Not that I'm neglecting this........

But it seems that I am.......and not on purpose either really I'm not......I just don't seem to be able to maintain two blogs constantly like I had been before. And for some reason this silly thing wants to put everything into bold for me even though I keep shutting it off. Oh well I'll edit at the end now.

Um lets see well the holidays are not my friend right now. Neither are cookies. And of course I had a cookie exchange I was invited to and then made cookies for that and the one we do for the teachers. Well since I had a hair emergency (not me but my daughter) I didn't get them all frosted and only took in 5 of the umpteen dozen cookies my sil made for the teacher party. UGH and of course hubby insisted on frosting them the other day.

Bottom line - weigh in the other morning was 254.2 lbs. Yup its all back and brough some friends. Oh and whats this New Years resolution time is coming around yet again. Don't think mine will change except the amount to lose but hey nothing new there at all. Right?

So whats been going on to get me back up there other than the food being here? Nothing really - quite literally nothing other than Guitar Hero III (see here for why). The hubster has gotten me addicted to this darn game. But also at this time there really is no room in my living room to try to get on the Wii Fit and do any exercising. I'm not really sure how it happened other than Hubby's grandma has been getting clothes for the girls from where she works (a caring center - kinda like salvations army/goodwill type of store) and we have gotten about 20 bags and boxes of clothing that have to be washed and stored somewhere in our little house. Which has displaced some of my stuff that was in other areas. Which means that my computer desk is surrounded and I only have a small path out. Why not clean? Well I am not a celaner but I did straighten up some today because I needed to find my sub list for work. Had a kid home sick today and tomorrow as well since she can't seem to keep much down for longer than about 5 hours at a time. Plus there has been Christmas knitting and other knitting and shopping......and these are excuses. I was lazy and depressed and didn't want to do anything other than knit or read and eat cookies so that was what I was doing. As well as GH3 with the hubby. I just don't know what to do anymore. I can't afford to buy my own products from Herbalife and I am not selling to any one to up my dicsount. Which seems to be my lot with home based businesses - I go strong for a few years and then end up slowing down before quitting. I have the materials to do Weight Watchers thanks to my mom making copies of hers. But again no money to go to the meetings.

So this is what I am going to do because I need to get it done. I am going to set up menus according to the WW's stuff I have and buy groceries based on that. The kids will hate me because they hate trying new stuff but I am not making 4 seperate meals because they want to be picky, etc. I will get up in the morning and get the kids moving. Then instead of sitting on my butt at the computer I will get on the Wii then and get 20 - 30 minutes done on the Wii Fit. I will only play GH3 IF I have done my Wii Fit for that day. I will only buy more yarn, books, whatever WHEN I have lost 10 lbs.

We'll see how well tha goes for the next few weeks before New Years and I'll set that all as my resolution right now to continue it next year. Hope everyone has a Happy Holidays and may your journeys not be a pothole ridden as mine is at the moment. :)

Meh

Most recent weight was 248.2 lbs this morning. I was 247.2 lbs the day after I came back from Amy's wedding. Which was a blast btw! Oh and the dress - remember how I tried on the 20 in the store and it was lose and the 18 was just right. And how the sales girl said to remember that most likely it would be snugger than the in store ones? Yeah nope. The 20 fit like it did in store. Which in a way is good because then Amy can keep it to wear for a function that she needed a dress for as that one fit her just right. Hehe funny story there! I had to ship the dress to her store and order over the phone because my store said it would be in the day before. It got there about beginning of October roughly. Since Amy and I are the same size she tried it on and it fit her and was a little snug. So I thought ok it should be fine on me right. Well she put it on but needed help getting zipped up nad asked her now hubby. His response "uh why are you wearing Jenni's dress?" We all LOL'd at that. So anyways if I had gotten the smaller size she wouldn't be able to wear it and I'd have had to try and get it home. And I only had to watch out so I wasn't showing off the top of my bra just a little during the wedding. :)

Drive by weight

249.8 lbs this morning. I've been walking some more than normal because of the fundraiser and needing someone out on the back corner of the track. We trade off and on and send those new people out as often as we can. Cuz we are evil like that and I can't fit into any long johns to keep me as warm as some. Ok gotta get the kids ready or they will be late AGAIN just like yesterday.

Meh

Diet and diet related blogging is down due to mental strain at the moment. I will return......hopefully with some sanity left shortly after the kids school fundraiser is over. Why is this mental strain on me you ask? Oh because 3 years ago I was stupid enough to volunteer myself to be the PTO fundraising chairperson. >.< Yeah and I've done such a great job (up until now I think.....) that no one has wanted to take the position from me.

We do a lap-a-thon at the school because we have a half mile track that goes around the playground. No I will not be walking except maybe with 4 classes total. We get to stand at the door and punch the kids cards to keep track of laps. So my biggest brain fart on this whole thing is that I now work during lunch time at the school as well.........when the HECK am I going to eat lunch next week???? Because of course I am there everyday to cover all the shifts except those that I am working in the lunch room during.

Now back to curling up with my mind numbing book because I can't think to do anything else right now.....

Hmmmmm

The oreo's are calling my name......but I've been good so far today. I have the apple that I should eat sitting right next to me but it doesn't appeal to me right now. My brain is rationalizing "if I clean out the litter boxes then a few cookies won't hurt but would be a reward......" But would they really or would I do what I think will happen and just keep eating them? I don't seem to have much willpower today. I just want to lay around and enjoy this lovely fall weather we are having. But to truely enjoy it that means I have to wait until the hubby is "comfprtable" enough to turn the air - yes the air - back off to open the windows. Evidently getting up to 77 F today was too much for him. UGH! Or I could go sit on the deck with my knitting and the lawn chair. But since I am knitting socks right now I run the risk of losing a needle through the deck boards.......decisions! Meh, if I wait another hour I can open the windows and knit on the couch. Maybe I can convince him to suffer an hour earlier. :)

Lunch today was a Smart One's Salsbury Steak with mac & cheese - YUM. Truthfully it could be worse - darn McDonald's monoply game! It really makes it even worse that if I large size my normal meal (chix club sandwich) that I get 4 more game pieces than I would normally. That is if I were to eat there......which I did about 4 times within the first few days of the game opening. But the bad thing about that is my weight goes up. And we have ordered the dress for Amy's wedding - so I gotta fit into it since we had it sent to where she lives and it arrives the day BEFORE her wedding! >.< No more eating for me.....well not really just no more junk food. Man it's tough.

On that note I decided to try and get my stomach to be less of a big pooch thing that it is right now. So I did some sit-ups this morning. Nothing too big just 15 as that was what I could do before it started hurting. I figure tomorrow I'll try to do one more and the same the following day. I also want to work on my arms to have less of that upper arm jiggle. So I guess I better get started lifting the weights I have. If I start right off with the 5 lb. ones I have then I have to start lower but if I follow the same thing as the sit-ups - increasing 1 a day.......I think it will work. I know it won't all be gone in time - I mean the wedding is 11/8, but hopefully it will be better than it looks now. Here's me crossing my fingers. Ok back to the cat litter boxes - guess I better get those done. Cuz they need it.

Hugs~Jen

New blog.....

Yet again of course. >.< See what happens when you get antsy and don't wait for directions?!?!? LOL So hopefully you have followed me again or are just new to my journey. Either way welcome. :) Well I must get back to my other life that doesn't involve the computer......yeah I know it's a small life outside the computer. ;)

Hugs~Jen

reposted from blogger

My blog has moved and I would love you to join me in keeping track of my weight loss journey. http://slimmingdown-myjourney.blogspot.com

Well i copied and pasted all the entries i had for this year from aol to here. most likely i will continue with the previous years and put the comments received at the bottom of the posts here. hopefully i won't lose anything. if you are migrating with me from aol to blogger or to any other blog site please let me know as i'd love to continue to follow your journies.

I'm moving.......

Well I just got the email from AOL.com saying that they are closing down their blog feature perminately. So I decided to jump the gun and move to blogger where I have another blog already. My new blog address is http://slimmingdown-myjourney.blogspot.com/

I am going to try to figure out how to transport all my old posts from here to there is there is a way. Oh the frustration! Well bedtime for me now. Higs~Jen

PS - I posted my weigh-in for today on the new blog to try to get into the swing of things. :)

Plateau.....I think.....

Last week weigh in - 248.8 lbs. approx. I say approx. because I weighed and forgot what it was but I know it was't under 247 or over 250. LOL I am off the Herbalife wagon. As much as I love their stuff and as much as I know it works and is cheap. To actually plunk down at least $40 for the shake mix alone then to add more for supplements and such, when the shake mix will last me 2 weeks doing 2 shakes a week........It's just not possible right now. So what am I doing instead? Well by dumb luck the other day I stumbled onto the Smart Ones Weight Watchers meals - YUM! They are 6/$11 this week at Meijer so I stocked up the other night when I went and will get more Friday when I do the official shopping.

So plateau I say.......well i know what I need to do it's just actually doing it. Eat breakfast. When I eat breakfast I am less grouchy and I lose weight and sleep better. When I don't - I just don't. And truthfully it's not just eating breakfast but eating it within the frist 45 minutes of the morning after waking up that is the most important. That is when your body is setting your metabolism for the day. So to eat your breakfast in that window sets your body to burn more energy that day. And make you less likely to kill someone......Oh that's just me. Ok then never mind. ;)

Well it's time to set the DVR and then I think I am going to go curl up with my knitting or a good book (OMG Twilight is addicting but that's another day!) and try to get to bed early because I could use the sleep. Hugs~Jen

PS - New blog link to the left, it's my knitting blog which is more of my daily life stuff sometimes than is here. :)

Thanks :)

Just a quick entry to say thanks for all the congrats and well wishes. I'm trying out different over the counter meds, currently on the generic of Claritin. I've taken this before and forgotten about how my nose gets so its not runny......because everything is draining down my throat so I cough more. But other than that it worked well. I'm having good days and bad. The other day was bad because I'd been outside when someone was mowing a lawn. I guess by now I've gotten used to this because I've had this kind of reaction ever since I was in elementary school. But we didn't quite figure out it was allergies until High school. At least now I know what to do for my kids who are having the same problems as me. :)

Now for walking........somehow my pedometer rest itself after I programmed it. UGH! Of course I have no clue where the instructions are but it's taking me a lot fewer steps to reach my goal. Then the other thing is that it keeps restarting the count on me. I don't know if it's because of my seatbelt when driving or just the placement of the reset button on it. I have another one that I need to put back together and get the new batteries into. That one has a cover so I won't have this problem. But I'd have to say that I have been getting at least 3 miles in a day plus the lunch lady work out (mopping, sweeping, lifting tables, walking around on the playground, etc.). So I am getting my exercise regularly. :)

Bleh

My allergies are killing me this week. I am coughing up a lung as I attempt to type this. And when I'm not doing that I am competing for the world record of the most sneezes in 1 hour.

Wednesday weigh-in was 247.8 lbs. Woot back down a little. :) And now it's bed time before I really get that lung up. ~Hugs~Jen

Walking

My stomach is still upset and of course I had a dr. appt today......but not that kind. :) My latest recheck and then I go back in December. Joy oh joy I love paying $50 a visit. Darn ins!

So anyways I got on here again to log my actual mileage from yesterday and today so far as well. I set my goal at 5 miles a day. Today I forgot about putting the pedometer on until I had to go to work. So my morning steps are missing. Not that there were very many this morning at all being that I slacked off because I felt crappy.

9/10 steps: 11,003   miles: 2.94
9/11 steps: 12,262   miles: 3.28

Well bedtime now for me because I have been super sleepy lately.....darn this whole waking up early to get the kids on the bus thing. ~Hugs~

Ugh

Weighed in yesterday at 248.4 lbs. Heh that's a 0.2 lb gain for TOM week - I'm not thinking about it. But I also started walking the kids to the bus stop and home from it too. About a 1/4 a mile one way. I walked a little over 2 miles yesterday before my body rebelled and made me sick. Of course it would happen the night we had the lady coming over to finalize our refinance on the house. UGH! So there I was either in bed under MANY blankets to keep warm or dashing to the bathroom. I won't go into further details than that but man sometimes I hate when something makes me sick. However I am resisting the urge to jump on the scale and see if being sick made a difference in my weight. LOL

Now just to get enough motivation to attempt to eat breakfast and hope that my stomach doesn't rebel against me again. ~Hugs~

Morning

I think I told you guys that my position was eliminated at the school and I found out before school started. But the good thing is that I am now a full-time lunch lady (yeah I know how glamorous!) and ft is only 10 hrs a week. But that is a good chunk of change for me and will more than help me pay my way to my friends wedding - woot! But it is right in the middle of the day of course so I have been sweating my butt off. I think I drank twice my normal amount of water the past two days. Ugh my allergies are kicking in right now and I am having a sneezing fit. I really hate this. I love the weather but hate my reaction to this time of year.

So weight wise since this is a weight loss blog. :) I am holding at 248.2 lbs as of Wednesday weigh-in. Which isn't so bad considering TOM is soon. And exercise - well back to the lunch lady routine and I walked to the bus stop yesterday afternoon so that was a 1/4 a mile.

Well time to clean and then work and then shopping. Man my day is full. :)

Duh....

Got the kids on the bus and off to school this morning. Had an email yesterday saying that the reason I was hired last year at the school - the half mile club - would not be continuing this year. However they will still offer the kids the option to walk if there is enough supervision. Ok great I'm out a job I get to thinking. Then I continue to read the email and we will need extra lunch people because of our numbers increasing this year. And would I be interested in this. Yay of course - duh. I need to make money to pay for my flight and other stuff for my best friend's wedding (good movie too ;) ). So more days each week working is fine with me now to just figure everything else out. lol

After dropping the kids at the bus I came home and got to feeling crappy. Then I realized that I had basically been awake since 5:30 am (not by choice stinkin dog) and still had not eaten breakfast. Another duh! moment for me because I know better and had to make them eat but did I - nope. I was too busy trying to make sure their pencil boxes were ready to go because I was slacking on getting their stuff together.

I fell off the face of the earth......

I'd say I've been busy but truthfully unless it was knitting I haven't been doing much of anything else lately. The kids are going back to school on Tuesday and I have fallen off the Herbalife wagon. Simply because I cannot afford to buy shake mix in addition to our weekly food intake at this time. The only upside is that for the past two weeks I have maintained at 248.0 lbs. I am holding at my 10% goal I've been watching what we eat and what I buy and that has helped. Also upping the amount of fiber in my diet has helped as well.

I went to get an accurate size on the bridesmaids dress for my friends wedding in November. I tried on - yes I am going to ACTUALLY tell you my size. ;) I tried on a size 20 & an 18 today. The flow of the dress made both fit - it was fitted in the boobs so I can wear a smaller size. hehe The 20 gapped under my armpits a little and the 18 fit awesomely. I am taking into consideration that the dresses they provide for you to try on are tried on by a lot of people which can lead to stretching. So I am planning to loose 15 lbs in the next 2 months. Then hopefully I won't need any alterations done if I order the size 18. Or maybe just some tucking in on the sides under the armpits. We shall see, we shall see. :)

Slowly going.....

Weighed in last night after dinner (past my normal weigh in time) and it was 249 lbs. I'd been 240.6 lbs that morning in my pjs. hehe Weighed in again this morning  at 246.0 lbs with normal clothes on. If I use the weigh in from this morning I am down 1.4 lbs to make it a total of 12.6 lbs lost. Or I can use last nights weight and be up 2 lbs.....

Either way not exactly where I wanted to be at when I got to my 10 year reunion time. That is in September but I am not going to mine because of a schedule conflict. However this weekend we are heading to Mike's 10 year reunion. Not by his choice either. hehe I would have graduated with him had my parents not split up then gotten back together and moved in 7th grade. So a lot of my friends from elementary school (and some I still see today) who are my best friends will be there. Plus others that I met after elementary school and became fast friends with. I am looking forward to this more than Mike is but he is willing to go if it will make me happy. Who knows maybe some of his friends will actually be there.....maybe. They aren't exactly the reunion type though.

The other exciting part of my weekend would be seeing my new niece for the first time. Well back to finishing her blanket or it will never be done in time! ~Hugs~Jen~

It's always nice.....

When someone asks you if you have been losing weight and you can say yes. I have this one lady at church in my home town who every time we are visiting asks me this even if I have gained back weight and only lost a little. LOL But this past week it was the lady, Lori, at my new church who thought I was only 19 years old who asked me this time. She had gone on the trip to Chicago with or church group as well so she was there in my room the night I was talking to Angela about Herbalife. So she asked me this Sunday if I had lost weight adn I said yes 11 lbs. and she asked me what I was doing - Herbalfe. So then evidently she and Angela were supposed to get together and trade - Lori used to be a Mary Kay lady. So Angela was to Herbalife Lori and Lori would get to play with Angela's make-up. :) But it felt good to be able to answer yes and to not have it be something as small as "oh I've lost 2 lbs" like it seems to be when I am in Lansing and my friend Robin asks. Well I hav to get back to the blanket I am knitting if I want it to be done in time for this weekend when we get to see Madelyn. :) Thanks to all of you who offered congratulations. I'll post pics of her once I have some. Later Jland! ~Hugs~Jen~

It's a girl!!

I know -it's not mine - just my niece. My brother had his second kid this morning at 2:36 am. A girl which he didn't know what it was to be. Madelyn Kate was 8 lbs. 12 oz and 20 inches long and I can't wait to spoil her! We now have 7 girl grandchildren on my dad's side. My 3, Matt's 2 now, my stepbrother's 2 (plus they are having another any day now but don't know the sex and won't).

Off to practice. Later Jland! ~Hugs~Jen~

Weigh In day

Weigh in day today. :) 247.4 lbs. That means I am down 2 lbs since last weigh in. Ok so not much seeing as that was 2 weeks ago but woot for me! Which means I am a quarter of the way to my goal for my friend Amy's wedding in November. Only 30 more lbs to go. :)

Off to spend time with the hubby. ~Hugs~Jen~

Hmmmmm

Well and ineresting week it has been. The hubby had the whoel week off which meant a lot of time spent online playing Eve.com and me being forced to help him with my account. That I only have because he wanted us to play something together. lol So I skipped my exercise at the end of the week with the exception of praise practice - yes this is exerise because we have dance oves to get the kids moving too. :) But my weight lss coach Angela sent me a text Thursday afternoon before practice asking me if I'd be there. She would because over the summer her section joins ours. So I get there and she hands me an envelope that has the big pot in it from the challenge. She'd talked to her upline and bcause I gained but lost it all again and would have been there on Wednesday if we had met I got the big pot. Wahoo!!!! I already spent some of it because I had reached my 10% goal and wanted to celebrate that so I bought yarn and needles (yes I knit). Then I put the other half of it away to go towards my bridesmaids dress for my friend Amy's wedding in November. So I'm setting aside money for that, my shoes and travel expenses because I'll be gone roughly 3 days total - all that I'm allowed by the hubby. lol

With the challenge being over does this mean I am quitting - NOPE. I want to be down 2 dress sizes for the wedding. That's 20 lbs per dress size accourding to the ladies at David's Bridal and 40 lbs total to lose. A good goal and hey it's actually my half-way weight loss wise. Besides the dresses I tried on would look much better on my in a smaller size. hehe Plus maybe I'll need less alterations.....HAHAHAHA can you lose you hips????? I used to have this really great hourglass figure....well I still have it but it's not as great any more. My hips are bigger than my boobs and the boobs are bigger than my waist so I have to go with the biggest size in dresses to fit over my hip and then major alterations to get the rest to fit. Luckily the one she wants me to wear isone of those empire waist ones - mor fitted at the boobs and then loose the rest of the way down. Now to actually find a strapless bra that fits.....the one I wore in the dress to the side for my brother's wedding - so not the right size which is why there are the plastic straps in the pic. lol

Off to do the shopping we haveno food in the house and the kids are hungry. I keep asking why I have to feed them and they tell me cuz I'm supposed to. Ok fine. lol Later Jland. ~Hugs~Jen~

Huh....

Well weigh-in did not happen last night because the challenge was rescheduled for next week. Hmmm more time to lose 2 lbs to be down more - yay! :) But then I managed to not get on my sale at all yesterday evening to see where I really was. Then I ate a really fattening dinner - because it was my oldest daughter's request for FINALLY getting over her fear of her bike. We got her riding in te field yesterday. Not that she was really making it far....at all really but she was on it and not crying that is the BIG improvement on her part. But I had to bribe her with her choice of dinner and dessert to get her to do it. So cheesy enchiladas and ice cream was her choice. It was good but I should have only had one and not the two I did eat. Weight this morning was 249.8 lbs. Up about 0.4 lbs. from the last weigh in weight. But I'm ok with that because it could have been all 4 lbs plus that 0.4. LOL

I'm doing better and getting on my Wii and making it to the 30 minute mark in aerobic activities. Still haven't quite figured out how to do some of the strength training on there. I am pathetic when it comes to upper arm strength I have learned. I couldn't even do one push-up. Time to break out the dumbbells and start using them. Lunch time! Later Jland. ~Hugs~Jen~

Why?

So 4th of July was spent out of town celebrating by Nana's 90th b-day (which was in March). We of course confused her when we set the cake in front of her and she asked what day it was......hehe She's a good sport. :) So we got together and had LOTS of really good food. Lasagna, spaghetti salad, cheesy broccoli & rice, hamburgers, fluff salad, banana bread, rotisserie chicken, eggplant parmesan.......did I mention that we are Italian? Anyway there was more than that but it's all I can remember and well........I at two plates of food and two helpings of the cheesy broccoli & rice cuz I love it and my mom made it. :) And then the next day I weighed and had gained about 4 lbs back - EEEK! It's all gone now but weigh in is tomorrow and I am only a little bit down from where I was. Frustrated with myself to say the least but it was good food and I enjoyed it. Even if this was the first time in a long time that I ate so much that my tummy actually hurt. And I wasn't the only one. On the car ride home that was all we heard from the kids. LOL Well the hubby is on vacation this week so I'm off to play video games and then knit night later. Later Jland! ~Hugs~Jen~

I'm alive......

Good morning Jland! Sorry in a slightly silly and loopy mood this morning. :-D Weight Loss Challenge last week was postponed due to our coach being sick. But since we weigh in on my scale I weighed in just the same. I was down 0.8 lbs to 250.8 lbs from the week before. Not too bad seeing as how the last time TOM was here I went up about 2 lbs. We weighed in yesterday at out second to last meeting - 249.4 lbs. I'm out of the 250's WOOT! Not only that but I have also lost 10% of my goal weight loss and have lost 9.2 lbs total now since starting back on Herbalife.

For the challenge our coach totaled up our weight loss so far - I'm at 3.6 lbs lost during this challenge and my competition is at 3.4 lbs lost. What a way to head into a holiday weekend. Which ever one of us either continues to lose, maintains our loss, or gains less than the other gets the big pot of money. My dh said to me "so I get my steak dinner for father's day with that right?" I said nope sorry it's going into the dress/travel fund for my friend Amy's wedding in November. I am maid of honor as one of her oldest friends still around. Plus kinda gave her the advice to go for it with the guy she is marring and he asked me on how to propose to her. :)

Yesterday was also good because my Dr.'s office called me with the last results. I was told "it's not as severe as previously seen." So what's that mean - no colposcopy that my Dr. had talked about doing if it came back abnormal because it's finally not as bad and I go back again in 3 months. I know I know that was the last of my required 3 rechecks after the surgery. But we want to make sure it continues to be "not as severe" and not get bad again. So another appointment in September it is for me then.

Well off to eat breakfast and get some Wii Fit time in before lunch time. Later Jland friends. ~Hugs~Jen~

Weigh In...

We had weight loss challenge yesterday and my partner in the challenge and competition was down 4 lbs since the last time she weighed in about 2 weeks ago. I am so proud of her. She said she had dropped all animal products from her diet with the exception of cheese. She is eating Boca burgers and Morning Fresh products instead for a week and says she feels much healthier because of it.

I know, I know you are wondering how I did. Well.....I maintained 251.6 lbs. Exactly to the .6 lbs. LOL I don't feel bad because it could have been a gain and wasn't and now that I think about it it is almost TOM time again. Oh Joy!

Well today is the last of my three rechecks after the last abnormal pap. I can't remember if i'd posted on the last two results or not - so nutshell version here! They have all come back abnormal since my LEEP but when the samples were sent back to the lab to be compaired to biopsies taken from the LEEP they were not as bad as the biopsy. So My doc said 'we'll give it 3 months and see you again' and same thing happened. Same results. So here we are at the last of the 3 required  appointments adn we'll see how it goes. I should hopefully know at the latest my mid-July. Why the big window? Because I have learned that rushing them is not something you do when the lab has to compaire cultures. ;-D On a similiar note I have an online friend from my gaming world (yup I am a girl game geek) that was notified that she had a severe anbormality. So she is totally worried about what might happen and I was greatful that I had this experience to be able to help her better understand some of what will happen. I am hoping and praying that even though it is severe that it is not invasive yet and can be taken care of with a simple surgery like the LEEP. I'm totally praying that it isn't yet Cancer. She has a 8 month old little girl and was trying to figure out how they didn't catch this when she had her. Plus she is a little ticked about the way she was notified. She had gone in for a never ending period (sound familiar? sure did to me!) and they sent her a letter saying it was severely abnormal and to head to the hospital for a colposcomy. The doc never once contacte her about it outside the letter(s) she received. Mind you she lives in England but even here I've seen postcards saying "you had an abnormal pap please schedule an appt as soon as possible" sent to friends and family. Somehow I got a doc that decided calling me and letting me know was a better option. Go figure.

Well I should finish breakfast before I forget to do it at all. Later Jland. ~Hugs~Jen~

More details.....

Well what I ate at the first party was this: Salad with croutons and Italian dressing, mashed potatoes with beef gravy, green bean casserole (I LOVE this stuff....), a roll, and some roast beef. My first plate was full. Yup first plate I went back for seconds. These plates were pretty big too. I use the smaller of the ones we have at home to limit how much I take and eat but I'm not quite down to kids plate sizes or anything like that yet. But ok so I ate everything on my plate and went back for a second bigger helping of the mashed potatoes and beef gravy and more green bean casserole. Then came dessert. I tried to have my hubby share a piece with me. I wanted cherry chip and he said ok. The man needs to lose weight with me too mind you. So what does he do? Brings back 2 pieces of chocolate cake. He said it all looked like vanilla to him except the chocolate. Who would have known him being color-blind would make him mistake cherry chip for vanilla. LOL So I went and got the cake I wanted, middle kiddo got the other chocolate after dad ate the frosting because she didn't want it. I ate the whole piece by myself because it was SOOOOOOOOO good. My fave outside of chocolate chocolate cake. Yum! I drank two cups of iced tea with splenda and one cup of punch to swallow my vitamins/supplements.

Then the next day was Father's day cookout at my in-laws. Western ribs, veggie tray with dip, humus and pitas. Same thing - full plate, but a smaller one this time. And seconds on ribs. Then our uncle broke out the rest of the cake. Again a cherry chip cake. Then my middle kiddo - same as day before - says 'Here mommy I don't want this I'm full' whole piece of cherry chip to me again. >.< DOH! I ate the whole thing again.

But this morning the scale says 248.8 lbs. mind you we weigh in after breakfast and lunch has passed at 4:45 PM EST. So I have until then to stay at or under 251 lbs. That is my goal. I know not eating will do it. However that is not good for me. And if I happen to go up to 252 lbs. It's just $1 to put in the pot and so far it looked like I was winning. Not to brag but it is hard when you are just doing something because you can get it easy. The other lady has lost weight and kept it off for years. Then had some problems and gained it back plus some. i won't go into details because it's not my story. But we are here to support each other and it helps that Angela - our weight loss coach is not only a Herbalife distributor like me but was also a nutritional consultant. So she knows what she is talking about when she says I need to be eating 1800 - 2000 calories a day. And i feel the difference when I don't. I also realized that by losing 1 more lb I will be at my 10% goal. Yeah I actually sat and figured those out this time. So I know when each goal is reached.

Thanks for the comments Christina and Sherry. I know I feel like I was over eating but I'm pretty sure it was close to total calories for the day. Just my choices were not the best - like 2 pieces of cake on Sunday. lol Well off to clean - house is a mess for people coming over this afternoon. Later Jland! ~Hugs~Jen~

Blah

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I'd typed up this whole entry that AOL just ate So nutshell - 2 parties this past weekend - good food, ate more than I should, I think but didn't feel over stuffed. Just ate until satisfied. Both days. Will see how the scale likes me tomorrow on weigh in day.

Gotta feed monsters now. Later Jland. ~Hugs~Jen~

 

Weigh in day was today. I got burned badly from being at the school so no measurements. Plus the other lady in our weight loss challenge had to be somewhere else for something and it was jsut me. So I got on the scale and it read 251.6 lbs. I'm down 1.5 lbs for a total of 7 lbs lost since the end of April. WOOT! And we got to chatting about my goals for the week. With the kdis being out of school no more lunch lady workouts so I'm going to work out on Wii Fit for 30 minutes daily. OMG my legs are killing me from being on there last night! But it was worth it because I sweat like a pig and lost weight this week. Then I asked how to figure out what my caloric intake should be. Because I am fealing so stinking hungry lately and then I snack and feel bad thinking I'm going over what I should be eating. LOL eveidently I have yet to touch what I should be eating. There is one night where I might have some close for my daily total of between 1800 - 2000 calories. So now I don't feel so bad and about how much I have been eating and now have to try and figure out what to do to eat more. Off to raid the fridge because I am hungry and it's dinner time. ~Hugs~Jen~

Yes, I'm still alive.....

It has been forever I know. Update on weight - up two during TOM, back down 2 the week after that. Next weigh in is tomorrow. We kept the Wednesday date but moved the weight loss challenge to an earlier time. If my measurement were correct I ahve lost 11 inches overall since I started this weight loss challange.

I've been having one of those weeks where I want to strangle people. Could be that it is too hot and we lost power the other afternoon through night (ugh!). Could be that it is too close to summer and no extra income in for the next 3 months - nah I'm ok with that. Could be that it is too close to summer and the girls are already driving me batty and they aren't even out of school yet......DING DING DING we have a winner. I think it is this plus the 'I don't think I am eating enough during the day' headaches I have been getting. I've been keeping track of my foods this past week and I figured that even with my snacks I am sometimes only eating about 1200 to 1400 calories a day. I'm pretty sure that is less than it should be which would explain why I feel crappy some days. So I'm trying to figure out how to get that up higher without eating a bunch of crap that isn't good for me. I've been knitting a lot lately to get rid of stress. Hubby has been complaining that I don't spend time with him anymore and all I am doing is reading journals, reading books or knitting. Yup, I tried but the games he wants to play on the comp are ones we have to pay a monthly fee for and we don't have the money to spend for 2 of us to get on there like he wants at the moment. I give up........can I resign as mom/wife??????

So I've reverted to listening to music from the 80's/early 90's - yes the New kids on the block. *Sigh* I loved them and now they are back together. I know I am pathetic but I can't help it. I even have been looking into going to a concert when they hit the Detroit area. And dragging my friends that I went to a concert back in '92 at the Breslin Center in East Lansing with. Gotta love BFF's! Well I need to eat something and get ready for work - my last day until next school year. Tomorrow is my younger 2 girls parties in the afternoon. Both of which I am room mom for their classes and they are both at the same time. Do you see why my stress level is so high right now?? Too much stuff and notenough hands or time for me to think. Which is why I have been doing mindless things like knitting and reading - duh! 2.5 days left of school THANK GOD! Later my Jland friends. :) ~Hugs~Jen~

The deck......

So here are the pics I promised a few days ago. My comp is finally cooperating with me to get them on here. :) Sorry about the bottom pic - no matter what I do on my comp or in photobucket it just won't stay up the right way. I appologize for the cricks in your necks when you have to tilt sideways to see it right. :) ~Hugs~Jen

Weekend......

So this weekend we built a new deck for our house. When I say we I mean I organized the food and my hubby, his friend from work, dad-in-law and mom-in-law (once friend from work left) worked on getting deck built on Saturday. Sunday was hubby and dad-in-law and Monday was me and hubby. We had gone to Home Depot with hubby's drawings of what he would like the deck to look like. They gave us a plan with required materials. This was done a year ago. So we went back this year after getting the stimulus check and asked them to update it if needed. They said it was fine as is but prices were lower on some things. Well for starters hubby had to go back for the stair stringers that were left off the materials list and a few other pieces. About 5 extra trips were made to HD over the weekend. Some for missing parts, some for broken parts, some because estimated materials was less than what was actually needed. So the supposed final cost of roughly $450 was sooooooo off. I think it ended up costing around $600 total for the deck. About $100 more than anticipated on our end as I'd allowed $100 extra to begin with from the cost on the HD printout for stain that we are holding off a year of (and extras). So Monday I was helping and got a bad sunburn on my neck. I can't wear shirts with tags or regular t-shirts because they make it feel worse. I was wearing a scoop neck shirt outside that day....and didn't think of sunblock even with it being 80 degrees and about 9 to 1 that we were outside. OOPS!

I'll post the pics I took of the deck later when my comp is cooperating with me better.

Weigh in this week is on Thursday. Monday class was cancelled due to the holiday and Wednesday night had to be pushed back a day because it worked better for everyone's schedule. My oldest daughter is bridging up in Girl Scouts that night so I'd be late and since it's at my house (and they didn't feel comfy sitting with my hubby until I got here LOL) we postponed it to the next day. :)

Well I'm off to have dinner soon. ~Hugs~Jen

Tired and allergies......

It's that time of year again. What time of year is that you ask? The time of year when I have coughing and sneezing fits, major headaches and feel like crap most days. Thats right it's allergy season. My oldest - poor kid - seems to have picked up on my allergies too. I guess that's better than having her dad's food allergies. So I have been coughing, she has been coughing, we both have been looking like we get no sleep. Although on Tuesday that really was because I didn't get enough sleep.

Anyone else out there with me buying a Wii Fit at 12:01 am? The store closest to me (Meijer) was only getting 20 in stock. While WalMart had them for $0.27 cheaper - I'd most likely use more than that in driving there and back to get it. Glad I was there at 12:01 am because they sold 10 of their 20 right then. If I had waited until I woke up at 6:30 am I might have got one. But we don't know that for sure so I was out at midnight. Let me tell you something though - I'm pretty sure the scale on the darn thing is off. It weighed me at 248 - now as much as I'd like to think I lost that much already I know it's not true. What I find funny is I have two scales by the same company - both electronic and the older of the two weighs me at about 7 lbs. lighter than the newer one. How is this possible? I guess every scale is different even from the same maker. Go figure.

So this afternoon when I should be grocery shopping I am going to try out the Wii Fit. Shhhhh I'll go out later.....not sure when but later I'll get groceries. But whatever I do I have to stay away from the chocolates. TOM is coming soon and sweets are all I can think about these days. It's so annoying that we have this one (well 2 really if you count pms week) week were we are pissy and only sweets seem to "cure" it temporarily that is.

So I think weigh in day may be moving back to Monday. I know I know - pick a date. Well it moved to Wednesday because I was hosting a weight loss challenge at my house but we only had one lady show up last week. Another stopped by asked where to park and never came back. But the one who was here didn't show up this week. Possible reason could be that her sister who was with her had her baby or that she figured it wasn't for her. We'll see next week I guess. But I am down another 2 lbs. this past week for a total of 5.5 lbs lost roughly. I'm not sure of inches I'll have to find out from the Monday challenge. I'm still going in case the Wednesday one doesn't work out then I can still get involved and keep on track.

Well I should probably get working on the fitness challenge. It wasn't too bad - my fitness age or whatever they called it was only 29 - 1 year older than I am. Have a great day J-land! ~Hugs~Jen

Motivation

I thought this was an interesting read on SparkPeople.com (well really an email I got from them) on not giving up.

LISAHAS2CATS wrote "If you forgot to brush your teeth last night, did you decide this morning to throw in the towel and never brush your teeth again? Since you're obviously a slob who doesn't have enough self- discipline to remember to brush your teeth, why bother brushing them at all if you forgot to last night?

Of course not.

So if you had ice cream for dinner last night, or didn't exercise yesterday, or gained a pound this week, don't throw in the towel! Make a healthier choice for dinner tonight by eating something lean. Go for a short walk. Weigh in again next week.

Just do NOT give up."

Ohhhhhhhhh now that is good - right? But not brushing.....the teeth fall out....they have to be worth a pound or two right? ;)

I have switched weigh in days - from Monday to Wednesday. Why? Because I swiched weight loss challenge nights. I sort of jumped into the middle of the one on Mondays because I (and Angela my fellow Herbalife friend who is running these things) knew I needed to get right on track or I never would. So I started week 7 of 12 on Monday. Well the Wednesday group is finally starting and its at my house. Not a problem right?!?! Well that meant I had to clean and keep it clean and if it is going to be at my house I better stay on the ball and lose. :D I've also taken to posting this picture on my fridge :

This would be me and my hubby waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1998 - Senior year fall homecoming. About 175 lbs. I still have this dress - I loved this dress - I want to wear it again and look this great someday. Well it is practice time for me so I have to dash........they are trying to fatten me back up with pizza and salad tonight >.< I will take my pills, I will take my pills, I will take my pills........ and be good and not eat a ton! ~Hugs~Jen

I'm still here.....

So I have been in this weight loss challenge for two going on three weeks now. Eating my Herbalife shakes twice a day (most days) and taking my pills. I lost 2.2 lbs the first week and 1.3 lbs this week. For a total of 3.5 lbs lost in the past 2 weeks - yay me!

And now its my bed time. Nite J-land! ~Hugs~Jen

Intersting tidbit

I learned last night that 1 bagel = 12 slices of bread. ACK!!!!!! I can't remember if it was in carbs or calories but man that has put me off bagels fro a long time now. Good thing too because at the volunteer appreciation breakfast at my kids school this morning they had the good ones.....the Einstien Bros. ones.......the ones I LOVE to eat whenever I can get them. But I was good and left them alone. Yay me! Back to cleaning :)

I'm back.......

Chicago (actually Schaumburg, IL) was a blast. I went for a children's ministry conference at Willow Creek Church (which is huge!!!!) with the group of ladies who run our kids programs at my church. We stopped for dinner on Tuesday evening and then went to an outlet mall to walk off dinner in Michigan City, IN. The first day (Wednesday) was awesome listening to all the speakers that they brought in for us. The music was AWESOME too, can't forget about how it felt like I was at a big concert front row. :) The last set was Glen Keane, Rick Dempsey and Aaron Reynolds. Glen and Rick work for Disney - Rick is in charge of maintaining voice talent for animated movies and Glen is an animator (30 yrs. now) who drew Ariel, Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Tarzan. His dad draws "The Family Circus". Aaron Reynolds wrote a book on his creative approach to children's ministry and is hilarious. Needless to say the story behind Ariel and Beast were worth being there and shed a whole new light on the movies that are coming from Disney. Rick had a huge hand in bringing Narnia to Disney. Then on Thursday we had breakout where we sat in different sessions and learned different things relevant to our area in children’s ministry. I got a broad overview but had some music ones too. It was fun but seeing as how my first session of the day (music and motions) taught us 6 songs that were high motion/movement songs I was sore, tired and sweaty by the time I got to my second session. Where I got to be a third grader in a typical Sunday session at Willow. I was falling asleep by the end of it - not because it was boring but because I needed to eat something and we had been rushed out of the hotel that morning so I missed breakfast. :( I ate lunch and was fine but moving around and up and down the many stairs there and such made my legs hurt all the way to Sunday morning. Friday was that small day with only two main sessions the last being Phil Vischer - of VeggieTales fame. I was super excited to hear him talk and to start reading his book. But I got a ton of exercise as we walked all over that place and if I would have thought about it I would have put on my pedometer to see how far I was walking each day.

But the biggest thing to come out of the conference was the fact that I hooked up with another Herbalife distributor that is local! For me that is huge and she is running weight loss challenges so I joined one because I hate being this big. I went to my first meeting last night and the first thing I learned was that my scale is actually about 6 lbs. less than the Dr. scale and what the WLC scale is. T<spanclass=correction id="">he WLCscale and my Dr. scale are in agreement on my weight - 258.6 lbs. ugh! So Sunday I got back on the wagon fulltime with Herbalife products and will be held accountable with the WLC to any gains as 1 lb = $1 in the pot and the biggest loser wins the pot at the end. This is what I needed to get on track but I didn't know of anyone in my area, let alone the fact that I could have started one scared the crap out of me. Who would take weight loss advice from someone who is overweight herself and not working on losing it? See my dilemma? But the big thing is that by doing this and starting to exercise</spanclass=correction> (yes starting I suck at everything and keeping with it........) will get me into better shape and maybe I can jump around on stage and actually sing the songs without losing my breath halfway through like I do now. :)

So here I am with this wonderful opportunity to learn about kid's ministry things and it could be that God had me go on that whole trip to give me a big kick in the butt on my weight loss. LOL The way things work sometimes amaze me. So Monday night was my weigh in but I think I am switching to the Wednesday meeting next week. Well its back to unoacking, cleaning and reading for me plus my walking video before lunch. Hope everyone has a great day in J-land. ~Hugs~Jen

 

Quick One.....

Morning everyone! Just wanted to pop on real quick after weighing in this morning to post.......that I've finally gone down! YAY!

Ok now I have to get back to packing, cleaning and getting kids ready for bus. Hope to post something Saturday before I have head out of town for my nieces b-day party (she's turning 1 Friday). Isn't she adorable!!!!

Later J-land friends!!!! Have a great week. ~Hugs~Jen

Hiatus....

I will be leaving tomorrow to head to Chicago. I got a call on Thursday about an opening with the kids worship team at the training seminar they are attending. I get to go from Tuesday to Friday night. I am sooooo looking forward to it. Everyone keeps telling me that it is a wonderful experience. But the big thing about this is that I could possibly get a position with the church - paid or unpaid - yay! But needless to say I won't be posting anything unless have acess to a computer and internet at some point in time over the next few days. If only my laptop was working again.......

On to the weight loss front. I am still holding at 249.4 lbs. I have picked up my 100 cal snacks for my trip and am trying this drink called Mona Vie that I got from a friend. Its made from the acai berry and about 18 other fruits. You drink 2-4 ozs a day and it gives you 5 servings of fruit. Which is good for me. I have the best intentions where fruit comes in - I buy it and the kids eat it first or I forget about it and it goes bad. So I'm trying it and we'll see how well it works.

Have a good week everyone. I have to get back to cleaning and packing. Good night J-land! ~Hugs~Jen

Happy Weight

Self.com had an article in February issue about your Happy weight. They now have a calculator on their site to figure out your happy weight. http://www.self.com/fitness/nutrition/calculators/happyWeight

According to their site with my new height (grrrrr) I'd be happy at 157.5 lbs. I'm thinking that would take me back down to skinny with big butt/thighs again as I was all through middle and high school. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not. I figure 165 lbs is my happy weight and that is what I am shooting for.

Ok really now i am cleaning and exercising. :) ~Hugs~Jen

Detour in blogging :)

This morning weigh in was 249.4 >.< I thought what did I do different yesterday that would make me gain vs. staying put......made egg salad. And ate a big overflowing sandwich of it. Darn good foods and wanting to eat them when on a diet......

Has anyone heard about the man who lost weight eating baked beans? The article I found (original one) is here: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91251-1312594,00.html?f=rss This is the one I first read about the weight loss: http://www.thatsfit.com/2008/04/13/man-loses-140-pounds-on-baked-bean-diet/ Can you imagine eating 6 cans of baked beans a day and losing 140 lbs in 9 months? Interesting diet to say the least. The first article says that he isn't even breaking wind now that he stopped eating toast with his beans. What will they come up with next?

This morning is lovely. Its what I call a cabin morning. When I was growing up we always went up north to my grandparents cabin on Rice Lake in Lake Linden, MI for at least a week in the summer. My parents way of getting a break would be to send us up with my dad's parents and then come and get us and stay an extra week. Hmmmm maybe that's why I have no problem letting my in-laws take the girls for a week because we were sent away over the summer a lot. Interesting. Not that its a bad thing in either case - I love my girls but sometimes we just need a break from each other. Anyways, The weather would start out low in the 50s or 60s in the morning and would just smell great. How would it smell? I don't think I can describe it but I'll try......it would be crisp in the morning, a little on the cool side and you could smell the water even in the cabin with the windows open and little breeze. I guess its one of those things that gets burned into your brain. But later it would warm up and yes it does get hot up there - even in August. But the past two mornings have had that smell/feel to it that it was a cabin morning. Or at least for me it is. It's making me want to make the 13....well 14 from where I live now....hour drive up north to the trio of cabins (my aunt and uncle now have their own cabins up there too) and just relax for a week in the middle of nowhere and enjoy the weather, the lake, my family and being away from it all. Yes I just proved I am truely from Michigan by measuring distance in hours driven to get to your destination. :-D But convincing the hubby to make that trip again - prolly won't happen in this lifetime. It was too far up north for him - with nothing of interest around that is according to him. If I didn't need someone to drive over the bridge for me I'd prolly do it myself. I have this huge fear of open heights and the fact that one lane on the bridge is open grate freaks me out if I am driving. It also makes me no fun or a built in babysitter at amusement parks. I'll scan some cabin pics later to post so you all can see how beautiful it is up there.

Well I am going to attempt cleaning and then some exercise this morning. Hope everyone is well here in J-land. ~Hugs~Jen

Limbo

So I have noticed that my scale isn't moving......I'm not sure if this is good or bad - it's not going up but it's also not going down. Grrrrr

I'm stuck at 248.8 lbs it seems. Getting back into walking with the lunch ladies from school. Two of them are doing weight watchers and the other is working out at a gym with a trainer. I really have to get a handle on my eating. I'm doing good with moderation and sticking to one plate of food. I even use the smaller of the plates we have here. We have two sets - the one I bought before we married and the one the hubby brought home from Bill Knapp's (anyone remember them - looooooooooved their chocolate cake and cinnamon ice cream............oh bad me!!!!) when they replaced the dishes. Well the BK ones are smaller in size. So I use them to help curb how much I eat. I'm actually thinking of switching to one of the kids plates - LOL - for this purpose as they are even smaller. :)

Time for my morning yogurt cup and tea then off to the bank for field trip money that is due in today. Love my kids but man are they expensive sometimes! Hugs ~ Jen

My weekend.......

So Thursday was an adventure to say the least. Work went well and was totally fun looking forward to doing out together that night. I left work after finishing the cleaning and went to my friends house to make jewelry. I helped her take a $6 Walmart watch and bead new bands on it. I made myself two new bracelets. We talked and enjoyed each others company - it was just plain fun. Then I headed home because I needed to get there before the kids got off the bus. I took the most direct route which is of course all dirt. Well at some point I ran over a sharp enough rock or maybe the tires were just that worn but by the time I got home and got the kids off the bus 25 minutes later I had an almost flat tire. Drove home to get a closer look. AARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So I went in search of my electric air pump (not knowing at this point there was a leak) to get air in the tire and hit the store for some fix-a-flat stuff. It was of course dead - in the on position instead of recharge. >.< So I was left with the DIY bycicle pump. MAN my legs got a work out on that one! I got air in the tire and went back inside - well when I came out after the kids were finally ready to brave driving with me (finally choose their after school snack and picked out a book - LOL) it was almost flat again. So I got them in the car and started pumping again while talking to hubby on the phone and yelling at the kids to NOT bounce in the car while I was putting air in the tire (or after the air was in). I got 20psi in the 35psi tire - not bad considering hubby said I wouldn't get much in. :) Put the air pump in the front seat had hubby call Discount Tire to price tires (I'd looked on Walmart.com but they didn't answer phone when he called) and headed out. Stopped once about 1 minute away from home to check and put more air in. Drove to Walmart (DT was across road) parked and checked it again - it was good so I drove the rest of the way to DT. Got there, parked, went in and told hime tire model - looked out window and it was almost flat again. Talk about timing! I'm sure my little prayers were heard that we'd make it there WITHOUT ruining the rim and enough air in the tire to drive safely on it. :) This is my 4 flat tire in the past 3 years. And I have no spare because it fell out from under my van one day got some rock lodged into it on the dirt road and when I went to use it next was flat. First time was because my alignment was off and wore both front tires out until the both went flat on me one ngiht driving my boss home from work. Next time I backed into a stone porch (yeah I know - in my defense it was a house in the country and at night) and cut off the valve stem - then had to drive home on the tire - on the dirt road. LOL Then this time. So we got the tire replaced was told the smae thing about the alignment and that I'd need the other one replaced too but I could only do the one right now.

Left DT and went to my church for worship team practice and made it there only 6 minutes late!!! Awesome for me - LOL. finished that up found out what I needed to be doing Sunday. I have more responsibility as one of the over 18 members of the team and get to look after the under 18 crowd because they know I can be depended on. Got home, cleaned up fast, changed and ran out the door to meet at my friends house to head out for the night.

We went to a place called O'Callaghan's in Brighton. Nice place - it was live music night. The guy who was singing that night looked like Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show - Seriously he looked like this --> As long as we didn't look at him while he sung we were ok. LOL We had fun singing along and drinking. One of the ladies bought a round of shots - they tasted like kool-aid - you know its never good when you can't taste the alcohol because its gonna sneak up on you. Well with all my drama I'd never eaten dinner. There was another round of shots bought and I'd been working on my first beer. So I asked for a menu - otherwise I was done. All in all it was a great day/night and we now have things to laugh at that no one will understand.....well more now I should say. :)

Friday was work and then shopping. I picked up some 6 oz. cups of Light & Fit yogurt at Sam's nad the sample lady suggested freezing them for a summer treat. YUMMMM! Saturday was Ladies Luncheon at the church and then shopping. Sunday was church, keep the under 18ers in line, lunch, small group then home.

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Before I forget again.......

I have added a link on the lefthand side bottom of my links section. It is for the President's challenge. You can log your activity over the 8 week period - March 20 to May 15, 2008. Basically it's is a way to encourage you to to be active at least 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week. You get points for different activities that you enter and for the length you did the activities. This is a blurb from the site to give you more info on the program: "What began as a national youth fitness test has grown up. In a big way. Today, the President's Challenge takes staying active beyond the school gym, and into everyday life.

We've expanded the President's Challenge into a whole series of programs designed to help improve anyone's activity level. Young or old. It's about choosing to live healthier - and finding things you really like to do." I remember doing this challange back in 4th or 5th grade when it first started and I still have my certificate in with my school papers.

There are 2 levels - Active lifestyle (30 minutes a day, 5 days a week) or Presidential Champions - people who are already active at least 30 minutes a day and want to step it up. There are awards for completing the challenge. For Active Lifestyle you have to get 6 stars filled to get the award. For Presidential Champions its baised on points earned and then there are 3 award levels: Bronze, Silver & Gold.

You can join groups, which are set out by States. I thought it might be interesting to start a group for those of us in J-land who are doing the challenge. If you are interested let me know and I'll set it up and get you the info.

Back to knitting and then work. Later J-land. ~Hugs~Jen

Walking and memories

So I didn't end up going on the walk yesterday. I got to cleaning and got a lot done and then remembered that I needed to go to the store. I was snack mom for my middle daughter's troop yesterday. So that meant that I needed to get to the store and then to the school before they went to their meeting. I just made it there in time for them to be dismissing the kids - go me. Then I had to rush back home and get my oldest and youngest from the bus, get them snack, get their chores/homework done and figure out dinner. Hubby suggested us walking once he got home. I okayed it because I didn't in the afternoon. But Hubby had to pick up stuff for dinner and by the time he was home after I picked up the middle girl it was almost 6. Made dinner (chilli dogs mmmmmmmm), ate and he forgot about the walk because he was in his comfy clothes. So I'm walking this morning once I get the kids on the bus I'll walk the my Walking the Walk video because it's kinda cold outside and my allergies are acting up enough right now for me to not want to risk totally losing my scratchy voice that I do have. LOL!

Plans changed for today. Its work (yay money but ugh sweaty), then beading, then practice, then possible drinks with other lunch ladies. :) I am looking forward to tomorrow morning though........the New Kids On The Block are reuniting on the Today show! :D I know I'm totally dating myself by saying that I drooled over Donny in grade school and that I am forever greatful to a friend for inviting me to go with her to the concert at the Breslin Center in 6th grade.

Breakfast time now....making an Herbalife pie for later so I'm having yogurt this morning with an apple. Later J-land. ~Hugs~Jen

Something to nibble on................

So the diet is going S L O W L Y this morning. I'm not totally sure if this on the diet but I like to have vanilla yogurt and granola for breakfast. I love the Dannon Light & Fit. I get to eat a cup of it and mix in the raspberry and cream granola that I bought at the local Better Health store. But I am eating an apple with it. One of the perks of working in the school cafeteria.....we have a cart that if a child does not want their fruit, pudding/applesauce cup, milk, juice, etc. they can put it on the cart. Other kids can then take the items if they will eat them with their lunch that way nothing is going to waste. At the end of lunch if there is anything left we take it home, give the milks to the PE teacher or pitch it in the trash.

So I boiled some eggs earlier because I can eat them - whites only on this diet. Of course I forgot them. LOL good thing about that is that the water boils off before you burn anything! HAHA There is a reason I only boil eggs in my cheap pan - :D. So I'll have some eggs and salad for lunch here in a little while and then head out for my walk. Better remember to stretch first otherwise I'm going to get leg cramps.

Well I'm getting back to cleaning. I have my exercise playlist on Winamp right now so it will keep me motivated. Otherwise I'll sit here and play games online or head back to finishing the baby blanket that I am knitting for a friend. It needs to get done but I need a living room more than that needs to be done today. Besides tomorrow I will be running around doing other things so I won't really be able to work on it then. I am teaching a friend from church how to bead jewelry in the afternoon, then I have practice for worship team and possibly meeting with friends from work for $1 beers later. I know - I won't be drinking more than 2 because of all the calories I'll have to work off. But it's nice to get out with people every now and then. I've had the hardest time making friends since we moved here and sadly I finally started about 2 years ago. We've only lived in the area for 7 years now and in this house for almost 5! >.< Ok really now I'm off to clean the living room. Later my J-land friends. ~Hugs~Jen

 

Frustrated, fat & bored

Its been a while once again since I last blogged. Life just gets in the way sometimes. things are relatively good at the moment. holding at 249 lbs. for the last month or so. I was good over Easter and somehow managed to not gain a pound. :) I've been looking at what I eat and thinking "how the hell have I not hit 300 lbs yet??!?!?!!?!?" Its all about will power - I have none it seems. Kids Halloween candy (yeah I know its old now), Easter candy, anything chocolate within my reach or sweet - and I eat it. Its TOM this week and I have become uber-bitch it seems. I snap at the littlest things and wnat sweets like there is no tomorrow. I'm being good and mostly sticking with fruit, yogert, or my 100 calories candy bars. I just all out feel like crap today and its showing in everything I do.

As far as exercise goes its warmer here in Michigan and there is no longer any snow so I think I am going to get back to walking again. From my house to the kids bus stop its a quarter of a mile. I'm thinking of walking to there and then continuing on to the end of the walkway along the main road. It has to be at least 1.5 miles one way. I was walking 4 miles with a friend at the beginning of the school year. I'll have to see if she wants to start doing that again. I just have to fight the rain to get this done. Maybe I'll even break out my bike and ride some - yikes thats a scary thought.

Last my diet. HAHA thats a huge laugh right now. I have the gung-ho approach to everything I do and then once something causes a snag I stop dead in my tracks. I am an Independent Herbalife Distributor who never sells anything. I actually got into it for the discount on my own food items. Who knew sponsoring my MIL would cause her to be wonder sponsor, trainer, weight-loss person......she makes me sick sometimes but she has replaced her income from her full time job with the part time work she does. I on the other hand have had a total of 4 customers - one was my MIL, the other had such a bad detox period she was told by her Dr. that she should have never tried the stuff and the other two I think bought it because they wanted to help me but then ran out of money to continue. Me on the other hand I just plain can't afford it anymore. So I was looking at the Michael Thurmond 6-week body makeover diet. My boss/principal/friend has done this for the past year and she is looking HOTT. She gave us lunch ladies a copy of her diet so we can know what to eat as we all fall into the same category. I took the quiz thing online to be sure but I am. So I went out and bought some of the foods and now its back to willpower again. You basically end up eating 6 meals a day or every 2 or 2.5 hours. So I am starting this tomorrow and will walk in the afternoon and see how long the path really is.

We shall see how well I do this time. I want this weight gone. I can't stand looking at myself like this anymore. I hate buying clothes that fit only to grow out of them in a few months time because I have gained weight. If I'm going to buy new clothes it better be because i have lsot weight not gained it. I put a picture of me on my fridge from High School - back when I was about 170 lbs. My friend saw it and and said "thats you? wow you were pretty!" Notice the were in that sentance. The only upside I have had was my brother - the twig who finally weighs over 150 lbs. and prolly fits the size 36 pants that he has been wearing baggy forever. He said to me at Easter that I was fat - yeah I know not nice - but it was the "you can't weigh more than I do" comment that I really loved. Either he thinks I have always weighed less than him (HAHAHAHAHAHA never true) or he thinks that no matter what I look like that I am not almost 250 lbs.

Dinner time now. Nite everyone in Jland. ~Hugs~Jen

Quick dash.......

Just a quick update as I need to run out the door in a few minutes. But I went down a few lbs - yea! Thanks to Sherry for the comment. :) I like how your blog is set up and your post/entry on how to get on track. I've done that its just staying on track that gets me. I've finally set up my stinkin' pedometer so that I know how many steps I have actually taken in a day. >.> I never realized that I had to do that and was quite happy with how many steps/miles I'd been walking before. Hopefully it being dropped in the toilet (it was clean! lol) a few months back won't effect it too much. :-D Ok out the door time and I'll get back on tonight and post the rest of the days activities and foods. ~Hugs~Jen

Here's my food for the rest of Monday, Tuesday and today so far:

Mon. - I'll be totally honest......3 cupcakes wiht frosting, 2 pieces of toast with 1 tbsp of p.b. each, 6 pieces of chocolate from the Whitman's sampler I had, and chicken alfredo with spaghetti noodles and parm. cheese. 1/8 mile (approx.) walk for work.

Tues. - >.< 2 cupcakes with frosting, 8 cups (give or take a cup I didn't measure it) air popped pocorn with parm. cheese, 2 8" beef tacos with cheese, mild taco sauce and sour cream. 1/2 mile (approx.) walk for work.

Wed. - 2 pieces of toast with 1 tbsp. p.b. each, 1/2 orange.

Blargh!!!

So a new year and a new goal, right? Yup even more weight to lose. Last year I started out good but gained it all back and then some from the stress of everything. If you can't be happy - eat! That was my motto. SO this year is starting out great........stinkin' kids birthdays that want cupcakes made for parties......and I make homemade frosting that I HAVE to sample to make sure it tastes great. >.< Can you say sabotage?

So just as I am embracing my size 22 (stretch mind you) jeans they are beginning to get tight. I've decided that I am not buying new jeans unless they have to be a smaller size. Good goal right? I figure it would be nice to fit into the size 20s that I have - minus the crowbar that it would take to get me into them right now. This is my goal for the next 2 months - to lose enough weight (approx. 20 lbs.) to fit in the 20s and have them be lose (or as close to it as possible) once again. I can do this. I want to do this. I need support to do this. Because I know losing the weight will help with my sleeping problems, will get me in shape and make it so I don't feel like dying after being on stage for 10 minutes dancing. I'd like to not lose my breath and be able to sing the song all the way through while dancing. The whole reason I got into the worship team for the kids was someone thought my voice was good. But with the dancing and singing at the same time - there is no prayer of my being able to do both at the same time right now. So I have two goals - drop 20 in 2 months and to get into shape to be able to sing and dance at same time. Hmmm is that anything like walking and chewing gum at the same time....seeing as I have problems walking sometimes this might be hard. Oh wait thats only where stairs are involved. ;) Sorry a little humor at my own wxpense. I can trip up the stairs - they hate me. lol

Well I am off to exercise now and see hwo that goes. As you can see from my ticker - no weight lost. I'm starting over and its 80 lbs not 50 lbs that I'm losing this year. Hope all is well for those of you still reading this and Happy New Year.... a little late. :)

~Hugs~Jen

 

Breakfast - Herbalife Dutch Chocolate Shake

Exercise - Walk the Walk with Leslie Sansone - 30 min. mile