last WI of 2010!

I weighed myself this morning since I won't be home in the morning and I gained, but I only gained 1 lb. I know that it could have been a lot worse, and I left myself eat what I wanted for most of the week, and I didn't track since last Thursday, and I won't until next Monday. I officially changed my WI day from Friday to Tuesday. I decided to do this awhile ago and I'm hoping that it helps keep me accountable on the weekends. With Mr. Skinny working weekends, we'll be home for 2 weekends/month and I can eat well on weekends that I'm home. And Mr. Skinny got an iphone - so I downloaded the WW app, of course, so I can track anywhere I go - there's no excuse now.

Now let's take a look at December's goals.

I started the month at 163 WI, if I don't count my WI today, which I don't think is a true gain - that puts me at a loss of 2 lbs. While it's not awesome, it's okay. With Christmas tossed in there, and just the month of December being the holiday season, I'll take it.

1. Overall I kept my budget low for our food this month. I do still need to work on this those. I'm averaging about $75/week, and I'd like to get it down to about $50/week - which is totally doable.
2. Eating less meat - I haven't been doing too good on this either. For January though, I came up with a day (Tuesday) that I'll always cook meatless dinners. I just can't vocalize it, and Mr. Skinny won't even notice.
3. Ahh my goal for every month that always slides by - praying and reading my Bible. I read my Bible usually every day, but I'm totally slacking on the praying part of my relationship with God.
4. My running. Well, for whatever reason I thought that since I ran my 5K, I could always run a 5K, I didn't need to keep running a 5K to maintain that ability, and it's slipped by the wayside. I have kept up the exercise though, and I'm exercising more than I ever thought I would be. I'll keep that up next month and throughout 2011.
5. Signing up for a gym - woo hoo! Something that's completely done!
6. I haven't been working out 5x week, but as I mentioned before, I've definitely been working out a ton more than I ever have been.
7. I haven't tracked since last Thursday, so failing on the tracking everyday of December, but I did complete a whole cycle of OP to overcome - a challenge on the 20s board, so that's really impressive in my mind.
8. The 150s haven't dropped by yet, but they're right around the corner - they'll be visiting next month and will hopefully be gone by around Valentine's Day or so :)

December wasn't a terrible month, but I didn't give it my all. I will in 2011 though - 2011 is MY year!

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How was your month of December?

falling off the wagon?

It's been a while since I blogged, so this post is a little all over the place. I apologize in advance.

I know I'm falling off the wagon, and I'm okay with it. I weighed myself on Monday morning - just to see where I was after my long, food filled weekend, and I was up at 161.4 - my last WI was 160.8, not too shabby! I knew that some of that wasn't a true gain, with sodium and not drinking water, I figured I haven't really gained anything. I was off work on Monday, and when I'm home, I don't really eat, so I didn't track. Yesterday, we went out to eat with a co-worker who is retiring and I ate wayyy too much fried food. So much fried food that I'm still feeling it - food hangovers suck. With all the fried food, I just didn't track. Today I could track, but what's one day of tracking worth? Forget it, not worth it, since I'll just be off again tomorrow.

I will be weighing myself tomorrow to see the damage from all that gross fried food. Why does fried food have to be SO delicious? Anyways, enough about the fried food. I *will* be back on track come January 3rd. I *will* start working out again regularly. And I *will* start loosing weight again.

I did go to the gym yesterday - I wasn't sleeping well anymore. Oh man, I slept like a rock last night. It felt so good. I'm going to be going back to the gym today and hopefully sleep like a rock again tonight and sleep in late tomorrow because I took the day off! It's amazing how exercise really changes your life. I'm slowly getting used to eating healthy and working out. I can tell how different my body feels and when I slip into old habits, how terrible my body feels. Hopefully this is a change for the good. I have high hopes for 2011.

Oh, by the way, Christmas was good. I got a nook, which was awesome. I ate a lot of good food, not so healthy, but good food. There was a little snow involved on the ride to take my sister-in-law home, but we got out of that. Another awesome present I got? My brand new MACBOOK! I've wanted one of these babies for so long! We got a Best Buy credit card and got it interest free for 24 months - I can't say no to that. So I crossed that off my 101 in 1,001 list! :) After January 1st though, we're done spending money! We have to come up with a strict budget and save money if we ever want to have kids or buy a house.

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How was your holidays?

It's Already Been a Year...

I've been a married woman for one year. The newlywed stage is over, and we're passing the bridge into the real married world. I can't believe it's been a year. We've been through a lot this year, but God has completely taken care of us. We got married on a prayer basically. Mr. Skinny didn't have a job in Maryland when we moved down here. Now, we know it wasn't smart, but we knew God would take care of us. We had our savings account, and our wedding money - kept the bills as small as possible, and made it by. Mr. Skinny got a job in March - the month we would have had to move back up to PA if we couldn't make it through the month - our savings was gone. That was a wonderful birthday present for me - a job for my husband. Not a great job, but it was in his field. In those first three months it was hard, we had a lot of decisions to make - and had a few heartbreaks with jobs we thought Mr. Skinny was going to get. But we got through.

The year flew by. Where did 2010 go? But we're looking forward to 2011 and another year of wedded bliss.

Here's a link to the photos my sister-in-law took at our wedding. She's not a professional photographer, but I love her pictures. I would have posted them on here, but I just got a mac (!!) and don't know how to save them and move them over. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=511955675391&id=83000229&aid=2016711

Headed Home for Christmas!

The car is packed, the presents are packed, the clothes are packed. It's time to go home for Christmas!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

2010 in Photos

We started the year in Disney World - on our honeymoon

In March - my mom and I went to NYC

Easter Sunday!

In May, I went to Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site for 2 weeks. Work trip.

Hood College's 2010 Crab Feast!

Mr. Skinny and I at May Madness at Hood.

We cut down trees for the lot where our house will be.

And burn the brush - saved the firewood.

I surprised Mr. Skinny with a weekend to Baltimore - We're Red Sox fans.

Mr. Skinny water skiing at the lake my parent's live at.

Our adorable little cousin with Mr. Skinny on the "clod"

Little cousin and Mr. Skinny at the beach.

My favorite cousin and I at the beach - she's preggo now!

At the beach.

Then I went to North Dakota - another work trip.

Still North Dakota

We drove to Montana - just so I could say I've been there.

Mom and I at NYC for the Rockettes.


Harry Potter with the most amazing friends ever!

I ran my first race!

Decorating for Christmas at the parents.

Decorating our first Christmas tree!

At Hershey for our first anniversary!

Weekend Getaway!

It was wayyyy too short of a weekend. Mr. Skinny had to work on Saturday, so I picked him up from work around 3pm and we headed up to Hershey. There wasn't any traffic, but it was still a 2 hour drive. I got us there around 5:15. The parking lot of the hotel was packed, so I made Mr. Skinny drop me off, and I went to check us in. Mr. S didn't feel comfortable getting out of the car since he still had his work clothes on and people were walking into the hotel dressed to the T. We checked in, got all our information, then went up to check out the room, which was good, we had to change super quick, dinner was starting at 6:30, but we had to get our tickets about 6pm. We got there on time, no problem, just rushed.

Dinner was delicious! Crab cakes, chicken breast, buttermilk mashed potatoes, spinach (yuck!), roasted carrots. For dessert, individual little yule logs. It was dinner and a show, and the show was pretty good. It was a Christmas Musical - they sang over 40 traditional and not so traditional Christmas songs. After dinner, we went to Sweet Lights. We waited in line for an hour to see the lights. They were okay, but not all that. Honestly, after seeing the Disney lights last year, there's just no comparison. By the end of the lights we were so tired, we passed right out once we got back to the room.

Sunday morning we got up, went down to the Cocoa Beanery and got Hot Chocolate and breakfast. I grabbed a chocolate croissant, and Mr. Skinny got an apple danish. Delish! Then I took him over to the Hotel Hershey for his 60 minute deep tissue massage, went back to our hotel to check out and picked him up. He said the massage was pretty good, not everything he dreamed of though. We headed to the park next, got on about 4 rides, went through the Chocolate World tour, of course, and grabbed lunch.

Our weekend trip was over, that was it. It was incredibly short, and we're trying to plan for the next one. Maybe a spa weekend...?

At dinner

Part of the show

In the car driving through Sweet Lights

Part of the Sweet Lights

All bundled us for the park!

Mr. Skinny all bundled!

WI Friday - Semester's OVER!

I stepped on the scale today and it went down - .2 lbs. I'll take it. Last night before my last final I decided that it would be a good idea to eat macaroni and cheese, and a cheese quesadilla, AND french fries dipped in ketchup/mayo and honey mustard. Oh yes, really smart idea self. It showed on the scale, but I won't complain because I still lost.

Since next week is Christmas (!!!) and the following week is New Years, and I won't be able to WI on Friday. I think I'm going to WI on Thursday morning then. I was toying with the idea of not WI until the Friday after New Years, so 3 weeks from today, but I don't know how smart of an idea that is. I'll keep myself accountable better if I WI every week.

The fall semester of my senior year is over! It's so bizarre, being so close to graduation. Most of my finals went well, I had one so-so final, but that was because I did not pay attention all semester. Trust me, you wouldn't be able to either. The professor is monotone, does a power point, dims the lights, which is basically turning them off, and lets us see the power point. We also get to see the power points, and have a cheat sheet for our midterm and final. Would you pay attention in class? I got an A in one of my classes, and until something goes really wrong with my finals, I'll have all As and Bs this semester!

One thing I'm really excited about is that I can go to the gym regularly again. I'm quite excited about this. I'm going after work today, tomorrow morning, and next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after work. I'll probably skip Thursday and Friday, but hopefully Saturday I can run on my parents treadmill, and maybe Sunday, too. I'm going to earn as many APs as I can to counterbalance my whatever eating on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I still haven't decided if I'm going to track or just stuff my face.

This weekend is our anniversary weekend, well not really, but we're celebrating. I paid for Mr. Skinny to get a massage. He's a construction worker, and he could really use the massage, so that's his anniversary/Christmas present from me! :) Aren't I such a good wife??

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How are you going to handle the holidays?

Finals update & Weekend Plans

Oh yes, it's that time of year - finals time. I took my first final yesterday, Old Testament, and I'm pretty sure I got a really good grade. If I got about a 90 or above, I'll finish the class with an "A" which would be fabulous! Now I'm down to 3 more finals, all tomorrow, and a 4 page paper to write. Ugh. My plan was to leave early from work today and go home, go to the gym quick, and write my paper. I can't wait to this weekend.

Mr. Skinny and I will be married for one year on the 27th, and we're going to Hershey Park this weekend to celebrate our anniversary early. Since our real anniversary isn't on a weekend, and it's Christmas weekend, we'll just go a week early. I'm so excited though, but Mr. Skinny has to work on Saturday, so we won't be going as early as I would have liked. But its still a weekend away. We're going to get dinner and watch a Holiday Musical, go see the lights, and I think on Sunday we'll be going to the park to walk around and see the lights, and maybe ride some rides. I'm pretty excited.

With finals this week, I haven't been going to the gym like I should. I think I'll go Friday after work, and hopefully Saturday morning, too. Starting next week, I might start going to classes after work. I'll be back to full time next week at my job for 5 days, so no more going to the gym first thing in the morning, I'll probably stick to going every day or almost every day, and hopefully in the morning, I'll get up and either do yoga or strength training from Spark People. That's my ideal goal. We'll see how well that works out, considering that it is so cold in the morning.

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What do you do for your anniversary?

Christmas Tree!

I mentioned in my previous post that the hubs and I got a Christmas tree, so I had to show some pictures of it!

Pretending to fluff out the tree. Mr. Skinny doesn't like to fluff.

And pretending to put up ornaments.

I tried to take a nice picture, and this is what I get...

Finally, a nice picture with the finished tree!


Our first married Christmas ornament!

Office Christmas Party

...yeah, and I'm in charge. Oh yeah, I get to pick out the games, and make sure everyone signs up to bring food. I'm pretty proud of myself though, in regards to eating. I tried to track, I really tried to, but it's all casseroles, and souflees, and I'm not even sure what's in some of these things. I saved 19 WPs for this party, still have my 6 APs I earned on Friday, and had 16 DPs left (already tracked dinner). Even after tracking, I still have 9 WPs left, and I didn't touch my APs. I'm going to the gym after work today, already have my gym clothes, and I'll be earning some more APs.

Quick weekend recap: My parents came down on Saturday, we went to Red Lobster, but I got salmon and crab legs and didn't use any butter, but I did have my baked potato with sour cream and butter. Shame on me! Ate some of the appetizer, but I tracked what I could. The hubs and I got our Christmas tree! We decorated on Saturday night, along with a few glasses of wine. We went shopping yesterday and spent money we don't have. Come January 1st, we're done spending unnecessary money (more to come on that with my New Year's Resolutions Post).

Happy Monday everyone!

WI Friday

I lost! I lost 2 pounds and I'm quite excited. I snuck a peek on Wednesday (bad idea) and was at 163 - meaning I'd maintained, but I hopped on the scale this morning and lo and behold, it said 161! Yay! This is the first SV I've had in a while, thank you new plan. I'm still determined to get in the 150's by Christmas, maybe even a little beyond the 150s.. like 155 or something, but I know that's pushing it.

Now that I joined the gym, I can definitely work out 5x week. I already have it planned out to go to the gym Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work, and Tuesday and Thursday before school, well until I'm back to work full time. Then I don't know what I'm going to do. I should get up every morning at the same time, if I don't then I slack off the mornings that I should get up at 5:30. Maybe I'll do strength training on Tuesday/Thursdays and yoga on Mondays/Wednesdays. I'm not going to lie, I give myself Fridays to "sleep in" until 6:15, since I don't have to get up early the next day.

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What's your work-out schedule?

Joined a gym, but I'm scuuured

Woo Hoo! I get to cross another thing off my 101 list! I went and joined a gym today! It's been something I've been waiting to get the "okay" from my financial adviser husband, meaning he does the bills. I got the okay, and away I went today.

I'm nervous and excited. I feel like I won't fit in, or I'll look too fat to be on the treadmill, running, or on the elliptical. It also comes with a few personal training sessions, and I'm nervous that I'm too weak. I know this is all in my head, but it's the truth. I want to go to pilates, and spinning and yoga, but I'm nervous about meeting new people and not fitting in. It's the little kid in my coming out.

Since one of my 101 things is to photograph what I could, here are my photos :)

I got a little muscle going, right?

Me and the 12 month contract

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How did joining your first gym go?

Jingle Bell 5K

I did it! I ran my first race! Well *ran* may not be the best description, I ran *most* of it. I took a few walking breaks, but only allowed myself to walk for about 30 seconds - 1 minute at a time. I am so incredibly proud of myself. My old roommate and I did the race together, although she finished 7 minutes faster than I did, but I'm a newbie runner, I'll admit it, and she's been running longer than I have, at least a year longer. I finished in 42 minutes and some odd seconds, but I did it! If you would have told me a year ago where I'd be right now, I would have laughed in your face, seriously. I never would have thought that I'd be a runner.

Since I ran my race, this is also the first thing I get to cross off on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days! It's a monumental occasion. I was looking at other races, I'd be up for another one shortly, but sadly there's really none around me for the next few months. Nothing I'd really want to go to anyways. My roommate and I were talking about maybe training for a half in May. Seriously, I can't even believe I'm considering signing up to run 13.1 miles. That's crazy talk!

Here's some pictures from the race:

My race number!

All ready to run!

Post race lunch!

Woo hoo! I finished my race!

WI Friday and December Goals

The scale went up, but only 0.2 lbs. from my last official WI. I was quite excited. I know I can do this, I can stay on plan for the month of December, and I will.

Now for December's goals, some are the same, and some are a bit different, but here they are:

• Plan my menu and keep my budget low. Also try new foods. I'm getting stuck in a food rut, eggs for breakfast, salad, sandwich or leftovers for dinner, and although I try new recipes, I still tend to cook the same type of food.
• Go meatless, kind of. Make 3 meatless dinners/week. I'm not going to count fish as meat, and that should be motivation to eat fish once/week, which I should be doing.
• Read Bible/pray daily. This is the same as the past few months, but this is something I really need to focus on. I've been totally slacking on the praying, so I need to find some time to do devotions.
• Continue running. This is kind of obvious. I'm running my first 5K tomorrow (!!) and I just need to keep it up. I can do it, slowly and consistantly and I'll be running longer distances
• Join a gym. I know which gym I want to join, and I'm just waiting for the "ok" from my financial advisor - the hubs. He runs the bills, I don't touch the checkbook, so once he knows we have the money to do it, I'll join, hopefully very soon.
• Workout 5x/week. Yes, same as last month, but I need to do it. There's no reason why I can't wake up and do yoga on Tuesday and Thursday and run Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Especially if I join a gym, I can go there a few days a week, join a yoga class, pilates class, P90x or zumba.
• Track everyday! I want to track everything for every single day of December. I can totally do this. There's no reason not to. Even Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, I can plan and I can track.
• Get into the 150's - solidly. Seriously, I should have been in the 150's by the time school starting, but I was slacking, majorly, and sort of still am.

There you have them, my December goals. Time to write them down and put them on my desk so I can remember them. I've lost 17 lbs. and I have about 30ish to go. I want to be at goal by summer, I can do this!

Whaaa... It's December...?

Wow, I've been married for almost 1 year. Holy cow, where did 2010 go? Time to review those November goals, which I know I didn't do very well. First of all, I went from 164.2 to who knows where. I haven't had a real OP week all of November, I think. With Harry Potter, and Jamestown, and Thanksgiving, it just did not go as well as planned. I have hope for December though, I want to finish the year out strong!

November:
- Keep up on schoolwork - Completed. Not as well as I should have done, but I didn't slack any more than normal either.
- Kind to the hubs - I think I did well with this one. I'll have to ask him and see how I've done.
- Keep a LOW food budget - I'm not sure how I did with this one. With DH's new job, and almost not having a job, I think we've done pretty well. I need to stop spending money though. I'm using Christmas as an excuse to by myself everything, and it's bad.
- Read Bible/pray daily - I slacked on this, too. I need to pray more, daily, but I have been reading my Bible almost every day.
- Continue and finish C25K - Done! Yay! Okay well I can run for 30 minutes, once, and it's not even a 5K, but I'm running my first 5K this weekend (!) so we'll see how that goes.
- Work out 5x/week - Ha ha ha. Epic fail, not just any fail but an epic fail. I would run, maybe 2x week. I did yoga 1 day and stopped, I popped 30 Day Shred in my DVD player and watched it. Seriously. Epic Fail.
- Track everything I eat! - Another fail. Well, kind of fail. Other than the week before Thanksgiving, I tracked. I tracked everything, I think.

Overall, it was not a good month. I don't even know if I gained or not. Tomorrow is my first WI of December, and I'm super nervous. I'm going to come up with some new goals for December, and as in new, I mean new, not the same ones month after month. I need to start incorporate my 101 Things into my life.

I'll update you one WI tomorrow and my December goals.

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What are your December goals??