Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.

One of the ladies that I work with brought by a surprise today.  She found a coat at a garage sale and left it with me.  She said if it fits, great.  If not, that's okay too.  It was a 3x...I just knew it wouldn't fit.  I put it on and it buttoned up completely with no strain at all.  WHAT WHAT?

So when I got home, I searched it out online and turns out it's a $60 coat (on sale) and it's new enough that the extra buttons were still attached to the sleeve.  What a great gift and what an awesome surprise in more ways than one.

Wanna see the coat? :) >> Here it is << And oh yeah, another great thing about this... I was just getting ready to buy one and I hate coat shopping.

Wow. Just...wow.

 

Seriously, wow.  I heard the strangest words come from someone's mouth today.  It wasn't that I didn't appreciate them, but I had to wonder what the speaker was thinking.. lol.

He said "are you losing weight?  You look so tiny."  ?  I'm thinking, you really need your eyes checked.   I did ask him if he needed some money. He hadn't been to church in a while and I guess the weightloss is starting to really show through.

And I wasn't the only one who was noticed... Carl wore a shirt that said "My chains are loose" and one of our friends commented that they're even looser now. 
Fun times, but it's kind of strange.

On a whole other separate note, today's my birthday.  It was the first time in 42 years that I didn't have a birthday cake.  Guess what... that in itself was a fantastic, successful feeling. Happy Birthday to me.

The Littlest of Change...

We went to the Y tonight to work out and I noticed two things.
1.  I walked 1 mile on the treadmill in 25 minutes.
2.  My favorite shirt shows a lot of my bra strap.

So what, right?  Well... two months ago, that 1 mile walk took 40 minutes and the shirt used to fit me perfectly instead of hanging so loose I can't wear it right. 

Love those little changes.

Hello! I just realized something!

I've been reading up on adding strength training to our exercise routines and came across a webpage titled "where to start if I've never exercised."  There was a tip shared on the page that said, "if you’re unable to exercise continuously for 15 minutes, start with 5 minutes and gradually increase your time."

Swear to you with my hand on the Bible, a light bulb came on above my head and I realized, that yesterday, I made it through 20 minutes on the treadmill without stopping once.  I DID IT.   I.Did.It.  ME!  I had not realized that after all this time of working out, this was the first time I've made it 20 minutes full on without stopping.  Now I admit, I was moving at a slow 2.0 pace, but I was adding inclines & declines to the mix and just having fun while going on about it.  But I did it!  Who knew!!

I guess that tip is a great one because when we started walking in June, I could only go 3-5 minutes without taking a break.  I'm just dumbfounded and overjoyed and I'm so happy that I (me?) could do that!

Perseverance!

Weekend Report & Friend Makin' Monday

I think the weekend went pretty well.  We went to the church picnic and enjoyed the evening talking with friends.  I was a bit apprehensive about eating, so I waited until most everyone had served themselves before getting my food.  I stuck with just one hot dog, but really enjoyed the watermelon someone had brought.  One of the ladies from church is a very healthy cook and we were talking.  I confessed that we were watching our weight (ala WW).  She pointed out the dessert she brought, Banana Nut Muffin/Cupcakes with Carmel icing, was not only low-fat, they were only 150 calories.  I was so glad I shared with her, because I would have passed them up.  What a delicious treat it was. 

There was also a couple of NSV's happening around here too.  I slipped on a pair of jeans that I bought last year.  They were tight as could be then, but this time around they zipped right up.  After buttoning them, I undid them and zipped them up again, just to make sure I wasn't imagining things.  I wasn't and what a good feeling it was.  And when we went to the church picnic, I suggested to Carl we take the four-wheeler since we could travel on the gravel roads to get there.  That was a first because it's something we just don't do.  It was fun, but the threat of rain when it was time to leave made us get home just a bit faster.. lol.  No sooner had we made it into the house, the rain came down.  Talk about good timing.  And it was a bit daunting to climb on in front of everyone, but most of them love me and accept me for who I am.  So it's all good.

FMM: What’s in Your Fridge?

1. List a few common items that can always be found in your fridge.  We always have eggs, skim milk, and cheese on hand.  And pickles...pickles of every kind.
2. What kind of milk do you drink?  Most often, we drink skim.  Carl eats cereal though and he doesn't like skim milk on it, so we buy a 1/2 gallon of 2% for that.
3. What do you currently have to drink in the fridge? Other than milk, for us personally, nothing.  There is Gatorade, Ensure, and V-8 in the fridge, but they belong to my mom.
4. How often do you clean out your refrigerator?  Every Friday before I go to the grocery store.
5. What’s the healthiest thing in it right now?  Tomatoes fresh from our backyard.
6. What’s the most unhealthy thing in it right now? Potato Salad.  We haven't ate any of it, but it was leftover at a party and was brought home. 
7. What do you wish you had in it that you don’t have now? Guacamole.  Love that stuff!
8. How often do you shop for groceries? Every Friday I go to the store with a list.  Then on Tuesdays, I usually have to stop in again for more fruit.  Other than that, I don't like shopping at any other time.
9. What’s the weirdest thing in your fridge right now?  I'm going to say yogurt.  Although yogurt itself isn't weird, the fact that I buy it when I don't even like it is.

It's been fun!

NSV's Rock.

Today we celebrated two birthdays in our home.  Both of our daughters share the same birthday even though they're not twins.  Sarah is 21 now and Kelly turned 17.  I always get tickled when someone says "well how did that happen?"  But anyhow, it's the first big event since we started Weight Watchers and I thought I'd share how our day went. 

1.  We had a piece of cake with our girls.  It was a "normal" sized portion, not the "sugar-inducing-coma" size.

2.  It didn't really taste all that good.  But considering in the past 21 days, we've had 2-3 treats total, it doesn't surprise me.

3.  I spent almost a 1/3 of my grocery budget on fruits and vegetables. The rest went to meat, milk, eggs & such.  Only two things that weren't great made it into my cart, one of which was the cake.

4.  We went out to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant but had a plan of attack before hand, so as bad as we did, we did great. *more later*

5.  My daughter was surprised to see her boyfriends parents had joined us for dinner, but she was even more surprised when he proposed to her.  She said yes, after saying "seriously" about 15 times. :)

6.  Carl had been craving a shake and I almost gave in and went to DQ.  After thinking about it, I didn't really want it, so we decided to go to Walmart and get a pint of ice cream to make a shake at home.  We did just that and split it.  It was okay, but I think both of us were kind of unimpressed with what we thought it would be.  Big win for us though because we didn't buy a 1/2 gallon and there's none left to tempt us over the coming days.

7.  While we were at Walmart, we walked all around the store.  It's not our local store and wow wow wow was that place huge. LOL :)  Definitely worked the legs tonight.

8.  I admit, I blew the end of the day.  The cake is in the kitchen and I just had a huge piece of the "sugar-inducing-coma" kind.  Wasn't smart.  I didn't want it.  I ate it anyhow. But you know what, it was okay.  Old habits die hard and as much as I regret having it, I know tomorrow it's going in the trash so the temptation won't be there for me again.

9.  I'm not going to beat myself up.  I know for the most part of the day, I did okay and I'll take it. It's not going to be something we do every day.  And it gave me a chance to see what I could do to make bad choices better.  I tried and I'm pretty proud of myself for handling it better than I ever have.  That's my NSV. :)

Explosion Redo.

 A Life of Aggravation & Disgust...Such Pride to Carry
When I weighed in last night and realized I'd lost only .08lb, I was ticked.  It was the second weigh in and I worked my butt off!  I seriously did not cheat once.  I exercised.  I journaled.  I ate healthy food.  I didn't lose what I thought I should.  I blew up because of it.  I acted like an indignant pompous ass.

A Pattern of Life in Change
Honestly, I think I've acted like that for most of my adult life when it comes to weight loss.  If it didn't pour off, then something is wrong.  Give up, move on, eat junk and live!  Translate that last part to lay down, stay home and die slowly.  Wonder how much pride like that weighs?  I realize it's been holding me down for a long long time.


RE-EDUCATING MYSELF: A New Life of Grace & Compassion...Such Love Shines Through
When I weighed in last night and realized I'd lost only .08lb, I was happy with it .  It was the second weigh in and I worked my butt off this past week!  I seriously did not cheat once.  I exercised.  I journaled.  I ate healthy food.  I didn't lose what I thought I should, but I still lost weight this week. Good job!

Commercials SUCK!

Okay, won't lie... it's hard to watch TV because of the stinking good looking food commercials.  Lately though, the one that's been poking us between the eyes is related to Snickers Ice Cream bars.  Can I just say, "UGH!"  So tonight, we had to go to town and get some more fruit, can I just say "YAY!" to that!   But while we were out, we passed McDonalds, Wendy's, DQ....and I'm thinking, "Stop the insanity!" ...remember her...?  Ice cream really sounded good and I suggested to Carl that we look into a treat of WW ice cream.  For that one little move alone I am rejoicing!  Normally, I'd chuck it to the side and encourage him to have a med Blizzard or Shake.  But not this time and it actually felt good.

So like I said, we picked up some fruits (watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, apples, and oranges) and some tomatoes.  And then we headed into the ice cream section and found these 'snicker-like' candy bar ice creams.  HELLO GOODNESS!   We took those babies home and enjoyed the treat we found without going over our limit.

Most of all... I made some good decisions.  I chose a better indulgence than in the past.  We bought about 10lbs of fruit which is in addition to that we had in the house this week already.  And we shopped together and talked, which just keeps this process moving in the right direction.