The Mirror Lies

First of all, I'm excited to announce that I've been awarded top prize in the contest for World's Worst Blogger.  Okay, so it's not official, but I do realize I've been absent for a very long time.

The truth is that I had a really difficult year and gained back a lot of my weight, got depressed about it, came out of my funk and got back on track, then got back off track, blah-blah-blah.  So here I am again, after a weigh-in today that reinforced my need to get back on track.

I do have happy news though.  My friend Mandy (I've mentioned her before) reached her LIFETIME goal at Weight Watchers today!  Yay, Mandy!  I wish I had known it would  be today, because I had planned to make her a sash and crown for the occasion.  Since I missed it, she'll just have to settle for this sad little substitute. Here you go, Mandy, a crown for your achievement!

Ta-Daaaa!!

I've been thinking about how we let our thinking mess us up so often.  Mandy just returned from the beach, and she mentioned that even though she was at goal weight and thinner and healthier than she has been in a very long time, she still looked in the mirror and saw a fat girl in a bathing suit looking back at her.  (I might add that when I saw her at the meeting today, I immediately noticed how thin she looked.)  We discussed this quite a bit in our meeting, and as expected, most of us confessed to feeling this way even when, in reality, we're looking our best.

I thought of that discussion when I saw this:

Source: http://themetapicture.com/page/42/

How true is that!?  I wonder why it's sometimes so hard for us to see the reality of our achievements rather than the  tiny so-called flaws that make us human.  My hope is that I will be able to look at myself in the mirror and see someone who can do this, once and for all, realizing that goal weight is not the end by any means.  I think that accepting my looks - good and bad - is a large part of loving and accepting myself as a whole, even if I'm nowhere near my healthy weight.  And my hope is the same for all of us, that we can see our own beauty without comparing ourselves to the images of perfection that are impossible to attain, whether we're at our best size or not.

Count 'Em!

Thursday's weigh-in was really good.  I hit a milestone!

Count those 5-pound stars!  And FYI - don't try to do the math.  That 5% sticker is just stuck on randomly.  I know someone thought she figured out my starting weight at 300 pounds from this pic.  Nope!  

 This is big news for me, because 35 pounds is halfway to my "high goal" with Weight Watchers.  What's my high goal, you might ask?  It's the highest I can weigh at WW and still make lifetime status.  My "big goal" is to be even below that, but I'm taking it a step at a time.  Oh, yeah, and I'm actually down 36.2 pounds total!!


And now for my Weekend Update...

Friday Night:
Big party animal that I am, I hit the gym.  Apparently I'm the only one in town with no social life this night, if the gym attendance is any indication.  At least I had my choice of ANY machine I wanted!

Lonely gym

Saturday Afternoon:
Back to the gym.  I decided to try to break my record for stats on the elliptical machine, and I did it!  Now, I don't know how accurate these things are, but it looked pretty good to me either way.  I did an hour plus a 5-minute cool-down, and it shows 6.56 miles distance and 912.9 calories burned.  Even if it's off by half, that's not too shabby!

My record high!

Saturday Night:
Casino Night Fundraiser for a local school.

 It was lots of fun, even though I didn't win any prizes.  The food was catered by one of my fave restaurants (Rails), and I think I ate sensibly.   I chose the spring mix salad over the Caesar salad, with vinaigrette dressing (just a drizzle) instead of the Ranch dressing.  I didn't take any bread or potatoes (hard to do, but not that big of a deal).  Then I had a smallish portion of chicken breast and a tiny bit of pork tenderloin, green beans, and a tomato/onion/pepper creole side item.  No dessert (cheesecake and chocolate cake), and a small glass of white wine.

My losing raffle tickets

Sunday:
My birthday!
Went with the family to eat Mexican food.  I wanted to have an enjoyable meal without going nuts, since it was my birthday.  I had chicken fajitas (just ate the chicken and veggies) with pinto beans (not refried) and a dab of guacamole (yum-o!).  I had a couple of chips with salsa, then asked for corn tortillas to dip instead.  That's GOOOOD!  I also had 1/2 of a flour tortilla, because they make them there at the restaurant and are my favorites.  It was a great time, and my kids were good while we were there, even though my daughter was disappointed that I wouldn't let them ask the wait staff to cram a sequined sombrero on my head and sing happy birthday.  (Fear of wearing a multi-use hat, not fear of attention.  Clearly, I love attention.)

Later we drove to Comfort, a little town nearby.  One of our friends was there and mentioned she saw my favorite (red velvet) in little cupcakes at a little restaurant/shop called High's, so we went out on a quest.  I really want to go back to High's for lunch one day.  It looked really cute, and the menu looked tasty.  Click here for the link if you want to check it out.  We took some of these little beauties home.

Red Velvet Cupcake - The Best!

Birthday Chick

 Because I'm still tracking everything I eat this day, I looked up the Points Plus value for red velvet cupcakes.  Uh, yeah, 14 Points Plus!  Yikes!  But it WAS my birthday, so I couldn't deprive myself and just cut mine in half.  Ah, just right!

Half the cupcake, all the flavor!

We also went to Sweet Comfort, a little candy and ice cream shop down the road from High's.  We picked up two of the biggest chocolate-covered strawberries I've ever seen.  I had a little bite of this (just enough) and let the family have the rest.  It's fun to share sometimes!

So.  Good.

 After all that indulgence, yes, I actually went to the gym this evening.  I didn't hit my record on the elliptical again, but I did come close.  It's probably because I had to change my age from 40 to 41 when I set it up, right?

Birthday Stats

 As I was leaving, the girl at the front desk wished me a Happy Birthday.  Then she asked why on earth I was at the gym on my birthday.  As I walked out, I realized something.  I was there on my birthday because I wanted to be.  Because I wanted to give myself a gift I've been denying myself for a long time.  I want to be healthy and take time just for me.  And that's a very good thing, and it was a very happy birthday indeed!

Post-Christmas Weigh-In and Hot 100

I made a comment last week that I WOULD lose weight over Christmas week.  Well, guess what?

I did!

Somehow I managed to shave off 1.6, which I realize isn't a huge number, but it is a loss over a difficult week for me.  I will relish it!

This puts me at -23.2 pounds total.  I'd hoped to have been down much more than that by now, but somehow I lost my mojo between Thanksgiving and now.  It's no excuse; just what happened.  But I am pretty sure now that I'll have my regular routine back, I'll be chucking those pounds again!

So how about a little Hot 100 Update?  This is the last one!  The challenge is over, so let's see how I fared:

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  I had been so certain that I would reach this one, but I'm not even close.  During this challenge, I've lost 8.2 pounds, which is just over half of my goal.  Bummer!  I'll have to lose that in January instead.

2.  Get more sleep.  Some nights are better than others, but I really have improved quite a bit here.  I do notice a real difference overall when I get enough sleep.  The surprising side effect for me is that my diet/exercise are better when I'm not sleep-deprived as well.

3.  Start taking vitamins.  I started off really strong with this one, never missing a day.  Then I forgot one day.  Then I forgot a couple of days.  Then I went a really long time without taking them, and now I'm doing better again.  Yes, I had a fistful of them today, in fact.

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.   Well, it could have been better for sure, but I did manage a modest weight loss over the latest holiday.  I should have made a more solid plan to get me through, but I'm pleased with this one as a whole.

This was a fun challenge, and I enjoyed having the weekly updates to keep me focused.  Thanks to Steve at Log My Loss for putting this one out there!

It's New Year's Eve, and I'm not going out tonight.  We almost never do for this holiday.  But we will make an effort to stay up til midnight (sorry, goal #2) and might have a little glass of bubbly.  No party buffets, no overindulging in alcohol, and no high heels tonight.  Many years ago I would have been horrified by this prospect.  Tonight, I'm looking forward to a cozy little ringing in of the new year here at home with my honey and my sleeping kids.

Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous 2011!

Ta-Daaa!

My eating has been a challenge this holiday, but I did accomplish a goal.

A little backstory:  Because we had people coming in from all over and at different times, we wound up having our big holiday meal Sunday night and opening gifts on Monday morning.  So I had a little delay in the festivities.

Then after gifts were opened and leftovers consumed, my husband and I geared up and went out to walk the hilly road called Holdsworth Drive.

Did the whole thing, baby!  It was about 3.6 miles total, I think.  (Been awhile since I measured it out.)  I know for some of you die-hards, that doesn't seem like much, but at my fitness level and with all the hills, it really was pretty big for me.

It was windy, but the weather was really nice otherwise, and I had my fella with me.  All good!

And now for the photo proof of my quasi-5K:

Wait for me, dude!

Don't know if these pics do justice to the hilliness of this road

Big hill coming up in the distance!

Blue skies and sunshine

I think I might do this again sometime!

Weekly Weigh-In and Hot 100 Update

Today was a good weigh-in day.

First off, my WW buddy got her second 5-pound sticker PLUS her super-duper 5%!  Way to go!  I'm realizing how much better it is attending with somebody who is also really committed to this.  Celebrating each of these pounds and fractions of pounds that comes off just makes me want to keep going and not give up.

Then after she got her sticker prizes, I scored this little beauty...

Another 5-pound star!

As well as this!

10% Keychain!

I'm now down a total of 22.4 pounds.  Just 47.6 more to go before I hit my Weight Watchers goal!  I realize that sounds like a lot (and it is), but I'm almost a third of the way there.  Not too shabby!

How about a Hot 100 update?  You got it!

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  I'm down 7.4 pounds from the start of the Hot 100.  This means I'm about halfway to my goal of losing an extra 15 during this challenge.

2.  Get more sleep.  It's always a struggle, but I'm still doing better.  Not perfect by any means.  Last night I actually turned off the light and went to bed right when I felt a little sleepy.  My husband wasn't even in bed yet, and I rarely do that.  I'm like a big heat-seeking lizard or something.  Need my warm fella to curl up next to.

3.  Start taking vitamins.  I was just about to go off on how amazing I am at #3 on my list, when I realized that for the first time I forgot to take my supplements today!  Well, other than today, I've got this one in the bag!

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.  Still have not purchased Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters.  After this week's binge on candy corn, I realize I cannot be trusted with any kind of candy products of any form.  In fact, I'm a little concerned I might start wolfing down those spider rings I bought for trick-or-treaters if I'm not careful.  No, they're not SUPPOSED to be edible, but you should have seen me going after that candy corn!

Be good, and do good, my friends!

Hot 100 Update

My update for the Hot 100 Challenge:

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  I'm down a total of 19 pounds so far (4 since the start of the challenge).  So I have 11 to go to hit 15 additional pounds lost by the end of the challenge, which will be a total of 30.  I can make it!

2.  Get more sleep.  Nope, not even close. (yawn)

3.  Start taking vitamins.  I still choke down a fistful of supplements daily, and I've now added two more for my joints.  (Old lady pills.)

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.  Halloween is fast approaching, which in the past has meant hoarding candy and eating massive amounts of it before the trick-or-treaters even got to the door.  This year I'm working out new strategies for this fall holiday and beyond.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Hot 100 Challenge Update

Here is my weekly update on my progress for the Hot 100.

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  Today was a small loss, but a loss anyway.  I'm heading in the right direction with at least 14.2 pounds to lose by the end of the year.

2.  Get more sleep.  Failing miserably.  This is one I really want to accomlish.  Probably because I really need more sleep!

3.  Start taking vitamins.  Been doing well with this one.  Haven't yet researched whether they actually do anything for you, but at the very least I'm getting a placebo effect from them and thinking I feel better.  I just bought my new vitamins Sunday, and as I was shopping, I saw this.  For some reason I thought it was an interesting product.

Don't know what it does, but it sounds interesting!

4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.  This one is still several weeks off, but I'm already hearing people talk about Thanksgiving and am thinking about some recipes I can try out.

Weekly Weigh-In and New Challenge

The weekly weigh-in was good.  I lost 2.6 pounds for a total of exactly 15 lost.  It's good, but I was sooo careful all week and had hoped for a little more.  But no complaints, because I got another star!  Check it out:

So pretty!

I walked last night for 35 minutes, and tonight I did about 45 minutes, thanks in great part to my WW friend who is really into walking and puts up with my slow stride as I'm building up my speed.  I didn't sling too much sweat on her, I guess, because she mentioned walking with me again in the future.

And today, just by chance, I came across this little item:

What is the Hot 100, you ask?  Well, as of today there are 100 days left in 2010.  Hard to believe, right? I didn't count them up, but I'm just going to take this guy's word for it.  South Beach Steve at logmyloss.com has set up this challenge.  There are some prizes, if that motivates you to participate.  And it's not too late!  He's extended the deadline to start to October 1, so get moving!  Also, you don't even have to have a blog to take part in this.  You can post your goals in his comment section.  The rules are all there if you click here.

One of the requirements is that you post some goals.  I'd participate in this even if there were no prizes, because I like this idea.  So here are my goals for this challenge:

1.  Lose 15-plus pounds by the end of the year / end of the challenge.  I will modify this number if I reach it before the end of this time period.
2.  Get more sleep.  This will make exercise more appealing, because I won't be so sleepy all the time.
3.  Start taking vitamins.  Yes, I know I should have already been doing this, but I have never been good about it and haven't been doing it yet.  Know of any good ones out there?  I could use a suggestion for a multi-vitamin.
4.  Make a plan for eating and exercising over the holidays and stick to it.  This might mean I plan for a splurge, or it might mean I take a veggie tray to a party.  Whatever it is, I don't want to lose control over the holidays.  This challenge should help me to stay mindful of that as I celebrate.

I really hope you'll consider doing this challenge with me.  I'm excited about this.  It's my very first challenge of this type, and I am determined to see it through.