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.