Oh yeah

As if there is anyone out there who reads this its been a few weeks!

Since my last weigh in I have lost 3 lbs!  Its averages out to only about 1lb a week but I'm ok with that! This journey has been awful so I'm happy with downward progress!  So its a total of 10lbs which is awesome!  I haven't allowed the number to determine my progress this time!  I have also gone down a pants size!  Yay!!!!!

So clean eating is it for me but I'm not letting it control me!  But its working so I'm happy!

I've had some personal workout successes I PR'd a 5k run at 27:49 (8:58 a mile) not in a race but I have one this week so its awesome I know I can do this!  It'll push me Thursday! I also had a great 6miler a few weeks ago at 9:30 a mile!  Feeling pretty amazing!

So its a boring post but it gets it done :)

Week 2

Another week in the books!  It was a good week!  Not perfect but I'm not striving for perfection I'm striving for better!  

Great week of workouts starting with a great 4 mi run last Saturday it was warm and beautiful and I had to get out!  

I know the picture says it was only 3.1 but I had to restart my nike+ a mile in.  I thought I wasn't tracking right.  I felt pretty good!  Just a starting point for training for the Broad Street Run. A 10 mile run down Broad Street in Philadelphia!  Me and a few of my friends are going to do it!  I am exciting!  Longest race since my half marathon in 2010! (wow, was it really that long ago!)

So, back to this week.  Monday was Body Pump, Tuesday I tried spin again (not terrible), Wednesday was Power intervals, Thursday 4mi run, and today was step and rowing! I've also been doing an arm challenge this week!  

Continued clean eating for about 80% of the time and I lost 2lbs again!  Super exciting! It means that in for the first time in 2 years I have found something to be working! Yay!  

Hoping my motivation keeps up even in the scale doesn't show it :)  

Here's my biggest motivation for my journey!  Hope you think they are as cute as I do :)

Week one

Well, here I am, a week later and I am encouraged.  This week I decided to take one change and focus on that.  I have been tracking my eating for a year and it alone hasn't been working for some reason.  I've been maintaining but not losing. But I do have a lot of habits I need to change.  

Thins like emotional eating, drinking diet soda, not drinking enough water, cravings etc.  So this week I decided to focus on drinking enough water and drinking less diet soda (a step to eliminating it).  I have read that you are supposed to drink half of your body weight in oz. So for me that is 110oz!  That is A LOT of water. I have found, though, that it isn't too bad to do as long as I spread it out through the day which includes drinking right after I get up.  I've done it this week and I feel great.  I have also limited myself to one soda a day for this week.  I'll work on eliminating it in the near future.  For now I will continue to focus on the water. 

Along with the water drinking this week. I was able to get in 5 days of workouts and am planning on running tomorrow!  I did step, a core class, I ran, I rowed and I ellipticaled (not a word, I know)  

My children broke my scale this week, oh joy, so I weighed in at the y today.  Thankfully I had weighed in there last week cuz I was ticked I didn't lose anything, so I had a weight to compare.  I was 222 last week and this week was just under 220. So yay for 2 lbs down!  I'll take it!!

It begins here

Well, here it is, my first post on trying to lose this weight!  I have used blogging before as a tool and it was good accountability. But I don't want to do it on my family blog.  So here we are!  (this is a LOOOOOOONG blog so sorry, if you want to skip to the end for the current weight feel free)

Here's where we begin.  I was an athlete in high school.  Played basketball and volleyball.  Outside of those sports I didn't work out.  I didn't need to, I was in high school and had great metabolism.  We would always stop for meals after games and it was always fast food. We ate healthy at home but I didn't really know what it meant.  I did find that in the summers I would gain weight, but it never bothered me.  I always weighed more than I expected but never weighed myself.  The only time I ever remember getting on a scale in high school I was 150lbs and I was a size 6. So I know I will never weigh below that and thats ok with me.  

So then college happened.  I stopped playing sports and didn't change my eating habits.  So you know what that means.  The freshman 15, which in my case was probably more.  Still never weighed myself so I really know how much that was.  

Thus began my life for the years to come.  I slowly gained until I graduated from college and hated my body.  I started running, a little at a time and started eating a bit better but mostly just eating less.  I was living on my own for the first time and was pretty busy. I look back and pretty much didn't have  a lot of time to eat so I was eating cereal for dinner a lot and I think that added in to it a lot! I joined a gym that I used mostly for running. Again, don't know the weight loss amount but felt better.  I went from a tight size 14 to a size 10.  I used running to stay in shape for a while but I still didn't change my eating habits much.  Didn't really have to because running kept it off. 

Fast forward to 2003.  I decided I was tired of the fluctuating weight.  I started the atkins diet but no exercise.  I lost quite a bit and was the skinniest I felt for a long time.  I was back to a size 8-10 and really felt great!   I was able to keep that off for over a year and in 2004 I got married.  Slowly over the next year I gained it back.  Ran here and there but nothing consistent!  I got pregnant in November of 2005 and that was the first time since high school I knew my weight.  At 9 weeks pregnant I was 204lbs.  Yikes!! Did not like that at all!  But at that point I couldn't really do much about it then, but I started walking throughout the pregnancy.  

After I had my son I tried in vain to lose the weight, but I wasn't really that motivated. I was a tired new mommy and didn't have the energy.  (gee I wonder why) I had my second child in 2009 and after that was TIRED of the weight!  When I had my daughter I was an embarrassing 264lbs.  Awful!  

this picture almost single handedly made me start losing

So I started using wii fit! Ha ha as if it was really doing anything.  I also started logging my calories on spark people. I started drop weight slowly, very slowly.  In the spring of 2010 I started running and signed up for my first 5k in April! I started to love running and signed up for a half marathon in September of 2010.  Wow! That was hard!  But I did it and it made me feel amazing!  

Half marathon September 2010

I got down to 222lbs where I sat for a few months never going anywhere despite running consistently.  So I enlisted the help of a new friend.  I didn't know her very well but knew she was on the same type of journey and I needed help.  I started emailing her everything I ate and this got me down to 204. 

The first picture in many many years I didn't hate of myself

5k in April of 2011 about 9 weeks with the twins

 

I was well on my way. Was feeling great and was exciting to keep going!  Then, an unexpected pregnancy cut off my plans. I was excited anyway.  We were going to try for more but not for a few months.  The most unexpected part of this pregnancy!  Twins!!  Woah, but I was determined for it to be a healthier pregnancy and never get bigger than I was before.  I did better I ran unitl I was 16 weeks and I "only" got up to 254lbs (with two babies)!  They were born in Novebmer of 2011 and I lost 25lbs right away and started running again at 6 weeks 1 day.

Look at the size of that belly!  I think I was 36 weeks in this picture.

That,  my friends,  was two years ago.  I have only lost 10lbs since then.  Sigh.  I have been doing all the same things I had done before and nothing has worked.  I joined the YMCA in January of 2012 thanks to a gift from a very generous donor and have lost some inches but literally nothing is working. This makes my very sad and very frustrated.  So here we are.  My plan is to started eating clean.  This means lots of different things for lots of different people.  But for me it means nothing processed as much as possible.  I will be tracking my calories on Spark People again and will continue to workout.  I will not give up!  I will lose this weight and be healthy!  I have four beautiful children around to take care of!  

Todays weight. 220lbs  (oh how I hate this number!)

At "Storm the beach" with two of my sisters in June of 2013