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! ^_^

Back from Vacay!

So I left bright and early Tuesday morning the 11th and didn't make it home until late Tuesday the 18th... well, so late in fact that it was Wednesday the 19th by the time I made it home. My first flight got delayed which made me miss my second flight so I had a 5 hour layover waiting on another flight back home that night. It wasn't too bad though because that was jsut extra time I got to spend with Laura since we both had layovers before heading back to our homes. :)

This is Stef (aka Ziona) with her son Sebastian-2 (aka Basha), Laura with her daughter Kristany-20 months (aka Punky), and of course me with my son Jett-3!

Z is one of the most awesome friends you could ever ask for by the way and so you should all totally check out her blog and become a follower right now!! ;)

We had a blast! Spent the week just hanging out and seeing all sorts of cool things in South Carolina. There was a trip to the Zoo and even a Kazoo factory. We also walked around downtown and shopped til our hearts content. We got to pick pumpkins in a pumpkin patch and went on a horse drawn carriage ride!

Basha was totally enthralled with me, as I was him! <3

Punky was too adorable for words most of the time!

and this is one of the dresses I ended up buying while crusing shops downtown. Got this on sale for 9.99 at a store called Totally Beachin!

I originally intended to post a few more pics for you guys to see... but I'm too tired/lazy to do that right now so this is all you get. lol. This is me and Jett after packing up and getting ready to head back to the airport.

My dad picked us up from the airport and informed me that a package had arrived in the mail for me while I was gone! He said it was from bodyglide and he had heard about them when he went to Disney World last year so he went ahead and opened up my box! lol. Anyways... it had some really cool stuff in it that I won from the Shrinkvivor contest going on over at Shrinkingjeans.net during week 1!



I got a hat and 4 awesome little packages of stuff. It basically is to help you stay dry and keep you from getting chaffed while running, etc. Its like deodorant/anti-perspirant, but for your entire body! :) I can't wait to use this stuff!

Speaking of Shrinkvivor though... I was voted to exhile island today by my tribe. :( So looks like I'm out of the competition. Oh well.. good luck to the rest of White Team! And of course Bonnie, if you're still in, I'm rooting for ya! I've been pretty fail at reading blogs and staying caught up this past week being gone on vacation and not wanting to waste too much time online.

In much better news though, I stepped on the scale today and saw this number...

I weighed in for weigh-in Wednesday at Stef's house being 181 last week. It's really nice to have been able to go away on vacation, eat whatever I wanted, but still make sure I get in enough exercise time to keep on track and still lose weight! This only proves to me that I am much stronger than I give myself credit for and that I can live this way now and forever as long as I continue to put forth the effort! <3

In even more exciting news for myself... I am 2/3 of the way through week 6 of the couch to 5k plan! I did all of week 5 while on vacation, too! What's that you say? Oh yeah, I know, I'm a total badass! *dances* WOOT WOOT! haha. I made it through 20 minutes of straight jogging the day before I left South Carolina! Crazy! And I even started on week 6 day 1, the morning before I got on my plane and left to head back home to Texas!!! I did day 2 yesterday and plan on getting out there for day 3 at some point tomorrow! :) I'm so excited... After that I'll only have 3 weeks left! The weather has been absolutely great for running, too! When I left it was still hot here, but now that I've came back home I have had to completely shut off my air conditioner and even bring out my space heater for night time. I have also been wearing long sleeves everyday! This is pretty crazy it seems. lol. We just got over one of the historically hottest summers ever here and now its getting freezing really fast I believe! It's hard to tell though becuase I get cold a lot easier now than I used to. lol

Stich by Nikki Giveaway WINNER announced!

So entries closed yesterday for the Stitch by Nikki Giveaway but I've been so busy I hadn't had the chance to go back and see how many entries there were and pick a random winner until just now... so without any further ado...

*drumroll please*

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Entries:

1. Teresa

2. LGM Barbie

3. Fatgirlinaskinnyworld

4. Zionastar

5. Zionastar

6. Zionastar

7. LGM Barbie

8. LGM Barbie

Which means... CONGRATULATIONS to Ziona!! You are the winner!! Please get in touch with Nikki on her facebook page Stitch by Nikki! :)

PS -- I'm finally back from vacation! Large update with pictures and more to be posted later tonight!! :)

9 months

Okay so this is going to be a quick post since I'm away on vacation but here is my 9 month picture update and stats. I don't have the time to do side by side comparison photos right now but I'll come back and edit this post after I get home next week. I made it down to 177.8 yesterday! But my official weigh in today was 178.0 so I that puts me at an 11 lb loss for this past month. Way better than the mere 3 lbs I did last month. I'm happy with that. It's close enough to my 12 lbs I was aiming for.







Starting measurement > Newest one > Amount lost

Bust - 51 in > 40 in > 11 in
Waist - 53 in > 39.5 in > 13.5 in
Hips - 58 in > 44.5 in > 13.5 in
Arms - 17 in > 13.5 in > 3.5 in
Thighs - 31 in > 24 in > 7 in
Calves - 19.5 in > 17 in > 2.5 in
Neck - 16.5 > 13.5 > 3 in

MTV shared my story on their website!

Holy Crap! I was just logging on to update my shrinkvivor stats for this week and happened to notice my pageviews spiked today so I went to see where the traffic source was coming from and happen to stumble upon this!

MTV Remote Control Blog: 'I Used To Be Fat' Fans Share their stories

Crazy!!! I sat here with my jaw dropped open for a good minute in shock. lol

So I made it!

to South Carolina! what? lol. Yeah I'm here staying with fellow blogger Ziona from I Want to Look Like a Pinup! So you guys should totally check her out and follow her blog! She's on a similar journey to healthy living and could use the extra support and friends. I probably wont post again until I get back home besides for checking in with Shrinkvivor on Wednesday... so later lovers! I'm on vacation until next Tuesday the 18th!

Time for a quickie...

So much to do in so little time.... Went to Six Flags today! Had a great time. Yay for that... but I gotta finish packing and then wake up at 4:30am tomorrow so I need to hurry my ass up and get offline, bathe, etc before sleepy time!

Just wanted to admit here that I didn't ever get a chance to do day 3 of week 4 last week! So I did it today!! I'm not giving up on couch to 5k just becuase my schedule got a little crazy hectic busy. NO WAY AM I A QUITTER!!! I did day 3 today and so now week 4 is complete!

But as I look at week 5 I am about to have a heart attack. lol. Oh my... this is the crazy mixed up week they change something every day! On day 3 I have to jog 20 minutes straight?!!!!! Wow....

Well... hopefully I'll live to tell about it by the end of this week. :)

G'night guys... my next post will be announcing that I've arrived at my destination and linking you to my fellow blogger who I'll be with for the next week! EEEEEE!!!! So exciting. lol.

Stitch by Nicki GIVEAWAY!!

Hi guys... I have some super awesome news for YOU!

So my friend Nicki over at Stich by Nicki on facebook has agreed to giving away any 1 item on her page! She is willing to ship world-wide so that's great news for everyone! Nicki crochets some really beautiful items that are wonderful for you to use yourself or with the holiday season right around the corner, you may be thinking about a gift for a loved one!

Check out some of what she has to offer... (Click the images to view them at a larger size!)

Sooo cute, right?! :) So I'm sure you're wondering how you get your hands on these now.. well here are the rules!

1) You MUST be my follower and comment on this blogpost letting me know that you have liked Stich by Nicki on facebook.

2) You MUST leave a comment on Stich by Nicki's page saying "I'm here from Jen's Giveaway!" If you are selected as the winner, we will be double checking her page to make sure you liked it and posted! :)

3) IF you would like an extra entry, you may tag Stich by Nicki in a post on your own facebook page asking your friends to check out her stuff! Be sure to leave another comment on this post for your extra entry to be counted!

4) IF you would like another extra entry, you may purchase something from Stich by Nicki. Be sure to leave another comment on this post for your extra entry to be counted!

5) IF you would like another extra entry, you may post about this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter page, etc. Be sure to leave another comment on this post for your extra entry to be counted!

6) You MUST submit your entry no later than Wednesday October 19th at Noon Central time. Winner will then be selected using Random.org. One lucky winner will receive one item of your choice from Nicki's facebook page. A 2nd lucky winner, chosen at random also, will win a mystery item from me! It's a mystery because I haven't decided what it is yet. Haha! I'll most likely burn you a copy of a workout DVD I have or something like that. :)

Good Luck Everyone!!!

Finally some free time...

As I said last night, I've been so busy lately! But I woke up extra early today so I finally have some free time to make a real update.

We ended up going to the State Fair of Texas on Thursday and spent all day long there. It was apparently the 125th anniversary! The end of the night there was a parade followed by a really cool light and fireworks show! :) Jett had a blast. We went with my dad, my sister, and her 3 boys. My mom had to work overtime so she wasn't able to go but long ago she had requested off this coming Sunday and Monday for something else we normally do this weekend that got cancelled this year. So we're going back to the fair on Sunday with my mom! Well... at least I know Jett is. I think I'm a bit worn out from last time still. I'm going to see if I can't stay home and get some last minute things done around here before my trip... I'll be too busy on Monday because we're going to head back to Six Flags since my dad wasn't able to come with us last time. Yeah I know I've mentioned on and off over the past few months that I have an upcoming trip. It's a bit of a surprise for a lot of my friends so I've been very vague on the details. They don't even know its a trip, yet. lol. But none of them really read my blog regularly so I think the secret is still intact here. lol. I'll be staying with some friends of mine though and one of them happens to have a weightloss blog, too! As soon as I make it to her place and the secret is out, I'll be sure to take a few minutes to post a link to her blog so you guys can follow all her awesome journey, too! :) As for today... I've got to pick up a friend soon and help her dye her hair a bunch of funky colors and then later tonight we're driving up to Mansfield to be zombie's at some army base. lol. We'll be working at the Haunted House my dad's been helping with for the last few weeks now. We used to work the Haunts out at Six flags every October for the past 10 years, but they got rid of the scout's Haunts this year for some crazy reason.

In other news... I was just informed by Maddy (of the upcoming season of I Used To Be Fat!! First show airs on TUESDAY! Set your dvr people!) that she noticed the MTV's I Used To Be Fat community page on facebook had picked my story to feature on their wall! They were asking people to share their stories a few nights back so I shared mine and the person in charge of the page commented that she was like 'Wow!' when she read it, so I already felt good about that, lol. But then I see on Tuesday she actually made a new post sharing my blog with everyone on their page talking about "this story which astounded me yesterday." So no wonder I have a lot of new followers and crazy amount of pageviews lately! haha. Hello to any new friends I have out here in blog land!! Please leave me a comment and let me know something about you. If you have a blog I'd love to check it out, too! :)

A to Z of me

So I have been crazy busy without the chance to update in the past few days much less get caught up on reading... but anyways.. here's something quick and easy just for the sake of posting. Besides... having 88 followers now I figure some of you might actually be interested in knowing random crap about me, right? hah.

A. Age - 25

B. Bed size - Full

C. Chore you dislike - Mopping

D. Dogs - never had one, we've always been cat people. Though I'm not opposed to owning one someday, I have no idea how to really take care of one.

E. Essential start to your day - Checking my phone for late night texts. lol

F. Favorite color - Green

G. Gold or silver - Silver always... unless its white gold.

H. Height - 5'5"

I. Instruments you play(ed) - I can play bits of songs on a few instruments like keyboard, guitar, and bass. But I don't actually play anything. I really wanna be a drummer someday though. lol

J. Job title - I'm currently a single stay at home mom, so pick one! They're all true. lol

K. Kids - Just my son, Jett who is 3.

L. Live - and let live... :) haha. I live in East Texas.

M. Mom's name - Momma. duh. lol

N. Nicknames - Jen is the most common. though there's a million others. For the reference, Jennie/Jenny is unacceptable though.

O. Overnight hospital stays - Just when I had my son, I spent 2 nights there.

P. Pet peeves - Ignorance

Q.Quote from a movie - "You're my exception."- He's Just Not That In To You

R. Righty or Lefty - Righty

S. Siblings - a slightly younger brother (by 18 months) and an older half-sister I've only known about half my life now.

T. Time you wake up - Oh my alarm is currently set to 7:30 but I've been hitting snooze til 8 lately.

U. Underwear - panties... lol. hipsters or boyshorts or bikini cut.

V. Vegetables you don't like - um it'd be a shorter list to name the ones I do like.

W. What makes you run late - I've always been the one to be early. But now that I have Jett.. I'm always late no matter how early I try to get up to make sure I'm not late. Kids!!! ugh.

X. X-rays you've had - None that I'm aware of.

Y. Yummy food you make - Um... I'm an alright cook, but I'm still learning. lol. So nothing in particular.

Z. Zoo animal favorites - My favorite animals of all time are Penguins! And yeah before all those penguin movies came out and the craze began, I was crazed. I collect penguins. All kinds of things like shirts, pens, candy, stuffed animals, decorations, figurines, lip gloss, necklaces, etc. I'm even wearing penguin shorts right now. lol. My first tattoo was an emperor penguin! Some of you may have noticed my twitter name is poisonedpenguin. lol. I think it may have been my myspace name too at one point.

Shrinkvivor: week 1 complete!

Go White Team!!! I don't think we have a name yet... but we finally got around to making a facebook page. lol.

I think my team is a lot smaller than I originally thought, there's only like 4 of us? Crazy...

anyways.. I gained over the weekend with AF in town, but managed to get back down to starting weight of 179. I had a 0.2 loss this week. Not good! But I did get in 610 exercise minutes for the weekly challenge of tracking how much you worked out. That's a little over 10 hours... hmm.. I never knew I worked out that much before. Coolness.

Well here's hoping week 2 is much better than week 1!

Winning!

I love winning. lol. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. In life as well as actually winning tangible things! hahah. I got an email yesterday from the people at Shrinking Jeans saying that I won their giveaway for Body glide on the week one challenge post from Shrinkvivor!!

For Women

• 1 Bodyglide For Her .8oz
• 1 Liquified Powder Tube 1.6oz
• 1 WarmFx .45oz
• 1 Sun & Sport .45oz
• 1 Bodyglide Cap

So score for something I've never tried before, yet already have a need for! I was out running today doing day 2 of week 4 of my couch to 5k training plan and my thighs kept slapping together so hard and I could swear they were ready to start chaffing so bad! I wish I already had the bodyglide! lol.

Speaking of week 4!! I did day 1 yesterday and Jett was awake so I had to take him with me! The neighborhood I run around here has all sorts of hills and things, too. I pushed his 33lbs plus the weight of the stroller while doing my first 5 minutes of straight jogging. Talk about tough! I totally felt awesome for having gotten through it though and realized I was much more capable than I thought I was. Today Jett was napping when I usually go for my walks or runs so I decided to go ahead and get day 2 out of the way while I had the chance. I got to run alone and my pace was sooo much faster! At the end I even ran an extra 30 seconds before looking down at the stopwatch to see that my 5 minutes had already passed!

I've been doing a lot of up and down on the scale the past few days with Aunt Flow in town but she's gone now and I worked out pretty hard today so I'm hoping to see a good loss tomorrow and have something nice to report in with for my first week of Shrinkvivor! I did Jillian Michael's Burn Fat Boost Metabolism for about 50 minutes this afternoon, did my couch to 5k training after dinner and then followed that up with Level 3 of the 30 day shred. I was really hurting through that one too tonight so I modified a lot more than usual. lol. I didn't wanna over exert myself and end up being super lazy tomorrow because of it.

October is my favorite month!

Seriously... it's like the best weather you could ask for where I live. The leaves are all starting to change colors and fall to the ground. The wind is constantly blowing in your face. Pretty soon I'll be able to wear a light jacket! This weather excites me! Especially now that I've decided to become a runner. lol. It's nice to go jogging in the wind and not be soaked in sweat afterwards because the wind is cooling you off along the way. :)

I start week 4 of the couch to 5k plan today and boy am I hesitant to do that... 5 minutes straight jogging tonight! That doesn't sound like much... but it sure did feel like a lot at 3 minutes last week. lol.

Today has been great. Got to do some grocery shopping and stock up on all the things I love having around the house. Speaking of that.. I keep getting asked on facebook about making a grocery list to share with my friends so they can start figuring out what sort of healthier things to buy, too. I think sometime soon I will have to write all the things down that I like to have on hand now and maybe put it on its own little page or something for easy reference. What do you guys think about that? Does anyone have any suggestions as to what kinds of things should be on that list? :) I'd love to hear! Especially from you new followers. I noticed Miss April mentioned me on her blog last night! And now I've got like 6 more followers today... Strange coincidence, or no? lol.

Playing catch up!

So this past week was insanely busy... After doing so well on Thursday and seeing 178 lbs on my scale I was hoping to be lower than that on Friday, but I stepped on the scale and saw 180 and was like wtf gives?! Then it hits me... in my brand spanking new white panties... Aunt Flow is in the hizzy. lol. So I feel better about the number on the scale, but still wanna do good for the day. I go walking around the Cain Center while waiting for the appointment we scheduled to see about a 2 week free membership. Then after the meeting is over they tell us the pool isn't open for kids younder than 12yrs until noon so we leave to go eat lunch and come back since my mom and jett want to swim. Well, we had chinese and I totally planned on eating a nice salad and only a little bit of other stuff. I had like 3 plates of food. I felt sooo awful immediately too. I was soo mad at me. Then the cramps and bloatedness kicked in too and I felt like total shit at this point. We get back to the Cain Center, they go swim, but i force myself to hit the gym first. I used the treadmill, the bike, the crunch board, and some sort of arm machine. I ended up burning over 409 calories there and then I went swimming laps for the next 30 minutes so lots more calories there. I felt better after all that working out but man I sure didn't want to start, glad I sucked it up and did though. When I got home, after I caught up on some tv I recorded earlier this week, I went for my 5k training run of week 3 day 2. I did that in the fastest pace I've done so far and then I came back here and did the 30 day shred on level 3! So tons of calories burned yesterday even though I probably had a thousand calories for lunch. I somehow pulled off a loss on Saturday morning and saw 179 on the scale with Aunt Flow here in town and all. I pushed hard and it was well worth it. I refuse to accept failure from myself anymore. I knew I failed at eating on Friday, but I made sure to make up for it in exercise.

Saturday I spent most of the day at Six Flags walking around with my mom and Jett and riding rides and seeing shows, etc. It was a pretty perfect day. The weather was in the high 70s but there was lots of wind and it was such a relief from the 100s and 90s all these past few weeks that i threw on a light hoodie! haha. We rolled the windows down for the entire ride there and back and it was so nice and chilly. I love it. October is my absolute favorite time of year here in East Texas!! When I got home I ate a quick dinner and then went for my week 3, day 3 jog for the Couch to 5k plan. Woohoo! This time my neighbor, Brian, joined me. He is about to turn 23 this month and has recently graduated from some sort of police academy and just showed me his new badge and gun. He's got quite a bit of excess belly he wants to run off though and said to let me know whenever I go for my runs or walks. He jogged a little bit of it with me but was really tired and out of breath a lot of times and his legs are soo much longer than mine that he could do a fast paced walk and keep up with my slow jog. lol. I think he did alright though for attempting to do week 3 on his first time out there with me. :)

I have not been reading blogs for days now and as I'm following probably 100 or so right now, I've got a lot of catching up to do. So i'll most likely be skimming through them, if you feel you have made an important announcement or update that I should know about, please give me a little nudge and be like hey woman you better go read my blog!!! Just to ensure I don't accidentally skip over something juicy. :)

I did get an email though from Carbie Girl!! She mentioned me and another girl were the winners of her guess her weigh in results contest. She weighed at the beginning of September and then was scale free the entire month and we got the closest guess to her exact weight at the end of the month. :) SO YAY FOR PRIZES! hahah. I like winning.

Oh and don't think I haven't noticed I keep getting random new followers... Ya'll stop by and introduce yourself and say hello to me!! :)

Oh and as promised, pictures of me from the Blink 182 concert... I wish I wasn't so far away or had a better camera and could have gotten some decent pictures of the band. Oh well.