Seeing Stars...

Tonight I went to my WW meeting and I saw stars. I got another 5lb star and this:

I also earned another charm for my key chain. For those who don't know about the WW key chains, you get the key chain when you reach your 10% loss goal. Then you get a washer at 25, 50, 75, and 100 pounds lost. The clapping hands with the "16" on them is for 16 weeks of meetings and I also have a 5K charm for completing my first 5K walk. I have this hanging on a little suction cup on the front of my fridge. It serves as a daily reminder of how far I've come and my success.

 

Here is a slide show of my starting weight and then -50 pounds:

Shrinking

Do you remember the scene in Alice in Wonderland when she drinks the potion that shrinks her down to an itty bitty size? Well, Weight Watchers doesn't offer any potions to shrink us down, but somehow it works like magic to me! I'm not hungry, I eat what I want and I'm still losing weight and inches. I took my measurements this morning since I've now been on WW for five months, here are my totals:

• Head: -1/2" 
• Neck: -1 1/2" 
• Arm: -2 5/8" 
• Wrist: -5/8" 
• Bust: -3 1/2" 
• Ribs: -1/2" 
• Waist: -8" 
• Hips: -7" 
• Thighs: -5 1/4" 
• Calves: -3/4"

Total inches lost:  -30 1/4!

Tonight is my weigh-in. I'm 1.4 pounds away from losing 50 total. I'll be back tonight to update!

An Unexpected Loss

I'm going to keep this brief tonight because Gray's starts tonight and I'm in my PJ's ready to watch it! I weighed in tonight and this week I had an unexpected loss.

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-5 pounds!



WHOA! Tracking points and getting some exercise just like always, so I'm not sure how this week managed -5, but I'll take it! I'm only 1.4 pounds away from my -50 pounds loss goal, that I set for Halloween!  -48.6 is feeling pretty good, I must say!

Decisions, decisions...

It is fall and that means that my favorite TV shows are coming back. There are so many that are favorites that I have to pick and choose which I'll be watching. I'm so thankful for a DVR so that I can be watching one while recording another. Tonight I'll be watching Glee with my DH.  We both love the show!

 I'll also be watching...

This is the first year that I've watched TBL while working on weight-loss at the same time! No more pizza and ice cream while watching it. Instead I think I'll do some cardio before the show starts and then snuggle with our newest addition to the family, Lilly.

She's 11 weeks old and we just got her last night!

What are your favorite shows this fall?

Friend Makin' Monday {Health and Body Image}

Kenz over at All The Weigh is hosting FMM again! Head over there to see how others are answering these questions!

1) If you could magically change one thing about your body, what would it be? I know there is no magic and that changing my body is all up to me and the amount of hard work I'm willing to put into it.  Something that I can't control, though, is my PCOS and I would love to wave a magic wand and make that go away.

2) What is your best physical feature? I'm told it is my eyes. They're a blue green color and I do like them.

3) Do you weigh yourself daily? Hourly? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Never? I weigh myself most mornings just to keep it real, but I only count my weigh-in's at WW once a week.

4) Do you workout regularly? If so, how does if affect you from day to day? I work out more now than I ever have before, but I wouldn't say it is regularly quite yet.  I do feel great when I do it and never regret it, and I always have much more energy on the days that I do it.

5) What is the healthiest thing you do for yourself on a regular basis? I track my points every bite of the way! I don't miss things and know that I'm always on track.

6) If you could look like a celebrity, who would you choose to look like? There are many beautiful people who are famous, aren't there? I would want to look like Nicole Kidman or Marcia Cross. They're both tall and thin with their peaches and cream complexions and red hair.

7) What do you do to make yourself feel pretty/handsome? I paint my nails. It isn't often that I have them done anymore, but when I do I feel a little extra pretty.

8) What are you most attracted to in the opposite sex? Tall and blue-eyed, just like my DH!

9) Have you ever avoided situations because you didn't want people to see your body shape? I have in the past, but not recently.


10) How do you feel about your overall appearance?  Overall, I'm not pleased with my appearance right now, but I'm pleased with my progress and know that as long as I keep doing what I'm doing, my appearance will continue to change for the better.

Letting Go

Today a group of three of my friends and I did a walk for The Open Door Mission. The ODM is an amazing place for the homeless in the Omaha Metro area. We toured the facilities and enjoyed the walk together despite the misty rain and cool temperature. 

I brought along with me three grocery bags of clothes to donate. Skirts, sweaters, jeans, shorts, and dress clothes. 20 pounds of clothes that are now too big for me are going to help women in my area. Letting those clothes go meant so much to me. I carried them a mile and a half to the mission. Friends offered to help carry them, but I insisted on doing it myself. One of my friends brought up that there are so many homeless in the area that probably don't even have one grocery sack full of anything to their names or all they do have is one bag full that they carry around day after day, through all kinds of weather. I could certainly carry my donations a mile and a half in the cold misty rain. I needed to carry it myself to truly be able to let them go, too. Letting those clothes go means that I don't have them to fall back on should I, God forbid, gain the weight back. Without those clothes to fall back into, I'm more likely to stay on track and not need them. Carrying the clothes was carrying only half of the weight I've already lost and it felt heavy at times during that short one and a half mile walk to the mission. Letting them go was a relief and the walk back was much easier for me. Just four short months ago I was walking around with twice that weight all over my body.

Today I walked a mile for the homeless, but I think it was me who benefited from the walk and from...letting go.


If you're anywhere near the Omaha NE area, please help the homeless at the Open Door Mission. The work they do is Christian-based work and they're not only helping feed and clothe the homeless, but they're helping them gain GED's and get jobs and, most importantly, they're bringing them to Jesus through the Gospel. A program like that deserves to be supported! Click HERE to learn more about Open Door Mission.

Ben Does Life

A friend of mine sent this video to me. Ben got big, but then one day changed that and he hasn't looked back. Click to read Ben's blog here. To my WW buddy....this one is for you, it reminds me so much of you. I'm so proud of how far you've already come!

Reader Questions!

I've had some readers email me with questions, so here are some answers!

• How much did you weigh when you started WW? My starting weight isn't something I want to share with anyone other than my WW leader, my doctor and my husband. Perhaps someday I will share that information on my blog, but I'm not ready for that at this time. I will say that it started with a two and that, even with forty three pounds down, two is still the first number of my weight. Maybe when it starts with a one I will announce it and then ya'll can do the math if you so desire! ;)
• How tall are you? I'm 5'7" (170 cm) without any shoes on.
• What is the trick to success with WW? Tracking your points! If you want to "do" the WW program, you absolutely have to track your points (food intake)! It is easy to do and as long as you're accountable for every bite you take, you will succeed. It isn't an option for me to not track my points. I'm a Weight Watcher and that means I track my points for every bite I take. No excuses!
• What is your favorite treat to splurge on? I love ice cream, but I don't splurge on it anymore. I've found WW ice cream snacks, Skinny Cow, and Smart Ones that I like, so I get that craving satisfied without the guilt of a splurge. There really isn't anything that I splurge on anymore as I've found new recipes for favorite meals and desserts that are healthier, but still taste great. Also..."treat" is misleading because I think that more often than not, those "treats" should be called "mistreats" because you're mistreating your body and weight-loss journey by having them. A confession, though, I did have a mini DQ blizzard a few weeks ago and it was delish and totally worth the 8 points it cost me that day! ;)
• Are you allowed to have _____ on your diet? I've been asked this so many times! First of all, WW is not a diet because diets have an end to them. I'll be a Weight Watcher for the rest of my life, that's how it works and how you keep off the weight you lose. Now to answer the question, yes I can have ___ whatever I want! Seriously, whatever I want, nothing is off limits. I just have to be accountable for whatever I eat, count the points and stay on track. That's it. There are no limitations with WW!  That doesn't mean that I DO eat anything I want, however. I want to eat healthier options such as whole grain pastas, lean meats, and lots of vegetables!
• Boxers or briefs? Haha!! That's hilarious. I do need to buy some new underwear because some of mine are too big and look more like boxers now!

I hope you enjoyed this little Q&A session, if you have any questions for me, email me! :)

That's More Like It!

I just got home from my WW meeting and I lost 2.4 pounds this week! That made up for last week plus .8 more. TOM just came yesterday, so I'm very pleased with 2.4 this week! I hope to make 45 pounds gone next week, I only need to lose 1.4 to get there. Then onward to my mini goal of 50 gone by Halloween!


NSV.........Today I'm wearing a pair of pants that I haven't worn for about six years! Yay!

I have now lost 174 sticks of butter. What would that look like in a grocery cart?! I bet 44 boxes of butter would more than fill one of the hand baskets, so a shopping cart would be needed!

What a Difference a Year Makes!

I am part of my local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. One year (plus one day, but who's counting) ago I took a picture of myself before our first meeting of the year. I liked how I had done my hair and wanted to remember what it looked like so that I could later replicate it. I was feeling pretty confident that day. (Why didn't anyone tell me that wasn't a good hair style?!)

Today I took my picture again, before our first MOPS meeting of the year. The hair is certainly different than it was last year, but there are other changes, too. I'm about 42 pounds lighter! What a difference a year makes!







I can't wait until next year!



**Just want to clarify a few hours after I wrote this post that the top picture was taken one year ago, but I've only been on WW and losing weight for the last 4 months! Oh man, to think about what my picture will look like and how I'll feel a year after I started WW (end of April)....Wow! I have no idea where I'll be in this journey, but I'm looking forward to it!

Lose For Good~ Help Feed the Hungry!

Today is Lose-A-Polooza for the Lose For Good Weight Watchers Campaign! For every accepted mention or acknowledgment of “Lose For Good” made on September 14th through blogs, Twitter, Facebook and check-ins via foursquare, Weight Watchers will donate $1 – up to $60,000* – to Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger.

Click HERE to learn more about the Lose For Good campaign and find out how you can help feed the hungry while losing weight; a win for everyone!  


Click HERE to learn more about Share Our Strength. Share Our Strength is a program that helps feed hungry children at school. A hungry child can't learn, which is why they fund organizations that make sure they have nutritious meals each school day. They fund breaskfasts, lunches, snacks and even meals throughout the summer.

Click HERE to learn more about Action Against Hunger. Action Against Hunger has world-wide nutrition programs, water sanitation programs and livelihood programs. Click HERE to see where around the world their work is being done.

Along with donations to these two fantastic organizations, Weight Watchers Lose For Good participants around the world are donating non-perishable food items to their local food banks. I will be donating as many pounds as I have lost by the end of the campaign (Oct. 23rd) in food. I encourage you to do the same whether or not you need to lose weight! Better yet, join Weight Watchers today and join in the Lose For Good campaign. You'll get healthier and you'll be helping the hungry in your area and across the world, too! You can't go wrong!

Be sure to comment on this blog post and include "Lose For Good" in your comment! For each comment made TODAY, another $1 will be donated!!

Weekly Weigh-in

I gained this week. I gained 1.6 this week. Ouch. I weighed in today instead of tomorrow, but I'll be back to Thursday evenings next week. I knew the scale was going to show a gain this week. I had more sodium that usual, less water than usual, less movement than usual, some stress, and TOM is due to show up soon, so there's that, too. This is only my second gain since joining WW 20 weeks ago.

I gained this week, but now that I've confessed it, I'm over and am moving on! At my WW meeting, we learned about the WW campaign Lose For Good. It goes from September 5th through October 23rd. We discussed making goals to reach by October 23rd and I decided to get to my 50 pound loss goal by Halloween, just one week after the campaign is done. I need to lose 8.8 pounds in eight weeks. I can do that!

Tag! I'm it..again!

Kelly over at Life in The Fat Lane just tagged me in another survey...fun times! Thanks Kelly!


1. What has been the hardest part of losing the weight? Those moments when I know I've worked hard at it all week and then have a gain or a zero on the scale. It is frustrating. I do focus on how far I've come in those moments, though, and it makes it more bearable.

2. How old are you?



3. What's your favorite time of year? We're almost there, I love autumn! The crisp leaves in beautiful colors, pumpkin patch trips with my DS, apples and cider and at least one bon fire. I love it all!

4. What's your favorite holiday? Christmas

5. If you could pick any time period to live in, which one would it be? The 50's seem like a pretty good time to grow up. Life was much more simple than it is now and the world at large just seemed like it was a happier place. Plus I could totally rock the June Cleaver look and life! ;)

6. What is your absolute favorite food? As it was established in the last survey...ice cream! More specifically, chocolate ice cream with peanut butter fudge swirled in it.

7. Are you a morning person or a night owl? Morning person by far! I get growl-ly at night if I'm up past my bedtime. I love, love, love to sleep in, but once I'm up I'm happy and smiling, no matter what time it is!

8. If you want to travel, where would you go first? Back to Italy! I went there in 1998 with my college choir and loved it so much. I'd love to go back with my DH and DS when he's a bit older.

Tag! I'm it!

Megan over at Status: MIA tagged me for a little survey. I like surveys, so that was cool. Thanks Megan!


1. What size were you the happiest at?

 It may come as a surprise for me to list my biggest size ever as my happiest! I was 36 weeks pregnant in this photo, expecting my son. I loved being pregnant as it wasn't easy to get there for me and just the knowledge that I was now a mother made me happy every day. I had him three weeks after this picture, so got even a little bigger (he was an ounce shy of 11 pounds at birth).





2. Who is your favorite musician/band and why? I have so much music that I enjoy. I am a musician myself, too. If I had to pick one, I would choose Broadway soundtracks, especially Rent and Wicked.



3. What hair care product (styling products, utencils etc) can you not live without? My flat iron is my friend. I have mostly straight hair naturally, but I use it to smooth it out and sometimes to curl it, too. That and a little root pump by Big Sexy Hair and I'm good to go!

4. Who inspires you to be a better person, why? My son! He inspires me to be the best mom possible, he inspires me to keep losing weight so that I can run and play with him and so that he doesn't have to be the kid at school with the fat mom. He makes me want to grow even closer to Jesus so that I can help him come to Jesus, too. He just inspires so many aspects of my life to be better than they were without him around.


5. What's your favorite kind of muffin? Blueberry with the crumbly stuff on top.


6. If you knew you were going to die and had to choose your last meal, what would it consist of? Pasta with marinara, a few french fries, chocolate dipped strawberries, diet coke and ice cream for dessert.


7. What food couldn't you live without? Literally? Water. Figuratively: ice cream!


8. What is your favorite spice?  I'll chose cinnamon. Fall is just around the corner and I'm ready for some cinnamon in some apple cider. MmmMmm!


If you liked reading this, copy the questions and answer them on your own blog and then let me know you did!

One

Another pound lost this week! I'm now down 42.8. I can't believe how far I've come in such a short amount of time. Just four months ago I weighed 42.8 pounds more than I do right now! How crazy is that?! That one pound this week also helped me reach my goal of getting down into the next decade of weight by Labor Day, which is on Monday! I'm thrilled to have set, and reached, another goal. Another small celebration tonight is that I now weigh less than I have in the last 6 years!

My next goal is to simply get to my 50 pound mark. I have 7.2 pounds to lose to reach it. WW will award me another charm for my key chain at that point. I love that little key chain and the charms on it. I have it hanging on the front of my fridge so that I see it several times a day. It keeps me motivated to avoid those extra snacks and keep moving!

This evening after dinner I went for a quick walk. I walked my quickest mile yet! I just walked around my neighborhood tonight, which I hadn't done for quite some time and I surprised myself thinking about how easy it felt. Just four months ago, when I started this journey, I couldn't have walked that far (uphill on the way home) and it was a huge struggle for me. Tonight I walked it, quickly, and was smiling at people the entire way rather than huffing and puffing and feeling rotten. That is a NSV for me!

Fast Food Fast

Today is September 1st and today is the first day of my fast-food fast. For the month of September I will be staying away from all fast-food. Fast food is all too convenient for me. Within 5 minutes of my house in any direction there is McDonalds, Taco Bell, Fazoli's, Taco John's, Wendy's, Burger King, KFC, Popeyes Chicken, Culver's, Subway, and Dairy Queen...and I'm sure I forgot a few. I will allow myself Subway if I'm out and about and unprepared for lunch, but only Subway. No more french fries and my diet coke intake will be cut down, too, since I don't keep it at home and only drink it when we grab a meal out. Weight Watchers allows us to eat whatever we want, including fast-food, so this isn't a WW thing. It is my own decision to try to make another healthy change in my life. I don't need fast-food and, quite frankly, I don't think I'll miss the junk!

PS My friend, Connie, had the same great idea and posted about it yesterday! Go over to Fat to FIT Mommy! to see others who are also joining in this FFF!