Lent

So I have some friends that give up things for Lent each year. Even though they are not catholic they like the idea of giving something up for a period of time and giving that time to Heavenly Father and prepare for Easter. For the last couple of years they have given up TV, games, and any other media items (movies, dvds, etc). I honestly don't think I could ever do that, but I liked the idea of giving something up for a period of time.

I have a few catholic friends and I discussed with them my ideas of what to give up and they agreed that it needed to be cold turkey and not just cutting it down for a while. One of my friends is giving up soda. Another is giving up Facebook. While I am already doing the first because I am back on Weight Watchers, I knew that Facebook would not be possible as most of my single's activites are announced on Facebook. So this year I am going to try this whole giving up something for lent. I decided that these two things will not only help me get back on my Weight Watchers program especially since I took a 4 month break (mentally, financially I was still paying . . .what a waste)




But I will also have another thing that I am giving up that will be like giving up Facebook or TV. I decided to give up Sweets and Games on my phone. While I am not some fanatical gamer, I do see a trend that I am spending too much time on my phone playing Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, Angry Birds, Solitare, etc. So now every time I want to reatch for my phone to play some game I'll read some scriptures instead. As for the sugar part . . . it needs to happen to help me along my path to be the happy healthy person I want to be. I think this will help me in both endeavors to be closer to my Heavenly Father and prepare myself for this Easter season.

Before/After Fun

Monday I went up to my sister Alison's house. I hadn't been up there in awhile so it was good to spend time with her and her family. After we started getting the kids ready for bed, Alison & zipped off to get fabric at JoAnn's for the baby blankets that I am making for two of my friends that are pregnant. As we are driving over I asked Alison since she hadn't seen me in a while if she has noticed a difference with the whole weight loss thing and she said that she hasn't because she hasn't really been paying attention. She then started bugging me to see if I had a before and after pic. I said I have a before pic, but no recent after pic. I happened to be wearing the same shirt that I was wearing in my before pic. My before pic is the weekend of the mid-singles conference, I had gone to the Angel's game with my roommate. So she insisted on taking some after pics so we could see the difference. My after pic isn't that great. I hadn't done my hair that day and she said for me to take my hair down so you could get the whole effect. But you get the idea. It all makes it rewarding when you see the difference in front of you.

After on the Left and Before is on the Right

25.6 and Counting

I went to weigh in on Saturday morning and I am officially 25.6 lbs lighter than when started my weight loss journey a little over 4 months ago. I can hardley believe it. I am so totally stoked. I got a fun little charm to go on my key chain to celebrate my 25 lbs from ww.

How did I celebrate you ask? Not the usual reward of flowers, I went with my friends during Priesthood session to get a pedi and my eyebrows waxed. I also went out to eat. And while I wasn't completely on track for dinner, I felt like it was ok. It is ok to treat yourself every once in a while. Plus I had ran 4 miles earlier that day so I didn't feel quite as bad.

Here's to 25.6 lbs gone and 53 lbs to go. I am 1/3 of the way to my goal!!

Weight Loss Fizzle

Ok I know, most of you are probably thinking . . . not another weight loss blog. But I can't help it . . . it is what is on my mind.

Two weeks ago I hit 22 lbs. I felt amazing. I couldn't believe that I had lost that much weight. Shortly after I hit this big wall that I can't seem to climb over. It is like all that motivation to track and watch what I was eating and staying on the program just drained out of me . . . I just got this really bad attitude and said to myself. I don't want to track, I don't want to count points, I want to eat whatever I feel like eating. I went to my meeting on Saturday and one of the worker bee's (as I like to call them) told me that she sees this with so many people. When they hit 20-25 lbs they just seem to fizzle out. She made me promise that I would track and I did make the promise . . . but it is Monday and I still have yet to track and I still ate the two pcs of cake that were offered to me yesterday and I still didn't care about tracking and paying attention to what I was eating. Somehow I have to find the motivation and drive that I have had for the last several months. Maybe that is why I am blogging right now.

I know that 90% of it is all in my head and I have to figure out to get over this mental wall. I do want to achieve my goal, right now I'm just at a loss of how?

Dress Size??

Okay so I'm sorry that all of my blog posts lately have been related to my recent "lifestyle" change as Weight Watchers likes to put it . . . but that is what is going on in my life so if you are tired of reading about it . . . too bad that is my life and is what I have to talk about.

For the past few weeks I have really started to notice how big my clothes were getting on me. Yesterday I finally decided that enough was enough. I had already raided my closet looking for smaller sizes for work pants and for some reason . . . I don't have any . . . I must have worn dresses more when I was that size. Anyway so I walked into Costco to order a cake for my co-worker's baby shower and right when I walked in I saw that they had some dress pants for sale for only $15. I'm thinking this is awesome. What a great deal. Well of course you can't try them on in the store so I bought them and went home to try them on. They sort of fit. Well at least I could zip up the zipper and button the button, but I felt like the pants had been painted on me. I was sooo frustrated. My current size is way too big, but the size smaller was too small. I felt deflated. I had convinced my roommate to go with me to Old Navy. Again, I felt like they were a little snug, but my roommate and the lady at the store told me that they looked fine. So I wound up buying them and I am currently wearing them. I still feel they are a little too snug in my pooch area, but I guess I've always been self conscious about that and I can cover it up with shirts.

The point of my story. Today I logged on to Weight Watchers and they had written an article about sizes and they showed the drastic differences between stores on sizes. I had already know this, but I never realized that it was this bad. Below is the sizing chart for a size 8 at many popular stores.

Mini Rewards

How do you reward yourself? While on my weight loss journey I tried to think of ways to reward myself for losing weight. It is like when you were little and your mom would wrap her arms around you and give you a kiss and tell you how proud she is of you.

Even though losing the weight in and if itself is rewarding. My roommate said I should reward myself. Normally a person would go out and eat to celebrate, but as Jason my group leader says, "that's what got us where we are in the first place." So what I'm about to tell you may sound a little silly and frivolous to some, it really cheers me up and makes me happy.

Fresh Flowers always make me happy. Especially Gerbera Daisies (my personal favorite), but any flower makes me happy. Spring is my favorite season and part of that is because I grew up in Utah we always had about 4-5 mos of brown drabness. Then about March everything started to turn green and most of all the flowers started to bloom.

Now here comes the frivolity... I have been known to buy flowers for myself quite often. In fact I have bought them for myself more than I have received them from significant others. Well how have I been rewarding myself you might guess?? See for yourself... My reward for losing 20.6 lbs

Why Do You Eat?

Food, while it is a necessity for living sometimes we tend to abuse it. As you may or may not know I have struggled with my weight most of my life and this past year it reached its all time high. I was so frustrated that I wasn't fitting into my clothes and I refused to go out and buy new clothes especially if it meant going up a size.

As you know I have been on my journey of becoming a new me. I joined Weight Watchers 12 weeks ago and I have lost 19 lbs so far. I am starting to fit into some of my old clothes again and this makes me really excited. I started thinking about why I was doing it the other day and didn't put two and two together, but really it is part of my journey that I have been on the last year to figure out some of my issues and resolve them. Focus on me time is what I like to fondly call it, but really it is me learning to love myself. Everyone always says I have the biggest heart and that I just love everyone no matter what. But that was always everyone but myself. Last year I started to focus on things that I could control. I started getting my medications in check, I started seeing someone and talking about some of the issues that I had, I started sticking up for myself (which I will always be working on), I started working in the temple so that I could grow closer to my Heavenly Father and see myself the way he does, and finally my weight loss journey. Yeah sure it feels nice to have people compliment me on my journey, but really I am doing it for myself. I want to be happy with myself and regardless of what size I am, I am going to know that I am where I am because of what I have done to get there.

With that all being said recent meetings at Weight Watchers has made me think about why I eat? Yesterday I realized that a big part of it is I am emotional eater. Being the highly emotional, sensitive, yet loving person that I am. . . it comes to stark revelation why I am where I was 12 weeks ago. What made me come to this stark revelation you ask?? Well yesterday was the day from hell!! And since I didn't pack any fruit or snacks, by the end of the work day I was not only mentally and emotionally exhausted, I had already pretty much eaten my daily alotment that I have for the day from Weight Watchers. And it didn't stop there. I drove through Taco Bell and got myself dinner on my way home knowing perfectly well it wasn't going to fill me up and when I got home from FHE and the grocery store I then proceeded to eat a bowl of cereal and some slices of pizza that my roommate had brought home from work.

What have I learned from yesterday's catastrophe of eating . . . well I am pretty sure that the scale is going to go up instead of down, which I have come to accept the consequences of my actions. I need to ALWAYS pack snacks . . . today I brought my cheese twists and two bananas. Totally prepared today. Have a big breakfast so I am not so hungry throughout the day. Finally, I need to find a new outlet to release my strees, anxiety, and emotional turmoil.