So it’s been awhile since my last blog. Summer is such a busy time of year. Between family stuff, work and lots of fun, the past month and a half has flown by!

Being so busy has caused me to have a severe case of S.B.S (Swirly Brain Syndrome). Which is pretty normal for me. I tend to be an organized person on paper but my mind is always racing. I can’t quite figure out what has to get done and when. It’s not big stuff luckily. Just stuff around my house that needs to get done, things I need to do to get ready for another school year. Plus needing to schedule in some more fun. Must be time to make a list!

Let’s add an additional level to the S.B.S.

So, I have a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. I love my birthday! I look as forward to it now as I did in my younger days. I have been working on my yearly “What I Want to Accomplish in My Next Year” list. I have all of these ideas and goals I want to accomplish. Looking back at the past year, I have done a lot to better myself personally and physically. That makes me feel really positive. Well I should say it was giving me a positive feeling until I read a recent survey. According to the survey, “they” say that a woman is most attractive at age 31. That’s it! I’m screwed. My hand’s are up in the air and it’s all downhill from here since 32 is 15 days away. Positive feeling..ba-bye! Well only temporarily.

Determined to prove “them” wrong. I am going to come up with a great list of things to accomplish in my 32nd year. It might just be the best one yet. Game on! The list is in the works! I’ll keep you posted!

So last night my daughter and I had to run to Target. We got what we needed and headed for the checkout.

There was this man in front of the register, who was making a huge scene. What was he so upset about? He was unhappy because our Target store didn’t carry the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream that was advertised in the sale flyer. He was yelling and swearing at various employees and then stomped off like a 5 year old.

I felt like saying “it’s ice cream dude, don’t get your panties in a bunch. Price Chopper is right next door”. If he was looking for Preparation H or something I could understand why he would be upset that they didn’t have it.

I will never understand why people think that being a complete jerk to an employee at a business, or anyone in general, is the right thing to do. You see it everywhere, restaurants, stores and even in the workplace.

Am I the only one that still believes that you get more flies with honey than vinegar? I just don’t see how being miserable to others does anything but make you miserable too. Granted, I am not always “sparkles, rainbows and unicorns”, but I try to be as much as possible. It’s not always easy to have a happy go lucky attitude but it’s worth putting out the effort to.

Ice cream is happy. He was not happy. Therefore, he did not deserve ice cream. I call that….karma.

2 weeks have passed since the official end of my 8 week program at LOA. I am now in the “on my own” phase, which I like to call the “Keep on Keepin’ On” phase.

Look how brave I am, doing what most women wouldn’t dare do. I am going to tell my weight and clothing size! I am only sharing the following information because I know it makes it more real.

Here is where I started -

April 12th - 178 lbs & a size 14 (I would like to just add that I am 5′8″. It matters.)

June 7th - 155lbs & a size 8-10 (I am still 5′8″.)

So in 8 weeks, that’s 23lbs, 28.5″ (total from my measurements), and 2-3 dress sizes lost!

Yea for me! But, am I done? Is this it? Absolutely NOT! I am still at the gym 5-6 days a week. I am still eating the same way, although I have had a couple of splurges in the last two weeks. I just couldn’t say no to trying fish tacos and I broke down and ate ice cream. I tried to substitute ice cream with watermelon today. There was no way in hell it even compared. So I ate ice cream too. But, at least I had an extra serving of fruit! My splurges are nothing compared to what they would have been prior to this whole lifestyle change.

So here I go, headed into the rest of my life, day by day, trying to apply all that I have learned. And as a wise women named Gladys from Texas once said, “just keep on keepin’ on”. So I shall.

(If you want to do what I have been doing at LOA, there is a 6 week program starting July 6th. Send me an email and I will give you the details. What have you got to lose?)

Are you a “Fat & Happy”, “Chronic Dieter” or an “I Wish I Was Thin” person?

Lots of people are overweight. You see them everywhere you go. I think that for the most part all overweight people can be put into a few categories. I most likely have left some out.

Fat & Happy - These are  people who are overweight, they don’t care, and in fact they even embrace it. They love being the big guy or the voluptuous woman. They will gladly eat anything and everything that they want without a blink of the eye.

The Chronic Dieter - This is the person that is always on a the newest and latest diet. Always looking for a way to shed some weight, but struggle to keep it off because it’s usually a fad, or something unrealistic to stick with.

The “I Wish I Was Thin” Person - The person who constantly says they need to lose weight. They complain about their appearance all the time and say how they need to lose weight but then have lunch at the fast food restaurant and order a diet soda with their food. Because somehow that diet soda will magically take away the 1000+ calories they just consumed.

Perception is everything. I think until recently, I was an “I Wish I Was Thin” person. Growing up I was a little overweight. I look back now and realize it wasn’t as bad as I perceived it to be. Being 5′4 in 5th grade and weighing 105lbs, was not really that bad. I was just bigger than a lot of other girls. Mean kids totally scarred me for life. I had a period of time where I was thin throughout high school. I still thought I was fat at 5′8 and 127lbs. Stupid girl.

After high school and until recently I fluctuated between a size 10-14 and probably anywhere from 160-200lbs (225 when I had my daughter). Usually hovering closer to the 12-14. Everyday I would look in the mirror and see the fat girl. The one who got picked on at school. Even though people would give me compliments about my appearance, I never believed them. I just always thought they were being nice. I know that I carried my weight well. I guess being tall and “big boned” helped. Big boned is another story for another day.

I have spent every day of my life for as long as I can remember dreaming of being a skinny girl. Wanting to know what it would be like to be that perfect ideal in my head. Hoping to have a summer where I would put on a bathing suit and feel good about it. I know it is totally shallow and superficial. I know that I have more to offer than just my appearance. I know that it is not everything. But honestly, it has mattered to me for every second of every day.

Until now.

This is the first time in my life I have been so focused, so determined to be a healthier me. Yes I want to look good. Obviously, I wouldn’t be working this hard if it didn’t matter. But this is the first time that I have had other forces driving me. I want to be strong. I want to be healthy. I want to be a good role model for my daughter.I like seeing how much my body can handle, how it has changed and how strong I am becoming.  I am so proud of myself for doing as well as I have done. The pride I feel, feels so much better than being skinny or pretty.

I won’t deny that the looking better isn’t a nice perk but I am more excited to scream from the roof tops “I am strong, healthy and  love how good I feel”!

Next weigh in and measurements are on Thursday. For now…..20lbs…18inches…2 weeks left and counting.

So obviously exercise is a big part of my life now. But there is more to it than that. The $25,000 question I hear everyday….”What do you eat”? Since I keep getting asked, I thought I would give you a day in the life. Cherie didn’t plan out my meals, but instead, gave me guidelines.

Here are the rules: No sugar, white flour or processed foods. No fat-free food unless it is naturally fat-free. No artificial sweeteners.  5-6 servings of vegetables, eat lean protein, 64+ ounces of water a day (with a small amount of real cranberry juice added). Eat every 3 hours, nothing after dinner. Watch your portions. Clean eating.

So this is just an example of an average day….

Breakfast - 2 pieces of brown rice toast w/ 1 tbsp of all natural peanut butter and a banana & cup of coffee with 2 tbsp 1% milk

Snack - apple & low fat string cheese

Lunch - Salad with cucumbers, strawberries, healthy chicken salad with raisins and walnuts, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Snack - 2 pieces of lean turkey wrapped around cucumber sticks

Dinner - “Pizza Chicken” Chicken stuffed with tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, seasonings and 1 tbsp low fat mozzarella, 3 cups of sauteed vegetables and 1/2 cup brown rice

I am perfectly satisfied with all of my meals. I have learned to like so many different vegetables and have discovered lots of great seasonings. I am also now a huge fan of olive oil. It has so many health benefits plus, I use it to remove my makeup.

I have created some great recipes over the past month. If you’re every looking for a good one, let me know.

So last week was just a crazy week! I was a well behaved little doobie up until Friday. Friday morning around 3am we had someone attempt to get into our house. Needless to say the whole ordeal shook me up. Didn’t sleep, missed the gym. I was a good eater all day, just didn’t get my normal workout.

Saturday was our big trip to NYC!  No gym for me, but we probably walked for about 9  hours. We had so much fun! I ate a healthy breakfast like I always do, but then I misbehaved and damn it, I am not apologizing for it! We went to this fantastic international food  festival that consumed 9th Ave. In between all of our shopping and sightseeing,  I did quite a few shots of tequila and ate the best chocolate kettle corn ever!

 After that, I went back to normal for the rest of the day. Sunday I followed my normal routine. I felt sluggish, but that was due to lack of sleep. Back to normal routine on Monday.

As usual I was really excited for my 6a class with Cherie this morning! It’s my favorite class. I wasn’t looking forward to weigh in though. I figured that 2 days without exercising, eating chocolate kettle corn and drinking tequila, meant that the scale was not going to be my friend.

I was WRONG! Apparently, a diet that includes kettle corn and tequila caused me to lose 4 more pounds this week.

Well, probably not. But it does show that if you live a healthy lifestyle and behave on a regular basis,  you can misbehave once in awhile and still be successful.

18 lbs and counting…

So today makes it officially one month since my 8 week program with Cherie at Lady of America began. So where do I stand after one month? Here’s what I have lost and found…

Lost -

• 13lbs lost
• 18″ lost
• 2 dress sizes down

Found -

• Tons of energy!
• Muscles I never knew I had
• Good nights’ sleep
• Nicer skin and hair
• The feeling of more hours in my day
• Happier attitude. (I was happy before but now I feel like I could jump out of my skin)
• More pride in myself and my new found strength and determination.

I can’t begin to say how much I love Lady of America and especially Cherie! She is truly an amazing woman and makes me feel so good about myself and gives me the encouragement to just keep on going.

I know this program ends in 4 more weeks but I will keep going. I have found my new lifestyle. I just want to keep doing more and getting better!

7:00 on a rainy Saturday morning. All curled up on the couch, nice and warm and cozy. But I can hear the gym calling “get up…get off the couch…go kick your butt”!

So my usual routine is going to a 6am class at LOA 5 days a week. I love class. You’re in a large group, you feel the need to keep up and you are guaranteed a great workout. No class on Saturdays for me though. It’s the day that I do 45 minutes of cardio on my own and then do strength training.  It definitely requires some determination to kick your own butt as much as a personal trainer would.

So up I went, off to the gym to see if I can locate my determination. I found it! Where did it come from? Well, that would be the fact that I weighed myself this morning, and it looks like I am down 2.5 more pounds since last week. That brings the total up to 13.5 lbs since April 12th! Measurements and official weigh in is on Monday. Can’t wait to see the change in inches from 2 weeks ago! I was pumped!!

It’s definitely made me realize………. that nothing tastes as good as the taste of success!

I think a wooohooo is in order. WOOoooooHOOOooooo!

Sunday night means it is time to get my lobstahs in a row. Some people say ducks….I prefer lobstahs.

Sunday night is when I prep the week. Clothes, grocery list, food menu and the house has to be set. I also need to make sure my journal is all set for review tomorrow with Cherie. Time for a little reflection.

I know I should be proud of my success. My clothes are loose. I can see the difference in my appearance, the numbers are there and I have been getting a lot of nice positive reinforcement. For some reason though, I don’t feel positive and successful the past couple of days. Which seemed odd to me. It took me a while today to figure out why I feel this way.

I am a planner. I live by my lists. Since I started this 8 wk program…I have eaten what is written out and planned, and I have worked out at set times etc. This past week that did not happen. I got sick with food poisoning which caused me to have some off days. I wasn’t “bad”, I just probably didn’t eat enough or what was planned.I also missed one day at the gym while I was sick. To boot, I took a class this week that caused me to be really really sore. So I felt like a failure/weak because it took a couple of days before I stopped hurting.

I know that it may seem silly, but I think I feel like a failure because I wasn’t so strictly regimented this week. I need to remind myself that I can’t always plan. Life throws you curve balls and you have to be flexible. I shouldn’t be so hard on myself for not doing something perfectly. Did I fail? No. Did I have to compromise my plan. Yes. Should I be proud of my success so far? Absolutely. It’s so easy to get stuck in your own head.

Here’s hoping that I have positive results tomorrow at weigh in with Cherie. What am I going to do if I don’t? Keep on keepin’ on. I will just push forward and know that I am giving it my best.

Oh my lord! Strength training class on Wednesday kicked my butt! And my quads for that fact.

I have never felt so out of shape in my life! It’s been two days and they still hurt. I am pretty sure every time I went up and down the stairs (only about 80 times) during the past 2 days, that I dropped the f bomb with each step. I must have sounded crazy swearing with every step I took. For some reason it helped ease the pain.

I am finally able to sit down without wanting to cry.

And why is it that whenever you are in that predictiment…you always forget something downstairs?

Oh well….time to suck it up and move on.