Missed it by that much! 16 weeks down!

Maybe it was the gyro pita I had for lunch!  I weighed in today at weight watchers and missed my 30 lbs by 0.4!  I was still down 1.8!  Woo hoo!  I got my 16 week clapping hands charm too!  Next week should be good though, I'll get that, plus my 10% in meeting keychain and my 25 lb ring! (If this doesn't make sense, it's because I started Weight watchers online and lost 6 lbs before going to the meetings and they don't count that 6 lbs.  But I do!).  I love getting attention at the meetings, lol!

Well, I promised I'd post progression pics often, and since it's February tomorrow and I'm now down 30 lbs, Here it is!

I do see a difference!  It's amazing what 10 pounds can do!  Wow progress pics are a good idea!

I also took my measurements

I've lost 3 inches from my chest, an inch from my waist, 3/4 inch from each thigh, 1/2 an inch from each calf!  I gained a half an inch on my hips/butt, but that means the squats and butt workout is working!  I have no butt, lol!

Well here's to a new month, a whole new set of goals, a new workout top, (this one is pretty baggy now :), and lots more weight and inches lost!

Onward and downward!

Home scale vs weight watchers scale

According to my home scale I'm down 30 lbs!!!  In 3 months and 20 days!

I started weight watchers meetings a week after starting online and lost 6 lbs in between, which do not count in the meetings.  Which really sucks!  Because, online I've gotten my 25 lb star and my 10% milestone, but I'm still a ways off getting that recognition at the meeting.  There is also a 2.6-2.8 lb discrepancy between my home scale (Naked as a jaybird, after pee, before morning coffee) and the weight watchers scale (6pm weigh in.  Clothed, after eating all day).  I know it's just numbers, and is trivial,  that the WW's scale will catch up, but 30 lbs is a big accomplishment!  I've WORKED HARD for it!  My love/hate relationship with my home scale is a big part of my life and all of my goals are based on that scale, not weight watchers.

So.  I'm saying I'm down 30 lbs!  Cuz I am down 30 lbs!  Meaning that by all extents and purposes, my goal weight is only 86 lbs away!  Weightwatchers is just a method and support system (Not JUST, it's definitely worth it's weight in gold!  But you know what I mean!).  The scale number there is for them to track my progress.

So I'm down 30 lbs!  Only 21 lbs to Onederland!  Yay me!

MY BABY IS THREE! 15 weeks down!

I'm really having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that Lara is now 3 years old!  She had a wonderful day yesterday, Mama's homemade waffles for breakfast, lots of presents, mostly clothes and everything princess!  We took her and her little buddy Emmet to an indoor playground and they and the baby played steadily for 2 hours!  She asked for Swiss chalet for dinner, she loves their rotisserie chicken, fries and dipping sauce!  She ate almost an entire drumstick!  We ended the day with Angel food cupcakes, light whipped cream and strawberries and watched the Leafs game with Daddo!  (They won!)

It's been an incredible and difficult 3 years with her.  She was born 3 weeks early after I fell and did the splits down the stairs.  I had a placental abruption and she was born very pale and lifeless, having to be resuscitated for 90 long minutes before we could even hold her! It took her a few weeks to figure out how to eat and gain weight.  Thankfully she has no lasting effects!  I however, will carry the scars of that for the rest of my life.  Physically and emotionally.  You never forget the helpless feeling of seeing your brand new baby in someone else's hands, lifeless, and you can't do anything, when you would give everything for her to be ok!  She's now 3 years old and weighs 22 whole pounds!  My skinny little mini me!

Besides the emotional scars of her birth, I have complications from the fall, my pelvis broke, and I tore the ligaments on the outside of my right ankle, both wreaking havoc on my body during a second pregnancy (thankfully a healthy baby and no complications!), and up until now, rendering me unable to do much without a ton of pain.  Or at least they gave me an excuse not to exercise.  In the past couple of months though I have decided to push past the pain and just do it!  I have to lose the weight to lose the pain!

I'm doing pretty well in the weight loss department!  WI yesterday revealed a 3 pound loss!  Over my birthday week too!  Awesome!  That brings me to 27.8 pounds lost!  I'm really impressed with this weight loss.  almost 30 pounds down already!  I'm still in shock even though it's been coming down over the last 3 months.  Every time I get on the scale my mind goes to the 240's, not the 220's!  My hubby is really proud of me too!  He's quick to say it when I make a good food choice over a bad one and every time I run into the room yelling what the scale says!

I've motivated him to start losing weight too!  He's probably got about 20-40 pounds to lose.  He went and got the P90x videos from iTunes today!  He's even signed up for My fitness pal and has been counting calories all day!  I guess I really have to get my butt moving if I want to stay smaller than him!  Sheesh!!!

I'll be on the treadmill later :)

Birthday madness!

My birthday was two days ago and I'm only getting a chance to blog about it now!  Phew!  What a busy weekend!  

Thursday the nineteenth was my actual birthday.  My hubby and I woke up together for a change and the kids were still asleep at 9:30 am!  So we cuddled for a while then got them up.  He made me breakfast, eggs and pea meal bacon on a wrap, yum!  

Then he gave me my present!  Totally not what I was expecting (not that I was expecting anything in particular).  He got me Apple TV!  It's a little box that you can rent movies, subscribe to TV series and I can view my podcasts on the big TV now!  He was really intuitive this time, our town now has no video stores anymore and we used to rent movies all the time!  There are also a ton of kids shows on it, lots of veggie tales which our daughters love!  

We had a quiet afternoon where the falling snow threatened the rest of our plans.  We were planning on going out to Imperial Buffet which is about an hour drive give or take.  The snow cleared up and we did manage to get there!

This is a chinese buffet kind of like the Mandarin (for my fellow Canadians) except they have all you can eat crab all year round!  They have an amazing dessert bar too!  I had a game plan and I stuck to it!  I ate a bunch of crab (you can eat a lot for a very little amount of points!)  I ate a lot of fruit, veggie dishes and a few pieces of sushi (not a fan, but I promised my DH I'd try, with Wasabi!).  I did grab quite a few things off of the dessert bar but the only thing I really liked was the lemon meringue pie, everything else was too sweet so I didn't eat it!  Funny how eating healthy for a long time changes your palate!  So I had more fruit instead!

We got home, left the kids with my niece and went out to the bar!  A few of our friends are in a band and they were doing a jam night at our local pub.  We had a great time!  I had 3 pints of cider and a half pound of Honey Garlic wings as a treat.  It was a great day!

Yesterday we went to our friends house.  Every month or so we get together with the same two couples and our kids.  It's a ton of fun because the oldest is ten and he entertains the three year old, two year old and 9 month old and we get to have adult conversation!  My friend made a healthy dinner of chicken cacciatore, caesar salad with incredible garlicky home made dressing (yum!), cheese bread and sparkling wine.  I made a Little Mermaid cake as we were celebrating my 3 (on tuesday) year old's birthday as well!  I brought frozen yogurt to go with the cake.  I ate sensibly, had a couple glasses of wine and a small piece of cake with the frozen yogurt.  

Today we had Tom's family over to celebrate Lara's birthday!  I spent all morning cleaning, making and decorating cupcakes etc...  We had chicken hot dogs, fruit and veggie trays and potato chips.  

I did eat on plan for every other meal this weekend :)  and my baby Zaryah started walking!  So I've been chasing after her!  I stepped on the scale this morning praying that it still said below 225 and had a nice surprise when I looked down!  222.8!!!  YES!!!!  I ran and got Tom and made him step on the scale.  224.6! I'm smaller than my husband!!!  One of my personal goals I've been chasing since he's been losing weight too!  I'm walking on the moon today!  I just hope the (measured out) crap I've been ingesting this weekend doesn't catch up with me!

Wow that was longer than I thought it was going to be!  Now it's bathtime for kiddo's and then bedtime right after!  Gonna rent a movie on my Apple TV!

Here's a pic of the cake!  The face part of the cake didn't come out of the pan in one piece!  So I had to freehand, lol!  

Onward and downward!

My birthday present

My husband has gotten me a birthday present.  He went out a few days ago and said he couldn't find it.  Then he tried to order it buy it would take 7 days.  Today he came home from work and scooped up our almost 3 year old and  said he was going out to see if he could find my present, it was first come-first served.  What the heck?

He found it, brought it home and wrapped it.  It's now sitting beside me on the coffee table.  It's square, each side about 5x5 inches.  It's light and doesn't rattle.  My birthday isn't until tomorrow.  I made a comment to him how unfair it was to put it beside me when I couldn't open it until tomorrow.  His reply was "Well if we had a babysitter you could open it at midnight".  Lol!

I couldn't possibly guess!  It's fairly small, not very heavy, it was available on a first come first served basis and it requires a babysitter if it were to be opened at midnight.

I'll post tomorrow after I open it what it is!

Almost. But not quite. 14 weeks down.

Well I nearly made the 25 pounds lost.  I missed it by 0.2!!!  I still was down 0.4 pounds so it's still a victory!  Oh well, by next week the bloat will be gone and I'll smoke that 25 pounds!

Shopping last night

My sister and I went clothes shopping for me last night!  An early birthday present from her because she's tired of watching my pants fall down!  We went to Reitman's, the clearance racks have been picked over seriously!  I usually wouldn't bat an eye at $29 pants (If they fit I'd get them!) but this time I couldn't justify (my sister) spending money on something I'll be out of in a couple of months!  So we went to Walmart.  I avoided the plus section like the plague for the first part, tried on a pair of size 14 pants and alas they were too small.  I could get them up though!  Just not quite over my belly.  I was super happy about that though!  I was in a size 20 pants a few months ago!  I do have a weird body style though, no hips or butt and my stomach hangs over, with skinny legs.  Hard to find pants.  So I went into the plus size section and looked at the 16's and they were huge!!! They would fit around my waist but hang everywhere else!  So I didn't get pants (however I desperately need them) I did get a really cute blouse in an XL though!  Sweet!  I'm going to wear it on my birthday when we go out to Imperial Buffet!  (All you can eat crab legs!).  Maybe I'll post a picture in my new outfit!  Hopefully I'll find pants before then :)

Oh, it's weigh-in day!  Not too optimistic for a huge number, I've been fighting a bug and am bloated.  The scale at home says I'm up a pound from Friday, still down from last Tuesday though.  I'll post the results later!

Best times to drink water.

I'm not a very consistent water drinker so I like having something tell me when to have a glass.  I found this article a while ago and it really helps me get my obligatory 8 glasses in!

9 best times to drink water.

Hope it helps!  Keep drinking!

No wonder I'm fat!

Making my breakfast this morning I was lazy, up early with the baby after a long late night last night and I went to the cupboard for an old standard.  Mushroom soup!  It's a favorite comfort food of mine and we go way back!  I made it, looked at the nutritional information so I could track it and a half a can is 4 points.  Not so bad, I shared it with both of my girls and dumped the rest.  This got me thinking.

My old self would eat the entire can, with an entire sleeve of Premium Plus crackers crumbled up in it!  I'd finish this off with  2 big coffees with 10% cream and a heaping tablespoon of sugar each.

My whole meal had
1011 calories,
39 grams of fat,
162.5 carbs and
3278 mg of sodium!

 Then my typical lunch would be take out, say a chili deal from Tim Hortons with 2 buns covered in butter, a donut and a large double double.

1414 calories,
63 grams of fat,
166 carbs and
2734 mg of sodium!

Then I'd have a chocolate bar for a snack with a 591 ml bottle of coke,

540 calories,
14 grams of fat,
106 carbs and
175 mg of sodium!

The for dinner lets say I made Hamburger helper.  My favorite was stroganoff (I say was because I now make a low fat chicken crockpot version that is ten times better!) I'd have probably about 4 measured cups of it (not that I measured).

1280 calories,
48 grams of fat,
88 carbs and
3600 mg of sodium!!!

Then we'd eat while watching TV later on.  Usually chips and dip.

1840 cal,
120 grams of fat,
158 carbs and
2080 mg of sodium.

My day would net

6085 calories!!!
284 grams of fat!!!
680.5 carbs!!! and
11867 mg of sodium!!!

Man that's hard to look at!  It's really an eye opener.  No wonder why my doctor was always on my case!  I was heading towards a train wreck at break neck speed!  Not every day was quite like that, but I'm sure the calories were almost as bad.  I've since embraced eating healthy.  Actually eating veggies, lol!  I still snack before bed, but it's something much more healthy.  I can't even eat any of these things anymore, they're too salty!  And if I ate as greasy/carb heavy now I get gut rot and the runs!



My typical day now consists of:

Breakfast

Oatmeal, coffee with 1/4 cup homo milk and sweetener, an apple, an hard boiled egg

350 calories,
10 grams of fat,
55 carbs and
460 mg of sodium

Lunch
Tuna wrap with light miracle whip and lots of lettuce

400 calories,
13 grams of fat,
40 carbs, and
580 mg of sodium

Snack
Cucumbers and Heluva good dip

76 calories,
5 grams of fat,
4 carbs, and
170 mg of sodium

Dinner
Chicken stroganoff (no noodles, I like if poured over my potatoes), baby potatoes, a big salad
 and balsamic vinegarette

479 calories,
17 grams of fat,
45 carbs and
284 mg of sodium

Bedtime snack
An apple

65 calories,
0 fat,
17 carbs and
1 mg of sodium.

For a grand total of

1370 calories, 45 grams of fat, 161 carbs and 1495 mg of sodium!  All told, much better than before!

No wonder I'm losing weight! :)))  No wonder I feel better!  No wonder my rings fit!  No wonder I don't have heartburn at night anymore!  No wonder I have energy!  No wonder I sleep better!

13 weeks down!

Sorry I'm a day late writing this, life is busy!  My husband is in school right now and running a business so I've been busy with the kiddies trying to keep the pressure off of him!  I've not stopped today!

Weigh-in was yesterday and my sister and I went to our regular 6 pm weigh-in instead of morning weigh-in like we've been doing over Christmas break.  I was a little anxious about it as your weight can fluctuate as much as 3 or 4 pounds in a day and I was nervous the scale was going to show an increase instead of a loss.  But it didn't!  Down 1.4 pounds!  Woo hoo!  So all in all a really good week!  I'm nearly at 25 pounds down and 10% lost!  Next week is my week baby!  These 24.4 pounds have come off so fast that I still think I'm 250 pounds you know?  It's weird putting on clothes that I bought in October and they're too big!  Exciting!

It's really starting to sink in that I'm doing this!  That this isn't just me getting into something then falling off the wagon.  25 pounds sounds like an accomplishment!  Is a huge accomplishment!  It's a real incentive to keep going, keep exercising and eating right!  I wake up thinking about when I'm going to get my workout in, what my food plan is for the day, how are my joints feeling and how I hope that doesn't get in the way of my workout.  What happened to me, lol!  I've never been an exerciser.  I did have a gym membership a few times, even had a personal trainer!  But I'd only lift weights and go halfheartedly onto the treadmill or bike.  I'd look at the classes going on and think "Pphhhtt!  Those aren't for me!"  Now everyday I do at least one of those podcasts here ( fitness ), the cardio ones, step, low impact aerobics, and of course the kickboxing ones :) my personal favorite!  It's just amazing to me!

A new addiction!

Another 45 mins of kickboxing today.  I think I'm addicted!  My ankle is giving me a little grief here and there, I think I need a new brace but I'm loving the kickboxing regardless.  And I'm already noticing a difference.  I've lost an inch and a half off of my waist in the last 3 weeks and an inch off of my hips!  Saweet!

Ooh!  Gotta say, I think I found my new favorite activity!  Kickboxing!  I did 2 podcasts this morning!  Addicted!

Twelve weeks down!

My sister and I went to weigh-in early again yesterday. We usually go to the 6 O'clock one but since she's still off on Christmas break, we went at 10. I'm down 3.2 pounds! Excellent! I treated the week between Christmas and New years like any other week and since we stayed in on New years I didn't indulge in anything more than a small glass of Forty Creek Whiskey and Gingerale. 


23 pounds down. How incredible is that! 1.9 pounds a week. I'm 2 pounds away from that 25 pound star and 25.3 pounds away from my 10%. Yes!


It was a good group meeting too. 


The leader asked how we know we can do this, how we know we can get to goal. I said that I had my husband take a picture of me on the 1st and I compared it to my "fat" picture taken of me in the summer (posted on my last blog). I explained that I've lost 23 pounds in 12 weeks and I really can see a difference in the pictures! Up until now I knew I was losing weight but it wasn't tangible, so taking that picture and seeing the difference really cemented in my mind that I will get to goal. That I can do this! 


After the meeting a woman came up to me and commented on how well I've done and how committed I sound and to keep going, because I will get there. That is totally what I needed! Thanks lady!


I kind of wish that it wasn't New years. I feel like a cliche, lol! I've started doing fitness videos. Not as a new years resolution, just that at this point I want to start exercising. Walking on my treadmill is good, but I can't go as fast as I'd like because of my joint issues. I never get that "burn" on the treadmill. the 30 day shred relies on jumping jacks and skipping for cardio, again, not so fun on bad joints after a few days, had to find something else. These fitness videos, I stumbled them while on itunes looking for some to buy with itunes cards I got for Christmas. I found these free podcasts of a whole series of fitness videos. They're called "fit for duty". They are put out by the US army for us soldiers to keep fit while not on active duty. Some of them are harder than others, but many of them are no impact which is totally what I need. I've tried a couple different kickboxing ones and a low impact aerobics one. It's awesome! I sweat my butt off but I don't have to do jumping jacks! My back and shoulders hurt from punching, but it feels good! They're fun too, and only 20 minutes long so are easy to fit in when the baby naps. I'll let you know in a few weeks if I'm finding better results than I was with just walking :)


Well, baby is getting into EVERYTHING so I should hop off the computer and entertain her. She's 9 months old today, where the heck did that time go???


Onward and downward folks!

I've tried a thousand ways to put pics somewhere other than the bottom of the blog or in a post but to no avail.  So here's some pics.  The first was taken July 24th 2011 and I weighed approximately 250 pounds.  When I saw this posted on Facebook I couldn't believe how fat I was!

The ones on the right were taken today and as of this morning, on my home scale, I weigh 226.6 pounds! My "official" weigh-ins to the right of the blog, the numbers are taken from the weight Watcher's scale at 5:30 pm, hence the discrepancy!  I'm going to use the pics on the right to show progression from here on out because I like seeing the side and front views.

I can totally see a difference already!  My boobs and my belly are much smaller!  I think I'll post new pics every month since we're starting on Jan 1st.  Makes sense to me!

New Year's Day!

First off, Happy New Year!!!


My hubby and I took a trip to see his dad yesterday. 2 hour drive and we left right when the baby was ready for her nap. She slept all but 20 mins of the drive and our almost 3 year old was happy to watch youtube videos on Daddo's iPad. So hubby and I had time to talk! 


Since the post Christmas weigh-in I've been totally on plan and my weight has dropped by at least 3 pounds on my home scale so far this week! I'm really motivated to make this my year. 2008 brought Tom and I together, 2009 gave us Lara, 2010 we were married and 2011 gave us Zaryah!  2012 would be a great year to finish my goal of losing the rest of this weight!  5 years and 5 milestones!


We talked about how well I'm doing, how proud he is of me then I lectured him on his nutrition :) He only needs to lose 20 pounds to have a healthy BMI and I told him I'd like him to get to goal with me. His portions are out of control, he never eats breakfast and usually has carbs for lunch when he's completely famished! I said to him that he needs to get healthy too. For me and for the kids. I don't need him dying of a massive heart attack in his 40's or 50's. I want us to be together in our 90's and we won't get there if we keep going like we are! Like I was :)


I think he got the message, he made oatmeal for breakfast this morning :). He did say that tomorrow he's going to start watching his portions and eating healthier (we are having prime rib for dinner tonight). He's applied to go back to college and become a Paramedic for September. He's going to need to get fit!


I'm really happy about the way we have 2012 planned. If I get to my goal by next Christmas I'm hoping to go on a little getaway to a nice warm sandy beach and show off our skinny bodies! I can't wait!