The Weekly Weight Watching

I'm back on track, woo hoo!!!  Down 32.6 lbs last night, my goal is to hit 40 by Christmas. One of my BFF's just made it over the 50 mark. So very proud of her too! Way to go Dani! She is very close to where she wants to be.  I also measured this morning, I have lost 4 inches off my hips, 4.5 inches off my waist and 6 inches off my chest since July 30th.

I made my Christmas plan this morning, I want to be down 40 lbs by Christmas and I know if I set my mind to it, I can do it.  My activelink has gotten a workout the last few days, I have hit 100% everyday since Friday and my plans are to do that at least 5 out of 7 days every week. That makes it easier for the weight to feel like it is falling off.

I know I have mentioned the ultimate goal before, size 12. When I hit size 12, I am buying myself a car. I am thinking new but if I find the exact one I want used and can save some money, I will probably go for it.  Here is a picture of actually, a used one, identical to what I want....

I will save what it looks like with the top down when I get closer to goal. I am really kinda shooting for my birthday next August.  For the first time in years though, I can see it is possible to do this. I have never put my mind to it like this before and quite honestly I have just never put my personal well being that high on the priority list before and eventhough it feels weird to worry about what I want and need, I really do know it is healthier than putting it all off and not caring. I think my biggest thing is this is the first time I have EVER lost weight without some form of drugs involved. I used Phen-phen when Robert was little, I made it to a size 10, just to watch myself gain 10 lbs in a week when I was off of it because I never learned to eat differently, just to let the pill say I was full when my body wouldn't. When I went off the pill, I went right back to my old ways. This time, I am making my own new "old ways" which is really a feeling of accomplishment all by itself.

Blue Man Group

I think you could say we had a perfect Black Friday. Robert and I left around 10 Friday morning and headed to St. Louis. Our first stop was St. Louis Mills, which is apparently now "St. Louis Outlet Mall", don't know what happened there but the stores are still the same so I guess it's no big deal. We went and ate at Chevy's, I ate too many chips, way too many chips, which explains why I had shrimp for lunch, a french dip from Arby's for supper, got 150% on my activelink and was STILL up 2 lbs this morning. Today I am going easy on everything as far as eating, I have got to get this under control before Monday! 

After lunch we walked the entire mall, if you have ever been there you know it's huge. We found a few bargains at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Bath and Body Works, and the Croc store. We went to play black light mini-golf and then I whooped Robert in air hockey (7-0, yep, I still got it!). After a visit to Cinnabon (Robert ate, I didn't), we moved along.

We went in search of Harbor Freight and I did some actual Christmas shopping for the kid as well as hitting Family Christian Store and finding tons of bargains.  We still had a little time left and I remembered that years and years ago, there was a JC Penney outlet store somewhere. I found it and picked up a few more great deals.  After eating supper at Arby's we headed for the Fox. The last two times we have been there, we have found awesome spots in the parking garage just across from the door we always come out of. This time was no different, we were probably 20 steps from the door to the van.

So, we go in, find our awesome seats--5 rows back, two off from center and wait to start the show. At the very beginning of the show, there are these big lighted message boards. So it starts out, "May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please, if I have your attention, please yell". We did. So it went on to tell us there were some very special guests in the audience, Olympic medalist Laura somebody--sorry, can't remember, we all told her congratulations. Then we moved on to this guy who was one of the first civilian visitors to space, also telling him Congrats. Then they pointed out this guy name Philip who was just an ordinary Joe but we told him we were glad he was there. Then the freaky part happened.

The board says, "We have heard that Mindy Browning has a headache, let's all help Mindy get rid of her headache," Everybody tell Mindy to shut her eyes, "Shut your eyes Mindy", now tell her to pretend she is in a meadow, "Pretend your in a meadow", now tell her there is a cow, "There is a cow", now tell her to kill the cow, "Kill the cow". Okay, yes, the whole thing was more than a bit surreal and yes, it really did happen. Directly after that, they started the show.

I was asked to take pictures but they wouldn't let us. They had a meet and greet afterwards but we had done that when we were in Chicago and we knew we had a 2 hour drive home so we skipped it. So, here is a picture of me and Robert at the Fox....

and here is a video of one of the parts we saw (this was in Orlando but it was exactly the same....







It was a really, really cool night and then to top it off, we pulled in the drive at 11:55, thankfully, Robert drove home so I had a nice nap to boot.

Up a pound

I really didn't think that was bad for everything I had going on. I will work harder this week. I was really allowing myself two pounds so in some warped little way, this was a victory!

Anyway, short and sweet, but past my bedtime.

Silence

Very seldom a word in my vocabulary, it is what it is and the last few days it is what I have felt like. I use the "10-second" quote so much but truly, a week ago last Friday morning, on November 9th, I had a 10 second moment. Robert and I had just finished reading Our Daily Bread for the morning and was just getting ready to pray when the phone rang. 7:10 a.m., when I looked at the number and saw it was my mom, there were no alarm bells or anything. I assumed she wanted to tell me she was off to somewhere and wouldn't be at home at 7:30 when I called on my way to work. As I answered the phone I could tell her first words were filled with tears, so my thought then was something had happened to her dog. Mandy is fine, my Uncle Junior was not. Her sentence, "they found Uncle Junie dead". I don't really remember anything except saying I was on my way, telling Robert, running in the bedroom and telling Andrew and then I was out the door. What a shock to the system. I actually think we all went through the next few days on autopilot, looking back, I remember things but it was really a big blur.  So, over the last week, I have sat down several times to blog and just didn't even know where to start.

My uncle was very special to me, we often butted heads but I think we both made a sport out of it, I can't tell you how much I will miss that.  To top it off, he left the business of taking care of his estate to me. My uncle may have looked like a country bumpkin but when it came to his finances, he kept good care of stuff and had things in good order. The fact that he trusted me with making sure everything was taken care of after he was gone has been an honor. I worried about how things would go until I went to the lawyer and as I said, he had done everything right, he had a will, he had already deeded all the ground separate from the will and it looks like once the pigs are all sold, we can pretty well wrap things up.

So, I have so many things I would love to say but I just won't. It is time to move on and find my new normal, and more importantly help my mom find hers because she had not went 48 hours without seeing her brother for a long time and she is going to have a lot of gaps to fill.

Last week, I went to Weight Watchers. I had really been good through the weekend and even after the dinner that Mike Saathoff had for us, I had hit my 30 lb mark. This last week though, I just quit caring, I didn't want to workout, I didn't want to track, basically, I wanted to eat and sleep and that I did. Tonight I get to pay for that. I wasn't going to weigh, I was just going to go, but I think a part of me needs to see what 1 week of not caring can do to me because I am going to have to care for the rest of my life. So, I am hoping it is not more than 2 lbs but I am also giving myself permission to accept it and go on, making this coming week one of the best I have had for a while.

So, now that I have made this post and broken the silence, I can go on.

and I will....

What is up with the Bucket List?

Haven't checked in on the bucket list for a while, so  I thought I better update:

1. Tree cut out of front yard
2. Robert's car scrapbook FINISHED
3. Set aside a regular scrapnight, I'm thinking Monday
4. Decorate my house and yard for fall done
5. Redo the patio area from Summer flowers to fall flowers (meaning plant mum's in flower bed) This I didn't do because most of the summer my cut flowers looked dead, they picked fall to really be beautiful so I left them
6. Exercise room finished
7. Laundry room finished
8. Scrap area cleaned up
9. Go to Covered Bridge
10. Go to the Hillclimb
11. Make Robert's vest, getting time for it, maybe I will do it now.
12. Finish our headboard with Andrew (or stay on Andrew to get it made!)
13. Plant trees
14. Redo the kitchen floor
15. touch up paint on inside of house.
16. Make Christmas presents for friends
17. Get a manicure and a pedicure
18. Start making plans for front bathroom
19. bulbs dug up.
20. Clean out closet and switch from Summer to Fall.


Okay, so I have a lot left to do, in my defense, I took on another project at work that takes me to Springfield once a week which means everything I was barely getting done in 5 days, I have to fit into 4, which means I have spent several evenings at work.

Saturday, I asked God why I wasn't able to get as much done in a day as I used to and his response (it might as well been said outloud because I heard it that plainly) was "Because you decided you didn't have time to spend your first waking moments with Me". So I went back to my own Bible Study of a morning instead of the just the 10 minutes I spend with Robert doing Our Daily Bread and it made a difference even just yesterday.  SO, I have a new resolve to get all of these things taken care of!

 

10%

Anyone who has went to Weight Watchers in the past few years knows that your first major goal with them is to lose 10% of your weight. Last night I hit that mark, went a little over it even. 

So I got the keychain that I can add my 25lb washer to. At the meeting I am 4.2 lbs away from being back to what I weighed when I started work at the Greenup office. I am less than 30 away from where I was when I started work at the Olney office.

I have to say, I have not felt deprived, or like I have sacrificed anything. Last night, I figured out that I could have a small loaded baked potato bites from Arby's and a double cheeseburger from Steak and Shake and still stay under points. They were good, really good and even though I felt like I was sinfully cheating, I knew I wasn't. The scales showed down 2 lbs just from yesterday. That will fluctuate over the week and I know it but I love the fact that I have the freedom to eat exactly what I want and still lose weight. It just takes planning.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across this article "What Weight Watchers doesn't tell you". I had to laugh because all the stuff they said Weight Watchers didn't tell you--which boiled down to "you will have to do this the rest of your life if you want to keep the weight off", Weight Watchers DOES tell you. They even let you come for free as long as you stay in your goal weight and then if you have gained, you only pay until you get back there.

For me, this time, losing weight is not just something I want to do for the moment. It is who I want to be for the rest of my life and you can only go two ways there, you can get up every morning, take the best care of yourself that you can, exercise, eat right and live life to the fullest or you can get up, say, "I don't care" and watch the weight come back. I have finally reached the age where I realize the first one is not being self-centered, it is being responsible.

So, next week, I need at least 1.2 lbs to reach my next goal. At this rate I am seeing maybe a size 18 by the first of the year and yes, I will have to venture out and see if I can really were an 18 in regular clothes. Of course, an 18 would still make me overweight, seeing as how I am 5'2" but it would be the start of where I want to be. My original goal before my car was to not be wearing plus sized clothes, I have changed it though and want to be at least a size 12 before I get my car. I think ultimately I would like to be back to a 10. I wore a 10 when I lost weight with Phen-Phen, two years after Robert was born, of course then I quit smoking and let myself gain it all back and then more, and then more.

I am not giving myself a set time frame for the 12 or 10 either one because even though I am going pretty quick right now, I have a lot to lose. When I get closer to goal, I know it will slow down and I am prepared for that.

Since I have been going, 15 weeks, I have had one week that I gained, all the others I have lost. On that same note, I take the birth control pills that you only have a period once every three months--wanna guess which week I gained? I knew what it was, pushed right on through it and the very next week I was down 3.8 lbs.

Today, I have the day off, Andrew is off, Robert gets out of school at noon and we don't have church tonight. I am planning right now for dinner out with the guys tonight, planning on getting some walking in this morning and planning for a great day.

My biggest secret is not keeping it a secret. Wow, had I known what a difference that would have made, I would have told the world every time I started to Weight Watchers.

For me, failure is not an option--that apparently only holds true when someone knows I fail!

Happy Tuesday everyone--GO VOTE!!!

Just checkin' in

So November is upon us, what a year it has been. And so incredibly fast. Of course, the first of November, I kick into "gearing up for Christmas" mode. I usually start planning stuff like designs for my homemade cards, what gifts I am going to make to keep at the door during the holidays, little things like that. So, Thursday morning, I started looking for Christmas card ideas and I have had this strong sense of "you shouldn't be doing this". So, with much fussing with myself, I have decided that one thing I can compromise on are the cards. I want to have time to do them and I know I could get them done if I set my mind to it but I really just decided to give myself permission not to make myself crazy this Christmas.

Last Christmas, because I was having a really bad UC flare, my mom fixed Christmas dinner at the last minute. For a few years, there were 14 of us for Christmas day and that kinda necessitated my house but the last few years it has just been the 6 of us so Mom's works fine. I honestly think she was happier and I know the guys were happier because I wasn't stressing out over dinner--of course, I was honestly too sick to care and ended up making three trips to the hospital for numerous tests (my doc is overly cautious about C-Diff with me). So, this year, I just asked Mom if she wanted to do Christmas dinner and she said yes. Whew! one more thing not to stress out about. I will still have my sis and Richard for overnight and will fix something for us to nosh on while we open presents but the them of my Christmas this year is going to be laid back. In fact, I "accidentally" heard my first Christmas song last night (I went to Walmart today, so of course,  I heard more but that's beside the point). I was listening to the best of Kenny G while working late last night. Right smack dab in the middle of that CD is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Each year I have a "theme song" for Christmas and I am pretty sure this song will be it. Now slow down, I am not getting the cart in front of the horse, just saying that when it's time, that will be the song and you have to admit, this is the month to "plan" things.

That being said, I have several things going in November that I am looking forward to. Wednesday I make another trip to Springfield, its turning into a once-a-week thing, glad I get to go but wish we could make some headway in what we are trying to accomplish.  On the 11th, we are having our Harvest Home celebration at church. Since it is also Veteran's Day, I am doing a PowerPoint of our Veteran's, looking forward to having that one done.

My momma will turn 73 on the 15th, I was planning on taking the day off but with the steering committee still meeting every week, I decided not to even chance it and made plans to spend the day with her on the 17th.

The day after Thanksgiving, Robert and I are making our normal midnight run and since we had such a great experience in Evansville, we are going back.....Now here's the kicker. We are going to Evansville, coming home, taking a little power nap and then heading to St. Louis to see Blue Man Group. Yes, as a matter of fact we are crazy, both of us and yep, we like it that way.  To top it off, our seats are in the 5th row, two off from center, how cool is that?

Andrew turns 48 on the 27th, he has already told me and Robert several things that is "the only thing he wants for his birthday", we shall see.

Today I went to have my hair done, I had her color it darker and I love it (get on facebook and see it, it is my profile picture now). Mentioning that, if you are not my friend on fb, feel free to friend me. I don't friend people very often, just funny that way but I love having friends :-) so be my guest.

Andrew and I also went to the Amish store today, one we had never been to but that we will definitely visit again. we found Lebanon bologna and Birch Beer, two very neat Pennsylvania treasures that you just don't normally find around here, we also found Sweet bologna which is also native to the area we lived in 19 years ago. Now if we just had some Grandma Utz potato chips, life would just be grand.

On our way to the store this morning we were reminiscing about us before we were us and just worked together at Wallyworld. It's funny, seems the whole world knew we were going to get together before we did, I'm just glad they were right!

Happy Saturday y'all, enjoy your extra hour of sleep tonight!  I sure will!

Life

To say it has been crazy the past few days would be the understatement of the year. I'm still lovin it but wow, am I ready for some downtime! 

On the Weight Watchers front, I hit 25 lbs Monday! 25.4 to be exact. I was at 27 last Saturday morning but a well deserved trip with two of my BFF's took us to the Cheesecake Factory, and yes, as a matter of fact, it WAS worth the pound and a half because it is a rare treat and I knew what I was doing. My pumpkin cheesecake experience will last me for months.  So, now I am heading for 10%, I am expecting it soon, very soon. Yes, do the math, not ready to say how much I weighed when I started but I never hit the 300 mark so you can pretty well figure from there.

On the AWANA front, we took our 1 High Schooler that showed up last night and borrowed Robert and went reverse trick or treating, calling it "Truth and Treat", we took candy, tracts and invitations to church out to some folks in the area. I think we had a really nice time. I had planned on making these little pumpkin peanut butter balls. I knew I would be pushing it to get home at 4:30 and leave at 5:30 so I asked Andrew to mix up the dough for me (I did at least lay everything out for him). At 3:00, I realized I wasn't making it home by 4:30, so I asked him to make them too, he did a great job, these are the leftovers:

aren't they cute?

On the work front: We spent a day in Springfield Tuesday that I really felt like we weren't able to get a lot accomplished. If we could make people who don't do our work everyday realize that none of us are motivated by money but by taking care of our clients, I think things would go a lot smoother. We go back for Round 3 next Wednesday. I am really honored to be on the steering committee but that mixed with my assistant being sick, my boss in interviews all day, along with being responsible to give each interviewee a test, topped with all the work I had to make up from being gone Tuesday made for an EXTREMELY crazy day yesterday. I never, ever, ever, use the F word and don't worry I didn't but I usually don't even use substitutes for the F word and yesterday I did. I shocked one of the fieldworkers and she emailed me apologizing for me having a bad day. That really kinda humbled me into remembering who I am.

Another one of the fieldworkers sent me a message at a quarter til 4 telling me how amazing she thought I was and that she didn't know how I did everything I did. At that point in time, I was really ready to cry. I can do everything  I do because I work with these amazing people who can accomplish more in a day than some people do in a life, because I have a back-up system at home that can make even the most waylaid plans still go right and most of all because I serve this AWESOME GOD who has chosen this path for me and reminds me daily that this is nothing compared to what it will be like to be in his presence.

Can't go without mentioning my weekend, I left the house at 6:30 Saturday morning, picked Tammy up in Heyworth at 9, and met Dani at the Cheesecake factory at 11:30. We talked, and ate and talked and then we went to IKEA for two hours, then to the Container store, then we said our goodbyes to Dani and started back toward home. Tammy got home around 7:30 and I walked in the door at 10 til 10. What an fantastic day!  We are all three doing Weight Watchers and between the 3 of us have lost 103 lbs. We are planning a trip hiking at Starved Rock in the Spring because we will be that much more fit. Think we need to plan at least one thing in between but we will wait a while on that.

So, tonight I am spending the evening at the NCHS Pops concert with my mom. Can't wait to see what Mr. Finley has accomplished with the group, he too had big shoes to fill but I am looking forward to great things. Saturday I am hoping to rally the guys early enough for a trip to a different Amish store and then I have GOT to get my hair cut and colored, the gray is peeking through way too much.

That's about it for now,

Happy Thursday!