Goal not in sight.....

As I sit here feeling yucky this morning, I know there is now way to reach my goal of 210 lbs. by Sunday. So I'm looking at what I have done so far this year. A little over 3 years ago I was at 235 lbs. roughly At the end of this year I am at 235.6 lbs this morning, mind you that is with a few extra heavier layers of clothing on so I'm thinking its more like 233 or 234 lbs. Then 2 years ago for my brothers wedding I was roughly at 249 lbs. and then started this year at 242 lbs.

So even at 235.6 lbs. thats 14 lbs. lighter than I was at my heaviest, thats the weight I was a little over 3 years ago, and thats an accomplishment in itself right there. I can't remember exactly but its either 10 or 15 lbs. you pack on each year just by doing the same things and not doing any exercise and such. If its 10 lbs. I've taken off a year and a half worths of weight gain. If its 15 lbs. I took off all but one lb. of the weight gain - still an improvement.

Either way I got tired of not being able to fit into my jeans...its getting to that point again. They have gotten tight again. So I gotta get back on the bandwagon here and start the year off right. Now you may be thinking 'what set this girl off on this line of thinking?' Well this is the third time that my mother-in-law has decided that I am three times bigger than I actually am when buying me clothing. Mind you I have always had the childbearing hips and thunder thighs to go with them. Which made my lower portion of my body a size 16 before having kids. Lowest I ever got was a size 12 very briefly. So after having one kid she bought me a dress for my birthday - a size 3x dress. Ok I had gained some weight - but NOT that much. I'd gone from the size 16 on the lower half only to a size 18/20. My top half has always been smaller. I wore Mediums in High School. Well actually I wore Larges because I liked the extra room to fit them over my damn hips. But the upper half is now at 14/16, sometimes 18 depending on who makes it. So last year and again this year, my mother-in-law bought me a shirt as my xmas gift. A size 22/24 shirt both years. After telling her last year it was way too big and asking for the receipt to exchange it. Never got it and ended up giving the shirt away because it was too big. This year she asked me to try it on and see if it would fit - I didn't have to. I told her it was big and she gave me the gift receipt (which in my opinion should have just been in the box in the first place) so that I could exchange it.

My frustration is that I gave her my old size 16 pants once I couldn't fit them anymore. So now she assumes that I have become this blimp simply because I have always had a big butt. What the hell?!?!?!

How was your Holiday? Other than that mine was great. Wishing everyone safe travels and good times with their loved ones. Now I'm off to brave the returns line at the store to get something else that will fit. ~Hugs~Jen

>.< grrrrrrrr

Weighed in yesterday morning at 230.0 lbs. I do know why. Silly sugar cookies that appeared in my house thanks to my sister in law trying to be cute and spend time with my kids......and then she took maybe one dozen of the 12 dozen she made back home. Most of them went to a teacher appreciation day at the school form the kids. The rest that were left have made their way into my tummy until today when my hubby was smart enough to take them to work and get them away from me. lol Very good thing since I was getting mad at myself for the weight gain and of course eating because I was mad. Damn viscious cycle that is.

On the plus side I've had a flat tire since last friday night and this past week I've walked roughly 5 miles getting my kids on and off the bus. Quarter of a mile there and a quarter of a mile back. So I have been exercising and the weight gain could have been worse. :) Always look on the brightside. Oh oh - not to mention that I only have to watch the stress makers another two days and then I'm done. :)

Well off for another 1/2 mile walk now. Hope everyone is haveing a great Holiday season so far. Safe travels to those of us who are driving, flying, or however you are traveling to get to your family.

~Hugs~Jen

ugh

So this morning's weigh in is 229.2 lbs.....its gone up again. :( But this is also another TOM weigh in. Health issues are still the same but I have a Dr. appt this Friday to hopefully get things regulated - YAY. I can't stand the twice a month TOM anymore.....its gotta be fixed. I have only a little over a week until I am no longer watching the extra monsters that have been causing all the stress in my life. That's another YAY.

But my hubby is pushing to get an exercise routine started for both of us. He wanted to start running.....but its now winter here in the good ole state of Michigan. SO I squashed that idea. I can do exercise indoors and I can run when its warm but running in the cold always makes me sick and makes my asthma 10 times worse. Which only gets really bad if I overexert myself....catch twenty-two there. lol

So I'm looking at my walking DVD and using my weights some. Looked at Self.com's Reach Your Goal program and starting that this week. Which is nice in that it gives you four different levels of exercise to start with, so you set your own pace. And can change paces at any time.

Slowly realizing that my goal of 50 lbs. lost will not be achieved this year. But I'll be happy to get back to 20 lbs lost and then keep going from there. With the attack of TOM's lately my sweets cravings has like tripled >.< Which of course has caused the weight to come back. But dangit I have a wedding next year that I want to be smaller for and I'm gonna do it. SO I'm resetting my goals and reworking my plan to make it happen.

Off to walk a mile in my living room now. Thanks for listening. ~Hugs~Jenni

Weighed in at 226.8 lbs this morning. So I've gone up a few lbs. since the last update here. And I've finally figured it out. I have too much stress in my life....not that I do much but the little I do is enough to be causing health issues. So this means that the one mom I was doing a favor for and watching her kids - will be looking for a new babysitter before the end of December. It is her kids that have caused the most stress in my life and are causing my children to do things that they that normally they would not have thought to do themselves. I had those kids here on Nov. 7th and I snapped at the end of the day. Then not only were they bad at my house they were bad at the next babysitters house. I have no problem watching kids and generally am a very kind and patient person. But I am at my wits end with these kids and the mom. What started out as "I'll watch them until you find a new babysitter" became I am your new babysitter. And not being paid for my stress - so they are done and I'll watch them right up until Christmas break for the kids but not during and not after.
Hopefully this will bring my stress level down and my body will go back to normal and I'll stop eating to get my frustration out. Which means the kids halloween candy is getting thrown out. >.< Not that they have eaten much of it......I've been doing that for them.
My husband is talking about making us wake up at 5:30 (ahhhhhhhhhhhh) to go out jogging in the morning before getting the kids up. We'll see how that goes. I've done it before but not in a few years.
Hope everyone has a fun and relaxing weekend planned. I'm just hanging out with the kids for the day and giving the hubby a night out wiht friends. Thanks for reading/listening to my small rant here. *Hugs* Jen

Not bad .... for a body that hates me :)

So my body can't seem to make up it's mind lately. My TOM is erratic lately. A month ago it was a week late - no worries about it being for any reason other than stress. That problem was fixed a few years ago.....after I convinced him a weekend was all the recovery time it would take vs. him taking a week or two off to care for me and the kids. :) Anyways off track. So a month ago it was a week late. This time it's two freaking weeks EARLY!!!!! So setting up an appt with my Dr to get something worked out. Maybe that will help with my mood swings too.....

So as I decided for grins and giggles to get on my scale this morning to see how much I had again gone up, I got a surprise. I had gone DOWN. YAY!!!!!!!! Its only a little bit but being below 225 lbs. is one step closer to being below 200 lbs. So this mornings weight was 223.5 lbs. Which of course will go up tomorrow because my sis-in-law came over today with sugar cookies for the kids to frost. And of course left half of what she brought for them to eat. Yeah right like they will last that long around me. Sugar cookies are my weakness. My Aunt makes KILLER ones at Christmas time that I always eat a ton of. She even made me my own batch one year when I was pregnant.....starting to see why I gained so much weight now. LOL

Well I hope everyone had a great weekend and thanks for hanging in there with me. Being depressed doesn't encourage much blogging/journaling but I'm getting better nad getting out of that slump so look forward to hearing from me a once again soon. ~Hugs~Jenni

Its been a weird month. Off the wagon and up 3 lbs! >.< Oh no! Kids back in school and I'm fundraising chair for PTO. Of course we kicked off the big event THIS weekend. So I have been busy getting everything ready and not thinking about what I am eating - hence the 3 extra lbs. that have come back to me. Not to mention that I volunteered to help out in another area to get things started until someone else can take over. Hello, Sucker party of one.....

So the kids school rules my life these days. And if you can't tell this blog/journal entry won't really be much about weight today. I need to vent a little....THANKS for listening/reading and putting up with me today. :) I spend so much time there that the librarian (sp?), who I had little interaction with last year, knows me on site and knows my name too! LOL  I've eaten lunch with my kids at least 3 times in the last three weeks at the school. I live there during the school year.

Ok enough about the kids. Time to shamelessly plug a friend of mine. His name is Jeremy Dundas, a musician from New Zealand. He is currently in London working on recording an album. Or rather working on getting money to record an album. He is an acoustic artist. I highly recommed him to anyone. Just take a listen to his songs and tell me what you think. And yes I am quite partial to him. :) http://www.myspace.com/jeremydundas


Hope you are all well and having a great weekend. We are enjoying the lovely fall weather here in Michigan as we watch the leaves change color. ~Hugs~Jen

Plateau

Well I've been off for a while now and just doing my own thing. The amazing thing is that I have gone up a little and seem to have hit a plateau at 225.2 lbs. So with 3 months left in the year I have roughly 30 lbs to go to hit my goal. But I am getting back on track and working hard. It makes it easier that all my kids are in school this year so i have a few days to myself to actually work out alone on. :)

So my downfall has been carbs. I know this and still I eat them. Who can resist french fries??? At leastthey were baked at home and not something from a fast food place. Not that that makes it any better to eat them. lol Gotta tell myself something. :)

Well its breakfast bar time now otherwise I will forget to eat something all together again. THANKS to all of you who posted comments to me evn when I hadn't blogged anythign in like a month. Makes me feel better to know that there are people out there who are reading what I type and who are encouraging me to keep going. Means so much to me. :)

~Hugs~Jen

Love My Scale

Weighed in this morning at 220.8 lbs. :D <-- my face right now after doing a happy dance. lol I'm almost half way there and only 4 months left to go before the end of the year to hit a 50 lbs loss. Well I'll be happy if I hit 200 lbs by the end of the year. So I am making that my secondary goal for the year. That way I should, no I will reach one of my goals this year for weight loss.

Should I be happy that I have a hard time keeping my pj bottoms to stay up? lol Just means they are getting to big for me and I like knowing my clothes are getting to big for me - gets me closer to my shopping spree that I will eventually have to do. :) Have a good day everyone. :)

~Hugs~Jen

Exciting news :)

Well I am no longer sick. My recheck was today and everything is back to normal. :) But that's not my exciting news - My only brother got his wife pregnant -I'm gonna be an AUNT!!!! I do have a few neices through my step-brother but this is my first flesh and blood neice or nephew. So I am really excited about it. :)

Weighed in this morning at 222.8 lbs. Still not bad considering the amount of water I have had to drink over the last few days. But I'll take it. Its still down from where I was before and that's all that counts for me. :) Well gotta get going to bed. More later hopefully if I am not too busy folding clothes tomorrow and this weekend.

~Hugs~Jen

So being sick has some advantages :P

Again I find myself sick and losing weight. Weighed in this morning at 221.6 lbs according to my scales. Still feel like crap and to top it all off I think I am allergic to the meds they gave me. Its just turning out to be a great week so far. LOL

Well my throbbing headache says my time at the comp is done for the day. More later in the week once i feel better enough to sit her longer.

~Hugs~Jen

Not a UTI

well I have a bladder infection and possible kidney infection. ouch. lots of pain so i am resting a lot. and on meds now for it. hopefully it clears up in a week and doesn't get worse.

~hugs~Jen

Well today I weighed in at 224.4 lbs. down some but not all the extra weight I had added by pigging out the other weekend. Of course this past weekend we had a family reunion - on my mom's side - the italian side. So of course there was pasta, pasta, pasta and really good cookies. But I didn't do too bad with eating. I had some spaghetti salad as it was the only pasta there at first. Then I went back and got some lasagna later because you never pass up the lasagna at the reunions! My biggest downfall was not drinking enough water and drinking too much pop all weekend.

Between not enough water all weekend and developing a UTI my week hasn't started out too great. But i am suffering through with cranberry juice - yuck.

~Hugs~Jen

Week update

Well this past weekend my hubby decided to be nice and buy pizza. After not having carbs for so long ............ I pigged out. lol And went from being 222.0 to 226.6 lbs in two days. uggghhhhhh. So I haven't been back cuz if I don't write it, it didn't happen right??? A girl can dream. :) So this morning back down to 223.6 lbs. I am basically up 1.6 lbs from last friday. Not too bad, but then I think "you could be down 1.6 lbs..........." And I have to tell myself to shut-up then. lol

But I am getting back on track now and I liked seeing that scale going down too much to go back to old habits and stay there. I was wearing a pair of shorts earlier this week that normally would be tight on me. And have been that way since I bought them about 5 years ago. But here is the kicker - even with gaining the weight back they were still loose on me the day I wore them. :) So I guess maybe I should measure myself again to see how much of a difference there is that way too. I've been too lazy to do it yet. :P For those of you praying for my Dad - he is home now and seems to be doing good. Thanks again. :)

~Hugs~Jen

Good Morning Everyone. My sacle this morning said I was at 222.0 lbs. Down 1.6 lbs since yesterday. :) 2 lbs left to go to hit post-Becca weight! Can you tell how excited I am!!! Its only taken me 5 years to get here but darn it I am getting this off now. I guess upping my Herbalife green tea intake does increase the amount that I lose. I had three cups of it yesterday.

Talked to my dad yesterday. He said the iv was gone, at 7 am was the last time he had pain meds, and he had been up and walking around about 6 times already. He also said he might be going home as he felt so much better and didn't think he was going to need another day in the hospital. They told him 1-3 days in recovery so he figured on being home by today. He is doing great. :)

Well I'm just trying to wake up here. Up too late last night. But my kids went and spent the night somewhere else so I'm allowed right? Now i have to wake up because they are coming home soon, but my brain says not gonna. lol ~Hugs~Jen

Scale still loves me & Dad is recovering

Ok so I was a little distracted yesterday and forgot to get back on here and update about my dad. He was in recovery at 10:30 am and finally into a room at 3:30 pm. I found out he has MRSA and they roomed him with another MRSA patient - might be why it took so long for them to put him in a room. But he said when they went to move him to his room he got off the bed to get on the gurney without any problems. Something he hasn't been able to do for a long time he said. Thank you for your prayers and continue to pray as he recovers. :)

As you can see my weight went down again. Weighed in at 223.6 lbs this morning. :) That is down 0.8 lbs since yesterday. I am really liking this as I get closer to my post-Becca (last kid) weight which is 220 lbs. I really didn't gain much weight after Julia and Lily (1st and 2nd kids) I was at 210 lbs after each of them. So once I hit 220 lbs I'll have 50 lbs of baby weight to lose. I can't wait to get there!

Thanks for being there along the way. :) ~Hugs~Jen

My dad is having surgery today....

Wll in one minute my dad will be going into surgery at 8 am here in Michigan. He is having back surgery for spinal stenosis. The doctor told him his case was so bad without the surgery he would most likely end up in a wheelchair. But I am worried as it is still surgery on his spine. So please keep him in your prayers and thought as the day progresses and I will come back to post an update aftering hearing from him or my stepmom. Thanks all!

On a less serious note, my weight this morning was at 224.4 lbs. Thats down 1.4 lbs from two days ago. Not exactly sure what happened to my body yesterday that it went up that much - who knows. But I'm not counting it. lol. We'll see if it stays this way.

~Hugs~Jen

Well this morning it was at 227.0 lbs. Still below 230 lbs. But it is TOM so i know way it is up a little. As long as it stays down after I'll be happy. :) Just made this really great strawberry cheesecake with one of my Herbalife recipes. It was yummy!

Real brief today. No extra kids - mom was sick. So it has been quiet other than when the kids tried to crash a dresser in their room. My oldest daughter was lucky it caught on the other dresser or she would be squished.

~Hugs~Jen

I'm starting to fall in love with me scale........ :)

Well I just seem to be on a roll here. This morning's weigh in was 225.8 lbs. Down, what about 0.6 lbs since yesterday? I can't remember exactly what I weighed yesterday morning. :) Starting to think if I drink more than one cup of my green tea a day it might be more of a loss. I'll have to try that and see.

Well yesterday was fun. The add boy was here and they cut his meds due to his lack of appetite and not sleeping. But now he is back to acting like he isn't on anything at all. And I am soooooo not going to put up with it much longer if we can't get something figured out as far as dosage goes. Then to top it all off his sister was being just as obnoxious yesterday. I was greatful for when they left for VBS, even if it was late due to car troubles - I got a little break.

I just keep thinking we have one more month until school starts and that seems to pacify me for the time being. Until I think "But Becca starts kindergarten this year." My baby is going into school and I'll be home alone on two and a half days. Not sure of what to do with myself other than try to run my business. :)

It's lunch time now so have a great day out there is journal land and keep up the battle and the good work. :) ~Hugs~Jen

Good Morning. Weigh in this morning at 226.4 lbs. Down another 0.2 lbs! :) Not much but it keeps adding up. Yesterday was good foodwise. I made a nice chicken caesar salad for lunch. Broiled a peice of chicken with some onion powder and garlic salt on it. Put it on a bed of lettuce with bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, croutons, caesar salad dressing and topped it off with parmasean cheese. Yumm! For dinner we had steaks grilled outside (it was a nice cool 78 degrees yesterday) with some cheesy broccolli for me as a vegetable. And breakfast was as simple as a meal shake from Herbalife.

Well today is an extra kid day. But they are leaving halfway through to go to Vacation bible school for a few hours. That should help lessen the aggrivation - so I hope.. :)

Have a good one and try to stay cool for those of you out West! ~Hugs~Jen

Comment note: Thanks Julie! That dress is the one from my brother's wedding. The same darn one we had to alter to make it stay up! Its the dress that started it all. I actually wantedto lose weight before his wedding a year ago. That was when I joined Curves. I ended up losing inches up going up in weight in a month.  Not sure what to think of that.

But anyways. :) Good morning fellow weight loss bloggers. I am currently holding at 227.0 lbs this morning. This is a good thing since we went to a birthday party yesterday. I had 3 beers, lots of good food - mostly healthy, and of course a peice of homemade (from scratch) cake - frosting and all. But I was really good with the cake. I was given a big peice and I ate about a third of it before giving it to my hubby. :) Enough to say I had a peice but not eat the whole big one I was given. So I figured I'd be up a lot more than 0.4 lbs from yesterday but I'm not. Of course I then think "well if I hadn't had all the stuff I did yesterday how much would I be down?" But I am not gonna dwell on that fact. You have to treat yourself sometimes as long as it is done in moderation. :) Which is what I am doing. That and remembering to drink my water during the day and I am all set.

Well I hope everyone is having a good weekend. :)

~Hugs~Jen

Morning. Weigh in this morning was 226.6 lbs. Down another 0.2 lbs. :) Still doing a happy dance in my chair even if it is a small loss. If I keep this up I just may hit bathing suit season next year no problem. My goal: to be able to fit into that darn two peice that I got a few months before I found out I was pregnant. This means I have to lose a lot of my butt and thighs. That's where most of my weight is right now. My body right now is literally three different sizes. I found this out last year when I got measured for the bridesmaids dress for my brother's wedding. Starting from the top it goes: 16 chest, 18 waist, and 20 hips. That was fun trying to alter that dress. :) But the lower half has always been bigger on my body.......darn Italian child breeding hips! I was always a size 16 in pants until I started working and walking everywhere, then I got down to a 14 and 12 somtimes. But being 5'10.5" I never considered myself to be in plus sizes. So if I can get back to that size I'd be happy. :)

~Hugs~Jen

Feeling good

It is a Good Morning indeed. Weigh in this morning is at......drumroll please......... 226.8 lbs! :) Doing a Happy Dance in my chair as I type. I am at or around the weight I was before I got pregnant the last tme if I remember right. So one kids weight down, two to go!

Overall since I started dieting I have lost 22.2 lbs. The highest weight I ever got was 249 lbs and I so did not want to hit 250 lbs. So I started eating better and dieting. And it is working! I have some other news too. Yesterday I was interviewed regarding my online blog about my weight loss for an article. When it is published I will get a pdf copy of it and I can link it on here. :) So I just want to say Thank you to all of you who have made comments to me in the past and continue to keep me going. :) You really help me to keep on track and know that I am not alone, someone else has been there before me and that we are going through this together even if we have never met. You ladies are great!

~Hugs~Jen

Holding on

Weighed in again at 229.8 lbs this morning. Which is good - still below 230 lbs. :) But I have been snacking like there is no tomorrow the past few days. Not sure what is wrong with me other than I fell off the wagon over the weekend. I am starting to think I have to stick with it even over the weekend and when we go away somewhere. It makes sense but I am too stubborn to do it most days. Granted my snacks have been healthy - I try to avoid buying the junk food as much as possible. Not to say I don't have it in my house. I did have ice cream yesterday. But I was good and took two scoops and put them in a cup instead of sitting with the entire carton of ice cream like I wanted to do. And its not fat free ice cream either. Its the good stuff with carmel and heath bits in it. yumm! :)

But I better get off that subject before I go for some ice cream today too. On an off subject - why do kids have to fight all the time? Its not even my kids that are fighting with each other. My oldest is fighting with the oldest of the kids I watch. I am going bonkers today and the more they fight the more stressed I get and the more I snack. Never mind I figured out why I am snacking so much the past few days. Thank God they are not going to be here anymore this week. I'll get a break from the extras.

Well back to the daily grind of trying not to pull my hair out or strangel the kids.

~Hugs~Jen

Broke the cycle?

Good morning bloggers! Well at least it is early morning as I am writing this entry. ;P I think I have broke the cycle of going back over 230 lbs! This weekend we went to visit my brother. Needless to say my diet food went with me......................and then sat on the counter the whole weekend. I ate pizza twice - carbs are something I have been staying away from and it seems to be helping when I do. I have them in moderation - meaning not a lot of bread in one day or pasta for every dinner. Coming from an Italian family this has been hard. Coming from a line of people who always have a BIG spread at every holiday or any get together it has been really hard. I even managed to try a new vegetable this weekend - asparagus (I have no clue if that is spelled right). It wasn't bad - different but not bad. 

But somehow this weekend I managed to be good (alright I did have 4 slices the one night but it had lots of meat on it too). I drank lots of water and tried not to drink lots of pop. I even got in some exercise too. We went swimming at a friends and I made sure to do at least 10 laps in the pool. I stayed moving the whole time in the pool only floating for a few minutesto rest in between. And my reward this morning was to get on the scale and weigh in at.............229.8 lbs. I am thinking this is my new 231 lbs or place to be stuck when I fall off for a day or too. :) But I am back to the diet food this morning and we are off to a good start for the week. And I am even happy about the weight I am at right now.

Have a great day! ~Hugs~Jen

Going down...........

Down to 228.6 lbs this morning! Dropped 3.2 lbs since I got back on the wagon. So nice to be on this side of 231 lbs for a change. It feels good and I want to keep it up. I have set a goal of getting to 200 lbs by or before Christmas. Simple enough to do if I lose 5 lbs a month I will even hit my goal of losing 50 lbs this year. And if I do that I will be half way to my goal. I want to end up in my ideal weight range for my height. Which is between 149 and 179 depending on if I fix my posture or not. So I'd have between 30 - 50 lbs to go after this year. And I am GOING to get it done. Not waiting any longer to be back into my happy place again. :)

Gotta go break up the kids. Hugs ~ Jen

Well over the strep now and back to 231 lbs. My kids were kidnapped by my in-laws last Wednesday to go to their cabin up north. Starting to miss them since I have no way to talk to them unless they go into town and visit the grandparents who live there. No cell phone reception there. My youngest two were crying the night before and saying they didn't want to be away from me. Well I take that back my middle one said that. The youngest said she wanted to stay and ride her bike............feel the love! LOL

Getting back on track and so is my Hubby. So I now have someone to help keep me accountable. We have an agreement He hits 220 lbs and I hit 200 lbs by Christmas. Roughly 30 lbs for both of us so it should be doable. We start later this week after the supplies get in.

Well hope everyone has safe travels for whatever you may be doing over the 4th. Enjoy the day and spend it with family and friends. And of course don't over do it too much. :)

~Hugs~Jen

One way to lose weight..........

Well I have found one way to lose weight - get strep throat. LOL Not a good way to lose it. But it did go down on the two days I couldn't swallow anything solid, semi-solid or well generally anything not liquid - even that hurt. :( I got sick on Tuesday early morning and by Wednesday evening I weighed 228.4 lbs. Back up to 231 lbs now, but it was nice to see it below 229 for a change. Even if it was only because I was sick. :)

Things have been busy around here. Yard sale this weekend in my community. So I have been cleaning and washing and trying to get it set up for today - but failed. Prolly would have helped if I had started yesterday but I was still feeling crappy. But tomorrow should be a good day since people won't be working during the hours we are allowed to run the yard sale. Unfortunately I have no big clothes to sell just yet. Still have a few more lbs to lose to get outta the size I am now.

I just hope none of my kids catch the step since they are leaving next Tuesday to go up north with my in-laws for a week. YIPPEE!!!!! Now if only I can convince them to take the extra kid I am watching next week too..........Think they will???? lol I only have her two days next week as I will be gone on one of the days her mom needs me DARN.

Hope everyone is doing good. Have to catch up on my reading. ;) Hugs ~ Jen

Well this morning my weight is 233.2 lbs. My darn allergies have kicked in MAJOR over this past week. Which means I have been trying to sleep more than anything else. :(  I really hate having allergies this time of year sucks for me. The main problem with this is I go back to sleep after dropping the kids at the bus stop and end up missing breakfast. Bad on my part I know but I never feel like eating much with a scratchy throat.

I have gotten rid of some of the stress in my life temporarily. One of the moms whose kids I watch lost her job on the days I watched him. Of course it had to be the mom that was actually paying me to watch him. But she hopes to find another job soon and still intends for me to watch him over the summer. So provided I don't go into a rage and kill myself or the other monsters.....errrr kids I watch I'll be here all summer just typing away and hopefully - no wait - I WILL lose weight this summer. :) I may not make it in time for this bathing suit season. But darnit I will for next. :)

Have a great day everyone! :)

Well this week the weight was 233.8 lbs. I have figured it out - I was drinking waaaaaaaaaaay too much pop. I went from not drinking any (maybe once every other moneth) to drinking at least on a day. Tends to not help you in the weight loss department. But at least I was only drinking the litle 8 oz. bottles - with the exception of a few days.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We went to visit my mom in Lansing and it was reaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllly hot there - no central air. :( But the kids had a blast in the small pool and running around in the yard. Or playing with her two little kittens - they are soooooooo cute and tiny. And of course I overate this past weekend - too much good food around.

Well back to the kids for the morning. :)

Well I am at 231.6 lbs this morning. I have been comforting myself with food the past weekend. A really good friend of mine is shipping out soon to Iraq and I am very worried about him. Any of you out there dealing with a friend or family member out in the middle of this too? How do you deal with it?

But I have been having stomach cramps like I am not eating enough. Which doesn't make sense becasue I have been eating. I think I eat one more snack a day and see if that helps it clear up.

Well back to making lunch for the monsters........errrrrr.....I mean kids. Yeah the kids, right. :)

Well I got my exercise in today by gardening. Had to yank weeds and then plant. Third year I have planted anything in our little bed out front of our house. I just end up buying stuff and never planning. So far has turned out good. lol Took three hours to weed and plant and I came in veeeeeeeeery muddy. But I feel better because it looks soooooooo much better than it did with all the weeds that I let grow last year. I was lazy last year and didn't plant.

Weight this morning was 231 lbs. Up again. Darn ping pong! :(  But I am not falling off this time. I know it is a minor setback and that it WILL go down. Gonna put a sticky note on my mirror saying "It will go away!" Maybe if I see it enough I'll remember it more. haha

I feel like a ping pong ball. My weight keeps bouncing above and below 230 lbs. Finally thought I had it down below. Then I had to go an eat again.....lol. What I mean by this was - I went shopping hungry. When I do this I have this HUGE tendency to buy junk food or food with a high caloric content. And then of course I eat it in the car.

Well my bed is calling but I will be back with updates from what the lbs read tomorrow morning. Hopefully less than I fear it may be.

Nite and hugs. :)

Why is there no "tired" in the mood category?? Well that is what I am which makes me quiet be default. lol Missed exercising this morning. I went to bed around 11:30 and my neighbors oh so kindly woke me up from 1:30 to 3 am this morning with their on again off again arguments. What I get for sleeping with the windows open last night. grrrrrr.

Finally got back to sleep and the alarm went off at 5:30. I reset it for 6:30. I needed my sleep more than the exercise. Especially if I was going to have one extra kid besides my two. So then the kids gets dropped off only to get picked up an hour later because his mom is not feeling well. I say no problem he was only here for an hour. *yippee*

So why do I still feel like I am dragging butt even though I got to take a small nap after lunch time?? Needed to vent. It ticks me off that I missed my second day of exercise. But maybe it is a good thing because my leg is killing me right now. Well gotta go to the bus and pick up the monsters.......errrrrr......I mean my kids. :D

I did it....

Well I woke up this morning at 5:30 am and got out of bed and actually exercised. I walked a mile in about 30 minutes. It is the Walk the Walk with Leslie Sansone. I love this workout and I figured if i am going to start somewhere it should be here. I love the fact that I can start out at one mile and then go to a two mile workout if I want to or have the time. I also have a few others (like 10 haha) that I have looked at over the past three years. I have a wide variety, from Sweatin' to the Oldies 1 & 2 to Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease to Masala Bhangra Bollywood verson. And I was fine until I crashed and fell asleep at about 9 this morning. Guess I need to get to bed earlier than 12 am if I am going to get up at 5:30 am. But I got right up - only hit snooze once so it wouldn't wake up my hubby. haha :)

I figure if I continue to get up in the morning and do the workout I will hit that 15 lbs lost mark in no time. I only have 2 more lbs to go. And it has only taken me half the year. :) I have actually been letting the kids outside more and going out with them. Where we live there are at least 5 registered sex offenders so my kids are never out of my sight. So if that meant we spent a lot of time indoors last year that is what we did. But now that they have made quite a few friends - I don't wnat themm all in my small house so we end up at the park a lot. Plus that cuts down on the arguments and on my stress.

Now that the weather is much nicer here (read upper 60s today and sunny) I think I am going to start walking up to the bus stop with the kids instead of driving them - save my gas and get exercise at the same time. I had walked it out atthe beginning of the year to walk to the bus stop it is 1/4 mile if I remember right. So I would end up walking about a mile in a day with the two trips a day. Then on Wednesdays it would be a mile and a half to get the kindergartners at noon. Which is good for another month and then school is out. Hrmmmmm - what to do then? Prolly switch back to using my stair stepper.

*Reply to comment. Christina - thank you! It is much easier to go by 15 lbs incriments I do have to agree. Which of course makes me happy because I only have 2 lbs to go like I saidbefore to hit my first 15 lbs lost mark. Hopefully it will be all downhill from there. :)

Well hope all of you are enjoying this lovely spring day. I think we might venture up to the park here in a little while to see if it is dried enough from all the rain for the kids to play there.

 

Frustrations

I feel the need to vent my frustrations. You all have been great with encouragement and I enjoy reading your blogs too. So thanks in advance for listening/reading. :)

Well I had my birthday and lots of ice cream about two weekends ago now. Then last weekend was Mother's Day - but we didn't really celebrate much. I however did go to Meijer and buy myself ice cream. No one really gave me any gifts it was more a "lets spend time together" weekend than anything. So here is the thing - my weight was up to 234 lbs his past week as of Wednesday. Then yesterday I was at 232 lbs. This morning I got on the scale and it was at 229 lbs. So I know that even with being of my diet I did not kill myself. but I am at everyones throats thsi past week and I am nto liking it.

What I want to know is how can we as women not eat like men? Why can't they be the ones who eat when they are sad or angry or whatever? I do this but not that often anymore because I KNOW I want to lose weight and I know that my feelings are a trigger to eat lots of food I don't need. Yet it still happens some days.

For those of you who may not have read my first posting. I have three daughters and I am trying to lose my pregnancy weight from them. I graduated High School in '98 at one month pregnant and about 178 lbs. Which put me up about 10 lbs higher than I had been before. After the first kid I weighed 210 lbs. Then after the second kid I was about the same 210 to 215 lbs. The third one was not a charm. I was told I needed to gain MORE weight during the last three months of my pregnancy. My Dr told me to drink 2 gallons of water a day at least. I ended up being 230 lbs after my last child. I feel like crap most days. I don't look or feel pretty most days. So I am constantly bi**hy most days. I am slowly getting to the point that I like myself again and I know I have to take care of myself better or face the major health problems that I am could possibly have due to family history. I seriously lack discipline most days and my family is not supportive of the methods I have choosen to lose weight. Which is where you all come in. I need my group of encouraging people to hold me accountable. :) I appreciate it when you send me little notes saying hang in there or your experience with things I am going through. So please bear with me as I get back on the wagon so to speak.

Thanks and HUGS to all. <3 Jen

Well this morning's weigh in was 233.0 lbs. Back up again and I am stressing out. Which is causing me to raid the kids candy.......been mostly eating the gum that I don't let them have......but I have had some chocolate too. Any of you with girls out there - how old were they when you first let them have gum? My oldest is 7 and her hair is down to her butt, same with my 6 year old and the 5 year old is shoulder length. Already had to get it out of the 6 year olds hair once this year - she didn't like that.

The other thing stressing me out is i had been looking for a job in February but got nowhere. I had one interview and passed all the testing and then never heard from them. Well I got a call from them the other day. Have an interview set up for tomorrow. The pay is good BUT I will be driving 45 minutes twice a day, filling up my tank every other day, have to find daycare for the girls AND do all this in the next week because if I get the job I would start May 8. Plus after daycare cost the money left over isn't that much and won't be anything if gas prices keep going up. The joys of trying to be a working mother. lol :)

This plus the "monsters" I watch have been being just that - monsters. The little 6 year old girl tried to teach my 6 year old to stick up her middle finger yesterday. My daughter immediately started yelling to me that she was trying to do something bad. And I put that girl right into a time out. This is like the third time she has taught/tried to teach my kids something bad. I am supposed to be watching them through the summer. Right now I am not getting any money from this but she is providing food - when she remembers. Any ideas? Should I keep watching them but make her pay me? Her son has ADD so he is a handful too and he picks on his sister until she hits him or worse. Or should I just tell her I can't handle the stress I am getting from them and to find a new babysitter?

So needless to say my diet has been shot this week. But I hope to get back on track today. Right after the schools volunteer breakfast this morning! lol Have a great day and I hope to be back tomorrow with an update of what I decided. I needed to vent on other non-diet related things - so thanks for listening/reading. :)

Well today I am at 230.4 lbs. So I am already down 2.2 lbs from Sunday. Here is my thought process on my weight gain over the weekend. I had pop - lots of it and not a lot of water. Now that I am back to drinking only water I am getting the pop out of my system. For one 8 oz glass of pop it takes eight 8 oz glasses of water to flush the pop out of your system. So as I catch up on my water the pop is getting out of my system and the weight is coming back off.

I have resisted the girls candy so far this week. We also brought home ice cream and cookies..... had some cookies. But I am still eating healthy and following my plan and the weight is coming off. That is my mantra this week - "The weight is coming off."

Well I have to head out to the store for ink. Printer decided to stop printing anything now that the color ink is low. Not even black and white will print. grumble grumble dran printer. :)

Well have a good day and I'll be back tomorrow - provided I don't try to hide from all the kids some where.......far, far away. :) I'll have three extra kids tomorrow - any ideas on how to keep them busy? It is in the low 60's here and slightly windy. Some what ok for park weather - but that idea is only good for about an hour before someone does something to get in trouble.

Easter weight loss....

Well this morning the weigh in was.......232.6 lbs. I am back up - too many carbs and reeeeeeeeeeeally good food this weekend. on saturday my mom-in-law made her coconut cream pie - from scratch for our Easter dinner that day. man it was good. on sunday my aunt made lasagna, some awesome fried potatos, italian sausage and my mom made her brocolli, cheese, rice and water chestnuts casserole. then we went to my dad's place where my stepmom had made a really great cornbread and some awesome cheesy potatos.

The nice thing was my stepmom noticed I had lost weight and said so when she was pulling out dessert. As she offered it she made the comment that I may not want it since I had lost the weight. My response was a little dessert isn't going to hurt me much after all the other carbs I had eaten over the weekend. And i was good and didn't finish all of the pie. :) But other than my stepmom only one other person noticed a difference in my weight. one of my friends from our home church in Lansing always comments on my weight loss - even if it isn't that much - because we only see each other maybe once a month. But the last time I saw my stepmom had to have been in January or February. so it had been a while and there was about a 6 lb difference or so since she had last seen me.

But it is all about what you eat and I do know this. BUT it is also ok to treat yourself once and a while. Try not to set yourself back by too many pounds like I did tho! :)

Hope you all had a good Easter holiday and didn't overeat. Now it is time to hide the Easter candy from myself and the kids so they don't become little piggies and so i just don't plain eat it!

A lesson in English

Harry is getting along in years and finds that he is unable to perform in bed. He finally goes to his doctor who tries a few things, but nothing seems to work. So the doctor refers him to an American Indian medicine man.

The medicine man says, "I can cure this." That said, he throws a white powder in a flame, and there is a flash with billowing blue smoke.

Then he says, "This is powerful medicine. You can only use it once a year. All you have to do is say '123'"

The guy then asks, "What happens when I want the effect to go away."

The medicine man replies: "All you or your partner has to say is 1234. But be warned - it will not work again for another year."

Harry rushes home, eager to try out his new powers.

That night he is ready to surprise Joyce. He showers, shaves, and puts on his best shaving lotion. He gets into bed, and lying next to her says, "123." It works better than he thought.

Joyce, who had been facing away, turns over and asks, "What did you say 123 for?"

And now you know why you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.

 

Well weighed in at 230.0 this morning. We had dinner at BK last night and i probably could have had a better choice on my food. But i didn't. I was starting to worry myself with how much i had lost already this week. I have always heard it is healthy to lose only 2 lbs a week. That if you lose more than that it isn't all fat you are losing. Who knows i may lose some more yet this weekend - hahahaha! :) probably will gain more back is more like it. Darn holidays and good food. What I get for having Italian relatives.

Anyways. Have a happy holiday and I will be back and posting on Sunday night at the earliest. :)

God vs. Satan - the food fight

I thought this joke was perfect for those of us trying to lose weight. :)

And God populated the Earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach and green and yellow vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

And Satan created McDonald's. And McDonald's brought forth the 99-cent double cheeseburger.

And Satan said to Man "You want fries with that?" And Man said, "Super size them". And Man gained pounds.

And God created the healthful yogurt, that woman might keep her figure that Man found so fair.

And Satan froze the yogurt, and he brought forth chocolate, nuts and brightly colored sprinkle candy to put on the yogurt. And woman gained pounds.

And God said "Try my crispy fresh salad."

And Satan brought forth creamy dressings, bacon bits and shredded cheese.

And there was ice cream for dessert. And Woman gained pounds.

And God said "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them."

And Satan brought forth chicken-fried steak from Cracker Barrel so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained pounds, and his bad cholesterol went through the roof.

And God brought forth running shoes, and Man resolved to lose those extra pounds.

And Satan brought forth cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil to change channels between ESPN and ESPN2. And Man gained pounds.

And God said "You are running up the score, Devil." And God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition.

And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And he created sour cream dip also. And Man clutched his remote control and ate the potato chips swaddled in cholesterol. And Satan saw and said "It is good."

And Man went into cardiac arrest.

And God sighed and created quadruple by-pass surgery...

And Satan created HMOs...

 

Down to 228.6 this morning. Let's see how long I can keep it off. :) Again not doing anything until I have to weigh and measure this weekend to be sure. But I like weighing every morning to see how I am doing and keep me on track.

I am making much better food choices. I love the 100 calories snacks! They come in handy when I want some crackers - they have wheat thins, cheeze-its and a snack mix. And when I want some sweets - they have keebler fudge striped cookies, chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies, oreos and shortbread cookies. The taste is the same - they are just smaller. For me the key is knowing how many snacks I should have in the day. I usually try to have two snacks during the day. If it isn't one of the 100 calorie snacks, I have fruit. Apples are a great weight loss enhancer and they don't taste half bad. :)

Have a great weekend and a happy Easter. I may not post as I will be out of town. Save travels to all. :)

This was too funny not to share - be careful of what you wish for. ;)

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for their orders. The man says, "A hamburger, fries and a coke," and turns to the ostrich, "What's yours?"

"I'll have the same," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order. "That will be $9.40 please," and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, "A hamburger, fries, and a coke."

The ostrich says, "I'll have the same." Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.

This becomes routine until, the two enter again. "The usual?" asks the waitress.

"No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato, and salad," says the man.

"Same," says the ostrich.

Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, "That will be $32.62." Once again the man pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table.

The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. "Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change out of your pocket every time?"

"Well," says the man, "Several years ago I was cleaning the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it, a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there."

"That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would wish for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!"

"That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there," says the man.

The waitress asks, "But, sir, what's with the ostrich?"

The man sighs, pauses, and answers, "My second wish was for a tall chick with a big butt and long legs who agrees with everything I say."

Sometimes I feel just like that. Well all except the agreeing to everything my hubby says! lol

Well this morning weighs in at 230.0 lbs. But lets see if it stays off for the week. IF it does than I will be down 12 lbs since January. :) But I can't start celebrating yet - the week isn't over yet.....

I have found a new exercise called Masala Bhangra. It is traditional Indian dancing set to modern day music. It is very fun and upbeat and so far i have no problems making sure I actually do the workout because - it is dancing more than anything. Maybe that was all I needed - to find something that was fun so I don't think of it as working out.

Well here I am back again after a few weeks. Sick kids again. If this darn weather would make up it's mind they would be fine. what I get for living in Michigan. :) My oldest now has a fever. This is the third day now. Her doctor said that there has been a flu like virus going around and to treat the symptoms. What we have been doing but she is miserable. Short of guarantining her from her sisters to keep them from getting sick again, I don't know what to do. Well I mean I know how to treat her symptoms but how do I make her feel better about being sick and not able to play?

Ok on to weight loss. I am doing good. Slowly losing weight. I weighed in at 233.8 lbs. last week and earlier this past week was at 232.8 lbs. This morning I weighed in at 232.6 lbs. So I went down 1.2 lbs this past week. It is amazing what will happen when I stick with the plan! lol.

It is pretty amazing. Overall since I started dieting in mid 2004 at 245 lbs I have lost weight. Or rather kept myself from gaining extra weight. I think that it is an avarage of 5 lbs are gained per year without proper diet. So following that logic if I have maintained a weight of 245 to 240 lbs since 2004, I have technically kept off 15 extra lbs. Sounds good right? I think so. :)

But truthfully I have lost 9.4 lbs since January. With all my ups and downs I am glad that i haven't gained it all back and then some. I have this major sweet tooth and I am finding the 100 calorie snacks work great for a sweet craving. I have also cut back on my red meat intake. We have switched from ground beef to turkey burger. The taste is a little strange in typical meals like tacos or as meatloaf. But my kids eat it and it is much healthier for all of us. Chicken has become my best friend. With a little meat tenderizer or Lowry's seasoning salt it tastes great.

Well i hope everyone is having a great week and I should be back tomorrow providing my kid is feeling better.

weight challenges

Thank you ecco69 for your comment. I have no problem with getting rid of the clothes that have gotten too big for me. Most of my pants need to be thrown away......little thing aobut the big thighs that rub together causing th fabric to get thin and rip open. So the only real things I would have to get rid of would be dress clothes and shirts. :)

So for those of us who are on DST - who forgot to set their clock ahead? I didn't but I was up right until the time I needed to change it forward. hehe. So I am getting up an hour earlier and still not getting any exercise in. :) Anybody heard aobut DST being extended by 4 weeks in 2007? I heard about this last year. It was originally set to be 2 months (1 earlier and 1 later) but the farmers said this would throw their crops off. the compromise was 2 weeks. I think it was 1 earlier and 1 later if I remember right.

So i weighed in at 235.2 this morning and I got to thinking - I weigh as much as I did two years ago. I thought - that's not bad considering you tend to gain about 10 lb a year. For me i went from being 165 - 175 up to 210 lbs. That was the first kid. i stayed at 210 after the second kid. And went up to 220 after the third - darn doctor told me to drink 2 gallons of water towards the end because he thought I wasn't gaining enough weight. HAHA on him - I didn't drink that much and the third one weighed more than my second one did. This was all over a 3.5 year span. And then I have just gone up from there and my first one is now 7 years old. Metabolism changes when you are not getting as much exercise as you didn't know you were. I walked at least a mile a day at work (and didn't know it) and would eat 2 to 3 candy bars a day and not gain weight.

So my question for the day is: Is your weight gain child related or just bad eating habits? Mine is a combo of both.

Anyone elses visit ticker reset itself? Mine did so I was curious to see if I was the only one or not? Or does anyone know why it might reset?

Well back to my last topic as it has gotten a lot of posts. And I still haven't gotten the hang of the extra kid during the week yet. The gym is good I liked it but I need a babysitter so that was why I had bought various workout tapes at home. My youngest the other morning wanted to do one of my tapes nad got bored in 5 minutes. It was a walking program that does a mile in 30 minutes. I had told her I had some workout tapes she might like to do with me - I was talking about the sweatin to the oldies 1 & 2. She would basically end up dancing along which is not a problem. My other thought is when I do have the extra kids to set them up with a movie in the girls bedroom and do my exercising then after I drop off any kids to the bus stop.

Yes I do realize that I have asked your opinion on this topic before. I don't think I had as many responses before but I do value what you all wrote. :)

SO different topic now. I love the feeling of your pants falling off. hehe That's how you really know that the weight and inches are coming off - when your favorite pair of pants won't stay up. I guess it was a good thing I ended up buying a couple of $11 jeans at walmart. Otherwise pretty soon I would not have anything to wear that would fit me. Not that that is a problem. I do have smaller sized clothing just not enough in the next sizes down. Had a gap from 22 to 18 and even then I think I only have size 18 shorts. Good thing summer is coming up.

Ok so here is a question I haven't asked before: Do you keep your smaller sized clothing packed away for when you do lose the weight? Or do you throw it away because you can't fit into them anymore and don't know how soon you will?

As always I love to hear from you and I promise not to circle back to a subject too many times. :)

A day later..........

Well I was going to write again the other day and then yesterday it kicked me out before I could post. So here we go again and hopefully I can remember everything. :) lol I started watching another kid during the week so i am adjusting to having  another kindergartner that I watch - but this one is a boy. Big difference from what I am used to!

ecco69 posted a response that she works out better at the gym. That she can't do a tape from home because she just won't do it. Well i have to agree with her as far as I go. I have tapes......collecting dust. I will do them maybe two or three times and then I just can't find the time again. I have to get up early enough to watch kids that I can't get up much earlier and get enough sleep. If I go to a gym and pay for a membership i will go and  it is fun. But i can't afford that either. So what is the alternative?

maybe getting a group of friends together to do a video together. that way you have the accountability and at no cost. either find the best spot to accomodate you or rotate through each others houses. this saves money can be done during time that you would normally see each other too. ok now that i have come up with this i gotta try it and see if my friends would be interested in it. probably not but you never know. :)

well i have to get to the bus stop. everyone have a great day!

Thanks again Fishead1028 for your comment and in reply: I know it didn't seem like a lot that i lost but like I said I still lost something. my energy level wasn't bad because of the Herbal Concentrate - it is a green tea which is awesome. As far as it being a lot of products to take - for the LaBomba program it is something that I did because I have the distributor discount and got them for a good deal. But other than that all the products i take do a different thing and there are days that i can't live without them. Truthfully it is really only healthy to lose about 2 lb a week - if you lose more than that it might not be all fat.

I run myself ragged trying to keep up with three girls aged 7, 6, 4.5 during the day and the few extras that I have during the week. It doesn't leave me much time to exercise. I have been looking for something that can be done even with distractions. I had a curves membership and that was great - until I couldn't afford it anymore. I get up really early already for the kids that come over.....and i know these are mostly excuses as to why i can't do it. mainly i am lazy but i know when i was working out i lost a few inches but gained 3 lbs. it was frustrating at the most.

So a question to those of you out there reading this: Which is the easiest way to exercise - at home or at the gym? Which place keeps you more disciplined with your routine?

that will be my topic for tomorrow. so tune in for my answers and responses to any comments posted. until then forgive my speling mistuks (on purpose here lol) in this post. have a great day!

LaBomba

OK Fishead1028 asked me what LaBomba was so here goes. I found it during some training with another distributor. My upline did this and she has lost 92 lb in 7 months 3 weeks and has kept it off for 6 yrs now. My sponsor in the company did the program about two days before me and dropped 3 lbs. I did the program and dropped 2.8 lbs. But there are peopl who have used it and lost anywhere from 4 to 7 lbs doing the program.

 It is a three day plan that can be done monthly using Herbalife products to lose weight. One the first day you eat nothing but drink 2 gallons of a drink mix consisting of 8 packets of Herbalife Beverage Mix (15g protein in each packet), 2 tsp of Herbalife's Herbal Concentrate - green tea, 12oz. or 9 capfuls of Herbalife Herbal Aloe Drink (12 oz. is ready made drink, 9 capfuls is concentrate aloe drink). This is to drunk 16 oz. every half hour or so. It totally flushes out your system of all the bad crap *literally* you have been eating. On this day you would also take your Herbalife tablets three times a day like normal. *Day 1 is best to do when at home due to being in and out of the bathroom a majority of the day. It got to be annoying towards the end but that was the day I dropped down to 231.6 by the next morning.

ON day two you are to drink five shakes made with Herbalife's Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix (9g protein per scoop). My shakes consisted of two scoops of Herbalife shake mix and 1 scoop of Personalized Protein Powder (5g protein per scoop), 1 heaping tsp of peanut butter and I use 10 oz of skim milk or sometimes soy milk. Again you take your tablets three times a day. This day you ONLY do the shakes - no snacks.

Day three is a normal day. You do three shakes a day with tablets and you can have your protein snacks up to twice a day.

When I say tablets I mean my Herbalife products - Formula 2 MultiVitamin Complex, Cell Activator, Cell-U-Loss, Aminogen, Xtra-Cal, and Tang Kuei. These are what I take three times daily. I am in the process of finishing up my website otherwise I would link it here for you to see more info aobut these products. hopefully I'll have it on here later today - so check back please if you would like more information on these products. :)

Well that's it for the LaBomba program at least what i know about it. If you have any questions I can try to answer them or ask my uplines to get a better answer for ya!

Sorry this was so long! Hope you all have a good day!

All i can say about that little diet trick is that it still worked and I did lose some weight. but definately not as much as it said i could. needless to say i am still closer to my goal than i was before - so i can't complain. besides it is my body that is causing the increase not what i am eating.....i won't go into details but it has to do with daily functions not being the same. need i say more to potentially gross you out???? i hope not. lol :)

well anyways hopefully this time next month the number you see under the scale up there will be doubled. I finally know exactly what i should be doing and so hopefully i won't sabotage myself and wreck my diet again! the nice thing is that i just ended tom and i really didn't gain any weight during the two weeks you normally have to worry about - so i don't have to take off extra. kinda sad it has taken me 2 months to reach 10 lbs. so my theory is if i stick with it for the next few months regularly i should hit 50 lbs in about 5 months hopefully.

well nite all and hope you had good weekends!

Well as you can see I went up slightly yesterday - but only by 0.2 lbs. Yesterday was still part of this LaBomba diet thing. I had to drink 5 meal shakes and could not snack or eat any real food. It wasn't too bad - but it would have been better if I had more than one flavor of shake mix. I ended up drinking chocolate peanut butter shakes for 4 out of my 5 shakes the other was just plain chocolate. But either way I am still down 3.4 lbs since starting my diet again. Well worth it I think. Today is a normal day I have two shakes and a sensible meal. And I can have snacks when I need them.

Hopefully I won't be bad today. it will help that I have a training meeting out of town ot go to. That means they are providing me with my meal shake for lunch and will have good soy snacks there atthe training.

hope you all have good weekends. I gotta dash - see ya!

OK I'm Bad

SO here it is another week has gone by and I am just getting around to writing here again. But the good news is that I am back on my diet and as of this morning....DRUM ROLL PLEASE...... I weighed in at 231.8 lb.! Here is the kicker. Even with being off my diet for a month i was eating better than before. I ate the right foods more often than not - Broccolli is now my friend (this coming from someone who only ate corn and canned green beans!). If I snacked it was the 10 calorie snacks you can buy at the store and I only ended up gaining 2.2 lbs and 3 inches back. Not bad considering that I have already taken the weight back off again. Will know tomorrow about any inches lost.

I have changed my diet. I am still doing Herbalife but instead of doing one of the ShapeWorks programs like before I am doing this new-old thing. It is called the Gold Plan. I call it a new-old thing because basically what it is is the products that the company started out selling in the beginning. Which means the shake mix, vitamins, herbal concentrate and I am also using a few of the newer things. I also am doing a program called LaBomba. It is a system that uses Herbalife products to decrease insulin release and increase glucagon release (stuff that burns fat). You end up drinking 2 gallons of the mix on the first day. It is a once a month program as you end up in the bathroom like more than ever before in your life. lol! but so far it seems to be working.

Ok I know there are those of you out there that have done this - How the heck do you add a picture to the "about me" section? I am stumped and frustrated with websites at the moment so advice or instructions are appreciated. :)

Anyone out there have problems with their cat drinking out of your drinking cups? Mine keeps doing the regardless of weather he has water or not to drink. I think it is a habit he learned while he was my sister-in-laws cat. She worked a lot and left it up to family and roommates to make sure he had food and water. He gets REALLY pesty if he doesn't so he usually doesn't have to wait long. But it is a really annoying habit.

Anyways. One to diet related matters. I have been listening to a call by Dr. Steve Komadina about health and our bodies. In this call he says that there is no scientific evidence that says we need to drink 8 glasses of water a day. What we should do is drink when we are thirsty. And people are different - some need more water than others do. A good way to know if you are getting enough water or not is to drink a glass of water. If you have pleanty of fluids in you system you will go to the bathroom about a glass of water an hour later. If you don't go to the bathroom - you maybe dehydrated. We were compaired to animals in the wild and how they are not fat like people. They eat only when hungary, drink only when thirsty and exercise only when they are threatened (run from hunters, etc.). It was definately interesting to learn this as well as that animals in the wild don't have the diseases we do. It is only when they are kept in a zoo that they come down with things like diabetes because they are eating like we do.

He also explained that eating less and exercising more will actually cause you to gain weight. This is from his own experience and that of what he has seen in patients. Dr. Komadina went from weighing 275 up to 300 lb by not eating much during the day and exercising. When you starve yourself and don't eat your body goes into survival mode and actually stores more fat because that is what it can live off if it needs to.

Now I am sure some of you are not going to agree with that. I was very doubtful when I heard it too. But when you think about it - it makes sense doesn't it?

Hugs and support - Jen

Not as bad as I thought

Well I thought I had gone back up to 238 lb but when I weighed myself this morning I was at 235.6 lb. Which means that I have only gone back up about 2 lb over the past three weeks that I: fell off the wagon, got lost, ended up in a different town and finally made it home yesterday (attempt at humor here is ya got confused. lol)!

I am going to start doing my pilates in the morning nad see how that starts off my day. I don't have a mat yet but I am thinking that the rug I have in my living room will work just fine for the next few days. Any one know how essential the mat is to yoga/pilates anyways? I am curious about this since you are basically already on the floor. What difference does a thin piece of materal make? Are we being suckered into buying something that isn't needed or does it somehow provide support the the floor beneath the mat does not?

Hope you all are having a great week and pleawe forgive nay spelling mistakes as my hands are tired from note taking (any in this sentance left on purpose. haha). I hopefully will be getting back into writing everyday as I am feeling much better than I had been before. Thanks to all of you out there who read this and post comments - you help to keep me sane.......er I mean on track. Man I am in a punchy mood tonight. lol

Hugs and support - Jen

Ugg.... darn colds

Well I hate being sick. It keeps me from doing the things I want to do. I have felt so yucky most of this past week. Got back into my diet yesterday. I have been making better food choices so I haven't gained all the weight back but I am up to 238 and not happy about that. The really sad part is that I know only I can make myself lose the weight but I see food I like and miss because I can't eat it and I end up doing the emotional eating. It sucks being female sometimes - especially when dieting.

But I have had some good news otherwise. I won second place in an online game and will be getting some money from that. How it worked was a stranger contacts you to help them solve riddles to come up with a 10 digit passcode to get their 1,000,000. If you answer it correctly first you get 25,000 of the money. Second place prize money is split between all people who answer correctly before the contest ends. You get daily emails and have to read or watch a video to get the answers. It wasn't too hard and was really fun. If any of you are interested in looking into the game you can find it at www.strangeradventures.com.

I never really knew what yo-yo dieting was until I had to lose weight - I hate it. I know I had seen people do it before but it never clicked before. I got my mother-in-law into the diet I had been doing and she has lost 35 lb and 30 inches since April last year. I have been doing this for three years now and i can't even keep off 10 lb. So frustrating!

Any advice on how to stick to it and break the yo-yo cycle?

Please forgive any spelling errors - too small keyboard to type right. lol

Man I TRY to send the kids to school  today but we had the nice freezing rain here in MI and everything from 1/2 hour away to us was closed EXCEPT the school district for the city we live in. Good thing my kids are not in that district due to a little boundry difference. We are right on the edge of the city so they ended up in another district - but at a very brand new school so I can't complain too much. But darn't they are here again and I still am not feeling well enough to watch over them totally.

But of course this is what I get for living in MI. Of course the last time we had a school closing OUR district was the only one open in a 1/2 radius of us - everything else had closed. Some of the teachers were shocked that thy didn't close but that other districts they had worked in before (and usually they wouldn't close) had actually closed but we didn't.

Anyways SORRY to rant at you ladies like that but I gotta vent it somewhere so it doens't go to the kids. :) but this means more frustration and trying to avoid the cookies that are hidden in my house from the kids.

The one thing that I haven't slacked on is drinking my water......may have something to do with the sore throat I have. lol so even though my foods haven't been that great I am still keeping off the weight or rather getting off the extra I had put back on. :)

Thanks for the encouragement - I really need it!

Morning all. :) I have been so distracted with getting the kids back on schedule for school I have neglected this. That plus I seem to be coming down with a cold so I haven't been feeling to well the past few days. So when do I decide to get back to it - the day the kids have off school this week. lol It seems that the school district gave them a cirruclium (I know this is spelled wrong - too tired to look it up lol) day on Ash Wednesday. But who is going to remember this when they just had the week before off school.

My journey has slooooooooooowed down to a crawl. My hubby got off hs diet and so now there are cookies and ice cream in my house. BAD BAD BAD things!!!! I love ice cream and the only way to get me not to eat it is if he gets a kind that I won't eat because I don't like it. That's a challenge right there. Part of the reason why he isn't allowed to do the shopping anymore. lol

Gotta get back on track. Thanks to those of you who added comments to the last addition. That always helps me when I can hear from you. :)

I hope that you all have a great day and are doing better than me. Keep up the good work. :)

Thank you all for your comments - it seems a majority of us are doing this for health reasons. This is always a good reason to lose weight - at any age!

fishead1028 asked "do you use fitday.com?" I do not but I did check out the site and signed up for a free membership. This program can also be bought for your computer and comes with more options that way for $29.99. It helps you track you food, weight loss, exercise, goals, and it also has a calendar, journal, food guidelines (pyramid) and reports on your progress. It looked similiar to the program the Curves uses - but I can't be sure if it is. but I am going to try it out for this month to see what it is like and then I'll review it here. It looks very interesting so lets see how it turns out.

Well right now I have the monsters...er....monkies...er...kids in their room cleaning. But it sounds as if they are making a bigger mess than was in there as they are mad at me for putting them in there. Do they ever grow out of this? Never mind - I don't want to know becasue I just hope they will not turn out like me......not a pretty picture. :)

Well here is my question for the day thanks to fishead1028: Do any of you use a special program to track your food intake and weight loss? No a special diet mind you but something that you use to write down what you ate and your inches and weight for the day - something like that be it on paper or on pc.

Weight Loss Decisions

Weight this morning was 233.8 lb - up a little from last week but not by much. Thank you to those of you who have posted comments recently!

I was wondering how you all made you choice to lose weight. For me it was becasue I can't keep up with my kids, I don't want to look this way at my Class reunion (haha), and I'd like to do a vow renewal cerimony in a dress that I ACTUALLY like, that plus it is always good to be healthy. But my main two where my health and to play with my kids.

I don't have any medical problems yet due to my extra weight - but I am at a higher risk for certain things. Did you know that having a BMI over 30 puts you at a much higher risk for medical problems? Well mine is over that and I already have the family history of heart disease - on both sides. So I thought "hmmm stay the way I am and have a heart problem by 30 or lose weight and maybe have a problem by the time I am 60?" can ya figure out what I picked?

What about those of you out there reading this - What was/is your reason for deciding to lose weight and doing something to lose it? I'd love to read your comments!

Thank you for your comments. My kids are probably at that age where they would like to exercise with me. However I have a small living room and I think things would get broken fast. lol. The reason I would rather go to a gym is - if I'm paying for it I'm more likely to use it. Sad but true. My stair stepper had been gathering dust for the last year and same thing with all my exercise tapes. I even have a couple of the sweatin to the oldies - those I think the girls would enjoy.

I have a Bally's by me and I know they offer the babysitting service - just not at that location. Totally sucks. But I also have to remember that at the time I was looking my hubby's job was sending him all over the state for any length of time so I had no back up plan. But now he is in the office - translation - at home babysitter! haha! I have had a gym membership befoe and I really liked it. I enjoyed going and working out and I miss it. Plus having someone else keeping track of where you are at helps to keep me on track.

Truthfully I think my kids would enjoy doing  pilates with me - if we had the space. My oldest won a yoga class through her school (with the rest of her class) by walking the most in December and January. They really enjoy gym and exercising/playing. Well I guess we'll have to try it out next week as they have the week off school.

Ok Question of the day: Do you find yourself cheating on the weekends and sticking to your diet during the week? Or do you "treat" yourself during the week and do the diet all 7 days?

Look forward to reading all your comments!

exercise

It is an early morning with Clifford on the tv for the kids. Just a typical day for a stay at home mom. But there is part of my problem. I have been using my kids as an excuse to not do things - like exercise. They have a computer in our living room and so is my stair stepper. So if I am not getting them a snack for the millionth time during the day (and snacking myself) I am sitting because I don't want to try the stepper with them in the room.

I try to get them to watch movies in their room so that I can do pilates without them stepping on me. Which never works of course because I have three nosy girls who keep coming out and asking "what are you doing mommy?" and sitting on me.

I can't afford a gym membership and even if I could the ones by us do not provide daycare/babysitting services for it to be worth my while. So any of you out there with kids - how do you work out with them around?

Well it has been one of  those days. I tried to bake a cake to celebrate my daughter birthday (it was earlier this month but we were out of town) and the darn thing decided to stick to the pan even after i sprayed it. DOH! i just realized what i did - i use the non-stick cooking spray and not the non-stick baking spray. I know you are thinking what is the difference? honestly - i have no clue all i know is that when i use the baking spray it doesn't stick. maybe it conatins flour or something - who knows.

Well off the subjest of bad diet food. lol. Hope everyone had a great Valentines day! we celebrated early. my hubby bought us two small ice cream cakes *drool* my fave!

I found something out a few weeks ago - not all veggies are created equal! Did you know that broccoli is only 25 calories for a 1 cup serving? Green Beans are 30 calories for a 2/3 cup serving and Whole Kernel corn is a whopping 100 calories for a 2/3 cup serving (all frozen veggies)! Not that I like broccoli that much but geuss waht i have been eating more often!

 

Well I am a little behind. But as you can see from above my weight has gone down again! Weighed in at 233.2 lb on Sunday. Well I am down 8.8 lb - WOOT! I have been quite busy getting my taxes ready to go to my preparer (my mom) so I can get then done asap.

I did something this time that I have never done with any other diet. I am keeping a food journal. I write down what I eat at each meal and for snack and keep track as best as possible of my caloric intake through the day. My first week shocked me. You would be suprised at how many calories there are in the foods you eat everyday.

Did you know that the serving size of Fig Newtons are only 2 and that those 2 have 110 calories. But te serving size of Oreos is 3 and they are 160 calories. So 1 Fig Newton is 55 calories and 1 Oreo is 53.3 calories. I have also discovered the 100 calorie snack packs. I find I like the Keebler Fudge Striped cookies - but they go so fast and look like little doll cookies. lol

I found myself in the situation of being approached by some Girl Scouts the other day. My down fall is Thin Mints and next is Samoas. Luckly I had just spent all the cash I had on me at the time on my kids toys (to be fair it was their money). But they asked me for some cookies and then the little girls asked me to buy some cookies. As I hear one of the mom's whispering "she's smiling ask her..." I reply "Well do you take credit cards?" Of course they don't and as a former girl scout I know this - but my girls learned I had no money for the cookies and so did the girl scouts - without my being mean. For surely if I had had cash I would be munching on some frozen Thin Mints right now!

Well it has been an interesting week so far. I find that I have a lot more time on my hands now that we no longer have cable. Sad but true - I don't know what to do with myself. I didn't realize how bad my tv watching habits had become. I based my day around when certain shows would come on and no wonder I had no time to do things. And now I have nothing not even the antenna channels. Anyone know how you are supposed to return the boxes to Dish network?

I know not a weight loss topic but I realized how much time I wasted during the day and now need to reevaluate my schedule. Wouldn't you know it I have way more time to exercise now - but nothing to watch unless I put in a movie. lol! Music is ok but it doesn't keep my mind empty - haha. I find myself at the computer more these days. Which wouldn't be so bad if I was actually doing the things that I needed to do - like my checkbook register....man my account is behind.

Thought for the day - non diet related: How many of you update your checkbook as often as you should? Do you do it: 1)after a transaction, 2)at the end of the day/week, or 3) do you wait until the statement comes and go according to that? I'd love to hear what you do so please leave a comment.

Well as you can see even with my ups and downs last week was successful for slight weight loss. I am now 3 lb away from the 10 lb mark. YIPEE!

I have been trying to organize a Weight loss challenge in my area - Novi, MI which has been s-l-o-w going. My upline had computer problems so she hasn't been responding to my emails. But I knew my downline (and mom-in-law) had been doing the same thing so I asked her if she could send me the info I needed and she did. So If any of you are in my area and looking for a weight loss challenge contact me please. You can use any program to lose you weight I will be basically running nutritional information meetings and helping you to keep track of your weight and inches loss. And the biggest loser gets a prize at the end. i figured it would be a good way to help others and to keep myself on track at the same time - not that I get to compete in the challenge. :)

Well we went to visit my in-laws this weekend and to celebrate our anniversary and my middle daughters birthday with them. we had lived with them for a while and so they really miss the girls and bribed us to come up by saying "we'll get a sitter and send you out to a movie nad pay for your gas." how can you turn an offer like that down? lol

I have for the longest time been a practicing Christian and this weekend I decided to take the plunge - literally. I had been battling with the decision for the past few years as I was raised Catholic. Then my pastor was doing a series that began yesterday on baptism and it just hit home. So if I seem a little chipper in this message it is because so far today I haven't gotten the urge to strangle my kids and all i cna say is - THANK GOD! been too long since that hasn't happened. :)

 

rjtrix wrote a comment yesterday on what I had been writing. Thank you for reading and enjoying it! :) I am not totally sure if my hump as I called it is truely a hump or just extra weight carried around my shoulders. But as I went from being 5' 10.5" to 5' 8" I definately plan to get a check up to see if anything if wrong other than being FAT! I don't think my calcium is a problem any more because I take this really great supplement for that. It is so great that when I had my wisdom teeth out last February my dentist had a really hard time removing them because of how strong they were. lol Made him work to remove them - the only downside to that was the novicane started to wear off - OUCH!

Also in response to rjtrix - I agree walking around outside Fla. would be too much. I have heard good things about eliptical machines. I had asked my doctor about ideas for weight loss and he suggested working out on an eliptical machine as it combines all aspects of your workout on the one machine. You won't have to go out and do a cardio workout after wards.

Well this morning I weighed in at 235.8 lb. So I am doing good and hopefully soon will hit that 10 lb lost mark. Hopefully in the next week or two. *crosses fingers* I have to say that having this journal keeps me on track. It is almost like and accountability group. And I just wanted to say thank you to all of you out there who are reading this. I have wonderful support from my family of Herbalife uplines - but I don't really have anyone who is losing weight with me at this time. I also am not getting support for my choice of how I am losing weight from anyone on my side of the family. My mother-in-law was my first customer and became a distributor and went on to lost 35 lb since last March. My hubby supports me because he has tried the products and had results. But my mom and stepmom both looked at me like I was nuts when they saw my shake and the supplements I take with it.

Ok question time - how many of you feel that having people going through the weight loss journey with you helps you to stay on track? Does it help more to have someone there just as support or who is actually losing weight with you?

Exercise choices

Well yesterday I got inspired to exercise while watching tv. I had been reading a while back on the AOL America Takes It Off 30 ways in 30 days that you should exercise while watching tv in stead of just sitting there. So I thought "well that shouldn't be hard." So I got out out my stair stepper and dusted it off and got out my 2 lb hand weights and did about 200 steps while watching tv last night.

I figure the more that I do that the more steps I might actually do. That plus I have a couple good exercise videos. And maybe if I am brave enough I just might break out the pilates dvds again and see if I cna get any farther with those than I did before. My main problem is that I am pretty sure I have a back problem. I am starting to get the old lady hump from bad posture and I have gone down 2 1/2 inches in the past 7 years and I am only 25. But I also know that pliates is supposed to help with your posture - so I should be doing it right? But man was it painful to start it. From what I have read it is really good exercise and helps you to work all the core muscle groups.

I'd like to hear from anyone reading this - what kind of exercises are you out ther doing to help get your weight down?