Good bye 2011, Hello 2012!

It's a bittersweet goodbye to the passing year for me because 2011 has been the most amazing year of my life so far. However, as many awesome things this year has brought me I can only imagine how much more I have to look forward to in 2012. I have done things with myself I never knew were possible and I hope to continue surprising myself and others with just how much I am capable of making out of my life. ♥ Happy New Year!!

NSV... I ran so far today!

It may not seem like much to those of you who have been running for forever now, lol. But today I ran(jogged) for the longest distance I've ever done at once without stopping to walk in between. I did 4.37 miles in 57:59. My average speed was 4.5 mph and I burned approximately 578 calories. I believe I also ended up running the fastest mile I ever have, too. My first mile was done in 13:01, 2nd in 14:01, 3rd in 12:54, and 4th in 13:14. My minimum speed was 2.5 mph and my maximum speed was 6.6mph! Woosh!

I feel like a rockstar.

I also stayed around 1200 calories easily today, score!

Oh and I got some cute new bras and a few new sports bras. Today was full of win. ^_^

End of the year Giveaway!

Just because I feel like it! lol... So I got this awesome little book for Christmas called A Taste of Chicken Soup to Inspire a Woman's Soul. It's just that, a taste, of the actual book, Chicken Soup to Inspire a Woman's Soul. It has a few of the best stories and is mostly aimed at Middle Aged women with families, etc. Though I'm only 26 I still found it a good read and very inspiring and totally teared up a time or two. I thought wow what a great little read, but I've only had it two days and already finished reading it, now it's just going to sit around my house collecting dust for years... then a lightbulb went off in my head and said hey I know just who I can share this with! You guys!

I thought I could do a giveaway and let one lucky winner receive this special little book... but then another idea popped in to my head, kind of stemming from Katie's idea to pass around her Garmin. I would like for this book to get passed around!

So here are the rules to my give away.

1) To enter you must be a follower of my blog and leave a comment below with your favorite inspirational quote. :)

2) If you win, then take as long as you want to read the book and share it with your own friends and family, but then I would greatly appreciate if you could host your own giveaway with whatever rules you'd like, just be sure to include this rule - the winner must hold a giveaway when they are done to pass on the book to someone else. Then ask them to also be sure to include this rule in their give away. And so on, and so on... hopefully this ensures that many people will be touched by the stories of this book! ^_^ ( I think I will include a short note to whoever wins, and you may want to do the same for the winner of your giveaway and pass along the notes like we've been doing with the Garmin. ) Take a picture of you with the book (and notes passed along). I want to see where it travels to and would like to make a post updating my readers on where my book has ended up throughout time... :)

3) Winner will be chosen at random on December 31st at 10pm Central time zone using random.org

4) You may earn an additional entry by any of the following ways but must post a separate comment for each extra entry earned.

- Share this post on Twitter

- Share this post on Facebook

- Share this post on your blog

I survived the holidays, did you?

Looky here... I'm alive and well. hahaha, what about all of you? Still kickin or did you let them beat you?! I did some binge eating on Christmas Eve and Christmas day since we had two huge family get togethers those days, but I managed to only go up 2lbs and am already back down 1 of those lbs. Today I sit at 176, which is lower than my last update here :) but I actually made it back down to 175 as of early Saturday morning. I'm sure by tomorrow or the next day or so I'll have made it down past that! ^_^ I found it really easy to get back on track yesterday and today. Did some working out yesterday morning and then ran around Six Flags all day yesterday with my family and my 3 nephews. Today I worked out and then went for a run also. I believe I'm sitting somewhere right around 1200 calories and am done eating for the day now. So yay! I'm not worried about New Year's as a holiday because I never go out and party for that. lol. I usually just stay home with some sparkling grape juice and watch the ball drop on tv.

Had a fairly good Christmas this year. My son loved all his toys and clothes and things. I got some new recipe books and also a brand new camera finally!! I can start taking pictures of myself again with the self timer feature, lol. Speaking of which... I completely forgot to post an update for my 11 months mark on the 15th of this month.. eek! It's a pretty cool camera though, it's even waterproof up to 10 feet so I can take it to Hurricane Harbor with me next summer and out on the boat when we get back on the lake.

In other news... my friend Stormy is hosting her very first challenge called the Spring Chick Challenge. It seems like a really good and easy way to keep yourself accountable and meet lots of other fellow bloggers in the process so I definitely recommend you all go sign up! I already did! ^_^

Katie's Garmin is here!

Yay!! So some of you who are also friends with SlimKatie may remember when she mentioned back in the middle of August, on this post, about possibly sharing her Garmin Forerunner 205 since she also has the 305. This way some of us could like do a trial period for about 2 weeks and see if it was something we may end up wanting to buy ourselves someday. I thought it was a great idea and of course signed up right away! ^_^ So far the Garmin has traveled from Michigan to New York, to Quebec, to Tennesee, to Texas, and now I'm the second person in Texas to get it. Everyone wrote a little note after using it and before sending it to the next person saying what they liked or didn't like about it, etc... I can't wait to write my little note and send it on it's way! lol... after I'm done checking out all the cool stuff it can do of course.

It arrived yesterday and I left it on the charger all night since it was too dead to use right away. Today was my first time using it. I went out and jogged for most of 3 miles, though towards the end of my run I slowed down to a fast paced walk instead because some dogs were chasing me and I didn't want them to bite me. lol. Then for awhile I got lost in some music and was just beboping down the road wiggling my hips the rest of the way home instead of worrying about a good pace. lol. Here is what my first workout says...

That's a time of 52:46 with my average pace being 16:02/mile, I did 3.29 miles and according to the garmin I burned 675 calories. Now I also was using the cardio trainer app on my phone during this run and it says I only burned 460 calories. Those numbers aren't even close to each other so I don't know which is more correct. I did not enter in my weight or anything for the cardio trainer app on my phone though, I've been meaning to look and see if I can somehow... but I did enter in my weight and birthdate, etc on the garmin so I would like to think it's the one that is right. Especially since it thinks I burned more. haha. But I dunno... I guess I'll have to actually get a heart rate monitor someday if I ever really wanna know. Eventually one day when I'm not poor I'll have to look in to that. lol.

As far as everything else goes, I am doing well counting calories again and am a couple days binge free. It feels good and the longer I go without overeating of course the stronger my willpower gets over those food items. My dad was just baking some peanut butter cookies in the kitchen as I got back inside from my run and so I after pausing for a second thinking oooh one would be nice, I thought no way because you won't stop at one and so I scurried my butt back to my room to write this blog and check facebook, etc. :) I'm proud. lol. Small steps at a time... I am back down to 177 lbs today after spiking up to 181 just yesterday. So needless to say, today I feel great. lol. I think in no time I will be able to get over this hump and down out of the 170s for good. I'm really looking forward to 2012, not only so the holiday food will be gone, hahah, but becuase this new year is bound to be even greater than the past one has been and 2011 was pretty damn awesome! ^_^

Plateau no more!

I think it's safe to say that for the last 2 months now I've been stuck going up and down in the 170s. There are tons of legitimate excuses I could offer as to why I haven't been steadily going down, but I won't even bother. It's a waste of my time to sit here and try to justify why I haven't been going down and keep seeing the same few numbers over and over again. Well yesterday I got a big smack in the face and saw that 180 number again for the first time in months. The scale read 180.4 and my heart sank. I knew I hadn't been eating anywhere near as well as before or exercising hardly any these last few days so it was inevitable to say the least. I consider myself lucky to have not seen that number before now. After wallowing in self pity and more food yesterday... ugh.. yes I totally binged and comforted myself with food. Horrible decisions in retroscpect and even at the time I was doing it. I was hating myself and trying to convince myself to get up and do anything else at all. But eventually by late afternoon I talked myself into getting up and going for a run. As far as I can remember, this was the first time I made time for running since having ran my race 2 weeks ago. I'm sooo glad I ran yesterday but very disappointed in myself that I let so long go by since my last run when nothing was really stopping me but myself.

I've decided to put my foot down today and start counting calories again. Obviously I fail at listening to my body... well not really. I mean honestly, I could feel that I was already full while I continued to eat other things out of boredom or comfort, etc. I just need to eventually work more on my will power and determination to not just settle for looking good. Sure I look great right now, the best I have in my entire life pretty much. I'm smaller than I was in middle school. But I'm still not as healthy or fit as I could be and I'm not trying to halfass my way through the rest of my life. I want to live cleaner and show my son how to do it right from the start. I want to go back to school to become a personal trainer someday and I'm not getting there by giving up on myself after what seems like enough to other people. So back to counting those calories again and having a much stricter limit on what foods I eat and when I am eating them. Back to not eating after dinner time, etc.

I'm sorry to my loyal readers who've probably wondered where I've been since I haven't posted in the last 2 weeks. Everyday I look at my blog and think man it's time to update it... but I hadn't really had anything worth saying and so I didn't. I think it's time to face facts though and stop hiding from myself and everyone else. I doubt I will hit goal of 150 before the year is up on January 15th, but I am going to damn sure try to get as close as possible before then!

I will start P90x today finally. Been putting it off way too long. I need something like this to get me going though and pushing my past my self imposed limits. Here's hoping that does the trick. Expect a post from me sometime soon about how day 1 went.. :)

I want to leave this picture on everyone's mind as we try and finish out the holidays strong... It sure helped put some perspective on things for me.

My first race!

So I know many of you have been patiently awaiting me to tell you all about how my race went on Saturday. I've been meaning to blog about it, but it just seems as one thing after another has kept me too busy to take the time to make an entry! When I started this blog I was hoping to keep it as a daily thing and now it is becoming more like a weekly thing. I really don't want to give up on this though and am going to try harder to at least do a couple posts each week!

Anyways... my race went great! I was very nervous and excited and a million other emotions leading up to it the few days before, and especially the few hours. I found out that it was supposed to rain on race day and began to worry immediately that this would affect my time or that I would slip and break something or any number of other things. I knew right away though that I was going to have to prepare myself to run anyways because a little water wasn't about to stop me. The night before my race, my mom said that since her and my dad were asked to watch my sister's kids this weekend that they were just going to stay home with the boys and my son to keep them out of the bad weather and let them play here together. I was a little sad about that but I just said okay and left it at that. I really wanted my son to be there cheering me on and it would have meant a lot to have my mom and dad there, too. I picked up my friend Ashley and brought her with me and my brother who lived in the same city the race was held in just drove over and met us there so luckily I did have some support.

As I stated recently, my only real goal for this race was to run it in under 40 minutes since that's what my time seemed to be here jogging around my neighborhood. Well when I ran across the finish line I saw 37:26 and knew I had blown my time out of the water! Of course I didn't start at the starting line when the timer went off to begin the race I was way in the back of the pack, so once I got home and checked my official chip time, I saw that I actually did it in 36:17!!! :) I cam in 165th place out of 310 who were timed (over 4,000 ran that day) and was 72nd out of the 175 females. Not too shabby for my first race I don't think!

There was a health and fitness expo going on nearby after the race and so of course I stopped by there and got to check out lots of cool gear and other neat information, etc. I'm glad I'm broke, otherwise I would have spent a lot of money there. lol. I did find out about another race there though and am really excited to check it out. It's some sort of 5k Color run where you start out wearing a white shirt and every k you get a certain color of powder thrown at you! By the end of the race you are so colorful and at the finish line there are tons of people there throwing all of the colors at you! lol. The video they showed me of it looked like so much fun. It's in February so not too far from now! Here is the website... they have it in all different cities so maybe there is one near you soon! http://thecolorrun.com/

Anyways here are some pictures from just before my race...

These are of course proofs I stole off the internet of me actually crossing the finish line! :D

and this is a video taken moments after I finished running by my brother, lol. He was trying to get me to advertise the water i was drinking. haha. You may notice I give my friend Ashley a high 5, too. :D

and pictures from after finishing and then checking out the expo...

Yeah so it was all in all a great run and I'm so glad I did it. I did far better than I expected and after announcing my times I found out that some of the people who were part of the reasons I wanted to try running in the first place did their first 5k in quite a bit longer time frame. Not to say "haha I did better than you did at first" but wow I am really impressed with myself after learning that! lol.

Time flies...

Here it is the last day of November and tomorrow starts the last month of 2011. Crazy how it seems like forever and a flash all at the same time since I started things back in January.

This last month or two I haven't been doing near as well as I had hoped I would by this point and so it seems I have hit my plateau. It's time to change things up. I decided that I'm going to start the P90x workout videos on Sunday. My race is this Saturday so I don't want to do anything before then and possibly jeopardize that. I'm a little scared and excited for both the race and for trying out this new workout series. I am very much looking forward to both, though.

My weight has been fluctuating in the 170s for what seems like wayyy too long now. I think besides the eating poorly and exercising less, that my period coming every 2 weeks for the last 3 times now has definitely affected that. Due to a birth control medication mishap, I've been cursed with bleeding 3 times in the month of November alone. AF arrived here yesterday and so I'm not really feeling my best and have bloated up a couple lbs after just coming down like 4 a few days earlier. Ugh! But whatever... I am not happy to have to deal with running a race while on my period... but it hasn't stopped me from still jogging every day this week so far. Slowed me down, sure, but not giving up that easily.

I would love to hear from any of you who have tried P90x already though. I just read through all of the guidebook today and I think I should be able to pass the fitness test. I am only slightly concerned about whether or not I can do a pullup. I'm going to have to get a chinup bar soon and find out. lol. I skimmed through the first video for day 1 also of the chest and back and the ab ripper. I am excited to finally feel like something is going to be challenging for me again but Tony is a freakin beast. OMG! lol. I'll just have to keep reminding myself that it's okay to modify things at first. I still need to look through the nutrition aspect of this and see what all kinds of things I'm supposed to be needing. I'm looking forward to finally making my own meal plans and trying to stick to them. That's definitely something I know I need more discipline for myself on. I wont be using the supplements because I can't afford them, but I do take a multivitamin - Women's One A Day, and drink whey protein shakes already so I think those ought to suffice.

My Golden Birthday...

So yesterday was apparently my Golden Birthday. I turned 26 years old on the 26th. :)

However, it didn't quite feel so spectacularly golden this year. It wasn't a bad birthday by any means, but I was very sick with a cold and sore throat. I was feverish with a runny nose and just stayed home all day. Jett had spent the previous night with his father, but when he came home I cuddled up with my boy and watched movies the rest of the day. I got a few really nice and also thoughtful gifts this year so all in all it evened out to a decent birthday. lol.

These last couple weeks have been so crazy hectic and full of lame excuses as to why I havent been exercising as much or eating as well. The latest of course being that I've been sick for the last 4 days now. I did finally workout again tonight though and felt pretty amazing even though I'm still slightly sick. I did more reps than usual and in better form, etc. So I guess it was nice for my body to rejuvenate a bit or something. Anyways.. of course I went up a few pounds with the holidays and my birthday as I expected... but I am looking forward to tomorrow being a new day. All the brownies that were made for me for my birthday were devoured by the end of today by me and the rest of my family, so nothing is left to tempt me tomorrow. lol. I'm going to make sure I get a good run in tomorrow as well becuase my race is this coming Saturday!!! Speaking of which... if you haven't yet donated to help me raise funds for the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, there is a box to the left on my blog that will allow you to do so. Even just one dollar would be appreciated! Thanks for the support guys. <3 I know with the holidays here money is tight for everyone so I understand if you can't give. I haven't had a job in 3 years, so yeah... I'm too broke to give anything myself, but I'm doing my best to help fundraise and so far have got $45 raised for those kids. More than what I thought I could do, so yay! lol.

Anyways... It's getting kind of late and I need to get in bed so I can be well rested to start my journey to getting back on track bright and early tomorrow morning! :)

I hope anyone who's gained this past week can learn to not be so down on themselves about it and realize that it's a holiday for a reason. It's something to be celebrated, not feared or looked upon with disgust for yourself, etc. So what if you ate a little more than you hoped you would? Maybe you put back on a few lbs, but it's not 20 more lbs.. and with a little work and a step forward in the right direction you'll have those extra lbs off in no time. I'm not just saying all this to tell you guys and help you out though, I'm saying it for my benefit as well. I know I'll gain like 5 lbs and feel like all 112 have came back on and start calling myself a Fatty McFatfat for it. lol. 5 lbs seems like nothing, and everything all at the same time. It's hard to change your perspective. I am scared that 5 will turn into 50 overnight... but I know better. I will not let myself fall. I'm making plans for my life and going to stick to them.

Happy Thanksgiving...

I'm such a slacker with blogging these days... I think it's not that so much as it is that I'm just more active in my life at this time of year so I'm not online as much. Which is a good thing, right? lol.

I've got a Thanksgiving dinner today with my sister's family here at our house, tomorrow I have to go to a Thanksigving/Family Reunion type of thing with Jett's family, Friday we're having Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house, and then Saturday is my birthday! So needless to say.... this week is full of temptation....

I wish you all the best on coming out on top this holiday weekend with lots of self control and low numbers on the scale! <3 Here's hoping I can do the same. lol

10 months

Here it is, that time again... Pictures and stats!!

It's been 10 months since I started my journey and I am down to 172 lbs. I'm sorry for the shitty mirror pics still. I haven't gotten a new camera yet. Not sure when that'll happen. lol.

and the measurements are...

Starting measurement > Newest one > Amount lost

Bust - 51 in > 39 in > 12 in
Waist - 53 in > 39 in > 14 in
Hips - 58 in > 44 in > 14 in
Arms - 17 in > 13 in > 4 in
Thighs - 31 in > 24 in > 7 in
Calves - 19.5 in > 16.5 in > 3 in
Neck - 16.5 > 13 > 3.5 in

So I'm only down 6 lbs from last month's weigh in.. that's half as good as I was hoping. On the bright side though, I lost inches in every area except for my thighs this month. Not too bad. I'll take it! ^_^

I finally hit that 100 lb mark... so I can safely say that I lost 100 lbs in 10 months. OMG... take a minute and breathe that in Jennifer... okay wow... I have to stop and tell myself these things because sometimes I go too fast to even really realize where I'm coming from. lol.

Something I keep meaning to bring up... I know I have spent most of my journey counting calories. Well for some reason when I went on Vacation just over a month ago, I stopped counting calories and have just been intuitively eating. I can tell when I'm full if I listen to my body and it's nice not having to jot down calories all the time. If I had to guess I'm probably eating closer to 1400 per day instead of the 1200 I was counting before. Some days though like today I probably had 1600-1800. Which isn't great and I really really wish it wasn't raining all day so I could have ran some of that off, but it's not too terrible as long as I'm not doing that everyday. I know I said this is a lifestyle change and I plan on living and eating and working out like this for the rest of my life. I think trusting my body to know when its had enough food now is working out rather well. I didn't lose as much weight as I wanted to, but I think that had a lot more to do with me exercising considerably less than I had in the previous months, too. As far as eating goes, I think I'm finally learning to get a handle on things without having to be super controlling over how many calories something is. I do often tally things up in my head still, but I'm not near as strict. I think I could probably lose these last 22 lbs faster if I were to continue counting calories, but honestly... I'm not in a huge rush to lose all this weight. I think gradual weight loss is healthy. I am finally to a size that isn't so huge I can't do all the things I wanna do, so slowing things down a bit now to a steady pace that's more livable seems okay to me. I dunno.. Does that sound like I'm just making excuses to be more lazy? If so, someone please say so and tell me to wake the fuck up and get back on track. hahaha. But seriously.. I'd love ya'lls opinions on this matter.

As for whatever happened Saturday night, since April wanted to know... I'm happy to announce that as of Sunday morning I now have a boyfriend. <3 I have casually seen guys over the last few years, but my last real committed relationship ended in February of 2009. So yeah.. it's been awhile... but I think that all that time to myself gave me the clarity to wait around until I met someone who was worth it instead of settling for someone who doesn't really deserve me. I am very happy and even a little surprised to feel this way actually. His name is Sparky, well that's a nickname but it's what I've always known him as, and I've known him for just over 5 years now. He is currently living in another state about 8 hours away from me, but is from my area and has relatives here and his son lives here with his mom now so he's actually in town this week spending time with his kid, family, and me. I know long distance relationships are not easy, but I just really think he's worth it. He has plans to be back for another week in December, and then a family reunion on Superbowl weekend. He is also trying to transfer in his company to something that's closer to this area so he doesn't have to be so far away from his son. I'm not sure where things will go for us in the future, but who really does? I have high hopes that this will be a lasting relationship and that's all that matters for now. In regards to what this means for my healthy living journey... nothing bad. lol. He has been very supportive and wonderful about it so far and told me I motivate him to get off his couch a little more now too so that's great. lol. I wouldn't dare allow myself to be with someone who was going to try and take all this away from me or somehow impede my journey. I don't think I have anything to worry about with him in that aspect.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Seriously... I love today and me so much right now!!!! hahaha. I don't care how boastful that sounds because it's the damn truth!

I wake up this morning to a very sweet message that confirms my suspicions and settles some of my fears, while oddly enough creating more and different ones. lol. But nonetheless, tonight things will be resolved and so I am looking forward to finally figuring out what's been going on with me and him, face to face. lol. No matter the outcome, I will be happy to finally know something one way or another.

Then I step on the scale and see...

172 lbs today!!! I went down 2 from yesterday and that puts me at a total loss of 101 lbs since I began my journey on January 15th, 112 lbs overall. I feel amazing!!! I can finally cross off another goal on my timeline over there on the left! lol. (Shhhh. I know my polish is chipping and I need to repaint my toes... doing that later today. lol )

Then I also was able to cross off my last day of the Couch to 5k running plan!!! I completed week 9 with a fucking bang! I ran past the full 30 minutes and did 3.15 miles. That's just over a 5k and I did it in 39 minutes!!! Remember last week I said my goal on day one was to do it in under 42 minutes, and then last week it was to do it in under 40 minutes? Um YEAH bitches, I ROCKED IT!!! lol. I'm on fire today for sure.

Race day is 3 weeks away!!! I am sooo pumped!!! Speaking of which... I still haven't had a single donation for the Scottish Rite Children's Hospital! If you can spare even just a dollar, it'd be great and helpful and you will feel so good for helping a kid in need! <3 Just look on the left of my page and you can figure out how to donate any amount you are comfortable with. Thanks guys, I appreciate the support.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

11/11/11 Oh my!

Yeah... so it's been like a week or so since I last posted, I know.. look at me slacking.. It's just that I've been trying to spend more time offline actually doing things than online sitting on my butt. lol. Not that, its really changed too much... but my blogging time has been cut down on I guess.

I finally hit 174 lbs today! Woohoo.. Been stuck at 175 for days now. lol. I don't know why I let numbers get to me every single day... but yeah.. anyways... I'm doing alright. Been crazy busy deep cleaning my house all week long because I have company coming to visit tomorrow and then all thoughout the next week and then Thanksgiving company, etc.. Then Christmas and so on. So it's just that time of year I decide to go through everything and see what I should toss and what I should keep. Been doing so much cleaning I havent been working out as much as I would like to. But I'm not too worse for the wear I guess.

I did day 2 of week 9 today for the couch to 5k! Tomorrow will be my last day. I ended up having to stop during the first few minutes of jogging today because I dropped something and looked for it but never found it, grr. Part of my headphones to be exact. Anyways.. I started running again but this time didn't look at the clock until I made it all the way back home. I made sure I even ran down another extra street and back to be positive I got at least 30 minutes straight done. Turns out I ran for 45 minutes straight! Not including the few minutes I ran before I stopped. Woohoo!! I feel great. But looking up my distance it was a very slow jog apparently because I only did 2.95 miles. hahaha. I felt myself pick it up and full on run that last mile though. I know I could have definitely pushed harder in the beginning and middle, but that's okay. There were a few tough hills I ran today as well and of course I was pushing Jett also. So all of those things come in to play, too. I am proud of myself nonetheless for jogging that long all at once and not worrying about the time limit or distance, just doing it. I'm very much looking forward to my last day tomorrow. Then the next few weeks I will make sure I still go at least 3 times a week, but it'll be wherever I wanna go for however long I feel like I can do that day. ^_^

Woohoo!!! So much to look forward to in the coming weeks. I love this time of year. I hope you all are alive and well and enjoying this beautiful season! <3 Love you guys. Keep up the good work and stay strong around all the extra food these holiday months!!!

ETA: oh snap... my ticker says it's been 300 days since I started my journey!! Woohoo! AWESOME!

Happy Veterans Day.. thanks to all those who've fought for us.

and it just keeps getting better...

Woohoo! I finally feel like I'm back on track for real this time and pushing on along to where I should be. I was really hoping I would be in the 160s by the first of November. Not quite there yet.. but If I can be 160 something on my birthday, I will be pleased. I know earlier this year I was hoping to hit goal by my birthday, but with the last month or two's setbacks, as long as I do it before January 15th of 2012 then I will still feel like I accomplished it all in one year's time and not be too down on myself for it.

I went down another whole pound today!

I was soo busy yesterday with all the changing rooms around that I never got my last run in and didn't do any exercising all day. I was still up at like 1am and figured, screw it. I'm determined to keep up the good work from the day before and so I did 30 day shred on level 2. It's been a really long time since I tried level 2. lol. It definitely got me using some muscles I hadn't in a while. After a little more procrastination, I finally got my workout done just before 3am. lol. My sleep schedule is a little off, but that can be adjusted later..

Today I finished week 8 of the couch to 5k program!!!! One week left to go!! I'm soo freaking excited. I even noticeably improved my pace today as well. I know on Wednesday, during my 28 minutes, I only jogged a certain distance before time was up. Today I went way past that around the corner almost all the way back to my house. I have no idea what Wednesday's pace was but I checked it today and I did 2.15 miles in 28 minutes. That's not fast by any means, but it's faster than my slow butt had been moving before. lol. It said my pace was 13min/mile which would mean that I could finish my 5k In just over 40 minutes. In this post from day 1 of the couch to 5k I was doing intervals of walking and jogging at a speed of 3.97 mph and today my speed was 4.6 mph. I don't even think I was really pushing as hard as I could have either, I like to take it at a steady pace and just enjoy my thoughts and not even think about the actual activity I'm doing, lol. So on day 1 I would have been able to do a 5k in a little less than 47 minutes. I set a goal of being able to run my race in under 42 minutes. I think I may have to change that goal now, haha. It would be really really awesome if on race day I can cross the finish line in under 40 minutes. To see 30 something minutes would make me ecstatic beyond belief...

Today Rocked!

So last night I did just as I said and got offline to go do the 30 day shred on level 3. I'm very pleased with myself for finally getting back in to the swing of things and this morning the scale was even pleased with me, too! lol. I went down 2 lbs from the day before and am now currently sitting at my lowest weigh-in so far!

Today was a really productive day and so I feel very accomplished. We ended up clearing out an old room full of junk and stored things to make room for all of Jett's toys and a racecar bed, tv, etc so he now has his own playroom. We now have our living room back, too. It took all day moving in the playroom stuff and out of the living room and then cleaning it all up. But now Jett has his own little space back there and it doubles as a guest room since it's got that twin sized bed in there. My brother doesn't have to sleep on the couch on weekends anymore and if my grandma flies in for a visit she has her own room there as well. By the time everything was done I ate some dinner and then headed out the door to do some much needed grocery shopping. While I was there, I came across the cutest winter coat in a style I've been wanting for ages now! I looked at the price and thought wow no way can I afford this right now. Then I realized I had some unexpected money coming to me that wasn't budgeted for something else already and I really need a warm coat that fits right so I ended up buying it! Not only was it cute and warm, it was also a size Medium!! Woohoo. Today rocked.

I feel so lazy...

I've just been in this funk it seems ever since getting back from vacation and have barely lost anything at all in the last 3 weeks. I have not been doing my dvd workouts like I used to do everyday. I've just been getting my couch to 5k runs in and that's it. The only other exercise I get it just walking around with Jett or something. I want to just shake myself and say wake up... it's not maintenance time yet. You still have almost 30 lbs to go til goal so don't give up now. I owe it to myself to get there. I know I can do better than what I have so I'm going to do it.

I have gotten 2 days done of week 8 though on the couch to 5k. Tomorrow I will do day 3 and then only one week left!!! I am excited. I haven't accomplished nothing and I should recognize that. Yesterday on my jog, I didnt take my headphones or Jett. I just went alone with my thoughts and eventually let it soak in that I'm about to be running in a race exactly 1 month from tomorrow. At this point in time last year I would have laughed at the idea of someone like me doing anything like that. Now I'm not just gonna dream it, I'm gonna be it. And that realization made me break down and cry. Only for a moment, but it was nice to finally feel myself acknowledging the changes in myself that are more than physical. I keep talking about how I know they exist, but that's just because logically I am smart enough to understand that they do. Not because I actually can feel it all the time. A lot of times it's just too much for me to really grasp, ya know?

I dunno... I just.... I feel.



My eating has not been up to par though lately either. With Aunt Flow here all last weekend and then halloween... ugh.. So much candy and cookies and other bad choices. I've never had so many binges in a row along this journey. Now is not the time to be breaking down, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, followed immediately by my birthday, and then Christmas. I need to whip my ass in to gear right damn now. Enough of this slacking...


I'm going to get up now and turn on my dvd player and do the 30 day shred level 3. I know it's kinda late, but if I don't do it now I just feel like I will keep on procrastinating.

Please help support me in my first race!!

http://www.runtherock.com/donate/?kwoAdvocateId=49WAQD9

Alright I'm officially signed up to run my first 5k on December 3rd. This is my fundraising page, if you have even just $1 to donate, all proceeds go to the Scottish Rite Children's Hospital! Of course if you can afford more than that, great! I'm sure it's tax deductible and all that jazz. :) Thanks so much for your support guys. I really appreciate the love you have shown me so far. I want to be able to pay it forward and help out these kids. ♥ ♥

Another blog award!!

So much thanks to Stormy over at The Big Butt Theory, I have my 3rd blog award ever! I got awarded with the Liebster blog twice not that long ago and now this...

Versatile: ver-sa-tile [vur-suh-tl] or, especially British, [vur-suh-tahyl]: capable of, or adapted for, turning easily from one to another various tasks, fields of endeavor, etc.: a versatile writer.Word information source: www.dictionary.com


Here is how the award works:
1. You thank the person who presented you with the award.
2. You tell 7 things about yourself.
3. You award 15 other newly discovered bloggers.

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Seven things about Jen...

1) My family and myself have been largely involved with scouting organizations for most all my life. I currently hold a lifetime membership to the Girl Scouts of the USA and have also been very active over the years in the Boy Scouts of America and a co-ed group - Venturing, BSA. My brother, dad, and mom are currently still very involved in the various scouting groups. I plan on getting back in to the swing of things when Jett is old enough to join cub scouting. I owe a lot of my morals and values and genuinely good aspects about myself to the things I've learned through scouting. <3

2) I was on a horseback riding team for 6 years that I joined through Girl Scouts from ages 12-18, the Tejas Riders. After I graduated high school, they bought and awarded me with my lifetime membership to GSUSA. I used to ride the trails on weekends and help teach younger girls how to ride for the first time, as well as getting involved in parades, barrel racing, and pole bending events. It was really fun and I miss it. I think someday if I can afford to own a horse of my own, I would really like to do that again. :)

3) I think I have a mild case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There are some things I catch myself doing that I just don't have any other explanation for. I feel like a lot of times I over think everything I do and obsess about every little detail, etc. And sometimes I just have to do things a certain way, if they don't get done right I have to do it again. But maybe I'm just really stubborn? lol.

4) I hate my calves. They are huge. Seriously... what gives? I have lost 13.5 inches in the waist and 13.5 in the hips but only 2.5 in the calves. I want to wear cute knee high boots. I want knee high socks that I don't have to stretch so badly you can't see the cute pattern on them the way it's supposed to look. Grr!! Someday I will figure out how to tone my calves, too.

5) I feel like I'm falling.... this not only excites me and drives me crazy with awesomeness, but it scares the hell out of me. I'm pretty guarded with myself these days and every time a new wall gets broken down I feel like I need to have a pile of bricks ready to start building it back up in case anything goes wrong.

6) I love board games. I kinda sucks that I only get to play them like once a year on big holidays when lots of family is around because that's the only time there are enough people that might be interested in playing a game with me. lol.

7) I've decided that whenever I can afford to go back to school I want to study kinesiology and take classes on nutrition, etc. I would like to someday learn enough about eating healthier and exercising to become a certified personal trainer. I've always wanted to be able to do something where I can help other people and I think this is a field I could go in to and be able to affect the life of someone on a very personal one-on-one level. This would give me great pride in the work that I do and so I think it's a wise career choice for me.

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These are the blogs that I would like to award for being versatile bloggers!!

1-KatieCat: Getting Healthy

2-30 before 30

3-A small loss

4-And she ran

5-At goal weight watcher

6-Carbie Girl

7-Enlightened Berg

8-Fat. Boy. Thin.

9-Frickin' Fabulous at 40

10-I want to look like a pinup

11-Losing for good

12-Losing it in Vegas

13-One Girl One Salad away from happiness

14-Size 24 No More

15-The story of fat rolls, cankles, and a big ass

In other news... I weighed in at 176.6 a few days ago... then Aunt Flow came to town this weekend. I've felt so bloated and crampy... blah. I haven't wanted to do anything. I'm afraid to step on the scale now. lol.

100 Followers!!

Yeah so yesterday I logged in and saw that I now have 100 followers! How crazy is that? There are 100 people who actually read this crap? lmfao. No but seriously... I'm very surprised to have that many people interested in the random things I say here. lol. Thank you all so much, it's great to not just be talking to myself here. Haha, but I would so totally continue to do so even if I had 0 followers. This blog has been a huge help to me over the last 9 months. It's kept me on track to doing more right things than wrong and held me accountable every month when I have to post pictures and share my measurements. It's been wonderful being able to go back and read and see how differently I viewed things when I started than I do now.

Anyways.. I had Wednesday Weigh-in yesterday and was sitting at 178. I think I was like 0.6 lbs down from the previous week. Not the 177 I hit last Thursday... but with how horribly I've eaten lately, I'll take it. I totally have to agree with Mary over at A Small Loss about how the last few pounds are the hardest to lose it seems because they mean the least. She's lost over 150 lbs now and been stuck at a bit of a plateau for months now. I know I haven't been stuck for near that long but its long enough I feel like I need to do something now to change it. It's too true though. Losing weight in the beginning means more because you can clearly see you need to lose all this weight and so you are gung-ho. But once you've lost soo much and everyone's telling you how amazing you already look, you get a little settled in to your new skin and too comfortable with things and so its harder to have that motivation to do the work you must to lose those last few pounds that only you will be able to notice if its gone or not.

I'm doing my best to not let this get to me and to just keep on trudging forward though. I've gotten down 2 days so far of week 7 for the couch to 5k program. I did day 1 yesterday after putting it off and dreading it the whole first half of this week. lol. I ended up having to take Jett and push his butt up and down the hills around here while jogging for 25 minutes straight. I ended up stopping for a few seconds around 20 minutes in to it though because I discovered a huge bright green caterpillar with the cutest set of fake eyes on his head. lol. So I picked him up and let him hitch a ride home with us.

Today my dad took Jett with him to the bank and post office etc, since he enjoys riding along on those errands because he gets a small sucker at the bank and its just fun for him to go off with PaPa. Well I decided that was my chance to get outside and run day 2 without having to push 32 lbs of kid plus whatever that jogging stroller/bike trailer thingy weighs. lol. The weather here in Texas is ridiculous by the way. Yesterday it was very sunny and warm with a nice breeze. I sweated a lot on my jog. Today it was freezing!! I was cold both inside the house and even more outside the house. I decided to wear shorts and a shirt anyways though because I knew I would heat up fast running around. Well I get out there and it has just started to lightly sprinkle. I think to myself... shit. I don't wanna get caught in the rain too far away from home. I wanted to be like well I'll just run later, but I knew I would have to take Jett if I did that so I sucked it up and started my warm up walk. I decided to just circle the house so if it did for some crazy reason decide to start pouring down rain then I could just run back inside. I wasn't too happy with the idea though because I was afraid I would bore myself to death and halfway through give up because there wasn't enough change of scenery for me to stay interested. Well 5 minutes into jogging through my yard the sky started to clear up and my day immediately brightened! I saw the clouds moving towards the direction of where I normally run, so I darted off as fast as I could in the opposite direction. It was nice to go a different way and I felt so happy to not be stuck around the house that I felt like I was bouncing a little faster through my jog than normal and on my way back home my dad and Jett pulled up beside me and slowly drove next to me for a few seconds just waving and smiling. lol. This prompted me to run even faster to keep up for a short while. lol. I made it back home at exactly 25 minutes of jogging so my new direction worked out great for today. I am very proud of myself for not procrastinating it like I wanted to and for sticking through no matter what obstacle seemed to come up. I feel good about today's exercise and I hope that I can keep my eating habits under control so that I feel good about those too. :)

I know it's been a few days...

... but I just haven't had anything all that interesting to say I guess. lol. But hooray for today because I finally do! ^_^

I got a package in the mail today from Frances over at Carbie Girl! I tied for first place winner of her 'Guess my weigh-in' contest she held for the month of September. Out of a few different choices she gave me, I picked this super cute prize!!

And there was an adorable extra I wasn't expecting! Awww penguin!!! ^_^ Yay!!!! I'll have to frame it now. lol. Of course Jett's favorite part was the bubble wrap! :)

I love my new apron, Thanks so much hon!!!

......

In other news... I carved my first jack-o-lantern in a really long time last night! I can't remember how long its been... something like 17 years ago? lol. Anyways it came out looking like a vampire.. but meh. LOL. Afterwards, I got online and looked up what I could do with the insides and found out how to roast pumpkin seeds. I have never tried pumpkin seeds before but OMG these things are delicious. I wish I had taken a picture for ya'll but sorry! This is what I did.

--Rinse off all the pumpkin pulp.

--Put seeds in a pan filled 2/3 with salted water.

--Bring to boil and let it stay there for at least 10 minutes.

--Drain off excess water.

(You're supposed to dry them first but I didn't have the patience to wait)

--Arrange seeds flat on a cookie sheet.

--Top with whatever seasonings you want. Some might say you should roll them in canola oil or something first. Instead of that, I sprayed them with parkay. lol. Then I lightly sprinkled some salt and garlic powder over the tops of them.

--Bake at 250 for at least 1 hour. I left mine in there for almost 2, I believe. They came out very crispy and delicious!!!

I've never had pumpkin seeds before, but these things are soo good. They taste just like sesame seeds to me! I'm eating some right now... well hell... I'll snap a cell phone pic for you guys real quick. :)

Tadah!

I did manage to take some actual pictures of the Jack-o-lantern, though! ^_^