Weekend Update

So I gained 1.8 lbs at my last weigh in.

Meh.

Nothing that a little hustle in the gym won’t fix.  I was able to get back into the swing of things yesterday with Zumba. Most of the swelling and bruising has gone down and we’re back in business!

It has been such a strange week! I had a traumatizing car accident. My car was totalled. We were one man down at work all week and my work load doubled.  I honestly had no time to process everything that was happening around me or even rest much. While the weekend was a little better it was still a busy one! I went car shopping Saturday and bought car!

So what did I get?  I settled on a black Lexus.  It’s always been my dream car. I still can’t believe I now own one. It is more extravagant than what I usually go for, but this time around I figure, I work hard, why not play hard  😉  My dad said this car will bring the boys to the yard (okay maybe not in those words, he said it in Spanish…) and I almost choked laughing. He cracks me  up, I love my dad.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that Monday treated you kindly!

I’m trying Aqua Fit (water aerobics) tomorrow!  Stay tuned……

All Shook Up

I got into a car accident on my way to work this morning. It was on the busy highway, my car spun out and hit the median several times.  It was scary. I honestly thought that it might be the end for me while it was all happening.

I was hysterical (obviously) but also amazed that the worst injury I had was a sprained ankle and a mark on my neck from my seatbelt. (Is it sad that when I realized my feet were swollen, one of my first thoughts was,  I won’t be going to the gym anytime soon. Haha. That’s okay, I can still work out my upper body!)

I have to give a shout out to the good samaritan who was in the car behind me and saw the whole thing (a car hit the car next to me, he went into my lane, causing me to swerve and lose control).  He stopped to make sure I was okay, let me know that the accident was not my fault, and even made jokes to cheer me up because he saw how shaken up I was. It was a really nice gesture and really did help calm me down 🙂

My car is not doing so hot though – it may be totalled and I just got done paying the thing off! But I feel extremely fortunate that I’m okay and that no one else was hurt either. I’ll find out tomorrow if the car is indeed a gonner. If so, it’s car shopping for me this weekend! I’ve always been a Honda girl, but maybe I’ll change it up this time around.

Stay tuned….

Hairy Situation

Literally! My hair is falling out!

It’s been freaking me out. I mean, I’ve always been a shedder – If I ever were to commit a crime, I would be captured swiftly with more than enough DNA evidence from hair follicles left behind at the scene of the crime to convict me!

So I decided to do some research – as it turns out, weight loss can have an effect on your hair. I would have never thought! But it makes sense, all this excess shedding coincides with the months I’ve been losing weight and even though I’ve been doing it by eating well and exercising – I’m sure there are vitamins/nutrients that I may be deficient in.

So after some reading it seems that biotin has been knows to help in hair and nail growth (further confirmed by reading Bella’s blog post). I’ll be purchasing some of that thankyouverymuch, and hopefully along with the multivitamin that I’ve been taking daily (since Monday) my body will get it together!

Now off to sweep… sigh.

Remember Me?

What can I say?  I sort of lost the motivation to keep up with this blog but …. not the motivation to keep losing weight !

So what have ya’ll missed?

– I currently weigh 158.4 lbs, making my total weight loss 58.8 lbs.  Not too shabby, eh?

– My weight loss stalled for a bit in June.  I went on vacation and let’s just say I did well the first couple of days and then went to Paula Dean’s restaurant in Savannah and it pretty much went straight to hell from there (my stomach was NOT happy with me!). But I only gained 0.8 lbs, which was a miracle! I think it’s the only time I’ve ever been happy seeing a weight gain (because it could have been a lot worse.)

– My gym has named me the Member of the Month for my weight loss. They have it up on a dry erase board at the gym’s entrance. People have been asking the staff for pictures, so I’ve been looking through my pictures for some “before” and “after”.  The “before” pic is harder, since most fat people don’t take pictures (I was no exception). I have a couple though and it still amazes me the transformation that is I.

– My asthma has greatly improved! I can even work out without having to use my inhaler! Back when I had all the weight, I was fatigued everyday and had to use my inhaler all the time. Not anymore. Take that asthma!

– My WW meeting location and time has changed. It is no secret that I love my leader and they have moved her from Wednesday to Thursday night meetings. I couldn’t imagine going to anyone else’s meeting, so Thursday it is! She’s so fun and supportive! Now I’ve gotten to know a lot of my fellow WW meeting members and I just have to rave about them. They always have such positive attitudes. I’ve had several tell me how proud they are of me. Isn’t the sweet?  They are such an awesome group of people!

– The insecurity monster is still creeping in. I’m trying to get out there and date. I’m using a free dating website, just to see what’s out there. When I look at some profiles of men I find attractive, I’ve caught myself several times thinking – guys like that don’t like girls like me. It’ soooo sad. Why not me, ya know?  It’s a constant struggle. Weight loss doesn’t miraculously solve all of life’s problems!

So there you go! Hoping to blog more frequently – I sort of miss it now.

Hope you all have been doing well!

Bro Time

First things first, weigh in last Wednesday showed a 0.4 lbs loss. Hoping for a bigger loss today but I’m not stressing it.

I had lunch with my brother over the weekend. I hadn’t seen him since Christmas (which is sad , seeing as though we live in the same city….) It was nice to be able to hang out. He complimented me on my weight loss and how great it was that I had decided to shed the weight. He admitted that he had wanted to approach me before about my weight gain but didn’t know how to broach the subject, especially since I tend to take criticism from my family not so well at times (hey, I’m not perfect!)

I knew that if he had, he was coming from a good place with the best intentions. I’m not sure how I would have reacted. Probably not good. I was in a dark place which is part of the reason I had gotten in the overweight mess to begin with. But I think skinny people fail to realize that fat people know they are fat. We may be in denial for a while, but trust me, we can hear the rude remarks and see the looks of disgust.  When I could barely fit in my size 18 jeans, I didn’t think, watch out Kate Moss, you aint’ got shit on me!No,  I knew.

I just had to hit rock bottom and decide for myself that I needed to lose weight for me. So telling me that my weight has gotten out of control would have probably not helped me much because I wasn’t ready yet.

All people are different, I’ve read where people have gotten their wake up call from concerned friends and family – which is great (who cares where it comes from as long as it happens!) I just think that for the most part, unless you are ready, it doesn’t matter what people tell you because in the end, you are the one that has to make it happen. No one is going to force you to go to the gym or follow you around to make sure you are eating healthy.

But that is behind me know. The decision was made and I’ve come a long way and I’m damn proud. I’m also excited that my brother and I can connect through exercise. I even went for a run with him on Monday night. It feels good to bond with people and not have it always revolve around food. It also helps to have a support system and motivation for those days where you tend to forget why you started in the first place.

Friday Is My Second Favorite F Word

Food is the first 😉

I’ve recovered from the cold that plagued me last week. I was feeling so crappy that I missed 4 days of working out. Which isn’t the end of the world, but since it’s become a habit, it felt very weird!

I’m back at it again – I haven’t been doing a lot of running but I decided to go for it on Wednesday before weigh in. I was impressed with myself. I was able to hold a steady, (albeit slow) pace with minimal walking breaks. That’s good since I’ll be running away from zombies at the Run For Your Lives race in November! One of my motivations during my run was an older Asian gentleman at my gym. Every time I see him, he’s running his little heart on the treadmill, like a boss. It’s inspirational really. If he can do it, what’s stopping me?

The other motivation… I’m almost a size 10, people!  My goal is to be around an 8 (to be reevaluated if need be, since I love my curves and have no intention of being a waif). I’m so close! I’ve been having a blast trying on new clothes at stores that I used to love to shop in  (hello Anthropologie!) but stopped when I ballooned to a size 18.

Weigh in last night, I lost 0.6 lbs. Not bad considering I only worked out 3 days last week. This means I have 33.4 lbs to go and I’m hoping to get it done before October 19th (my birthday).

Victory shall be mine!

Living a Charmed Life

I’m sick again, woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose this morning. What the hell?!

I have good news though – last night at weigh in I reached a milestone! I’ve lost 53.2 lbs since I started Weight Watchers and got my 5o lbs charm! I added my charm to the others, they hang from my gym bag and are a constant reminder and motivation of what I’ve accomplished and can continue to accomplish.

I lost 6.2 lbs this week – it was about damn time since my weight had only gone down 0.2 lbs in the past 2 weeks. This means I weigh 164 lbs and only have 34 lbs to go to get to goal weight. It’s so great when the numbers left seem so much more doable! I’ve heard that the last several pounds are the hardest, but seeing as though I’ve lost 53 lbs already – I feel like I can do anything as long as I keep working my ass off, even if it does take longer.

It’s a lot of work, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It means I’ve earned every single one of those pounds lost 🙂

Take That Scale!

I really need to stop abandoning my blog!

My weight loss as been uneventful scale wise. Last week showed no difference in my weight – I stayed exactly the same. This week I only lost .2 lbs.

However, I had a couple of non scale victories that have helped me still keep things in perspective. My size 14 jeans are starting to get baggy. Over the weekend, I decided to try on some old dresses that I couldn’t bare to part with because they were so pretty. I fit very comfortably into the size 12 ones! I finally saw a thinner girl in the mirror. I was over the moon! I also went shopping with my mom (mostly window shopping) and I went crazy trying things on that the old me would never try for fear of the sausage look. It was such an amazing feeling being able to try on clothes in regular stores and actually fit in them!

I also went to a music festival with a few of my good friends and we took a lot of pictures. I was curious on how I would look, since I haven’t taken that many pictures since starting Weight Watchers and working out, but the weight loss has finally translated to film! I looked so damn sassy!

So all in all I’ve had a good couple of weeks. The scale will not bring me down! But I still do have a ways to go, so it better start playing nice!

Did I Stutter?

Oh Biggest Loser Finale, how I love thee.

While I had my reservations on the finalists, specifically Conda, the most manipulative person in the house (who managed to pull the wool over the eyes of all the players and make it to the end) I was still excited. All the players had busted their asses (even Conda eventually) to change their life and lose weight. That’s admirable! I have nothing but love and respect for these people because losing weight takes balls. I know this because I started by weight loss around the same time this season began.  I’d be lying if I said that it was easy.

It’s not.

It takes everything you have to change your habits and  your point of view. It takes everything you have to push your body to do things it never thought it could do. This shit is not easy.

But it’s worth it.

If you are blessed with the skinny genes or if you have no problem turning down delicious morsel of food – than thank your lucky stars, because for everyone else, the business of healthy weight is hard effing work!

I noticed that in the show’s finale, 2 contestants were missing – Mark and Buddy and as far as I was concerned, it’s the way it should have been.

If you have not been keeping up with the show, they were part of the final 5. However they had caught wind of the fact that past (voted off) players would be coming back to the show and would be eligible to be part of the final 3 if they were able to win any of the final challenges that the Biggest Loser had to throw at them.

Apparently they found themselves too above that. They thought it was more noble to QUIT than to take part of such a barbaric thing.

Did they forget  that this seasons motto was NO EXCUSES?

No offense jackasses – I understand that you have worked your asses off and that this seems unfair but did your asses forget that you signed up for a reality show? Have reality shows ever been fair? Have you ever watched one where they did NOT throw a curve ball?  How dumb are you?

Give me a break, you have a FREE personal trainer and nutritionist – more than I have ever gotten in my life and you want to bitch that your odds for winning the final prize are less? Is the prize of the weight loss not enough for you? You have received all of the tools for weight loss for free and you still want to bitch about it? Do you miss the point where  you are still a winner because you have (the free) opportunity to change your life? And why are you short-changing yourself by assuming you couldn’t beat the past contestants. Excuse me if I have no sympathy for your whiny ass.

You couldn’t cut it? You don’t deserve to be considered in the shows finale.

No Excuses! (also – did you not realize how much easier you made it for the other contestants who didnt’ quit?!)

Sorry for my rant, but life’s not always easy, and people need to just get over it! You want something bad enough? Work for it! If Mark and Buddy had stayed, they could very well have beat everyone and been part of the final 3 as well. But we will never know.  Why? Because they never tried.

Put Your Back Into It

There is this woman who comes to the circuit training sometimes that just frustrates me. She was there this morning pulling her usual stunt. She literally gives up at any station that is remotely challenging. She just quits! She stands there exclaiming loudly how hard it is and how she just can’t. Well with that attitude, I’m not surprised!

We are all there, I presume, to work hard and push our boundaries. Some of the stations aren’t easy and we are all at different levels, but the group works hard to get a good work out in.

Well except for said woman.

Don’t get me wrong – there are times when certain moves are just hard for me. But I just stop, take a deep breath and move forward. I  might have to take a couple of breaths, but I keep at it, even if it’s at a slow pace because what experience has shown me is that the more you do it, the easier it gets. It can’t get easier if you don’t do it.

I guess what’s frustrating to me is that she’s short-changing herself by not even trying and pushing her boundaries. She would be amazed at how far she could go if she just took it seriously and tried. When I started, a part of me wondered if I could do it, but I didn’t let it stop me.

Besides, it’s not supposed to be easy – it’s supposed to be hard work! Put your back into it dammit!