a lady came and asked me for my contact information. I still was thinking OMG, maybe they really like me. LOL

Once everyone was assembled, Allison announced that 7 lucky people were going to be given a week at The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge and a year membership to 24 hour fitness. I remember I was so nervous and wanted this so bad, I was getting sick to my stomach. I remember seeing Daris off to the distance, but I did not want to look at him because if he had not picked me, I did not want him to feel BAD! I mean he could only pick one member from his entire team! Well they called him to the front and to be honest, I don't remember exactly what he said -- something like the person he picked had an inspirational story and he chose STEPHANY! At the moment I was in SHOCK! And had I been more focused, I would have realized that there was a camera man strategically located directly in front of me! LOL As soon as he announced my name, that camera guy turned the camera right on me. I made my way though the crowd and gave Daris yet ANOTHER HUG! I talked a few moments in front of everyone to Allison Sweeney. I remember she asked me if the 5K was more than I had anticipated. I told her "NO, this is the Biggest Loser and I knew it would be GREAT!". I really figured that would have ended up on the show, but am a little disappointed that they did not show us get chosen.

Well after the interview with Alison, the same producer came back to me and asked if he could "finish our interview". I said sure. He pulled me off to the side and while I was waiting for him to find the camera and sound guy again, it sunk in. I WON! I AM GOING TO GET TO GO TO THE BIGGEST LOSER RESORT! OH MY! I HAVE NEVER WON ANYTHING!! A field of emotion came over me and I started to sob! It was out of control. Just in time for my interview. There was a time that I had the "ugly crying face" and I said "I can not wait to call my mom. She wants me to lose weight! My daughters want me to lose weight". I REALLY figured that would have been shown tonight! LOL I am relieved that it was not! LOL

So that is my story! I am EXTREMELY excited that I will be taking my journey to The Biggest Loser Resort May 16th, less than 3 weeks from now! I have really come a long ways since I participated in that BL 5K. In my preparations for FR, I have increased my workouts and intensity. On Sunday, I walked 7.5 miles! I am so thankful for all the GREAT family and friends that have helped me through my weight loss journey. I am officially down 41 lbs. Since the show was recorded, I have lost 31 lbs. I had wanted to lose at least 20 before the show aired and I surpassed it by 11 lbs. Now I am working towards losing at least 8 more before I head to The Biggest Loser Resort. I want to thank you all for your continued support !!

One last thing -- GO DARIS!!!! I HOPE YOU WIN!!!! I WILL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL TO YOU!!!

My TV Debut!

2010-04-21T20:30:00.003-05:00

The Biggest Loser - The Biggest Loser Next On - Video - NBC.com

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE AFTER YOU READ MY BLOG

Wow the time is almost here! The time when I will be able to share an important part of my journey to getting thin in 2010. One of the most inspirational days of my entire life! If I can not be an actual contestant on the show, this was the next best thing!

When you watch the video, I am the short haired blond in the Orange shirt with my hands by my mouth. Tune in next week after the show and I will blog about my experience that day! I will also post pictures!

It was that day that I decided to REALLY kick my weight loss in high gear and I plan on posting a picture of how I looked that day and how I look today. I still have a LONG way to go, but mentally and physically everyday I am growing into a person I now love! "THAT" is saying a a lot.

Last week I had a tough week. After working out 6 out of 7 days in one week and only losing 2/10's of a pound, it was hard to keep up the workouts everyday. I only worked out two days last week. I did Zumba on Tuesday night and Turbo Kick and Hip Hop classes back to back on Thursday night. On Sunday it rained so I missed my 7 mile walk.

On Monday my husband received news that he was going to be laid off. So on weigh-in day for lunch I went to Chili's. I would never dream of doing that, but I was severely depressed. I mean I have my trip next month and now is not a time for financial trouble. I have felt bad about spending all this money on "ME" this year for my health and have been saving all my Scentsy money for my trip expenses so I would not feel guilty. Anyway, I ate a Mushroom Swiss -- just the meat with a side of steamed veggies. It was soo good and although I was "feeding" my emotions, I did not go overboard. I went to Weight Watchers -- ALONE -- all three of my weight watcher buddies bailed on me. =( Good thing about weight watchers is, even though the people you know "out" of weight watchers is not there with you, you bond and become friends with people that you MEET there. So I did not feel alone.

I DID IT! I am officially in the 260's! I lost 3.4 lbs this week. I have now lost 39 lbs total. I am REALLY trying to do good this week! I want to surpass that 40 lb mark this week. And my goal weight that I have set for when I weigh-in at The Biggest Loser Resort in Utah May 16th -- I am now less than 10 lbs away! I CAN DO THIS!!!

Yesterday after work I met a friend at the park and walked 2.5 miles in 45 minutes. I usually do a 10 minute 1/2 mile, so I have shaved 5 minutes off my time. Holly and I were walking fast. I was practically running down the hills! I was walking fast because I had planned on leaving at a certain time so I could get home in time for the Biggest Loser to come on. What an episode!!! What a sad week for O'Neal and Sunshine! I was crying right along with them. I don't think there has ever been a contestant on the show that is more inspiring than O'Neal. I have found myself through many workouts telling myself "if O'Neal can do it, I CAN DO IT". He was truly AMAZING last night during his work outs in the gym.

Today my oldest daughter joined me at Zumba. We had a GREAT time! I LOVE MY POLAR WATCH! Usually when I go to this class, I burn about 450 calories. I set a goal before I got there, that I wanted to up the intensity and burn over 500 calories. I amazed at how much more I can do physically each day. I was kicking butt! End of class -- I burned OVER 600 calories! I ROCK!

Zumba -- I guess!

2010-04-13T21:50:00.002-05:00

I had another stressful day at work. I tracked my food all day. A co-worker and I are keeping tabs on each other this week and trying to motivate each other to have a good week tracking and keeping focused. She has had some really tough times lately, so we are good motivation for each other. I want her to be successful so she does not give up on her weight loss journey. I am hoping to be able to start my own water aerobics class this summer. I have access to a pool near my parents house and I have gone to enough classes that I think I could teach others. We could do it right after work maybe two times a week if the owner did not mind. And then, I have another friend that I have worked out with that has a pool. Maybe she would host us once a week. My co-worker has severely bad knees so I think the water aerobics could help her get started on exercise. I was proud of her on Saturday at the picnic, she walked down to the lake with us and back. We figure it was about 1/2 mile total, but on the way back it was all uphill.

I ate the majority of my points during lunch, and for dinner I did go over my daily points allowance, using 4 points of weekly flex points. Tomorrow is my boss' birthday, which means eating out at Chili's. hmmm I LOVE CHILI's, but I have a hard time figuring out what to eat there. Any suggestions?

I am not so sore today from my walk Sunday. I did not exercise last night after Weight Watchers because I was still pretty sore. Since I felt better today, I MADE myself go to Zumba. I really missed Zumba last week, so I figured it would be a good choice. I messaged Lola to see if she was going because I wanted to go back to her class. She was not able to go tonight, so I REALLY thought about not going. I was tired and just did not feel like going. But I keep focusing on my upcoming stay at The Biggest Loser Resort in Utah and I KNOW I have to keep pushing myself. I CAN NOT stop working out. I really need to be pushing myself more than ever considering this Friday, I will be EXACTLY one month from check-in at the resort. I guess I am still focusing on the negative on the scale. Not losing after working out 6 out of 7 days last week.

So I went to Zumba and boy was it hard! I was having a hard time getting the rhythm down. I did get my heart rate up to the 167, and stayed in the high 140's most of the time, but after about 40 minutes my face was so BEET RED and I was HOT! At the end of the class, I burned 500 calories! Not as much as I could have, but definitely more than I would have burned if I would have stayed home! I drank ALL of my water I brought so it was not that. But you know, I still am not drinking enough water. I know this because I am not getting up at night to use the restroom. Goal for tomorrow -- DRINK MORE WATER! It's hard putting it down when I am so busy at work I barely have time for restroom breaks! Yeah, I know -- MAKE TIME STEPHANY!!! This is MY LIFE we are talking about! I want to get THIN IN 2010!!! Must stay motivated! I CAN DO THIS!!!

Walked 7 miles!

2010-04-12T20:25:00.003-05:00

Well I met my goal for the week. I walked 7 miles yesterday! I was kinda depressed because it was appearing Sunday morning that I was not going to have anyone to go on the walk with me, and since it is going through some wooded areas the signs post that you should not walk it alone. I was trying to pump myself up into maybe doing the busier section maybe twice, but it still would not have been the same. So my niece and nephew were at my mom's house, so I headed over there to avoid the disappointment that was sure to come on if I did not go. Well after only being there for about 30 minutes, I got a text from Lola and quickly had to head home to get changed and geared for my walk. Since I was hurrying and could not find any high socks, I chose to wear my tennis shoes instead of my hiking boots.

When I got to the park, Lola had invited another friend, Misty. So there was three of us. They are some fast walkers. I did fine keeping up with them the first couple of miles, but after that my toes on my right foot started hurting. Another mile, then the ball of my right foot started hurting. I think my toes might have been hurting, but the ball of my foot hurt so bad I did not notice any of the other. LOL. It was hurting so bad that we stopped at a bench and I took my shoe off. I could have swore something like a rock was in there. I even checked the bottom of my shoe because it felt like there was a nail or something in there! I did not find anything and the pain continued the whole way. I found that the faster I walked the less it hurt, so I would go really fast to catch up with the girls and then slowly slip back. They were great motivators. They kept saying "Stephany you ok, you coming?". I don't know how it would have gone if I would have been on that walk by myself. We finished the walk in 2 hours and 23 minutes and I burned over 1100 calories! Super awesome for the night before the weigh-in. So you would think. : (

I went to Weight Watchers tonight and I did have a loss, but only .20. That is 2/10th of a pounds. I am bummed about it because that to me is like a wasted week. Remember I am trying to get in the 250's before heading to the Biggest Loser Resort. That leaves me at still needing to lose 13 lbs in now 5 weeks. It is not looking like I will make it, but I am going to give it all I can. One reason I am disappointed is because I worked out 6 out of the 7 days this week. The only night I took off was Friday night. In most cases, I burned over 1000 calories a day during exercise. I may have gained muscle because I know the other night I was noticing a bulge on my shoulder. I thought "what the heck is that?" Then when I noticed the other side had the same, I came to the realization it was muscle. LOL. I have been getting lots of compliments on my legs. Everyone keeps telling me how tiny they are. Something on me TINY? Whatever! But I will gladly take the compliments!!

Something I have not blogged about because I pretty much did not want to admit it, is that I have not been tracking my food entake. I have gotten really busy at work, and with all the exercise, just have not taken the time to do it. I had told myself today, that if I did not lose at least 1 lb, I was MAKING the time to track. Ironically our WW lesson tonight was on the importance of tracking! I learned the hard way! They say that you can be eating more than you think you are. I really did not think I did bad except for Saturday! Saturday was my day of JUNK! My company picnic was Saturday. I ate two hot dogs on white buns with chili that you know was not Turkey Chili or turkey hot dogs. I did fore go the bag of chips offered and drank a Diet Coke. I went with a group to walk down to the lake. Played Volleyball and Dodge ball, not to mention the water balloon toss. So I didn't just sit there.

Then I went to my friend Brenda's house. Do you have friends that when you get together with them you like to eat? Well I have a couple and Brenda's house is one of those for me. It was her daughters birthday, so I had yet again another two hot dogs and some Sour Cream and Onion Chips. I can not even remember the last time I had chips and they were my favorite, I could not resist. It would have been fine if I would have stopped there, but later that night the adults were playing cards and we had MORE chips with dip and she pulled out a bag of Hershey Minis. I think I ate 3 of the Hersheys and too many chips. I don't know what possessed me! So the fact that I did NOT have a gain, I should be THANKFUL! And I am!!

I did have a moment of success today. My boss scheduled a working lunch meeting today, which means PIZZA. I told him, on weigh-in day are you crazy? Well I volunteered to go pick it up and made myself a salad and only ate 1/2 a piece of pizza. Breakfast I had fruit - some watermelon and two bananas. I did drink about 32 ounces of water. So my question is this -- does everyone have a 2-3 lbs weight gain through the day. This morning when I weighed at home, which I have become addicted to, I weighed 3 lbs less than I did tonight. =( Be sure to share your wisdom!

Well I am still in pain from my walk yesterday. Mostly my back. I noticed that when I walk I lean forward. I need to get that under control before I head to FR, I bet that is why my toes hurt as well. Hmmmm! See this whole writing everything down IS helping me! Not to mention all the wonderful support I get from my fellow bloggers and followers. =)

Adventure Week continues ...

2010-04-08T23:18:00.002-05:00

Well I did another first today. After a rather stressful day at work, I headed to the gym. I had a mission in mind, and it required me to make it to the gym by 6:30 pm. Not hard for some of you, but I drive 45 minutes one way to go to my gym. I made it there with 5 minutes to spare. While I stood in line, I talked to a lady who has lost over 100 lbs. She said that she had the gastric bypass. I told her I was to scared to that, but the thought has crossed my mind. I was not going to say anything negative to her, of course, but I really think I would be much prouder of myself if I did it the "old fashioned way". I am not knocking the surgery, it is just not what I want right now for me. It probably also has a lot to do with the fact that I have never had any type of surgery before and it scares the hell out of me. We talked about the class we were about to take, Turbo Kick, and she said that it was her third time and she loved it. I told her I was planning on doing it and the Hip Hop class right afterwards. She looked at me like I was crazy. I thought "oh no, what did I just say". LOL

Well the class was a lot of fun. A lot of kicking, punching, jumping around like you are in a boxing ring but rhythmically to the music. There was one song that came on that I was having a hard time following the moves. NOT because they were hard, but because it was a song my regular Zumba class does and I was getting the two confused. LOL It's funny! I told my husband the other night that I did not realize how much I had actually memorized some of those dances until on the way from the gym last night. I had the radio on and one of the songs came on. I was dancing and shaking my tush as much as you can in a drivers seat. LOL. Glad it was dark outside, I imagine I would have had some people laughing at me. Who cares! Burns calories by moving, right?

During the Turbo Kick class I was sweating like crazy and kept drinking out of my 64 ounce Brita Water Bottle. Near the end of the class I started getting worried because it was almost all gone! At the end of the class, my watch showed I had burned 500 calories in Turbo Kick.

Now for Hip Hop, the lady I talked to before class told me good bye and in walked one of my new friends who quickly was called out of class because her son was upset in the Kids Club. He was really upset and she was not able to come back. :( Well, after doing a warm up routine, the instructor started teaching the same dance from the week before. While we were doing it slow, I actually was getting it down. Not good enough to want to try to do it at a talent show or anything, but enough to not look as much as a fool as the previous week. I burn lots of calories in that class. I think I don't realize the effect it is having on my body because I am thinking so much trying to remember what step comes next. I found that if I did not think about it, I usually did BETTER! After the hour was up, the instructor excused everyone that had to leave and invited us that did not have to leave to stay and dance some more. I stayed for ANOTHER 30 minutes. 700 calories in the Hip Hop Class! A total of 1200 for the night! The instructor really is sweet! She makes sure to tell everyone bye when they leave. I headed towards the door and she ran after me and thanked me for coming and hoped she saw me again. That really impressed me! There was over 50 people in that class.

Well I have taken a HOT SHOWER, a couple of ibuprofen, and I am icing down my knees as I type this blog. I know this is NOTHING compared to a day at Fitness Ridge, but the pain is giving me a glimpse into my future! YEP! Need to save LOTS of money for massages! :)

Hang in there Cat Chez! I love reading about your days at Fitness Ridge each evening before I go to bed. Give Diane a hug for me! I saw she is too tired to blog about her day.

Week of Adventure!

2010-04-07T22:18:00.003-05:00

This has been a week of new adventures.

Monday night I rode the bike for the first time in over 20 years. My butt hurt for 2 days!! LOL

Tuesday night I met my cousin at a new 24 hour fitness gym. I did the elliptical for a little bit while I waited for a Water Aerobics Class to start. It is funny how much my endurance is getting. It really takes a lot for me to feel like I am getting a good work out. I keep pushing on though because I KNOW that will NOT be the case when I go to The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge. The class lasted for an hour, then I swam two laps, sat in the jacuzzi and the sauna before heading home. I have not bought the waterproof belt that goes with my Polar Watch so I have no idea how many calories I burned. I was a little disappointed in myself because I was STARVING after I left the gym. I did pack an apple to eat on the way home, but I fell into temptation. I think the main reason I fell was because I was near one of my favorite restaurants that are NO WHERE near where I live. I have to drive at least 30 minutes for this treat. I am talking about Chipolte. Every time I am hard on myself, I always tell myself "well you did better than the OLD you would have done". The old me would have gotten the BIG Burrito with all the fixings including a 1/4 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup guacamole not to mention EXTRA rice! Well the new me got the burrito bowl to go. I DID not ask for extra rice, I got a little bit of chicken and barbacoa as my meat, pico de gallo, rice with cilantro, and a pinch of cheese. I ate my apple on my way home. When I got home I did add a little bit of my 2% shredded cheese and a Tbsp of Lite Sour Cream. It was good with not ALL of the guilt.

Tonight I went back to the same gym with my cousin. I did the stationary bike for 20 minutes and walked on the stepper for 10. I tried a new class tonight. It was called Cardio Mix. I LOVED IT! The instructor had such a GREAT personality. I actually caught myself smiling some during the class. My HRM said my heart rate stayed in the high 150's and 160's through most of the class. It was non-stop. Some stopped to get a drink, I really wanted to but I just kept moving! I think I did pretty well. I am SOOO motivated to lose right now. As I mentioned in previous post, I am getting into weight figures I have not been in over 10 years. My goal this week is to be in the 260's Monday night when I go to weight watchers. I have seen that number on the scale in the mornings, but not in the evenings. I am determined for this to be the week. So when I wanted to give up and stop moving, I kept repeating in my head - 260's 260's 260's. I had told my cousin that I was not walking out of that gym until I burned 1000 calories tonight! So at the end of the class I still had 200 calories to go. We decided to do the rowing machine. I set my meters to 2500 and when I got done with that, I was over 1000 calories burned. We walked down to the locker room and decided to get into the Sauna. Man was it hot! It was not that bad the day before getting in there WET from the pool and jacuzzi, but already sweaty? I could barely stand it. I kept an eye on my heart rate and since it did not get above 130, I figured I was fine. We stayed in there long enough for me to burn another 80 calories. I kept the watch monitoring until I got to my car, so I burned 1100 calories tonight! All in all, it was a pretty good day!

I am wanting to find local fundraising activities to participate in. I know a fellow blogger that climb a bunch of stairs for I believe the American Heart Association, and of course there is the Susan G Komen 5K and Race for the Cure. I will do those, but I think for me to continue my motivation after I get back from the FR, I need to keep setting goals. I have a lot of great things going on this year. I want to be in the 250's before leaving for the FR on May 16th. I will set another goal after FR on the weight I want to be before going to the Scentsy Convention in Denver at the end of July. Then in October, I will have my 20th HS Class Reunion. Then the end of the year goal which right now is set in the 220's. Since I started out weighing 307, I realize I am not going to be "THIN" this year. I am fine with that! But I like goals, the more the better! So if you know of some activity based fundraiser I might be interested in, let me know! I am totally doing the Stair one next year!! Anyone want to join me?

Down 35 pounds!

2010-04-05T21:13:00.003-05:00

Ok guys! I just realized I have not blogged since last Monday! Sorry about that. I have been busy busy busy! I have my full time job, then the candle business. Since my full time job pays the same no matter how many hours I work, I have been working my candle business BIG TIME getting extra spending money for my trip to The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge in 6 weeks! My team's sales from last month were AWESOME and if this month is about the same, I am going to have PLENTY of money to get as many massages, tests, etc I want while I am there. : )

I had a GREAT week! I feel I made LOTS of GREAT eating choices this week. The only day I stumbled was on Saturday night. We went over to some friends house and although I knew it was a bad idea, I brought a cute little Easter bunny cake (with Butter cream Icing) and a cookie cake. I did have a piece of each. :(

I did not exercise everyday this week. But when I exercised I made sure it counted!

Monday night was Weight Watchers! I usually don't do anything on Monday nights because weight watchers does not get over until 7 pm.

Tuesday night - I was invited to a different Zumba class with a friend. The room was smaller than what I am used to and there were TONS of people there. It was a GREAT workout. I had sweat poring off of me. My regular Zumba class I burn around 450 calories, this one I burned 600. Definitely worth going back for that extra 150 calories.

Wednesday night - My daughters are in FFA and had their county show, so by the time we got out of there it was after 9 pm. I had packed my gym bag in my car to go afterwards, but it was too late.

Thursday night - Tried a new class @ 24 hour fitness. It was a "Hip Hop" Class. I was thinking this class was going to be a lot like Zumba or Aerobics only doing Hip Hop moves instead. The thing I like about Zumba is you are moving constantly and my heart rate averages in the 140's throughout the whole workout. This one reminded me of my ballet / tap / jazz days when I was a kid. I thought maybe since I had over 5 years experience in choreographic dance, I would have an edge. NOT THE CASE! My memory is not like it used to be. The first 40 minutes of the class was step by step instructions on how to do the dance. Then the last 20 was doing the dance with the music non-stop. I am not going to lie, the last 20 minutes were fun, but I DID not know the entire dance. When I was a teen-ager, I remember going to dance workshops where all day each hour you learned a new dance. And back then, I would nail them by the end of the hour. This one I felt more foolish than anything. I did not feel like I got a good workout, but my HRM said I burned over 500 calories. Before class, I had walked on the treadmill at a 2.7 speed which I know is not much, but my incline was at a 5. I burned 300 calories before doing that class. My goal for the evening was to burn over 1000 calories before going home. So after the class I headed over to the stationary bike and planned on doing it for 40 minutes. Like I said, the class must have worked me more than I realized it, because I was having a HARD TIME making even 10 minutes. My legs were burning! So I only did the bike for 20 minutes, burned my 1000 calories and headed home!

Friday night -- spent time with friends / ate some GREAT Jambalaya

Saturday -- Busy day! I attended my daughter morning bowling league, then attended a Scentsy Team Luncheon. I got to meet a couple ladies from my down line face to face. Ends up I had met one of my new girls before at a ZUMBA class. Isn't that exciting! Exercise has given me so many new friends. One of the girls on my team teaches Zumba and the other teaches a Hip Hop class that she said is fast paced like Zumba. So I am going to have to try her class out as well as Kelly's Zumba class. After the luncheon I wanted to use mowing the yard as my exercise of the day. Well, I have not mowed the yard since I was a teen-ager. I have always been fortunate to have wonderful men in my life that have done that task for me. Well little did I know, our lawn mower is self-propelled. Which means when you are mowing, I was practically RUNNING to keep up with it and do all the turns. LOL I am sure I was pretty comical to my neighbors. =) Well the lawn mower kept dieing on me, so my husband ended up mowing everything and I headed in the house to clean / do laundry -- things I am the expert doing around here.

Sunday -- Easter Sunday! Did not attend any lunches or get-togethers! I met a friend in Waxahachie to walk on the path! We walked 5 miles!! I burned over 800 calories. I was so proud of myself. I have really come along ways. It was not even two months ago and I was in pain for 2 days after walking a 5K. Today I am stiff, but no worries! This Sunday -- we already have it planned to walk 7.5 miles! I WILL be victorious! Just need the Texas Weather to cooperate! After walking the 5 miles, I decided to go grocery shopping. I left on my HRM an I decided to see how many calories grocery shopping burned. Believe it or not, the grocery shopping, loading the car, unloading the car, and putting everything away -- I burned 450 calories. Not too shabby! If I look at it that way, maybe I won't HATE to go to the grocery store!

Monday -- I hopped on the scale this morning before work! I was so amazed by the # looking back at me, I had to do it again! Yep it matched. Of course that was my first thing in the morning weight. If this mornings weight would have counted, I would have been down 5 lbs, but at the end of the day, the WW scale showed I had 3.5 lb loss this week, which I am EXTREMELY HAPPY about! That puts me down 35.5 lbs. I am 13 lbs away from meeting my goal weight I want to be before heading to FR. With 6 weeks to go, I feel I that goal is totally tangible! Tonight after weight watchers, I did something else I have not done since I was a teen-ager. Holly and I rode bikes around the block. We had really high hopes saying we were going to ride a couple miles away to a little store to buy her a bottled water since I don't buy bottled water anymore. Well we decided to just go around the block a couple times first. All I can say is OUCH that seat was killing me. We kept laughing and had to stop a few time to take our butt off the seat. Whatever happened to banana seats? Needless to say we decided to stop after two blocks. It was a good work out, my bottom AND my legs are hurting. Anyone have any suggestion or words of advice on the seat situation?

Down 32 lbs!

2010-03-29T22:12:00.003-05:00

What a beautiful weekend in Texas! I had a busy weekend with very little time to sit around the house. Friday night, Holly and I went to walk at our local park. We walked for an hour walking 3 miles and my HRM said I burned 350 calories. I guess I had not totally recovered from the work out the night before, because I was not moving too fast. Every time we walk, we always talk about what we are cooking for dinner. Holly has a way of making it sound soo good that I always want to go home and cook what she is going to cook. Well Friday night, Holly was not planning on cooking, and since her son and my husband tagged along to hang out at the park while we walked, we all decided to go eat at our local Mexican restaurant. I did not do great, but I could have done a lot worse. I ordered the lite plate which was one cheese enchilada, rice, and beans. I guess the trick they taught me at weight watchers worked because Holly ordered the same thing instead of getting a higher in calorie selection. Our meal took a long time. I think our table went through at least 4 baskets of chips. Thankfully, I received a work phone call and missed out on a couple of them. My husband said dessert was at home. He said he picked up a couple of slices of pie at the grocery store that were Sugar Free. He bought both of us a slice which I thought was pretty awesome. He could have easily bought me the Sugar Free and him the regular one. So 1 pt for Chuck. As I usually do before I could even think about eating the pie, I flipped it over and checked the calories. 300, but as I pointed out to him. The retailer was trying to trick us. What a normal person would consider one slice, the nutrition label claimed it was two servings. Although I was disappointed at the high calories, I went for it and ate 1/2 of one of the slices. Yeah, still 300 calories but it was soooo good and as Cat says 1/2 the calories.

Saturday morning, I got up and cooked breakfast tequitos on whole wheat tortillas. My two tequitos consisted of 1/2 egg on each, very little 2% shredded cheese, and a touch of Jenny-O Turkey Sausage. Very good and filling. We headed to Dallas to see a new baby born in the family. He was so precious. I have been WANTING some Chipolte, so that is what we had for dinner. I know I went a little over my points but I have been craving this for sometime. I did decide to get the burrito bowl instead of eating the extra calories from the tortilla. It filled my craving and I should be good for at least another month or so. : ) We were supposed to go work out at the gym, but the devil took over and I traded the gym for a night at the casino. The only exercise I got for the evening beside my hand on the slot machine, was the stairs from the parking garage into the casino. There was a long stairway in between two beautiful escalators. I ended up running up the stairs two different times before the night was done and would have done it more if my family was not ready to go. I don't remember seeing another person on those stairs all evening, besides my cousin Amy who did it once with me.

Sunday, since it was beautiful, I met my friend Lola at a trail in Waxahachie and we walked 4 miles! YAY! I was determined to walk 4 miles and I think since we had so far to go, I was walking faster than usual. Then on the way back, Lola's friend called and said she did not see Lola son at the park. Well the adrenalin sunk in and we were booking. Of course her more than me. I had to stop once because my toes were SCREAMING! We did the 4 miles in a little over an hour and I was shocked when I looked at my HRM watch. I burned over 600 calories! That was awesome! I only ate Subway and fruit for the rest of the day.

Today was weigh-in at Weight Watchers and I really considered not going because my scale at home did not look like I was going to have a loss and ALL my buddy's were not going. Three of my co-workers and one friend all cancelled out on me on the same night. Last week our meeting was on the importance of coming to the meetings so we can get the encouragement from each other, a little advice, etc. I totally agree with our instructor, I need that. So I went to the meeting, and I am so glad I did. I had a LOSS. 1.5 lbs to be exact. I have now lost 32 lbs. I am 16.5 lbs to meet the weight I would like to be before I head to the Biggest Loser Resort in one day shy of 7 weeks. It's going to be hard, but I CAN DO THIS!!!

Day 1 at the gym with my Polar Watch

2010-03-25T22:49:00.002-05:00

I LOVE THIS THING! I wish I would have invested in this watch MONTHS ago!

Today at work,I was telling the exercise guru in my department about my purchase and using it at Zumba last night. I told her I could not wait to go to the gym tonight to see how many calories I would burn. My biggest calorie burn so far had been 800 calories. This number was compiled from all the "machines" at the gym that record how many calories you are burning. Well my co-worker then burst my bubble. She told me those machines can not be trusted because it is based on an average person. She of course is petite so she said the machines always say she is burning more calories than her watch would show. Before talking to her, I had set myself a goal to burn 1000 calories tonight. After talking to her, I decided I did not want to set myself up for failure, so I set my goal at 600.

When I first got there, I jumped on the Stepper as usual. I was determined to go 20 minutes AND I did. I went 50 stories in that 20 minutes, 1 mile in the sky. : ) The machine said I burned 140 calories -- my watch --- OVER 200. I don't remember the total amount because my watch keeps track of it all for me. I did not stop it after each exercise, I just kept letting it rake up the calories. When I got off that stepper I was dripping with sweat. I went to the rest room and put a wet towel to my face, then headed for the treadmill.

In my preparation for the Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge, I upped the incline to an even higher incline than I had done before a 4.5. I was lucky, tv right in front of me was showing Texas Hold 'em. I was like YES, that will take my mind off the workout. I decided to get off the treadmill after 30 minutes because my toes on my right foot were SCREAMING! I jumped off and looked at my watch -- OVER 600 calories. HOLY COW -- I have only been here almost an hour and I have already made the goal I had set for myself.

Next I went and did the weights for about 30 minutes. I went to the gym about an hour earlier than I usually do tonight and there were TONS of people there. So the weight machine for Crunches -- everyone loves that one. I had to get on the Harder Crunch machine where you are actually lifting your legs too. You know the whole seat moves. That was an awesome burn!

I don't quite remember what my calorie count was when I headed to rowing machine. Since I had my watch to keep track of the calories, I chose to do "the fishing game" on the rower. Basically you have to get out of the way of the Black Fish. You move your fish on the left by how hard you are pulling the row (if that is what you even call it). I was concentrating so hard on getting out of those black fish way, I have no idea how long I was on there. LOL. I do know that I was grunting and carrying on. LOL. I laugh about it now, but at the time, I did not CARE who heard me. I was trying to rack of the points. I did the game twice and if I had to guess, I bet each game last 5 minutes. After I got off, my watch said that I was OVER 900 calories burned!

Headed to my favorite exercise, the stationary bike with a fan. I decided to set it at Level 8, Random Hill, for 40 minutes. I stayed going pretty fast the entire time until after about 18 minutes and the hills got intense. There was nothing on the tv's in front of me, but luckily the lady next to me started talking to me so it made the time pass. She was quite comical. She was looking at a magazine and at times she was so into it, she was not even pedaling hard enough for the machine to register. I don't see how these people can sit there and read a book. I guess I still, as my fellow blogger puts it, jiggle too much. : ) I wouldn't be able to see the words without getting a headache. LOL. Anyway, she had some magazine that had an article on that lady that is wanting to become the Biggest Woman in the World. That is so sad. What an ambition? I think she is looking for a reason to EAT BAD and LOTS of it! No way! I cringe to think about pallbearers at my funeral straining to carry my coffin. I know that is morbid, but can you imagine? I bet she does not even live long enough to reach her goal. I feel bad for her. The Biggest Loser ought to give her another way to be popular, a change of life style!! Hopefully she will come to the light of things before it is too late.

I stayed on the bike my 40 minutes going a total of 11 miles. And what was the total after I got off the bike? 1375!!!! I did not even know that was possible, but I guess if you are an obese female my size moving that much, it's possible. For those of you not familiar with the Heart Rate Monitor watches, during set up, you enter your weight, birthday (so it can determine your age), height, sex, and today's date. There may be a few other things that I am forgetting. Then I have a chest strap that has a little computer in the middle that communicates with my watch. It keeps track of my heart rate. What I was not expecting that was cool, is it also communicates with all the machines at the gym. You know how on the treadmill for example how it has the part where you hold your hands on it to find out your heart rate? Well I did not have to do that on ANY machine tonight. It automatically showed up on all the machines. At first I was puzzled on the stepper wondering how it was getting a heart rate because I have never seen a place on there to find it. But I looked at my watch and sure enough they matched. What an added bonus I wasn't expecting. So at the end of each workout, the machine gives you the summary, you know for sure the heart rate they posted was your highest during that workout because it kept track of it the whole time, not just when you touched that special spot. At the end of my gym experience, my watch told me that my heart rate averaged 145 the whole time I was there and the highest it got was 158. When I got off that bike -- my butt was asleep. LOL. So I did some stretches, and headed out the door.

Next to the gym is a Taco Bueno. I was really hungry and thought about driving through and getting me a nacho salad. I got on my phone and googled the calories and even if I omitted some of the items, it was going to be 600 calories. HECK NO! Not after the workout I just got. I did not go there! During my workout I drank all 64 ounces of my water and I was still thirsty so I drove through Sonic to get a Large water with lemon. The drive thru attendant was taking his sweet time so I had PLENTY of time to look over the entire menu. I was so hungry. What did I decide upon you ask? Apple slices with Fat Free Caramel. It was good! I enjoyed ever bite. Once I got home I put a couple of pork chops on the George Forman and had some veggies for a whopping 320 calories.

What a GREAT NIGHT!!! I can not wait to see how many calories I burn tomorrow night when Holly and I go walking. : ) I totally suggest everyone get a HRM watch!

Polar F7 HRM

2010-03-24T22:31:00.002-05:00

Today I got my Polar F7 HRM in the mail. It came just in time to get me out this rut I seem to be in. When I had scheduled my trip to FR, Travis mentioned that this was a good brand and model to try. I was a little disappointed to find out that the only way it gets your heart beat is with the chest strap. Not a big deal because the chest strap was pretty comfortable. For those of you that have one of these, is all that water proof? I mean, when I go swimming I want to be able to calculate my calories burned, but that does not seem to be waterproof. I will do some research before I get into the pool with it. I mean I know I sweat with it on, but submerging into water sounds dangerous. LOL.

I have always wondered how many calories I burn while doing Zumba. Well I don't have to "wonder" anymore. I know all instructors vary, but tonight I burned 450 calories. Not bad! The highest my heart rate got up to was 158. That is equivalent to my last time at the gym.

I can not wait to go to the gym tomorrow night. Through my cousin, I have a new workout buddy. I have never met her, she just happens to be a member of 24 hour fitness as well and was looking for a buddy. It is going to be strange meeting someone for the first time, then working out. I have no idea what she looks like but she sounds like she is pretty active. I can't wait to see how many calories I burn!!

I want to thank everyone for the encouragement! Because of you and the Polar watch I feel I am back on track and ready to move forward! I have goals to face and pounds to lose. : )

10% Weight Loss

2010-03-23T22:12:00.002-05:00

Well I weighed in last night at Weight Watchers! I lost 2.2 lbs, making my weight loss 30 lbs, giving me a 10% weight loss since I started. YEAH!

You would think that would motivate me even more, right? Well, it has actually doing the opposite. When I first started this diet I weighed 300 lbs. I have gotten below 300 three different times in the past 6 years, but never below 294. At my heaviest, I weighed 330. That was probably 6 years ago. At that time, I got down into the 290's and lost motivation! Again two years ago, I started another diet and got down to the 294, then lost motivation. I truly believe something comes over me. I don't know if I don't believe that I can be successful, afraid of failure, tired of eating well, or just scared of gaining it back. Or maybe the stress from work? Our busy season has started back up and my days are extremely stressful. My job is what I believe is "hard to succeed" with options that are out of my control. Remember I am hard on myself when I am not perfect or feel others are thinking I am not doing my job.

Then there was the Biggest Loser Audition, I did go to the gym Sunday night after I went to the movies with my family. I was even good and packed my own lower in calories and sodium popcorn. Although I went to the gym I was just not "into it" as I have been in the past. I only burned 450 calories and was there two hours. I have not worked out since. : ( I am getting over the disappointment of not getting a call back. I am just telling myself that they could tell I was energized to lose weight and they are there to help those with "no clue". Whether it is true or not, that is what I am going to believe.

Since I have lost 30 lbs, I have grown more confident. I know I still have a lot to lose, but do you know how long it has been since I was in the 270's? Probably 10 years. That makes me feel AWESOME and POWERFUL! I need to stay positive and remember that. The 260's are just around the corner. I need to continue to focus on my weight loss 10 lbs at a time. I am hoping to be in the 250's when I go to FR! I don't care if it is 259.9, I just know that would be awesome and that will just be that much less weight to haul around during the hikes.

My 2010 goal of losing 80 lbs is totally doable. It is only March and I have lost 30 lbs. How awesome would it be to be closer to 200 than 300 at the end of the year! I have got to get my "I CAN DO IT" game face back ON! I have GOT to focus on ME! I have GOT to forget about work after I leave for the day! I need to stay positive and do what I can at work, and if I can not get everything done each day, I don't need to feel bad about it, because I can not handle circumstances out of my control.

I really need extra encouragement now! If you have gone through these "moments", please share! Only 53 days until I leave to go to The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge! I still have LOTS of shopping to do! And oh yeah, I forgot to share, I bought me a Polar Watch!!!! Yay! I am so excited to get it in the mail this week! I am hoping it arrives before my Thursday night at the gym!! I think the watch might be arriving just in time to help!!!

Biggest Loser Casting

2010-03-21T14:44:00.002-05:00

Well I went to my LAST Biggest Loser Casting Call yesterday. I have gone to many before but this one was the best. I went with a co-worker that although we both have lost weight on Weight Watchers, we have the most to lose at our group and we have "mental issues" that we are facing. NO we are NOT INSANE, we just are "Food Addicts". For our whole lives we have gone to food for comfort.

The reason this is my LAST time to go is mainly because I plan on NOT being over 100 lbs overweight next time they hold auditions, which is one of their requirements to be on the show. Although I told myself I was NOT going to be depressed if I did not get a call-back, it has not worked. It is the day after and I stayed in bed until 2 pm today. =( So before I eat my entire house, I decided to get on here and blog about my feelings, eat a reasonable lunch, then head to gym. I always feel better after I go to the gym. I need to replace exercise with over eating!!!

The casting call process is so brutal. I will have to say that the auditions in Dallas this year was the most organized one yet. In the past you take a chair and wait in line the whole time until you are seen. Don't know if that was the case this year for other cities, but Dallas ROCKED! It was at Dallas Methodist Hospital in their Auditorium. It was raining on Saturday morning and cold so before I left home, I packed snacks, blanket, umbrella, a chair, and even cards to help with the boredom to help time pass.

BL had posted that no one would be allowed to line up until 3 hours before they started auditions at 10 am. NOT the case! We arrived at 7:10 am, and there were over 250 people already in line. I was thankful to see that the hospital had put up some tents for us to be out of the rain while we were in line. I was extremely thankful for that. I don't care what anyone says, overweight people are GREAT people. Even though the lines were not formed by ropes to keep us in order, we all made our own lines by just staying behind the person in front of us basically. I was actually only standing up for maybe a little over an hour. The line was just to get you into the auditorium. Once you reached the front to enter the building, you were given a numbered application. The auditorium was full, but since Rae Cene and I brought our own chairs, we just sat in the back of the auditorium.

Once in the auditorium, the hospital had a "Health Fair" going on. They had a schedule of speakers throughout the entire day. But before the speakers started at 10, they were playing episodes of Season 9, which is on tv now. So that really pumped up the audience reminding us why we were all there! I was a "little" disappointed that there was a section on surgical weight loss. As an obese woman, it seems every time I turn around someone is trying to talk me into doing one of these surgeries. I have "thought" about it, but really want to do it the old fashioned way with diet and exercise. At 38 years old, I have NEVER had any type of surgery and am actually scared! If I had surgery before, I might feel differently. I am not saying that decision is wrong for anyone that chooses to go that route, that is just not the decision I am going to make, at least at this point in my life. There were lots of vendors lined up in the hall with tons of FREE stuff and information to take home with you. And there was even a trainer there that spoke during the day. Someone asked about the heart monitor watch and she spoke on that and said she got hers at Walmart for like $30. I have been looking at these and was planning on spending over $100 for mine. She is the second person that told me Sportline has one that does everything just as well for cheaper. I might stop by Target or Walmart on my way to the gym and buy me one. THAT would cheer me up!!! =)

The night before the auditions I watched TONS of You Tube videos that the Biggest Loser Casting Crew have posted on tips for auditions. I did EVERYTHING they asked for! I dressed up as if I were going on a job interview, I smiled and stayed energetic through-out the entire 7 minutes I was in front of them. It may sound funny but I really think maybe I am not fat enough? Those words coming out of my mouth don't even sound right. If you watch the show, you can see that each season they keep getting BIGGER people. This season there were at least 3 contestants that weighed over 500 pounds and I believe the heaviest female was maybe 350?

My co-worker and I would have made a great team, but maybe you have to be family? They have never come out to say that as a requirement, but who knows? I still think we were heavy enough! And they are definitely missing out! My co-worker is one of the best ladies you will ever meet. She is so caring and extremely funny. She is a lot like myself and I know America would have loved us! I am going to encourage her to make a video with me because we would have the opportunity to let them see the real us in more than 7 minutes they allowed us after waiting 7 hours just to be seen.

My sister Erin, was not able to make it to the auditions. She is such a beautiful girl and I wish she would have been there! She and I have discussed doing a video together as well. We need to hurry and do it this week if we are, because the taping of the show begins in May. We have a great story to tell. Although we have different moms, we have the same dad. Growing up our dad was not around much and since there is 8 years difference in our ages, we never saw each other much growing up. Therefore, we were not given the time to "bond" as sisters. Now that we both are adults married with children and live 2 hours apart, it is still hard to find time to get together. I really believe that if we were given the opportunity to be on the show, it would definately bond us! I know, I know -- we need to make more time for each other!! We don't need a TV show to get us to bond!! I wish Erin could afford to go with me to Fitness Ridge in May.

Well I have vented! I DO feel better! I need to get off of here and enjoy the rest of my day off!!

I did the Stepper for 20 minutes!

2010-03-18T22:42:00.004-05:00

What a GREAT work out I had tonight at the gym! I am so proud of myself! I once again went to the gym BY MYSELF! I am getting where I don't really mind it much! I do miss having a partner to high-five when I do something above and beyond what I have done in the past. I have been trying to get one of my co-workers to start going with me but she says she does not want to go to a gym with MEN! I guess because I am married and not there to meet anyone, I don't mind it at all. Tonight I even had some small talk with a few women. I guess if I go more, maybe I will meet some of the other ladies and not feel like I am there by myself. Everyone is really nice and encouraging. Guess just because I am obese, they applaud me for trying to do something about it. I have noticed at all these workout that I attend, I very rarely see anyone bigger than me. One day, that too will change! : )

Today we had a carrier in from Canada so everyone went out to eat with him. Everyone chose Chili's. I was like, oh GREAT! That will be HARD to be good. Well, I decided upon the Fajita trio without rice and beans and I asked for corn tortillas instead of flour. The corn tortillas were so greasy that I wiped the grease off with my napkin before I ate them. I ate two full fajitas with all the fixings. Then I ate the left over meat. I did not care for the steak too much so I did not eat all of that. When I got back to the office, I pulled up Chili's nutritional information and YEP -- not good. It totaled 1250 calories for EVERYTHING. Even though I did substitutions and did not eat everything, I always "charge myself" for the full calories. It equaled 25 WW points. Considering I only get 32 a day, HOLY COW! Glad I decided to have my oatmeal this morning instead of cereal. : ) And for dinner, I am having a Steamable Broccoli and Cheese. I am going to eat the whole bag which is about 1 1/2 cups for a whopping 2.5 points leaving me a whole 1 point uneaten! : )

Well after a BAD BUSY day at work, I came home started a load of laundry, changed into my work out clothes, filled up my brita water bottle and headed to the gym. I got there about 6:30 pm and did not walk out of there until 9:45 pm. Here is a recap

Stepper -- 20 minutes -- burned 140 calories went one mile on that at a level 3
A trainer came by and asked me how I was doing, I told her good this was my first time to go longer than 5 minutes! She said I was doing great and keep the level down until I get more used to it.

Elliptical -- 10 minutes -- burned 65 calories My knees don't like this machine. I am going to still get on it some because when I go to FR I don't want it to be my first time on one if I get stuck with it.

Treadmill -- 30 minutes -- burned 151 calories I did the majority of the 30 minutes at 4.0 incline and 3.0 speed. I did play with the incline and speed some going higher, but my right foot was starting to hurt. I was really paying attention to how I was walking and I do need to go to the doctor. I really think my hip might not be aligned correctly. I was noticing that my left knee was pretty much staying locked and my right leg was doing what it was supposed to do. Maybe I will need physical therapy. I definitely need to get this figured out before my trip.

Weights -- 30 minutes -- burned ? calories I so need to get me a Watch that tells me how many calories I am burning because I have no idea on the weights, but I was doing 4 sets of 10 on all of them. I went and did the crunch machine twice. Once at the beginning and again at the end.

Rowing Machine -- 20 minutes -- burned 145 calories What a workout. I purposely stayed on there long enough to burn at least 144 calories because 144 would put me at 500 calories burned! My goal tonight was 600!

Arm Rotation Machine -- 5 minutes -- 30 calories

Stationary Bike -- 45 minutes -- 256 calories -- 12 miles at a LEVEL 8 Random Hill I started out planning on only riding it for 20 minutes, but the tv in front of me had Texas Hold'em on it and since I LOVE TEXAS HOLD'EM, I started up another 20 minutes so I could see who won. At the end I REALLY wanted to reach that 800 calorie mark, but the darn machine cut-off on me because my set time was done. I missed it by 13 calories which I AM sure I burned more than doing the weights.

At the end, I went over to the stretching area and propped my leg up on the bar to stretch just like I used to do in ballet. I even bent forward to touch my toes on the bar and bent my leg that was touching floor. It felt great to stretch like that. After stretching I headed out the door for my 45 minute drive home.

There is NO workout like a gym workout! I really need to go more than once a week! I am going to try to go once during this weekend. I REALLY want to have a good loss on the scale this week and reach my 10% weight loss goal!!! I have a good feeling about this week. : )

More Water Gain?

2010-03-17T22:03:00.002-05:00

I am having a really odd week. I don't remember being this bloated since I started my diet. I MUST not be drinking enough water. I have gotten busier at work which results to less extra time to fill up my water bottle. And I did notice tonight, I have only drank 32 ounces since I got off of work. So I guess I need to intentionally make sure I am drinking more. I will work on that the rest of this week.

I also have been experiencing foot pain in my right foot around my toes. It starts about 45 minutes into my exercise. Yesterday after I got home, I changed into my Hiking boots to go walking. Well, a glimpse of my future occurred. After I put on my left shoe, I noticed pain behind the heel like something was either in the shoe OR in my sock. Well there was something in my sock alright, a BLISTER on the back of my heel. Well instead of irritating it further, I chose to walk in my tennis shoes. Holly and I walked 4 miles! Yay! After about 2 1/2 miles, my toes started hurting, but I pushed forward and felt GREAT for accomplishing the 4 miles.

Tonight we went to Zumba. On the way there, I said a little prayer and gave myself a pep talk. I wanted to have a good work out and burn lots of calories. I did pretty good. I am starting to learn some of the routines and getting better at the steps that require jumps. They had the a/c on and I was right in front of a HUGE fan. I did break a little sweat but not like in the past. At first I was afraid my asthma was going to act up, but I concentrated on my breathing and I was fine. The hour flew by and the instructor could not believe the hour was up. She asked if anyone wanted to go another hour. A few people said YES, and Holly and I were right there with them. The instructor ended up only doing about 20 minutes more, but that last dance -- Holy Cow! Cardio Extreme! It was fun!

I really need to purchase a watch that tracks my calories burned. For those of you that have them, please comment and let me know what kind you use.

Spring Forward

2010-03-15T21:28:00.003-05:00

Well I went to weigh-in this evening! I gained .2 (2/10 of a pound). I am not going to let it get me down. I was down 3 pounds a few days ago, then last night I don't know WHAT I was thinking, but I ate some popcorn at the movies. I got it WITHOUT butter, so the "points" were not that bad, BUT I did not think about the salt resulting to water gain for my weigh-in today. I have been feeling all bloated ALL DAY! So I had a feeling it was not going to work out well on the scale.

Like I said, two days ago I showed a loss of 3 pounds. Had that 3 pounds stuck with me tonight, I would have hit my 10%. But you know what, I KNOW I will hit it NEXT WEEK! I am just going to stay focused, keep doing well, and NOT eat any salt!!!

Although, before I went to the movies last night I had done my work out to the Wii Biggest Loser Game burning what it said was about 130 calories. If you have not tried it, IT IS HARD! Since I don't want to slack on the workouts, I went ahead and set my workout level to Medium to burn the maximum calories. I DID NOT pick Advanced because I KNOW I would not have been able to hang with that. I barely can handle the 39 minute workout I am doing. It makes me sweat like crazy, which is good.

After the workout, I took a quick shower (which my husband could not believe) and I met some friends for a 3 1/2 mile walk. We walked on great little walk path I had heard so much about. This is the one that 1/2 of it is 3 1/2 miles, and if you walk the whole thing it is 7 miles. It is amazing to me where all the path travels through the town, in the wooded scenic area and ends at two different parks at each end. It amazes me that I walked it without much trouble breathing trouble. I bought my new hiking boots for my trip to The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge. I felt I looked funny walking in them on that path with everyone else in tennis shoes, but I want to get them worked in really well before I go. I am hoping to miss the all so popular blisters on my feet. The boots worked out well, did not even feel like a new pair, but my toes on my right leg were in pain. I think I must walk funny or something and am putting too much weight on them when I walk. My friends suggested I go to a foot dr and I probably should before I go on my trip. They said maybe he can help me identify some exercises or something to help. Who knows? I sure don't! I guess it might help.

Throughout the day, I drank at least 64 ounces of water and I noticed that I was not spending as much time in the bathroom as I usually do. All this occurred BEFORE I went to the movies. I thought it strange. I did get up 4 times last night. So I am glad about that. Maybe I was sweating yesterday more than I thought? My weight watchers leader suggested I eat some melon and continue drinking my water. I went and bought me some watermelon on the way home. I think it will all work out this week. If anyone has any other suggestions, please do so. All is welcome. : )

Usually during the Time Change - Spring Forward, I HATE IT! But I am actually looking forward to it, for the first time in my life!! Texas weather has been nice and the moving the clocks up means I can walk longer in the evenings after work. I am so proud of Holly! She was working 9 am to 6 pm. She is so motivated to exercise and lose weight that she was able to change her hours at work to be able to get off at 5 pm each day, meaning we have PLENTY of time to get our walking in. We talked about trying to walk 4 miles tomorrow. I think it's a good plan. If we can add a 1/2 mile onto our walk each time we try, it will be no time and I will be able to do that 7 mile walk no problem. My legs are still hurting from yesterdays walk, but if I keep on track, I should be able to handle the hikes at FR. I am NOT saying it is going to be easy! I hear the first one called the Stop Sign Hike is HORRID! I hear there is an incline that about kills you! But I am training for that by upping the incline on the treadmill. I wish I were able to go to Turner Falls with my cousin this weekend, I could really go on a good hike there. Hmmmmm! Maybe after The Biggest Loser Casting on Saturday, I can talk my hubby into going for the night? But then again I have already encouraged another friend to join, what is becoming, my "Sunday Walking Group". How cool is that? Sounds like a challenge --- wonder how many people I can get to join? If you live in Ellis County, Texas, you are MORE than welcome to join us. We go at 2 pm on Sundays. E-mail me at Stephany_Gallaway@yahoo.com for more details.

I went to the gym by MYSELF!

2010-03-11T23:16:00.003-06:00

Well since my last post, A LOT has gone on! I can not believe how busy my life has become. TV? What's that? Hard to believe that is all I used to look forward to each night. What was coming on TV that night.

Tuesday, I FOUND the charger for my Wii remote! YEAH! I got it all plugged in, letting it charge while I went to walk with Holly at the park. We were only able to get in 2 miles before the sun went down. =( After that, I went by the grocery store to buy ingredients for a Roasted Chicken and Vegetable Recipe I saw in Good Housekeeping magazine. After getting home from the store, it was way too late to start the chicken so I settled for my Tuna Sandwich. At my weight watchers meeting someone mentioned a new product called "Sandwich Thins". It is basically a way to have a TOP and a BOTTOM to your sandwich and it only is 100 calories (1 WW point), whereas my 100% whole wheat bread is 70 calories per slice, costing me (2 WW points for a top and bottom). So I definitely wanted to try these so I bought some of those at the store as well. Another product I have discovered is Starkist Tuna Salad Chunk Light which comes in one of those flat packages, not the cans but you can find it in that same area. It is already prepared and it has a little bit of pickle in it and apples. I say its apples, my husband disagrees. Anyway the WHOLE package is 2 WW points. This has become one of my favorite quick snack / meal. Anyway, I tried it on the Sandwich thins and they TASTE GREAT! But be careful if you are on weight watchers, if you eat two tops and bottoms -- it is 3.5 points. Found out that the hard way. LOL Live and Learn!

So I am fed and READY to play my Biggest Loser Wii Game. Well even after charging for over an hour, remote was still not charged. I was soooo busy worried about getting it to work, I FORGOT IT WAS BIGGEST LOSER NIGHT! I checked twitter after 10 and everyone was talking about it! So I ran to my bedroom praying that my Tivo recorded it for me! YEAH IT DID! I am sooo glad it did! What a GREAT episode and so fitting for what I am going through this week. Trying to fit my workout plan in with my day to day life! Well Biggest Loser, you inspired me again! I was sad to see that Cheryl went home! I love the Orange Team!!

Wednesday night, Holly and I went to Zumba. Boy was I feeling it! That work out is so intense! We are talking about maybe going two nights next week if, anyone would like to join us. After Zumba, I headed to my brothers house to spend the night. I babysat my newest niece and nephew today. The baby is 3 months old and although she is an absolutely perfect baby, that is some WORK! I was glad when mommy got home and auntie got to leave. I love those kids but I guess you get spoiled after a while when your kids fend for themselves, as much as teenagers will anyway. While I was there, I cooked the Roasted Chicken and Vegetable meal I had the recipe for. Turned out pretty good. I am not a fan of white meat because I think it is too dry and that portion of the chicken was and the vegetables were a little harder than I prefer as well. But the chicken leg I ate was good and I know I ate less than 500 calories. The recipe said it would have 4 servings at 500 calories a piece. I still have the majority of it left. I just threw it in the crock pot and I am going to cook it on low and eat it tomorrow. That should tenderize everything. I added a picture of the finished meal. All the punctures in the top are my cutting it to make sure it was done.

After I left my brothers tonight, I headed to the gym BY MYSELF! I drove the 45 minutes it took to get there BY MYSELF! I am so proud of myself! I am one of those people that needs a friend to go to the bathroom with me. LOL. So this was a achievement all by itself, but wait until you hear what all I did during my 2 hours I spent there.

Stair Stepper Machine, don't know the time or level, but I burned 30 calories

Treadmill, I usually do 30 minutes -- Well on the Biggest Loser Tuesday night O'Neal which is a 300+ male in his, I believe, 50's and has a bad knee excitingly told Bob that he walked on the Treadmill for an entire hour at a 3.0 speed and I don't remember the incline he walked at. Well as I mentioned last week, each time I go to the gym I am going to increase my incline - so tonight it was at a 3.0 Incline. I kept it at 3.0 speed. Every five minutes I would up it to 3.5 speed. I did that for the first 30 minutes! Then guess what -- If O'Neal can do it, SO CAN I! I stayed on it for an entire hour with 5 minutes extra to slow down. The highest my heart rate got up to was 169. I was stopping every 20 minutes to drink water. I have not mastered the drink while you walk on a treadmill. Too much body still flapping around to not spill it. LOL. So I walked 3.25 miles in that hour and 5 minutes, burning a total of 330 calories! YEAH ME!

Weights, I did look at the clock this time -- I did weight for 23 minutes. I worked my stomach, arms, shoulders, and legs. I did about 10 machines and on ALL of them but one, I did 3 sets of 10. The other machine, I only did 3 sets of 5. It was a killer!

Rowing Machine, I did not even see this machine during my last visits, but I saw a guy doing it and once again reflected back to Biggest Loser this week and everyone going to town on those rowing machines during their "Last Chance Workout". So I tried it and stayed on there for 10 minutes burning 75 calories.

Arm Rotation Machine, I did this one for about 5 minutes and burned 15 calories.

My favorite -- Stationary Bike with Fan -- I did this one a little differently this week. I started OUT at a Level 7 and did random hill. Well I KEPT it at a Level 7 the whole 20 minutes. Wow you can really FEEL those hills on Level 7. Last week I only did Level 7 during my last five minutes and I went a distance of 7 miles and I don't remember how many calories I burned on it, but I want to say it was 75. Well Level 7 the whole time, I went a distance of 6 miles and burned 125 calories.

So if you add this up -- on the machines that TOLD me how many calories I burned -- The total is 575! HOT DAMN!!! I am not sure how many calories I burned on the weights, but I bet it was over 25! So I am going to say that I burned OVER 600 calories tonight! I am extremely proud of myself and can not wait to go back!

As for now, I am starting to HURT! I am going to drink a little more water although I drank 32 oz while at the gym, take a shower, some advil, and GO TO BED! All is GOOD! Tomorrow is FRIDAY and my lovely mother-in-law is coming to visit!!

Out of Control

2010-03-08T22:27:00.002-06:00

I have been having a tough couple of days! Although I feel like I am getting my diet under control, I feel like my life is OUT OF CONTROL! I am having a hard time balancing my new life into my existing life.

I work a full time job Monday thru Friday, I sell Scentsy Wickless Candles, am a mom to two teenage drama queens, and a wife in a not so perfect marriage. I have been selling Scentsy for two years now and still LOVE it! I am the type of person that I have to be able to do everything 100%! I can not settle for half-ass. If I can not do everything 100% than I am hard on myself and get depressed! Which is what is going on right now!!!

We just got a new catalog and I need to be out there busting my butt showing all my customers these new products. I also have a party booked that I have not gotten invitations to AND a fundraiser about to start that I need to get Fundraiser packets generated for by Saturday. I know that a successful business requires GREAT customer service and I can not stop being hard on myself for not giving 110% to my customers. I KNOW that without my customers, I will not have a business. I really want my business to blossom and am hoping that in the future it will become my full-time job. But none of that will just happen by accident, I HAVE to work on it! But how do I fit everything into my busy schedule and STILL have time to exercise?

The food part is a given! I have gotten that part under control as long as I don't allow myself to emotional eat. I really had a hard time last night, I snacked more than usual and it all resulted to the fact that I talked myself out of going to the gym last night! I did do an hour on the Gazelle, but I just was not into it! My house has gotten out of control! My bedroom and office look like a tornado hit them. I bought myself the Biggest Loser Wii game, I was excited and ready to start it tonight and I CAN NOT find my Wii control charger station and my controler is DEAD. We unplugged it and took it on a trip to my mother-in-laws at the end of January and it never got put back in the living room. I checked the still not totally unpacked suitcase it WAS in last time I saw it, and it is no longer in there! So I am FRUSTRATED and feel defeated yet again. I tore my room up even more than it already was looking for it but NO SUCCESS! UGH!!!

I am going to physically WRITE DOWN a day to day to do schedule for this week and see how that goes. I am going to have to STAY HOME and DO NOTHING this weekend except get this house in order! My daughter's bowling is over for the season except her Saturday morning league, which is over by 11. Yes she should be starting Softball soon, but before that I have got to get this whole time management nightmare worked out! I WANT to be successful in everything that I do!!! I need to learn how to NOT be so hard on myself when I am not PERFECT at everything! No one is perfect, right?

I did go to weight watchers tonight and despite all that snacking I did last night, I DID lose 1.5 pounds putting me down 28.5 pounds. I should be able to reach my 10% loss next week! I am sooo proud of my new weight watchers partner Holly! It was her first weigh-in and she lost 7 pounds! Go Holly! Keep up the good work!!

Great workout tonight!

2010-03-04T22:52:00.002-06:00

Wow, what a workout! I am just now getting home! I really needed a good workout and I can honestly say I gave it 100%. After eating Chinese food today, it could not have came at a better time!

When we first got there, we did the stepper first. I told Betty if I am going to do it, I have to do it while I still have energy. I really can not remember how long we were on the stepper, but I sure do remember that I burned 50 calories and climbed 14 stories. I think it was only 5 minutes, and she was there cheering me on!

Next we did the treadmill. I told her that I wanted to do it for 30 minutes, which believe me I was kind of worried about lasting 30 minutes after just getting off the stepper. She encouraged me to bump up the speed every five minutes for twenty seconds. Since I am training to hike in the mountains and Bob from the Biggest Loser says you burn more calories by doing it at an incline, I set the treadmill at an incline of 2. I plan on bumping it up a level on the incline each time I go to the gym. Well, once my legs got moving I kept the treadmill on 3.0 and after five minutes, I bumped it up to 3.5. Instead of doing the 20 seconds as Betty suggested, I was feeling GREAT, so I did it for a whole minute! After that, I took it back down to 3.0 for four minutes. Next I bumped it up to 3.6 for one minute. Down for four, then up to 3.7 for one minute. This one about KILLED me! Down for four, then up to 3.6 for one minute Down for four, then up to 3.5 for one minute. I was extremely proud of myself! I did it! I walked 1.5 miles and burn 150 calories. The highest my heart rate got up to was 161.

Since my legs felt like jell-o, I suggested we do weights next. I need to better about timing how long we did the weights. I know it was at least 20 minutes. I did a great crunch machine, 4 sets of 10 of those resting a minute after each 10. I did chest pumps, biceps, and who knows what all else. But mainly weights that worked my abs and arms.

Next Betty continued with the weights, but I wanted to do the bike. Before jumping on that, I did the machine next to it which basically is rotations for your arms. Kind of like a bike, but you pedal with your arms. I stayed on there for 5 minutes, burning 30 calories.

Jumped on my favorite machine -- the bike with a back support and a FAN! Last time we went to the gym I rode it for 20 minutes and did 4 miles. Well this time I challenged myself to do on the bike what I did on the treadmill. I selected the setting "Random Hill" and started at level 1. I rode it for 4 minutes keeping my RPMs in the 80's, then for 1 minute I pedaled fast and kept the RPM's over 100. The fastest I got was 110. After that minute was over, I went back down to staying in the 80's RPM range and upped the level to 2. After 4 minutes, I went as fast as I could keeping it above 100. I tell you what -- I DID buy me a sports bra and I DID have it on, but my girls were all over the place. I don't think sports bras are meant to battle the bulge bouncing from below. LOL. There was a point where I thought, "OMG, I hope nobody is watching me". Then the next moment, my "positive voice" which I am growing to love answered and said "WHO CARES! BURN THEM CALORIES". After I had done this for 10 minutes, I looked at the calories and noticed I was not going to hit the 70 calories burned on this machine if I don't step it up! So I started resting one minute, and going hard for one minute with me bumping up the level after each hard minute. I ended the 20 minutes on the bike at level 6 with 71 calories burned and 7 miles traveled! Can you believe that? That is 3 more miles in that 20 minutes than I did last week! Yay me!!! I ROCK!!!

So if your doing the math, I burned 300 calories on the machines that TOLD me how many I burned. I am not sure how many calories I burned on the weights and the stretches we did with the ball before we left. Oh yeah, that little exercise with the ball Betty had me try to do last week that I could not even pick up my feet; I DID it! Last night after I blogged I mentioned that I was going to do some exercises with the ball before I went to bed. Well, I was actually able to do 5 of them last night and I did another 5 at the gym tonight! I want to challenge everyone of you to try this. (Erin - I will be watching your blog to see if you did) Lay down on the floor and hold the ball above your head. When I say above, it will almost be touching the floor atop your head. Next pull up your legs up keeping them straight and have your arms and legs meet in the middle. Spread your legs to take ahold of the ball. Now lower your legs WITHOUT letting the ball touch the ground. Lift them back up and take the ball from your legs. Lower your legs again but DON'T touch the ground. Get them like 2 inches from the ground before lifting them up once again to do it all over. This is alot HARDER than it sounds. I did 5 and next time, which will probably be tomorrow, I am going to do 6. I am going to challenge myself to be able to do 10 the next time we go to the gym.

I did not eat dinner tonight and although I am not hungry, I am going to eat me a salad, take a shower, and go to bed! Tomorrow is Friday!!! I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend and try my challenge!!

Motivating!

2010-03-03T20:45:00.004-06:00

I am so happy! When I started my blog, I really didn't know if anyone would read it. That was ok, because the blog was more about me writing down my day to day feelings, challenges, and my whole journey as a type of therapy. I have been overweight the majority of my life and if I am going to be successful, I am going to have to be in this full heartily. Well since I have started, I have motivated so many people! I never really thought that it was even possible that I could motivate someone to lose weight. I am hearing almost everyday about someone I am motivating that I did not even know was reading my blog.

As I mentioned, I motivated one friend and she has now started going to Weight Watchers and Zumba classes with me. Multiple friends have said they would go to the gym with me and a couple have already. My cousin and cousin-in-law are starting to cook healthier meals for their families. Yesterday my sister posted on Facebook that she was starting her own Thin in 2010 Journey and she even started her own blog! I have added her's to my list of blogs that I am following on the right. Her name is Erin and I hope she will be able to motivate her friends as I have, and maybe some of you as well. Feel free to check out her blog and others that I follow. They are ALL so inspiring! A lot of them are ladies that have or will be going to the Biggest Loser resort this year same as myself! I can not wait until I go spend a week there!

Today was a high calorie day! Thankfully it was not a result to me being depressed! I just used some of my Flex points to fulfill some of my cravings I have had. I had my enchiladas that I have been craving since last Sunday night. And for Dinner, I had some 2% mac and cheese with leftover meatloaf. I made the best meatloaf last night! I used 3 lbs of ground venison, 1/2 a bottle of Chunky Pace Picante, 1 onion chopped, a meatloaf seasoning packet, a little bit of garlic, and a package of my Quaker Oats Maple and Brown Sugar instead of crackers. I did not have any tomato paste, so everyone just added ketchup to their meatloaf on their plate. It was REALLY good! I asked my daughter if it was as good as Great Grandma's and she said "no, but your getting close". I know my grandma will never read this so I guess it is safe to post this, my husband and I both thought it was better. : )

I did go to Zumba today! Holly got off work early, so we were able to make an earlier class by a different teacher, and OMG she kicked our butts. I am so sore. The teacher talked to us before and recommended that we concentrate on our abs and I don't exactly know what that means, but I kept my stomach in A LOT and it hurts like heck now, so I guess that may have worked. I have not been to the gym this week and I HAVE TO GO tomorrow night even if I go by myself. I just don't feel like I am getting a good enough workout without going to the gym. Now that my dinner has settled, I think I am going to go in there and do crunches on the ball. : )

If your reading my blog, please become a follower. It is not a necessity as you know, I am just curious who all is reading this! It will help me stay motivated and increase my accountability. Love ya'll!

Learning to handle emotional eating!

2010-03-02T22:17:00.002-06:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have learned that I let money issues effect my mood, which in turn, makes me depressed and want to eat. Without getting too much into my personal life, I had told my step-dad that I was so depressed that if I had money, I would probably do some SERIOUS damage at a BUFFET! I am a firm believer that God test us and then helps us through hard times. Not even 10 minutes after I told my step-dad this, a co-worker came into my office offering me a Coke. She is diabetic and only drinks Diet Coke, but accidentally pushed the wrong button on the Coke Machine and received a Coke. Well she was there to offer it to me and I said NO. I kinda of startled both of us, as soon as I said it I felt bad. It was not WHAT I said, it was HOW I said it. I kinda of snapped at her. I did not mean to do it, I just was fighting off the urge to drink it. Truth is I could have taken it and drank it, but I want to stick to my guns. After that instance, and of course apologizing to her, I realized that even if I DID have the money I would NOT have eaten a lot at a Buffet. I am working too hard to slip!

My favorite show came on tonight! The Biggest Loser! Yeah!! I know everyone was giving Michael flack for the decision he made, but he was playing the game. He has a lot to lose, and he, just as I, know that the amount of time you get to spend on campus is priceless! How awesome to have a job to work on getting Thin! Not only that, but at the end of the season to have an opportunity to get a BIG bonus if you do the job better than anyone else. I was really proud of the Black team tonight! They prevailed when EVERYONE thought they would fail. Everyone, including myself, thought that the Blue team was so stacked that they would be picked off one by one. As long as my favorite, Daris stays each week! All is well! GO DARIS!!! Who is your favorite?

I did do my exercises as I had planned, however not for the FULL two hours. I asked my husband to bring the old gazelle out of the garage. Do ya'll remember that. Tommy Little creation? I did it for a SOLID hour. My legs felt like Jello when I got off and my knees were killing me. I did break a small sweat but don't really think I got a very good workout. After that I got my big ball out of the garage and did twists, lifts and crunches laying on the ball. I tried doing some of the leg lifts with the ball between my legs that Betty had showed me at the gym, but I just could not pick up my feet. My daughter was making fun of me for not being able to do it, so I made her little butt get on the floor and try it. She did it, but agreed that it was harder than it looked. I was able to do them without the ball. I actually got 10 done. : ) It's a start!

I have PCOS - Polycistic Ovarian Syndrome. Basically my ovaries are larger than they are supposed to be. During those lifts with the ball, my ovaries were hurting. I know that sounds bizarre, but if you have PCOS then you totally understand what I mean. Sometimes I can just move a certain way and I get a sharp pain. People with PCOS are usually heavy and have a hard time losing weight. I believe it was season two of the Biggest Loser and her name was Julie -- she had it and she prevailed. I know that I WILL too. So if you have PCOS, don't give up! Let's do it!!!

I did succeed!

2010-03-01T22:05:00.002-06:00

I am happy to announce that I lost another 3 lbs! I am so stoked! I have now lost 27 lbs! Only 3 more lbs and I will have lost 10% of my start up weight! And ya know what? I don't care if you figure out my weight! Every week I am reaching a new weight that I have not been in ten + years. I told my husband the other night that I wished I still had my wedding dress! I so would be trying it on right now. I really believe I am smaller now than the day I got married. I know I am not as small as I was the day we met, but I am confident that I will be by the end of the year!

Chuck --- does that excite you? Maybe if you think about that you will not complain about all this healthy food I have stocked in the house these days. I am still hoping you are going to join me on this journey! But I am not going to pressure you, just continue to cook healthy meals for you! : )

It turned cold again today! YUCK! I am READY for Spring! I am ready to be able to go for a walk everyday if I choose. I am TOTALLY excited that the Biggest Loser will be coming back on tomorrow night! It feels like forever! That show is so inspirational! I thought about going to the gym and working out the entire time the show is on, however, I NEVER watch a show without crying, so I might work out at home tomorrow night during the show. I am going to get my exercise ball and do some of those exercises Betty taught me. My stomach is not hurting anymore, so I guess it is time to work it some more. : )

I have Zumba planned with Holly Wednesday night, and then would like to go to the gym on Thursday night! I have been doing so well, I don't want to slow down. I don't want to waste one week!!

I am so excited about what the future holds! 77 Days until I check into The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge! I see online that past Biggest Loser contestants go there every once in a while! I would LOVE it if I got to work out all week with one of them and hear about their experience! : )

Great Weekend!

2010-02-28T20:35:00.002-06:00

What a beautiful weekend in Texas! The weather was really nice and although the groundhog says it is not spring yet, my nose and eyes think otherwise. Although my allergies are acting up, I did not let that hold me back! Both yesterday and today I went to a local park and walked. Each day I walked 2 1/2 miles no problem. I had never been to that park, but I had heard it was a great place to walk. It really is perfect for my training because it has lots of inclines! I am going to start adding one lap each time I go (which is 1/2 a mile). We did not add an extra one today, because their was a strange dog in the woods and it was freaking me out. After walking today, I went bowling. I am amazed at how active I am getting to be this fast.

My last post I mentioned how hard Betty worked me out and could feel it in my stomach. Well two nights later, and I am STILL feeling it! My daughter told me she thought I looked smaller, but I don't see it yet. I know I FEEL better. I am more energetic and believing in myself more than ever. I am determined more than ever to lose at least 80 pounds this year. I could potentially lose more than that if I continue to lose at least 2 lbs per week, and I would definitely take the extra, just setting myself up for a few weeks without a loss in case I hit a plateau. I want to be realistic in setting my goal.

Tomorrow is Monday, which means Weight Watchers meeting after work. I am sooo excited my friend Holly has decided to join my journey and has signed up to go to weight watchers with me!!! Yeah!!! I am hoping that my mom decides to go tomorrow night as well. Anyone else want to join us? We will tackle the scale together one pound at a time! I really like weight watchers because they have so many recipe's online! I don't ever feel like I am on a diet. I just feel like I am choosing to put healthier foods into my body and with the FLEX points I can still eat that cheeseburger once a week, if I want it.

I stayed within my Daily Points everyday this weekend. I am leaving 17 of my 35 FLEX points not used. I am really interested to see how that plays out on the scale. I did some sort of exercise every single day this week! I accumulated 44 activity points! That is more than a days worth of points that I eat! If the scale fails me this week, I will be SHOCKED!!!

I did not finish my Biggest Loser Audition CD! I barely saw my husband all weekend and I was going to get him to help me with it. The casting team will be in Dallas next weekend. I have not decided if I am going to go or not. My daughter has her High School Bowling Team Regional Tournament on Saturday to determine who goes to the State. I really don't want to miss it. That is why I was going to try to get the CD done and sent in. Hmmmmmm! If only I could get a VIP pass, I would be more determined to figure out how to fit it all in. Anyone got any connections?

My e-mail address is Stephany_Gallaway@yahoo.com

I actually have stomach muscles!

2010-02-26T22:50:00.003-06:00

I am writing this extremely exhausted after Betty kicked my butt at the gym tonight! I walked 30 minutes on the treadmill only going 1 mile at a Level 1 incline. I figure each time I go I will increase the incline by a level. I walked the majority of the time on a 3.2. I know not too fast, but I will work up to that. Betty was encouraging me to bump up the level and do it for a certain amount of time, then put it back down to 3.2. So the first time I put it on 4.0 for 20 seconds. Holy cow, I felt like I was almost running. I did that 3 times different times. The heart monitor was not working on the treadmill I was on, so I did not see what my heart rate got up to but I was breathing hard. LOL. And it said I burned a little over 100 calories. When I got off that thing, I had to hold on to the sides to get down. My legs felt like Jello.

Next we went and did the weight circuit trying out a lot of different machines. Then came one of the toughest to me, pretty funny actually. We went to the free weight area and got a mat and the big ball. She had me doing stuff that was killing me. Lifting my legs then lowering about an inch from the grownd without touching the ground, then lifting them back up. Not to mention she wanted me to put the ball between my legs. I was game for anything that she threw my way, I just was having a really hard time. I think I have not gotten to the point where I believe that I can actually do all of this stuff. Well I must have been doing pretty well because I can actually feel my stomach muscles!!! It's great to know they are still there under all this flubber. LOL.

Once she kicked my butt on the floor, we went and tried a new machine that she said she had never seen before. I am not sure what it is called but it is a mixture of an elliptical and the machine that looks like you are skiing. When we got on it I told Betty, "let's do this one for at least 5 minutes". Well that 5 minutes turned into, "how about 3" It was killing my knees but I suffered through that whole 3 minutes and quickly got off that sucker.

I went to my favorite new machine -- the bike with a back and a FAN! I rode it for 20 minutes, burned 140 calories, and went 3.78 miles. I started at level one and every half of a mile, I would bump the level up one. I got it up to level 6. I was keeping the RPMs in the 80s but the last two minutes I was giving it all I could and got above 100. The funny part is that by the time I come back from The Biggest Loser Resort, I am going to be looking back at these numbers and laughing. I know this, but its a start and it can only get better from here. ; ) I did a couple more machines and we headed home.

Thank You Betty for the GREAT WORKOUT! I am looking forward to the next one!

On the way home, I was starving! It was already 9 pm! I have got to figure out this whole working out right after work, but fitting in time to eat dinner BEFORE working out. I know it is not good for me to eat this late. I guess on days that I work out maybe I should eat dinner at work? I will ponder over that, if you have any suggestions, please share. Anyway, I need to go grocery shopping so I knew I did not have much at home. I called my husband to see if he had eaten dinner, which of course since I was not here to cook it for him, he hadn't. I swear, I am going to come back from my trip and he is going to be down 20 lbs from not eating while I am gone! So what did I do for dinner? I WANTED to drive thru and grab something fast, a Taco Salad sounded really good! But instead of doing that, I called Chuck and asked him to brown some ground venison and I would stop by the store and get some lettuce. So I came home and made my own taco salad. The only thing in it that cost me points was the venison, of course, and a little bit of Weight Watchers Low Fat Shredded Cheese. I had TONS of points leftover for the day, so I treated myself to a serving of Pineapple Sherbet.

I am so proud of myself. I got a GREAT workout, I have points left over for the day, and I have FLEX points left over from the week. All should be well come Monday night for weigh-in! Remember I am trying something new this week, not using all my FLEX points. Hopefully it will not backfire. Only time will tell.

Good night, I am taking a couple of tylenol and hitting the sack!

Forgot to Track today!

2010-02-25T22:53:00.003-06:00

I am happy to announce that I have scheduled a week at The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge in Utah!! I check into the resort on Sunday, May 16th and will be there for 7 days! I am beyond excited and now that I have officially booked it, my training must begin!!!

I have 81 days to get ready for their 7 hours a day work out schedule. Each morning they walk a 5 - 6 mile hike after you have already done a 6 am morning workout class. This hike is in mountains! Did I mention I was scared of heights? LOL I am going to put all that on the side burner and worry about that when I am there. I have seen some of the pictures people there have taken, and they are breathtaking! A lot of them mention they forget they are walking that far because the views are so beautiful.

To get prepared for this walk, I talked to my high school buddy Betty and we are going to start walking every Sunday in Waxahachie. They have some nature trails that are paved. She told me that you go one way and you walk 3 1/2 miles, and you go the other way and it is 7 1/2 miles. So I set a new goal today ---- I WILL be walking that 7 1/2 mile for at least 4 Sundays before I head to the resort. When I booked today, the gentlemen told me that a lot of the campers have problems with blisters and he recommended I go ahead and buy my shoes now and break them in real well before I get there. So if anyone knows of any good sales, please let me know. I will need some working out shoes and some hiking shoes.

Today was a pretty good day. We got everything worked out with the mortgage company and my house payment is NOT going up. I was so consumed with thoughts of going to the resort, I forgot to track all my points today. Well before I started my blog tonight, I keyed everything into Weight Watchers online, and I did pretty darn good. Without tracking my points, I only went over 1 point. That is definitely something to brag about. I don't recommend not tracking your points or calories each day, but this time I got lucky. Because I was depressed over the ordeal with the mortgage company and eating Taco Bell last night, I went to eat at a Chinese Buffet for lunch. I told my husband on the way in, "this is probably a HUGE mistake because I am so depressed I am liable to do some serious damage". God was on my side today! As I was walking in, my phone rang and I received the news that everything was worked out on the mortgage and my payment was not going up! I have gotten where I do the Mongolian stir fry. I guess because I can add all the veggies and have more control over what all goes in my stir fry. Well "usually" when I hand my plate of raw food to the cook, I tell them to go ahead and add some rice and an egg in with my food while they are cooking it. I asked if they had garlic, he said yes and I think that is all he heard because my food came to me with no rice or egg. Well I did not complain just figured he did me a favor. And now that I calculated my points, I know FOR SURE it was a favor. I would have been over my points. On this diet / lifestyle change, I have not been depriving myself of what I really want. So off my husband's plate, I had one little bite of sesame chicken, one little bite of a fried potato, and half of a crab Rangoon. Before I started this journey, I was cream cheese queen. I would eat at least 3 of those crab Rangoon. I have stopped that because they are 5 points a piece. They are good, but not that damn good.

Tonight was my bowling night. I did take the video camera to shoot some footage for my Biggest Loser video. I DID get a strike on video, which is a miracle if you have ever seen me bowl. And I found a replacement for my team! Yeah! I now have an extra day to go to the gym!!! And $60 more dollars a month to invest in my trip!! I will miss hanging out with everyone, but I can go by and visit on my way home. I definitely will not miss wasting 14 points on the pizza (2 pieces). : )

Speaking of investing in my trip, I bought my first required item on the packing list. You can tell I have not ever even considered hiking as a hobby. I bought a Camel back Hydration Backpack. It is a backpack that holds 2.0 liters of water in a backpack. Since I had never heard of it, I thought it might be hard to find, so I started looking and found tons on Ebay. Don't know how much they cost in the stores and would not even have a clue where to go buy it, but I paid $11 for mine plus $8 for shipping.

I have tons more to blog about but I better get to bed. Shoot, if I blog about everything about my trip what am I going to talk about tomorrow. LOL

Taco Hell!

2010-02-24T22:28:00.002-06:00

This morning I woke up in a GREAT mood. I am NOT a morning person so for me to actually walk into work smiling, happy-go-lucky was not in the norm. No one said anything, I think everyone was too busy to notice. But I noticed, and I was really liking it.

I have been hungry for pizza so I decided to use some of my flex points to fill my craving. I had a salad, three slices of pizza, and one and half pieces of the cinnamon dessert. When I was eating the dessert I was thinking THIS IS GOING TO COST (points wise), and surprisingly it was only 3 points. Not that I needed anymore of it.

I got home from work, then my day started going down hill. I got a letter from my mortgage company, and without getting in a lot of details, my house payment is going up for one month over $300, then the rest of the year an extra $75. UGH!!

Then on the way to Zumba, I was talking to my mom and she basically gave me a guilt trip for going to Zumba afraid that I was not going to make it to pick up my daughter on time from church. I don't even think my mom knows what she did. My mom really wants to see me lose weight, I think she was just concerned about my daughter. Let's face it, my daughter is 16, having to hang around the church an extra 30 minutes with her friends would probably be a GOOD thing for her. So the way I look at it, it's a win win. But my head was full of negative thoughts and I still don't think I have totally recovered from that conversation.

When I started this blog, I mentioned that I am doing it because I not only want to lose the weight, I need to find out WHY I have trouble staying motivated or even got FAT in the first place. Maybe by putting everything out there, I will be able to face my issues by first realizing what the heck they are. LOL.

Zumba was a good workout! I have decided to put together an audition tape for The Biggest Loser, so I took the video camera with me to Zumba. I plan on taking it with me bowling tomorrow night as well. I figure I will just shoot my day to day activities. I wonder if they want to see people trying or just people sitting on the couch doing nothing? If you know for sure, please share.

On the way to pick up my daughter after Zumba, I was noticing that I was not feeling that hungry, so I decided that when I got home I was just going to have a turkey sandwich. Well my daughter got in the car and was "starving", so we drove thru Taco Bell to get HER something. Well at the last minute I meant to order me a "tostado", you know the flat thing with beans, lettuce, and cheese. But instead I said Chalupa and I went ahead and got me a taco. Tacos are not that many weight watchers points, but I was highly upset about the Chalupa mess-up. Well, I had a weak moment and I ate it ALL. The meal that I was not even hungry for ended up costing me 14 points. I earned 11 points doing Zumba tonight. What the Heck!!! I am so sick to my stomach! I don't know if it because of the food, or just being mad at myself for eating it!!! I am trying to fight off negative thoughts and just forgive myself and tomorrow's a NEW day!!! I have flex points that I can use! I don't need to be so hard on myself. We learn best my making mistakes!! I have been doing so good not to eat Fast Food, and I will do better the rest of the week!!!!

You know I really wish The Biggest Loser would "TAKE ME AWAY". It's hard trying to lose weight in the real world with all the day to day activities and not so positive people in your world. Is it selfish of me to want to be healthier? Is it selfish of me to want to be around to see my daughters marry, have children, and get to be a Grandmother? I think it is not!

I apologize for the gloomy post, just being "real". Tune in tomorrow for a more positive post. : )

I can touch my toes!!!

2010-02-23T22:03:00.001-06:00

Well first of all, I need to report that I weighed-in yesterday. I had another loss! YEAH!! I lost 1.9 lbs. I have now lost 23.4 lbs!

I had planned on going to work out at 24 hour fitness tonight, but my current workout buddy bailed on me and believe it or not we had snow today here in Texas. Since 24 hour fitness is a 30 minute drive, I talked myself out of going fearing that the roads might get icy.

I DID go work out. I decided to go to a Zumba class that was only 15 minutes away. I went to the same class that I went to my first Zumba experience which was two weeks today. As I have mentioned before, Zumba is a form of aerobics. I was having a HARD time getting the rhythm tonight AND getting into it. My negative thoughts were making me feel bad for not going to 24 hour fitness as planned. So I kept focusing on that instead of taking advantage of the class to burn calories. Well I had a little "inner talk" with myself. I fought off those negative thoughts by telling myself, "Stephany, if you are NOT going to give it ALL you've got, you should have kept your butt at home!" During this little conversation going on in my head, I looked around the room and noticed I was the biggest person in the class and then I snapped into it. My negative thoughts were replaced by "I am NOT going to let these little skinny people think that I can not hang with them! I am going to keep up and show them that I may be BIG but I can do this just as well if not BETTER!".

Well the new found rhythm and attitude came just in time. A couple of songs later we were doing moves that required us to face each side of the room. Kind of like when you do the macarana and you do the steps facing the front, then left, then back of the room, then right and once again front. Well this was definitely no macarana! You had to step lung to the right, step lung to the Left, two jumping jacks, then move your hips in a circler motion while you moved to the face the next side. I was in the back of the room so no one could see me. Well, I soon became the "front of room" thanks to this little dance move. And guess what I did it!!!! I was doing the step like I had done it 100 times before and good I felt! Only thing is, I DO need to invest in a sports bra ASAP!

I am proud of myself. I was so glad I decided to go to this same class. It showed me how far I have come in these two short weeks. Two weeks ago I could not jump, much less do a jumping jack. And during the cool down / stretching at the end, you guessed I could TOUCH MY TOES, and THE FLOOR. To many of you, this may be no big deal, but to this no longer over 300 lbs female, this is huge success!

I have decided to go stay a week at The Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge in Utah. I want to go in April, because I have a lot of weight I want to lose this year, and going there I can LEARN what I need to do by professional nutritionist, and trainers. I have been fearful of going only two months after starting a workout program. I have read many blogs of people that are there or have been there and they work out 7 hours a day. I am not scared of the workouts, but I want to be able to keep up with everyone. I want to be in shape enough that I am able to do everything. I know everyone is still going to be tired at the end of the day. But I don't want to be so tired I can not function. Does that make sense?

You know people have to train for a Marathon, how do I train to get ready for this? Any suggestions? And everyone keeps talking about how many calories they ate and burned that day. How many they ate is a given, but how do they know for sure how many they burned? If anyone reads my blog that has gone to the resort, please comment. I need to book it before they are ALL BOOKED in April!

Active Week

2010-02-21T21:38:00.002-06:00

I have had such a busy week, that I just realized I have not blogged since Wednesday. Wow! Time flies when you are not spending all your time sitting on the couch and watching TV. LOL

Tomorrow will be another weigh-in. I feel like I have had a pretty successful week. I have gotten tons of exercise this week. Last week I finished the week with 23.5 activity points leftover, this week it looks like I will have 39.5.

We have had a couple of pretty days weather wise this week. On Thursday, my cousin called and encouraged me to go for a walk after work because it was so nice outside. I have this beautiful little lake next to my house with a walkway between two parks. I would guess that the walkway is probably a quarter of a mile long. So after work, my daughter and I headed out to the walkway. The walkway is well maintained and has lights along it for people to be able to walk at night. We decided to sprint every time we got to a certain set of light poles. I am not going to lie, it was hard, but my daughter was very encouraging and I was able to make it each time we passed through them, which was four times. There was a girl that was jogging back and forth, and I told my daughter that would be awesome to be able to jog it the whole way. I set another goal! I told my daughter for her birthday, which is June 10th, we were going to jog from one end to the other. That gives me a little over three months to get in shape enough to do this.

I have been doing pretty well with my food intake as well. As you may already know, since I weigh-in on Monday nights, I have been trying to use all my flex points before Friday so hopefully the scale will be in my favor. Well, I ate alot of my flex points on Thursday for lunch, and went and ate a high calorie lunch on Friday as well. So when Friday night came, I think I had 7 daily points left, and 5.5 Flex points left. We decided to go visit my cousin and she wanted to go out to eat. This frightened me because I DID NOT want to go over my points. YES, I had the activity points to back me up if I went over, but why in the heck would I work out just to get to eat more? No way, I worked too hard! Well I remembered that someone at weight watchers was bragging about Applebee's and how they have entrees with the weight watchers points on them. So I talked my cousin into going there. It was after 7 so we were all really hungry when we were seated. Her daughter was yelling that she wanted some cheese sticks, and I thought "OH NO". But I stayed calm and ordered me the Steak & Portbello Mushroom with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli and since they were ordering an appetizer, I ordered a house salad with a light vinaigrette. Luckily my salad came BEFORE their cheese sticks so I had NO PROBLEM refusing when they offered. And my meal, OMG it was GREAT! The steak was a little small but because of the salad I was fulfilled. Let me tell you about the broccoli. OMG, it was the best part. Instead of butter or cheese on the steamed broccoli, it had minced garlic. I could not quit bragging about it. I definitely plan on cooking some this week at home just like that.

I joined the 24 Hour Fitness today!!! My friend Angela and I worked out today. I walked a mile on the treadmill and I rode 1.5 miles on the bike. The bike was my favorite part because it had a fan on it. LOL We experimented with alot of the weight machines. We did crunches (I am feeling those), and multiple machines that worked on your legs and upper thighs. We also did the elliptical, but not for long. And the Stair Climber --- we were aiming to do it for 5 minutes. We lasted for 2. It said I made it to the 5th floor. That is an intense machine. After I got out of there, I was sweating and actually enjoyed the cool front that just came in. : ) I drank about 32 oz of water while in there working out and was still thirsty and STARVING!! I headed to the near by Sonic and although I wanted to order me a extra long chili dog, I just stuck with what I went there for, a Large Water with Lemon. I am going to have to start packing healthy snacks for the ride home, because I failed to mention that the gym is 30 minutes away. I got home and fulfilled my craving for chili dogs, but used 100% whole wheat bread, Jenny-O turkey hot dogs, and Turkey Chili topped with Weight Watchers Low Fat Shredded Cheese. After that I had a small portion of some pineapple sherbet. Therefore, I stayed within my points today, no problem. :)

Well I am DOG TIRED, so I am going to head to bed. I have not been this tired since I participated in the 5K. I hope I get a GREAT nights sleep and don't wake up hurting too much in the morning. I am proud of myself and am looking forward to my weight watchers meeting tomorrow night!!! I hope I get good results, at least two pounds loss. Fingers crossed!!

Points leftover? What?

2010-02-17T22:15:00.002-06:00

I had a very good day today! For a change of pace, I added a sliced up banana to my oatmeal. Yeah it added a couple of points, but it was actually good. For lunch I had Mexican food, fajitas, rice, beans, with corn tortillas. My friend told me she heard at her Weight Watchers class that a girl orders her fajitas on a regular plate instead of the skillet where they just keep sizzling. I honestly don't know if it made any difference, but I tried it, they were equally as good, of course. Just in case it DID not make a difference, I still charged myself the same amount of points as I always have for that meal. The best part about the meal was, EVERYONE at my table ordered a dessert, and I didn't!!!!! I did not even feel envious the least bit while they were eating their dessert!!! I think I may have finally WOKE UP and am smelling the coffee. LOL

This evening my friend Holly and I attended another Zumba class. It was Holly's first time and since she does not get off in time to attend the class I usually attend, we went to a new location. WOW, that teacher kicked our butts. One thing I DID not like about this class was it was like a traditional dance class. If you have ever taken dance, you will know that at least one wall is ALL mirrors. Working out and looking at myself was hard to do. Another thing I did not like is there was a clock on the wall, and since she was kicking my butt, I kept looking at the clock telling myself -- WHAT? we have only been doing this 20 minutes? LOL You remember last period in school when you kept watching the clock waiting for the bell to ring. Yep, that is what it felt like. I would have rather not had a clock at all. So the whole time, my face was red, it felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I ended up drinking at least 24 ounces of water during the class. And when we got done there, we went to Sonic and ordered us a Large Ice Water and I have almost drank all of that. Believe it or not, we plan on going back. I told her that instructor has given me the hardest workout, so that has to mean I burned tons of calories. : )

Every time I do a workout I always think about the contestants on The Biggest Loser. You know their workouts are longer than an hour. I would definitely take on the challenge and be on the show, but I guarantee you I would be one of the ones throwing up. LOL

I came home and ate a lite Caesar Salad and leftover Lasagna and to ease that small sweet craving I have, I ate a Grapefruit for dessert. Can you believe out of everything I ate today, I still have 8 points left that I am not going to use? This made me think -- On The Biggest Loser I remember Bob (or Jillian) get on to the contestants about not eating all their calories during the day. He told them something like "not eat all your calories, I know you can eat or you would not be overweight". Well Bob, I know the answer to this question. As an obese woman before getting on Weight Watchers, I DID not eat a whole LOT, I just only ate High Calorie meals. Let's face it, my favorite meal at a local restaurant I know now is my WHOLE days calories. Almost every meal I ate takes up my whole days calories. So if you eat two out to eat meals like that in one day -- DUH, your going to gain weight. So now that I am learning how bad my favorite items are, I am either telling those items farewell or choosing a lower calorie substitute. Now I do have my flex points and I know for sure last Friday, I used ALL of them in one meal. That was 35 points, roughly 1700 calories in one meal. Sad I know, but I full-filled that craving and STILL lost almost 5 pounds that week. So as long as I limit myself I should be successful.

This is all definitely a learn as you go, change my life, process. Before I got serious on Weight Watchers, I would drink 3 cokes a day, and a 32 ounce sweet tea (refill please) was an everyday occurrence. I now am drinking unsweet tea when I go to restaurants. I have maybe 2 diet cokes a week when I am wanting a soda. The rest of the time I am drinking water plain or adding crystal light to it. I am probably drinking 64 ounces of water a day. And I am visiting the bathroom as much as if I were 9 months pregnant. LOL

I am not by no means saying I am perfect. I still have TONS to learn and even more to LOSE!!! I am starting to believe in myself and that is really important!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! It's almost the weekend!!! : )

I lost 4.7 pounds!!!

2010-02-15T21:47:00.002-06:00

Wow have I been slacking. If you live in the DFW area, you can probably guess that my slack might be because of the foot of snow we got on the ground. How awesome was that? It was SOOOOO beautiful.

I have been having a pretty hard time. I am trying to stay motivated but have had some weak moments. Through all this soul searching that I am doing, I have realized that when I get depressed I want to eat. I have really realized that one of my "triggers" is financial problems. When I am having problems financially, I get depressed, depression turns to me wanting to EAT, and trying to turn food away when I WANT to FEED my depression, makes me a B****. I want to pubically apologize to my husband -- Honey I am sorry I have been hard to live with recently!!

I ended up getting tons of exercise this past week. My eating was just "OK". When you do weight watchers you also track your activity. I earned a total of 31 activity points, which is like a whole days worth of calories. Once you use all your daily and FLEX points, you can eat some of your activity points. Ideally you would not want to do that, because it would be defeating the purpose. Well as I mentioned, I was depressed and did have a few weak moments (6 girl scout cookies). I ended the week with 23.5 activity points.

I REALLY needed a Loss this week. I needed it to help me stay motivated. Well God answered my prayer, and I lost 4.7 pounds this week. I am SOOOOO excited. I have set a goal to lose 18 more pounds by the end of April. I have lost 22 so far!!! That is less than 2 lbs a week so I KNOW I CAN DO IT. Hardest part is staying motivated!!!

I am trying to recruit more friends and family into joining this journey with me. Together we can motivate each other. It can be done! This is a lifestyle change! And the best part about weight watchers, you get to use those extra points like I did tonight when you are just dieing for a Cheeseburger. : )

I plan on attending at least one Zumba class this week. I might do two. That class is a serious calorie burner.

I have been trying some of the weight watchers recipe's. I have tried three so far. I made a ZERO point vegetable soup on Saturday that was AWESOME. I have never really gotten into using a lot of spices before, but since the recipe called for spices, I purchased them and OMG, it was great! It had spinach, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, tomatoes, and other spices. I added some wheat crackers to mine to make each bowl worth 2 points. Last night I made Weight Watcher Recipe "Chicken Burritos". It was one where you threw everything in a crock pot. Once it is done, you put a 1/2 a cup on a wheat tortilla, add some 2% mexican shredded cheese and each one was 3 points. My daughter and I added a teaspoon of light sour cream making each one 4 points. They were really good! My daughter told me tonight that it was the BEST thing I ever cooked! Now that is saying a lot (I think) : )

I have been hungry for Jambalaya and Weight Watchers had a crock pot recipe for that too. I will probably put that in the crock pot tomorrow night before I go to bed. I do that because I come home at lunch and eat it with my husband who works 2nd shift. Then my daughter and I have leftovers for dinner. It has been working out well so far. Saves money not eating out!!!

Speaking of money, if anyone needs any Scentsy, everything is 10% off this month. See my link to my online store below.

Water Aerobics

2010-02-11T15:23:00.002-06:00

Well I went to Water Aerobics last night. It was fun and I felt like I got a pretty good work out. I looked up the activity points and based on Weight Watchers you get twice as hard of a workout doing the Zumba. Zumba is cheaper and I think I enjoyed it more, so I will probably just continue doing that.

If you live near Dallas, as I do, you are probably experiencing this AWESOME snow. It is so beautiful. Roads are supposed to be getting bad so I might not get to go to Bowling tonight : (. I hope that is not the case, but I can always get my exercise at home on the wii. I have been thinking about dropping out of my bowling league, which is costing me $15 a week, and investing that money into another night of Zumba (or something). $15 a week would definitely pay for a Gym membership somewhere. I think I would get more benefit from that and not be tempted to eat pizza every Thursday night. I enjoy bowling and have made tons of friends there, so I have not decided totally yet. And it would also depend on if my team could find a replacement player.

Besides the exercise I have also started something else new this week. I have been eating the majority of my daily points during lunch. This is not something I had "planned" ahead of time, it has just ended up that way. I think it is based off me not eating out any last week. This week I have ate lunch OUT all week. Not really FAST food, but definitely high calories. Then at night, I have been eating the amount of calories I WAS eating during lunch. I am hoping that will help me with a loss this week. I am still trying to adjust to weighing in on a Monday. I have grown accustomed to eating my FLEX WW points on the weekend. I am trying to eat them during the week and I am going to do my best this weekend to stay within my DAILY points each day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Last week I did not use but 5 of my FLEX points out of the 35. I remember in the past when I was on weight watchers that I would lose more when I ate my FLEX points then when I didn't. I know it sounds CRAZY, but if it works it works.

So I have already MET my challenge for the week, trying 3 new exercises. I am thinking about learning to drink unsweet tea without sweet-in-low next week. Only add lemon. I get scared about those artificial sweeteners and after my 11 points for my sweet tea incident, I have DEFINITELY cut out sweet tea.

Does anyone else have any suggestions on what my next challenge could be?

1st Zumba Class

2010-02-09T21:23:00.002-06:00

Today was odd. When I got to work this morning, I was sitting at my desk and suddenly got emotional. I really don't know what brought it on. I did not breakdown and cry but my eyes were definitely watering and I was fighting back the tears. I don't know if my hormones are messed up or if the eighth of a pound gain is bothering me. I can tell myself whatever I want, but down deep maybe it is bothering me.

I fell to temptation today. My co-workers invited me to go to lunch with them today to the Denny's FREE Grand Slam promotion they had today. I tried to do good, at least 30 minutes before we left, I pulled up Denny's nutritional information and menu. We found that you pick 4 items out of this list. I figured out the point values for each item and put together a plan on what I was going to order. It was still going to be a higher than usual lunch, but I was going to cut the calories where ever I could. Well as you may already know, when they are giving away something FREE they do NOT give you choices. Everyone got the same thing. I thought about getting up and walking next door to Whataburger, but then I would be tempted by french fries and there are enough calories in French Fries, it made my Denny's plate not so bad. So I pawned a pancake (7 points) off on one of my co-workers, and left the two sausages (5 points) totally alone. I was able to save two points by asking for Sugar Free Syrup. My meal ended up being 18 points. That is higher than if I were to eat a couple of fajitas, a little rice and beans, and about 12 chips and salsa.

After work I came home and changed into some sweat pants and a shirt, and headed to Zumba. It was A LOT of fun. I REALLY enjoyed it. I knew I would. I recognized some people that I took dance with when I was younger. I did not get all the steps down, but I just kept telling myself "it's ok, just keep moving". Well I broke a sweat, had fun and the hour flew by. There was one point when I was having so much fun that I actually started visualizing being THIN! How awesome that will be! At the end, we were doing some squats, my thighs were BURNING! I was thinking my thighs are finally not hurting from the 5K, HERE WE GO AGAIN. Well it has been a couple of hours and they are not hurting right now. : )

I better run, I am going to my first water aerobics class tomorrow night right after work and I have not seen my bathing suit since I got back from the cruise last August. This may take a while. : )

First Day at the New Weight Watchers Location

2010-02-08T21:11:00.005-06:00

Well I started going to a new weight watchers class tonight. My at work program ended and we had to find an "out of work" meeting. Even though I did not eat out all last week, and ran a 5K yesterday, I told myself ALL day not to stress over it because it was NOT a full week. My previous meetings and weigh-ins were on Wednesday BEFORE I ate my lunch. So today I weighed in 2 days early AND in the evening. Well during the weigh-in I was UP an eighth of a pound. No big deal, I am not going to stress over this and I am DEFINITELY not going to let it get me down. I am just going to stay focused on this week and have a GREAT number next week.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have decided to make this week about doing NEW exercises.

I have made plans to go tomorrow night with a few friends to a Zumba class. I have been wanting to go to a Zumba class for along time. I took dance when I was growing up. I did ballet, tap, and jazz. I LOVED to dance. I have often thought that WHEN I get thin I am going to take up dance again. It may be something as simple as taking an adult tap class, or maybe even teaching an aerobics / Zumba class. Don't know, but I am really looking forward to tomorrow night.

On Wednesday, another friend of mine and I are planning on going to a water aerobics class. I am looking forward to this as well. Then Thursday night it will be my bowling night once again.

I am still pretty sore from the 5K yesterday. I am hurting from the thighs down. I am walking pretty funny. By the end of the week, I might not be able to walk. LOL

If anyone wants to join me for any or all of these workouts, let me know! The more the merrier!!!

Last Day of the Challenge

2010-02-07T21:51:00.002-06:00

Wow what an AWESOME weekend!!!!

Saturday was a good day. I slept in, cleaned the house and done some laundry. At 4, my mom, my daughters, and myself went to see "Dear John". It was a good tearful moving and Channing is HOT! After that we had planned on going to my cousins house to spend the night. Usually when we go to my cousins it usually involves eating out, in most cases ordering Chinese for delivery. Well I called her and asked if we could split the cost and cook our own fajitas at her house. We choose to cook chicken fajitas and I know this is not fat free, but I used some of my Weight Watchers Flex Points. They were absolutely WONDERFUL and I did not have to feel guilty about eating out.

This morning my cousin and I went and did a 5K. It was one of the most inspirational days of my life. I met lots of GREAT people and I am more MOTIVATED than I was before. I really am starting to believe that I CAN DO THIS!!! I did FINISH the 5K and during it I did really well. Afterwards my feet hurt, but that was it. Now at 10 pm at night, I am in PAIN!!! It was all worth it though. Wonder how many calories I burned? I walked MOST of it, but did do about a dozen small sprints. I think my time was around 50 minutes. I looked it up, I came up with 5 Weight Watchers Points, which I think would be about 250 calories. My body sure does feel like more than a 250 calorie burn. : ) Since my day out did not end until 9:30 pm, I did eat out today, but I did GOOD. I am NOT going to be hard on myself. Yes, I did not go 7 days straight without eating out but alot of activities happened today that I was not prepared for. I had Subway for lunch, a 6 inch on turkey on wheat. And for dinner we went to a mexican restaurant and I ate 1 chicken enchilada, 1 taco, rice, and a little beans. I did eat a few chips, but not much. : )

My challenge for this week is going to be about exercise. I have already done one, the 5K. I am going to call around and go to at least 1 new exercise class this week, possible 2.

I start going to my new weight watchers meeting tomorrow, so I am going to start a NEW weigh in day. I will now weigh in on Mondays. Since it has not been a FULL week, I am NOT going to be hard on myself if I do not lose 2 lbs this week since I am weighing in 2 days earlier than usual.

If you want to START this journey with me, let me know! We can support each other. I am so excited about what is in store for me this year!!! Hope you decide to hop on band wagon. : )

Day 5 -- WOO HOO

2010-02-05T22:09:00.002-06:00

Well Praise the Lord, I made it through Friday successful!

I knew Friday was going to be hard, and it definitely WAS! Every Friday is a payday for me and I ALWAYS eat out for lunch and 80% of the time the family all eats out for dinner. And today one of my co-workers, pardner in crime, tried to break me. She gave me a little guilt trip because she wanted to go out to lunch and had no one to go with and I admit for a moment I almost buckled because I am a "pleaser", but I shot right back and told her that I REALLY wanted to be successful on this challenge. So I did eat lunch at home.

My husband DID NOT cook dinner like I was hoping. We ended up eating dinner at my mom's because my step dads' truck was acting up and since Chuck is the mechanic in the family,he was asked to come and help. After we ate and the truck was fixed we stopped by the house so my daughter could change and I could pop me some 100 calorie single popcorn. We went to the movies and I treated myself to a diet coke. We enjoyed the movie. We saw the new John Travolta movie "Love in Paris" or something like that. It was weird seeing him bald but he is still SEXY as Hell. And considering my hubby is Bald, you know I was digging him. : )

Speaking of my hubby, he is on Day 6 of no snuff which I am extremely proud of him. If you have ever been around someone trying to quit using a tobacco product you can probably imagine the TENSION going on in this house. Him not dipping AND me on a diet. Lord it is a GOOD THING we are working different shifts. The only time we see each other is during my lunch hour, the other times is when one of us is half asleep. But it is now the weekend for both us, hope we stay married this weekend, NO snuff is purchased, and NO Fast Food is consumed. : ) Pray for us. LOL.

Until tomorrow ......

Day 4 --- I did AWESOME!

2010-02-04T22:17:00.002-06:00

I am SOOOOOO Proud of myself today! If you read my blog from earlier this week, I mentioned that I was worried about Thursday night. If you missed it, on Thursday nights I bowl in the "Beer and Pizza League", which means there is Beer and Pizza ALL around me. To be successful and not eat pizza and RUIN my weekly challenge, it was going to take a plan and preparation.

As soon as I got home from work, I started looking for what I could cook for dinner FAST. I had some ground pork that stated on the front of the package that it was low in fat. Since I have been craving a hamburger, I decided to make a patties out of it. While it was cooking, I got my calculator to figure out how many points each patty would be. 12 points! I could have had regular beef for 6! If I would have been smart in the store BEFORE I bought it, I should have turned it over to see the calories and fat content. It was a lb and each 4 oz was 220 calories and 20 grams of FAT. Can you believe that? I don't know if it was KNOWING this that made it not taste too great or if it really was not good. LOL Needless to say there are more patties in my refrigerator that "I" will not be eating. I am not cutting down pork poducts, just the ground pork.

Anyway while my patty was cooking, I prepared my snacks to take with me. I popped a bag of popcorn, packed it in my purse as well as a banana. As soon as the patty was done, I put it between two whole wheat pieces of bread and headed out the door.

On the way to the bowling alley I continued my plan. I told my daughter to keep her eyes peeled on my table. When they put that pizza down on my table I wanted her to come over and grab my two slices for herself. So I get to the bowling alley and order me an Large Ice water. Pizza came,I gave my daughter my two slices and when I got hungry, I pulled out my popcorn and later my banana. I can not express enough how proud I am of myself. I would think that would have been really hard, but because I planned everything ahead of time, I was not even tempted.

I only have 3 days of my Challenge left for this week, and by FAR they are going to be the toughest. I need to come up with a plan NOW. So far I have laid out some pork chops for tomorrow night. My husband is off on Fridays so I am going to try to talk him into cooking dinner --- he can Shake and Bake them. : ) My daughter wants to go see "Dear John" tomorrow night. If we go, I plan on making my low calorie popcorn and taking it with me. I am one of those that HAS to have popcorn at the movies. : ) As for the rest of the weekend, I am probably going to have to go to the grocery store so we can make some GOOD out to eat type meals so I don't mess up. I REALLY want to be successful!!!!!

Now for next weeks challenge -- any suggestions?

DAY 3 of No Eating Out

2010-02-03T21:45:00.002-06:00

Today was a pretty good day! I lost 2.6 pounds! This .6 over my weekly goal. I will gladly take ALL the extra. : )

Today was the last day for our Weight Watchers at work meetings. : ( We are sad that we will not be able to take the rest of our journey with our Weight Watchers instructor that we have gotten so close with. Since our weight watchers group was so small and we already knew everyone in the meeting, it was easy to talk openly about our weight issues and problem areas. We really were each other's cheerleaders and motivators.

There are four of us that will start going the local WW class next Monday night. It will be new leader and lots of new faces to learn. I guess I need to look at it positively. I will be able to meet potential Scentsy customers. Right? Because of my weight, I sometimes have issues walking up to people to share my candles with them. I have been doing it now for two years, so believe me, I have come A LONG ways from when I started.

I am hoping by blogging and losing weight I will learn to love myself again. When I was a teen-ager my church had a self esteem course. One thing I remember from that class is I need to look in the mirror everyday and tell myself how beautiful I am. I seriously try to do this, but it is hard. For instance, I got my hair colored and cut about a week ago. I went shorter than I have ever done before. When I looked in the mirror, I thought " OMG, look how fat my face looks! I think I went too short ". Since then the hair style has grown on me and I actually think it pretty cute. See that is a little of self esteem improvement, huh?

Anyway, today I was a good girl. I did not eat out. In the past on days when we held our weight watchers meeting at work during our lunch hour, I would sometimes forget my lunch so I would have to grab some fast food. Well I packed my lunch last night and as soon as I got up this morning I put it next to my purse so I would not forget it. This is the second day in a roll that I am not raiding the refrigerator in the evenings. I have discovered once everyone goes to bed and I am alone, I want to snack! I am so stoked! I am home alone and not eating any snacks. YEAH ME!!!

I want to give a little props to my husband. He is trying to quit dipping snuff after 18 years and he is on day 3. I am so proud of you Honey! Keep up the good the work!!!

DAY 2 of Weekly Challenge

2010-02-02T23:21:00.000-06:00

Since I have waited so late in the evening to update my blog. I am going to keep it pretty short. I did not eat out any today. I did really well on my food intake. I ate lots of low calorie foods so I was able to eat a lot. For dinner we had spaghetti with wheat pasta. I filled my plate with a reasonable size of the spaghetti and A LOT of green beans. : ) Needless to say I am full and for the first night since I started my diet I have not been fighting myself away from the refrigerator.

Tomorrow is weigh in and I am hoping for a loss. I worked out on the Wii fit for 30 minutes, which unlocked a new option in the Aerobics section. It is a stepping that you can do while you watch tv. Basically if you keep the rhythm noise coming out of the remote, you will be able to get 800 steps done in the allotted time. I don't exactly remember the number I did, but I know it was in the 700's.

At 8 pm, my favorite show, The Biggest Loser came on. Because of the weigh in, I got up and did some exercises during the show especially while the contestants did their "Last Chance Workout". I felt kinda bad because my working out was BIG TIME minor compared to theirs. But I guess something is better than nothing. : )

Better head to bed! I will post my weigh in news tomorrow night.

NEW Day 1 of the Challenge

2010-02-01T22:43:00.000-06:00

Considering it is 11 pm, I guess it is safe to say that I PASSED the challenge today and have not eaten OUT today. I know to you this may sound easy but let me tell you about my day.

This morning I had my usual breakfast, Oatmeal. For lunch, I came home and started cooking dinner and had a salad. I started dinner because on Monday's McKinsey bowls on her High School bowling team and since it starts at 6:30 pm, I wanted to make sure I would not be going to the bowling alley hungry. The bowling alley is a place that I had created bad habits eating the food from the concession stand which you know the majority is deep fried.

So I got off work and came straight home to eat dinner. After I was done I went online to Weight Watchers to log my food itake for the day. Ended up I had calculated my dinner wrong. I thought it was A LOT of points lower than the computer told me. So instead of getting upset and depressed and running to the frig to throw the day out the window, I got up, cut off my TV and turned on the Wii Fit. I did the "aerobics" section for 30 minutes until it was time to RUN out the door to the bowling alley.

As soon as I walked in the bowling alley it was like my eyes were scoping out every table to see all the junk everyone was eating. I knew with this being my first NEW day of the challenge, this night would be hard so I packed some Scentsy work to do while my daughter bowled her game. My own daughter even used some of her own money to buy herself some french fries. Do you know how hard it was not to snatch a couple from her. But I didn't!!! Yeah!!! And by the time I was through working on my Scentsy, all the food on our table was GONE!

An added brag -- All I drank was water ALL day!!! No other beverages. Only two more days til weigh in. Got to be good tomorrow!!! I am not feeling very confident about the weigh in.

Day 1 of Challenge -- FAILED

2010-01-31T20:10:00.000-06:00

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that I was taking on Marci's challenge. I am going to go 7 days in a roll without eating out.

The day started off well. I slept in since my husband and I did not get in from playing poker at my cousins last night until 3 am. During the evening, my cousin and I discussed weight watchers and point values for certain foods, mostly fast food items and how a lot of them can take up your WHOLE daily calorie intake in one meal. So as you can see, if I can succeed at not eating out all week, I should have a good weight loss.

So we skipped breakfast and for lunch we had Tuna Fish Sandwiches made with Light Tuna in Water, Light Mayo, and pickle on toasted 100% whole wheat bread. I made sure I ate few calories because at 3 pm, it was off to my nephews party. His birthday party had pizza and soda. I purchased my own diet Pepsi and steered away from the pizza by bowling during that time of the party. Now birthday cake, I did have a piece of that. I LOVE butter cream icing.

During the party, 3 different people asked me if I wanted to go out to eat after the party. First person -- "no, my daughter is welcome to go with you, but I am steering away from eating out for 7 days", Second person was told the same thing. Now the third, my brother, invited me to go with him and multiple other family member who were going to eat Mexican food, my FAVORITE! He and the others went on to say how I could start tomorrow. "You are always suppose to start on a Monday, start it tomorrow". So yes friends, I FAILED. I went to eat Mexican food tonight. But when you fall off a horse, you get back on, so tomorrow will be my NEW DAY 1. Sound familiar? Yeah, to me too.

Tune in tomorrow to see me succeed. : )

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

2010-01-30T16:27:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday I had a weak day. During lunch we went to a Chinese Buffet. Instead of doing the buffet or eating any 372 calorie egg rolls, I did the mongolian bar where I was able to choose what all was going to be in my meal. I choose just a little bit of the steak, shrimp, and crab and the rest was veggies. I did have a bowl of hot and sour soup while waiting for it to cook. I know this still is not "diet" but it was a better choice. With weight watchers you are allowed 35 flex points each week that you can use whenever you like. Some choose to use a few each day, I usually use at least 25 on the weekend. I try to stay away from fried products, but find it hard to resist those crab ragoons. I ate one and afterwards found out it was 7 points OUCH.

For dinner we decided to go to my brothers house to watch movies and on the way we drove thru one of those Taco Bell / Long John Silver Combo Franchises. The plan was to get everyone Taco Bell, but when we got there my partner in crime (Husband who is supposed to be dieting), decided he was going to get his usual Fish and Chicken Plate. This is exactly what I always got and instantly got an attitude because I could not believe he was going to torture me like that. I was really mad. But I did not give in to my attitude I stuck to the plan and since I only had 9 points left out of my daily points, I pulled up my Taco Bell Application on my phone and ordered 9 points worth of food. You know I am not going to sit here and make you think that I believe the whole Taco Bell Diet menu, but their Fresco items are pretty good and their tacos are only 3 points a piece. But just like I learned from the day of my birthday and eating out, you can not go to a fast food, eat the correct amount of calories (points) and be satisfied. Some of you may be able to, but as an obese female, I am not satified with just one taco and one burrito. Consider this, I am still hungry, my husband (who is suppose to be dieting as well) is getting stuffed on his high calorie fried meal then I go to my brothers refrigerator, and what do I see CHEESECAKE!!! Another weakness!!!!

So we put in the movie and the title "Cloundy with a Chance of Meatballs" SHOULD have clued me in, but I had no idea what it was about, just a cute animated movie I had been wanting to see. If you have not seen it, it is about a town that only has sardines to eat. The star of the movie invents a machine that can make food. Ends up, it goes into the sky and starts raining food that the inventor chooses it to rain. So here I am on the couch, STILL hungry and watching hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, and pancakes etc all showering this town and fulfilling everyones hunger. So YES, I did use some of my FLEX points to eat a peice of Cheesecake, and that half of peice of chicken plank my nephew did not eat, YEP ate that too. Then I started throwing back the water to finally NOT be hungry anymore.

My last post I had asked for my readers to suggest a challenge for next week. Although it is going to be EXTREMELY hard for me, I have decided to accept Marci's Challenge and starting on Sunday, I will go 7 days without eating ANY FAST FOOD. I am not going to eat out at all. I have already broke the news to my 16 year old daughter. This is going to be hard on her as well. Let me tell you a little bit about McKinsey. She is EXTREMELY spoiled by her papa and totally addicted to eating out. There has been times when papa has shown up at my house with a bag of burgers for my girls because they did not want to eat whatever I had in the house. I mean, Mckinsey would call papa, he would stop what he was doing and go to Whataburger and bring them burgers. This is the same man, when I was growing up that made us eat sandwiches at least once EVERY DAY. As an adult, to this day, I HATE eating sandwiches if they don't come from Subway.

So this will be a hard week for me but believe it or not, I am actually looking forward to the challenge. The house is already stocked with groceries and I already have all the meals planned. My hardest night will be Thursday because that is the night I bowl in a league. Get this, the league is called "Beer and Pizza". LOL Each team of 4 gets two pitchers of beer and a large pizza. I don't like beer, so I never drink any of that, but I usually do eat two peices of pizza. So this Thursday I am going to prepare myself and maybe pack a snack. As I get closer to the day, I will work it all out.

Well we are off to my cousins' to play Texas Hold 'Em. I plan on taking my own snacks with me because we usually pass snacks around while we are playing.

1st Weigh In

2010-01-28T15:09:00.000-06:00

I did weigh in yesterday and I happy to announce that I lost 4.6 lbs. WOO HOO! If I lose three pounds this week, I will weigh less than I have in at least 10 years. I NEED TO make it past this hurdle and continue. As I stated in a previous entry, I got there last time and lost motivation and STOPPED my diet. I MUST stay motivated!!!!

I plan on going to Cancun this August and think about how much better I would feel about myself if I weighed 50 lbs less. It's at least 26 weeks before our trip and two pounds a week, would make me 52 lbs lighter. Wow!!! Now that is exciting. Then a couple months after that will be my high school reunion. Once I determine the date of my trip, I am going to add a count down on my blog to help me stay motivated.

We found out yesterday, that next Wednesday is our last weekly meeting at work. Therefore, I guess I will have to go to an off site Weight Watchers Meeting once a week. We do plan on meeting at lunch once a week and weighing in and motivating each other, but it is not going to be the same, I don't think.

I need to set up a challenge for this week. Any suggestions?

My birthday

2010-01-26T22:11:00.001-06:00

I spent my birthday at a surgical center with my mom. She had knee surgery. It went well and she will hopefully be able to get back to her independent self soon.

Eating good was hard today. As you know, fast food and diets just don't mix well. I had intended on getting up early enough this morning to eat my usual 3 point oatmeal, but was not sucessful. Instead for breakfast we drove through sonic and I ate a jr breakfast buritto with egg, sausage, and cheese. Yea I know, I should have left off the cheese. Bad habits are hard to break. I did order a large ice water instead of my usual coke.

Since we did not know the area well, for lunch we just drove around and found Jack in the box. I had two tacos and a kids cheeseburger with water. I am definately learning that when trying to stay within your daily calorie range, when you eat bad you are still going to be hungry!!! Therefore, when dinner came around I was starving. Since we were all tired, I once again fell victim to eating out, my parents ordered pizza. I regrettably ate three peices. Depressed about blowing my day, I so wanted to drive thru dairy queen and get a blizzard on the way home, but my wonderful daughter refused to share one with me and I was not eating a whole one on my conscience. So for the first time all day, I came home and ate a grapefruit. And you know what? I am not craving that ice cream anymore.

Well it is after 10 pm, I have not done my daily 10 minutes of exercise from my weight watcher challenge for this week, so I better go

Tomorrow is weigh in. Wish me luck!!!

Month of Birthday Parties! HELP!!!!

2010-01-25T10:01:00.000-06:00

We have TONS of January birthdays in my family.

This past weekend, we attended my niece and nephew, on my husband's side, birthday party. My niece turned 7 and my nephew 2. It was a joint birthday party at least, so their was only one cake I had to face this weekend. : ) On weight watchers you get your daily points, then flex points. Needless to say I used ALL my daily and almost ALL my flex points all in one day. I was proud of myself, I have talked my husband into jumping on the "Thin in 2010" bandwagon! AND when he went to the store with his mom for the groceries for the cook out, I asked him to buy me and him some ground turkey and wheat hamburger buns for "our" burgers. This small request ended up being a GREAT thing! My mother in law, who I worry about who is over weight as well, bought ground turkey for ALL the burgers!!! And for the Ice Cream -- she bought frozen yogurt. How awesome was that? So although I did use ALL my daily and flex points, I did not go OVER!!!

Tomorrow is my birthday, and also the day before weigh in! I plan on spending a lot of the day with my mother who is having surgery tomorrow. Since my mom is having surgery this will eliminate our usual birthday eating out dinner, which might be my save and grace for the weigh in. I feel I have done really well this week and am hoping for a loss.

This weekend will be my brother's sons 4th birthday party. They are doing a bowling party on Sunday. So although I might sneak that "small" piece of cake, I WILL be bowling to help counteract the calories. Birthday cake is definitely a weakness for me. I can not resist butter cream icing.

If you have a minute, please say a quick prayer that my mom's surgery goes well tomorrow.

Trying to get my head on straight

2010-01-22T13:44:00.000-06:00

Hi, I am Stephany!

I am a wife and mother of two beautiful teenage daughters who are now 16 and 18! I work a Full-Time job and am a independent sales consultant for Scentsy Part-time.

When I was pregnant with my first daughter in 1991, my weight went over 200 lbs and I have not been under 200 lbs since. I DEFINATLY have over 100 pounds to lose.

I am very fortunate that my Full-Time employer has allowed us to have a Weight Watchers at Work program. I first started on the weight watchers last Fall with a group of about 20. During that time, I lost 15 pounds. At that time, I was entering into a new weight zone. A zone that I have not seen in over 10 years. Instead of getting excited about it, I started failing tremendously until I just gave up all together. Why am I SCARED to be thin? Stupid? YES of course it is. I would LOVE for Jillian to scream at me and HELP ME figure out what my problem is! But since The Biggest Loser hasn't called and I am almost 40, not to mention my 20th HS reunion in October, I NEED TO GET BUSY!!!!

I have set a GOAL to lose 2 lbs a week this year. To help me stay focused, I am going to blog my journey. Since I don't have Jillian, maybe this will be therapeutic and I will find out WHY? I want to live the rest of my life HEALTHY!

To be continued . . . .