Weigh-In Wednesday

Happy weigh-in Wednesday, everyone! And YAY for it being the middle of the week! I for one feel like this week has really dragged on. I was ready for the weekend on Monday! Here are this week’s weigh-in results:

“–40.6”

Woohoo, that’s a 2.4 lb loss this week! I was thrilled when I stepped on the scale, but not surprised, as I have been doing a great job with workouts and eating. I’ve been riding my bike to and from work 2-3 days a week, riding my bike on the weekends, and going back to zumba 1 or 2 times a week. It has really helped kick my metabolism back into gear! In addition, I ate my daily points, my 22 activity points, and only 7 of my weeklies. That’s by far the fewest weeklies I’ve eaten since I was bumped down from 33 points a day to 32 points a day.

Currently, I’m at 195.4 lbs which is only 0.4 lbs away from what my driver’s license SAYS I weigh, lol! I’m pretty pumped about that. I can’t wait to get it changed when I get down to goal weight! In addition, there are some pretty cool things coming up: on July 7, I have my “Simplywell” screening at work. This is a wellness program in which we as employees of the institution can enroll, and by doing different things, get lower premiums on our health insurance. These “things” include tracking health/wellness speakers, getting a massage (!!!), doctor’s appointments, exercise, water intake, etc. At the beginning of each fiscal year, we have to “re-start” and go to get a health screening that includes blood pressure, height, weight, and blood sugar readings. Last year, I weighed 243 at this screening…this year, if I’m able to lose 2.4 more pounds before July 7, I will have lost 50 POUNDS in between the years! I can’t wait to go to the screening 🙂 lol. I’m also only 6.4 lbs away from what I wanted to weigh at Gencon, which is 189…we’ll see if I make it. I have a little over a month to get there. I know I’ll be close!

To finish up this post, I wanted to include the photos that I posted on Monday, just in case y’all missed them. Since I’ve lost 77 pounds as of now, I figured a little “before and after” was necessary!

BEFORE:

AFTER: (picture taken this past Sunday, 6/22/14)

I also got one of my other new Gencon shirts in the mail yesterday, and I LOVE it:

“Time Lord Drinking Team–Timey Wimey to get Wibbley Wobbley!”

Isn’t that HILARIOUS?! It is a men’s athletic tee from American Apparel and is an XL…definitely a better fit than the huge 2XL I got from them that I’ll have to alter a bit I think. Anyway, hope you all have a great weigh-in, happy hump day!

Transformation Tuesday…on a Monday!

Happy Monday, y’all! I got so excited about the photos that I’m posting today that I just couldn’t wait until tomorrow to post! Yesterday, I received the second of my four tshirts in the mail that I plan on wearing to Gencon. It is so cute…it says “Cthul-Who” and has a chthulu on it wearing a fez, lol ! It’s a women’s babydoll 2x…I was worried that it was going to be too small, as women’s sizes often are. It was a bit too small, but I stretched out the bottom, and it fit perfectly! So, drumroll please…transformation here I come!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE IT! That’s what a 75 lb difference looks like right there. I honestly couldn’t stop staring at the pic on my phone yesterday when I took it. I was like, “is that me? for real? I look AWESOME!” So yeah, I’m getting it. Props to all of my blog buddies out there who are doing the same 🙂 Happy Monday again, and I’ll see you in a couple days for Weigh-in Wednesday!

Weigh-In Wednesday

Good morning, friends! It’s time for yet another weigh-in Wednesday link-up with Heather, Ash, and Erin! I look forward to my weigh-in each and every week to see what kind of progress I’m making. This week, my hard work in being diligent both food and exercise-wise really paid off:

“–38.2”

That’s –2 lbs this week, which is also astounding because it’s TOM week! I was really proud of myself when I saw that number. It also put me over the 75 lb loss total, which just blows my mind. I HAVE LOST SEVENTY-FIVE POUNDS. What. the. eff. That is so freakin’ awesome! It can be done, people! I’m at 197.8 lbs now, which is only 2.8 lbs away from the 195 that my driver’s license says I weigh, lol. It’s also the lowest weight that I’ve hit thus far in my weight loss journey!

I did a great job with working out this past week with several bike rides, one of which was to and from work to home, and I finally went back to zumba. It felt great. I ate all 25 of my activity points that I earned and also 15 of my weeklies. That’s the fewest of my weeklies that I’ve eaten in several weeks since going from 33 points a day to 32 points a day!

I was extra super proud of myself last night because even though we had VBS from 6:30-8:15, I was able to squeeze in half a zumba class! Our zumba class at work runs from 5:15-6:15, but we had a sub and she came late so we got started at 5:30. That was a bummer; I really wanted to stay for the whole class, but I had to leave at halftime because it was around 6:07 and I knew Patrick would be waiting to pick me up and take me to VBS (our church is only about 3 min away from where I work, but we try to get there a bit early since we’re leading stuff). VBS was a blast–I am having SO much fun with my kids. Last night during the games, I wrapped myself up in a blanket and rolled down AND UP a hill like it was my job. I can’t imagine trying to do those things when I was carrying around 75 more pounds of weight. Cray.

When we got home last night, I spent 30 minutes cleaning out the garage again since my pledge is to work on it every day for 20-30 min during the week and even more on the weekends. I just need to throw tons of stuff away/give tons of stuff away. I had forgotten, however, how much more motivated I am to DO more things when I’m physically active. I want to use every minute in my day as productively as possible, vs. when I am not working out, I just want to sit on the couch. Don’t get me wrong…I still LOVE to sit on the couch…but I just have more of a drive to get up and do things when I’m consistently working out. More energy, I suppose!

Hope you all have a great WIW!

Weekend Rewind

Wow y’all, it was a CRAZY busy weekend! I wish I could say that it was super relaxing, but alas. We were all over the place! It was a good one though.

On Friday night we went grocery shopping and just chilled at home for a bit; I had ridden my bike to and from work that day again so I didn’t need to work out that evening. It was really nice to just sit on the couch! PLUS, Netflix finally added series 7 of Doctor Who, so we finished some episodes up on that. The end of the era of the Ponds…sad day. On Saturday, we got up and went to look at motorcycles. Patrick really wants to lose weight, and he wants his weight loss goal present to himself to be a bike. I have to say that I am not opposed to the idea of being able to ride on the back of one of those things on a beautiful day, so we just went to browse. It was really fun! Then we went and got some lunch, then headed to the bookstore to browse. I had NO idea Stephen King has a new book out:

I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to buy this, but they only had it in hardcover and it was $30.00. No thanks, I’ll wait until the library has it FO FREE. So then that made me want to go to the library, which is what we did next. I checked out Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett on a recommendation from a co-worker, and am so glad I did. If you’ve never read it and you’re interested in reading about a fictional story that takes place in a fictional English town in 1153 during the building of a giant cathedral, you should read it. It is SO GOOD, so far at least!

We went home for a little bit and I decided that I wanted to start going through our garage to get rid of some stuff, so I did that for an hour or so, then I went on a walk with Clara. It was so beautiful outside, and not too hot. Then I jumped in the shower and we went over to Scott and Bre’s to discuss the LARP that we are running at Gencon. We had a great time!

On Sunday, we got up and went to church, then helped set up for VBS a little. We then met my parents for lunch for father’s day; it was really fun. I ate my favorite salad that has fried chicken strips, apples, walnuts, and raisins. Yum! After that, we went home for a bit before we had to head back to VBS. Instead of sitting on the couch, I took a 40 minute bike ride because it was another pretty day. By the time I got home, it was time to head back to church for the first night of VBS. I’m a group leader, and I have 3 kids in my group. They are great, even the 3-yr-old boy who seems to have ENDLESS amounts of energy. We quickly realized that for the remaining times at VBS this week, we were going to wait to give him his pixie sticks until AFTER the VBS evening was over, lol. That really worked for us last night 🙂

After VBS, we went to Bre and Scott’s for the Game of Thrones season finale, and headed home. Phew! Look at this shirt I got in the mail last night to wear at Gencon:

“Ehr ma gerd, yer kner nerthing, Jern Sner”

It is an American Apparel 2x, so it’s pretty big on me, but their sizes run small so I didn’t know what to get. It’s SO long! Oh well!

Hope you all had a great weekend; I’m looking forward to the Weigh-in Wednesday link up tomorrow!

Fierce

Y’all. I FINALLY went to friggin’ zumba last night!! Yes, that’s right, after almost 2 months of not going to any zumba classes, I went back. I was terrified that it was going to be a horrible experience: I kept building it up in my head that I’d be so out of breath in the first 5 minutes that sure, it’d be fine to leave at halftime. However, I started dancing, and all of those worries melted away. I forgot that I’m 50 lbs lighter than I was when I first started going to zumba last year, and that I’m able to pick up on dance routines a lot faster than I used to. I forgot how fun it is to dance. And I forgot how AWESOME it is to sweat. So yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am back, and I am FIERCE! At least I felt like it when I was dancing last night.

At one point, I looked at myself in the mirror and was just like…uhhh dancing. Yikes. But it didn’t matter, because I had fun. Here’s how I felt like I looked before I looked in the mirror:

Aaaaand then I looked in the mirror:

The point is, I finally got my ass to zumba and I had a great time. I made it through the entire class, no matter what I looked like, and feel so much better about life. I hope you all have a FIERCE weekend!! 🙂

NSV Thursday: Water, water, everywhere!

Happy almost Friday, everyone! I just have a quick NSV to share with you all today, and it’s about–you guessed it–water. (gasp). I went to get a massage for the first time ever in my life (I know, I know, how I made it to this point in my life without ever getting a massage I have no idea) and it was HEAVENLY. I mean, heavenly. I felt amazing afterward, BUT, no one at the massage parlor told me that in order to not get super dehydrated afterward, you should just basically drink an ishton of water to re-hydrate yourself. OK, not only did I NOT drink hardly any water after this massage, I drank alcohol at the surprise party that we had for Bre that night. OOPS. I felt like JUNK on Sunday and Monday. All because I didn’t drink any water after this massage!

So, when I got to work on Monday, I made a promise to myself that I’d aim to drink at least half of my weight number in ounces of water each day–which, for the record, is 99.9 ounces of water. I’ve typically been pretty good about getting a lot of water in at work, but I suck at this on the weekends. I know that there are several “formulas” out there about how much water we should drink each day, but I think the fact of the matter is that it depends on the person. I found the “half of what you weigh in ounces” formula in an article, and thought I’d try that. There’s also the “8 glasses of 8oz of water each day” formula, but as all of you can remember from your times tables, that’s only 64 ounces, and I don’t think that’s enough for me. It also depends on how active I am; tonight I plan on going to zumba after work, so I should aim to drink even MORE water than the 99.9 that I’ve been aiming for each day.

My NSV is this: yesterday, I felt GREAT because I drank what probably amounted to 130 or so ounces of water. The worst part of this, of course, is having to pee freakin’ CONSTANTLY, but it’s worth it to be hydrated. I’m keeping a tab on my computer every day at work of how many 16oz water bottles I’ve consumed to help me keep track. It’s a good habit to be in, and I plan to keep it up. I mean seriously, for you Doctor Who fans out there, this is pretty much me and how well-hydrated I am:

Remember this cray cray episode?? CREEPY

What’s your NSV this week? 🙂

Weigh-in Wednesday

Checking in and linking up for yet another weigh-in Wednesday! And look, I did a good job this week!

“–36.2”

That means I lost one whole pound this week, putting me back officially in ONEderland at 199.8 lbs, lol! I did a better job with food this week and even though the exercise wasn’t there as much as I was hoping, I still got some activity in with some biking and walks. I tried to go to zumba last week but it ended up being cancelled, lame. Oh well! I am going to zumba FOR SURE I PROMISE tomorrow after work, so there is that. I can’t go to zumba at all next week because we’re helping every night Sunday-Thursday with our church’s VBS. We’re really excited about it, but it’s going to make exercise difficult. Le sigh.

I was really wanting to be at 189 for Gencon on August 14, but I’m not sure if that’s going to happen. 10 lbs in 2 months is doable, but we’ll just have to see. I’m thinking more realistically that by that time I’ll be closer to 192 or 193. We’ll see! Either way, a loss this week is a loss, and I’m excited about that 🙂

Hope you all have a great weigh-in Wednesday!

NSV Thursday (on Friday!!)

OK So I realize I’m a day behind on my posts this week, but not seeing a computer on Wednesday really put me behind! All should return to normal next week, I promise.

I do actually have a NSV today–I RODE MY BIKE TO WORK! Wooohoo!! So I live abou 12 min from campus on bike…4 minutes by car. I’ve been saying for a few weeks now since I’ve had my mom’s bike that I’m going to ride to work since I live right across from the bike trailhead that runs behind campus, I just haven’t done it until today. It feels so cool to have actually ridden my bike to work! I’m really proud of myself, lol. I haven’t gone to zumba at all this week like I thought I would; turns out the sports and rec center on campus where we have zumba is closed all week because we’re hosting Special Olympics this weekend, so there were no exercise classes. It’ll be hard to get to zumba for me until the week of June 23…boo..because we’ve got church commitments next week and Vacation Bible School that we’re helping with the week after. Ahhhh! I am hoping to ride my bike to and from work on every day that it’s not raining though, and that automatically gets me 15 activity points a week, on top of any other activity that I’ll have. So that is excellent! I also have to walk up a huuuuge hill from where I park my bike to my office, so that is a work out too. Yippee!

Hope you all have a great weekend. I for one am THRILLED because my bff Bre is back from 4 months of military training and I get to see her for the first time tonight. She is a special agent now…how badass is THAT?! Also…IT’S FRIGGIN FRIDAY!!!!

(Late) Weigh-in Wednesday

Hi friends!

We had an office retreat yesterday and a busy evening, so I have to do WIW one day late. Sorry!

“–35.2”

Well, the scale moved this week as opposed to the past several weeks, but not in the direction I wanted it to!! I gained 1.4 lbs. This is pretty reasonable to me as I was on vacation and such 🙂 So now it’s back to the daily grind! I think I’m going to go to zumba at the Y tonight (I went to the one at my workplace Tuesday night just to find out the whole building is locked up this entire week…BOO!) So, I went on a 60 min bike ride instead. Still good for me.

I’m still struggling with food and willpower (eating donut right now, for example) but have not gone past eating my activity points yet this week, so I’m in a pretty good place as compared to the past couple of weeks. The willpower….where has it gone?? I know I can get it back but I just have to kick myself in the arss!

At any rate, I’m not super disappointed. It does SUCK to be back in the 200 club…200.8 to be exact…but I know I will be back to onederland soon if I can just put my mind to it. I got this! Hope all y’all had great weigh-ins yesterday…going to catch up now!

I’m Back!

I’m back in the real world, everyone! I had a great week on vacation in Tennessee with Patrick, my uncle, and his wonderful girlfriend Melissa. They are the best hosts ever and we spent a lot of time on his boat on the lake. Here’s a photo journey:

This is my FAVE

Yup, it was awesome. We had a fantastic time and even though it’s hard to go back to real life, I’m going to own it. I ate WAY too much on vacation but I did make better choices than in my past (fat) life, so that’s good. Lots of salad eating happened, and I’m super proud of myself for that. I weigh in tomorrow, so we’ll see what happened…fingers crossed it’s not HORRIBLE! Two weeks is a long time to go without recording a weigh-in! See you all on Weigh-in Wednesday!