I ran tonight!

Yeah.. that's right.. me! I ran!

*busts a groove while making her own beats*

^_^ <(^^<) (>^^)>

yeah baby!

lol.

So yeah I went for my nightly walk and this time I took the bike trailer off the bike and put Jett in that instead of his stroller. It turns into a jogging stroller type thing when you do that. So sweet deal. :) I was getting a brisk pace going and a good song came on and I was really feeling it so I was like hmmm I think I will jog over to that stop sign. And then I did! Downed some water and then kept up a nice brisk walk before thinking hey I think I should jog some more. And I did of course. I came upon hills and I ran down them.. I felt like I was flying. Though I'm sure it was quite slow compared to most. lol. I did my best to jog back up the hills too. The steep ones though I had to slow back down to a walk and push myself up them. At some points I found myself saying hey I'm going to jog over to that tree and then I got to the tree and I still felt amazing so I kept on running past that tree over around the corner and like twice as far as I originally thought I could! It was great and I felt so accomplished tonight. I basically did intervals of walking and then jogging/running for 3 miles straight. It was super awesome and I am so psyched. lol.

I did 3 miles in 50 minutes and probably a lot more than half of that was walking. This is not a fast pace at all. I have been walking 3 miles/hour mostly so yeah. lol. But I am still happy with myself.

This was only like my 2nd attempt at running/jogging so woot. I'm thinking I will research the couch to 5k thing this week and then start it on Monday of next week probably. I want to do a 5k in either October or November. I'm thinking maybe November is a better idea. I could maybe do it to celebrate my birthday and whatever organization I'm walking/running for I can just tell people hey donate money to them for my race instead of spending it on a birthday gift i don't need. A good idea, right?

Oh speaking of good ideas... hahaha. I thought a crazy idea up on my walk tonight. Just so crazy it might be awesome. I'll have to talk it over with my besties tomorrow though when we meet up to do some Turbo Jam since it involves their help.

Anyways though... I'm thinking I want some advice from some of you runners out there.. like slimkatie... I noticed my heart pounding out of my dang chest at the end of my little sprint intervals because I felt like I was subconsciously telling myself to hold my breath. I know I should be breathing the entire time and not holding my breath but I think the wind in my face was my body's natural reaction to say omg hold your damn breath? I don't know if that makes sense but that's just what it felt like to me. Do ya'll have any tips on how to train yourself to breathe easier while running or is it just something you have to learn over time somehow?

Another short term goal met!

I reached 185 lbs today!

Only 2 more short term goals left on the list before I make it to my big end goal of 150 lbs! I have no idea what I'm gonna look like when I hit 150 but I figure I will be able to judge myself at that point and see if I need to make more goals or just maintain. At a height of 5 foot and 5 inches tall my BMI says I am currently still obese until I reach 179 lbs and once I get to 155 lbs I will finally be in a Normal weight range... whoa... its mind boggling to me to think I could be there in just a few months time. Ahhh!!! But sooo exciting.

Then the holidays will be here and I'm going to have to make a plan and stick to it. I know I can do well and not gain if I just put my mind to it and keep my body in motion. Speaking of holidays... it's going to be Labor day weekend in a few more days! Who has plans? What are you doing? I'm sure I'll find something to do... but at the moment I have nothing on the schedule. Be safe everyone!! <3

Revamped my blog!!!

Finally! Haha.. I told you guys I was gonna get around to it. Only took me 7 and a half months to make a decent looking page. :P

I also finally figured out how to add pages to my blog so be sure you check it out and tell me what you think. I have a few tabs up top now with My story, Progress pictures, Things I hope to accomplish, and How I'm getting there.

I spent all dang night finding old pictures and stuff to put on my page and oh my god... some of those photos I guess I was blind when I posted them online for my friends to see on facebook and myspace in the past? What the hell.. I was such a major fatty. I don't even remember being that big but a picture says a thousand words I guess. I am of course glad I have those pics to look back on now but I can't help but think WOW... why did I ever let myself get that huge??! I guess it's true that Hindsight is always 20/20!

I also added the option for people to reply to certain comments on my blog. Now if someone, or me, replies to a comment you made then you should get an email notification or something I believe letting you know that there was a response to something you said. I know I am constantly commenting on other people's blogs and asking questions but then I forget to go back to find out the answer because I follow so many that i sometimes even forget who it was I was asking about what. lol. So hopefully this helps some of you who are just like me. Here is where I found out how to do that, by the way!

I noticed I've been getting quite a few new followers this past week for whatever reason so I just wanna say hey welcome and thanks for reading! I hope you'll stop by and tell me your names and a little about yourself.

Love you all!

PS - that picture background for my header is actually a picture I took of the sunset on my walk a few nights ago not very far from my house!

Why do Monday's get such a bad rep?

It seems to me like my Mondays are always pretty rocking. I feel like its the start of a new week and just that much more opportunity at my doorstep! Of course my day's all tend to run together around here since I'm not working anymore so I guess that might have a little to do with not being bothered by Mondays. lol.

I had a pretty productive weekend for a change actually. I'm usually out and about on the weekends because that's when my mom is off work and wants to take me and Jett out to places like Hurricane Harbor or the Zoo or Six Flags or whatever else we can come up with. While I do get plenty of walking and/or swimming, etc in on those days. I never seem to get in any dvd workouts and I feel like those are a big part of my exercise routine that have helped me come this far. But this weekend my mom decided to take Jett to the Zoo and I actually opted to stay home instead. I had a lot of time to myself and it was nice. Tried a lot of those TurboJam Dvds and felt like I got in some major calorie burning.

I've been sitting at 187 lbs for a few days now and while it seemed like the end of the world each day I saw that number I do have to reassure myself it was only 4 days. lol. Today I saw 186 on the scale so progress is definitely happening, even if it seems snail-like to me. I'm not even sure why I expect more than that. lol. I feel pretty demanding of myself I guess. But anyways... started today off on a good foot and hoping to have lots of continued success this week.

In this post, I mentioned how I needed to keep up a pace of 12 lbs down per month to stay on track to my goal of getting to 150 lbs by my birthday. Well that was a month ago now and I did just that. I am so excited. only 36 more lbs and 3 months to go so look at me fly high to victory!! lol. I am sooo close, please don't let me trip up too badly on my way! lol. As of right now though I am 1 lb away from my next short term goal so hopefully I'll be celebrating that sometime in the next few days. :)

This past week, I mentioned that I joined a facebook walking challenge and agreed to do 21 miles. Well it ended last night and I did 28.8 miles! I blew my goal out of the water by 7.8 miles. WOOHOO!!! :D

On a different note.. I am very interested in finding out about the Couch to 5k program. I know so many of you that I follow are getting involved or have tried it already. I have no clue where to begin looking... (besides google. I can't believe I haven't taken the 5 seconds to look there yet, but oh well) so if anyone could please link me in the right direction I would be ever so greatful! I do not have a smart phone that supports apps so I can't do it that way, but I assume there is stuff online about it somewhere right? I have never really tried running but the closer it gets to fall the more I am so excited about the weather changes. October has always been my absolute favorite month here in East Texas because of how much the wind picks up and cools everything down. Its finally chilly enough for long sleeves or a light jacket and the colors on the trees and the ground are oh so magical! I am looking in to finding a 5k somewhere not too terribly far away that I could join and give a try, even if I end up just walking the entire thing. I am thinking it will most likely have to be one in the Dallas area since I live in the middle of nowhere pretty much. lol. There are so many and with so many great causes its going to be hard to just pick one... Any suggestions are welcome! http://www.runontexas.com/

And the winner is....

Number 8! That means Bonnie over at Fat-be-Gone!

Congratulations!

and because Taryn over at Fat Girl in a Skinny World actually referred someone I am feeling the love and making her a winner, too!

Congrats girls! I can't help but notice you're both Canadians... haha. I've never mailed anything to Canada so please be patient with me as I try to figure that out. Just send me an email at chicka1601 at yahoo dot com with the subject: Giveaway Winner and let me know your addresses.

Thank you so much to everyone who participated! I really appreciate it- Carbie Girl, Sharon, Jobee, KLA, Natoria, Becca, and Allan!

Speaking of giveaways... Taryn is going to be hosting her own as soon as she reaches 75 followers. So far her only requirement she's mentioned is that you need to be a regular follower of her blog. If you're interested in hearing about another weightloss blogger on her own journey to a healtheir lifestyle then I highly recommend you become one! :)

It's Friday, Friday, Friday!

Woot. Got that stuck in your heads now don't you? :P

Just a reminder - there is roughly 1 hour left in my giveaway! Feel free to go get a few last minute entries in! I will announce the winner later tonight. :)

Anyways... I've had a spectacular week so far. I reached 187 lbs yesterday and am here still today and happy as a clam for the time being. Yay! haha.

I forgot to mention the other day... when I walked around the park just to have some me time before i had to get groceries and then head back home to be with Jett again, I ended up talking to myself and letting my weight really sink in saying over and over "one-eighty-nine, one-eight-nine! omg im 189!" lmao. it was kind of a shock to the system to really realize that i've made it to the 180s. For a while there just was saying "One hundred" over and over. I sometimes still think I'm a 200+ lbs girl and so that is just a huge deal for me. I know I hit One-derland back in July but It's taken me this long to really get it through to my head. These mental changes are a lot harder to come by!

In other news I got to try out TurboJam for the first time yesterday. My bestie Ashley's neighbor owns like 6 dvd's (actually one of them is on 2 discs so technically 7) and she said it was alright if we made copies of them! So me and Ashley spent all yesterday afternoon burning copies so we can do them whenever we want. We tried one called Fat Blaster right after that and boy was it FUN! Omg.. the most fun workout I've ever done so far actually! The instructor is very upbeat and really gets into it. It was super fast paced though and so I was very surprised at how well I kept up with it for the first time though. I did have a few slips of course but all in all not bad! I wanted to be there in that classroom with her! haha. I was laughing the whole time and just really enjoying myself. If I wasn't so broke and jobless I would totally go out and buy more of those DVDs. Though, I definitely recommend TurboJam to any of you who haven't tried it yet!

Vanity or Confidence?

Hmmm... it's kinda hard for me to tell the difference lately! I feel sooo vain these days. I am not afraid of people randomly snapping pictures of me at all because its like... I know I will look damn good in any picture taken no matter the angle! bwahaha. Maybe not to everyone, but for sure to me who is used to just seeing a big blob in all her old pictures and wanting to burn them all! lol.

I had to wake up early to go to child support court this morning but after that was all said and done I walked around at the park that was there near the building i was in. According to CardioTrainer App I got in 1.6 miles. This brings me to a total of 10.8 miles for the week. only 10.2 miles left to go! And I still have to walk tonight after dinner. :D

When I finished that I went to walmart to pick up a few groceries but before I did that I decided I wanted to try on some clothes just for fun since I didn't have Jett with me and I was curious as to what sizes I can fit in to right now. It's crazy how much sizes fluctuate in different brands and things though. I was wearing a 17 in juniors jeans but in women's i was wearing a 14. I managed to also fit into a Medium (8-10) dress. But on average I was wearing Large (12-14) tops and 14/16 bottoms. Here's a couple pics because I'm so vain now that I couldnt resist. lol.

oh and no I haven't cut my hair yet. I keep telling everyone I'm going to sometime soonish. It's just folded up in a ponytail so i could try on clothes with less hassle. lol.

After I came home from the store I tried a new dish I saw another person on facebook (Sorry I can't remember who!) post about yesterday. Omg it was sooo delicious! And just 269 calories. I think I might even have it again tomorrow. lol. Yellow corn tortilla topped with avacado, tomatoes, corn, and black beans.

Btw, I was 189.0 today for Weigh-in Wednesday. 0.8 down from yesterday, 3 lbs down from Monday! But only 1 lb down from last week. Oh well. I'm still super happy to be in the 180s. Woot Woot!

Hard work FTW!

So yesterday after I went and weighed in I saw that very luckily I was only up 2 lbs which put me back at 192.4 I believe. I decided I wanted to restart the 30 day shred so I did that and then I got in 4.2 miles of walking just before sunset. I ate roughly 1200 calories for the day and this morning I was very happy to see this number...

Hooray for the 180s!!!!! Finally. haha. I'm sooo excited. I'm going to kick this week's ass. Oh and speaking of the shred, I saw myself improve soooo much from the last time I did it a couple months ago. This time I was able to follow Natalie instead of Anita the entire time! I even rocked those damn bicycle crunches at the end. Also during the last part of the cooldown when you grab your legs behind you, I used to never be able to do that without holding onto some furniture for balance first. But I totally did it yesterday with no problems!! I'm so excited for day 2 now! :D

In other news I joined a challenge on facebook with my friend Sara where everyone sets their own goals of how far they want to walk or run for 7 days. It started yesterday. Some people are using treadmills or ellipticals but I'm just walking my neighborhood. I set my goal at 21 miles for the week since I think on average I do 3 miles a day. But I'm going to try and push myself to blow that number out of the water. Last night I did 4.2 miles so I'm off to great start! It's not too late to join us if anyone's interested!! This is the challenge event link. :)

Party Hardy...

I feel as if I have been non-stop partying since Friday evening sometime. I spent all weekend with some old friends at 2 different parties and met some new ones. Got like 5 hours of sleep between 3 days and started feeling like a total zombie yesterday. It was my first weekend without my son in a very very very long time. lol. I felt I needed to take advantage of that, I guess. I had an amazing time and wouldn't trade it for the world, but I am not looking forward to stepping on the scale this morning. lol. I went to bed at a decent hour last night and woke myself up at 8am today. Ready to take on the world... I'm going to go find some breakfast now and then start working out all after I get that initial weigh-in done.

Happy first day of school to those lucky parents who got to send their children off today! Jett is still on the waiting list for Headstart but he's like number 4 so I'm hoping a few kids don't show up today. lol

Extra skin

So on thursday I stop at this gas station and am washing my hands then when I go to dry them they have this brand new kind of super blow dryer that like blows the skin right off your damn hands. haha. I never realized how much extra skin I have just on my hands!! So I had to take a picture of it.

Then I got curious about the extra skin I already knew there was on my arms so I blew dry it too. hahaha! Scary!

Thought I would share with you guys though because even though its kinda gross its also kinda cool to see how far I've come looking at it this way.

50th follower Giveaway!

So to my pleasant surprise yesterday when I logged on to check my dashboard I saw that I now have exactly 50 blog followers! I've noticed some of my fellow bloggers doing giveaways for reaching so many followers or whatever so I decided it would be fun for me to do the same! I've never really written this blog for anyone more than just me, but I am very happy to know some of you find it a worthwhile read and hopefully it helps at least one other person. That would be enough to make me happy. lol.

Anyways here is what I'm giving away! I somehow got signed up somewhere with the National Institute of Health and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and so they send me some really cool bracelets. They are basically just big blue rubber bands but they say "We Can!" on them and I thought they would make for a wonderful giveaway to keep up positivity on our journeys to healthier living. :)

And yeah I'm one of those girls who leaves her nail polish on until it entirely chips away by itself. Lol.

Here are the rules of my giveaway!

Be a follower of my blog and comment to enter with your name (Sorry I don't know everyone's names yet) and then tell me one of your non-scale goals that you hope to accomplish by the time you've changed your lifestyle for the better.

To receive extra entries you may do any or all of the following. You must leave a separate comment for each that you do though so it will count as another entry!:

1.) Refer a friend to my blog, if they leave a comment saying you sent them it counts as an entry for them and for you.

2.) Follow me on Twitter. @poisonedpenguin I don't really post often there just random pictures while I'm out walking with Jett or something.

3.)Be my friend on facebook. facebook.com/jen112685 This is my personal facebook. I don't have a special one where I only talk about my journey. I just talk about anything and everything here. Please for the love of god send me a message telling me you found me on this blog though so I don't just deny you. lol. I get lots of random weird freind requests out of the blue and my page is private so its not just open to anyone.

4.) Share this giveaway on your blog, on your twitter, or on your facebook. If you want to do all 3 then you may leave 3 separate comments to get 3 different entries.

5.) Leave a comment with some form of positive inspiration that motivates you to keep on going. It can be something you've learned along the way, a picture, a quote, anything. :)

Giveaway officially ends at Noon Central time one week from today which is Friday August 26th 2011. I will select a winner using Random.org. Your comments will be numbered in order of how you left them. I will post a screenshot from Random.org to show which number wins. Depending on how many people enter, it is up to my discretion if I should choose to announce more than one winner. If there are referrals to my blog, there will most likely be another winner chosen for most referrals. Winner should receive their prize within 1 week if they live in the USA. Give me between 3-4 weeks if you live somewhere else!

I saw you today...

This is a poem written by another blogger I stumbled across yesterday and I just had to share it with you guys! You can find her blog here:
http://izzymckendree.weebly.com/blog.html

I Saw You Today: A Poem to My Old Self
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
Your head was down and you looked sad.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
Your were too busy eating that huge fast food burger and milk shake.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
You were too busy looking for that close parking spot so you didn't have to walk.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
I was headed for the stairs but you were waiting for the elevator.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
You were waiting in traffic and I was flying past you on my bike.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
You were inside watching tv while I was outside walking with my son while he rode his bike.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
You were at Starbucks drinking a huge whip cream coffee drink and I was headed to buy workout shorts.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
You were in the plus size section worried about what would cover up the most while I headed to the "other" side of the store.
I saw you today but you didn't see me.
You were going back into your house to go back to sleep after the bus came to get Spicer and I was headed to exercise.
I saw you today but you didn't see me,
LISTEN TO ME!! LOOK AT ME!! YOU CAN DO THIS!! SEE ME!!

Last night's sugar meltdown

So I have been fairly good to myself most of my journey when I'm eating at home and not having too many problems with wanting the bad things because i will either have a little bit to satisfy the craving and then go fill up on veggies or fruits or something or I will be able to substitute what i want for something similar. This has worked great and I'm sure it still will but last night I cracked.

Been under a lot of stress this past week, which is no excuse for poor eating, in fact its just the opposite. It should mean that I should eat my best to keep my mind healthy and happy. But yesterday evening I broke down and binged on all the leftover candy from the party bags for my son's birthday party. Luckily there wasn't a huge bag full of it left because my stick of a brother with a metabolism faster than the speed of light ate most of it before leaving here on Sunday. lol. However, I'm sitting here now face to face with the candy wrappers and evidence of last night's total breakdown.

In 7 months I haven't hardly craved any candy. It's not even looked appealing to me. I will have a chocolate here and there. Usually the weight watchers chocolates or the skinny cow ones, but hard candy hasn't looked the least bit delicious. Then I made this spectacular Treasure Chest cake for my son's Pirate themed 3rd birthday...

I managed not to devour everything in sight that day somehow.. lol. but 2 days later the leftover gobstoppers and tootsie roll pops and tootsie rolls were calling my name! I ate the entire rest of the box of gobstoppers and I had 3 suckers and like 5 tootsie rolls and a (surprisingly sugarfree) ring pop. I felt like a huge cow but I knew if I left any gobstoppers in the box i would want them today or whatever and I just didnt want to ruin tomorrow before it even got here. lol. Lame reason again, but here it is tomorrow and I'm eating well and doing fine. I don't have the desire to eat any candy now but I also don't have the temptation. :)

Anyways... I knew last night as I was eating all the candy that I wanted to come clean with myself and my blogger friends and share how awful I was to myself. We can't be perfect always and this isn't just a diet to me. This is my new lifestyle! So whenever I have a bad day I'm going to share it just as much as whenever I have a good day. It's realistic to see there are both sides to the coin of struggling to get to a healthier me.

In other, much better, news!.. today is Weigh in Wednesday and I am down 3 lbs this week. I was stuck at 193 all weekend and then came down to 191 on yesterday and down another pound to 190 today! haha. I think maybe my body was craving a change in the foods I had been eating or something so maybe the cake and hot dogs at the birthday party and whatnot weren't all so bad.

And just for fun here is a picture of me from Jett's 2nd birthday party....

I had no neck. My fat head sat on my blob of shoulders. lol

I was round everywhere and none of my clothes really fit with any shapeliness. :(

And this was at this year's party. I actually have a collar bone showing through in this picture. There is a neck and veins. Whoa! lol

Oh snap... I've still got a nice round booty, too. :P

My boobs may be shrinking, but at least so is my waistline!

And this is my bestie Ashley who helped me throw everything together. <3 She's like 120 on a fat day so I know I'll probably never be her size, but I'm gonna get damn close enough to at least share a few cute clothes!! haha

and one of the birthday boy because he's too cute not to share! :)

7 months!

Well I have had a crazy week and barely had much time to do any blogging much less sleeping or working out as hard as i'd like. I've managed to get in some walking everyday but lately that's been it. Made it to 192 today though. Been sticking to eating right and walking for as long and as far as possible in the evenings. I'm 10 lbs down since last month, not too shabby but I'm hoping after some recooperating tomorrow I can get back on schedule and start training hard again! My son's birthday party was a huge hit yesterday and even with all the cake and hot dogs and sodas I still managed to lose a pound so hooray. lol. My intuitive eating this past weekend has served me well.

Anyways.. here are the pictures... I feel like a whole different person already.

and now for measurements:

Starting measurement > Newest one > Amount lost

Bust - 51 in > 41 in > 10 in
Waist - 53 in > 41 in > 12 in
Hips - 58 in > 46 in > 12 in
Arms - 17 in > 14 in > 3 in
Thighs - 31 in > 25.5 in > 5.5 in
Calves - 19.5 in > 17.5 in > 2 in
Neck - 16.5 > 14 > 2.5 in

Being a team player...

I feel like a good blogger today. Not because I have anything to post about in particular, lol. But because I not only read every single one of the blogs I follow, but I commented on any of the newest posts. :)

We can all use a little comment love from time to time. But I didn't even feel like I was forced into commenting like I sometimes do. I just generally had something I wanted to say. :)


Goodday to you all in blogland and I hope you find Thursday a success! :)

80 lbs down!!

I am so soo close to being 100 lbs down. Only 20 left to go.. and then just 23 more to go til I reach my first big end goal of 150 lbs. It seems so attainable right now. For the first time since I've started really. It's all sinking in and I'm like... I know I calculated that if I kept up pace I could be at 150 lbs by my birthday... and so far I have managed to keep on track. I'm just really surprised. Though I should have more confidence in myself I guess. Wow! So close... 193 lbs today... can't wait to hit the 180s!!



Big shout out to Valerie on facebook who shared my success today in one of her posts and made me feel so super loved! I got so many wonderful comments and lots of new friend requests from it. lol. Hope to find out if any of them have blogs I can follow and keep up with, too!

So far my August challenge is coming a long alright but I have to admit I never did get a chance to try out 3 new recipes yet. I still want to do that even though it was last weeks challenge. I will do it sometime in August for sure! I have been drinking water like crazy though and havent yet caved to any other flavored waters or nothing. Just having my protein shakes and my water. So yay for that! How well have you guys been able to follow the challenge so far? Its beginning of week 2 now! woot!

21:01:06

Yeah so I finally got a free moment and decided today was the day I was gonna take my first chance at 'running'. Of course it was more like a jogging and then walking intervals type thing. But I went 1.34 miles and if I had to guess I actually jogged half of it. But... I'm a slow jogger. lol. So yeah 21:01:06 is my official time. Ya gotta start somewhere! :)

Boy it sure was hot though and it was noon too so of course the sun was beating down on my like a mad man with temps in the 110s all week I knew it had to be somewhere close to that just now. I really thought it wasn't a good idea but knew if I didn't go now I wouldn't know when the next time I had free time away form Jett long enough to try again. I just filled up my water bottle and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't pass out. lol

My protein shakes

So someone asked me how I make my protein shakes the other day... it's very simple.. here's how!

1 scoop whey protein powder
personal blender cup full of ice
4 oz of whole milk

blend until its a frosty consistency

yum! It's 140 calories for the protein and 75 calories for 4 oz of whole milk. I love whole milk and can't stand skim or any other kinds so I just allow myself the room in my calorie count to have the whole milk. I have had just the ice and the protein powder by themselves sometimes though. I just prefer the creamy taste with the chocolate powder and its all good. Sometimes, when I can find the things, I add Nescafe Instant Vanilla coffee packets for 5 more calories and it then tastes like i have a moccha frappacino! I love it! :)

An interesting evening, too...

Just had the weirdest and then coolest things in a long while just happen to me. First I got dropkicked in the face by a grasshopper that had to be like 4 inches long! I was bike riding and it surprised the hell out of me so I screamed like a little girl. lol. Then a minute later some little nice old lady slowed down in her car to stop and tell me how proud she was of me for being out riding my bike to get some exercise. Then told me to be careful not to get heat stroke in this weather. lol. I reassured her that's the reason I was out bike riding just before sunset and that there was a whole lot of water in the trailer I was pulling behind me. But man that really caught me off guard to have a stranger who knows nothing about my story stop and show such a random act of kindness. I've had many friends and family and followers tell me they are proud of me and I so appreciate it but I was almost in tears after the lady drove off because that just struck me as something more people should try to do. Give someone a random pat on the back every now and then. :)

I'm in a fantastic mood!

Woot 3 lbs down from last wednesday's weigh-in!





And on top of that I just had the best night/morning in a really long time. :) Today is gonna be aweseome. woot!

Harder than I thought...

Okay so already this August challenge has proved to be a little harder than I thought it was. Here I was thinking I could breeze on through this and feel all accomplished barely even noticing i was being challenged. Wrong! lol. I mean so far the jumping jacks haven't phased me. I was right in thinking Jillian had toughened me up with enough of those to learn to love them. They are like my favorite exercise. But what I gave up for the month... all drinks but water... that's much tougher than I thought!

My mom of course brings home 3 big boxes full of this new kind of Powerade zero calorie drink that was on sale for real cheap and tells me i can have as many as i want and i want to try them so bad but I knew better than to just be like oh thanks and not mention that i wasn't going to be drinking them. lol. I made sure I told her that I've joined a challenge and I'm only drinking water until September and so now I'm held accountable that way, too.

I feel like I should mention though that I am still drinking my protein shakes! Gotta keep my muscles strong still! :)

August Challenge

So I just came across the perfect solution for getting out of the funk I've been the last few days. I'm joining a challenge started by one of my facebook friends!!

link to original discussion here


This is what it says:

AUGUST CHALLENGE!!
"The month of food & fitness"

For the month of August we will be focusing on self control. Completely remove ONE thing from your diet that you feel is holding you back. Examples: sweets, pop/soda, white bread, chips, etc.

August 1 - August 7= Fitness- 300 crunches total this week (that's 43/day)
Food- Try three new recipes this week. (www.skinnytaste.com is great)

August 8 - August 14= Fitness- 300 jumping jacks total this week (that's 43/day)
Food- Two meat free meals this week (link below offers meal ideas)
meal ideas

August 15 - August 21= Fitness- walk/jog/bike 10 miles this week (average of 1.5 miles/day)
Food- Eat an apple a day! (check the link below, the benefits)
Daily Apple benefits

August 22- August 28= Fitness- complete 6 hours of exercise this week (42 mins/day)
Food- Plan your meal menu for the week!

August 29- August 31= Share your progress pictures with us!
Tell us one thing you love about yourself!

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This is totally doable and I think some good structure is what I need right now in the home stretch ya know? I can't wait to get started! :)I hope all of you will join me in doing this August Challenge as well and share it on your blogs too!