WI Wednesday and Reflection

*Sorry for the big paragraph chunks. I hate it too, but Blogger won't let me change it :( I gained again, but it's not bothering me today. I feel back on track, I know where I'm headed and what I need to do. That run on Monday really helped me out and get my head back on straight. I only gained 0.6, and I didn't drink all my water yesterday, and have leftover shrimp linguine alfredo for lunch yesterday. I did work out on Monday, worked out yesterday thanks to my Aerobics class - by the way, the instructor is a personal trainer and in my opinion, she brings too much of her personal trainer personality into a college PE class. Seriously, she could give Jillian Michaels a run for her money. And yet, she treats us like we know nothing about health and fitness, anyways, that's another topic. I've also been really focused on eating real foods over processed foods, as well as eating less meat. I'm debating erasing my weight history on my weight tracker - again. I've been doing so badly in the past few weeks that my average loss is actually an average gain! That's pretty depressing, don't ya think? Since it's almost the end of March, I'm going to look back on the month. I'll also look back on my weekly goals. - I maintained this month. I lost in the beginning, and gained in the end, but I will end the month with the exact same weight that I started the month off at - 158.4 - and I don't view that as a fail, but rather a learning experience. I can go on vacation and not gain a ton of weight. I can have an off month with minimal exercising and maintain. - I haven't been doing my yoga. I really want to get back into yoga, I'm just having a hard time finding the time to do it, and I'd really like to go to a class, it's so much easier to do in a class than by yourself. - Tracking this month was pretty off. Tracking this week was pretty off, too. I didn't track the weekend and most certainly did not track the deliciousness I had from Red Robin or Red Lobster. Fail. - This week I've really done better at spending time with God, and being a better wife, so those are both wins as far as goals go. - I successfully interviewed my dad for my research paper, but I haven't set up a time to interview my uncle yet. I'm waiting for HIM to get back to ME. Not my fault.

This week's (3/30 - 4/5) goals:

WW goals -

- Work out 3 times

- Track EVERYTHING!

Non WW goals -

- Start researching Native American paper and writing Sem. paper

- Continue being a nice wife

- Continue doing my daily devotions - these are helping me so much. I realized that my Bible has daily devotions, so I started from the beginning and I'm going through them, and I feel like God wrote them just for me. It's a wonderful feeling. I might write a blog each morning or evening about my daily devotion and just reflect on it.

Just for some April goals, nothing major, I'm going to be focusing more on weekly goals.

- Get the scale moving in the right direction again.

- Aim for 60APs in the month of April. I did it in January, I can do it again.

What are your April goals?

goodbye february, hello march!

February wasn't the best of months. I'm really ready to say goodbye to it!



I started out the month with a WI of 157.6 and I have a feeling that I'll be ending the month roughly the same weight. Granted, it was a challenging month, dealing with heartbreak and death, so I think that I didn't gain anything this month is impressive. I hopped right back on the WW train once we got home, and I actually missed eating healthy.

I love the promise of a new anything; new day, week, month, year. It's fantastic, just imaging what that newness has to bring you, setting up high expectations for the new time. I love it.

So here's to March!


This month, I'm headed on vacation for 1 week with my momma to Disney World. I know where we're going to eat, and I'm not going to be tracking. I plan on focusing on my hungar signals, and hopefully getting my GHGs in, but I know me, and it's all going to be thrown to the wind when I get down there. No, I'm not setting myself up to fail, but I'm setting the expectation rather low.

That's the only thing that might be throwing me off this month. Other than that I'm going to track every day and really focus on my GHGs, which I've been doing really good with.

I really want to start yoga again, but my gym only has a class on Mondays at 5:30 which doesn't really work out for me. I could make it work, but it's not ideal. I usually do my workout from 4:20-5:15ish, go home, make dinner, eat, do dishes/laundry and do homework/watch TV and head to bed. Doing yoga at 5:30 would just screw it up for me. I'm thinking I need to do yoga in the morning, and just get some DVDs. Does anyone have any recommendations for some good yoga DVDs?

Schoolwork, ahh schoolwork. I really need to stay on top of my schoolwork. Do the readings. Do the extra credit. Do the papers early. Start the papers way early. I'm really going to try to buckle down on this in March and do really well.

Spending time with God and spending time with Mr. Skinny. God is important to me, very important and I know that I don't give Him the amount of quality time that I should be devoting to him. I need to pray more, find a devotional to read and spend time in God's word with Him. There are a lot of decisions that we have to make in the new few months and we need to focus on our own journey with God to come to the right decisions.

And Mr. Skinny. Oh my wonderful Mr. Skinny who is calling lenders right now to see how much of a down payment we need in order to buy a house. My wonderful Mr. Skinny who loves to drink his mountain dew and won't drink the smoothies I make for him. My wonderful Mr. Skinny who loves to work 12 hour days on the job site, but won't take a walk with me on the weekends. My wonderful Mr. Skinny who will eat the roasted asparagus I make for him, but eats a lunch full of processed foods. That's my Mr. Skinny, and I want to spend more time with him, and help him see that just because he is skinny doesn't mean that he health is perfect. I want us to have a wonderful and long life together, God willing, and he needs to see that he can only help himself.

There ya have 'em, my long winded March goals!

february goals

Here they are, my February goals. I've had these written on my desk for about a week or so, but between being at school and I don't have them there and it not being February yet, I'll finally have them up today.

Please forgive the terrible phone picture... sigh

1. Track E V E R Y D A Y!

Seriously, there's only 28 days, with no vacations, big plans on the calendar to through me off track. Even Valentine's Day -- eh, no big deal. I do want to go on a date night to a fancy place, but I'll track that to the best of my ability.

2. Workout 3-4x week.

That does NOT include my 2 step aerobics classes that I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There's no reason that I can't go after work MWF and one day on the weekends. Even if it was just yoga or strength training, something to get me moving.

3. Stay on top of schoolwork.

Oh yes, the time has come again for my schoolwork to start. This is my last semester, and I want to go out with a bang. I don't have the best work ethic, but I have to stay on top of my homework to do the best I possibly can this semester. That's my goal. I'm not shooting for straight A's but for the best that I can. I'm going to give it my all.

4. Spend more time with Mr. Skinny.

Quality time. Being the same room and each on our own electronics is not quality time. I'm going to hopefully be able to shut off our phones/laptops and enjoy each other, just talk and hold hands.

5. Continue trying new foods.

I have brussel sprouts in my freezer waiting for me, and I still have a couple things on my list to try. Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate some of them in my meals this month.

6. 60 situps a day.

I'm increasing this from 50 last month to 60 this month. If I do 15 crunches and 15 reverse crunches in the morning and at night, that's 60 right there. I can do that.

7. Weights 4x/week.

Until I come up with the money to buy New Rules of Lifting for Women, I'll just continue to follow my own upper body weight schedule and I'm going to focus on doing that 4x/week.

There ya have 'em! Keep me accountable please!

goal check-up

I figured I've gotta check myself each month and see how I'm doing on my goal, both for the month and for the year (if you forgot them, check them out here and here).

First for the monthly goals:

1) Start going to classes at the gym.

Yeah, I started to meet this one when I took my cycling class, but then I fell off the wagon. Not so much because I wanted to, it just worked out that way. I would like to work on this more next month though, if time allows.

2) Track EVERYDAY!
I actually succeeded at this one. I've tracked, accurately to my knowledge, every day since January 3rd! That's a huge accomplishment for me.

3) Try new foods
I tried 2 new foods, quinoa and polenta. Not too bad. I had the intention of trying brussel sprouts, they're sitting in my freezer as I type. I'll get there, eventually.

4) Follow a vegetarian diet 3 days/week
I'm going to say that I met this. I made a conscious effort to focus on what kinds of foods I was putting into my body. I didn't specifically figure out how many days I went vegetarian, but it was a good chunk.

5) 50 Situps each day
I tried. I made an effort on the days that I rememberd, and I'm going to increase this next month. I can feel my abs! They're still under the fat, but they're there!

6) Read Bible daily/pray/devotions
Um. Yeah. About this one... Not so great. I've been reading, but didn't do too well on the praying. And I haven't come up with the money for the devotional book yet. I'll keep working on it.

Overall, I think that January was a successful month. The tracking really helped me out a lot, and it showed me that I can stay OP even when I'm home, or out, or want to have pizza or Chinese for dinner. I can do it.

I started out at 163.2 and as of Wednesday's WI - I was 158.2 for a loss of exactly 5 pounds! I know that the first week was probably just a fluke gain, ya know, too much salt from New Years, not enough water kinda thing, but still. I haven't lost 5 lbs. in a month since September. I'm pretty proud of myself.

Now for a check on the 2011 goals.

1) Pay off debt

Ya know what? I'll say we're definitely making a good move in this one. We just got my college refund check -- yes, my college is paying me to go to school (it's a FAFSA thing, my financial aid was more than my bill for this year). So that check will be used to pay off one of our credit cards, and a chunk of another one. Then we'll be down to 2 credit cards! Woo hoo! We're slowly moving.

2)Keep adding more savings

DH is awesome with out checking/savings accounts. I swear he pulls money out of the air to put into savings, and it's fantastic. The last chunk of money from my refund is going to go in our savings account, so we'll have almost 1 months supply of money if we need to use it.

3)Work on being healthy

See above; I've been making a dent in that.

4)Try new foods and cuisines.

Again, see above

5)Closer to God

Not as much as I should be, but I'm working on it.

6)Get closer to Mr. Skinny

Big fat fail. Our electronics get in the way of us watching a movie together, or playing a game. He's on his iphone, I'm on my mac, and we're just not talking. It's terrible, and I'm hoping that sometime when it gets warmer we can go to DC for a day, or just spend an electronic free day alone and play monopoly or cards or something.

7)Vegetarianism

See above, slowly accomplishing

8)101 in 1,001

Another fail. I need to revisit that again. Hmm.

january goals!

With all the chaos of starting a new year, along with coming up with yearly goals, my January goals kind of fell by the wayside. I wrote them up last week and stuck them in my little office space, but I haven't updated them on my blog.

As always, some are the same, and hopefully some have changed.

• Start going to classes at the gym.

I need to start mixing up my workouts and my gym offers a few classes. It's a pretty small gym, so we don't have a ton to choose from, but there are a few I'd like to try out. Especially since Mr. Skinny is going to be working about an hour away from home, but with DC traffic - he won't be getting home until around 8pm or so. Monday nights there is a group strength training class that I'd like to try. There's also yoga and Zumba. Tuesday night is cycling. Wednesday is kickboxing, pilates, and Zumba. Thursdays is cycling (different teacher), and a variation of P90X. Friday is Hatha Yoga, and Saturday is core cardio conditioning and pilates. Really, I'd love to try all these classes, but I'll start going a few times a week to some and see what I like. I thought I would try out the classes now, with everyone starting their NYR, I wouldn't be the only one who looks like they don't know what they're doing.

• Track EVERYDAY!

There's absolutely no excuse for me to not track everyday. There is nothing huge coming up this month, and even when I'm home, I can take my clif bars, and some apples and bananas to snack on instead of eating junk food.

• Try new foods

I would like to try some meatless options: tofu, morningstar products, etc. I don't exactly know how I'm going to handle Mr. Skinny who loves his meat. This also means new cuisines, new recipes I never thought that I would try. I'd love to try some Indian food, too.

• Follow a vegetarian diet 3 days/week

I'd really like the make the move to becoming a (at least part-time) vegetarian. The first step would be to eat vegetarian as much as possible. Yes, Mr. Skinny would never allow himself to be dubbed "vegetarian" but I'd like to do what I can. My main reasons for this switch are the health factors and the killing of animals. Who made me so high up on the food chain that I can eat other things that were alive at some point. I'm really hoping that even if I can't get Mr. Skinny onboard with my vegetarianism, that I could at least make the switch to eating only organic meat, and using it sparingly.

• 50 Situps each day

Kristine on the 20s WW board is starting a situp challenge, and I'm totally hopping on board. My goal is to do 25 sit-ups each morning, and 25 each evening. This is totally achievable, and I've already started my 25 this morning. Hopefully each month I can increase it by 10 every day and then eventually do 200 situps in one sitting!

• Read Bible daily/pray/devotions

With my wonderful Nook for Christmas, I've already downloaded a ton of free samples of some women's devotion books. I'd like to read my Bible each morning with my In Touch devotion, then each evening before bed read my women's devotion. This morning, I prayed while I was getting ready, and it was wonderful. I know I can do that every day with no problems.

There you have them, my January 2011 goals. No number goals, and every single one of these goals are totally achievable. I will, for the first time, meet all my goals of the month. We'll see what January brings.

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?

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??

October Review

Okay, let's review last months goals and introduce this months, which really aren't that different from last months...



- Continue keeping up on schoolwork: For the most part, I was successful. I've been slacking on my reading a little bit, but I haven't been falling behind.

- Keep being kind to Chuck: I actually asked the hubs about this, and he said I had my moments, but for the most part, I was pretty good and was kind to him.

- Plan meals and keep a food budget: I've been ballin' at this one. I spend, on average, about $50-$60/week on the two of us. Seeing how I struggled with spending $100/week, I think I've done awesomly.

- Read Bible/pray and go to church: Not completely successful, but mostly. I read my Bible everynight, and I've been trying every morning. I think I've done a good job at turning to God for everything, too.

- Go to church every Sunday in October: Fail, we only went twice.

- Continue C25K: Um, wayy successful, seeing as how I think if you told me at the beginning of October that I'd be running a race in December I would have spit out whatever I was drinking and laughed at you.

- Weights, crunches and push ups daily: Pretty much a total fail on this part. I started out really strong, but I've been totally slacking.

- Track: I had my bout with Spark People, and tracked on that, but I think I tracked just about everything. I skipped out on two weekends, but I tracked during the week.

- Get GHGs in everyday: I really have made more of a conscious effort to get the right amount of everything in, and I think I've done pretty good.



Overall, I think I did pretty well last month. I went from 164.4 to 163.2, so I need to step up that game, for sure. The weekends totally threw me off, I'll blame them. I had a great month in Sept. for weight loss, not so much for October, but we'll see what November brings.



Now for November's goals:



- Keep up on schoolwork: The end of the semester is closer and closer, and I'll be starting to stress more, so I need to keep up on work now so that I can do really well on my finals and such

- Kind to hubs: As I've said, he's a wonderful, wonderful man, and he is fantastic to me, and treats me much better than I deserve sometimes

- Food budget: I just need to continue cooking simple recipes, and I can keep our budget low.

- Read Bible/Pray daily: As I mentioned before, I'm doing better with turning to God for my worries and such, and I still have a long way to go.

- Finish C25K: I'm confident that I can finish C25K this month. I'm currently on week six. Once I'm finished with this, I want to continue and do the bridge to 10K.

- Work out 5x week: As I mentioned in my previous post, I have it all planned out. I know I'll be eating more with the holidays coming up, and the only way to counteract that is to workout a ton!

- Track! I need to be honest with myself, and if I eat a ton, I need to track it and hopefully learn my lesson to not do it again. Now I changed my WI day from Friday to Tuesday. I'm hoping that will keep me more accountable with my weekends free-for-alls. I'm nervous for tomorrow, but I get what I deserve, and it'll be okay. I'll move on, and earn some APs.

There you have it, my November goals!

Halloween is over!

Yes, I am excited that Halloween is over. I'm a super chicken wimp and hate being scared, and therefore don't like Halloween. The only thing good about Halloween is that it's one step closer to Christmas, and it's the hub's birthday, and I had to be a good wife and do whatever he wanted yesterday. He got to go to the Penn State/Michigan game on Saturday with my cousin's husband. I hung out with my cousin and her son while the boys were at the game, and yesterday we ordered pizza for his birthday.

I ate like a pig this weekend, I did run on Saturday, but that was it. I tracked it all though, which is a huge step for me, and I will move on, regardless of being in the red about 30 points this weekend. I always do really good during the week because I plan out my food, it's just the weekends that are so terrible. Especially weekends that we are away. I planned out all my workouts for November, and am hoping to work out 5x/week. I want to start my 30 Day Shred again, well for 2 days/week, and I'll run 3 days/week. I even have it written on my calendar at work.

I have my list of goals for November, and I'll do a separate post on Oct/Nov goals, probably later today or tomorrow. I just moved desks at work and I'm so disoriented, it's so strange to be in a new place in the same building.

Happy Monday!

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 - 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...

i missed the hogwarts express again!

It's September first, and that means I've missed the Hogwarts Express again (yes, I know that Hogwarts is NOT real, but a girl can still dream, right?), and I'm stuck in reality, but it's a new month, with new possibilities, a fresh new start.

Another good thing about September is that I can start playing Christmas music. I know that it's only September, but for a girl who had a Christmas themed wedding, I'll play Christmas music as early as I would like, thank you very much! :)

I'm still on my "test" of succeeding at losing weight without WW, and I'm not doing very well. I think it's because I'm eating nuts and PB just about every day, and I know that I'm not eating lower points things to make up for that. I'm pretty sure I'll be facing a gain this week, which is proof that I NEED to count points. I was hoping that I could quit WW and not have to pay, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

Balancing school, WW, working and being a wife is hard work. I just can't find that perfect balance that I need in order to succeed this semester. I think I got spoiled because I was only working for the first 8 months of our marriage and I could come home and cuddle with the hubby and watch tv for 4 hours if I wanted. Now, I don't have time to do that, I have reading to do. Chuck knows that, and he's trying to help, but he doesn't understand the amount that I have to read every night to stay on top of things. I have really easy classes, I know I do, and I love that, but I still have to read just about every night.

I think I'll really plan out my meals for next week, including points values, that will be homework in and of itself. I need to lose this weight, my average weekly loss is 0.3 - 0.3! That's terrible! I can plan everything now, and I need to. I'm still doing C25K, generally, every morning, so I know that weight loss will slow down because I'm not exercising as much as I've been since May. So I need to be super consious about my food intake so that I can still lose weight.

Now to go over my goals from August and judge myself on them.

• Harder work ethic - I did okay. I'm not saying I did as well as I would have liked, but I think I'm working more than I was. Granted, some of that could be a result of only working 3x/week and I have to work during those three days to stay on top, but still.
• Better Christian - I like to think that I am, but I'm not. I'm not praying and turning to God as much as I should be. I'm not reading my Bible every day, only when it's convenient.
• More responsible with money - Honestly, I think I succeeded with this. I didn't buy anything for myself unless I needed it. I've kept food shopping as cheap as possible.
• Stick to a budget - Continuing with the last goal, I've done better, but not as good as I should be, I'll continue working on this, especially because we have less money to work with now that I'm in school.
• Continue C25K - Finally, an actual success. I have continued C25K, although I think I'm going to change it up to jogging for a certain length of time, straight up, then walking. I get so tired if I alternate walking and jogging, I'd rather just jog.
• Track weekends - Fail. Seeing as I haven't tracked anything since the beginning of August, this is a MAJOR fail.
• Meet GHGs - Another success. I've been very conscious about what I'm putting in my mouth, and I think this month I'm going to work on eating "cleanly"
• Workout 10x week - Nope, didn't meet this one either. I have made an effort to workout though, and that's more than I could say I did 6 months ago.

All in all, it was a pretty bad month. I started the month at 170.6 and ended it at 169 ish. That's terrible. I don't feel better than I did, and yes, the life changing is very much so sinking in, but I need to show it on the scale, stop eating everything all weekend and indulging in what I want to eat.

Now for September's goals

Non weight loss goals:

• Don't get behind on schoolwork
• Read my Bible and pray daily
• Keep on a food budget
• Be more outgoing, and don't be afraid to talk to people
• Be kinder to my husband, he's doing a lot for me, and sometimes I just take all my stress out on him

WW goals:

• Continue jogging - either C25K or just jogging
• Start weight lifting
• Track, track, track
• Eat cleaner foods. Stick to real food, not food products, even if it means sacrificing points to do so.
• Do pushups daily

august goals

It's unbelievable how fast this year is going! I don't even want to think about starting school again in 3 weeks - yes, 3 weeks! Since it's a new month, I need to do a new monthly goal. Really, I think I need daily goals to keep me motivated each day, weekly goals for something long term, but not too long term, and monthly goals to keep me motivated long term.

Non WW goals:
- Harder work ethic - I am lazy, there's no way around it. I get comfortable in a job, and I feel like I earned my right to slack, which makes no sense, and I know that.
- Be a better Christian, one day at a time - I'm really trying to focus on God, read my Bible, give Him my worries, so I need to read my Bible daily and pray constantly, thanking Him, asking for advice and help
- Be more responsible with money - once school starts up again, hubby and I will be down $600/month and right now we have about $100 leftover everymonth. We're trying to figure out how to shave down some bills and be able to pay for the things we need, like electric, rent, car insurance and car payments. No, I don't NEED new clothes or fancy things.
- Stick to a budget - hubby pays the bills, my only job is to pick out the food and buy it. My job is to keep our food budget as small as possible. Right now it's $100/week, but I'm going to try really hard to shave it down to $75 or $50 week, which can save us up to $200/month.

WW goals:
- Continue on my C25K training - I want to run so bad, I just bought new shoes while I was at the beach, and I know I can complete C25K, so I want to keep working on it.
- Track on weekends - I've always had problems tracking on weekends, but right now it looks like I'll be home 2 weekends, so I can stay OP then, and I just need to learn to make smart choices. This is a LIFE CHANGE not a DIET, and I need to start treating it like that.
- Meet my GHGs everyday - I can do this, even if I'm not strictly OP, I need to meet my GHGs every day. I can drink water constantly, and make a green monster to get in fruits/veggies, dairy, and oil in 1 drink.
- Workout 2x/day 5 days/week - I know 10x/week might seem like a lot, but it's Monday-Friday that I'm easily on plan. I have the time, and even when I start school, I can still get up in the morning and run/Shred, I have yoga class on Tues/Thursday, so that knocks that out.

Whew! I need to write these down and put them somewhere so that I remember them and can focus on them. I should put them on my fridge and anywhere else I'll look.