MISSION COMPLETE!

It's been awhile since I updated. I haven't been back to the track in a couple weeks. My right knee was killing me and was advised to give it a rest for awhile. I was excited I didn't have to go jogging for awhile because I can't really stand it but I was also bummed because I didn't want to loose my momentum. So Jenn and I decided we would start hiking Beezly Mtn. I am happy to say that we have crawled out of bed at 5am the past 5 mornings and hiked to the top. :) Our first day we took 9 breaks and within the week we have cut it down to only 4! That's a pretty huge accomplishment in my book.

Last weekend we had a bbq and had Tim and Christina over. After consuming some alcohol I had committed to entering a Tough Mudder competition. It's a 10-12 mile race running through mud, over walls, through ice cold water, jumping over fire, running through live wires, etc. I have never done anything like this before nor have I ever thought I could. So this will be one for the books. We have until next August to train for it.

As of right now I am weighing in at 246.2 lbs. So from my highest recorded weight I have lost 68 lbs. Never in my life did I think I could ever loose that much. People are commenting on how good I look and I love it. It's very motivating. A gal I work with told me that on Wednesday when I left for lunch her husband was waiting for her and saw me. He asked her if it was me because he hadn't seen me in a few months and didn't recognize me. It made my day. :)

So as Jenn would say, I'm gonna keep on keeping on.

Where's Summer?

Started my day off super tired. Work wasn't very busy but I am beat today. My right knee started bothering me around lunch time today. I'm not sure why?

I called Jenn when I got off of work today and she had just left the Walk in Clinic with Kinleigh. I was very happy to have her agree to talk the night off from jogging. It's super windy outside and I thought I would give my knee the night off. I'll be back out there tomorrow for sure.

On my way home from work I had quite the internal struggle with myself. I was thinking it would be really nice to drive through somewhere and pick up dinner. BUT, I'm happy to say I didn't. I am currently waiting for my salmon to be done baking. :) I am so close to being in the 240's and I didn't want to mess it up now.

I think I will enjoy my nice peaceful evening by watching a Channing Tatum film, Step Up. You can't go wrong watching him.

Breakfast
Bagel thin with cream cheese

Lunch
Chicken and broccoli with noodles
fruit salad

Dinner
Salmon
baby reds
corn

Another day in my journey.

This morning I got on the scale and to my surprise I weighed in at 251.4!!!!!!!!!! I think I just might make my goal of being in the 240's by the time I go to my Dad's for the 4th of July.

I had a very productive weekend. I FINALLY cleaned my bedroom and discovered that I do in fact have carpet underneath the piles of clothes. It was getting pretty scary. Everytime Taylor cleaned her room she would put whatever didn't have a place into my room. So add that to my piles and I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like. I cranked up my music and cleaned the house for about 5 hours. I even went through my dresser and closet as well as Taylor's dresser.

I decided it was time to weed out all the clothes that are now falling off of me and make room for new ones. I had a great time tossing the clothes out. I even tried on a few outfits that I knew didn't fit but I wanted to see just how baggy they were. :) I also found a few things that I can now fit into. Who knows how long they have been in the depths of the dresser but I'm glad I kept them. I did keep one pair of jeans size 26 so that I can try them on periodically. I want to have the same pics as they show on The Biggest Loser. I bagged up 2 garbage sacks and gave them to my friend Mary. I'm hoping that they will work for her. I know how depressing it is to shop for new clothes and how much I loved when clothes were given to me. For one, I didn't have to spend the money. It cost so much money for the extra 20 yards of fabric  to go around your belly then if you're small. For two, it's depressing to go into a dressing room and have to leave empty handed because nothing fit and you just know that everyone is staring at you because they know that nothing you just tried on fit. I'm sure that's not at all what happened but in my insecure world, that's exactly how it went down.

We had a rep bring lunch for us today and there sat on the table one of my favorites, PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES from Safeway. I did very good and didn't even have one bite. I did have to close the lid though because the smell was delicious. I sat and ate my own lunch and enjoyed my apple and pineapple fruit salad (with a full cup of marshmallows) thanks to Jenn's recipe she gave me.

Jenn and I jumped back on the track tonight and did our regular 5 laps with running 1/2 way for 4 laps. We had taken the last 3 days off and I think we did surprisingly well. :)

Things are looking good. Slow and steady wins the race. This lady plans on coming in first and looking good while I break through that ribbon. :)

Breakfast
Bagel thin with Strawberry cream cheese
 
Lunch
Chicken and broccoli with noodles
Apple and pineapple fruit salad with a full cup of marshmallows (LOL)

Dinner
Chicken and broccoli with noodles
Apple and pineapple fruit salad

Toughest day so far!

Today was tough. I don't know if I was not wanting to be at work and it put me in a funk or I was dreading jogging tonight. I was coming up with all kinds of excuses to tell Jenn that I couldn't go to the track tonight. I think at one point of the day I really made my stomach hurt. I got to Jenn's house and she wasn't in the mood either.

We did make it to the track though. :) We decided not to jog the 3/4 laps, so we jogged the 1/2 laps. The first lap my legs felt like cement. The last 3 laps of jogging didn't get any easier. BUT WE DID IT! The good news is that we didn't get lapped by anyone else tonight.

I am in a much better mood now that I am done with work and have a 3 day weekend, I'm done with my jogging for the day, and I'm now relaxing on the couch. I have no idea what I'm going to have for dinner yet. Frankly I'm to tired and lazy to get up and make anything right now. I think I'll veg for a bit and enjoy the nice breeze going through my house.

Breakfast
Bagel thin with Strawberry cream cheese

Snack
Cheese stick
100 calorie snack cookies

Lunch
Imitation crab meat
pudding
apple with a reduced sugar caramel dip

Dinner
??????????

Still going strong!

Happy to say that I woke up on time this morning. :) I had another skinny day today until I put my scrubs on at work. They are entirely too big and falling off of me. I think it's time to invest in some smaller ones. I have been holding off because I plan on loosing a lot more weight and don't want to keep buying scrubs. I guess it's what has to be done. At least I'm not buying a bigger size right? I think it's a good problem to have.

My inner thighs were killing me all day. I just kept saying, "YESSSS" (in my napolean voice) Jenn and I kicked butt at the track tonight. We decided it was time to kick it up a notch and jog a bit longer. So we walked 1/4 of the lap and jogged the other 3/4. We did that for 4 laps and then made a full cool down lap. It was definitely tough tonight. I didn't think I was going to make it the last 2 times of jogging. I kept telling myself, "I want to be skinny, I want to be skinny." Of course I only thought that, I couldn't say it out loud because I could barely breath. But I DID IT! I really worked up the sweat. :) I think Jenn could go longer but I appreciate her sticking next to me. Thanks Jenn.

I was really hungry today. I might need to eat more now that I'm working out. I'll need to find out the best thing to eat. Time for some research.

Breakfast
Bagel thin with strawberry cream cheese

Snack
About 8 peanut butter filled pretzel's

Lunch
Chicken breast
Watermelon
Pudding snack

Dinner
Chicken breast
Cottage cheese
Tomatoe

Snack
Strawberries
piece of Angel food cake

All I had to drink today was water and an ice tea with 3 splenda's

Day 2

My day started late today and I felt like I was trying to catch up all day. I either didn't set my alarm last night or turned it off this morning and went back to sleep. After rushing through my shower and getting out the door surprisingly on time, I realized that I had forgotten my cell phone at home. So after getting my much needed iced nonfat white mocha this morning I had to run back to the house to get it.

I had a skinny feeling day today. I got a few compliments on my outfit at work and during lunch with my Dad he also told me that I looked good. :) I just know that it was those 5 laps around the highschool track yesterday that did it. My inner thighs were sore today which of course made me smile inside. For the first time in my life I loved the pain of working out. Note to self, "If you want to be on the cover of a magazine, you must feel the burn!"

I left work late tonight and normally I would have made some excuse to not go jogging with Jenn. What do you know, my bestie texted me just as I was walking out the door to leave work and I was instantly in work out mode. The first lap sucked, the second lap still sucked, but the last 2 laps weren't so bad. Of course the final cool down lap was my favorite. This will get easier. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!

I forgot to mention that last weekend I went to Relay for Life with Jenn and the kids. I helped Jenn's MOPS group set up there section. They gave me a Relay t-shirt for helping out. Of course my first response was to say no because I knew it wouldn't fit. After thinking about it I grabbed one and thought it could be my inspiration shirt. Here is the dreaded photo of me in the shirt. Now keep in mind it's a size Large and I've been wearing 3x and 4x shirts for years. I was just impressed that it went on. So I had to peel it off of me, but it went on. It is now hanging in my room where I can see it every morning when I wake up. I will update later once I can wear the shirt out in public.

I think I am going to go enjoy my dinner now and relax so I can get back out on that track tomorrow.

Daily menu:
Breakfast-
Kellogs breakfast bar (because I was running late)
Iced Nonfat White Mocha (because it's a must in the am  :-P)

Lunch
Green salad with chicken
Water

Dinner
Boiled chicken breast
Fat free cottage cheese

Snack
Strawberries
Watermelon
Piece of Angel Food Cake (yummy!!!!!!!!!!)

My heaviest!

I've decided to start a blog to record my journey. There has been so many positive changes since I have changed my lifestyle and I'm very excited to experience many more.

My heaviest recorded weight was 314 lbs. I can't believe that I just typed that out. I'm sure that I was actually heavier than that but my thoughts in the past was if I didn't get on the scale then I didn't have to face it. Ignorance worked for awhile, 30 years to be exact. It was about a year and a half ago that I decided to leave my husband and start a new life for my girls and I. I was convinced that I was always going to be obese and that I needed to learn to deal with it. Even my husband had told me at one point that I was always going to be fat.

After leaving my husband I decided I was packing up and moving to another town to start a new life. My best friend Jenn and her boyfriend Steven let us move in with them until I could find a job and a place of our own. It was living with them that Jenn inspired me to start changing my ways. I signed up for weight watchers and started going to the gym with her. I think I lost about 20 lbs but slowly fell back into my old ways of eating and being lazy. Once I started working it was much easier to run through the drive through for lunch and make something quick but nice and fattening for dinner.

In November of 2010 I started saying that 2011 was going to be my year. I was determined to make something good happen, I just wasn't sure what that was yet. The new year came and went. It was February when Jenn, Steven, Misty, Bill and myself hired a babysitter and decided to go out on the town. We went down to Aj's and had a blast. We all had way too much to drink. Steven ended up kissing the b-day girl that night and I got hit on by her friend Matthew. He slapped me on the ass twice and kissed me on the cheek 3 times. It was that moment that I gained instant confidence and began my life style change. I hadn't been hit on in years.

Since then, I am now down a total of 58 lbs from my highest recorded weight and 38 from when I started in March at 294 lbs. I will probably never see that guy again that hit on me as he lives in Michigan but I would love to thank him. After that night I was super motivated and decided to start a weight loss competition with Jenn. Steven joined as well. The goal was to loose the most % by the end of the month. The loser had to treat the winner to a polish change on our toes. I was off to a good start and won the first month. I was on a roll and won the 2nd month as well. Just this past weekend Steven, Jenn and I made another bet. If I can get into the 100's by January 1st 2012 then they will pay me $50. If I don't, then I of course need to pay them $50.

I have been able to do so many things that I'm sure people take for granite everyday. The biggest thing that comes to mind is being able to sit on the grass or floor indian style. I could never do that before as it hurt to much or I would have too much trouble getting off the ground. I went to Sydney's bbq at school 2 weeks ago and it dawned on me after I left that I sat on the ground for about 30 minutes and had no trouble getting up. Since then, I'm sitting on the ground a lot and loving every minute of it.

Misty has helped me with my clothing. She gave me a ton of clothes that I would never have dreamed of trying on or even thought I would look good in them. I had to call Jenn the other day to ask if I looked good in this certain outfit and I didn't want to go to town if I looked like a fat cow. She said I looked good so I ran with it and went to the store. I never felt that people were staring at me and loved every minute of it. I'm learning that I'm getting a "shape" to me. I welcome the hourglass figure. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!

I'm getting compliments from people noticing that I'm losing weight which is super motivating. Tonight Jenn and I went to the track and jogged half of the track then walked the other half for 4 laps. Then we walked a full lap to cool down. I was shocked I was able to jog the half of the track. My legs felt a bit like jello but I did it and I'll be back tomorrow night. My girls are gone for a bit this summer visiting their Dads and I have nothing better to do.

I sure hope my kids are proud of me. I plan on being around and in shape for a long time so that I can play with their kids. I never want my children to get teased because their Mom is fat. Never again will that happen. This is my life style change and I'm ready for every moment.