Good God ... That was really me

I never really had a "before" picture. I avoided cameras like the plague, as many of us do. But I was just working on a project for my church putting all the photos of the staff members on the website and was given this disc with pics of all of us that were taken last fall.... When I saw the one of me, my jaw dropped. I really didn't think I looked THAT bad at the time. I didn't see myself as that huge blob of a person. Gross. So, for motivation and to remind myself continuously that I never want to look like that again, here it goes up on my blog for all to see. (Look to the right in case you didn't notice). Part of me wants to do a little experiment and put on those exact same clothes and take a full body shot of myself to see the difference. But the other part of me is petrified that it won't be enough of a difference and that it will depress me. Anyways... thank goodness I have that other pic (my good hair pic LOL) to use instead of that other one!!!! And thank goodness that I am in charge of this project so that I can control which pic is being used!!! LOL.

New Hair

Alrighty... I played with my hair today and now I like it!! It's all very layered, which is definetly more flattering and now that I see it in pics, I think that the color is OK afterall.

Just a drive by posting for now.. gotta run and get baby K to her 18 month immunizations (fun time ahead!).

Healthy You Check In

Well, I never would have guessed that I'd get such a pretty new badge so quickly, but my awesome loss that I recorded yesterday bumped me over the 30 lb mark! Ahem, yes, that's 31.2 lbs to be exact. And something I didn't even realize until today was that yesterday was my 3 month anniversary being on Weight Watchers. What a fantastic loss to celebrate with!

My reward for achieving my 10% was to have my hair done... I wanted the works - cut and highlights and it was long overdue as I haven't had my hair cut in over a year. I was looking forward to taking some new progress pics and looking all hot with my new hair but it turns out that I hate it. Ok, maybe hate is a strong word... but it's definetly going to take some getting used to. The highlights are WAY lighter than I had expected.. I was hoping for a warm, caramelly shade but he used bleach! I am just not used to seeing my hair this light and to be honest, I'm really not even sure that it goes with my skin tone. The haircut itself is pretty good I think... but of course I don't like how he styled it. Tomorrow I will play with it and see if I can get it more to my liking. THEN I'll take some pics.

Anyways, as far as diet goes the past week, I've done really well. I've been on program the majority of the time and have honestly had a tough time eating all of my points. Last week it was because of the butterflies in my tummy... this week it may be partially that and partially because I've been kind of busy and just not thinking about food very much. I find myself getting to mealtime and really having to think about eating.. just not much of an appetite. What a huge shift!!

Exercise has been going well too. I did week 6, day 1 of C25K today followed by 35 minutes on the elliptical. Really, my cardio has been going well... but I've been avoiding the strength training for some reason. I mean, I know how to do plenty of toning exercises and how to use the weights for some reason, I've felt intimated to do so. I've also been so focused on just burning the calories that I haven't wanted to slow down and do the strength training instead (because I wouldn't have enough time to get in my current cardio regime and strength training on the same day and I really hate circuit training!). But, I would love to tone my arms up in time for summer... so I've been thinking about signing up for a few sessions with a trainer to get me working on a good strength training program.

Regarding my goals for this month:

• Hit 10% goal by April 7 DONE!
  
• Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11) 5.6/10
  
• Get in 3 C25K workouts each week Last week I only got two because Monday was my final fitness test at the Y
  
• Do 1100 minutes of cardio I'm at 338 right now
  

So overall, a great week! I can't wait to catch up on everyone's blogs and see how you all are doing this week!

Weigh in #13

I thought the number 13 wasn't supposed to be very lucky but this week, it seems the scale likes me. I am down 5.6 lbs!!!!!!!! I saw the numbers jump down when I peeked a few days ago but honestly, didn't expect them to stick. Not only did I pass my 10% but I am also down more than 31 lbs total now. Wow. Just wow. I think I'll probably spend the rest of the day doing a bit of a happy dance! But not only because of the weight loss... my boy just called me from work... said he couldn't stop thinking of me. It was just a quick call but made my day because it made me totally realize just how mutual the feelings are. It's all sort of crazy but really nice at the same time.

Okay, okay.. I suppose I owe it to you all now to give you a little more info about him now. I've been asked to write a mini post about the whole thing so here it goes. First of all, let's call him M. A few weeks ago, on a complete whim, I signed up for one of those match making sites. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular.. not even sure if I actually wanted to date anyone (I haven't since I separated nearly two years ago). But I thought I'd see what was out there. So I wrote my profile, not trying to impress anyone. Just putting it all out there - the real me. I sifted through the matches I was sent.. deleting most of them based on physical appearance. LOL, yep, call me shallow or superficial but if you can't actually see yourself with the guy, what's the point? So there was this one guy whose pic appealed to me. He lives about 5 or so hours from here, which I figured was a good thing because then there is less pressure to actually meet (remember, I wasn't really serious about this). I sent him questions and his responses intrigued me. We communicated back and forth and nearly everything matched. I gave him my email addy and we spent three days writing huge emails 3-4 times a day. Finally, we talked on the phone. And the next night, and the next night. And several more times since then. We've decided to meet up on Saturday the 19th. So yes, it's crazy, I've never met him but really have a huge crush on him already. But before you get all worried about me, I'm taking it very slow... and whether anything comes of it or not, it's been very fun to have feelings like this again and to feel like someone is into you. And hey, the fact that he has a really great smile, makes really good money, loves kids (and wants more), is very financially responsible (he owns a house, rents it out and is buying another - all this with no debt), has a really great family from the sounds of it - help too. Wish me luck!!!

Oh, and if any of you were readers from the very beginning of my blog where I posted about going to the psychic, I recently re-read the stuff she wrote down for me and so much of it has come true. It's scary really how accurate she's been. And one intriguing thing that she wrote that I happened to forget was that I would find love in March/April. So, one never knows.... :)

Quick post

I don't have a whole lot to report tonight... the weekend has been pretty good. I didn't get in a workout due to sick kids but I've been good with the food. I can't wait to see my scale in the morning!!

Anyways, I saw this cool link on Erin's page... it calculated that my life expectency was 87. Not too shabby! Try it and let me know what it says!

Bad about checking in..

Finally I have a few minutes to sit here and write! I appologize that I havent't been commenting as much as I would like on your blogs this week... This week has flew by and I can't honestly believe that it's already Friday. I had a had a work project that I had slacked off on a bit and I have been paying for it the last couple of days. The whole excitement of my little love interest (LOL) has had me rather distracted. So yah.. ummm, that's going well ;) It's been so long since I've been in this situation and I've pretty much had butterflies all week. However, that has been extremely helpful with the whole weight loss situation! I have barely had an appetite and I find myself feeling full about halfway through my meals. An early peek at the scales this week show that I am on my way to a very good loss this week.. I know it's not official because it's not Monday yet but we're looking at a number very close to 5 lbs already! Crazy but I'll take it.

In a way though, this leads me to another problem. Well, not really a problem but an issue nonetheless. The clothes that I bought just a few weeks ago are already getting baggy! I'm always glad to have this problem or issue or whatever but it could get rather pricey. I'm not all that concerned about my jeans yet, I just wash them after each wear to shrink them back but I don't know what to do about a spring coat. I have a nice sweater (zips up so like a coat) that was too snug to wear in the fall and it hangs off me now and looks awful. All my sweatshirts do that same thing. So, I need a spring coat. But really, it will likely only fit this spring so I don't want to spend a lot on it. I guess I'll go check out some consignment shops this weekend... any other suggestions? What do you do for your interim wardrobe?

Healthy You Check In

I've been waiting a few weeks now to finally be able to wear this badge! And I wear it very proudly!

Well, a new month is always a great time to review what worked and what didn't work from the last month and make new goals for the coming 4 weeks sooooo...

These were my goals for March:

• Hit my 10% goal by March 15 (4 lbs to go!!)
• Get in 3 C25K workouts each week
• Do 1000 minutes of cardio in the month of March

Unfortunately, I still haven't hit my 10% but I am only 0.8 away from it now. I'm bound and determined that it shall occur by next Monday!! I did well with the C25K workouts (I sometimes got in 4) and did my first workout of week 5 today. I also didn't quite hit my cardio target... I ended up at at 910/1000 however I won't beat myself up too badly because I really didn't get started on it (because I was still working FT) until almost midway through the month.

New Goals :

• Hit 10% goal by April 7
• Lose 10 pounds by Mother's Day (May 11)
  
• Get in 3 C25K workouts each week
• Do 1100 minutes of cardio

I also need to continue to fight the battle of staying OP on weekends. I always find this tough but in order to meet my big goal of losing 50 lbs by my birthday (July 15), I can't afford to have many weeks with loses of less than a pound. Thank goodness there are no big eating holidays until Thanksgiving!!! LOL

I also have another little thing that's motivating me right now... on a whim, I decided to sign up for one of those online matchmaking sites a few weeks ago... keep in mind that even though I'm only 28, I haven't dated in about 8.5 years!! Anyways, there's really only been one match that has stood out to me and well, I think I have a little bit of a crush going on. So if I'm sickeningly happy and cheerful, blame it on that LOL. That's all I'm ready to say here in blogland so far, but I'll keep you all updated if anything comes of it :)