My WW-iversary.

I feel like I've seen a lot of anniversary's lately, and I have one myself! Yesterday, May 17, was one year since I joined WW for the 3rd time. I'm not going to explain the previous two times, you can go to "My Weight Loss Journey" page if you want to read all that.

I will, however, explain my reasons for joining that third and hopefully final time. After just coming back from a business trip to Atlanta, GA, I knew that I wanted to join again. I was unhappy, I wanted to exercise, I wanted to be healthy. I weighed in at a whopping 180lbs. I didn't exercise. I had 1-2 servings of fruit/veg each day, max. My lunches consisted of rice, soup, frozen meals, whatever. Dinners had to be cheap, like pasta w/ cheese cheap. I had seconds, thirds every night. No big deal, right? I had put on 10 pounds since our wedding in December, which was after I put on the 20 pounds I lost the summer before I got married.

The day I signed up for WW, I was SO excited, I discovered the message boards, and found one that I fit in - the 20s board. Even though I'm mostly absent on the boards today, they were my inspiration when I needed it. If I had a question about something, they were there. That day, Mr. Skinny went grocery shopping for whatever reason. He got me super lean beef, and WW snacks, that's all he knew I'd eat.

Now, one year and just about 25 pounds lighter, I'm a whole different person. I might slip back into that Megan, but I'm definitely changed. I can't eat the same amount of food now. A meal isn't balanced without fruits or veggies, seconds are a rare occurrence and thirds are unheard of. I completed a 5K in December, but slacked on my running. I'm picking up running again, slowly but surly. It's a slow, uphill battle, but I'm over halfway there!

I may not be tracking on WW right now, but I am SO thankful that I joined again. I don't even want to know where I would be without WW teaching me everything I know.

Here are some comparison pictures since I don't have any progress pictures. I know, I know, I should have, but I didn't.

May 2010, in Atlanta.

I really never knew my face was that chubby!

March 2011.

The best full body shot I have, May 2010.

That's Martin Luther King's tomb - it was an awesome trip!

Christmas Eve 2009 - how did I go out looking like this?!

This past weekend in OCMD.

Since it's such a slow process (for me), sometimes I don't see the changes like I should, and I don't appreciate them. After looking at these pictures though, I realize that I really do look different, and my body is different. I'm a changed person and I'm never going back!

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How did your weight loss journey start? Have you ever had an issue with weight?

Taking a Break

I'm still here, just feel like I don't have a lot to say about being healthy since I've gained for the 3 week in a row. And school is super stressful.

I don't have any motivation anymore. I'm getting really frustrated. I thought I was doing good, at least for the past two days, and then I step on the scale this morning. See? That's the problem, I stepped on the scale. It changed my whole mood. I actually thought my pants were a bit big, and now I feel like a fat lump.

I know I'm still down 21 pounds from where I started last May, but I should loosing, not gaining. I know I can do it! I've proven that I can do it, so where the heck did that motivation go?

I'm trying to take a step back and figure out what I can do. First of all, I downloaded an app on my iPhone - My Fitness Pal. It's like sparkpeople, counts calories and other nutrients, but it has just about every brand name you could think of.
Jif natural peanut butter? Check.
Stonyfield banilla yogurt? Check.
Kashi GoLean Cruch Honey Almond Flax? Check
It's awesome, so I've been tracking on there for 3 days now, and I think I like something different. Rather than points where my banana, cantaloupe and strawberries are "free" I can realize that they do have calories, but they're good for you, too.

And I'm not stepping on the scale until May 11th. I'm taking a week off. I'm also going to join the OP2Overcome challenge. 21 days completely OP - no going in the red, and tracking every. single. thing. that goes in my mouth. I weighed my food this morning to accurately track it and I'm going to start measuring food, something I've never done before. Yes. You read that right, I've been on WW for almost 1 year and I've never measured my food. It's that bad.

I just restarted my weight history on WW. Fresh new start at 159 starting today. My next goal is my 5% goal at 151. I'll get there. It's a slow trek, but I will get there.

I think I'm also going to post on here what I ate yesterday. Everything I ate yesterday. This is more accountability than anything else. So I know that if I ate a cup of peanut butter and oreos, I have to tell you all - so keep me accountable!! If you have any suggestions, please tell me.

Yesterday's menu:
B - 1 c. Kashi cereal, 1/2 c. Stonyfield yogurt, 1 c. strawberries
S - 1 small apple, 1 tbsp. peanut butter
L - Leftovers, 2 c. cantaloupe
D - 3 oz. pork loin, 3 c. roasted cauliflower, 1 c. skim milk, 3/4 c. quinoa
Activity - 50 minute aerobics class - burned ~319 calories

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Any words of encouragement, stories, advice?

I'm alive!

I'm alive, I promise. I've been reading everyone's blog, commenting when I can, but school is taking over my life.

This weekend was a food fail involving pizza, onion rings, Red Lobster and delicious subs. But hey, it happens to the best of us and we learn from it. I got back on track yesterday, and I'm even more on track today. I'm still not sure if I'm going to WI tomorrow, I might wait until next week and see what the scale says. I need a break from the scale, it's owning my life.

This all looks SO good!

I'm finished my huge paper - 17 pages later! And I have a list of what I need to get done before my semester is over. It's a long list, but I'm slowly crossing things off.

Exercising has been pushed aside, too, although yesterday Mr. Skinny and I got out and I started couch-to-5K again, and I'm really hoping I'll stick to it this time. Hopefully, I can work my way up to increasing miles. Hopefully finish a 5K and work up to a 10K, but I'll get there if and when I get there.

I loose weight slowly. And it's okay. I think.

I'm coming to this realization. Yes, I only had ~40 pounds to loose, and I've been on WW for 1 year and only lost 20 pounds, but I can maintain this. I don't think I could gain that weight back. Yes, it might take me another year to loose the rest, but studies show that the slower you loose weight, the less likely you are to gain it back.

And that's okay with me.

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How do you balance stress, exercise, and healthy eating?

Tips would be appreciated!

Good Wife/Bad Wife

I'm having trouble accepting my "wifely duties" and before anyone gets upset about sexism, please don't get your panties in a bunch. As a Christian wife, there are certain obligations that a wife needs to do in order to make her marriage successful. Submitting herself to her husband is one of them. I think that Meagan explains it in a way that I cannot. Check it out. This passage was a part of our pre-marital counseling, but I didn't truly understand it until Meagan explained it that way.

I am a selfish person. I get it from my Dad. I like people to do things for me, and get annoyed when they don't. When I do something, I want praise. This is a HUGE stumbling block for my marriage. Mr. Skinny does A LOT and when I say a lot, I mean it. He is so kind and thoughtful, he works his butt off to provide for us and does just about anything I ask him to do. He's starting to get annoyed with me that I can't do the small, few things that he asks of me to do. So yesterday at church, I really started praying about changing and being less selfish.

This morning, while I was reading my daily devotion I realized how amazing it is that God created each and every one of us. We were made in His image and He took the time to creat each one of us and thought about every little thing about us. I realized that I'm not doing Him justice by allowing my selfishness to take over my life and my marriage, and I'm knocking the selfish impulses down.

Last night I made Mr. Skinny's lunch and got all his snacks out for him, and I let him balance the checkbook. I unpacked the clothes while he unpacked the toiletries. I did my homework on the way home while he drove. I should have drove the second half home, but I was on a role and he said it was okay. I'm really going to try to continue this. I'm not saying I won't even slip back, but I feel like a better person, and a better Christian for realizing this and trying to actively change.

Other than that, the weekend was a pretty big fail - WW wise. I'm still debating if I want to face the scale this week, or wait until next week. I'm back to healthy eating, but it's the weekends that are SO incredibly difficult. I need to work on them.

Sorry this post was a little all over the place, and sorry I'm MIA so much - school is taking over my life for the next 6 weeks or so. I'm not looking forward to it.

a weekend recap

The plan was to stay OP this weekend, and while I did, my plan changed. My friend didn't come over on Friday night. The truth be told, I told her that Mr. Skinny was sick at work and she might not want to come over. Call me a rotten friend, but we found out Mr. Skinny wasn't working late Friday night, and wasn't working at all on Saturday, so we wanted to have a date night. Some date night, grocery shopping and a Walmart run, oh so fun. That's what happens once you get married I suppose. I still did get Chinese, but I stuck to my original foods that I tracked and was good with that.

Once Mr. Skinny found out that he wasn't working Saturday, we gave my cousin/almost sister the option of coming to our apt. still, or we could go to their house. Of course, we went to their house. Her husband and son are both homebodies and would rather stay home. So we went there yesterday morning, and just got home about an hour ago. We had a good time, made lasagna last night, and I had too much of that. I would have rather have thrown up or had it come out the other end than feel how I felt last night. Oh my word, it was terrible. I haven't felt like that ever, I think, and it was a real eye opener. It showed me that I can't eat that much food anymore, and hopefully taught me not to do it again.

Other than that, I did okay, food wise, this weekend. I roughly tracked what I could, and still have about 20 WPs left, and I haven't even touched my APs yet. Hopefully that means I'll have a good loss this week.

Once my sports bra is finished drying, I'm planning on going to the gym and pounding out a good 4 miles or so on the treadmill. I need to get back into working out on a regular basis. Granted, school is starting this week, and it's going to take me awhile to find a balance between school, work, homework and working out. I'm not sure how that's going to work out, but I'll find it and it'll be okay.

Okay, I'm going to find a way to dry my sports bra faster, I need to get to the gym. I'm nervous for school to start and I think I'm going to take it out on the treadmill.

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How was your weekend? Anything upcoming that you're anxious about?

goals for 2011

It's that time again. Time for everyone to set their get healthier, lose weight, be a better person goals for 2011. I've been thinking about mine. I didn't set any for last year because I just didn't think about it. I was in Disney World, on my honeymoon and enjoying life with Mr. Skinny. I guess our only goal was to get Mr. Skinny a job. That took quite a while, but eventually (March) he found one. The month that we would have had to move home if he didn't find a job, as our savings account was dwindling to nothing, literally, and that's what we were pulling from to pay all our bills.

Mr. Skinny and I have been talking about where we'd like to see ourselves by the end of 2011. He would love to see us be completely out of credit card debt. I agree, but don't know how realistic it is to dig ourselves out of $10,000+ of credit card debt in 1 year. That will be on our list, however, to come up with a strict budget, stick to it, and pay off as much debt as we possibly can. I graduate from college in May, and I'll probably just stick to working at my student job now, and I can as long as I'm still a student, part time or more. I can go to community college and keep working. I will look for a real job, but seeing as how I want to have kids in a year or so, I'm not going to sweat it if I can't find a full time job. God has a plan for us.

1. Pay off as much debt as possible. That doesn't mean the minimum payment. If I want to have a baby, we need to have $0 credit card debt.
2. Keep putting money away in a savings account, save as much money as possible.
3. Continue working on being healthy; losing weight, working out, running, eating healthy. Hopefully this means getting to goal, looking hot and feeling awesome about myself, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I can't get to that.
4. Try new foods, new cuisines. Cook new recipes that I would never have tried before.
5. Get closer with God. Go to church weekly, get involved in a church. God has blessed my life and marriage and I owe Him a lot, and have been neglecting that relationship.
6. Get closer to my husband. We've only been married a year, but it definitely is different when you're married. We see each other pretty much daily, but it's easy to fall into a habit and not take the time to spend a day together. I know we'll be on a strict budget, but I'd like to go on a few weekend trips throughout the year and just spend time together.
7. Move toward vegetarianism. I'm pretty sure I could never become a full vegetarian, the combination of my hate of the texture of beans and my husband's love of meat will prevent that, but I can make a few meatless meals a week, and incorporate vegetarian meals and foods into my diet.
8. Work on my 101 in 1,001 list - there are a few accomplishable goals on this list, and I can keep this list in the back of my mind and get a few crossed out.

There ya have it - my 2011 goals.

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What are your goals/resolution for 2011?