Confessions of a Bad Dieter

   Last week was a diet fail.  I worked most days at the store and babysat, so I wasn't at home to make very smart eating choices. I ate out more than I should have, didn't drink enough water, didn't exercise. Needless to say I feel pretty crappy today. However, today was the weigh-in and apparently I lost 1.6 pounds. I don't really believe this because there's no way it's possible, but the scale is new so I don't know what the problem could be.  I refuse to believe that I lost weight making REALLY bad choices last week.  In any case, I AM back on plan this week! I feel so much better when I'm tracking my food and exercising, I'm ready to get that back. I definitely notice a difference when Ive been eating healthy and suddenly start eating junk (Taco Bell yesterday, I am shamed). I only wish I enjoyed working out, because I still don't. I hate every single minute of it. I thought it might become a habit, but I think I dread it more after all this time. In any case, I'm going to keep going because it does make me feel better.

I hope ya'll have a good week, I'm hoping to hear from a job I interviewed for around Wednesday.. fingers crossed!

This is what we refer to as an "SV".

A "scale victory"!

I lost 3.8 pounds and 2 inches this week. This brings the grand total to 8 pounds and 9 inches! This is even with me pigging out at Umi one night. The amazing thing about weight watchers is that you can still splurge and eat what you want, as long as you track everything and don't do it that often. I'm a little less than 3 pounds away from my first "goal" which is to lose 5% of my body weight.

Today is a good day :)

My New Accountability Partner

 I've always heard it's best to have an accountability partner to help keep you on track with your goals. So far I've found that this blog excellent for accountability. I am 95% sure I may have given up already if it weren't for this blog. My other accountability partner is Amelia, who goes walking and to the gym with me almost every day. She's usually here to force me to get off the couch and go exercise when all I really want to do is watch tv. However, this morning I discovered that I have a very small (seven pounds, in fact) accountability partner who is not going to let me forget to go exercise!

I have taken Asher walking with me every morning this past week. We walk around two miles, and he absolutely loves it.  This is a habit I should have developed a long time ago, and I regret not giving him all the exercise he needs (although he does get "outside time" every day). This  morning I went to move my tennis shoes to the closet, and he saw me pick them up. I wasn't planning on walking this morning! But his eyes lit up and he was so excited that we were about to go on our walk! Of course, I couldn't disappoint him and not take him after that! So we got our exercise in this morning thanks to this little guy. I guess the best accountability partner is one that you just can't say no to!

Date Night :)

   Chris and I very rarely go out together. We've come a long way from eating out every day and seeing movies every weekend, the way we were when we first started dating. I just usually feel like going on dates is a waste of money, because why pay $50 for a meal and $20 for movie tickets when you could just stay home, cook, and get a movie from the Redbox for $1? But in any case, we both felt like we needed to get out last night.  We ate hibachi at Umi, which was absolutely delicious and absolutely not diet-friendly. Then we went to the movies and saw Just Go With It, which I found to be the most boring movie I've seen in an incredibly long time. It was two hours long, and as hard as they were trying to be funny, it just wasn't working. However, someone should have told this to the 15 year old behind us layed out across her boyfriend's lap who cackled and made sound effects to every single thing that happened. I really think I may have liked the movie more if it weren't for her. Chris can ignore things like this, however I just started mimicking her about 3/4 of the way through the movie so maybe she'd get the hint and stop. I know, I'm so mature, right?

   So, I'm about to make breakfast and then start exercising. I must admit I've been in an exercise slump lately, I think it's because I'm getting bored with doing the same things every day. I love weights, but I hate cardio. So I'm trying to come up with different cardio ideas that don't involve dance videos that make me feel like an idiot (ahem, Zumba). But in any case, I used up pretty much my entire Points allowance for the week yesterday (you get a certain amount of points for the day, and then a certain amount extra for the week if you want to splurge). Well, I splurged, so today I must pay for it :)

Have a great day!

The scale was not my BFF today.

I gained 6 ounces. Lovely.

While I did stay on the diet for the most part last week, I'll admit I had a few pitfalls. I worked out like I was supposed to and even picked up a little weight training, for which I am incredibly sore today. On the bright side, I did manage to  lose 2 inches! My wonderful husband has already given me the "muscle weighs more than fat, blah blah" talk, to which I replied that I just don't care. I don't care in the least that muscle weighs more than fat if that scale didn't go down. Surprisingly, I'm not unmotivated like I thought I would be when this happened. I'm ready to hit the gym, because I'm not going through this again next week.

Another positive note, the tanning bed (unlike the scale) has been great to me this week. Finally getting some color :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Diet Sabotage

Yesterday was a big fat diet fail, and let me tell you why.

I have been waking up around 8, eating a big breakfast with lots of carbs fiber, and then going to work out at the gym. Yesterday I had the bright idea that I would eat a little bowl of cereal and a small thing of yogurt, and go do my regular workout.  I didn't even drink coffee... bad idea. About halfway through my workout I was starving! I kept going and did everything I usually do, 3 miles on the elliptical and 2 miles on the treadmill. Anyone that knows me knows that I can not stand being hungry (obviously, look at me). It puts me in the worst mood ever. I got home and ate the usual lunch of fruit and a FiberOne bar, but an hour later I was starving again. It was a downward spiral from there. To top it all off I had a headache by 4 pm because of the lack of caffeine (that addiction is starting to get annoying, I have to drink coffee whether I want to or not).

Today I felt horrible about eating too much yesterday, so I did an extra-hard workout at the gym. I woke up and had my usual breakfast about 5 hours ago, and have yet to get hungry. The lesson here my friends is to Eat a good breakfast!!! At least if you're like me. Some people can deal with hunger, I'm not one of them.

I must say that this is the first time I have ever had a diet pitfall and jumped right back on board the next day! I thank weightwatchers for that (or maybe I thank them for charging me $65, so I feel like I have to). I also think this is the longest time I've ever consistently went to the gym. Yay for small victories!

  

Monday Morning Weigh In

   I must admit, I'm a little disappointed. 1.8 pounds isn't quite the number I had in mind. WeightWatchers, however, was thrilled that I stayed within my 1-2 pound per week loss. But at least the number went down! I'm down 4.8 pounds from my starting weight, which was 10 days ago. When you look at it that way it's more motivating :)

   Off to the gym!  ....maybe no one else is there :)

Tomorrow's the day...

   Not really any special day to anyone else, but tomorrow I have to weigh myself after my first week of WeightWatchers and exercise.  I have to admit I've done surprisingly well. I've been to the gym 6 days this week, I wanted to work out yesterday as well but it was just too crowded. Note to self: Get to the gym extra early on Saturday. I have walked/ran/cycled a total of 25 miles this week! I can not begin to explain to you the level of soreness I went through the first couple of days, but I persevered. I have kept up with my points all week, and while I admit I did have an extra helping of shrimp alfredo last night, I have been pretty good at staying within my range.
    I am proud to announce that I have almost gotten over my irrational social anxiety of working out in the gym with other people. Amelia joined with me last week and it's better now that I don't have to go alone (and I got a free t-shirt and bottle of lotion for taking her to join, gotta love the perks!).
   Obviously you can see that I am not an every day blogger. I only write when I feel like I have something to say, and this morning I found myself worrying that I would get on the scale in the morning and see that I hadn't lost any weight. I hope this doesn't turn out to be the case, because if it is I'm sure I'll lose a considerable amount of motivation. I need to see a change! I have, however, figured out that seeing money come out of our bank account for a gym membership and WeightWatchers serves as pretty dang good motivation in itself.
   I have a lot, a lot, of schoolwork to get done today, and I woke up with an awful sore throat and stuffy nose.  I hope I feel better later on to get to the gym and do one more workout before in the morning. Can you tell I'm nervous? Ha! Wish me luck :)

3 pounds down!

    I joined WeightWatchers on Friday. I decided that it was crucial that I try something different, because dieting on my own does not work. Ever. If I'm doing it alone, then I feel guilty about every single thing that I eat, even when it's healthy. If I grab an apple or a banana, I'm constantly wondering if I really need that. The great thing about WeightWatchers is that I can eat whatever I want to. As long as I keep under my points then I'm good. Fresh fruits and vegetables are 0 points, so when I'm in between meals and getting a little hungry, I can grab an apple and I'm good. If I decide that I want to splurge and grab some chocolate (I haven't yet, but believe me I will) then as long as I'm willing to sacrifice the 5 or 6 points, I can have it. In addition to your daily Points allowance, you also have an additional 40 or so points that you are allowed to use during the week if you want to splurge on something. Again, this is great because usually when I dieted and I splurged one meal, I never started dieting again because I felt like I had ruined it all.

   I am also happy to announce that I went to the gym yesterday and worked out while two other people were there, and one was the personal trainer. Yay for letting go of the social phobia :) While I didn't utilize his services, I did kick my own butt on the treadmill and boy am I feeling it this morning. I did a combination of walking and running, hopefully before too long I'll be able to just run.

   My WeightWatchers weigh-in is every Monday. So even though I haven't been doing this very long, I jumped on the scale when I got up this morning, and was down 3.2 pounds from Friday. Now, I realize that this is probably because A) I weighed at night time on Friday, and in the morning this time and B) It's probably just water weight, which fluctuates anyway. But at the same time I also know that 1) I don't care what the circumstances are, the number was lower, I'm happy and 2)Seeing the number go down makes me want to go back to the gym. Here's to hoping next Monday's weigh-in will rock!

  By the way, don't lay in the tanning bed for 15 minutes when you're really pale. Just don't do it.

Current Inspiration:

 

I want thisssssssss!

Needed: Lifestyle Change.

  First, a little backstory. There once was a Princess named Lauren :) Lauren had never been thin, but was at a healthy weight and was fairly comfortable with her body image. One ordinary night, eighteen-year-old Lauren was waitressing at Murphy's Diner.. All of the sudden, in came a knight in shining armor wearing a polo and a baseball hat, and he sat in her section. Little did she know that the knight had actually came to the diner to flirt with another girl that worked there. Long story short, they didn't work out :). He and Lauren started dating. Having just moved out on his own, the handsome knight did not cook and ate out every single night. Who went along? She did, of course. It wasn't long until all of the nights of Los Encinos, The Grill, Traceway, and Sonic began to become apparent on her waistline. Very apparent. Thankfully, she didn't hold it against him, and they got married---and then she discovered a love for cooking. Add on more pounds to already overweight Lauren, and this is where we are today.


  When I picture summer, I think of getting to go out in comfy Nike shorts (my addiction), a tshirt, and flip flops. Of course, the Lauren in my head is about 50 pounds lighter with a killer tan. The in-real-life Lauren is overweight and could give Edward Cullen's complexion a run for it's money. I am ashamed to say that my husband and I are both members of a gym, which we pay $54 a month for, and I don't think we've been in three weeks. Considering we've only been members for about four weeks, this is sad.  I of course have an excellent excuse. I hate working out around people. I really, really do. I figured out that if I went at around 9 AM, everyone is at work and therefore the gym is empty. The problem with this is that since I do online classes and I don't work outside the home, I often stay up till 3 AM. There is no chance of me getting up to go work out at 9 the next morning. (I know, I know, this has to change). The gym is staffed from around 12-7. There is a personal trainer there for a few hours, and I just know I would be mortified to work out while somebody in excellent physical shape watched me. Irrational? Absolutely. However, in order to get to the nike short-clad versin of myself I keep picturing in my head, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go.


   I am also not a good dieter. Well, I am for about a week. What causes me to fail every single time is the fact that when I'm dieting I am constantly focusing on what I'm eating, how much I'm eating, how often I'm getting hungry. I think about food way more when I'm trying to control my appetite than I ever would otherwise, and I get sick of it. I get tired of counting calories, wondering what I'm going to eat next that won't sabotage my diet. If I try to write down everything that I eat like some people recommend, I get sick of that too. What is a girl to do?! I need a lifestyle change, and I need to start now. I want to be at a healthy weight, and I want to be about to wear cute clothes and not see an "XL" on the tag.

The current inspiration:

I want this dress! And I want to look good in it. I love dresses, so they are going to serve as my inspiration :)

  While I did not start this blog to be a weight loss blog, I hope it can help me hold myself accountable. I know I'm not going to be able to do this without support, so if anyone has any advice, success stories, constructive criticism.. feel free to comment :)

Proverbs 31:10-12

"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life."


    I am completely in love with my husband today. He hasn't done anything special or out of the ordinary; as a matter of fact all he has done is come home, sleep, wake up to eat breakfast, and go back to bed. But somehow I'm reminded at how incredibly lucky I am to get to be married to this guy! He puts up with me, and I assure you that's no easy task. I'm sure you won't believe it, but I can be moody, grumpy, pessimistic, and I can through a hissy fit like you've never seen. But he loves me! I can't tell you how thankful I am that he actually kept me around long enough to marry me. I know we got married young, much to the dismay of my family, but I don't regret it. It hasn't been easy, it's been really hard. It is absolutely amazing that we have come this far.
   
    God has blessed us so much these past seven months. Chris has gotten a new job with almost triple the salary of his last job. I got a new car! I got to quit a horrible job at Chili's to stay at home and focus on school. We are moving to a house, that belongs to my in-laws, in a couple of months that we get to live in rent free. We are blessed! But sometimes I forget about that when I'm wondering how a bill is going to get paid, or when I'm mad that we can't go out on dates to the movies and eat in fancy restaurants all the time. But so far, every bill has always gotten paid (by the grace of God) and who cares if we can't go on dates every weekend? Renting a movie for $1 from the Redbox and watching it with Chris sounds like a good time to me.
   
    I feel older than twenty years old. When other girls my age are talking about going to parties and clubs, I think about how I never had that lifestyle. The thing is, I'm completely fine with that. I wouldn't change a thing :)