What is your goal?

Around this time of year, it is always hard to lose weight.  In fact, most people probably gain a little bit of weight during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Especially since any given person usually goes somewhere for the holidays at least twice for the same holiday. When my side of the family did Thanksgiving, tradition was that it would be on Thanksgiving day and around lunch time.  Which was normally 2 in the afternoon.  Late lunch huh?  Then about 3 or 4 hours later, we are headed to Brad's parents for their Thanksgiving.  By the end of the day, I was so tired and full that I believed that I could go a couple of days without eating and be completely ok with it.

This is where meeting your goal can be hard.  You want to eat what everyone else is eating.  You want the same size pie, same amount of gravy and mashed potatoes or another roll or two. I am so close to my goal weight right now that honestly I am worried about the holidays.  I know that I will more than likely go a little overboard with my food choices. I am going to try my best but not everywhere that we go will have healthy options.  It is going to be hard to stay on track.  Since we are going to do something small at our house on Thanksgiving day with a little more healthier options, we are going to adjust our eating plan.

Instead of having our free day on Sunday this next week, we are going to move it to Saturday.  This is when our Thanksgiving is going to take place.  We will still have to watch what we eat but it won't be as bad.  We are hoping that the holiday season won't cause us to gain any weight.  We will just have to wait and see. 

Now on to this last week.  We have had a little bit of a slow week.  Mainly for Brad.  I believe that he would have lost more weight than what he did if he didn't have his meal at work.  We have both have learned that since we have changed the way that we have been eating that it doesn't take long for us to be full.  Isn't that crazy? 

Above is a picture of Brad.  To date, he has lost almost 25 pounds!!  I am so incredibly proud of this man.  He has been such an amazing husband in the years that we have married and especially in the last couple of years.  I am amazed at this man everyday and couldn't ask for anyone better.

Above is a picture of me.  To date, I have lost almost 14 pounds.  I have a little over 11 pounds before I hit my goal and I honestly never thought that I would see this day come.  I got up to highest weight of 194 in January 2011 and have been working out for almost 5 years.  There's been times that I have put on more weight and then had to lose it again.  That time was so aggravating but now I am on the right track and can't wait to be able to share with you the day that I am FINALLY able to share with y'all that I have hit my goal weight.

Thank y'all for staying tuned and supporting us in our weight loss journey.  Until the next time.

You lose to gain

What would you lose to gain?  This question has hit me lately.  During this journey that Brad and I have taken together, we have chosen to give up a lot of things that we were eating before.  One of my biggest things has been Mexican food.  I loved going out to eat Mexican to the point that when I was at my heaviest that they knew what our order was and already had it written down.  They just verified that we still waited the same thing.  This type of eating caused me to get to my heaviest weight of 194 when I wasn't pregnant that is.  If you count when I was pregnant, I got up to 208.

We have also learned that in order for us to gain a better life, we have to lose some to gain.  Not necessarily pounds or inches but other things as well.  I have had to let go of people that have been a bad influence on me or have been involved in things that I didn't need to be around.  People that constantly want to live in the past and be negative all the time. People that I had a hard time letting go but knew that I needed to do it.  Mainly for my sanity and my happiness.  Stress causes me to gain weight. For the last year and a half, I just kept going up and down.

I stayed stressed because of things that were said to me and I am thankful that I have been able to let go of that.  I still have my good days and my bad days.  This journey has been so much more than losing weight that I put on.  It has been more about gaining my life back.  The way that my life use to be before the decisions that I made that ultimately caused a downward spiral on my life.  I have gotten my life under control now and wouldn't be where I am at without God and my wonderful husband.

Now that I got off track just a little bit, we will get to our weekly weigh in.  This week I don't have a separate pic of Brad and I.  Instead, I have pic of us together with my daughter Peyton.  I have lost a pound this week and Brad has lost a pound and half.  Total for us since starting on September 21 has been 12 1/2 pounds for me and 24 pounds for Brad.  This week we were thrown off a bit because the kids had their Thanksgiving lunch at school.  It is hard for us because we have two and their lunches are always so close together.  Since we had carbs on a low carb day it probably affected our weigh in a little bit but we both lost.  We can't complain at all though.

We are starting to notice changes in ourselves.  For instance, Brad is having to add another hole to his belt and his pants are starting to fit looser.  Soon he will be buying a size down and that is awesome!!!  I know he is excited. He has stuck with it for almost 2 months and he is seeing changes.  When you have worked and worked without seeing in changes, it can be discouraging.  This time is different and I am so glad that we found something that worked for both of us.

I have gotten in a size 9 in pants that are juniors and they are fitting extremely loose.  I won't be able to wear them soon and I just got to where I could wear them.  I also can wear a 7 in juniors.  I don't like how they push up on my sides a little but soon I will be able to wear those without a problem as well.  I haven't been this small in my adult life and I am beyond thrilled.  I am looking forward to summer because I have worked hard.

We both are looking forward to summer and going to the beach.  This is the first time that I have been excited to buy a bikini.  I am hoping that buy summer time that I will be have abs showing.  You have to have goals right?

Below is our weekly picture.  Look at my sweet baby girl.  She was so excited about taking a pic with us and Bradley did so well taking the pic for us.  It is hard to get a pic of all of us together.

I am extremely grateful for being able to go on this journey with my husband.  We have been through a lot and for us to come out on top is amazing.  Thanksgiving is going to be a little hard but we are determined to come out ahead. We have talked about changing our free day from Sunday to Saturday when we do our Thanksgiving with Brad's side of the family.  We are preparing ahead of time so that we can still be successful.  What is everyone else doing to stay on track close to the holidays?

Zooma Half Marathon

Here is my race recap from this morning's half marathon. I will be honest from the beginning.  I honestly was not sure how I was going to do at this half because I only went to 9 miles in training.  I had a goal in mind that I wanted to reach but I just didn't know if I was going to meet it but I am so extremely thankful for my friend Missi that helped me reach my goal.  She refused to let me give up but let me start from the beginning.

Yesterday was a busy day for us because we had things going on with the kids that we couldn't leave any earlier than 2.  We usually have our kids stay the night my in laws so that we can be there at the start and just spend some time away.  I don't feel comfortable with the kids going to Nashville because it is a big city. It makes me nervous and I like to be able to run carefree and not have to worry about how the kids are doing.

We got to Nashville and got to the expo to pick up my race packet.  From the beginning I was disappointed there.  Not many things to look at or anything like what I have seen in the past.  They did have this photo thing that you could do so I decided to do a pic with the pink flowered necklace and a blue and green one. 

 

This one was for my daughter.  Her favorite color is pink.

 

 

They didn't have just a green for my son so a blue and green for him.

 

We then checked into our hotel and just hung around the room until time to meet some friends that were running the next morning. We ate at a place called Amerigo.  It is an Italian restaurant and it was pretty good. I had spaghetti to carb load and Brad had a lasagna.  We then had to stop and get some cheesecake and then went back to the hotel to watch a little bit of TV before heading to bed.

 

I think that we finally went to bed around 10 but around 2 this morning I just couldn't sleep.  Took me forever to finally get back asleep. I was quite pleased with the hotel that we stayed.  Even though they were pricey, they did have an amazing complimentary breakfast and since the race didn't start until 8, we had time to eat.  I always do better when I eat eggs before I run.

 

We were then off to the start line.  We had a little bit of issues finding the start line but we had plenty of time.  Got there and did the normal potty before you run. Then we were off. I was excited and the start of the race was going good and the route was absolutely beautiful.  I was quite pleased with it.  At every water stop, they had the option of Gatorade and I learned at the Oak Barrel half last year that I always do better when I drink Gatorade instead of water.

 

I hit my wall after mile 9.  I struggled and honestly I was getting to where I didn't care what my goal was.  I just wanted to finish.  I had to dig down deep to find the strength to keep going.  I got through mile 10 ok until we started coming to some hills.  I didn't want to but I knew that if I didn't walk up those hills that I wasn't going to finish strong.  So Missi and I decided to walk but she wouldn't let me walk slow.  We still had to keep a good pace and we made it.  I didn't think that I had anymore left in me to make it to the finish line in a sprint but I found it.  She looked for me and I was gone.  My friend Mark took a pic of us approaching the finish line.

 

 

She still beat me to the finish line by 5 seconds but that is ok.  My goal for this half was to finish in 2:15 and no later than 2:20. I was unable to do 2:15 at this time.  I did, however, finish in 2:17 with a PR of almost 4 minutes from my best half time.  Here is one that I didn't even think about until my husband made the comment but the last time I was in Nashville was September 2014 for the last Women's Half Marathon that they did.  That race I finished in less than 3 hours so I believe that I have redeemed myself at this half by shaving off almost 45 minutes from that time.

 

 

Here's Missi and I with our medals.  I can't thank her enough for staying with me and not letting me give up.  For helping me with my breathing so that I didn't get too tired. She is absolutely awesome and I can't wait until we can run together at a half again.

 

 

Here is just me.  I used this pic to post to my buddy Henry that I run 4.  I am so incredibly proud of this medal because when my legs and lungs were about done, I ran with my heart.  I loved this race and this course.  I had the best time with friends. 

 

Until next time everyone.









Another week down

Well another week has come to a close and we had our weekly weigh in.  It has been somewhat of a stressful week for Brad so therefore, he didn't lose any weight.  Instead he put on a pound and a half.  He has been sick so he hasn't been able to exercise as hard as he has been doing because he didn't feel good.  Like I told him today, he has still lost almost 19 pounds and he could be that much more heavier.  He would have rather lost this week but he is also very thankful that he didn't put on any more than what he did. I am still very proud of him and this week is a new week.  To begin fresh.  Make a new commitment to the journey. 

This time of year is always so hard anway.  You have Halloween at the end of October, Thanksgiving in November and Christmas in December.  All three involve food and lots of it.  Halloween is more candy than the other two holidays but Thanksgiving and Christmas you have all the good food that only seem to be there around this time of year.  The turkey and/or ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and so much more. Then there is the desserts.  Oh my goodness.  My weakness is the cheesecake and I love peanut butter fudge. 

Which brings me to the picture below.  I have learned in the last month that you can work out all you want but you have to control what goes in your mouth the rest of the time.  If you don't, it is a never ending cycle and you won't see much of a change. In fact, you may never see any change at all. 

To me this is the real strength.





Below is a picture of Brad.  We both are still learning and are committed to continue this journey.  He is hoping for a better week so that he is able to share with y'all how much weight he has lost.

Regardless of what the loss or gain is for this week, I am still incredibly proud of him.  He has found something that works for him and he is sticking with it.  He is taking the good weeks along with the bad.  Not every journey that you embark on, weight loss or otherwise, is going to be 100% perfect all the time.  You have to take the cards that you are dealt because you can't change them.  Why worry then?

Although Brad didn't have a good week, I did pretty good myself.  I was able to lose 1.6 pounds which put me under what the highest weight would be for me to still be considered healthy. I have never been so excited. I have been working extremely hard for almost 5 years to get down to what is considered a healthy weight and I can't believe that I am finally there.  I am hoping to lose about 10 more pounds or so then just work on maintaining from there. 

Below is a pic that I took today when I got to my mother in law's. I love how I am able to wear jeans that I never was able to wear before because although they fit, they were still small.  I had love handles hanging out and they were probably too tight to be wearing in the first.  Which is why I hardly ever wore them.  Now they fit perfectly.  I am sure that eventually if I lose more that I won't be able to wear them and will have to go shopping.  I would rather go shopping for workout clothes than regular clothes.

I still have a few areas that I need to work on but honestly from where I started, I have come a long way.  I have lost almost 50 pounds in almost 5 years and in the last year alone I have put on weight and lost it multiple times.  At one point this year I was 175 pounds!!!  That was only 19 pounds away from my starting weight when I first started working out.  So glad that I have eliminated stress and found something that works for me.

My advice this week is if you are looking for something to help you lose weight, find what works for you.  Running and Zumba works for me but may not work for you.  Find your happy place with your workout routine and go for it.  You should also have a good support system.  If you don't have one, I will be happy to be there for you.  Remember that your food intake is important and no matter how hard you workout, you can't outwork a bad diet.  Until next week friends.  :)