weighed myself this morning. and i'm down another pound, for a total of about 5 lbs lost since a month ago. pretty happy about that considering i had dessert on thanksgiving and i cheated a little this weekend. after all we got some maries candies turkins from the band and they are pretty much irresistable. so, anyways, i'm back on track today.

1. still doing great with the no dessert challenge. i actually felt worse after eating dessert for dave's bday last week so now i don't even want dessert!
2. last week i gained back a pound or two but saturday i weighed myself and i was back down to my 4 lb loss. very happy about that. of course i wish it was like 15 lbs lost or something, but i'll take the 4.
3. did a cardio workout last week with my friend amie at a nearby church. very good workout. sore for 2-3 days afterwards so didn't work out anymore last week. i figure i need to ease back into this...
   

progress

weighed myself this morning and i'm down a total of 4 lbs. yes!! i'm so excited. this is the lowest i've been in like 18 months. :) i called dave on his way to work and he was like "you're really doing it!!" haha, he knows about all my failed attempts in the last 2 years or so. but this is the NEW me. i wish that my neck felt better than it does right now though. i am not sure that i can work out feeling like this. headed to the chiropractor for the 2nd day in a row today.

also, i'd like to report that 10 days into the no dessert challenge, i'm still doing really well. i've decided to schedule my 5 free passes (where i can have dessert) so i can look forward to them and i won't blow it on a not so important day. so far i've determined the first 2. they will be next week for david's bday and on thanksgiving day. then i will probably save the other 3 for the month of december, when we might have christmas parties or something, before actual Christmas day...

good luck to the rest of you in your weight loss journeys!

the dessert challenge! and other weight loss stuff

Esther, thanks for the comment... :) As moderator, I am going to go ahead and say that a snack size candy bar is contraband no matter what position you're in, or when you're eating it. :) It would have to count towards 1 of your 5 free passes....hahahaha...

Anyways, I am really excited about the dessert challenge. Right now, I know 3 people are doing it for sure and about 4 maybes. So, if any of my readers are on the fence about doing it, put down that cookie and join us! :) What do you have to lose? Other than weight? haha...

All joking aside, I think that this is a very tough challenge. Only thru prayer and help from God am I able to do this. I just keep thinking that my body is a temple and I need to take care of it and not eat bad food so often. This is going to be a spiritual journey for us all. How fun!

I'm so excited because I've lost about 2 pounds in the last couple weeks. This is the first time in a LONG time I've stuck with a diet more than about 3 days. I'm determined to make some lasting changes. And there's one thing I know, if I can cut back and go without dessert, then anyone can!

the dessert challenge!

in order to not fall back into my old patterns i'm seeking out all kinds of people to hold me accountable for my newfound willpower and diet. skipped dessert for 2 meals today!

this weekend of skipping dessert with my father in law has inspired me. i would like to skip dessert from now until christmas and i am looking for people to join in this challenge with me!!

here are the rules:
1. we can have 53 free dessert passes between now and christmas (we can indulge in whatever insanely high calorie filled thing we want on 53 separate occasions, no questions asked.) - the number was upped from 3 to 5 to allow for christmas parties before christmas...
2. we can still have granola bars, applesauce, fruit, yogurt, pudding, sugar free items (within reason), and hot drinks such as coffee and cocoa, etc.
3. but in general - no ice cream, cake, pie, brownies or cookies, none of the really indulgent, gluttonous stuff.

i have never embarked on such a challenge but i'm determined to do this. if some others join in this challenge with me, especially for health reasons, then i think that i will find it even easier to stick with it. :) let me know if you're in!

victory!

i had a couple small victories this weekend. did not gain weight on a trip to ohio. and did not eat dessert at lunch on sunday even though it looked amazing. i challenged my father in law phil to not eat dessert with me (since he's diabetic) and neither one of us did. :) this was a HUGE moment.

food diary

points allotted - 25

no breakfast - slept in...

beef soft taco - 7
taco chips - 2
1/3 pepsi - 1

soft pretzel - 3
lemon fluff dessert - 4

potato soup - 6

fruit salad - 2

0 points leftover at end of day

new weight loss strategy

wear tight pants so that i can't hardly breathe. when i think of eating food, won't want to anymore. i came up with this strategy when i realized that i could triple my wardrobe for free if i reintroduced all my tight pants.

grrrr...

i'm putting away my summer clothes and getting out my winter ones. somehow all my sweaters shrunk while they were in the attic in a box...or....maybe i just got bigger! i was afraid of this. i hate tight clothes. i hate tight clothes. i hate tight clothes. seriously, i have to get real. and lose weight. seriously. expect more posts in the near future

update

sept 11-20 - ate lots of rice and beans and anything that wouldn't upset my stomach in costa rica. lost about 4 lbs over the 10 days.

sept 21 - back home...

breakfast -
homemade oatmeal with raisins and walnuts - 5 pts

snack -
fiber one oats and chocolate bar - 2 pts

lunch -
green beans - 0 pts
WW lasagna meal - 6 pts
coke zero - 0 pts

dinner - 1/2 of a large papa johns pizza pepperoni - 28
3 bites cheesecake factory pumpkin cheesecake - probably 100 points!
pepsi - 3

points allowance - 25
points balance at end of day -
-19

well, there you have it. one horrible dinner ruined my good day. i had only used 13 points by dinnertime and then i ate waaaay to much pizza. oh well, lesson learned. pizza is not for me right now since i lack the self control to eat 1 or 2 pieces. :)

also, we rode our bikes about 2 miles last night.

update

no exercise today. we fasted in prep for our mission experience so i didn't want to burn off all the energy that i had.

drank water until 6 pm
then had lasagna, salad, bread and a brownie

it's amazing how little food we actually need. :)

Update

I'm back and I'm really, really going to lose weight again. I'm determined. Here's a log of my activity for the last 5 days and eating for the last 2 days (it took me a few days to actually start tracking my food intake...)

9/5 - walked 1.5 miles in a.m.

9/6 - walked 0.8 miles in a.m.
         biked 4.0 miles in p.m.

9/7 - walked 0.8 miles in a.m.

9/8 - walked 1.7 miles (treadmill) in a.m.
         walked 0.7 miles in p.m.
         biked 2.5 miles in p.m.

breakfast - water, mini bagel with cream cheese and low sugar strawberry jam
lunch - hot dog on bun, sour cream and onion chips, green beans, corn dog, coke
snacks - Fiber One oats and choc bar and skim milk
              1/2 cookies and cream poptart, grapes
dinner - apple with PB and cream cheese
             soft pretzel
             coke
             white rice and eggroll
             starbucks caramel maccchiato ice cream with choc chips in it

after this day I felt like an idiot. that's a LONG list of food. people in some other countries would only have rice for dinner, not all that other junk. and after having hot dogs for lunch. ah! And when did I start drinking pop again? And I really need to shop my choc chip obsession. Seriously! I claim that I am on a diet, but this really doesn't look like a diet to me.

9/9 - walked 1.76 miles (treadmill) in a.m.
         biked 5 miles in p.m.

breakfast - ham, egg & cheese mini bagel and iced tea
snack - apple
lunch - side salad with colonial dressing, bisucit & honey and beef vegetable soup (bob evans)
snack - soft pretzel with mustard
dinner - dave's leftover chix noodle and mashed potatoes from bob evans (1/2 of the meal)
             a couple spoonfuls of that starbucks ice cream with some pecans on top and extra caramel. yep.

after this day i felt a little better about my eating habits. but i still see some things I could work on

sun - 2.8 mi bikeride

workout diary for the week

mon - rode bikes 9 miles, walked 2.1 miles
tues - walked 1.5 miles
wed - walked/ran 2.36 miles, lifted weights 30 minutes, 150 crunches
thurs - took a nap on the couch in the evening and winced in pain as i climbed stairs at work cuz my quads hurt so bad from my earlier workouts this week

went 3.35 miles in an hour tonight. yay!

i must confess that i had a horrid weekend as far as my diet goes. it all started with pizza, buttered popcorn and hot tomales on friday. followed by coffee cake, cake, etc. saturday and mac n cheese and meatloaf for dinner, then cracker barrel for sunday lunch - fried chicken, corn muffins and hashbrown casserole, and then some more of that for dinner and chocolate chip cookies. plus, lots of snacks interspersed. WHY am i eating so much junk???????? and of course i didn't step on the treadmill all weekend. and today at weigh in, big surprise, i learned that i'd gained 1.2 lbs in the past week. i'm a moron. this is a terrible way to diet.

2.4 miles in about 50 minutes. i love the treadmill =) definitely worth the $150

after eating cookies and milk, and deciding to lay on the couch and watch tv, i changed my mind. i said to myself, at least if i'm going to watch tv (well, episodes from little house season 6), then i should workout. so i hopped on the treadmill. i didn't quit till dave got home an hour later. i walked (ran about 6.5 mins of it) 3.38 miles and burned 555 calories. =) just got done. at least i turned it around. i think too often i give up after i make one bad choice for the day. for instance, if i have a donut at work in the a.m., i resign myself to a bad diet day, i eat junk for all other meals and don't work out that day but come home and wallow in my slothfulness. i think that i need to change that trend. overall, it will be better for me even if i do fall for the occasional sweet....

1.75 miles in 30 minutes. oh, how i love my new treadmill. must get ready for work now.

over time, i've decided that the ymca doesn't really meet my needs. it is too far from my office and too crowded. i decided i wanted to buy a treadmill to use at home. we looked at play it again sports in carmel this week. found a very nice one for $600. almost went to buy it on thursday night and then our good friend duke stopped us. he told us his mom had one for sale. so today we drove over to cuyuga by the illinois state line today and bought it for $150. then we went out with duke and amanda to the covered bridge restaurant in eugene. it was wonderful. very quaint. and peanut butter pie to rival jenny's and dave's. :) (but no good whipped cream on top)

so, anyways, i started using my treadmill right away tonight. walked/ran 2.7 miles in 45 minutes. it was so convenient to just hop right on here in the house. now i will be able to work out in the mornings and not have to haul my clothes and curling iron and makeup, etc. to the gym and i won't have to work out after work and take up my evenings. i'm so excited!

here's a pic of me on the new component of our home gym. we put it right by dave's power tower so we can work out together.