Completion of Week 9!

Happy Monday everyone! What a great week and weekend it's been. The whole week was sort of a whirlwind of birthday celebrations, with still, more to come. If this is what turing 40 is all about, sign me up for a repeat every year!

During the last week I managed to have 4 birthday dinners and a birthday lunch! On my actual birthday we went to Longhorn Steak House for dinner. The next day, lunch with the girls from the office. The next night, dinner out, unexpectedly. Friday was my "birthday dinner" from Evie & Jimmie, my friend Chris's parents. They didn't want to wait until my March 7th party to celebrate my birthday, so 7 of us went to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino for dinner and a little gambling. Dinner was fantastic, cooked by Chris & Tina's son-in-law, Gene. It was fabulous! Dinner out again, the next night...it's just been non-stop celebrating! It's been great! The waitress at Floyds, at the casino, had been on the program that I am on before, and knew exactly what I could have. She brought me out my own special dessert, strawberries, blueberries & blackberries, complete with a sparkler. It was awesome!

This week's results really were a surprise. I stood on my scale this morning, and as it ends up, it was weighing me more than the "official" scale. Today's official result was a loss of 3.6 pounds for a total loss of 39.2 pounds. I have 23 pounds to go and I'm so excited about it.

I feel pretty good about the pending transition to the maintenance program. I've been researching the maintenance program. As I've already said here, I have managed to maintain the weight loss of the first 25 pounds I lost, before starting this program, for a year. That has definitely helped encourage me for preparing for the maintenance plan. I didn't go into this lightly. I thought a lot about it, before spending the money, to be sure I knew that I would do whatever it took to get to my goal, as well, whatever it will take to stay at my goal. I'm very satisfied with the fact that this is not a diet that will end, but a lifestyle change that will continue all through the rest of my life.

I guess that it helps me to know that my father did the same thing. We discussed it today. He lost about 35 pounds, over 23 years ago and has kept every bit of it off. He eats healthy, but also never 'forbids' himself from having things. They don't eat a lot of junk food-but really, neither do I. My issue was mostly portion control and definitely a lack of exercise. I know there are people out there that think I'm going to struggle with the maintenance program and think that once the medication stops that it all comes back on. I know there are people who read this who don't agree with the decision that I made to go this direction, but I made the decision that I thought was the best one for me, and so far, it's been incredible. I've discussed the program and maintenance with people who have done the program. I've discussed it with a few friends and family and know what I need to do to maintain. I honestly don't expect it to be a big issue. It's just now part of who I am. I'm the girl who gets up and works out, 6 days a week, no matter what might be happening that day. I'm the girl who plans meals for the day the morning of, or sometimes the night before, because I like to have a plan. It's who I want to be and I'll do what I have to do to maintain it. It's so nice when I go out now for it to not be about the food, but about enjoying the moment and the moments are awesome! I look forward to all of the moments to come, regardless of what might be on my plate!

This week, there are lots of special moments coming up. I'm having out of town company this weekend. My friend Jen, who is my best friend in Connecticut, is coming for the weekend. We've got some lunches and dinners planned,a special dinner for Friday Night Party Night with Jen, Al, Peggy, Tina, Chris & I at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. It's a "must-do" thing when you visit Tampa. Saturday, Jen and I head to my parents house to spend time with them. My family is visiting from Massachusetts and my grandmother is turning 90 on Thursday. We're having a big party for her at her favorite deck bar, yes....deck bar, 90 year old grandmother, she ROCKS! :-) It will be a blast to be with everyone and celebrate her life.

In closing, I hope you all have a great week!

"Fill your life with as many moments and experiences of joy and passion as you humanly can. Start with one experience and build on it.”


Here's a couple of moments of joy from this week:

Completion of Week 8!

At 9:36 tomorrow morning, I'll no longer be in my thirties. I know you all come here to read a blog about how I did this week, but in my attempt to be "profound" tonight, I did a Google search entitled turning 40, just to see what I could find. Funny enough, 8 weeks ago, I named this blog "The Journey" and tonight I found a website entitled "Turning 40, It's All About The Journey".

I could probably write a blog all about turning 40. I could tell you where I am in my life today, as compared to where I thought I'd be. I could tell you if I was stressing out over turning 40. I could tell you if I'm thrilled. I could tell you whether or not I ever really gave it any thought, but none of those things are the reasons any of you come to read this blog.

What I will tell you, is regardless of where I thought I'd "be" tomorrow, I never dreamed that I'd be on a weight loss journey, still! I don't know that I gave it a ton of thought before, but I am happy to be entering my forties with another 3.4 pounds lost this week for a grand total of 35.6 pounds in 8 weeks. I've lost 7.8% body fat and I'm now bummed for the first time that I didn't do measurements in inches before I started. I do know though, that the size 12 jeans, while still wearable, are a little big these days! That sure didn't last long!

I am still doing a Wii Fit workout, 45 minutes a day, six days a week. I take a break from that on Sundays. This weekend I went to visit my parents across the state. I think that was the first time I realized I was a little obsessed with the Wii Fit workout. I could very well have left on Friday night. I had already brought Cocoa over to visit her "other family". I was here, all night Friday night, working, rather than having Friday Night Party Night. We all kind of split up to do our own things this weekend and FNPN just didn't work out. I could very well have left to go to my parents, who I hadn't seen since Christmas, but I had a Wii Fit workout to do on Saturday morning. Rather than packing it all up and taking it, hooking it up to their television, doing the work out and packing it all back away, I opted to stay home until it was done. There was a day when I'd have opted to skip the workout. Those days are gone. It's the first thing I do when I roll out of bed in the morning. Regardless of the time I actually head to bed, I'm up between 5:30 and 6:00 to do that work out. I guess when the day comes that I have to travel for work, I'll need to make a decision as to what to do workout wise, but for now, it's pretty easy to be home to do it.

I had a great weekend with my parents. They were surprised, to say the least, about the difference from when they saw me last. The weekend after next I'll see family who will be visiting for my grandmother's ninetieth birthday party. I've not seen them in a couple of years. It will be great to hang out with my cousins and have a family celebration. Those of you that know my family, know this is going to be a great time for my fabulous grandmother! She's the most energetic, full of life, almost 90 year old I know. Actually, she might be the only 90 year old I know, but she ROCKS! I'll also have a very good friend here from Connecticut for the weekend. I haven't seen Jen since June of last year, so we're due for some catching up. Of course, all of the parties and all of the company and all of the birthdays mean lots of opportunities to make the right decisions. I look foward to working through all of them and making the choices I know I need to make.

Today, I am debating something as well. I really want to be at under 20 pounds to goal for my party on March 7. It's a little less than 3 weeks away. I am considering the thought (you'll be shocked!) that if for some reason, I'm not at less than 20 pounds to goal, I'm not going to have that beer or glass of wine that I've been waiting for. I honestly don't think I won't be there, but I thought, if I'm going to celebrate, I should really have something to celebrate. With 26.6 pounds left to go today, being under 20 pounds to go is definitely celebratory.

In closing, since I was with my parents this weekend, we did take a couple new pictures. The last time there were pictures posted here was January 12 at 18.8 pounds lost. I'm not reposting those, but here is the latest from this weekend. One word of warning, I love my mother, but she is not a photographer!

This couldn't be more true!!!

"Turning 40 is a big milestone. Some see the Big 4-0 as the entry to middle age, and one step closer to old age. But it is also true that 40 is the new 30. As you celebrate your fortieth birthday, consider that you are old enough to have learned from your mistakes, yet young enough to chart a new direction in your life."

Completion of Week 7!

Today was the weigh in for the completion of the 7th week of the program. This past week, I wasn't sure, really, how it was going to go. I struggled with drinking water. It was a somewhat stressful week and although I stayed on the program, it's probably the week so far that I felt like I'd done the worst. I forgot medications at times and even doubled up on a dose of evening appetite suppressants one night because I couldn't remember if I had taken them or not! To top it off, my scale didn't move pretty much all week...I'm convinced, it's broken! :)

So, considering all of that, I had no idea what to expect this morning. My scale started to move a little bit this morning and I just kept telling myself that my main goal each week was not a certain number on the scale, but "no gain to goal". This stems from a saying from a weight loss group that I was in back in 1994. Yes, it's been AT LEAST that long since I've been on this roller coaster. Anyway, in that group, I met Chris & Tina who you all either know or have heard so much about. Chris reached his goal during my time in that group with "no gain" any week up to reaching his goal. So, after discussing that at one point during a conversation, I've kept this in the back of my head. No gain to goal is a great thing. If I can go however many weeks without a gain during the entire process, that should be great! I made it through 6 weeks, 29.2 pounds and if this week were to stay the same, then I still did ok!

I know, you're all waiting for the result...well, it was way better than I expected it to be. I lost 3.0 pounds for a total of 32.2 pounds in 48 days. I couldn't be happier today. I've surpassed the 1/2 way mark. I've lost 7.3% body fat. I'm buying smaller clothes and I feel absolutely fantastic.

I saw the Florida marketing team on Wednesday for a meeting, and I'd not seen most of them, other than my team, since October. It was great to see everyone, and so much greater for me to be LESS me when I saw them. This week, I'll see friends I haven't seen since before the holidays as well, this upcoming weekend I'll see my family that I haven't seen since the day after Christmas. I'm very excited for them to see the difference. Although, I say that and my immediate thought is just what last week's blog post was about. I'm just happy that it's going so well!

Since this week was considered another "benchmark" in the program, I am now able to add a few foods to the menu. My Nutritional Plan "Additional Selections" now allow me to have tomatoes, fat-free plain yogurt, plums, sea bass and other stuff I don't care much about. To say that I was beyond thrilled about hitting the benchmark and adding tomatoes and yogurt is a bit of an understatement. It's about all I've talked about for two weeks. I eat a lot of salads, a lot of chicken salads, and I love tomatoes. I'd say it's been 'difficult' to not have tomatoes, but really, it's more annoying than anything else. It's really a mental thing for me to not have something red in my salad. I've spent a fortune in the past 7 weeks on red peppers, just for that reason! Finally, I can have tomatoes! You'd think I'd have had my allowable amount of tomatoes today, as excited as I was, but yet, I didn't! It just didn't work out today! Tomorrow, it's part of the plan though!

This week I'm enjoying the last week of officially being in my 30's. Next Tuesday, I'll be 40 and what I wouldn't give to have a 7.8 pound weight loss when I weigh next Monday. How cool would it be to have a 40 pound loss on my 40th birthday?! Okay, back to reality. I guess the realistic thing to shoot for is having a 40 pound loss when I go to my parents' house to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday at the end of the month! The next couple of weeks are going to be kind of crazy with birthday celebrations, dinners, family and friends in town and ends up on the weekend of March 7, with my birthday party. I just hope that I can stay on track and keep focused through all of the festivities. I'm counting down the time until that glass of wine or beer on March 7 as a celebration!

In closing, I hope you all have an awesome week!

“Optimism doesn't wait on facts. It deals with prospects. Pessimism is a waste of time.”

Completion of Week 6

I know I said it last week, but I can't believe it's been six weeks. Really, I can't believe it's February! What on earth happened to January? Wasn't it just New Year's Eve and I wasn't having champagne? Now it's almost my birthday and then it's going to be baseball season before I know it! Anyway, that's not why you all come here to read this post, so let's get down to business!

Today was fantastic! The result was a loss this week of 4.6 pounds. That brings the total to 29.2 pounds lost and 6.2% body fat also lost in the six weeks. I was amazed. I really didn't expect that big of a loss this week, but I did do what they recommended last week and tried to eat a little more. I really think the big difference was that a couple weeks ago I switched the Calcium Pyruvate from the doctor's office to some I had here, from GNC, and they just didn't seem that effective. I changed back, mid-week last week and it obviously made a difference.

I've been struggling a little bit the last week and 1/2 or so. I'm having a little issue dealing with the fact that it's been a REALLY long time since I've been the weight I am today, I mean, probably since 1993. It's been a really long time since I've had something about ME to be proud of. I'm thrilled with what's happening. I feel great. I'm exercising every day. I'm buying way smaller clothes and it's really not a big hassle for me to stay on the program. The part I struggle with is that sometimes I feel like "proud of my accomplishment" comes off as "arrogant or cocky or self-centered". I've discussed this with a couple people, and they say that it doesn't come off that way at all. I worry about it,though, because it truly isn't meant to be that way. I'm not even sure why I think that. I guess because it's not typically me to brag on something that has anything to do with self-image. I'm just really happy with me right now and I'm proud that for the first time in forever, I'm doing something for me and it's going really well. I know, inside, I'm still the same person. The girl who wants nothing more than to still do things for everyone else and would drop everything and run if her friends or family needed her.

Oh well, I'll get through it, I just need to figure out how. My friends and my family have been amazing through this entire process. I'm so glad to know that I'm almost half way (31.1 will be 1/2 way) to goal and am ready to tackle the rest of it. I did mention this weekend that I did consider another 10 pounds on top of the initial goal...but I'm going to get "there" first and then see where I am.

Someone asked me today if I posted any 'tips' on my blog. Let me just say, that I'm definitely not the advice expert, but I can share what's working for me.

I am drinking a TON of water. As most people who've been reading this know...the program calls for a gallon of water a day. I do finish the gallon most days.

I am exercising on a very regular schedule of 45 minutes a day 6 days a week (even God rested on Sunday!) and I do Wii Fit Step Aerobics for that time. I have switched my workout times to mornings rather than evenings (thanks, C) and it's working out much better.

I don't eat what's not on my list of "okay" foods. I eat a lot of lean and very lean protein, fruits and vegetables. That's all I eat, no carbs at all since December 22, 2008.

Again, I'm definitely not the expert here, but I know what's working for me. I have started to learn to put different meals together with what I can eat and have figured out some variety-just not at lunch. It seems all I ever eat for lunch is a grilled chicken salad. I pick out everything that I can't have (carrots, cheese) and I'm a little bit 'over-zealous' on the stuff I can't have. I inspect each piece of lettuce to make sure there's nothing stuck on it that can't be, I weigh and measure everything and I'm doing pretty good at finding things I can eat out, without too many issues. It's all in the choice that I make.

In closing, this week's quote:
“I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude.”