October 30th, 2016: Weigh-in #20: Progress

I know, I know, I've been slacking hardcore on the whole blogging thing. I just have WAY too much going on right now to be able to take 20-30 minutes and sit down and write this thing every day. I honestly don't know how often I'm going to be able to do it because life is just too hectic right now. I will tell you this though. No matter what, I will check in on Sundays with my weigh-ins and if I start to slip, I'll be back daily. It keeps me on point and focused. But right now, ugh...I just can't do it. Lol

Now on with the weigh-in results....(drum roll please) Lol. Last week I weighed 304.4. I went to the gym one time and got in about 25 minutes of cardio. So this week I was, yet again, relying solely on my food choices and regular activity level throughout the day.  I wasn't as active as I was the week before, because, well, simply put...I was worn out! Still am! I feel like I'm going to be unpacking for the rest of my life. Lol

So here I am...ready to weigh in and terrified of the results. I have GOT to reach that 299 by Thanksgiving. So I get on there...and bam 302,4. 2 more pounds. That puts me at 68 pounds in 20 weeks. Just under 5 months. I started on June 18th, so my 23 Week Weigh-in on November 20th will be my 5 month mark. I'm excited to see what my progress is in that length of time. 3 weeks to go.

This upcoming week I am planning to take shoes to work with me and Hopefully get a few good walks in on my lunches. I have seriously just been so tired that I pass smooth out on my lunches these days. I feel like I need that little recharge to get myself through the day. I sure do hope things slow down a bit for us soon. But I don't see that happening. So many things are going on. #1 is finishing organizing the house. The majority of the main rooms are 90% done. But our office is an eye sore of unorganized chaos. And I also have to get Savannah's room ready for her too. Hopefully we find something out on that front tomorrow. Her step-mom is going to court to start the process. Any and all prayers for that will be greatly appreciated.

Alright...my sleepytime tea combined with Melatonin has me ready to hit the sack! Y'all have a great week!!

Goodnight!
xoxo

(I gave up on pictures, my darn facebook won't load on my laptop tonight.) Boo

October 25th, 2016: One-Track Mind

So, I can't speak for everyone who is on a path to a healthier lifestyle because I know we are all different, but I can tell you that being conscious of what I'm eating and the calories in them has given me a one-track mind. It's all I think about 90% of the time! And I know my sister has the same issue. It's making me a tad bit crazy.

The funny thing about it, is actually that it's been a little better lately because of how hectic my life has been. But I was just thinking about it and wanted to share. I feel like I'm going crazy. I went from being hungry all the time to not being hungry at all. I have an issue of eating out boredom. But ever since I started cutting back my calories and all of that, I haven't even had a chance to do that because I was just straight up hungry. But today...no, no. I woke up feeling like I had eaten Thanksgiving Dinner in my sleep. It was the weirdest thing. I ended up skipping breakfast and by the time I got home from work, I had only eaten a little over 400 calories, which is super weird for me.

I came home and got busy redoing my closet and hanging new shelves and stuff in it. I was home alone and I felt  pretty darn accomplished after getting it done too! It might not be perfect, but I did it all by myself.

After I did all that mess, I was too tired to work out and too lazy to cook dinner. So I went to Subway and got us some dinner and came home and ate. I bought some Funyuns because I had a ton of calories and I had a fat girl moment and really wanted them. Lol.

Here's the breakdown of my Food Choices for today:

Lunch
Chicken Stir-Fry, Baby Carrots, and String Cheese = 325 cals

Snack
Apple Slices = 80 cals

Dinner
Oven Roasted Chicken Breast Sandwhich with Broccoli & Cheese Soup = 500 cals

Snack
2 of the mini bags of Funyuns = 240 cals

That puts me at 1145 calories for the day. Low, I know, but I didn't work out either, so surely that balances it out, right? Lol.

Goodnight
xoxo

October 24th, 2016: My New Gym

Today was a good day as far as Monday's go. Work almost feels like a break after all of the chaos of my life. Haha. Jamie got our new membership started at the gym in Dexter. After work, I ran by Lowes and then came home and cooked dinner and headed over to the new gym.

I don't like change. And my life has been soooo full of change lately. So when we pulled up and I saw the faces of a ton of people I didn't know...eek...I just wanted to go back home. But I knew I needed to get a workout in. I was actually kindof craving it.

So I went in and I got busy. I kept it short because I was there with my mom and sister and Jamie and we were all over the place checking out everything. I did 20 minutes on there Arc Trainer, it's not the same as what I'm used to, but I'll make it work. And then we checked out the spin bikes because we want to start going to spin classes once we get our tooshies used to the bikes again. Lol. Those darn bikes HURT. It's definitely something you don't just jump into. We did 5 minutes and we were good to go.

And that's it. Nothing crazy today, but I went. I cooked dinner before I went, but I wasn't hungry, so when I got home I ate and started ma blog. I'm having a little bit of issues getting my calories in today. I don't even know how that happened. I'm normally hungry all the time. I'm also someone who eats when I'm bored, but not today. I have just over 800 calories and have already eaten dinner. So I'll have to figure something out so that MyFitnessPal will let me log my day. They won't let you do less than 1000...guess I'll have some almonds or something. Haha

That's it! I'm exhausted and headed to bed at a decent hour!

Here's the breakdown of my Food Choices for today:

Breakfast
Oatmeal with Brown Sugar, Sugar Free Syrup and a half tbsp of butter = 239 calories

Lunch
Chicken Stir-Fry with Baby Carrots and a String Cheese = 325 cals

Apple Cider Vinegar with Vegetable Juice = 25 cals

Dinner
3 cups of Doc's Chili (I got crazy!) = 486 cals

That puts me at 1075 calories. I may have me something else before I go to bed, but idk, I'm sleepy now and full. Lol.

Have a great day tomorrow y'all!
Goodnight!
xoxo

October 22 & 23rd 2016: Weigh-in #19 & a Quick Weekend Review

I seriously can't even wrap my head around everything that is changing in my world these days. It's seriously so stressful because I don't want to screw anything up. I have never made such huge life-altering decisions in my entire life. In this week, Jamie and I have made some big changes. Not just the house. We bought all new appliances for the first time ever too. And then, we also made a few more big decisions.

Our primary focus right now is realigning our budget to make sure we are good to go when Savannah gets here. So we decided to stop our membership at the Y and move it over to a smaller gym here in Dexter. That was an insanely difficult decision for me. I won't be able to go to Zumba at the new gym because it's at 5:15 and I couldn't get there until 5:30 in work clothes and then still have to change. No chance. But We will be paying a third of what we were paying at the Y. And that's important.

We also decided to see about trading in our vehicles. My primary focus was to lower our interest rate and payments, but also to get newer, smaller vehicles with less miles on them (ours both had over 125k on them) and better miles per gallon. Mine got 18 miles per gallon. Lol. Gas guzzler. I LOOOOVE my Explorer, but I just know that that many miles means lots of upcoming maintenance that we wouldn't be able to afford. And we already knew that Jamie's needed a ton of work.

So yesterday morning I headed up to a dealership that we've used before to see where we stood and see if what I wanted to do was even possible. We were easily approved for loans, but we were upside down on both vehicles. The little car I looked at was nice, but I had compared it to another one I was interested in and refused to take the deal they offered me, until I checked out the other one. The other one was a Honda Fit and in the comparison, in kicked the first one's booty. So by the time I got done at the first dealership, it was after 1pm, I had eaten a small banana all day and I was starved. I came home and had a bowl of Doc's chili and some apples, and did a load of laundry which caused a flooded utility room because my wonderful husband didn't tighten down our washer cords with a wrench. Lol.

The Honda Dealership was having a Midnight Madness Sale which meant they were selling cars until midnight and they had some great deals going on. I tricked my cousin Jessica into going up there with me and we headed that way. Jamie came a few hours after us because he had to work. 5 hours later, we drove out of the dealership in 2 brand spankin' new cars. I got a 2016 Honda Fit, and he got a 2016 Honda Civic. We got an AMAZING Warranty Package on them and I went from 22% interest to 1.9% interest, and he went from 22,9% interest to 5% interest. We didn't get the lower payments we wanted, but we got great vehicles that won't be

 giving us any mechanical issues, and if they do, they'll be covered now. What a Blessing!
I mean seriously. I think I was in shock that it all worked out!

By the time we left the dealership it was 1am and we hadn't had dinner! So we went to Denny's and had a pretty amazing and not to crazy high in calorie dinner. Then I had to drive home, which was interesting since I was totally ready to crash!

Today was a totally chilled out day compared to yesterday. I got up around 9:30 and very nervously stepped on the scale. I was a little terrified of what I might see after eating dinner in the middle of the night. But...to my super huge surprise...the scale dropped from 308.8 to 304.4...4 pounds baby! Hellooooooo!!!! I am so ridiculously happy about that since I haven't worked out in a dang week. I mean, I've been a busy bumble bee and have kept moving hardcore, so at least that paid off! I am so proud!!! 66 pounds down!! Almost below 300 and I just know I'll be there before Thanksgiving! Yay!!! What an amazing end to the craziest week ever in my life. :)

That's all I've got for you guys tonight! Have an amazing day and I plan to start blogging daily again now that we are getting more settled.

Goodnight!
xoxo

October 17th-21st, 2016: Moving In & Keeping Moving

Well it has officially been the longest week of my life! We closed on our new home on Monday. And then the chaos began. Lol. We had no plumbing for our dishwasher. The person who did the electric work for the previous owners ran the outlet for the stove in the Utility room and the outlet for the Dryer in the kitchen. So my good ole' buddy ole' pal, Barb and I swapped them out. It was far from easy. Lol. Especially since the outlet was put in prior to the cabinets being sealed in. So that was an interesting learning experience. The part I was most afraid of, was swapping the actual outlets out, and that turned out to be the easiest part!

So we officially have everything moved out of the apartment. My new beautiful house is piled high with boxes and a huge mess in the middle of my living room floor. I'm sure hoping that I can get a big dent in that soon, because I can't stand not being able to find things. It's very stressful!

Our brand new appliances were delivered and are now all plugged in and installed and working. Except for the microwave. It's the kind that you install over the stove, and I just am not confident in our ability to get it in properly. Sooo...hopefully my cousin Brandon will come over this weekend and help us do it! :) :)

I have been a very good girl and stayed below my calorie goals every day this week. I may not have eaten the best foods for dinner every night. I had pizza Monday, but I kept it under 1500 calories for the day. Tuesday I had Mexican, but again, I stayed under my calorie goal. It was just too crazy to try to cook among all the chaos.

I have not worked out since Saturday. It feels crazy weird to me. I have, however, hit over 7,000 steps every day except for yesterday. So I'm super proud of that. I'm hoping to still lose a little this week, but I won't be insanely disappointed if I didn't considering the week I've had.

And that's all I've got for today. I have tons of unpacking to do and lots of things going on outside of that too, but I'll save that for another day. ;)

Goodnight!
xoxo

October 14-16th, 2016: Weigh-in #18 & Playing Catch up

Well...I've definitely been slacking on my blog. But for very good reason. Tomorrow is moving day! And we've been working our fanny's off to get ready. Friday and Saturday I did my workouts at the gym on top of packing. I busted BUT every day in the gym this week. NO SLACKING at all. I was feeling untouchable coming off of a 4 pound loss! So when I got on the scale this morning, I was really expecting a good 2-3 pounds lost. Nope. Notta. Zero. Zilch. That just blows my mind. For real. Like, how can I work this hard and it not show up on the scale? I feel like I've been robbed!

I'm feeling so much stronger now, so much healthier. But the reality is, I still weigh over 300 pounds and have a long road ahead of me. Yea, I've lost 62 pounds, but I have 138 more to go before I'll be satisfied. And weeks like this make it feel impossible.

I didn't go to the gym today. I just had toooo much to do. It was a crazy day. I did sqeek out a half hour to go walk a mile at the park with my sister. I usually have well over 10,000 steps on Sundays, but because of standing around all day filling boxes, I only have 8,500 and I'm twice as tired as I usually am on Sundays. Lol.

Tomorrow morning we close and then at noon I have to head back to work. Jamie thinks we can get pretty much everything out of the apartment tomorrow. I'm not so sure. We shall see!

I definitely won't be blogging tomorrow, and possibly not Tuesday. We will see. But I'll be posting plenty on facebook. ;) Love you guys! Thank you so much for your support! Keep us in your prayers this week, that we don't kill each other during this move! Haha.

I'm gonna leave it at that and toss some pics on here. Remember, if your curious about my food choices to check out MyFitnessPal! I had some pretty darn low-cal white beans and ham yesterday! Yum!

Saturday....I was being a baby (Milo Photobombing, lol)

Chili & Pork Chops

My yummy super low-cal lunch today

White Beans & Ham

I eat too much chili!!

October 13th, 2016: Slight Freak-out Mode

Ok, if I'm being 100% honest, I'm freaking out a little. Like....I'm most likely going to be a parent. The current guardian of our niece goes to court at the end of this month to get the process started and then once it's done we will have guardianship of her. Both parents have said they are ok with us adopting her too. So sometime next year, we will hopefully be seeing that happen too. But one thing at a time. My current freak-out is just realizing everything we will be responsible for. With our kids that were fostered, yea there were a lot of rules and stuff that were a pain, but their insurance was paid for, they got tons of free clothes and toys and all sorts of stuff, their lunches were paid for and we had a small check that really helped a lot with the expenses. Not with guardianship. No assistance at all.

Ok, I know it sounds like I'm being a baby, but when people have kids, it's something they plan for (usually), I'm a planner. That would be me. They rearrange their finances and get it all figured out. We are being thrown into this. Yea, we make ok income, but our budget fits our income and we are buying a house! Eeek...like, can we do this!? I mean, I know we can. I know we will make it work, because this is what we've always wanted. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to freak out a little. I have been finding myself think of all the stuff that;s going to change. With the foster kids, childcare was provided. Um....thank God for family. My mom is gonna watch her when Jamie is working (he get's some weekdays off) and my sis plans to fill in when needed. I just hope she loves everyone and everyone loves her.

So yea, that's what has been going on in my brain all day. Well part of it anyways. Work was pretty steady today. I got a TON of stuff done today for real! It was like, because my brain was so busy, I had to keep my hands busy to keep up. Lol. I don't know, but I got a lot done, and that's awesome.

The weather cooperated and I was able to go for a walk. I walked down the main road that I drive in on and had planned to walk to the end. But....as I got about 3/4 of the way down, I saw I dog a little ways away down a fence row that led to the road. And I noticed....as I walked further down the road the dog walked closer toward the road....uh oh...he was in protection mode. Eeek! I had nothing to protect myself with either! So I turned my booty around and head back toward the office. 2 miles was NOT worth getting attacked by a dog today. I made it over a mile and a half and ended up with a little more than 5k steps at the end of my lunch. I love it!

After work I headed to the gym and did my arm torture and then went to Zumba. I was happily over 10k steps when I left. I planned to come home and warm up some stir-fry because I wasn't hungry on my lunch. But no...I drove by the Chinese place and it smelled heavenly, so I stopped and got that for diiner. THEN I was gonna go home and use my extra time to pack. Nope....cute babies (my nephews) in the window next door drew me in and I ended up spending almost 2 hours at my sister's apartment. LOL.

And that's all she wrote. Another successful day! 1200 calories burnt too. That's the good stuff right there!

Here's the breakdown of my food choices today:

Breakfast
Oats with Brown Sugar and Light Maple Syrup a Banana & some Vanilla Spice Tea = 264 cals

Apple Cider Vinegar & Vegetable Juice = 25 cals

Lunch
Baby Carrots & Colby Jack Cheese = 136 cals

Snack
Protein Shake & Apple Slices = 180 cals

Dinner
Beef & Brocolli Stir-Fry, a Chicken on a stick, Breaded Shrimp, & Black Pepper Chicken= 805 cals

That puts me at 1385 calories for the day. 90% of it for dinner. I don't know how that happened. I wasn't even hungry most of the day....and then I smelled that Chinese Food and I was like a fat kid moving in on some cake! Dang I want some cake!! Haha.

Goodnight y'all!
xoxo