Month 2 back on track!

Look at me go being all dedicated this time around. Woo that sure feels good. lol.  I know its a lot more slow going this time but I'm still steadily losing and my fiance says he is proud of me and pointed out that I weighed a lot more the first time I started so of course its gonna fall off slower this time. I suppose thats true. He said I should calculate the percentages and that they would probably be comparable. I'm too busy/lazy to bother with that right now though.

I've been putting off blogging for quite some time now. I'm already on day 7 of a new challenge I started and just now getting around to telling you guys about it. lol. Its actually 2 challenges. A friend of mine created a facebook group for those 30 day challenge pictures. We decided to start the squats and arms challenges last Monday. I can definitely feel the burn every single day and am actually already noticing improvement in my movements. It's really awesome to have something I know I need to accomplish every single day but that also isn't something that takes a super long time so I can just tell myself hey get it over with already and move along with the rest of your day! lol. Next month we are going to start an abs challenge and something else. I think maybe some sort of cardio challenge.

I am still riding my bike to work every single day. It's tried to rain on me a couple times but its missed me by just minutes one day and a couple hours the next so far so good and I haven't had to ride home in the rain or ask my dad to give me a ride to work yet. I am also noticing a difference there in my stamina and my endurance. I know I've mentioned that already but it just keeps getting better. I think my legs are slimming up a little bit and I can see the most difference in my ankles. They aren't the cankles they were while I was pregnant and the next few months after the baby arrived. Lmao. I'm so excited to have ankles again!

Which brings me to this... tadah... my glorious ankles and sparkly red nail polish I just painted yesterday. lol. Though you can't really see the sparkles in this picture and my flip flop tan line is extremely noticeable. But even better - I'm down exactly 17 lbs in the last 2 months. YAY

When I took measurements though I was even more pleased. I am down 2 inches in my waist and 2 inches in my hips just in the last month!

I'm so sleepy...

but I've been meaning to post here for days now. So here goes nothing. lol

I had some up days and some down days this week but I was majorly relieved this morning to step on the scale and see this...

Woohoo! 242 even means I am down 2.2 lbs in the last week and 15.8 lbs overall since actively starting over.

With how out of whack my eating was this past week that just means me biking to work every day has totally paid off. I can feel it too though. Like every single day I feel as if I'm improving my speed and my breathing and have noticed a difference in how my calves feel as I'm pedaling, too. I did workout a little bit too but I know it was mostly just a last ditch effort last night. lol. I tried a new workout and also did an old one I hadn't tried in a couple years. I'm trying to make sure my workouts involve some weights and my arms because I know my legs are working it everyday now. lol.

If I can focus more on my eating though I know this weight is just gonna start melting off of me. I feel like I'm at a pretty good place for now though and things are moving at a decent pace. It hasn't quite been a full 2 months yet. We'll see how far I've really come on the 18th when I get to take some more measurements.

Keep lookin up

Cause that's where it all is.

We lost an amazing person this past week with the death of a nationally syndicated radio host who I've been listening to for as long as I can remember. Kidd Kraddick always had a way to make me laugh or cry or both and no matter what was going on in my life on a day that I listened to him, it was a little better for having him a part of it.

Speaking of looking up though... things are finally starting to look up for my family. Not only did I get a job in the last week, but as of today my fiance started a new job! I am so excited for what this means for us. So far he really likes it and it is easy work. He says that he is already familiar with the machines from previous job experiences. He got the job because he was the most qualified applicant and although it's just through a temp agency for now, he has been told that after this job ends in about a month or so, he doesn't just have a possibility, but a high probability that he can get hired on full time with the actual company which is Union Pacific Railroad. My ex works for them and they pay hella good with amazing benefits. Currently, Sparky's wages are just through the temp company so nothing fantastic yet, but not minimum wage either and he is in a position with a lot of authority so this really gets his foot in the door to move on up later. The only problem so far is that since we don't have a car of our own, he has to rely on his friend for a ride. Today his friend was out of town working and so my dad drove me and the kids over to pick him up and make sure he got to his first day of work. He is off until Monday and his friend normally only works weekends so he should be able to find a ride then... but hopefully he won't have to work too many weekend shifts until we can afford to get our own transportation. Combining his and my checks maybe we can find one asap. I sure hope so.

Part of the reason I bring all that up is because I just wanted to mention that my fiance actually noticed a difference in my weight and congratulated me on the hard work I've done while he was away. It had almost been a full 4 weeks since we last seen each other. I still miss him terribly though because we only saw each other for a few minutes this morning and most of it was stuck in a car with my dad and our kids. A brief hug and short kiss were all I really got. :( Maybe with steady income though we can start seeing each other on days off somehow. Again... transportation is an issue, so no telling how long it will be until I see him again. I am so proud of him and thankful that he is sacrificing all this time away from us to go find work at a decent pay rate so we can eventually afford to get out on our own for a change.

I guess you can sorta count that as one NSV... other people noticing my weightloss. Well if you do then I have a 2nd NSV to share as well this week! I spent most of yesterday morning at various thrift shops and goodwill looking for some clothes I can fit right now that don't have holes on them. There isn't much of a dress code at my work, I just have to wear sleeves and tennis shoes basically that's it. lol. So I had a lot of options but still being as big as I am right now there wasn't a lot of things I wanted to buy that were in my size and fit well. I did find a few new things though and so yay for that. This particular NSV, however, is one that I've had listed on my NSV's tab on my blog for a couple years now. I finally was able to find a pair of cute knee-high boots that I could zip up over my gigantic calves and get the zipper to actually go all the way up to the top and stay there. I was so happy I was able to do this that I went ahead and bought the boots even though I don't have much to wear them with currently. I figure by the time I do my legs couldn't have gotten fatter so what's the harm. lol. They were only 6.99 anyways so no biggie.

As for scale victories... I know my latest weigh in days became Saturday mornings... but I was just so curious tonight and was looking for anything to distract me from raiding the fridge that I went ahead and stepped on the scale. To my great relief and a little bit of surprise - I am down 2 whole pounds! I weighed in at 244.2 when I was 246.2 a couple weeks ago. This has me reaching my very first number goal I made for myself this time around. I'm glad things are going in the right direction no matter how slow it seems to be going to me. Kinda makes me think of how Chantell from ABC's Extreme Makeover put it this past week "It's not a sprint - It's a marathon. They have that saying for a reason." Or something close to that... :) I am excited to find out she also has began bloggin and am really looking forward to following the rest of her journey.