I'm Back Baby!

Even the most perfect person falls off the wagon every now and then. It takes a strong person to admit he/she made a bad decision, and an even stronger one to not feel guilty about that decision and just move on!!!

The last week I've made several good decisions. First and foremost, to get back on the track to a healthier to me!!! After a week of making better decisions, it paid off! In the last week I lost 4.2 pounds, which puts me past the 25 pounds lost mark in Weight Watchers, 35 all together!

It's funny, when I was working out and eating semi-okay, those last 5 pounds seemed to take FOREVER to come off. In one week I started to make healthy food selections, and got back into the working out, and wouldn't you know it...I lost 4.2 pounds in one week, AND I got past that last 5 pound mark!

On to the 2nd healthy decision that is in its third day...I gave up pop. I love pop. Not for the caffeine, but for the taste. And my pop of choice is Diet Pepsi. For me there's nothing more refreshing than an ice cold Diet Pepsi! But unfortunately that refreshing soda is doing nothing for my diet. If anything it's hurting me.

I've given up pop for Lent a couple of times and it was no big deal. But to give it up as a total lifestyle change is going to be tough. I'm on day 3 and I don't feel too bad. I had considered just cutting back, but the last time I "just cut back" I was back up to drinking 3 or 4 cans of Diet Pepsi a day!

So hopefully my good decisions will stick and pay off in the end. I have so many good examples to follow in my Weight Watchers meeting. I just need to take advantage of that and, even on bad weeks, face that scale head on!!!

A Line in the Sand

A friend of mine once said, "It's okay to draw a line in the sand, as long as you step over that line." Such a simple statement, but a powerful one at that!

For the last month, I've seriously fallen short of anything that I expected of myself. I got lazy, too tired in the morning to work out, and I started saying things like, "I'll start back up on Monday." After all, Monday starts a new week. Monday would roll around and I'd be too tired to get out of bed, too lazy to make a healthy meal, and the snowball rolling downhill FAST was getting bigger and bigger.

So last Saturday JC and I are at the church to get the Christmas tree up and get the church ready for Hanging of the Greens. Pastor Natalie, who has done AMAZING on her journey to a healthier self, smiled at me and said, "I haven't seen you at our meetings for awhile, everything okay?" At first my mind was saying, "Crap, now I have to face the firing squad." But you see, Pastor Natalie is nothing like a firing squad. She truly was concerned that something was wrong.

You see, earlier in the week JC and I had a conversation. I was going to quit Weight Watchers. I hadn't gone in a month, I was wasting money, and I wasn't letting it work for me. The supportive husband that he is told me it was ultimately my decision, but it wasn't in my best interest. Ever since that conversation my head and heart were speaking different languages. What was I going to do?

So Saturday I'm standing in front of my friend, the one whom I asked to help keep me accountable, and she was curious what had happened to the girl who was so excited about her weight loss thus far. If you know me at all, you know that I don't like putting myself into a situation where I get called out (so to speak) and I've always said that quitting is not an option. I was mad at myself. I was on the brink of not only letting myself and my family down, but also some of my best friends in the world!

I cannot quit! That wouldn't be fair to my kids, to myself, to the friends I've embarked on this journey with. It doesn't matter how many times you have to draw a line in the sand. What matters is that you step over that line and continue to move forward...and forward is where I'm going!

Stupid sinuses!

Saturday night we got with some friends for supper and spent a gorgeous November evening around their fire pit. Since then my head has felt like it's going to explode! My throat is scratchy too, which doesn't fare well for a person whose job it is to talk on the phone!!! For me there isn't many smells better than that of a "camp"fire, but I'm pretty sure my sinuses are not happy with me for inhaling that wonderful smoke all night!!!

Now to the point...it's really hard to exercise when you're not feeling well! I took some NyQuil last night before bed, knowing how my scratchy throat had been causing me to cough right up until bed time. I love how NyQuil knocks me out. What I don't like is that most mornings after being medicated with that wonderful cough suppressant I wake up feeling like I haven't gotten any sleep at all!! Therefore, this chick did NOT wake up at 5:30 am for my morning Insanity workout.

That's so not cool! You might say, "oh, it's just one day". Nope...last week I didn't exercise AT ALL!!! My knees hurt, my back hurt, everything hurt last week. While I know these are merely excuses, they were enough to give me the latitude to hit snooze...for an hour...every day! So that one day this week that I didn't exercise can be added to the five days last week that I didn't exercise! NOT COOL!

I got online and asked the almighty Google if I should still exercise with a cold. Yep...in fact they say that exercise may help break up some of the crud that is currently building in my chest. Darn it! And here I thought rest was what this body needed.

So how am I going to get up in the morning? Honestly, I'm not sure. I've considered putting my alarm clock (aka my cell phone) some place other than my bed side. Maybe I'll do that. One of my favorite characters in one of my equally favorite books does just that. He puts it in the bathroom. That's the first place I go when I get out of bed...seems like a smart idea to me!!

So tonight I will test it. My alarm clock is going in the bathroom...and I'm going to get up despite my horrible sinuses, and I'm going to push play another day!!!

Saggy!!!

With a title like that, thank goodness I'm not referring to my boobs, my waddle under my arms or my belly. Although they all pretty much sag, this blog is NOT about any of them!

I am happy to tell you that this blog is about my pants!!!! Check out the picture!!! This makes me smile. The proof is in the pants!!!!

What can I say, I get really excited about stuff like this. It makes me feel really good about the journey I'm taking and makes me not want to stop!!!

Insanity is tough, but it's amazing! The hardest part for me right now, aside from getting out of bed early in the morning, is making sure I have good snacks on hand because burning that many calories makes you sooooooo much hungrier!!!

Anyway, excited to show the world more and more positive results!! 'Til next time!!!

That's Insane!!

Most likely you've seen it on television. Shaun T. and his insane workouts. The truth of the matter is, sometimes when you let yourself get to what I've become, the best thing for you is just a little Insanity!!!!!

I'm on my 2nd week of Insanity. The first week, I'll admit, was hell! By this time last week I couldn't move. My muscles were frozen, in pain, and not liking the new hobby I had taken up!!! Last Wednesday night, as I slept, it hurt to roll from one side to the other. My ribs hurt. My hips hurt. My shoulders hurt. It would probably take less time to list what didn't hurt. And that, my friends, was NOTHING physically.

Mentally I was hurting as well. I wondered if I had it in me to do these workouts. Maybe my muscles were telling me something!

Thursday morning I had given in to this attitude that maybe I didn't have it in me. I slept in. I still couldn't move because my muscles ached so much! Fast forward to Friday morning...I somehow managed to muster up enough pride, motivation and courage to get my butt out of bed, put on my clothes, go downstairs and push play on the DVD player!!! And it was soooo worth it!

When I first began this program, which is 6 days a week for 10 weeks, I realized that our weekends are so unpredictable that exercising on Saturdays might not work out. So my Insanity program will go 5 days a week for 12 weeks...no matter how you look at it, it's still 60 days. If I happen to be home on a Saturday I may throw in an exra session.

So after my first week, I have to say I expected to show up at my Weight Watchers meeting a couple of pounds down. Nope! Gained 0.8 pounds! Are you kidding me??!! Okay, that's not what I wanted to say. I was so angry at that scale that I didn't even stay for the meeting. I was out of there and immediately on the phone to my husband, who of course calmed me down and reminded me that this is a process.

Doing a workout like Insanity, I am probably not going to lose weight every time. And no, it's not because muscle weighs more than fat. A pound of muscle is equal to a pound of fat. They're both a pound! Muscle, however, is denser than fat. And as you lose fat, you're replacing it with muscle. What I really should be doing is measuring myself on a weekly basis. How many inches am I losing? How are my clothes fitting? After all, I'm also in this to look good, right? And if I start looking good, but I weigh a little more than I'd like, hopefully it's because I've got the muscles to show for it!!! (No, I don't want to be ripped...I just want proof that under all those love handles there is muscle!)

I still have a lot to work on mentally when it comes to this journey. But I'm on the right path. My life is going to get so much better! I'm excited to see the results on January 18th! Seems like a long ways away, but it's so worth the wait!!!

I knew I could. I knew I could.

So maybe my thought process is a little juvenile these days, but to quote a famous train engine, "I knew I could. I knew I could." YES, I knew I could complete my second 5k and I knew that I could do it better than the first!!

What an awesome experience!!! And what a blessing to be able to experience the Color Run with some of my best friends and my family (minus one awesome little guy who spent the day with Grandma and Papa).

I love the feeling I get when I accomplish a goal. Saturday I had a goal in mind...to finish my second 5k in less time than it took my first 5k. Not only did I do that, but I partnered up with one of my best friends, who accomplished her very first 5k!!! And we did awesome!!!

Here's our awesome team!! Kris, Nicole, Cody, Travis (not in the picture, he was grumpy), Mindy, JC, Emma...and I'm taking the picture! We were Team RGB: Runners Gone Bad - We may be slow, but we're ahead of hue! Get it...hue...Color Run. I know, I know...but my artist friends really thought it was awesome!!!

JC laughed at me when he saw Mindy's and my pictures from the day. "You took pictures at EVERY color station?" Heck yeah, proof that we really did this thing!!!

Honestly, there's no way to describe first of all how much fun the Color Run was. What a great way to raise money for the Children's Variety Club. It's kind of fun to know that while helping yourself be healthier you're also helping the kids. It's a win, win!!!

Second of all, there's no way to describe the feeling I had crossing that finish line, my best friend right in front of me, my family and other amazing friends behind me, and knowing that two lives (actually more I'm sure) were changed. Crossing that finish line was the end of the race, but the beginning of two lives that so much need to be changed for the better.

We are two very awesome people, Mindy Jean, but we need to continue to be awesome for many more years to come. Are you with me??? Thank you for catching the Color Run wave with me and taking it to the very end. Thank you for pushing me to go to the railroad tracks, to the flag pole, to the stop light...thank you!

TEAM RBG: RUNNERS GONE BAD - WE MAY BE SLOW, BUT WE'RE AHEAD OF HUE!!!

The best Jamie I can be!

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit. I read today that while it may take 21 days to remember to perform that habit, it takes at least 30 days to be able to do that habit without even thinking!

I'd like to sit here and tell you that for the next 30 days I'm going to exercise every day, track my food intake, and do every other habit that will help push me towards weight loss success. But guess what, I'm not perfect. And I know that there will be days that I mess up!

See, I think that's my biggest hurdle right now. The fear of messing up! But why? I guess you could say I've always had a fear of failure. I don't want to let people down, including myself. Why when I want something so bad do I continue to have this fear? Especially when before a soccer game I sit there and tell Emma that it's okay to not play perfectly as long as she's continuing to do her best! "Be the best Emma you can be!" Funny how you give your kids all this advice, but when you look down deep inside of yourself, you should be looking in the mirror saying those same words to the human being looking back at you.

For the last week I've busted my butt on the treadmill. But as my Weight Watchers meeting approaches, in my gut I feel that I'm not going to be happy with the numbers on that scale. And it's my own fault. I haven't been tracking, and I'd be happy to give you all the excuses as to why!!!

So here's the deal. I understand that I'm human and I will mess up, but when I do things, I hate doing them half-ass! So here goes...for the next 30 days I'm going to work on forming a very important habit. I'm going to write down every single thing that is going in my mouth, even if it's the snack sized Kit Kat that is one of my guilty pleasures!!! Not tracking has become my downfall, and is the habit that I have GOT to incorporate into my life, no matter how inconvenient it is!!! The one promise I am going to make myself over the next 30 days is to not expect perfection, to get back up when I fall, and to be the best Jamie I can be!!!