Weigh-In, Recapping Goals and Weekly Goals

Hi, all!

Happy Sunday! How are you all doing on this gorgeous day? The sun is currently shining, however, it did rain this morning. I'm sorry that I haven't been updating much lately, it's been a struggle. This coming week I'm definitely going to try harder all around.

It's Sunday, which means it's time to share my results for this past week. I'll be honest, I had an absolutely horrendous week, both nutritionally and with my fitness. I was lacking the motivation to work out and I made far too many unhealthy food choices. Also, I ate more calories than I wanted or needed. Honestly, I only tracked my food three days and those were the only three days that I made healthier food choices.

Starting Weight: 315 lbs

Last Weight: 306.5 lbs

Current Weight: 306.2 lbs

Weight Lost: 8.8 lbs

Amazingly enough, I lost .3 pounds last week. I truly do not know how that happened, but it did, and I won't turn it down. I've been feeling a bit down on myself because of my lack of progress this month. So today I decided to look back at my numbers from April 27th and I'm actually sort of amazed by how much progress I've made since then. In 48 days, I've lost 7.2 pounds. So, in just about 7 weeks, I've lost 7.2 pounds, which equates to .97 pounds each week. Losing almost a pound each week is nothing to be sad about, that's continuous progress. Yes, I have a long way to go still, but I'm making progress either way.

Now on to recapping my goals from last week, let's just say, I did horribly with them. Plain and simple. I didn't lose at least .5 pound, but I did lose .3, and after my week, I'll count that as a win. I did work out four times but only had 138 minutes instead of my goal of 180. I most definitely did not eat within my calorie goal 6 days, I was under or right around my goal 3 days for sure. As I said earlier, I didn't even track my calories from Wednesday on, so I'm not sure what the actual totals were, but they weren't good. I did weigh-in each day, so I accomplished that goal. I most definitely did not stay positive each day and did not blog at least 3 days. My last post was Sunday, which I'm disappointed about, I should have blogged more. One thing that I did stay up on was my water intake, I made sure to drink at least 64 ounces each day and usually surpassed it. I did continue to work through my food addiction, but sadly, I let my food addiction take over. I ate when I was stressed, frustrated, upset, and happy. Overall, I did not only eat for nourishment, but for comfort.

Now onto this weeks goals:

1. Lose .5 - 1 pound

2. Cardio - 4 sessions, 45 minutes/session (180 minutes)

3. Eat within my calorie goal (2290) at least 6 days 

4. Weigh-in daily for weight loss study

5. Stay Positive

6. Blog at least 3 days

7. Drink at least 64 oz of water/day

8. Continue to work through food addiction

This week I'm really hoping to do better and I'm going to work hard to achieve my goals. I have to work Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, so I'll be a little busier, plus I'm planning on meeting up with a friend right after work on Wednesday. This week I'm going to focus more on nutrition and make sure to stick with my calorie goal and making healthier food choices. I'm also going to try and do some cardio each day I'm not working and do at least some strength training on the days that I do work.

Well, I'm off to go and spend some time with my family. I hope that you all have an amazing evening. Until next time! 

Memorial Day and Progress

Hi, all!

Happy Monday! And more importantly, happy Memorial Day! I am so thankful for those men and women who have sacrificed their own lives in order to save ours. How did your weekend go? Did you make healthy food choices? Have a good workout? I had a great weekend, I worked out once and stayed under my calorie goal both days. The weather here has been crazy today, it's been rainy one minute and then the sun is shining. Oh well, I'll be inside most of the day anyways.

I'm incredibly proud of myself for something that happened yesterday. After church, my mom and I went out for lunch at this delicious Italian restaurant and anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Italian food. Anyways, we had Italian food and I made a better food choice than I normally would have. Typically, I would have gotten a huge serving of pasta and eaten all of it. However, I order a sandwich and some minestrone soup. I even only ate half of the sandwich at lunch and had the rest of it for dinner. Things are changing for the better in regards to my food choices and I can't be happier about it.

This evening we're grilling out, even though it's a rainy day, and I've already tracked what I'll be eating. It is things like this that are different from before I changed my life. Honestly, things are different from even a month ago. Before I allowed myself a 'cheat' day and I think that was where I struggled a great deal. When I allowed myself to eat a higher amount of calories once a week definitely took away from the progress I made throughout the week. Also, I shouldn't need to 'cheat' because I'm allowing myself to eat everything within moderation throughout the week. All of the foods I eat should fit into my calorie goal. Those 'cheat' days really did throw me off because it made it harder to get back on track the next day. So, no more 'cheat' days and focus more on making sure things fit into my nutritional goals for the week.

Today I decided that I'm going to do more strength training and not just upper body! I did a shorter, whole body strength training session today. My session could have been longer, but some are better than none. Hopefully, I'll be able to increase my strength training sessions from here on out. Along with my strength training, I walked for 32 minutes and I'm feeling great! It's especially wonderful because I wasn't sure if I was going to work out or not when I woke up this morning. But I decided that I not only should work out but crave to do it. I never regret a workout, but sometimes I regret not working out. So, I got my workout in and loved every minute of it.

Okay, well I'm off. Time to watch the baseball game and get a few things ready for dinner tonight. I hope that you all have a wonderful Monday, week and Memorial Day! Until next time!

~Sara~

Strange

Hi, all!

Happy Wednesday! The week is half over already, how are your goals coming along? How's your day going? It's a cloudy day here, but I'm loving the 60-degree weather. Can you believe that it's already the 20th of May? It seems like this month just began and now it's closer to being over.

This morning I had an interview at a staffing agency, which was awesome because I was shown a few more options that would be better for me. I'm really hoping that I'll hear from one of the places soon and I'll be able to start working soon. It was funny though because the woman I spoke with is the sister of a girl I graduated high school with, so it was nice to have that connection.

I've gotta tell you, it felt really strange to not workout this morning because of my interview. I worked out as soon as I got home, but it still felt weird to not throw on my workout clothes and my HRM as soon as I woke up. One thing that I realized during my workout today though is that when I do strength training, I focus far too much on my biceps. Don't get me wrong, working on your biceps is perfectly fine, but I focus too much on them. I find it incredibly easy to work on my biceps because I can work them while I'm walking. My biceps have always been an area where I've had some muscle, which is great, but I need to focus on other areas as well. So during my workout today, I tried to focus on some other muscles as well. I'm definitely going to work on doing more strength training and not just upper body.

Well, I'm off. I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon and evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

Life

Hi, all!

Happy Wednesday! How are you all doing today? It's another beautiful day here in southeastern Wisconsin and I'm just feeling happy today. I was blessed with another day to live my life freely, without many restrictions. This is something not all people get to say, so I am thankful. Last night and earlier this morning I was pondering on this and I the fact that life is short was forefront in my mind. After losing one of my best friends 6.5 years ago, I realize how short life is and how it can end at any moment. I think this is something that we forget sometimes, we don't realize how any of us could be gone in a minute. Each of us have been blessed with another day of life and we need to embrace it and live. Today I want to remind each of you (and myself) to live, don't focus on the past because we can't change it. Live for today and look toward the future. Most importantly, do things you love, pursue your passions, don't take people for granted because you never know when it will be your last day (or theirs). When my best friend died, I wasn't able to say goodbye to her because of our accident and that haunted me for awhile. I never told her how much she meant to me and that her friendship was precious to me. Don't make the same mistake I did, tell your friends and family how much they mean to you because if you don't do it now, you might never get to.

I have to tell you, I'm feeling extremely blessed lately because I've had more good days than bad. This is something that probably won't always happen, I accept that fact, however, I'm glad that things are like this in the beginning. There will be days that I struggle and there will be days where I do well, however, I am going to use each day to learn more about myself and work through my food addiction. I have come to the realization that I will probably never eat completely clean, I will have some processed foods in my diet. I'll go out to eat from time to time. I'll have pizza, nachos, Chinese, Italian, chips, ice cream, and thousands of other foods. And yes, sometimes I will eat more than I should, it is a part of life. I'm not perfect if you didn't already know that, and you aren't either. None of us are perfect, 100% of the time. There will be times where we overeat or eat something that isn't 100% healthy. So what? That's life sometimes and we deal with it. Heck, there will be weeks (sometimes months) where we maintain or gain weight, but we shouldn't be ashamed. These things are all a part of our journey and there's  nothing we can do about it. We each need to own up to our mistakes and the things that we struggle with if we don't then we can never move past them.

Okay, moving onto yesterday's results. I had a pretty good day, I was under my calories again and had a shorter workout. I'm proud of myself though because my mother and I went out for dinner (it was teacher appreciation day and she got a free meal. Also, my father was working last night.). The restaurant we went to has a variety of yummy food, plus a lot of higher calorie options. However, I ordered foods that would fit into my nutritional goals, plus it was delicious. In the afternoon, I also had a shorter workout. I started out walking with 2 lb dumbells, but my ankle and hip were hurting, so then I just did some upper body strength training. In the past, I probably would have just stopped and not worked out because of this. Honestly, I probably would have just eaten crappy then as well. Things are different now though and I continued to eat within my calorie range and I exercised in a way that I could without pain. I may do the same today or I might have a rest day, only time will tell.

This morning I went out for coffee with my best friend again, I'm loving these get together's with her. Sadly, within a few days things will get back to our normal and then I won't see her for awhile. In fact, I may not see her in person again before I move. This is life, being an adult and being away from your best friend isn't fun. Distance won't get in between our friendship though. I'm going to be seeing her again tonight and we'll either be getting coffee or dinner with another one of our friends.

Well, I'm off to make myself some lunch. I hope that you all have an amazing afternoon and evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

Interview and Other Randomness

Hi, all!

Happy Monday! How are you all doing today? It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining and it's in the low 70's, I definitely won't complain about that. How was your weekend? Mine was wonderful, I had a healthy and happy weekend. :)

I had an interview this morning and it went well, they're sending me some paperwork soon and then I'll be making my decision for sure on whether or not I want to accept the position. It would be a great position and helpful toward the future, as long as it's legit, so only time will tell. Then I went out for coffee with my best friend and we spent a few hours together. It was an amazing morning.

This morning when I weighed in, my hard work from last week showed. So, it seems that my body is finally adjusting to my new healthier eating and fitness routine. I'm trying to add more strength training into my routine, so I'm adding some dumbbells while I'm walking since my hip still isn't 100%. I can definitely tell the difference when I walk with weights though and I'm going to continue to do this. Yesterday I did well, both nutritionally and with my fitness. I was under my calorie goal and had a nice 38-minute walk. :) Today is going well thus far, however, at lunch I did eat a bit more than I had planned. I'm still on track for the day, especially after my 67-minute walk.

Well, I'm off to go and make dinner for the family. I hope that you all have an amazing evening. So until next time!

~Sara~

Update

Hi all!

Happy Wednesday! How are you all doing today? Sorry for not blogging for a few days, but I have been busy and feeling off. However, I am back now and feeling much better. My nutrition was very off and I was making many excuses. I did not even really weigh-in on Sunday because I knew that I would not like the number that I saw. Monday I had ever intention to get back on track but I had a doctor appointment where I had a procedure done and I was quite uncomfortable after it was done, so I just took some time to relax.

Yesterday was the first day this week that I was actually at my calorie goal and I was incredibly proud of myself. Let’s be honest, it is incredibly hard to get back on track, but it has to be done. I missed my arm day on Monday, so I did it yesterday and I had legs today. My shoulders and legs are killing me right now but I am so happy! I have changed up my strength training a bit, doing more reps in the beginning sets and fewer in the reps in the ending sets. It really is helping because I am able to do more sets and ultimately more total reps. Typically on leg day it was difficult for me to do all the sets I had planned, but today, I was able to do all of them. Yes, I was insanely tired after, however I still did them and did not need to stop.  

My best friend is going to be home for a week beginning on Sunday, I am counting down the days. Even though my best friend was just home for Christmas, I miss her like crazy. We talk numerous times a week but it is definitely not the same as being in the same city as her. She and I have already made numerous plans for while she is here. Monday we are going out for coffee together and lunch with a few of our friends. We will be getting some delicious Mexican food sometime throughout the week and going out for coffee again a few more times. Oh how I miss that girl!

Well, it’s time to sign off because I need to start dinner. Tonight I will be watching a few shows and hopefully finishing another discussion post for school. Once I finish those things, I will be ending the night with some reading. I hope that you all have a wonderful evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

Health

Hi all!

Happy Wednesday! How are you all doing today? It is a dreary day here, but I love it that it's warming up a bit. I cannot believe it's already the 14th, this month is flying by for me.

Today was leg day and let me tell you, my legs are feeling it. In fact, I had to cut my workout short and I'll be finishing it up this afternoon. My legs were killing because I upped my reps on some exercises, so my muscles were yelling at me. Oh well, I can easily finish up later on. I also did 20 minutes of cardio as well. I'm just trying to push myself and remember that sore muscles now means great results later.

Yesterday I realized that my HRM isn't working anymore :( The past few days my calorie burn has seemed off, both extremely high and low numbers. So I have decided to not worry so much about my calorie burn and focus more on fitness minutes and my nutrition. I want to focus more on my health than anything else, so fitness, nutrition and emotions are my priority.

Let me tell you, I have been so unproductive today. So it's time to end this post and actually get some schoolwork done. I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon and evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

Strength Training and School Work

Hi all!

Happy Wednesday! How are you all doing today? I am absolutely wonderful, feeling motivated and a good sore. It's another cold day here, but I'm not letting that get me down. Today I'm feeling really great, motivated, happy, and just excited for life. It is truly amazing what a positive attitude does for you, emotionally and physically.

This morning I had a killer legs and cardio day, by the end of my strength training session, my legs were shaking. The last 30 seconds of it, I almost didn't make it through because my legs were shaking so much. It was difficult to finish that session but I pushed through and I'm proud of myself. The exercises I did were not difficult by any means, I just haven't done any strength training in awhile. It has literally been months. After looking at my records, I realized that it's been between 11 and 12 months since my last consistent strength training sessions! God, no wonder why my muscles were screaming at me during my workout. I've done some consistent cardio between now and then but never strength training. I just need to ask myself one thing, why?!? Why on earth would I do that to myself? Things could be very different right now if I would have continued with strength training, but it is what it is. Let me tell you, I am ridiculously sore right now. I needed to bring my fitness equipment back upstairs and it was not an easy task. That just means that my lower body muscles are awake now.

This morning I decided to take some photos of myself, baring most of myself. I wasn't able to hide behind clothing. As much as I dislike taking pictures of myself like that, I think that it's crucial. One thing that I'm really trying to do is to not focus on the number on the scale. Comparing pictures, especially one's with fewer clothes, and measurements are really telling. I encourage everyone to take measurements and photos consistently, they may show your progress in a different way. It gives you a different perspective than just relying on the scale. I don't know about all of you, but I would rather feel and look healthier at a higher weight, than the other way around.

My class opened up two days ago, so I'm enjoying getting things prepared for my class to officially start on Monday. I've set up my homework chart, saved everything that I need to onto my computer and began working on my assignments. Yesterday, I turned in all of my week one assignments and began working on week two assignments. I figure, this session of class will not be all that busy because there's only one class, whereas beginning in session two, I'll be in three classes (including the one I'm in now). So I'm working ahead as much as possible, while I do have the time. Starting in the middle of February, things are going to get ridiculously busy again. Oh well, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my undergrad work, only 4 months until graduation!

Well, I'm off to work on some school work. I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon and evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

No excuses

Hi all!

Happy Tuesday! How are you all doing today? It's a beautiful, yet cold day here in southeastern Wisconsin. Today it only feels like -11 with windchill instead of -25, like it was yesterday. Is winter over yet?!? I'll answer my own question, not by a long shot. November and December were incredibly mild, so January and February for sure, will probably be full on winter. This week our highest high is 16 and that's before windchill. It is what it is though and I'll deal with it.

This morning I realized how much I was wallowing in my sickness and emotions lately. Honestly, I just wanted to shake myself and just yell at myself. So I gave myself a little pep talk and I'm choosing to have a more positive attitude and get back to my usual happy self. I have been making excuses, plain and simple, and that needs to stop now. Yes, I am sick, but I can't change that. What I can change is how I handle it. I do need to rest, that was doctor's orders, but I still will be up and do some light working out. So this morning, I put on my exercise shoes, HRM, and ankle weights and did some walking and a little strength training.

I haven't been feeling the greatest about myself, physically, we all experience that sometimes. I have been feeling sort of discouraged because I had gained some weight back last year and clothing that was loose on me is now tighter again. Yes, it does suck that those things happened, but they did happen. It's time to look at the big picture, I'm down 23 pounds from my heaviest weight. I'm wearing a size 20 pants instead of a 24. Today I'm wearing a size XL shirt when before it would have needed to be an XXL. I've lost about 7.5% of my body weight. I can't complain about any of these things, I am smaller than I was and just losing 7.5% of my body weight has a great deal of health benefits.

Starting today I am going to be doing more strength training. I know that I can't really build a whole lot of muscle while I'm eating at a calorie deficit, but it can help me to get leaner. No more excuses this year. I want to see amazing changes in my mind and body. Losing weight will happen, as long as I continue to eat at a deficit but that's not the most important thing. Ultimately, I just want to be healthy. Healthy is not a clothing size or a number on the scale. It's how I feel about myself. I hope that you all remember this fact as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

Recap (Day 620)

Hi all!

Happy Monday! It's a new week, what are we all going to do to make it a great one? How are all of you doing today? Sorry I've been MIA for the past 2 days, it's been quite busy. Let me give you a quick recap:

Saturday we had our garage sale and that made for such a long day. It was really slow but we made a few dollars, so it's better than nothing. I did get a bit of a sunburn on my shoulders but nothing too horrible. But I most definitely did not drink enough, so I had a bad dehydration headache. And sadly I did not get much homework done, but it all worked out well.

Sunday I headed to church in the morning with my mom and then we were out for a bunch of the day. Thankfully I was finally able to get my nails redone and now I have burgundy tips. :) I'm absolutely in love with them. I know the picture isn't the best and it definitely doesn't do them justice but here they are nevertheless. Plus we had some other shopping to do and then just spent the evening with family and working homework (like every other Sunday :) ).

I have so much to get done today and this week. Finding an apartment, getting my final done and my other homework, start packing, get a head start on next week's homework, among numerous other things. While I am still at home I am trying to work ahead in as much homework as possible because once I start working full-time, I will not have as much free time.

Amazingly enough I have gotten quite a bit accomplish last night and today though. I got a head start on a bunch of homework (although I really need to focus on my final that's due on Sunday) and sent out an important email about an apartment that I'm hoping to get into. But I'm going to cut this post short because it's time for a walking/jogging interval and some strength training. After that, it's back to homework. It's never ending. I hope that you all have an amazing day! So until next time.

~Sara~

My Best Friend (Day 593)

Hi all!

Happy Tuesday! How are you all doing today? It's a beautiful day here, a high of 72 and sunny. We've had such perfect weather lately, it should stay like this all the time. I've  been a very bad blogger lately... hardly posting or reading/commenting. I won't make any excuses but I have been really busy with school. Honestly, I didn't think that it would keep me quite so busy, but it has... along with working out, family, stressing out about Abid and trying to sell our house, among other things.

Today we had a showing of our house, so I went down to the coffee shop in my town and worked on some homework. But then I finished my homework before the showing was over so I went and visited my best friend's grave. I've been missing her so much lately. The past few weeks have just been really stressful and I feel so alone, I don't really have any friends who live nearby (I do have some but they all work). Most of my friends live in other states and I wouldn't trade these people for the world but it's hard not really having many people around here. Not sure if I've ever posted a picture of my best friend and I, this is her and I a few weeks before her death.

Amanda was honestly the most amazing person I have ever met in my life, her heart was so big. Everyone that met her, loved her instantly. She was just one of those people. In every situation she knew what to do and say to make everything better. It's time like this (stress, confusion, worry, etc...) that I miss her most. I would never wish how I feel about losing my best friend, onto my worst enemy. Don't get me wrong, it's easier now than it was 4.5 years ago but it still is freakishly hard. I really wish she was here right now, but alas she is not. I get through this, I always do. 

I love you and miss you so much, Amanda! <3

But I suppose... this house showing really screwed up my schedule today. I'm going to go workout, walking to warm up and cool down and then some Hip Hop Abs. Plus I want to do some serious strength training as well. And I'll stop being such a slacker with my homework... so that means getting a head start on everything else for the week. I hope you all have a wonderful afternoon! So until next time!

~Sara~

Pit & Peak (Day 547)

Hi all!

Happy Friday, this week has flown by! How is everyone doing today? It's a beautiful sunny day here and right around 30 degrees. Today was amazing, I was actually able to see Abid on Skype! This is huge, I haven't seen him in a few weeks. Plus this weekend is going to be awesome, my best friend is coming home for the weekend. So we get to have a coffee date. :)

Wow, my legs are burning today! I walked my scheduled 2.25 miles, along with some upper body strength. My time is decreasing again, thankfully. Today I walked those 2.25 miles in 54 minutes but 2 days ago I walked 2 miles in 49 minutes. So that's a positive, I'm really psyched about it. Even better, I have 202 minutes of exercise this week alone and 485 minutes so far this month!

I have about half of my paper done so far and I think it will be my best paper yet. Right now I'm trying to figure out what to say next. My professor is much happier now because there has been a bunch of discussion this week (after he threatened to take 10% off our grade if we don't respond more). But nevertheless, the discussion board has been a lot busier this week. It's actually difficult to keep up with every one's posts, because I like to put a lot of thought into my responses, but I'm trying to get caught up with it.

Today I'm linking up with Brin and Allie for Pits & Peaks.

Pits

1. There is still snow on the ground (even though it's "spring")

2. I haven't been sleeping very well lately

Peaks

1. I've walked every day this week

2. I got to see Abid on Skype today :)

3. My best friend is coming home this weekend

4. I've stayed within my calorie goal every day this week

It's nice for me to see so many peaks instead of pits for this week. :) Well I'm out to go keep writing my paper and catch up the discussion posts. Have a wonderful afternoon and evening. Happy almost weekend! So until next time!

~Sara~

Progress (Day 540)

Hi all!

Happy Friday! How is everyone doing today? You've made it through the week, that's a great accomplishment! :) It's snowy here today, but a bit warmer (35 degrees, and yes, in Wisconsin that is warm :) ). I had my doctor appointment this morning and he said that I'm making good progress, but he wants to see me in a month just to make sure I keep progressing. As my doctor said today, it doesn't matter where you are right now, all that matters is that you're heading in the right direction. I think about this with my weight loss/exercise as well, just keep making small changes and they lead to great things.

Today I walked 2 miles! That is huge for me, it took me about 46 minutes (long way for me to go if I want to walk a 5K in 45 minutes). Plus I did more upper body strength training while walking and dang... I can feel it in my arms, especially my shoulders. I did 5 sets of 10 of bicep curls, hammer curls, lateral shoulder raises, chest press, shoulder row, and tricep extensions. Plus another one (I don't know the name of it), I held my weights up near my head almost in a sense that I was flexing my bicep (without the flex) and just held it for 1 minute, I did that 5 times as well. That one I felt the most. It's crazy just how much 2 lb weights can do. Next week won't be too bad, my plan has me walking 30 minutes on Monday, 2 miles on Wednesday, and 2.25 miles on Friday (or whatever day I choose to do each). Plus more walking on the other days of the week. But I'm sure proud of myself for keeping up with this program now. I can't believe that in a few weeks I will be walking my first 5K! Once I accomplish that, I am going to work on my 5K time and hopefully do some more intense cross training.

So yesterday was a high carb day, and honestly my high carb days aren't that high. But it was weird having pasta for lunch and rice/bread with dinner (we put rice in our chili instead of noodles). Oh and then I had plain waffles as an night time snack. They were all really good, and I was still plenty under my carb goals (craziness I tell you)! Actually I was well under on all of my numbers including calories. Plus I found out that the chili we've been having all week will have fewer calories than I originally thought. I put down on the recipe that there are 12 servings, well it will be at least 15 serving for that pot. So my calories, carbs, protein, and fats are a little lower each day than originally calculated. Oh well, it happens.

This morning was amazing, I got up did all the things I had to do to get ready. I came down stairs, made myself a cup of coffee and opened up my computer. To my surprise I had a message on Skype from Abid from a few minutes before! What?!? It said he was offline but I sent him a message back anyways, not thinking anything. But he responded to me, he was online! He was at his friends house and we were able to talk for about 45 minutes (before my doctor appointment). I wasn't able to see him because his friend doesn't have a cam, but I was able to hear his voice and he was able to see me. It was like how it use to be when we talked every day. Oh, it was so nice. He sent me a few newer pictures of himself (he's looking handsome as always). Of course he wasn't smiling in the picture, his excuse was because he's not with me so he can't smile. (Cheesy, I know. But it was cute :) ). I guess it's no different than his "fake" smile in most of his other pictures. He told me that once we're together and we have pictures together, he will do his real smile. He is such a goon! :) (One of the many reasons why I love him).

Today I'm catching up on blogs (I follow so many awesome bloggers). Plus responding to some discussion postings for school. Have a wonderful afternoon/evening everyone! So until next time!

~Sara~

Catching Up (Day 536)

Hi all!

Happy Monday! How is everyone doing today? Did you all have a good weekend? Mine was wonderful, busy but wonderful. I just want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my blog yesterday about me revealing my current weight. You all are amazing and so encouraging! I was really nervous about revealing my true weight (not sure why because I have my highest weight out there and how much weight I've lost). But nevertheless, I was nervous. All of your encouragement was so wonderful, you have no idea how much I appreciate it. So thank you!

This morning I did not want to get up, so I slept a lot later than what I normally would (well sort of). The time change made it look as though I slept an hour later, I woke up at 8:30. So before the time change, that was in my normal time frame. But that just means that the morning went a lot faster than normal. Probably didn't help that Abid decided to call me at 12:40 this morning, it was 10:40 in the morning by him. He felt horrible that he woke me up, but that's the best way I could have been woken up. Anytime I get to hear his voice, is a wonderful thing.

I just finished up my workout, and I'm feeling amazing. It's amazing how great I feel after a workout, even if it's just a walk and a little upper body strength training. My pedometer is amazing, I found the perfect spot to wear it while walking where it very accurately counts my steps/mileage. It was just this little cheapy pedometer (because I can't afford much right now), but it's doing the job. 1.05 mile walk today in 20 minutes, my time is improving again. Today I didn't really have a real "goal" of how far I was going to walk or mileage or anything. My back/hip was starting to hurt right around 16 minutes, so I pushed myself to 20 minutes and then called it a day.

Yesterday was a high carb day (you all know how much I love those days), it went fairly well. I was under all of my goals, even after I adjusted my numbers because of my weight loss. Last night I was so dang proud of myself, my brother, SIL, and their 4 youngest came over for dinner (that's pretty typical). And of course the kids wanted hot chocolate pudding on ice cream, well I turned down the ice cream and just had a small portion of the hot pudding. That was a total win. It is a step in the right direction for me mentally with my weight loss. Here's a recap of yesterday:

Type	Carbs	Protein	Fats
Total	399	399	85
Used	285	155	50
Left	114	244	35

This week I have a very light homework load, a little reading, writing a thesis statement and outline for a future paper, a discussion post, and responding to others outlines/thesis statements. The reading is already done. Plus my outline is about done, just need to write the thesis statement. So all I really need to do is write out my discussion post by tomorrow and wait for others to post their outlines so I can respond to those. I'm hoping this means that I can catch up on the blogs I follow, finally! I've been such a bad blogger friend lately, I've barely read any blogs. But hopefully today I can catch up on all of them!

I should start my thesis statement quickly and maybe start on my discussion posting. Then I promise I'll start catching up on those blogs. Plus I get to watch my Brewers this afternoon. :) So until next time.

~Sara~

Weigh-In (Day 535)

Hi all!

Happy Sunday! How is everyone doing today? It's a rainy day here, but I won't let that get me down. I'm sitting here with my delicious coffee and thinking about how excited I am because it's weigh-in day. :) But before I get to that, I want to be more honest with you all. In the past I have hid my current weight, because it's a number I don't like. No more of that though, it's time to start being 100% honest with you all about my weight. So here it is (and this is how it will be from now on):

Starting Weight: 315
Last week: 289.2
This week: 285.4 

That is a loss of 3.8 pounds! Right?!? How awesome! The carb cycling is working, quite well.
Speaking of carb cycling, it is a high carb day today. But I did adjust my numbers since my weight decreased, so I think I'll be doing that from week to week with my new weight. The numbers didn't change a ton, just a few grams lower than last week. Here is a recap of my numbers yesterday:

Type	Carbs	Protein	Fats
Total	173	347	144
Used	154	141	76
Left	19	206	68

Oh and I tried out my new protein powder and I absolutely love it! Honestly, when you warm it up, it tastes like hot chocolate. :) How awesome is that?!? Plus I brought it with me to church last night and added some coffee to it, so it was pretty much a mocha. It is one of the new staples in my diet, especially now that I'm adding strength training back into my routine.

Now on to today, I got to try out my other new toys today. I'm doing the Couch to 5K program (just walking right now), and I'm on week 2. The goal today was to walk for 25 minutes, so it wasn't too hard. So I put on my pedometer and picked up my weights and started walking, I even did some upper body strength training while walking. I'm so glad to be able to exercise some again, I was really yearning for it. And it's really nice to not have to count my own steps because then I can't do anything else really. Now I can just focus on walking and upper body strength training. Today I did two sets of 20 of these exercises: bicep curls, lateral shoulder raise, chest press, tricep extension, shoulder row, and hammer curl. Those were the easiest ones to do while walking, plus I want to add some wrist curls next time. Even after I was done with my strength training, I still held onto the weights while I was walking. And now I can't wait until my workout tomorrow. I've planned more walking, 1.75 miles. Not sure how long it will take me, but that's the longest I will have walked in awhile.

So I don't know how many of you are baseball fans, but every day I've been watching the World Baseball Classic pretty much every day. Because I'm obsessed with baseball, it's one of my passions. I could watch baseball every second of every day, and honest, I do watch it most of the day while I'm at home. :) If I could get paid to watch/talk baseball, I totally would. I love it in general, no matter what teams are playing. But tomorrow is going to be even better because I get to watch my Brewers! It's their first televised games of the Spring, and I am more than excited to watch my boys play. I can even workout during the game if I want, just be walking around my living room while the game is on. :)

Time to finish up my paper and the discussion posts for this week. Week 4 is about to start, I can't believe it!  I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! So until next time.

~Sara~

Year 1 Day 159 (Day 524)

Hi all!

Happy Wednesday! How is everyone doing today? My mind has been renewed and I'm ready to figuratively kick some butt! Not sure if this new found confidence has anything to do with the pants I'm wearing today (size 20's, oh yeah!) or not, but I'm mentally renewed. I woke up to this huge snow storm this morning and thankfully it's finally stopped (it's almost March for goodness sake).

I'm getting to the point where I'm so ready to start working out again. I have a physical therapy appointment tomorrow morning so I'm going to talk to her and see if she thinks its a good idea to start walking and maybe do some upper body strength training (as long as it doesn't aggravate my back/hip). Honestly, I'm missing my daily workouts, and I just want to start them up again. I'm fairly certain that she'll say walking is okay because she has me warm up our PT sessions by walking on the treadmill. But I just want to run my idea by her before making any decision on it and of course I wouldn't be walking very fast. I probably really got the itch to exercise because one of the people I follow on Facebook posted a March fitness challenge and I really want to do it but I probably won't be able to because it deals with the thighs (and having an issue with my back/hip  right now probably won't allow that).

Today I'm getting a bunch of homework done. I finished my first reading assignment and when I'm done with this I'm going to proof read my paper and then do my two other chapters that I have to read. The one book that I have read for my class so far is really interesting, I love it. It's called Courage & Calling: Embracing Your God-given Potential by Gordon T. Smith. The book talks about finding our personal vocations which dealing with different issues that life throws at us. I would definitely recommend it and I'm so glad that it was required material for my class.

My classmates are being really slow with posting in our discussion (our initial post was due last night, and only 3 of us have posted so far). It's frustrating but I suppose if they don't mind their grade being docked, then who am I to judge? But it's hard because we have a group thing due on Sunday and I'm the only one who has posted anything about it so far. I hate procrastinating, so I'm hoping that the other's will post something about it soon.

Time to go proofread my paper and get more of my reading done. Oh by the way, I'm doing a weigh-in tomorrow (since it's the last day of the month), just be prepared to hear the results of that. So until next time.

~Sara~