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.