Saturday, July 27, 2013

Another week down...

So it's been a full week since my last weigh in and I hopped on the scale this morning to check and see where I was at, partly convinced that I was going to see a gain from being so sick last week and dropping 4 lbs in a matter of days. To my surprise and huge relief there was not a gain! I didn't lose any, but I maintained the exact same weight as the week before.

It's also been almost a full week since I started my new job. Things are going great and I actually really like it so far. Though there has already been some drama llama trying to start trouble for me. lol. There is this girl who apparently wanted the job, but I got it instead of her and so she was calling the store often talking trash about me saying that I did drugs and other things she completely made up. I eventually found out how I 'know' the girl. The truth is, I don't! I know her baby daddy (I assume boyfriend still but not certain). lol. I went to high school with him and his sister and I'm still friends with them and they are also both my neighbors. A lot of their extended family all live on various houses on my same street. Well I've seen her out walking around pushing her older kid and their baby with him on occasion maybe just a handful of times. I have never actually spoken to the girl before though. He admitted to me about this time last year that he used to have a crush on me when we were in high school and I'm not really sure where he was going with bringing that up at the time because she was obviously pregnant with  his baby and I was pregnant with Bethany then. I don't know if maybe he mentioned something to his girl about liking me, but I have to assume that is what happened and she got jealous. It's either that or she is just purely insane. lol. Though the owners and managers of the store have all told me how crazy this girl is and that they do not believe her and will not hire her for any reason anyways. They told me to watch my back though in case she tries something some day. They are actually worried she is that kinda crazy. I'm not too worried though. I am very glad they are on my side of this though.

Today has been my first day off since I began and I've been really busy all day long getting things taken care of like shopping for groceries, etc. I've not found any time to work out extra though this past week and so that is another reason why I was worried about the scale results this morning. I have bicycled to and from work every day so far though. Today I need to find something else to do though since I wont be biking there for work. lol. It's apparently a full mile from my house according to google. I thought it was only half. It's already 6pm though so I better get started soon. I have to be at work at 5:45am tomorrow morning to help open the store. I'll be the only cashier there this time and so I've got to do most everything on my own. This is the first time I'll even be there that early, much less on my own. lol. Hopefully it goes well. They said its usually slow on Sunday mornings though so I guess it wont be too hard.

I want to incooperate working out every day back in to my routine so I think I'm going to have to set up a mandatory time for doing it so it gets done. lol. On days when I work mornings it should get done as soon as I get home and then on days when I work nights, as soon as I wake up after eating breakfast.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

A job!

Yeah, that's right... I got a job! The first time back to work in over 5 years now. lol. It's nice having a break from the kids for a bit... and my parents, too. I'm enjoying spending time with other adults on a regular basis. Nothing too hard, I'm just cashiering at the gas station right up the road from me. It's less than one mile from my house so the added bonus is that I get to ride my bicycle to and from work everyday. Hooray! lol.

I'm gonna have to be careful with my choices though because I'm allowed to eat one free meal during my shift as long as I'm there more than 2 hours. They have a deli area that serves things like pizza, cheeseburgers, chicken strips, etc. There are not very many health friendly alternatives on the menu either. I think I'm doing alright though and am still using MFP to track things so we'll see how this goes.

Tonight I decided now that it's been a full month of working towards my health and fitness goals again that I should go ahead and share my facebook page with the rest of the world. I've been mostly just updating it for myself this past month. lol. I already went and invited most anyone I recognized on my facebook friend list as someone who added me for fitness support, etc. If you didn't get an invite though and just wanna go to my page and like it then here is the link.

http://www.facebook.com/jensfitnessjourney

Friday, July 19, 2013

One month later...

Actually yesterday was one full month, but I didn't weigh in then so today is gonna have to do. It's been a month full of highs and lows emotionally and of course that affects things physically for me as well. I wasn't as strict as I would have liked to have been with my calorie counting and exercising. I feel like I did alright though. Last week I came in weighing the same as the previous week but having just dealt with my period among other things I was trying not to let that get to me. This past week, well I didn't even weigh in on Tuesday like I normally do. 

My family decided to go out on the lake with our boat this past weekend and spent a lot of time swimming, etc. Well I was really enjoying that because I knew swimming burnt a ton of calories and it was something I loved to do anyways. My ears kinda felt funny but I didn't really worry about it too much. Sunday I could tell there was something going on still though since my hearing was fading in and out most of the day. Monday morning I woke up and instantly knew I had an ear infection. I made it to the doctor that afternoon and was prescribed some ear drops with antibiotics to treat me for swimmer's ear. Things slowly got worse from there and by Tuesday I was in utter agony all day long. I was in tears more than a few times over how badly I hurt. I had to take my daughter to the dentist that day though and had to ride along with my dad since I don't have a license right now. Well he had promised my sister to take her kids to tutoring in the complete opposite direction of where Bethany's dentist appointment was so we had to go drop them off then go to her dentist appt then drive back to pick them up and take them home. It was a very long morning with several hours spent in a car full of people when all I wanted to do was lay in bed and hug my pillows. My fiance is still staying with a friend looking for work so I didn't really get much peace having to take care of the kids on my own. Wednesday things were slightly better than Tuesday. The pain was still there but not so bad I was crying all day anymore. Yesterday was just an annoyance and today... well I still don't have full hearing back but every so often my ears kinda pop a little bit and I can hear again for a second so I think by tomorrow or the next day I will finally be back to normal. Just waiting for the swelling to go down I think. 

Anyways, with me being completely miserable this week I did not work out much at all. In fact, the only workouts I really got were yesterday and the day before when I went to pick Jett up from VBS. I put him back in to another week of vacation bible school this week. This time it is at another church not too far from here. It's actually 1.6 miles from my house according to the car's odometer. Well, I finally ordered the coupler piece that went missing from my bike trailer so I can attach it to my bike again and it came in last week. Wednesday was the first time in a couple years that I was riding the bike and pulling the trailer behind it again. It felt great but wow so hot and sweaty! I was pulling 18 lbs of Bethany for 1.6 miles on the way to get Jett and then her plus 40 lbs of Jett on the 1.6 miles back home. So I guess I biked a little over 5k both days. I would have gone again today but it was raining. I had intended to go all week but it was raining Monday as well and by Tuesday... I wasn't doing anything I didn't have to that day. Feel awful as I did I ate pretty much whatever I wanted. The bright side of being sick though was that my ear hurt so badly it was affecting my throat and jaw so I couldn't open my mouth to take big bites of anything so I stuck to mostly liquid diet. I was drinking all day long because I felt infinite thirst and dehydrated no matter how much I had. I also ate things like soup or soft foods like avocados so as to not irritate myself any more than I had to. I did not count calories but knowing what I ate, I think I still stayed within a good range on most days, possibly under on a couple though.

Man I get kinda long winded when I don't update for a few days at a time. lol. On to today's topic. It's been one month since I started back for good I feel and I've definitely had more good days than bad. I stepped on the scale this morning and saw this number. 


246.2! I had been stuck at 250.4 for the last couple weeks it seems and so I was not expecting that number and was so relieved when I saw it. My last weigh in here at the house was Tuesday of the previous week, but I did weigh in at the doctor's office on his scale and even saw 250.4 there as well. I was totally bummed when that happened because I was secretly hoping my scale was just messed up. lol. It's been showing me the Lo signal for the last several months now. I need to get a new battery for it soon. 

I am pretty excited about this number. I'm now only 1 lb away from my first goal this time around, haha. I  am down from 257.8 starting weight which makes 11.6 lbs total so far. When I was losing so much back in 2011, I averaged 12 lbs per month so this number pleases me just fine especially because I know I messed up on quite a few days. Next month is going to be better for me because I'm going to do better. I'm seeing improvement in not only my weight on the scale but elsewhere in my life too so I'm using that as motivation to keep trudging forward and to stop quitting when it gets tough. I'll be stricter with my food choices and more diligent in my exercising habits. When I checked in with MFP it also asked me to update my measurements and I noticed that I am already down half an inch in my neck, an inch in my waist and an inch in my hips. Hooray! Here's to starting off Month number 2 with a bang!

I'll leave you with a couple pictures of myself from last night. :)

Getting ready to attend family night at VBS

Fixed up my hair and makeup both for the first time in a long while. lol


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Finally, an NSV for 2013!

So I've been meaning to take a moment to post about my latest NSV for a couple days now but been a little busy with a sick baby girl on my hands since Thursday night. Bethany was super clingy the next morning and so I put her in my ergo to make myself  hands free while still holding the little one.

Poor clingy baby trying to sleep on mama. 
That is when I noticed my first NSV since starting back on my journey this year. I used to have to have the waist strap extended all the way as far as it possibly could go but not on Friday. Now I can cinch in about an inch or two on the waist strap and that is so exciting! lol. I have been wearing strechy pants or shorts non stop since having Bethany and so I havent really noticed any change in clothing sizes. Kinda just been stuck in the 2x/20 range for the last several months. I'm probably still there because as you can see, my hips are freakin ginormous. They were pretty wide to begin with but having another child did them no favors. lol.

Excuse the random stuff in my parent's bathroom mirror. 
I thought I should probably share as much of a full body shot of me as I could get for now so that eventually I can see how far I have come. I actually don't hate my body as much as I thought I did. I can look in the mirror now and see that I do still have a bit of an hourglass shape and that trimming down is only gonna magnify that. Of course when I feel comfortable enough to wear more than just t-shirts out in public will only flatter my look, too. lol.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Wants...

Well I hadn't really been keeping up with running the last 2 weeks trying to sort out how to deal without my fiance here to help but I finally got things under control again this week and have restarted C25k on Week 4 where I left off. I did day 1 on Monday and plan to do day 2 this evening as it cools back down some.

Yesterday was weigh in day and there was no change from last week. Not gonna lie, a little bummed especially after all the working out I put in the previous 2 days. However, I am still happy to have not gained after the holiday and so that is still a triumph. Yesterday was also my father's birthday so there was a little cake and ice cream at the end of the day then too. I did workout afterwards though and Have worked out this morning already, too. Hopefully this week I can stay within my calorie goals, log on mfp every day and come out good next Tuesday... then on the 18th it will be one month back on track and so I'm hoping to be down at least 10 lbs in my first month. I know this week is going to be a challenge for me because Aunt Flow came to visit today of course, but I'm just gonna have to try that much harder.

Just gotta keep remembering that what I want in the longrun way outweighs what I could want right now for a fleeting moment.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Pushing it

Well I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. I'm sure I'm not the only one who indulged a little more than normal at one point or another with friends and family this Independence day. Though a huge kudos offered to those who can say they stayed on track 100%!

I don't think I went all out and completely binged like I would normally per say, but I definitely wasn't limiting my intake of  anything either. The 4th of July is also my fiance's neice's birthday and she was turning 6 this year. There was a huge pool party celebration with all the kinds of food you can imagine. There was cake and cupcakes and icecream and normally if I was binging I would have some of all 3 desserts. lol. This time I just had one piece of cake. It was quite tasty. The top was a lemon cake but I opted for the bottom which was strawberry! Yum!

Dixie dipped in to her my little pony cake a little early apparently. lol

Singing to the birthday girl! My fiance, baby girl, and my boy all at the back center. 

Yes. She loves being held this way. lol

You can see the rest of the lemon top set to the side
as we start digging in to the strawberry bottom. :)

Eating a cucumber and tomato salad in italian dressing.
That is the only way I will eat cucumbers. 

My fiance got back from where he went to go job hunting on Wednesday morning because his friend had ran out of gas before then anyways and by the time he was getting paid again it was holiday time so we figured he could come back home and spend some time with us before he started searching for work again. We went to another celebration on Friday but I managed to eat pretty well that day and did do my Jillian Michaels 30 day shred workout. It was Saturday that I'm not quite sure about since I didn't keep up with MFP logging. My son's paternal grandparents offered to keep both of my kids for the weekend and so I let them. That was the first time I've been away from both of them overnight at the same time since I was stuck in the hospital with a nasty uterine infection that almost killed me right after I gave birth to Bethany. With the kids away, I tried to just relax and enjoy my time with my fiance since I have no clue when I will see him again. He left yesterday afternoon to go stay with our friend again and hopefully is out right now looking for jobs. He said he had a bunch of things he was interested in applying for listed on the Texas Workforce Commission's website and so he was headed there first. I am hoping that he either gets called back from one of the jobs he applied for previously or finds a new job today and gets to start work immediately. I know if that's the case though I wont see him again until after he has made enough money to find us a place to stay and move us out there. Anyways... with it just being me and Sparky, we went to a matinee movie (World War Z) with the little bit of money I had made in my paypal account doing graphic design work on Fiverr.com. We had to of course have some popcorn and drinks while there. Then we had big burgers for dinner that night.

Yesterday wasn't too much better food-wise but I did finally make time to workout just before bed last night. I did the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout and sweated up a storm. lol. This morning I was feeling good after waking up to feed Bethany around 6:30am and so I ate breakfast and decided to get in an early workout today. I made it halfway through I was really contemplating quitting it and kept trying to talk myself out of finishing by saying the baby was about to wake up again because I could hear her on the monitor fussing for a few seconds every few minutes or so. I thought to myself how I could just come back and do another workout later since I planned to anyways but I didn't quit and I made it the next 20 minutes one step at a time. When cool down time came I was feeling pretty blissful that I didn't quit first thing in the morning and set a bad standard for today.

Here I am catching up on my blogger duties now and about to go log my breakfast. Tomorrow is weigh in day. Oh yeah, I haven't blogged since last Monday so just an update - I lost 5.4 lbs on weigh in day last week! I don't think I'll have near as drastic a number this week, but as long as I'm losing and not gaining I'll be happy. :)

Monday, July 1, 2013

Little eyes are watching me

So I edited my desktop background to change photos every minute and set it up to only show photos from an album with motivational pics. I went ahead and threw in some of my pictures from when i dropped over 100 lbs back in 2011 where i felt my greatest because when I see them I am more amped about getting back to that body. Well as I was putting Jett to bed tonight, he asked me "Hey mama, who's that lady? I wasn't sure what he was talking about so I asked him to explain. He pointed to the computer and said "Her. She kinda looks like you but skinny." lol. I explained that it was me silly and it was 2 years ago when I had lost a lot of weight before I got pregnant with Bethany. I told him that's why I've been exercising so much lately so I can get my body back in shape. I'm a little surprised with my reaction though. Even just a few short weeks ago I would have been devastated and probably binged over hearing that from my child and then felt even worse about being such a horrible example for him. Tonight though, I was just amused and even more excited to continue in my progress and get back to the me I wanna be as soon as possible.

The photo in question.
I was taking full advantage of a free one week trial at
a local gym and sweating it up on their treadmill. 

Yesterday, Jett spent wayyy too much time playing various video games on the wii or his tablet or his leapster or the computer since I was a little preoccupied with an extra fussy baby and so today I sentenced the three of us to some outside time in the sunshine. He kept asking to go back in but I told him he needed the exercise and the sunlight and that he was supposed to play at least 1 hour every day outside and we needed to makeup for the day before. lol. We swang and played in the dirt and checked the mail and cleaned up the yard. Although he was indoors all day yesterday, I did talk him in to doing Level 2 of the 30 day shred with me. He got halfway through it before giving up. lol. It was a pretty good job for a not quite 5 year old though. :)