June 23rd, 2016: Exhaustion & Pushing Through (I've Got This!)

Well, I think my body is angry with me. I really think there is about a 2 week period of time where, if you fully commit yourself to life change, your body goes a little crazy. I mean I've got the headaches going on, my stomach goes back and forth, and sometimes I feel weak, even though I've had plenty of healthy stuff to give me lots of energy. I remember this feeling from last time...I just have to push through, because it does go away. I just keep telling myself, "it's only temporary, and I can do this!

It has been a long day for me. I slept like poo again last night. I used to take Melatonin every night to help me sleep, but I weaned myself off of it, because I don't like being dependant on a drug to be able to do anything. So now...I'm not resting well. And when I do sleep, it's very broken up. My fitbit senses every time I move or wakeup and you should see it! It's craziness. I really hope that, as I continue to workout regularly and have MUCH better eating habits, that hopefully my sleep balances out as well. Otherwise, I'm just going to crash every few days, and that will definitely slow down the weight loss.

 So I went to the Y with my cousin Jessica again (she's been a great motivational partner this week!) and her mom came with us. My number one goal was to wear myself out in hopes of being able to get a good night's sleep tonight. We planned to meet there after I got off of work and go to Zumba, however, when we arrived we were crushed to find that it had been cancelled for the second night in a row. So I took a peek at the group class schedule and saw that they had a Y Pump class at the same time. I used to go to that class all the time & I Loved it. So I talked them in to going. If you don't know what it is, it's kind of a mixture of light aroebics and torture, I mean weight lifting style stuff, lol. We did lunges and some yoga style stuff and it's just a nice all around way to get your heartrate up build some muscle up too.

Well we did the best we could....lol. I'm proud of us! We had fun and put in a good effort and got some pretty calorie burn going on. We also warmed up before hand on the treadmill with a 10 minute walk. So, all in all, I'm pretty happy with what we accomplished. And now I'm sitting at home, just got done with a short visit with my sister and her two babies and eating dinner and I am just exhausted! Lol...I already having muscles hurting that haven't hurt in a long time...I FEEL THE BURN BABY! Hahahahaha

So here's my breakdown for food today. I feel like it was a good day!

Breakfast
PB Banana Smoothie, because I'm an addict and I added a Plum today (because they are soooo good for you!) = 490 cals

Lunch
Salad made with: Baby Kale Salad Mix, 2oz. Honey Turkey Breast, Fresh Mushrooms, small diced tomato, Parmesan-Romano Shredded Cheese, and 1 sev Ranch Dressing = 293 cals

Afternoon Snack
1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup fresh strawberries with 1 tsp of Sugar in the Raw sprinkled on top, and a Plum = 183 cals

Dinner
6oz Chicken Breast (grilled on the stove in some Olive Oil with Webers Garlic & Herb Seasoning on top, that seasoning is the bomb.com!), a whole can of french style green beans (I was hungry) with a tiny bit of Worschester (Idk how to spell that) Sauce drizzled on top, and 2/3 of steamed corn = 410 cals

I'm currently sitting at 1376 calories for the day, so I'll probably have a serving of Almonds before bed. :)

My pitiful face after my workout tonight. :)

My super tasty and pretty salad. 

And then my dinner. Simple and sweet and super easy to throw together when I was all worn out!

June 22nd, 2016: Caffeine Withdrawal is for the dang BIRDS!

I'm going to die. Like...seriously...my body is revolting against me and this is the end. Ok..maybe it's not quite that serious but that's how it feels. On Monday, June 13th I drank 2 15oz Monster Java Mean Beans and maybe a can of Surge too. That was my normal up to that point. 2 Mean Beans almost every day. Tuesday, I had one, and no Surge (that's when I started back on my calorie counting), Wednesday the same. Thursday and Friday were caffeine free days, and then on Saturday I drank half of a can of Surge (which made my stomach feel disgusting!). So that was it....today is Wednesday...Day 4 straight of no caffeine and my 3rd day of having a headache/migraine. I'm dying. Lol...So I made a decision...I literally am not capable of working out while feeling this poorly. When my heart rate goes up from working out (or moving vigorously, take your pick), then that mild headache turns in to the Tsunami of all Migraines and makes me think I need to start writing my Will. So that decision is...I'm gonna get a Mean Bean today. One. I'm ok...really I am. I can do this. I just can't get a good burn in, if my head is about to explode and if Monday is any indication, even if I were to push through that and go ahead and workout, then I go home and crash from the pain. That doesn't work either.

I remember that one thing about my last little 5 month long saga of weight loss was that it was super hard for me to keep up with my day-to-day life chores. You know, like laundry, dishes, blah, blah all the stuff we just LOVE to do. Haha... I am determined to make that a priority this go around. I'm not in a weight loss competition this time. I need to find balance with my every day life, because I want this to be sustainable. It IS my life. Lol...duh... I'm working on the mind shift and not going back to all the same habits as when I was in the competition. I was 100% focused on weight loss and nothing else. Which worked for me, but I did get burnt out. And that's a big no-no for me. So that means I have to do some serious house cleaning this weekend, yay! Not!!

Some of you may know, and some may not, that Jamie and I are licensed Foster parents. We have to have a case worker come to our home every three months and do a home visit to make sure all of the safety stuff is in order and our house is nice & tidy. She's coming next Tuesday (on my birthday) so that'll be some nice motivation to catch up on some of the chores that have gone undone. I love to have motivation to clean! Haha, otherwise I just put it off. Boo! Lol

So last night I went to bed at 7pm...haha...yup you read that right...and I slept through to 6am this morning. It felt GREAT! Except for the achy muscles and tired bones from some fat chick laying on me all night...(Oh that's me, haha)! Anyways...I'm a napper, so usually I take at least a 30 minute nap on my lunch break at work. It makes me feel more awake and focused for that last 4 hours of the day. They say overweight people sleep more..yea that's totally me. I'm ready to say goodbye to that part of my life. I feel like I waste so much time that could be used more productively by sleeping, or lazying around because my body is to tired to do anything. But today...there will be no nap...who needs one when you've slept 11 hours!

Well, I started writing this on my lunch break, but then right after, my head was killing me, so I took two extra strength Excedrin and I just want you to know that I feel so much better and I'm not going to be getting a Mean Bean after all. I don't need those calories. There are 180ish grams of caffeine in a Mean Bean and 130ish in two Excedrine, so that's why it's helping with my migraines so well. They are obviously from the caffeine! Yay...I'm so glad I got that all figured out!

So now it's the end of the day and I've been to the Y with my awesome cousin Jessica and her sister joined us too! We were planning to torture ourselves in Zumba today, which I was totally excited about...but...it was cancelled. :( How sad. So we regrouped and went into the fitness room and did a 5 minute warm up on the Ellipticle, then we did the arm weight machine things and abs, then 15 more minutes on the Ellipticle (torture, death, killer) then we walked a few laps and did 5 minutes on this nifty machine called the Arc Trainer. I did it a lot last time when I came, and loved it. Anyways, then we went outside to jabber about healthy eating and who knows what else and I look down at my FitBit and low and behold, I was still sitting at 4,200 steps. What the crap? Lol...the workouts on the machines aren't really counted on the steps and I really wanted my 5,000 steps before I left! So...we walked AROUND the Y, haha. Whatever gets it done right?? :) There is no better feeling than when that fitbit starts buzzing to let me know I've reached my goal for the day! And you know what? I sure wouldn't have put in that extra little push of effort if I didn't have it. I just love it.

Anywho...I'm exhausted and ready to Netflix & Chill for a bit and then pass out.
Here's my breakdown of food for the day...

Breakfast 
The same PB Banana Smoothie as yesterday (it's super yummy, and I have to eat the bananas before the go bad) = 450 cals

Lunch
Turkey & cheese wrap, tomotoes, and pickles(dill pickles don't have any calories!) = 315 cals

Snack
Kashi Cocoa Coconut Granola = 130 cals

Dinner
8oz New York Strip steak, Baby Kale Salad Mix w/Parmesan-Romano Cheese & 1tbsp Ranch = 503 cals

I tapped out at 1398 cals today, so I may have a late night snack of some strawberries or something later. Follow me @ honorwarren on My Fitness Pal to check out the detailed version of my diary! I'm also on Instagram @ myjourneytofindingme. I love you guys!! And my blog is at over 10,000 views now!! That's freaking unbelievable! You guys ROCK!

Mmmmm GRANOLA! I need some Yogurt to go with it...lol

Doesn't that look super tasty?! I love it!

I can't believe I ate KALE! That's a big deal for me, but seriously, it tasted just like all the other spring mix style salad mixes so I'm down with that!

June 21, 2016: Non-Scale Victories

So there is this new concept in the weight loss world called non-scale victories or NSV. Well maybe it's just new to me, but anyways...it pretty much is just something you have done to make a positive change toward your weight loss goals that isn't on the scale. I like this concept. I really think it might help to stay positive even during plateaus.  I've already had quite a few NSV's this time around. Walking 2 miles, making it 20 minutes on the Elliptical without stopping for a break, cutting out sodas and my beloved Mean Beans. I'm not saying that I will never have them anymore, but only on a rare occasion. These caffeine headaches are killing me, so I definitley want to stay away from the caffeine on a regular basis. I've done that before and haven't had an issue. My thing is...water is boring...sometimes I just want something with a little flavor! Lol...and currently I am not able to drink or eat anything that is sweetened with fake sweeteners. My pallet is very sensitive to them right now and I can't do it. It's a tiny bit annoying, because that's a low calorie way to get rid of my sweet tooth, but, oh well.

This time around I'm trying to be a little more conscious of what composes the calories I'm eating. For instance, last time, for the most part, I ate what I wanted as long as I didn't go over 1800 calories per day. This time I want them to be healthier calories. I'm trying to stay away from low-calorie and low-fat products because apparently they have a ton of junk in them to make them that way (see how scientific I was there :) haha). I'm also trying to just make all-around healthier choices. It's hard...so, so hard. I've been going around for the past few days saying, "I just want a big fat cheeseburger, and mozzarella sticks, and cheddar peppers and a chili cheese coney." LOL! But really, I do want those things...badly. With about 300 Mean Bean Coffee Drinks to wash it all down. I'd probably be physically ill and then feel like crap and there is NO WAY I am doing that to myself. I think I really am going to make some healthy cheeseburgers this weekend though. Yum... Yea I think about food all the time. That's something I need to fix. But right now it's a combo of fat girl thoughts and calorie conscious forethought. I want to make sure that I'm prepared for what's ahead and for curve balls as well.

I barely got any sleep last night, which was the second night in a row. My body requires 8 hours of sleep minimum, and I slept less than 6 hours the last two nights and tossed and turned the entire time. So, needless to say, by the end of the work day, I was dragging butt. I drove over to the Y, planning to warm up on the treadmill and then give Zumba a try, since I loved it so much last time. I ended up sitting in my truck and almost fell asleep in 10 minutes! Sooooo I thought, after having that horrible 24 hour migraine yesterday, maybe my body just needs a  little rest. So I came home and cooked dinner and I'm going to bed!

Breakfast
Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie: 2tbsp PB, 1 small banana, 1 Scoop Protein Powder, 1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk = 450 cals

Lunch
Turkey & Cheese Wrap: 4oz Honey Turkey Breast (fresh from the deli), 1 slice of Mozzarella Cheese, 1 Flatbread w/ 2 tbsp of cream cheese w/ranch powder for a nice kick of flavor, and a small tomato = 340 cals

Afternoon Snack
1/2 cup cottage cheese & a serving of Stacy's Bagel Chips = 230 cals

Gatorade because I am so tired of water = 80 cals

Dinner
A scramble because it's easy and I'm sleepy! 3 large eggs, 2oz diced ham, 1 cup mushrooms, 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese = 457

Total calories today 1557, not bad, I just wish I had moved more today!

June 20th, 2016: Pushing Through the Pain

Oh man. I'm a crazy person. I mean really. When I woke up yesterday morning I was exhausted and worn out from getting those 10k steps and everything else. So yesterday I was lazy. Until 8:30...when I convinced myself to go on a short walk with my hubby because I was only at 4,000 steps for the day. So...I went. And went...and went...and before I knew it we walked all the way to the park, which is a mile. I seriously contemplated staying there and having him go home and get the car and come back for me. But I would of had to sit it the dark, alone...um no... Not a chance. So I walked home. Two miles. That may not seem like much to some, but for me, its something I've never done before and now I've done it two days in a row!! The cool thing was, when we got back to our apartment I was at 9,200 steps!! And there was no way I was stopping THAT close to 10k. So, I walked a little more. I was soooo proud of myself when I got home! I had to sit on the couch for a bit to recooperate, haha, but I made it!

But then....the morning came...and so did the achy muscles. I am HORRIBLE at remembering to stretch. You are supposed to before AND after. Pshhh..not me...I'll just wake up and be extra sore for fun! So I went on with my day with a few winces here and there, but I survived the workday.

After work, I made the next logical step in this crazy journey. I rejoined the Y. I really, honestly feel that to maintain long-term success, I need a gym. The YMCA is 30 miles from my house, so some might think I'm a little crazy, but it's in the same town I work in, so for me, it was logical. I plan to make sure I go at least 3 days a week to workout, I'd like to swim (or move around in the water) once a week, and then walk outside at least once, if not twice a week. I want to keep it all switched up so I don't get bored. If I get bored, then I'll lose momentum. 

I planned ahead and brought workout clothes to work with me so my lovely cousin, Jessica, met me at the Y and we hopped on the Elipticals. For me, it's the best way to get cardio in. The treadmill kills my feet and so does the walking track, and my hips are to wide at this point for the Arc Trainer, so yea....Eliptical. I remember the first time I ever got on one...I made it maybe 3 minutes and thought I was gonna die! Haha...I got on today not really knowing what to expect. At first, it was a breeze, but by 5 minutes in...I started feeling every muscle in my body. I really thought 10 minutes...that's all I can do...I decided I was going to do 10 and then take a short break and hop back on and do 10 more. But as I came up on 10, I look over at Jessica...and she looks great. She's just humming along...and I think, nope, if I get off of here, I'm gonna give up. So I took and brief pause to lower my 170 beat per minute heartrate...and kept going. I paused a few times throughout...BUT I DID IT..20 minutes! I hope I burned a million calories because that 20 minutes was way harder than the 2 mile walk (that took an hour). I have a newfound appreciation for my resilience! I mean, I put it all out there and pushed until I thought I was gonna die. 

I've dealt with a migraine/headache since last night that just kept getting better & worse all throughout the day. By the end of my 20 minutes in hadies, I mean on the eliptical...it was pounding like my brain was trying to jump out of my head. And that lovely feeling has followed me through the evening and made me have a very sad night. Hoping and praying for a better day tomorrow.

On the food side of things, I ate all day. No joke. Like...I had the serious munchies. Luckily I went to work prepared with lots of healthy low-cal options so I didn't blow my calorie goal.

Breakfast

Protein Smoothie: 1 cup of unsweetened Almond milk, 1 scoop of vanilla protein, 1 cup of cherry blend mixed fruit=250 calories (it tasted to heavy on the protein stuff so I'm gonna have to modify this one for me)

Snack

1/2 serving Pretzel sticks= 60 cals

Kashi Organic Promise Cocoa & Coconut Granola = 130 cals

Lunch

Spaghetti Squash with homemade meat sauce, baby carrots, 1/2 serving Pretzel sticks, Cream cheese (with ranch powder for dipping the carrots) = 344 cals

Snack

1oz Coby Cheese w/ grape tomatoes - 140 cals

Dinner (breakfast for dinner)

I made a scramble with: 3 large eggs, 4oz diced ham, 1 cup of fresh mushrooms, & 1/2 cup of mild cheddar cheese. 1 piece of whole wheat toast with a little butter, and a side of 3 pieces of turkey bacon. = 682 cals

Total calories for the day were 1606 and I only drank water which is a BIG deal for me, because I want mountain dew and I want Moster Java Mean Beans RIGHT NOW! Lol :)

Good night y'all! I'm taking some meds and passing out!

 I know the spaghetti squash looks crazy, but it's really not bad.

This was the scramble...looks gross..tastes AMAZING! Lol

Yes, I do play with my food on occassion...

June 19th, 2016: First Weigh in Day!

I'm sure you want to know how my weigh in went, but we'll get to that in a minute. First I wanna share something else with you. So I had a HUGE accomplishment for myself yesterday!! If you tuned in to yesterday's blog, you saw that I had over 6,000 steps in by noon. But then I had a horrible migraine from the heat and  ended up lying in bed for a while. Well...I made myself get up and get moving and even though I spent four hours of the evening on a train ride and at a little performance thing, I still hit 10,000 steps. Woohooooo!!!!!

The only downfall to this, was that when I got out of bed this morning, I thought my feet were broken. Wowsa, this fat body sure isn't made for that much action! But, never the less, I am very proud of myself for reaching that goal!

OK, so on to the weigh-in. I went back and forth on whether I was going to share my weight in the beginning because it is super shameful and I feel awful that I've allowed myself to get in this condition. In the end, I decided that I will, because that number is the past and I pray to God that I never see it again. Ever. So, last Tuesday evening, I weighed in for the DietBet at 371 pounds. I know you are probably wondering how I let myself get to that point, but honestly, it didn't feel like a decision. I'm not a binge eater except on rare occasion. I don't normally consume 5,000 to 10,000 calories per day and just sit on the couch and eat all day. That's not me. I'm also not the person you see on TV admitting to going to multiple drive-thrus and getting a ton a of crap. In fact, I rarely eat fast food. If you were to look at how often the average person eats at a driver thru I'm 100% certain that I would be at the bottom of that statistic.

So why am I fat? In my personal opinion, its largely due to the fact that I have a naturally low metabolism, I eat processed foods, and have PCOS which causes my body to store those foods differently. I have had to make peace with the fact that my body was just made differently than the average person's. If I want to stay healthy and lose weight and then maintain that weight, I am going to HAVE to stay active and make healthy eating choices. Otherwise, the weight will come back and I'll be right back where I started.

So, admittedly, I've been on the scale pretty much every day since Tuesday night. I normally weigh in the morning because you weigh less in the morning and your body fluctuates throughout the day. Not to mention, my ankles are swelled up puff balls of fury by the end of each day. But I weighed Tuesday evening for the DietBet because I decided to join on a spur of the moment and wanted to hurry up and get started before I talked myself out of it. So I thought Wednesday morning I would hop on and see if it was different. Nope. 371. Well crap. I really weigh 371. That was a hard pill to swallow. So, I set my determination to full throttle and got busy.

This morning when I eased onto the scale it ever so kindly gave me a number of 361.6. I'll take that! 9.4 pounds in 5 days...I call that a victory! So what if it's mostly water weight?! Haha...I'm just gonna pretend like it's 9.4 pounds of pure fat. :-)

So I have am often online researching weightloss and success stories and all of that and one thing I wanted to be sure of was making sure I get enough protein. If you consume enough protein the weight that you lose will be more fat than anything else and that's what we want! So for my weight I need to get around 160-180 grams of protein per day. Easier said than done! That's a butt load of protein! Sooo...I went and got me some protein powder. Not the best form of protein, but at least it will get me where I need to be for now. I found some that is 150 cals per scoop and has 60 grams of protein! That's exciting! I made a protein smoothie this morning and it tasted great!

Here's the breakdown of my food today:

Breakfast
Strawberry Smoothie: 1 1/2 cup strawberries, 1 scoop of protein powder, 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 2 tsp honey= 400 cals (this made enough for two so I just used the other half for a snack later in the day)

Lunch
China Buffet for Father's Day. I ate from the grill: sliced Beef, broccoli, mushrooms, water chestnuts & Mongolian sauce. 1/2 cup of red grapes = 303 cals

Afternoon Snack
Stacy's Garlic Bagel Chips=130 cals

Dinner
Pork Steak, Broccoli, and corn on the cob= 371 cals

So, at this point I'm sitting at 1204 calories for the day...not enough really, but I've been super lazy so I guess I'm OK with it. My biggest issue is that I only had 94 grams of protein even with the smoothie. Argh...I will get it figured out. I'm definitely gonna have some almonds before bed, that'll get the protein up a bit more

Until next time...you guys have a great night. Thank you SO MUCH for tuning in. Seeing how many people read my blog does WONDERS for my motivation!

June 18th, 2016: This girl is in Love with her Fitbit

So about a month ago, I decided that I really wanted a Fitbit. I thought it would be a great way to see where I was and start making some progress towards being more active. I KNOW I'm not active enough. I went from having a job as a photographer where I'm up on my feet all day moving around and stuff, to sitting at a desk 95% of the work day. NOT good for my fitness, but great for my Plantar Faciitus. I used to come home after work and sit in the car for an hour because my feet hurt to badly to get out. It was awful. So now I only have that issue when I'm really active. The good thing is that I found that the pain went down significantly when I lost all of that weight before. So....I'm ready for it. Push through the pain and the benefits will be totally worth it!

Anyways, about this fitbit thing...so I got mine a few weeks ago and started seeing where I was. They say a normal active person should strive for 10,000 steps a day. I was getting anywhere from 1,200(I laid on the couch 75% of the day watching Netflix on a Sunday) to 3,500 on a normal day with a few days bouncing up to 6,000 on the weekend if I went to Cape and went to the mall and shopping and all of that. So my first goal was to set my step goal to 5,000 and know that I better get some more on the weekends. Today is Saturday and by noon I was at 6,200!! Lol. Wowsa! I've NEVER hit 10,000 steps before so that seems crazy to me that people can do that daily. I'm gonna get there though! I got all those steps in today because I walked with my lovely motivators my hubby and my sister to the park about a mile away and back. We took a break at the park and let my little nephews play. It was super fun except for the killer migraine I get from being in the sun.

Something I'm going to add to my blog is what I'm eating every day. I'll at it at the end of my posts each day. I'm doing this mostly because last time I was doing this people would always ask me what I was eating. So this way I can just send people here.  I'm also going to do the majority of my posting about weight loss on Instagram so that I don't fill up my Facebook news feed with stuff that annoys people who aren't on this journey with me. I'm still going to share my blog to Facebook everyday though. Instagram has a huge community of weight loss oriented people that I find to be very helpful! Hashtags are the key to linking up with those folks and I just love it! If you want to follow me on Instagram search my name or myjourneytofindingme and you'll find me. 

I spent my evening on the St. Louis Iron Mountain Railway Train ride, which my momma treated me to. It came with dinner which stressed me out because I had no idea what would be available. So I went very stingy on my calories throughout the day in preparation for that. It isn't to big of a deal for me because I'm always hungrier later in the evenings anyways so it worked out. Dinner came in right under 800 calories, which is WAY more than I would normally do, but thankfully I got in over 8,000 steps today, so I think I should be OK. 

Goodnight friends! This girl is exhausted! And I still get to drive an hour home, but wanted to get my blog posted. 

June 17th, 2016: Oh Lordy Here I Go Again...

I have been back and forth for days trying to decide if I was going to start blogging again. It takes commitment. But I have now publicly announced (via Facebook & Instagram) my return to the weight-loss world...so....I feel like my success hinges on accountability. This blog provides that for me.

It has been 4 and half years since I first started this blog and began the most difficult thing I've even done in my life. Substantial weight-loss. In 5 months from Late November 2011 through April of 2012 I lost 72 pounds. That's not bad at all. But then...I hurt my knee at the gym and 2 days later I was bit by a brown recluse on my upper thigh. I could barley even walk for a few weeks and then after that excuse after excuse came over me like you wouldn't believe! I needed someone to pull me out of my slump before it was too late. But before I knew it, the pounds kept racking up. My visits to the scale grew fewer and farther between because I KNEW what was going to be staring me in the face. A big fat gain. And I sure did NOT want to see that. So I stayed away and convinced myself that I would get it back together soon. Hmm...yea, that didn't work out.

I had some pretty dark days. I beat myself up about it. I mean...who am I going to blame. I am 100% responsible for every single bad thing I eat. No one shoves food down my throat. It's very hard to make peace with the fact that this is all my fault. And when I would feel guilty about eating something I shouldn't I have abused my own body to purge my system of that bad food. Yup...you read that correctly. I've literally put my body through hell, just because I couldn't take responsibility for my own actions and stay accountable.

So, you might be wondering, why now? Why am I finally back and ready to take on this beast head on again? Well, that's a complex answer.

#1 I hate living in this body. I can't reach my feet. I can't sit in 90% of the chairs in the world. I'm bulging out of my clothes which are the biggest size I can find without paying ridiculous prices at specialty shops online.

#2 My husband, who has always been smaller than me, had gained quite a bit of weight and was at his all-time high. At my insistence, he stopped drinking sodas. In just a few months time he has lost 40 pounds! That's a serious motivator for me and I'm so proud of him!

#3 My sister started a low-carb lifestyle and started going back to the gym and in just a short time she has already lost over 30 pounds. I'm really proud of her too.:)

#4 My sister also found this site called DietBet where you pay in to join this "bet" and you have a certain amount of time to lose a certain percentage of weight and if you succeed you get your money back and split the pot with everyone else who has succeeded. Cool huh?

So all of those things played a factor in getting me going again. I REALLY want to make this a lifetime change. I don't plan to count calories for my whole life. BUT, I do want to life this healthier life style permanently, so that I can be happy and healthy. And in all honesty...I just want to be a success story. I want to have that Before and After picture that makes your jaws drop! I love to look at those! They give me hope.

FYI my first official weigh-in day will be this Sunday. it will only be 5 days in to my diet changes, but I want my weigh-ins to land on Sundays. Soooo....be sure to tune in and see how my first weigh-in goes.