8 MONTHS!!!!

8 Months!  As of May 19, 2017 it's been 8 months since I officially started this adventure.  In some ways it doesn't seem like it's been that long and in some perspectives it seems like it's been longer.
I promise to post my beginning weight and ending weight at my one year anniversary, but right now I'm just comfortable telling you what I've lost.

So I stepped on the scale (see below for stats).  I can't remember the last time I was in the one hundred anythings more than a few minutes.  After my first child, I think I was so busy being a mom and making that my number one priority that as the pounds packed on, I would go on a diet or an exercise routine, which never worked well, cause anyone who has children under the age of 5 knows there is only one routine and that is your child's.  Also, I wasn't comfortable with who I was.  Outwardly, you would have never known, but inside, I was a puddle of goo with no container to hold me in.  But with age comes wisdom and also the attitude that what other people think hasn't got a thing to do with how you think of yourself.

So with that number came the scary realization that to hit my goal I have 4 months to go.  So on average if you take what I've lost divided by eight, I'm running at about 10 or so pounds lost a month. But this can't happen every month, I understand that.  In the beginning the pounds shed off pretty easy, but so did my hair.  My energy level went up but so did my anxiety a little of whether I could achieve the goal I set for myself.  I'm not planning on joining the Iron Man or trying to fit this 48 year old soul into a bikini, but the goal I've set seems to be achievable.  It's right on the edge of the BMI percentage for my age and height.  But to be honest that's about 30 or so more pounds from my math calculations (and yes I just used a calculator to make sure I was right).  So four months and around 30 pounds more to go.

I used to think losing 30 pounds was impossible.  But hey, I've lost more than 80, 30 shouldn't be that hard right.  WRONG!  These last pounds are making me work even harder to get rid of them.  My diet is pretty minimal now, so that means I need to tweak my exercise.

I love doing cardio.  Not everyone does, but I do.  Weights BORE me to no end.  I've been doing Piyo for about a week, and thank goodness they have a beginning person on the DVD's or else I would have quit after the first one.  It's a combo of yoga, Pilate's and such, but when I'm trying to do a downward dog and my arms are shaking uncontrollably, I'm think to myself, "What the heck are you doing this for?  This isn't fun, go run on the treadmill or play on the rowing machine".  But if exercise was fun all the time then people would do it more often and the whole world would be more fit.  But it's not supposed to fun all the time, so I have to buck up and shut up and just get it done!

A recap of my weekend:

I shopped this weekend and am happy to report that I purchased clothes in the size 12/10 range and they are not snug, in fact I might only get to wear them until end of summer, which is fine, because they are summer appropriate.  But if you would have asked me a year ago if I was ever going to be a size 12/10 range or be able to purchase shirts in the M/L category, I would have checked your temperature and asked you if you had taken your medication for the day after I got up off the ground from laughing uncontrollably at such an outrageous comment.

Walking into a store and being able to shop in the ladies section, not plus size, was a bit uncomfortable for me.  Luckily I had my trusty fashion consultant, my daughter, Nana, to guide me and push me out of my comfort zone and pick clothing that wasn't baggy, that actually fit me, and had color!!!!

It is a very odd and weird feeling picking through the racks and looking for smaller sizes. By the way to see clothes in this area that are so close to single digits, it's almost magical to think I might one day get to purchase something like that.  I hold up the clothing and think, "No way, in heaven's gates is this going to fit me", then with my trusty consultant by my side, I try on the article in question and the look of shock and awe on my face is enough to make my daughter giggle at me and then say, "I told you it would fit" or "See I said you needed a smaller size!".  She can be a bit of a pushy, headstrong individual, I blame her father for this trait as I'm sure I have never been pushy or headstrong ever (insert evil laugh here as I'm twirling my handlebar mustache).

So  here are my stats:

8 MONTHS

Months No Soda/Alcohol : 10 months
Months No Pasta/Bread/Potatoes/Sweets:  8 months
Dress Sizes Lost: 7, almost 8

TOTAL POUNDS LOST
84 POUNDS
TOTAL POUNDS TO GOAL (Hopefully)
34ish

So there you go, 8 months down, 4 months to go.  Roughly 30ish pounds to shed.  Can I do it? I hope so.  Will I do it?  Guess time and my body will tell.  Will I give it everything I have to achieve it?????  HECK TO THE YES!!!!!!

So this is my mantra as least for this week:

And in our area the rain seems to be over abundant, so some days you just have to create your own sunshine!  For me it's smiling because I've come so far.  It may be cloudy, but when I am all sweaty from working out, I feel sunshine in my heart.

Be happy my friends and have a peachy week!!!!

Mother's Day with two of my Monkeys after church!

Warmer Weather-Clothes Shopping Hell

So with the temperature hitting above 70 on a semi regular basis and the sun attempting to be somewhat present in our day to day lives, and after taking a survey of what warm weather clothes I have, I have nothing that fits by the way. Which means clothes shopping.  To some this is a blessing, but to me it's more a curse.  I've never been a clothes shopper, at least not for myself.  Yes now I don't have to go to the plus size part of the store but clothes shopping has always been my Achilles. Too many bad memories and tears in dressing rooms, wishing I could find an outfit, any outfit that would work.
But my new dilemma is a bit of loose skin on my arms and stomach.
Now I'm not freak show material yet and I'm not going out to buy that all necessary string bikini but i have noticed my arms and stomach have some elasticity issues. Stephen King isn't going to be writing a horror suspense novel on them but I noticed it more recently.  It's been a little over 7 months and I still have 4 1/2 to hit one year and my goal weight which has 3 numbers in it.  I'm hoping to lose an average middle school child by September.   I'm not vain, at least I don't believe I am but due to 3 ten pound babies and so far 82 pounds of weight loss I've really tested the elasticity of my poor skin. Perhaps some of it will bounce back in time but that is a bridge I will have to cross at a later date.  But right now after seeing myself  with shorter sleeves and shorts on I'm having a bit of an internal issue with it.
So  this is how I'm dealing....
My inner bad ass tells me to power on, keep doing what I'm doing and we will worry about the cosmetic later,  but she seems to be asleep when I get out of the shower and see my whole body reflect in the mirror, that's when my tiny insecure voice kind of pops her head up and gives me that "oh dear" look.  You know the look, like when you are swimsuit shopping and it looks fantastic on the hanger, they have it in YOUR size, and you are all pumped up but then you put it on and look at in those horrible fun house dressing room mirrors and all you can think to yourself is "Oh Dear!".
So this has been my thought process the past week. 
It's a mind over matter thing.  If I don't mind it shouldn't matter,right? So next weekend I'm going shopping, I have to due to a business trip to Arizona at the beginning of June. Yes Arizona in June, so lighter clothing is a necessity not a luxury.  So guess I will have to buck up and take a leap with both feet into the clothing store!!!  I'm going with a positive attitude and the promise of a treat of some kind at the end, perhaps a scoop of ice cream?  In my world, one scoop of vanilla ice cream from Dairy Queen or Culver's would be an extreme treat!

Maybe I'm being petty or too sensitive about the issue.  I'm proud of what I've done and I'm looking forward to what I will do, and maybe I'm the only one the deals with this issue, maybe not. But one thing is sure, I can't let this curtail me.  So saddle up partner, this cowgirl is going to ride to the nearest mall and lasso her some clothes.
I'm choosing to work through this small hump but I will hurdle over this and blast ahead to crush the elusive number 90, but until then I must remember that I"m not a super hero at the moment since my magic lasso, bullet reflecting bracelets, invisible plane and Wonder Woman costume are at the cleaners.  So I will just be me and get out of my head, remember that I'm happy and that is a wonderful thing!!!
Another day in the twisted and complicated mind I am the owner of.
I wish you happiness this week, I hope your troubles are few and your blessings are many.
I never know what I'm going to write until I finish so each entry is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.

So my thought of the week is this:

Don't let anyone, including yourself, get in your way!  I'm working on that daily!

Have a peachy week my friends.

Plateau or Platypus

As the weather in the Midwest can't make up it's mind weather we are going to get warmer or colder, rain or sunshine, and in some cases snow.  Perhaps Mother Nature has hit a plateau and is unsure as to how to remedy her situation to bring spring into full force in order to turn into the warm and humid Iowa summer we are currently looking forward to.

So after taking a leap a faith, I decided to step on the scale AND guess what?  Absolutely NO DIFFERENCE since I did my 7 month weigh in.  That's been two weeks and I would say that is a plateau or platypus, they are similar if you think about it.  They both are strange creatures that you wonder how they are what they are.  The platypus has a bill and a flat tail, it lays eggs but is considered a mammal and the male has an ankle spur that makes it venomous.  So you can see that this animal is very much like a plateau in weight loss.  It has so many different aspects and you have no reason why it is the way it is. When you plateau there is no reason for it, you are trying to alternate workouts and eating the recommended foods.  But it sneaks up on you and doesn't even send you a memo to say, "Hey, this is your body and we are taking a break from encouraging you by losing weight, we decided that no matter what you do, we are just going to stay in this comfort zone and you are just going to have to deal."

Unlike the platypus that took millions of years to evolve, my weight loss plateau evolved all by it's self.  Am I at my goal weight, NOPE!  I have a bit to go.  I'm not going for the size 2 model if I eat an M&M it looks like I have a food baby, but to be in the normal range of the BMI would be good for me.

So what to do.  As a person who likes to write down pros and cons lists, I decided to take a quick look at what I've been doing the last 30 days.  I opened my Fitness Pal app and took a good hard look at it. I can easily see that I'm sneaking in snacks (be it protein bars, granola, or veggies) more in the last 30 days.  After thinking about it, I don't think I was hungry but "thought" I needed it.  I saw a pattern that I didn't like.  So there's culprit number one.  I see I was getting a bit lazy in my eating.  No I wasn't in a closet binge eating large quantities of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting all while chasing it down with a chocolate shake.  But I was consuming more calories in a day than I thought. Although it be healthy versions, it was a matter of quantity than quality.

With a touch of a finger, I looked at my workout routine.  Yes I workout 6 and sometimes 7 days a week, but I can see there was a distinct pattern.  I thought I was alternating what I did, but after looking, I could tell that I wasn't as consistent as I thought.  So being the Excel spreadsheet queen that I am, I am putting together a schedule to follow for the next 30 days, plus I'm adding a workout called PiYo which has yoga, pilates, and cardio each day.  So I decided in order to plow through this plateau I need to up my game, pull up my big girl britches, there is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs, and put my nose to the grindstone (that's all the quotes I can think of).

Will this hurdle me over my plateau, or will it leave me in a state of wonder like the platypus?  Time will only tell.  Change is scary and repetition is safe.  I believe I have slowly gotten into a repetition without realizing it, but the lucky thing is, I woke up when I stepped on that scale.  Do I expect a loss every time I step on the scale?  In the perfect world, YES, in reality, NO!  But it did slap me in the face and tell me to wake up and evaluate what I was doing.

Now I wasn't expecting to have to cash a reality check today, but guess when the bill is due it's due!

But the good thing is I came to this conclusion now, not 4 months from now and way before I reverted back to old patterns and started to see a climb in my number rather than a decline!

Every step forward be it big or small, is forward and that is my goal.  Don't get discouraged, get encouraged!  What happened yesterday can't be fixed, but what happens today can.  You can't stop the waves of the ocean, but you can learn to surf!!!! (I'm putting that on my bucket list)

 Life is a chain reaction, it's up to you whether it be positive or negative.  I vote for positive!!!

Be you a platypus or in a plateau, make the decision to be unique!

So I leave you this week with one of my favorite quotes by Gandhi.