I've joined Shrinkvivor!

Woohoo! So I am on the White Team for Shrinkvivor going on over at Shrinkingjeans.net! I almost disqualified myself on the very first day by not checking in until now. lol. The cut off for check in is just over an hour away. That would have sucked. lol.

Looking forward to a new challenge but definitely not looking forward to logging all my minutes of exercise. *whines* I really wish I had a smart phone to do all that crap for me. lol. Oh well.. looks like I'll be carrying around pen and paper this week.

I'm not OBESE!!!

So I finally saw this most anticipated number on my scale today!!!! 179!! I am no longer considered by the BMI charts to be OBESE. Now, I'm just overweight!!! Hahaha.. who would have thought I'd someday be excited to scream out to everyone - OMG YOU GUYS I'M OVERWEIGHT!!!! Happy day! :)

In even more exciting news about today. Today is the day I get to see my favorite band of all time play live! I've loved Blink 182 for forever it seems. Mark, Tom, and Travis are...*sigh*.. nothing short of AMAZING! And tonight I finally get to see them for the first time! I'm really in love with Travis though. If you guys didn't know it, that's my Jett's real dad. lmfao. I wish. Anyways... they are on the Honda Civic Tour with My Chemical Romance, so cool I get to see MCR while I'm there too. Going to ride up there with 4 other friends, so its bound to be awesome!!

When is the best time to speak up?

Alright... so I was going to just make another update blog about how things are going for me... but a few moments ago I got a text from a close friend that has sent me in to a bit of a whirlwind and so I thought I better stop everything I'm dong and focus on how I'm feeling right this moment and write it all out.

I get a text from a guy I know who mentions yet again how he adores my face and that while he's glad I'm getting healthy and changing for the better, he is pleased that my face, while slimmer has not changed all that much. He's mentioned this several times in the last few weeks about how my face has always been his favorite feature of mine and so this time after thanking him, I ask why he never told me so before now. This was his response:

"Idk. Never really thought about it. it's kinda complicated. it had to do with the weight you had put on. If I say, your face is definitely my favorite feature, it sometimes leads down a road where we discuss the rest of you, and that wouldn't make me real comfortable because I don't lie."

My initial thought was, oh, that makes perfect sense so I said 'fair enough' but then almost immediately I thought, well but at least it would have been someone. Not a single person had the balls to stop me even just once and say hey Jennifer, I think you have a problem and it's only getting worse.

I do greatly appreciate him not voicing his opinion on the matter when not asked about it though, because honestly - He's a guy. Hearing that from the opposite sex probably would have crushed me back then. I wasn't near as strong minded as I am now. It would have been nice to hear from any of my female friends though. I won't say that I wouldn't have been offended initially, because that would have totally been the case, but I think in the long run I would have thanked them for noticing and caring enough about me to say something.

Which brings me to where I am now... I am happy and on my way to healthy and in the position to offer words of encouragement and advice along with telling someone I care enough to notice they're having issues with their weight. But still... I am scared to death of hurting someone's feelings and possibly sending them in the opposite direction of depression and anger and gaining even more weight. It's so tricky and hard to figure out just how involved to get in to the lives of the ones you love. But given even the slightest chance to bring it up, you better believe I will do it! If someone happens to make a comment about how they can't wear certain things anymore or they wish they could do this or that, I will be there to say hey... you know... I was that person at one time, too and I know that you can change and I will even help you in any way I know how.



Anyways... I guess those are my thoughts on that matter. How about you guys? Do you ever think there is a right or wrong time to say something? Do you wish someone had said something to you sooner? Did someone say something to you? How did you react? I wanna know people!!

As for an update on me... well I am doing fantastic... down again after and amazing weekend. I'm now weighing in at 180 lbs! I also donated blood on Saturday and feel so awesome becuase that was the first time in my life I have had a high enough iron count or whatever it's called to be able to donate!! I've tried several times in the past and apparently been not healthy enough, so huge NSV for me!!

In other news... I chopped off 13 inches of my hair and dyed the rest bright red! ;)

Who's on a roll?

Oh that's right... ME! Bwahahah! YAY!!!! Down another 1.6 lbs today...

Finally over that slump I've been stuck in the last couple weeks and now I can once again change my ticker! Woohoo!!! lol.

In even more exciting news.... guess which show is finally back!!!!! OMG I'm SO STOKED!!!

MTV's I Used to be Fat is back with all new episodes on October 11th at 9pm central time! I also heard on Justin's (Marci's trainer) facebook page that he just got done filming with Marci the other day for some special 'look where they are now' kind of show that will air the night before on October 10th! But anyways.. be sure you check out the trailer for this next set of kids!

I am facebook friends with probably half of them already, lol. They did their journeys in summer 2010 also, at the same time the first group of kids did it. I assume the summer 2011 kids' shows will probably air January of 2012. But that'd just be my wild guess. I can't wait to see how their stories unfolded and how they got to where they are now. Which is pretty damn fantastic for most of them, btw!

2 hours at the Gym!

Yeah... that's right! I spent an hour there with my friend Jennie after she paid 5 bucks for me to get in to her gym and then she had to leave but I stayed an extra hour and worked out even more. We used the treadmill, the bike, the exercise balls and hand weights, the crunch board, some kind of arm squeezy thingy and something for your calves. I probably spent the most time on the treadmill though for sure and the bikes. Once I figured out how to get the fan to turn on by working out harder and making it blow harder i was in heaven. lmao.

I took some pictures for you guys. <3

Waiting in the parking lot for Jennie to show up. lol

Before me and Jennie worked out.

After me and Jennie worked out.

It's hard to take pics when you're running. lol

Even harder to get non blurry stat pics. lol

Dripping sweat like crazy on the treadmill

working it on the bikes

Churning my feet as fast as they could go. lol

After I finished working out.

I also worked out at home doing roughly 40 minutes of cardio yesterday morning and then the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout after dinner. :) When I stepped on the scale this morning I saw 184.0!!! Lowest number to date. It was only 184.4 when I first reached it. lol. So HELL YEAH!!!!!!!! I'm finally back on track!!!! I've lost 5.8 lbs since last Friday when I weighed in at 189.8 lbs. I feel on fire!!! :D

Oh and for those of you wondering how my lunch at Applebee's went yesterday. It was probably the best meal I've ever eaten in my entire life. OMG! soo good. And I was guilt free knowing it was 550 calories and being able to easily schedule lighter meals and snacks the rest of the day. :)

Signature Sirloin and Garlic Herb Shrimp

7 oz. sirloin grilled and topped with succulent shrimp in a light cream sauce and served with herb potatoes, seasonal vegetables, fresh bruschetta, sliced almonds and chopped parsley.

For whatever crazy reason, I wasn't expecting broccoli to be on my plate or else I would have asked for something else. But since it arrived that way I figured I better give it a try. I've hated cooked broccoli my entire life after being forced to eat it as a child and not allowed to leave the dinner table until i had 'eaten' it, or in my case stuffed it in my cheeks and chewed it into tiny bits just long enough to get up and go to the bathroom and spit it out. However, recently a group of friends were all eating raw broccoli and offered me some. I took it and ate it because I hadn't eaten anything since the night before and was really hungry. It didn't taste too bad. Well this Applebee's broccoli was apparently steamed and didn't feel too soggy or gross. It was covered in juice from my steak though as well and that made it absolutely delicious! I not only ate it, but I liked it!!

Monday, monday...

Hmmppf... I so didn't get near as much done today as I wanted to. I did go grocery shopping though so yay. lol. I also did Week 2, Day 1 of the Couch to 5-k program. Sweated up a storm doing it since I took Jett with me and pushed his butt up hills and down. lol. But for only 25 minutes I feel like I hardly worked out at all today. I did spend roughly 4 hours wandering around damn walmart though. haha.

Thanks to those of you who commented on my last post with the pics of my dress. I can't wait to be able to wear it!!! I'm gonna be smokin in that thing! lol.

I'm soooo excited for tomorrow. I'm going to bed now so I can wake up early and be all that i can be tomorrow. lol. YAY!!!! Pics to come for sure!!

Sarah's Christmas Dress Challenge!

So Sarah over at Fat So Sarah: A Weight Loss Journey has decided to create her own little version of the Christmas Dress Challenge someone else had started a week or so ago. This challenge has a few less rules and seems like a perfect fit for me. :)

12-week Christmas Dress Challenge, starting September 18th to December 11th.

Rules:

1. Buy or find a picture of a dress in a smaller size (the size you're aiming to reach by the end of the challenge) The idea is to buy the dress to use as motivation, but it's not required.
2. On or before Sunday, Sept. 18th, make your first post with a picture of your dress, your starting size & weight and your goal size & weight. (I will link my post to yours, so let me know once you make your first post)
3. Aim for a healthy caloric intake each day
4. Exercise a minimum 3x a week
5. Drink water (not soda, not diet soda, not energy drinks...etc...)
6. Twice a month I will post an update on how I'm doing on this challenge. If you have decided to do the challenge with me, feel free to add your update in the comments.

As per the rules I have already got the perfect dress in mind. It's actually not quite mine yet, though. My bestie, Ashley, bought it for my birthday in the hopes that I would be motivated enough to fit in to it by then and she currently has it tucked away in her closet somewhere. My birthday is November 26th, so almost a month before Christmas. If I'm lucky I can fit it then, but if not, I've still got this challenge pushing me along. I asked her to take some pictures of it for me today and this is what she emailed me.

The front

The back

It's an absolutely gorgeous red and black plaid dress that comes just above the knees. It has zipper detail on it that has lacey material in between and it lays over some satin inner lining. The lace at the bottom kind of looks like spider webs. The back has some stretchy material that is a bit rouched for a snug form fitting look and the straps have buttons you can easily adjust the lengths with. I have some fishnets that I can wear with it, I just need to find some good shoes now that all my ones that would look good with it are too big for me. lol.

This dress is labeled as a medium and it is by Hell Bunny. I googled it and found out that its a 50-60 dollar dress. My friend is super thrifty so I know she got it for a great deal or possibly even free, but wow what a steal! I'm even more excited finding that out. Apparently it was mostly sold at Hot Topic and is now out of stock. Here are some pictures I found online.

My current size is a Large or X-Large depending on the brand. I am wearing 12-14 in tops and bottoms right now.

I hope to be at least a medium if not smaller by the time Christmas gets here! It would be nice to be able to wear anything in a size 8-10 range by then. We'll see how this goes.

My healthy caloric intake has been 1200 calories per day. I've ate this way since January so that wont be a problem for me. I also exercise almost every single day so 3x a week is a given for me, too. The only rule I think I'm bound to break is the only drinking water rule. I love my zero calorie green teas and my propel fitness waters and my powerades. None of them have calories and they all have flavor so yay! lol. Though I do admit I should be drinking tons more water and taking it slower on the zero calorie monster energy drinks.

Anyways... tadah... Here's to the hopefully very successful start of a new challenge! Huzzah!

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For those of you wondering how yesterday's birthday party went... well... not as great as I would have liked, but definitely not as bad as it could have gotten either! I think I was close to staying within calorie range but I honestly have no clue since I wasnt able to measure stuff there. The worst part was all the cherry tootsie roll pops! Those things are addictive, especially when you havent had any candy in a long time so yeah.. I went overboard with those for sure. I did finish my week 1 of the couch to 5k program though yesterday and was feeling great about it so as soon as I got home I also did level 3 of the 30 day shred all before heading out to the birthday party. Then when I finally made it home I made sure I worked out some more. I didn't do any particular workout since Jett was watching cartoons on my tv. I just made some routine up in my head and did it along to Wow Wow Wubzzy. lol. There was lots of cardio and a few strength training move with light hand weights. When I hopped on the scale this morning I had my fingers crossed that the party didn't do too much damage and I got lucky. I went down 0.6 of a pound since yesterday, so yay for no gain! lol. But with all that working out I know I could have lost more if I ate better.

Today I stayed on track with my eating and feel really good about myself. I tried a new workout, too. I did the Biggest Loser Powerwalk dvd. I thought it'd be super easy and I could breeze right through it. I mean it's just walking, right? Well I was a bit mistaken to be honest! It definitely had me work up a sweat. lol. I do still things its a great dvd for beginners, but it was more of a workout than I was expecting it to be. I did 2 miles with that and then after dinner I walked around my neighborhood 2.5 miles and when I got home I did the level 3 of the 30 day shred again. My legs sure are burning right about now. lol

On Tuesday I have plans to go out to lunch with Jett's paternal grandmother at Applebee's and after checking out the menu online I've decided to have the Signature Sirloin with Garlic Herb Shrimp for only 550 calories. Mmmmm. I'll be sure to eat a light breakfast and light dinner that day so I can have it with no problems. :) After lunch though, since I will be in town where my friend Jennie lives, I'm going to have Jett stay with his maw maw while me and Jennie go to her gym and workout! She offered to pay the 6 bucks for me to get in and use the equipment with her. I'm so excited! The only other time I used a gym this past year was when we stayed in the swanky hotel in St. Louis that had a gym on the top floor. I'm so pumped about this! I get to work off my big lunch right away! haha! And I get to do it with a workout buddy instead of all alone! :D This week is going to rock my socks. I even have a date on Friday night. lol.

Baked Ziti

Thanks goes to Katie again over at Runs for Cookies, I begged her a while back to post her recipe for baked ziti because it's a food I used to love when I went out to eat but never actually had it homemade before or even knew where to begin. Now that I know it's so simple! This is the recipe she posted on her recipe blog and I tweaked mine a little to my liking.

Preheat your oven to 400.
Bring about 4 quarts of water to a boil and then add 10 oz of penne pasta.
Let it boil around 10-11 minutes.
Mix 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 cup of low fat ricotta cheese, and 1 - 1/2 cups of tomato or pasta sauce(I used Light Ragu No Sugar Added Tomato & Basil) in to an 8x8 glass baking dish. Add cooked pasta and mix together really well then top with 1/2 cup more sauce. (So that's 2 cups total you need) Put it in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Just before removing it from the oven sprinkle on 1/3 cup of mozzarella. Tadah!

With the brands and things I used, I calculated the whole dish to be 1800 calories and so if it serves four then that's 450 calories per serving.

I had 1 serving of it for dinner last night and now I'm eating another serving for breakfast this morning! Mmmmm!


In more exciting news, yesterday's ass kicking paid off! The scale yesterday morning said 189.8 and today it said 187.6!! Woo dropped 2.2 lbs in just a day. I know I can really do this and get back on track to the way things should be if I just push hard enough and quit getting distracted!! Being so close to 'the end' is what's throwing me off I think. Because I feel like oh well its just 1 lb up here and then 1 lb up there and i can just go melt that off in a day or two if i work hard enough. Which is true, but add all those up together and I'll be going up and down for eternity if I don't nip it in the butt right now and say hey enough is enough, get your shit together Jen and fly straight!

Today there is a 3 year old little girl's birthday party I have to take Jett to. I'm doing my best to control my eating here at the house until we show up there at 4pm... there is most definitely going to be cake and bbq and hot dogs and the like I'm told. So I'm going to have to test my self control tonight for sure. I think depending on how many calories I have left by the time I get there will dictate how much of what things I eat. Though I do not plan to have more than one small bite of cake from whatever Jett is given. I'm refusing to get my own plate of food and will just pick things off of his. lol. If the party wasn't going to be so late in the day then I would just not eat there and wait to eat until I got home, but after I'm done there we are going to meet up with another friend who only lives about 15 minutes from there and no telling how late I will be out tonight so I better eat at least something at the party to keep me from starving late at night and binging when i get home. I'll be sure to have lots of water with me today!!!

8 months

Okay so it's a day late... but here it is... I did my best with this stupid crappy camera that doesn't let me take self timer pics. lol.

I just went and checked where I was at when I got to 7 months and I was at 192 lbs. So being up today at 189 lbs makes it look like I've only lost 3 lbs in the last month. OMG! Talk about the slap in the face I need to get my ass back in gear. I've been averaging 12 lbs a month this whole time and I know its bound to slow down at some point... but I was down 5 more than that at my lowest. The least I could do is work on not gaining any back! Ugh.... Oh well a loss is still a loss so I still feel somewhat good. I have to kick butt this next month and really do well. I'm hoping tomorrow my scale reflects how hard I worked today, too. I did Burn Fat Boost Metabolism with Jillian Michaels this morning. Then I did my Couch to 5k run after dinner and just now I did Level 3 of the 30 day shred. I ate well all day too so we'll see...

Now for my measurements.

Starting measurement > Newest one > Amount lost

Bust - 51 in > 41 in > 10 in
Waist - 53 in > 40 in > 13 in
Hips - 58 in > 44.5 in > 13.5 in
Arms - 17 in > 13.5 in > 3.5 in
Thighs - 31 in > 24.5 in > 6.5 in
Calves - 19.5 in > 17 in > 2.5 in
Neck - 16.5 > 13.5 > 2.5 in

Wow but I did still manage to lose 4.5 inches overall in the last month, not as bad as i would have guessed!

and just for kicks... check out my guns guys!! :D

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start

Ha... so yeah... That's what this week feels like to me. Konami code. I've gone up and down and left and right and just everywhere in between. Been so busy. I left on a short roadtrip early Tuesday and made it back home Wednesday evening. Was busy all day Thursday watching my sister's kids and today is my first free day in what seems like forever. The past few weeks have been crazy busy and pretty soon the next few will be too. I'm going to take a hold of today though and use it to get back on track and stop all these lame excuses I've been giving myself. As it stands I am back up to 189 lbs today. So I'm up 5 since my low of 184. Sure that's not anywhere near as bad as it could be, but its still not pleasant to see. I am thinking positive today and just imaginging how great it'll feel to finally see the 170s real soon I hope.

Some of you may or may not have noticed that yesterday was my 8 month day! I always post new pics and measurements on the 15th of every month since that is when I began my journey. But with having a different camera this time without a self timer feature i wasn't able to get any pics in, I also didn't weigh in yesterday or the past few days from being out of town and gone and stuff so I was like screw it I'll figure something out tomorrow. I suppose 1 day won't throw things too out of whack. I'll figure out how to get some pictures done tonight and will for sure upload my new measurements.

In other much more exciting and happy news -- I just got my very first blog award!!! It was awarded to me by April over at 30 before 30!

Liebster" means "favorite" or "beloved" in German. The award is to do a shout out to us bloggers with under 200 followers. I currently have 67 followers and love you all to pieces! <3 I now am supposed to choose 5 blogs I just can't get enough of! I see so many of you that I love have also recently received this award so I'll do my best to award it to those who haven't received it before I hope.

1) Katie over at Runs for Cookies is one of my favorite bloggers for sure and I was very surprised when checking her page today to see that she doesn't already have more than 200 followers. She updates daily and no matter how tired I am, I feel like I have to at least check her latest blog and see what new interesting things are going on with her that day. She's lost well over 100 lbs and maintained it for a year or so now I believe. She talks about her day to day life with her husband and kids just as much as she does her healthy living journey.

2) Kristin at And she ran..., I am a new follower to her blog in the last couple weeks or so I believe but I love her writing style. Seems to me that she just writes how she thinks very similar to what I do and I see so much common ground between us that I can't help but love her because who doesn't love someone as awesome as themselves? Was that conceited much? haha. She's been following the Couch to 5k program lately and definitely one of the ones who had me wanting to look in to finally starting it myself!

3) Liz at Liz Taylor's Health, Fitness, and Lifestyle site . Now this girl is probably the first, or at least one of the first, girls that I ever started following way back in January when I began my journey. She's got tons and tons of wonderful helpful posts with great advice on what to eat, how to shop, what exercises help you do which things, etc. She's chock full of amazing information and she just happened to find me on facebook back when I was posting on the MTV's I Used to be Fat fan pages so I am very lucky to have found her blog through that. Definitely worth going back and searching through all her old posts if you're looking to research healthy ways to lose weight. She's also down around 100 lbs or so and maintaining for quite some time now.

4) Chelsea at The Ever-Changing Chels is someone I actually know who lives very near me and just this past week has decided to start her very own blog. She's been updating at least once a day and off to a great start. We've agreed to meet up and start working out together soon, too. I just can't wait! For anyone looking to follow someone from the very beginning of their journey, I totally recommend following Chels because from what I can tell she's got only great things in store for her future!

5) Crystal at Confessions of a Stay at Home Mom and Photography Addict is also someone I actually know that lives near me as well. Though she is actually the only one on this list that isn't a weightloss and or health and fitness blogger. She's just an amazingly well spoken and hilarious friend of mine who's currently expecting a new baby. She's highly sarcastic and full of witty charm. She's not afraid to speak exactly what she's thinking and I love it! A great read for anyone who needs more humor in their life because for sure you wont be able to read any of her posts without cracking a sick smile.

Couch to 5k

Alright so I finally decided I'm going to commit myself to doing this now that I've got a 5k picked out.... I hjave a little over 12 weeks until race day... ooh I just thought of something. I need a race countdown ticker... yeah anyways so couch to 5k program is 9 weeks long, plenty of time to get in shape!

This is the plan I am following since I don't have a smart phone with a nifty little app that does it for me. :P

Tonight I followed day 1 of workout 1 only instead of doing it for 20 minutes, I did 43 minutes. the first 5 minutes were the brisk warm-up walk and the entire rest of the way was 60 second run with 90 second walk. After reaching the 20 minutes I was still halfway from my house so I was like well I might as well keep up this pace and how fast I can make it back home. :)

Cardio Trainer app says I did 2.85 miles in 43 minutes. This website calculates my speed to be 3.9 miles per hour, so yay not bad! I'm so excited! Also if I type in how many kmh it says that is on the next one down and tell it I'm going 5k then it says at that rate I would do 5k in 46 minutes and 52 seconds. So I guess if I did a 5k today I could expect my time to be roughly 47 minutes or less. Just for kicks I'm going to take a wild guess/hope that by December I can do my 5k in 42 minutes or less. That gives me a few months to try and shave off 5 minutes of my pace. I hope I can do it!

Say hi to Chels!

So I actually have a new blogger friend that I know in real life who lives not too far away from me. Hopefully pretty soon we'll get to spend some time together working out and walking and whatnot! Anyways.. she just started her healthy living journey today and has her blog up and running now so go leave her some comment love and support! I know you guys are always looking for others on similar journeys to bettering ourselves and we can all do well to help keep her on track and doing good!

As for me.... I had a great weekend but overindulged last night at my bestie's birthday party. Today is going to be all about redemption. Time to hit the ground running and push myself forward in to the new week on a good foot!

I'll leave you all with this

"Oprah is a Cabbage Rose
Gwyneth is a lily
Logic very clearly proves
That dieting is silly.
The Bassett's built for comfort
The Greyhound's built for speed.
They both possess a perfect shape
On that we are agreed.
The humming bird is made for flight
The peacock for display
Both beautiful, but really not
The same in any way.
The pony is a tiny horse
The Clydesdale is immense
And jealousy between them
Would not make any sense.
Don't yearn to be a different breed
There won't be any prizes
For Beauty is a fickle lass
And comes in lots of sizes!"
by Katherine Derengowski (KLD 6/11)

I've decided on a 5k!

Yeah so I've been talking the last few weeks about what kind of 5k I should sign up for.. well I finally found one that interests me! The Mayor's Race 5-k Run/Walk. It's considered to be one of the 'fun runs' as a warm up for the annual Run the Rock marathon and half-marathon that happens the very next day at White Rock Lake. I'm just going to do the 5-k though because for one, I am too broke to sign up for the other races, lol, and for two this race is actually closer to me since it's being held at Fair Park in Dallas the day before. So it's bright and early Saturday monring December 3rd. I know I was wanting to do one in like October or November, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided December sounds like a much better idea. Hopefully I will be either really close or at goal by that point and I will have more time to train! The best part about this one though is that it raises money for the Scottish Rite Children's Hospital. I really wanted to find one that helped kids so this is perfect!! :) I think it'll be a great end to 2011 for sure. It's a $20 sign up fee and you have to use a credit card to do it online so my mom said ask her about it on her next payday. Sweet deal. As soon as I get signed up I will link you guys to my fundraising page and ya'll can donate money to these kids!! :D Yay! If any of you are anywhere near the Dallas area I fully expect ya'll to come on out and run the race too or at least be there to cheer me on! lol.

One Hundred Pounds... gone!

So I started my journey to healthier living back in January at 273 lbs. *cringe* It's embarrassing to know I let myself get that unhealthy. Not long before that I recall stepping on a scale at a friend's house seeing the number 284, though. That's the highest I recall being. Well today my scale says 184. I'm only 89 lbs down on my current journey so far, but overall have lost 100 lbs. I can't believe this is happening to me. I'm still in a quite a bit of shock.

I actually got up the guts to share this info on my personal facebook page today and even linked my blog publicly. I was nervous to do so, but the loving and supportive comments I got from all my friends and family over the last few hours were proof enough that it was the right time for me to share it.

I'm going to work really hard to drop these next 11 lbs and hopefully in another month I'll be able to celebrate losing 100 lbs since starting my journey in January! Then on to my next few goals! :)

Something I've noticed about myself lately though when I've been out for my daily walks/jogs is that I no longer look down at the ground while I'm walking around in public. I keep my head held up high. I don't always turn away when I happen to catch someone out in the yard looking at me or someone driving by me as I go. This is huge for me. I've always been that shy and timid person who never had much belief in her self worth and it showed so much with me acting like that. I'm still shy, of course. Yet, at the same time somehow, I am all that much more social and outgoing I feel. I look people in the eyes when I talk to them now. That used to make me soo uneasy and uncomfortable. I am so thrilled with all these small changes, so much more than I ever can express. They are way more important to me than the physical changes I've gone through in losing all this weight.

In other news... My friend Melissa over at Phat Girl On A Diet has recently started her own blog. I originally met her on facebook and have been following her progress there. She always has something positive and uplifting to share and I just love seeing her transformation so far! If you're looking for more inspiration or motivation I highly recommend you check her out! :)

Another new NSV!

So I was over reading on Becca's blog at Size 24 no More and was thrilled to hear how she walked a big hill today that in the past she was only able to do huffing and puffing on the way up but this time had no problems! I love that feeling you get when you are anxious to try something you haven't in a while and not quite sure if you can do it yet, but once you accomplish it you've got this high that no one can take away from you. It's glorious!

I had this feeling yesterday! It was unexpected. I didn't even plan on showing up to the park because Jett was still gone with his other grandmother at the time so it was just me. I saw a couple of my girlfriends talk on facebook about meeting up at the park to hang out though and decided I would surprise/stalk them and show up, too. :)

After chatting and just hanging out for awhile me and one of the other girls decided to go up this big rocket ship slide. We both hadn't been up it in a while and she is also on a similar weight loss journey as me. We were so excited to be able to pull ourselves up through the ladder holes without having to squirm and wiggle our thighs and shoulders just to get up there.

Upon deciding to go down the slide I didn't quite realize it but apparently the last time I went my thighs were soo huge that they stuck to the sides and so I went down very slowly. I wasn't really thinking about it and so when I pushed over the edge I flew down that sucker screaming! Hahah! I went sooo much faster this time around and it was great!

Improving my speed and a little pick-me-up!

I'm in such a fantastic mood today!!! The weather is absolutely gorgeous here. Yesterday when I walked outside I noticed the wind had picked up and it was finally starting to feel like fall. It kept up all day long like that and it was just great. Last night it even began to sprinkle a bit and I happened to be out on my nightly walk when it started to rain on me about 1/2 a mile from my house. I was jogging half of my walk anyways so I ended up just running the rest of the way back home. It was such an exhilarating experience to be caught out in the rain. Especially now since here where I live in Texas it hasn't really rained barely any at all since May! It was very welcome last night!

After the rain stopped and it got dark outside the wind was still blowing like crazy and I couldn't resist just going out to sit in the front yard and enjoy the weather. I even ended up laying down in the grass and just staring up at the stars and moon. It was such a perfect night and with my son away at his grandparent's for the evening I was able to clear my head and be at peace with my thoughts.

This morning was even better than the one before! The rain has cooled the temps off by another 10 degrees at least and so it was actually not too hot to go walking in the middle of the morning again finally!! I was so excited. I strapped on my mp3 player and headed out the door. All the best songs were coming on, the sky was clear and perfect. The sun was shining but the wind was blowing so hard that I barely even sweated until I made it home. I feel like it was so much easier to control my breathing with the wind constantly in my face, too. I ran much further than I anticipated I would and ever faster than I thought, too. I ended up doing 4.12 miles in an hour and 2 minutes. This is the first time I've had a pace of 4 mph! I'm so excited and ready to start seriously looking up a 5k near me!

As for the little pick-me-up... well.. That is exactly what it is I'm talking about. I went to visit a close guy friend of mine yesterday who was being a little overly flirty with me at the time I showed up and he ended up literally picking me up. *_* That may not sound like something out of the ordinary for the skinny minnies out there who get picked up and tossed around all the time by guys or whatever. lol. But oh man. I had this instant panick in my head that said OMG you're way too big for him to be picking you up, but as instantly as that popped in - it went right back as i said to myself oh wait dummy you just lost 88 lbs, I think he'll be fine! Lmfao. Seriously though... the big girl I used to be never got picked up by guys hardly ever. Sure I had some boyfriends of mine try to tough it out and pretend to be all strong and try to lift me but it didnt always work out so well and they'd tumble or something. Well not this time. He threw me over his shoulders and carried me all the way to his bed before plopping me down. lol. It's the little things like this that I never knew how bad I missed. The last time a guy successfully carried me anywhere was like 2007. And now I'm 40 lbs lighter than I was back then! This is definitely getting added to the list I'm creating about little changes I'm so happy for!

Frame size

So while catching up on my blog reading this morning I stumbled upon slimkatie's latest post over at Runs for cookies. She happened to mention her doctor commenting on how tiny her frame size was now and she had always assumed when she was bigger that she had a large frame size, too. And how finding out she was really petite all along was such a nice surprise.

Well, this got me to thinking about how I'm fairly sure I am of a larger frame size too and that it would be a bit of a shock to me if I found out I was actually a smaller frame size. I've used calculator's online before and they all said measure your wrist to find out your frame size. Well I was using this one today.. and it gave me a confusing result.

Your Results:
Unfortunately, the wrist and elbow methods do not agree with each other. The wrist method says that you have a broad body frame while the elbow method says that you have a thin body frame.

So now what? lol. I have no idea which to go by but of course they are all just a guess anyways and we will see whenever I lose all the rest of this weight. I imagine that I could be of a medium build then? I just felt I always had such broad hips and shoulders so it was natural I think I have a larger frame. Though my mom's half of the family is from Korea so they are all tiny Asian people. I seen pictures of my mom in her early 20s and she was quite petite back in the day!

Do you know your frame size? Do you think you'll be surprised to find out it was different than you thought? Have any of you who've already lost the weight been shocked to see such a huge difference in how little you are now?

Mmm homemade bread...

So I just heard from my friend over at Fat Chick Fed Up that there is a Nutrimill giveaway going on right now. Reading her post and seeing how easy it is to use makes me really want one now too! You guys should check it out! It's being given away here by Heavenly Homemakers and from Paula's bread.



In other news... I feel soooo run down with Aunt flow in town. Bleh! Haven't done very much working out at all the past few days but managing to eat alright and maintain weight for now so I'm not too worried. I've gotten a lot of other things done today though. I cleaned out and rearranged the fridge. Yay. Gonna get some dishes done and some laundry, too. Today is going to be productive. No labor day weekend plans for us. I'm going to go get my grocery list together now that today is the day my SNAP benefits are renewed for the month and gonna see what kind of delicious and nutritious things I can stock up on for me and Jett without getting run over by all the crazy holiday traffic hopefully.

A new video post!

Finally... lol. I've been meaning to get one done for some time now but of course my old camera broke along with a ton of other excuses. This one is short and sweet since this camera will only record 1 minute of video at a time. lol.




In other news though... I have been feeling really sluggish around midafternoon the past couple days and thought well maybe because my period is due sometime next week? But she showed up early today of course. So that explains that! lol. Glad that's all it was. But still no excuse for slacking. I've been working out twice a day since I havent been doing my evening walks the last few days. I'm definitely going to try and get one in today though. I might try to do some running again this time. My mom is off work tonight so she might stay home with Jett so I can go at my own pace, but usually she likes to come with us. They already went for a walk without me though... Its just too hot for me to be out there killing myself in 100 degree weather though. lol. I know... quitcherbitchin! haha. I'm off to go workout now.

Ya'll have a safe holiday weekend and don't let friends drink and drive!!!!