Goodbye SparkPeople! Hi again, WW...

Yes, I will be back on WW now. I liked Spark People, I wanted it to work, but I think it's my own fault that it didn't work, for me, as well as I would have liked. I loved that I could eat peanut butter without having a serious cut in my points. I need the good fat, but I'm not content with a pb&banana sandwich being 9 points on WW, I'll get my good fat in other ways.

I know I went to Olive Garden this past weekend, but I thought I did good. And yes, I may have snuck some fries in last night for dinner, but I only ate half of them. I'm just frustrated right now and I'm sick of tracking what I eat.

The reason behind this switch was my WI this morning - I maintained. Now I had/have (not sure if I still do) a goal of being 150 by Christmas. I started the month of Oct. at 165, I figured 5lbs./month and I could easily get there. Well I forgot to factor in my fantastic week of the month where I gain or maintain because of my "being a woman", if ya know what I mean. I'll keep going, but I'm frustrated. I've been running this week, too, and maybe I just didn't drink enough water or something. I want to have a bangin' week, I haven't seen one of those in a month. I need to track everything, honestly, and truthfully. I've been planning my meals out, mostly, and sticking to them. I've been getting all my GHGs in.

On a side note, the hubs didn't get paid for his overtime he worked last week, and we're just barely making it by, and it's his birthday and I really wanted to go out to eat tonight, but he said we don't have the money, but it's his birthday! I know he just has to talk to the accountant, at least I hope and think so, and they'll pay him for it. What a crappy Friday, is it time to go home yet?

As for this weekend's plans, we're going to my cousin's house tomorrow after Chuck gets off work. At least I'll be able to get a run in either tonight or tomorrow, and I can eat a good, healthy breakfast and lunch before who knows what I'll eat for dinner. Sunday is Chuck's birthday, so who knows what I'll eat then, too. I just need to be smart, and make a conscious effort to stay on track.

I'll probably post tomorrow and do a monthly recap, not so excited for that, I don't think I've done very well.

Happy Hump Day!

Wow, I can't believe it's Wednesday already! This week is already flying by and I can't believe it. Let's start with last weekend. Well, I had a blast, and I didn't really eat right at all. I didn't splurge like I would have, but I didn't really watch what I ate. We went to Olive Garden, oh yes, my weakness - pasta. I got grilled shrimp caprese, ate all the shrimp, and only about 1/2 of the pasta. I also had two helpings of salad, and breadsticks with alfredo sauce. Not as bad as I used to, but still, pretty bad.

I made dinner for my family, too, and although it was a WW-friendly dinner, I had two helpings, plus some leftovers late at night. I didn't get my GHGs in, and I didn't track anything on SP.

Follow through to Monday, I went to shadow a museum education program at a park, and I left my lunch in the car because I didn't know where to put it, and I ended up not eating lunch. Yeah, I know, not the brightest idea. With all that, I got home late which totally messed up my dinner plans. So what did I make? Pasta. Again, if you forgot in the minute it took you to read, pasta is my weakness. I had two plate-fulls, but I stopped myself from eating the rest and I took it for lunch yesterday. I ended up skipping class last night just so I could come home and run, and I successfully finished Week 6, Day 1, after my half-attempt on Saturday at home.

I am convinced that all this means that the scale will go up this week, and with it is the goal that I had set for myself, to loose 15 lbs. by Christmas. With this week's WI, even if I just maintain, I'm still 13 lbs. from that goal. Yes, it's still possible, but not realistic, especially with Thanksgiving in the mix. I'll keep running, that's for sure. I'm thinking that God got me started running to sort of, not turn off, but lower the baby fever that I've been having. I know that I can't run with a belly, and I realize that, and it's making me wait to have babies until I'm ready. Okay, now that I've said that I feel really selfish. Oh boy. Anywho, I'll keep running, and keep losing weight so that I can have them babies when the time is ready.

WI Friday

I'm down 0.6 - I'm not dissappointed, really, I was just hoping that maybe because I had no clue what to expect I'd have one of those really lucky WIs and loose like 2 lbs. No, my luck doesn't work like that. I'm not complaining, a loss is a loss, and I've been loosing pretty consistantly.

I think my body is working out with my increase of running now. And I've been tracking on SP rather than WW, and with that comes eating more "points" I think. With my WI this week, I think I'm going to keep tracking on SP and see how the next few weeks go, then I might cancel my WW subscription, after I print all my fav. recipes, of course.

I'm hoping I have an awesome WI maybe next week, I'm never going to get to my goal of being 150 by Christmas, and 135 by my birthday in March. I'll push back to being at goal by next summer, I want to look awesome in a bikini - I know, selfish & vain reasoning.

We're headed to PA this weekend - where we both grew up. I'm cooking for my family tomorrow evening, and that will def. be WW friendly - but who knows what else I'll be eating, and I'll try to eat well, and track everything. I'm definitely going for a run tomorrow, and I think I'm going shopping with my mom, so I'll get some walking in. I can't plan for everything though, and I know that. It's a part of the journey and I need to learn to go with the flow, and make smart choices. I CAN do this!

Running Update/Thoughts on WI tomorrow

Just a quick update - last night I ran 20 minutes STRAIGHT! I finally realized it, I need to eat something before I run, the whole running at 5:30am was not doing me any favors. And pace. This is a no-brainer, if you run too fast, you won't be able to keep your stamina up and you'll run out of steam. With this in mind last night, I had every intention of just doing Week 5, Day 2 again, and fully completing it, but I thought that I could maybe do Day 3 - the dreaded 20 minute run. I figured I would just run as far as I could and if I did Day 2, that was fine, but if I did Day 3, that'd be even better. It was even better. I ran almost about 1 1/2 miles I think, and was so stoked about it! I know I can do this 5K!

Now, tomorrow is my WI. I'm totally not sure what to expect. I haven't really tracked on WW--I've been using Spark People to track, and I've stayed within my calories/fat all week, except for Monday, but I only went over by a little. It was by no stretch of the imagination a binge. I also burned over 1,000 calories with my running, walking, and playing tennis. With all that laid out, I should lose, but I might be building muscle, and therefore the scale might not reflect what I've done. Also because I'm doing SP instead of WW, I think I've used more points, but we'll see.

I think I'll keep tracking with SP, maybe through next week, and see if it has any impact on my weight loss, and we'll evaluate it from there. I'll let you know what the verdict is tomorrow morning. Now I'm going to find something to do during my 2 1/2 hr. super boring, dumb, computer class where everyone else has laptops, except me. Awesome.

I did it!

I would like to announce to the world that I signed up FOR A 5k!!!

I am super excited about this, and I am not worried at all that I can finish this 5K running the whole time. I know that 13 minutes of straight running probably isn't the same as a 5K, but I still have 6 weeks to train for it. This is totally new territory to me, I'm going to run a race! The hubs said that after I finish the race, then I can consider myself a runner. Oh man, I'm so estatic to take on that label. If you would have told me a year ago that I would have just signed up for a 5K - I would have laughed in your face.

This journey is taking me so much farther than I ever thought possible. I'm not even at the weight I was last summer, but I feel so much better than I did last summer. The hubs doesn't even remember me being at that weight, and honestly, neither do I. It was just a number on the scale, it meant nothing. I wasn't confident enough to wear a bikini at the beach, and I think I'm in a smaller jean now than I was last summer, and I'm still 13 lbs. more than I was.

My body is changing, my mindset is changing, and I think it's great. This journey is slow, but it is so worth it. Trying new foods, exercising, it's great. I'm glad that I can take care of myself and make myself healthier. Obesity runs in my family, and I'm determined that it stops with me. I will teach my children how to eat healthy, and love exercise and be healthy. I do not want to be a negative statistic: another American who is obese and has children who are overweight. I want my kids to be happy and healthy.

Rant over: but I'm still signed up for a 5K!!!

Red Robin update & 5K???

I didn't fail miserably at Red Robin last night, but I didn't follow my plan exactly. I ate my fries and "forgot" to order cantaloupe instead of my fries. The birthday girl's whole family was there, and they ordered appetizers for everyone, so I had some artichoke dip and a mozzarella stick. And I had cake. Delicious, perfect vanilla cake with vanilla icing. I tracked it all on SP and moved on. I don't think I'm going to track on WW for the rest of the week, I'll stick with SP. I went over my calories, but only by 500 which isn't totally, completely terrible. It could have been a lot worse.

Before going to Red Robin, I decided to do a quick run after work. I knew I wouldn't want to get up this morning and run since it was going to rain. Got home, quickly checked the mail, changed and went out. Since I didn't complete my W5D2 training for C25K I wanted to do that again, but I really didn't have the time. I decided to run as far as I could, just straight running. Holy cow! I ran 13 minutes STRAIGHT! I haven't done that since I was a cheerleader probably, and I don't even know if I did it then - I liked to walk a lot during our mandatory runs.

I, of course, updated my fb status and my marathon runner sister-in-law said that I'm almost ready for a 5K - we should run one together! What?! My marathon/triathlon sister-in-law thinks I'm almost ready for a 5K? This is exactly what I needed to hear, no lie. I have been toying with the idea of signing up for a 5K for a little bit now, I really want to be a runner and I have a life goal of running the Disney World Marathon. I gotta start with a 5K and work my way up. I decided to look up 5Ks in my area, and there's a Christmas one. Now if you've been reading my last few posts, you know I love Christmas and a Christmas 5K is right up my alley. I am so convinced to do this now, and I know I can. I still have another 6 weeks to go, and even if I repeat the last few weeks of C25K I will still be done in time for the race.

Wow, that sounds so weird, I'm going to sign up for a race! Me, Megan is voluntarily signing up to run a race! I need to save my pennies though, it's a $30 registration fee, and the smart thing to do would be to NOT sign up because we don't have the money. But I want to so bad! I want to be a runner, this is my goal since I started WW, and before. I want to be a runner so bad. I gotta talk to the hubs about it, and hopefully we can scrounge up the money for it! :)

I can eat Red Robin and STILL stay within my daily calories?

Yes, you read that correctly. It's a friend's birthday today and she wants us all to go to Red Robin. Red Robin has to be my almost favorite restaurant, I have quite a number of favorite chain restaurants, but anyways yes, Red Robin. Yum! I normally get either a Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Wrap, a Whiskey River BBQ Chicken or normal burger. I love the bbq sauce and most of all, on the burgers, I love the onion straws. I wanted to plan this one out, I know that last time I went to Red Robin, I ended up eating 37 points, and I did not want to do that again. I'm going to get a Whiskey River BBQ chicken burger with no mayo, no cheese, and no tomato. That cut down 300 calories. I added it in my SP, along with everything else I'm eating today, and I didn't go over my calories! I was so excited, I thought I'd for sure go over, but the only thing I went over in was calcium. Super excited! I might steal one of the hubs french fries, but I will stick to my burger and enjoy the delicious fried onion straws.

Over the weekend I kept tracking mostly on SP, but along with WW. I keep using weeklies, which is what I know they're there for, but I normally don't use them during the week. It's hard for me to see them going down when I'm not really using them for anything really bad for me like I'm used to. I guess this is how I should be breaking down my weeklies and dailies.

Yesterday the hubs and I went to church, followed by a trip to Lowes. Why Lowes you ask? Well two reasons: 1) I love Christmas and they have Christmas decorations out, and 2) I don't feel compelled to buy anything there. I wanted to get out of the house, really I wanted to go shopping, but I know we have NO money for that sort of thing. When I go to Lowes or Home Depot, I can dream. I know we're going to build our own house, and I can dream of the huge kitchen that I know isn't really realistic. We walked around Lowes, dreaming of our house, and then we went home and watched football.

I ate pretty well this weekend, I even ate when I wasn't hungry, which I know I need to work on, but it's so hard because when it's dinnertime, I want to eat something. Saturday I made choc. chip cookies, so I munched on a few of those throughout the weekened, tracking most of them. I had a ballin' C25K day on Saturday, and we played tennis last night. I even got a compliment out of the hubs! He told me that I looked skinnier than the last time we played tennis :) He knows the way to my heart. I can tell that I have a lot more energy now when we play than when we started playing. I actually run after the ball now, and not walk. I can also pick the ball off the ground without using my racket to push myself back up. I'm impressed with the change that I'm encountering, and I'm proud of myself, super proud. I know I can keep truckin' and I'll get to that goal weight, whatever it may be.

Mid monthly review

Let’s take a little time and see how I'm doing with this month's goals. I still can't believe that it's halfway through October. Christmas will be here before we know it! If I haven't mentioned it, I'm a Christmas fanatic! I own 30+ pairs of Christmas socks, and my wedding was Christmas themed. Not tacky Christmas themed, but the girls had red dresses, red roses; the centerpieces were Christmas ball ornaments in glass vases. I think it was a pretty classy themed wedding if I do say so myself.

Anyways, back to my goal review:

- Continue keeping up on schoolwork: I think I've been pretty successful here. I generally keep up on my reading.

- Keep being kind to Chuck: Pretty good here, too. I've really been trying to pray and ask God for help me be kinder, and I think it's helping.

- Plan meals and keep a food budget: check on this one. We've come across something else that made us have an even smaller paycheck, so I need to perfect this. Last night we went food shopping and only spent $60, and I was really proud of myself for that.

- Read Bible/pray and go to church: I haven't been to church since last month, but I have been reading my Bible and turning to God a lot more than I had been.

- Go to church every Sunday in October: See above.

WW goals:

- Continue C25K: Check! In fact I just got back from my almost completed W5D2 workout. I only did 6 1/2 min for the last one rather than 8, but I think that's because I didn't eat breakfast before I went out, so I was weak. I'm going to try it again once more time, maybe two before I head out for the 20 minute run.

- Weights, crunches and push-ups daily: I do triceps lifts just about everyday. I'm not a fan of the nasty arm flab, you know what I'm talking about. But in regards to crunches and push-ups, I'd say maybe 4-5 times a week or so. Not bad, but I'm getting my biceps back! I don't know if it was from yoga or what, but it's fabulous. I miss my biceps. I was a cheerleader for 10 years, and my arms were ripped! I've since lost it, but my biceps are making a comeback and I'm SO excited!

- Track: Success! I've tracked for the most part, and I've been a lot better with tracking weekends now.

- Get GHGs in everyday: I'd say this is success, too. I've been very conscious about what I'm putting in my mouth. I'm more aware of the vitamins and such that are in my food.

Alrighty, time to shower after my workout! Happy Saturday!

WI Friday & update on C25K and SP v. WW

And I'm down! Yay! I'm down 3 lbs. since my WI last Friday, and I'm down 0.6 lbs. since my last real WI. Again, I don't really count last Friday as a "real WI" only because I knew I didn't drink my water, salty foods, TOM, etc. I knew I didn't really gain those 2 lbs. I'm a little bit weary about my goal to be down to 150 by Christmas. I thought 5 lbs/month was totally doable, but when I factor in my usual gain due to TOM, I'm not so sure I can do it. I'll keep trying, of course, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't get to it.

I'm going to try to get more exercise in, too. I still am feeling awesome from my completed day of C25K last night, and I know I need to continue with the program. It's working, I just need to find the time to do it. Over the summer, I got up at 5:30am and did it. That's when it was coolest, and I didn't mind it. Now I still don't mind getting up at 5:30am, but it is so dark! During the summer the sun would start to come up as I was finishing up, but now it's pitch black, and a little bit too cold to run/walk.

With that said, I'm thinking that maybe I could go out in the eveing. Monday and Wednesday preferably, but that always depends on how my homework goes. Tuesday and Thursday I don't need to be at school until about 8:15, so realistically I could get up around 6:30, it would be a little lighter, and do it then. Really, I think the honest answer is that I'm going to have to just work the week and see how it goes. If I know I'll have a lot of homework Wednesday night, then I'll hold off until Thursday morning to go out. If I have time, I'll do it Wednesday evening.

Update on SP vs. WW: I'm still stuck. I know that I need to pick one, tracking on both is driving me up a wall, I think. I tracked all my food on WW and I was perfect on my DP. I tracked the same food on SP and I'm under my calories, fat, carbs, and protein - what the heck? So I picked my favorite snack - an apple and PB and added that in, and I'm perfect on SP, in the range of everything. Now the dilemma: should I track that apple and PB for 6 points on WW? It's a new week, and I have my weeklies that I can use, but that's 6 points - that's a lot of points. Maybe I should just focus on SP and not WW, but I know WW works, and it's so hard!

Who else is having this dilemma? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Attention: We have a NSV!

I am so proud of myself! I actually completed a full day of C25K!! Now I know that it's not a huge deal to some people, and honestly, I've done days that I couldn't finish and I would continue onto the next day anyways, even though I didn't successfully complete a day. But I did it! I can say that I totally completed Week 5, Day 1 successfully. I ran a total of 15 minutes, and walked a total of 16 minutes, burning around 170 calories.

My food today was not the greatest, but I'm kind of confident that the scale will be going down again tomorrow. I snuck a peek earlier in the week and I was down 3 lbs. from last week - see I told you that it wasn't my real weight - which is awesome.

I was within my points this week, I tracked just about everything, but I definitely did not overeat and not track it, that's for sure. This morning while I was at school I sit at a table on the second floor of our campus center, right above the fast food place. Well today, I smelled bacon. Now I don't normally crave bacon, but this morning, I just had to have it, so I gave into the craving and got a bacon, egg and cheese wrap. I could have made myself a better one, but that's okay. I tracked it, and I went over my points today, but only by a few.

I'm supposed to be in class tonight, but I came home instead since the hubs had a rain day, well afternoon anyways, so I came home to relax with him.

I'll update tomorrow after my WI - keep your fingers crossed!

WW or Sparkpeople?

I'm loving my day off. I was debating on going to work tomorrow. I know we could use the money, but I feel like today is my cooking day, and tomorrow is my homework day. That's what I think I'm going to do.

Speaking of saving money, I feel like I can maybe, maybe, maybe quit paying for WW and switch to Spark People. For those of you who don't know, Spark People is a free weight loss website. You can tell it how much weight you plan to lose, and it recommends a certain timeline for that. Instead of doing points, you track calories, fat, carbs, and protein, among whatever else kind of nutrients you would like to track. It lets you know if you've gone over your nutrients or under them. I feel like it's more realistic than WW is. WW is definitely easier, but if you want to find out what you're putting in your body, then Spark People is the way to go.

The only hesitation that I have with dropping WW is that it's so much easier to do it when you're going out, all you need is calories, fat and fiber. With that said, Spark People is free, which sounds better than $17/month, obviously. But in order to add something to Spark People, you need all the NI, not just those three things. Another thing that I am annoyed with is that I would have to transfer all my recipes to Spark People, it's just easier to keep the points.

I know that a lot of people on the 20's WW board are switching to Spark People because it teaches you a lot more, which it definitely does. That's the only problem that I have with WW is that the smaller the points value, the more you can eat, but you might not be eating real food; a lot of chemically altered food is super low in points, and people eat it because of that, but it's not teaching you anything. I love to cook and I want to eat healthy and teach my family to eat healthy, too.

So I'm still stuck between the two. I can do both, and I have been doing them both, but I've been more continuous with WW than Spark People, mostly because if I make a recipe that I already know the points for, then I don't have to worry about adding the recipe to the recipe builder, I can just add the points and be done, while I can't do that on Spark People. I think I'll keep doing both, and we'll see about switching to free Spark People.

If you've done Spark People - what did you think?

Sigh - it's finally Friday

Now I'm full out sick. I'm glad this week is over. I gained, but I don't care. I mean I do, but I knew I was going to. Week before TOM and I ate garbage this week, I gave into any craving I wanted to. I'll track, but I know this week's number means nothing. I didn't eat that bad. I only earned 7 APs, and I didn't track most of my week. I knew I was going to gain. Oh well, I'll get my act together starting today.

I had a midterm yesterday, and another paper to hand in. I am so looking forward to my long 4 day weekend/fall break. I have a lot of catch up to do, but I'll be really excited to just not have to get out of my jammies for 4 days. Yes, I very well may not get out of my pajamas for 4 days.

Since we're staying home this weekend, have only have my cousin and her family come to visit tomorrow, I should stay on track all week. I need to.

That sickness that I thought I wasn't getting? Yeah, I got it. It's a cold, not a huge problem, but I just want to sleep. And I'm planning on sleeping all weekend and it's going to be glorious.

It's Hump Day!

I'm pretty happy about this. I did leave work at 11:30 on Monday and I successfully wrote my paper for tomorrow. I had one midterm last night, and it went okay. I have another tomorrow and my professor for the last one decided to do a take home midterm, which I'm kind of bummed about. I was looking forward to being done with midterms and since I don't have any midterms the week after fall break, I'm planning on vegging on the couch all weekend. I know I have some catch up work to do, but that's it.

I'm going to make the hubs his favorite meal - Sicilian meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and broccoli smothered in butter. WW friendly? Heck no, but it'll be worth it. He's kind of stressed with our money situation right now, and I'm not helping at all. Hubs does the bills, and I feel like I need to take that over, then maybe it will teach me that we don't have money, and that money doesn't grow on trees, and we don't have a hidden savings somewhere. Then hopefully he won't be as stressed. He's having a hard time at work, too. He's such a hard worker, and the people that the company hires are crap. They're older, sliding from job to job to pay their child support and their divorces and new girlfriends. Chuck's waiting for a foreman title, then I think he's going to look elsewhere for a new job. I pray that he can find one, he's not making enough money for what he's doing, and the company is so tiny and is always on the edge of bankruptcy.

With that, I get to work for the day. I'm eating terrible this week, and I am fully expecting that scale to stay where it was last week or go up. Honestly, I might not weight myself this week and just wait until next week. I'm not feeling it this week, and I think that's okay. Maybe next Mon/Tues while I'm home I can get some good workouts in, maybe go for a walk and jog. I think I like that idea better than weighing myself on Friday, I just get depressed when the scale goes up.

Side note: I was talking to the hubs about eating healthier. His great grandfather died of a heart attack, his grandfather has a terrible heart, his father had a heart attack at 47, and I know who's next in this line.. He keeps saying that he works off all the calories, which he does, he's as thin as a rail, but he's not eating healthy. I'm going to try to help him. I mean he eats vegetables at home for dinner, but that's about it. I've been trying to give him grapes or something in his lunch, but he needs something he can grab and go, and I don't really have good ideas about that. Any suggestions?

It's going to be a stressful week.

I gave in. I had to stop at Walmart to get the hubs a new apple juice container for work, and I knew that I had a paper writing evening ahead of me, so I decided to get a Starbucks frappuccino. Not only did I get that, but I also picked up a King Size Reese's PB Cup, oh yes. It was delicious. I'm not tracking it. I will hopefully eat good this week, mostly, but it's going to be a stressful week, so I won't beat myself up for it.

Another Weekend Confession

Why, oh why did I eat so much. I have such a bad food hangover I couldn't even run this morning. I ran for only 5 minutes and I walked for 15, it was terrible. I felt like barfing. So now you ask, what did I do that made me feel like this. I ate, and ate some more, oh and I ate even more. We'll start with Saturday. I was pretty good all day, until we went to my cousin Mike's house, who is that fabulous cook I was telling you all about. And he made homemade spaghetti and meatballs. Oh. My. Gosh. It was delicious. Not to mention the fact that spaghetti, anything Italian really, is my weakness. I had two huge bowls, even though I wasn't hungry when I started eating the first bowl. And I finished it off with a nice slice of ice cream cake for his step-daughter's birthday. Felt like garbage yesterday morning when I woke up.

Sunday: I had my oatmeal for breakfast, we went out to the food court for lunch and I got Chinese. I know, not the healthiest option for me, but I haven't had Chinese in quite a while, so I gave in to the craving. I tracked it and moved on. I got home last night and what does the hubs want to do? Go out to eat. Now my lovely husband runs a very tight budget, and for him to say that he wanted to go out to eat, I'm totally going to take advantage of that situation and go out to eat. Where did we go? Buffalo Wild Wings. We had never been there before, so it was an experience. Especially to go to a bar-like atmosphere about 30 minutes outside of DC when there's a Redskins vs. Eagles game on. I think I went partially deaf last night it was so loud in there. I mean, honestly, I didn't eat as much as I could have, but I definitely did not make healthy choices. I had 3, yes 3, glasses of lemonade. There was only 3 different kinds, I had to try them all! I had fried pickles for an appetizer, and I ordered ribs and chicken tenders for my entree. The hubs got wings, so I had two wings, only ate about 1/2 the appetizer, and about 3 ribs, and 1 chicken finger. I did eat all my fries, however, and they were quite terrible, so I ate them all.

I'm not even calculating the points for this one, I'll try to stay within my dailies for the rest of the week and expect to stay the same or gain this weekend. I'll try to step up my "workouts" for the rest of the week and see what happens. I told Chuck this morning to remind me how I felt today the next time we go out to eat. Ugh. And it's raining. I'm leaving work at 11:30 so that I can go home and do homework, which I know is going to turn into doing the dishes and the laundry before I actually do my homework, and I have a speaker that I need to go to tonight, so I can't even do homework all night. This week is going to suck, flat out - 3 midterms, and two papers to write. The only thing that's going to get me through it is that I'll have next Monday and Tuesday off and I can relax and do nothing.

Maybe I should pick up a coffee habit this week...

WI Friday - SV again & October goals

Woo Hoo! I'm so psyched - I'm down another 1.4 lbs. this week which brings me down to 164.4. Yay! I was hoping to see that 164 number on the scale. I'm so glad I've finally figured it out, I just need to track. Yeah, I know it's simple and it's what WW is all about, but it just clicked. I consciously think about what I'm eating and I make sure to get my GHG (good health guidelines) in just about everyday, with the exception of the activity. I've been slacking in that department, but I try to do my weights, crunches and push ups everyday, just for something.

Okay, so let's look at my September goals and see how I did before setting up my October goals:

September Goals:
- Keep up on school - success for the most part. I've started to fall a little bit behind on my reading, but I'm doing better than I normally did, I think.
- Read Bible/pray daily - success again, well half. I've definitely read my Bible, mostly 2x/day, and I'm pretty excited that it's become a normal part of my routine. The praying part is a little bit harder, but I'm still working on it.
- Keep food budget - Success. Other than our trips to Walmart/Costco, I generally stay within my budget for food.
- Be more outgoing - Okay, this is a fail. Since I'm a senior, friends have already been established and I don't think I'll make more friends.
- Be kinder to my hubby - I think this is a kind of success. We still have our disagreements, but I think I'm being a little nicer, I'll keep working on it though.
- Continue jogging - Yep, continued. Not as much as I would have liked to, but I've definitely continued.
- Lift weights - Nope, failed, but I'll keep working
- Push ups - Kind of done. I can do 15 real push ups now :)
- TRACK! - As I've mentioned before, I've discovered the amazingness of tracking everything
- Eat cleaner foods - I like to think that I've done better. I think I have, but I'm still using some processed foods, but my snacks have turned into carrots and dip and bananas rather than chocolate covered pretzel 100 cal. packs.

Overall: not too bad I think. I started the month at 169.2 and ended it today at 164.4 and I think that's pretty awesome. 5lbs. a month is really realistic I think, and if I continue that, I'll be at goal by my birthday in March, which I think is my new goal. 150 by Christmas, and 135 by my birthday. I'll still keep going month by month, though. I don't really know what I want to do once I get to goal. Obviously I don't think I need to keep paying for WW - maybe I'll switch over to Spark People? That'd be free at least. I've been playing around with it, and I really like how it tells you if you're eating enough fat, protein, carbs, calories, etc. rather than just giving you a certain number of points. The only thing I don't like about it, so far, is that I have to transfer all my recipes over to it.

Okay, let's set up some October goals:

Non WW first:
- Continue keeping up on schoolwork. This has to come first. I need good grades to get a good job so I can make better money so that I can have babies quicker! If I think of it like that, maybe I'll actually keep up on my readings and such.
- Keep being kind to Chuck. If he leaves dishes in the sink, don't yell at him for it. Be extra grateful when he does extra chores for me. Don't hold grudges, and forgive as Christ forgives.
- Plan meals and keep a food budget. We just opened a Costco card, so we bought enough snacks for hubs to last a loooong time. I won't have to buy him snacks for quite a while. I just need to cook simple meals with a few ingredients, and it'll be cheaper. Cook leftovers for both him and me for lunches and we're set.
- Read Bible/pray and go to church. As mentioned in my previous post on Monday, we're having troubles going to church. It's so much easier to wake up 5 minutes before Charles Stanley is on and watch it from bed rather than get up, get dressed and drive 25 minutes to church. My goal is to go to church every Sunday in October.

WW goals:
- Continue C25K. If I kept on the program, I should be able to run a 5K by the end of the month. I don't know if I'll be able to continue it that strictly, but I'm sure going to try. I'm on week 5, and I can so finish this by mid November.
- Weights, crunches and push ups daily. That way, even if C25K isn't on my important to do list, I can do these things while watching TV or doing homework, and it's some activity in.
- Track! This is HUGE - as long as I keep tracking and holding myself accountable, I can keep loosing weight. It's easy, and I can do it.
- Get GHGs in everyday. Or at least make an effort to consciously think about what I'm eating.

There you have 'em. I think I'll do a check up around the middle of the month to see how I'm doing. I still can't believe it's October already...