Adios 2010, Hola 2011!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe that 2010 is over- time really does fly by. It seems like a minute ago that I began this blog and was gearing up for everything to come in 2010...and now, it's 2011!

The Holidays were pretty great for me- here's a short recap: I visited my family in Arizona and since I hadn't been home in a year and half it really was amazing to be home. I went home weighing 69 (but I like to say 70) lbs less and it was a great feeling. I hope all of you had a great Holiday Season with your loved ones as well :)

As many of you know my goal in 2010 was to lose 100lbs and while I came up about 30lbs short of that goal I am still very proud of myself. I (like many people), need to learn when to give myself a little "pat on the back" instead of always being so hard on myself all of the time- which is why I'm celebrating that in 2010 I:

- Dropped 10 "points" off of my BMI, going from 50 to 40! Making me only .01 percent from being just plain old OBESE instead of being MORBIDLY OBESE. Dear Lord, I never thought I would be celebrating being OBESE but you've gotta take what you can get I guess, right? lol

- Went from walking being my primary form of exercise to the elliptical trainer being my primary form. Also, starting out being only able to do 10 minutes on the elliptical to now doing 45 minutes with ease.

- Went from eating absolutely whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted (ex: 500 cal Starbucks drinks, entire bags of chips and dip, etc.) to now understanding nutrition and being mindful and in control of what I eat.

- Went from being terrified to step foot in a gym to now having absolutely no issue with it :)

- Went from having to use a seat belt extender on an airplane to now being able to just use the provided, normal seat belt, just like everyone else!

- Went from weighing 352lbs to 283lbs!! For a total loss of 69lbs :)

I surely have a long way to go in 2011 and have some pretty exciting plans in store (to be shared soon!) but I did what I set out to do in 2010... I changed my life forever.

I am proud of what I've accomplished so far- I feel like I've made the major changes in my THINKING that were so needed and now it's just a matter of staying the course, moving forward, and challenging myself to do things I never thought possible! 2011- HERE I COME!

Thought I'd conclude this post with a picture I shared towards the beginning of my blog- it is of me and my cousin Tatum the last time I was home for Christmas in 2008:

And below is a picture of me and my cousin Ashley from when I was visiting them this year for Christmas 2010 (not the best quality but it is all I've got!):

Happy 2011 Ya'll!

Days #346-#353: Progress Pics Installment #3

Tonight I am finally getting around to posting my 3rd installment of progress pictures. I started out this weight loss journey at 352lbs but didn't take my first progress pic until 333lbs, my second at 312lbs, and my third at my current weight 284lbs. On to the progression....

That's enough for now- thankfully, I can see a change- maybe not in all the areas I would wish for but I will get there. 

Days #314 - #345: Update Time :)

Happy November & December!

After a much needed month long break from blogging I'm checking in to provide an update on where I currently find myself in this journey, where I'm going, & how I intend on getting there, as well as just to say hi :)

So why the blogging break? I've been living life. There were countless times where I would feel such pressure to write even if I had nothing to say or didn't want to and that's really not what this is about. Some bloggers have found writing health blogs to be their new ultimate passion and hobby and while I think that is FANTASTIC and am thankful for the great tips and stories they share, I've come to the realization that while losing weight is in my top 5 priorities in life, health blogging is not even on my top 10 list of priorities AND that it's ok.

I enjoy chronicling my journey and writing about my thoughts and goals (which I have been privately doing at Sparkpeople) and if someone else can read this and be inspired- then great- but if not, it's really just for me anyways. So now that I'm sure I've convinced anyone reading this that I'm narcissistic and don't care about anyone reading my blog (which is certainly NOT the case), I'm happy to say that I know I plan on posting once a week and sharing updates and other misc. happenings.

So, update time!

• My current weight is 284lbs which brings me to a total weight loss of 68lbs! I am super happy about this and I am 100% doing the best I've ever done since beginning this journey.
• I set a goal a few months ago to have lost 70lbs by the time I fly home for Christmas (Dec 21st) and now that I'm only 2lbs away from that goal- I'm hoping to say I'll be able to reach it!
• A few weeks ago I switched gyms and joined my local YMCA and love it. It's affordable, has a community feel, and is less than 5 minutes away from my house (compared to the 30ish minutes that I was driving EACH way to my other gym).
• Last Saturday I hit a rather large fitness milestone in my mind when I exercised on the elliptical for 45 minutes! I've been doing 30 minutes for a few months now and have always felt that I was pretty maxed out at that so when I was able to do 45 minutes (and even felt like I could have kept going!) I was pretty proud. I just remember the days when I could only do 10 minutes before feeling like my heart would beat out of my chest.
• As far as my eating, it has been SO much more clean, natural, and FRUIT and VEGGIE filled than normal, which leads me to believe that it has contributed to my recent weight loss. I've been sticking to 5 (sometimes 6) small meals every day and have had some amazing success with resisting temptation- I truly feel like I've hit that turning point where I've become a different person and I LOVE IT.

Finally, I'll leave you with a more recent pic of me and a good friend after one of the waaayyyy too many events that I've been putting on this Holiday season (haha) See you next week! :)

Days #288 - #313: 1 Year Ago...

Helloooo!!

(No worries- I haven't died and I didn't "fall off" the wagon- I simply have been livin' life!)

I can hardly believe that 1 year ago today I began this journey of healthy living and weight loss.

On November 8th, 2009 I stood on the scale and saw a # that horried and disgusted me: 352.

On November 8th, 2010 I stood on the scale and saw a very different #- one I'm proud of: 289.

I'm 63lbs down in a year and couldn't be happier :)

Right now I'm still trucking along toward reaching my goal of losing 75lbs by December 21st (the day I fly home for Christmas and see my family who remember me at 352lbs) and I'm only 12lbs away!!!

ANNNNDDD because I'm down another 20lbs it's time for me to post my next progress pic which will happen later this week.

During this last month that I've been MIA I've done a lot of rethinking and have made some major changes which I hope to be sharing with ya'll (along withe progress pic) very soon!

There is also no way that I could conclude this post without saying a BIG thank you to all of the bloggers who have been there through the thick and thin(ner) me :)

Days #282 - #287: Random Soup

Get your spoons out because if you keep reading you are about to enjoy a big ol' bowl of randomness...there are so many thoughts flowing through my mind that I'm pretty sure there is no way I'll be able to organize them into a nice perfectly packaged post so here it goes!

• I'm realizing I haven't come as far with my relationship with food as I thought I had. Earlier on in my journey I felt like food had kind of...lost it's power over me, but recently I just have been having the hardest time saying "no." Very soon I'm going to be exploring when/where/why these situations occur and how I can try and avoid/deal with them.

• Biggest Loser pretty much rocks my world. Sure, I can relate with some disgrunteled viewers who say that the extreme success the BL's see isn't healthy for the average dieter (ex: someone losing 20lbs in a week as was shown on last night's episode) but I can't even say how big of a motivator watching the show is for me- mainly for 2 reasons: #1) It shows me that I can ALWAYS be working harder. When I see people who are bigger than me working out harder than me- it pushes me to go harder. And #2) It doesn't allow me to feel sorry for myself- when I saw Aaron (who weighs 440lbs or so) do 10 two-minute sprints last night that pretty much just blew my whole idea of "because I am just under 300lbs I'm in no place to jog" right out the freaking window.

• Starting yesterday I am beginning to use an online calorie counting tool called "The Daily Plate;" this is a tool that used a while back and really enjoy- it allows me to chart my weight loss progress, figure out how many calories I should be eating each day to lose weight, informs me as to how many calories I am burning on average through certain activities, and most importantly- keep track of not only my calories but carbs, fat, sodium levels as well. I am only planning on tracking w/this online tool M-F because I know I won't do it on the weekends since I'm rarely in front of the computer and I'd just be setting myself up for failure if I said I would do it everyday so I'm going to be realistic and do just M-F. Anyone else ever use The Daily Plate?
• This past weekend we got in some really good community service time- it's always fun when exercise and serving others can coincide- here's a pic of our group!

That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed your bowl o' random soup :) 

Days #279 - #281: From Fickle to Focused!

Right now...I'm pretty ticked at myself.

For some unexplained reason I've been eating like crap for the last 2 days. Now, by "eating like crap" I don't mean gorging myself on pizza or anything but I've definitely not been taking steps TOWARD my goal.

For accountability sake, I'll tell you all that I:
- Went out to dinner w/ a friend on Tuesday evening and ate WAYYYY too much bread.
- Had small donut yesterday morning even though I had already eaten breakfast.
- Ate french fries w/ my dinner yesterday.
- Choose to have 4-5 pretzel drums dipped in cinnamon sauce last night.
- And had another small donut this morning w/ a bottled vanilla frappuccino even though I already had breakfast.

Argh!!! I'm seriously mad at myself and I have EVERY reason to be- I know that all of those choices were STUPID.

But, unlike times in the past where I would have just given up I'm using this frusteration to fuel me and keep me focused to do my VERY BEST for the rest of today, tomorrow, and Saturday leading up to my weigh in on Sunday morning where I am SO hoping to hit 60 pounds lost! And, I'm also only 1 lb away from posting my next progress picture over there on the sidebar!

For example, I'm going out tonight with my girls to a new restaurant called Church Brew Works and I've already checked out the menu to decide what I'm going to get and will be eating my yummy homeade chili for lunch today.

I need to start focusing more on my goals and envisioning where I want to be b/c I've been at this TOO long to be doing stupid stuff like eating a donut that I really don't even want just because it's there. Lesson learned.

On a brighter note, I went to the Pirates game the other day with my church fam and had splendid time! While the Pirates officially suck, PNC park is absolutely beautiful and we had amazing seats! Wanna see me cheesin'? :)

Peace out ya'll! Prove to yourself just how strong you really are today!

Days #273 - #278: Long, Short, and Short-er!

Well, I'm only 1lb away from being 60lbs down!

Being that the time is drawing near when I originally began this journey (Nov 8th) I've been doing a lot of reflecting about just how far I've come in a year- sure, I know I won't make my goal of losing 100lbs by December 31st (I've come to terms with that finally!) but I will have lost a significant amount of weight- something I have NEVER done before!

Like I said- I realize my original goal is not something that will happen but you know what? WHO CARES!?! My ultimate goal is not to lose 100lbs by December 31st, my ultimate goal is too lose all of my extra weight and I KNOW that will happen- whether that's on December 31st or any other date.

That's not to say that I'm still not setting goals- that is just in my blood (I do it in all areas of my life) and it gives me something to strive for and feel good about achieving; which is why I've recently set 2 new "short-term" weight loss goals to go along with my long-term one; in case you've never heard them they are:

*Long-Term Goal: To weigh 175lbs (a total loss of 177lbs)
*Short-Term Goal: To have lost 100lbs by March 26th (that is the date of the wedding I am in!)
*Short-er Term Goal: To have lost 75lbs by December 21st.

I am currently 16 pounds away from achieving my "short-er term goal" and I'm going after this with all I've got.

 So why December 21st?

Well, I am originally from AZ (which is where all of my family lives) but moved to Pittsburgh awhile back and due to finances/timing I wasn't able to go home for Christmas last year but have already booked my ticket (ouch btw!) to fly home for Christmas this year...on December 21st! By that time I will have been away from home for 1 year and 6 months and it is one of my strongest desires to meet my family and friends in the airport and for their jaws to drop!

My family has always been very kind in regards to my being overweight- belive it or not I am the only overweight person in my family and I can probably count on both my hands the # of times anyone has ever mentioned my weight being an issue in my entire life; which I'm sure we can all agree is both a positive & negative thing. Regardless, I know they have all wanted me to lose weight for a LONG time- for my health and because well, they're my family!

They do know that I've been "losing weight" but none of them have any idea how much and I would be able to hold my head even higher being able to say that I've lost 75lbs! Granted, I know that 59lbs is something to be proud of too- but 75lbs is what I'm shooting for.

This was a picture of me during my last trip to AZ, so this is how they remember me:

I don't think I look like this anymore...but sometimes it is truthfully hard for me to tell! Oh well, the scale doesn't lie...I am 1lb away from 60lbs being gone!

Yipeee!

Anybody else have a hard time seeing your own weight loss?