Here I sit...

after that wonderfully positive post of last week...eating sugar and fat-laden Valentine's cookies...you know the ones ~ the ones I bought cause 'the kids' would love them. ::rolling eyes::

I have been eating a lot lately...not fast food or anything, but just a lot of food. My only saving grace is that I'm substituting 10 calorie jello for a lot of my cravings. Not that means I'm eating well...just not as bad as it could be.

Don't worry...I'll finish those blasted cookies off tonight so they'll be gone. ;)

February 1st, 2008

Weight:

January 1st: 233
February 1st: 227
Loss of: 6 pounds!!

YES! 6 pounds in a month...with no dieting! I can live with that. ;)

Here is a list of thing I have learned over the month of January:

• You CAN get over a coke addiction. (that's coca-cola, LOL...) It's not easy, it's painful, but it can be done.
• You don't have to eat fast food every meal...every day...or even every week. You really won't die from not having it!
• Cooking and eating at home with the family, makes you feel like more of a real family, as opposed to eating at a restaurant or sitting around the table surrounded by fast food papers.
• When you haven't eaten fast food in 3 1/2 weeks, eating it can cause bad tummy upset. And I mean bad.
• After the first day or two, the kids stop asking "where are we going for supper?"
• Once you cut this stuff out of your diet, you have a lot more energy!

I am truly excited about the changes that we are making. They are changes that we can carry on for the rest of our lives. Instead of a "diet" where we are told what we have to eat and what we can't eat, we are just slowly making lifestyle changes. Last month it was cokes and fast food...this month it is starting to cut down on the sugar in our sweet tea and on bread.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Been thinking about it...

and I am going to stay off the scale for a while. I feel like I am eating so much better, but then I get on the scale, it hasn't moved (or is staying between 230 and 233) and then I feel like a failure. It's just not working for me. I have always been a "weigh every morning" kinda gal, but at this point in my life, I don't think it's good for me.

Having given up coke and fast food, I KNOW that I'm eating better for me, and I don't need the scale to make me doubt that. I am just going to keep trying to improve my diet, get in a little exercise and focus on how I FEEL instead of what the scale tells me.

I may weigh every 3 or 4 weeks or so...

Snow!

Yes, we FINALLY got a little snow! We were supposed to get possibly 3-6 inches, but woke up to NOTHING, not a flake or drop anywhere...seems as our air was very dry and everything was hitting around Atlanta. It's hard to tell a 6 and 8 year old that their 100% chance of snow just didn't happen.

BUT, around 11am, it started snowing, and snowed steadily for about 2 hours...covered the ground beautifully, the kids played, and it melted, leaving me with only a few pictures and 2 happy kids...

Soo...here is the great Northwest GA snow of January 2008:


my azalea outside my front door

and


my backyard

*click*

It seems to me that everyone who successfully loses weight has that *click* moment where everything seems clear...you see what you have become, what you used to be and what you want to be. Not to say that getting to where you want to be is easy, but it suddenly becomes easier. You know what you have to do, and you are ready to do it.

I read where people say "I knew I had to give up...xyz...in order to reach my goals." I know that I am a carbohydrate addict...heck, I go beyond every definition of that I can come up with. I could eat nothing but bread, potatoes, corn and sweets made with white sugar and be a very happy person...a 1000 pound, bed-bound, bed pan using, sponge bath taking smelly carb-eating woman. Do I want that? Of course not. I'm not happy at my current weight...and while I am not limited in my activities YET, I know that it's coming, along with lots of diseases and sicknesses that are just waiting for my weight, age, blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol to creep up...and up...and up...and if I don't find a happy medium for my eating, it's going to happen sooner rather than later.

I toy around with the idea of cutting white sugar out of my diet...but then realize I don't think I could do that. It's sad, but I get so much happiness out of a homemade sweet every now and then...and I guess every now and then would be fine, if only it didn't equate to a few times a week.

I have been off of fast food and cokes for three weeks and have no weight change. How on earth can that be? Here are some examples of what I was eating, compared to what I eat now.

Then:

Breakfast:

2 or 3 glasses of real coke

Lunch:

2 double cheeseburgers from McD's
large order of fries
large coke, refilled twice

Dinner:

at any various restaurant...we'll say Mexican

full basket of chips with salsa
cheese dip
sour cream
shredded cheese
3 or 4 tortillas
chicken with veggies
shared fried ice cream with the fam

Throw in there various sweet snacks I might find at home.

and NOW...

Breakfast:

bowl of cereal w/skim milk

Lunch:

(today)
2 pb&j's
skim milk

Snack:

handful of dry cereal

Dinner: (I was starving)

3 pulled pork bbq sandwiches (small store brand buns...does that make up for the fact that there was 3? LOL)
handful of chips
homemade slaw
sweet tea
1/8 chocolate pudding pie

OK, I'm still not eating good at all...but it is a lot less than before...*sigh*I just have to accept that this is not a diet...it's re-learning how to eat, and it is going to take a while.

Now to check the weather...we are expecting snow tonight, and in Georgia, that's a huge thing!

Hello!

First of all, guess what I did this morning? I exercised! Yes, me, Juli, exercised. I did the WATP Walk and Jog DVD...I don't know how far it is, but it is 33 minutes. The DVD I have has no sound, so I just follow along with Leslie and imagine what she is saying, LOL...

I have also decided that I need to get back on WW. I can't afford the meetings, unfortunately, and don't think I know anyone who is going that can buy me the newest books, but for the time being, I can use my old ones. Does anyone reading this know how many points I would get? I weigh 232 and am a nursing mom...any info would be greatly appreciated! I had hoped that cutting certain things out of my diet would be enough, but unfortunately I think I need the rigidity of the plan for now, to keep my portion sizes and calories from other foods down. I am feeling really good though!!!

We may get some winter weather this evening, and I am so excited! My 6 year old has seen snow ONCE in his lifetime, and my 8 year old has seen it twice. The baby has never seen it...I think we are supposed to only get a bit of ice, but I can hope a few snowflakes will mix in there!

I'm here, I'm here!

Alrighty Ms Kendra ~ happy now? LOL!!!! I missed the past two days posting basically because of lack of time. I'm posting now while Sam is cooking breakfast. (yes, ladies, I am a lucky chick!)

Eating hasn't been great the past two days...but not bad either.

Friday night we had a couple of friends over and I had made pulled pork bbq...I had 2 sandwiches, a few chips and a scoop of slaw...and a bowl of peach cobbler. Doesn't *sound* great, but I would have eaten twice that just a few short weeks ago.

Yesterday we went to Olive Garden for lunch cause we had a gift card and we were out after my 6 year old's basketball game...I shared a pizza with the kids...and had salad and breadsticks. Warm, buttery garlic breadsticks. And lot of them. :blush: But I have no more gift cards so there will be no more eating out for a while, LOL... Last night I had two small hamburgers and some baked fries...not great, again, but 3 weeks ago it woulda been two double cheeseburgers and a huge order of fries, chased by a coke from McD's...so I'm getting there.

Baby steps, baby steps. One day at a time. And all those other cliches.

Weekends may be hit and miss for me when it comes to posting...but I'll be back full strength tomorrow when it's just me and the baby. Remind me to tell you about my good friend Jenni's "Biggest Loser" competition at work...makes me wish I had a group to do it with!!!

That stupid pie

I ate the pie.

Damnit.

I ate the damn pie.

Damnit, I ate the damn pie.

OK, I ate the pie. (did you guess that?) At least I didn't eat it all, I shared it with David. My piece wasn't really big...of course when you add the bites I had been sneaking all afternoon, it wasn't a small amount either.

Grrrr...

At least it's gone now, and I won't be making anymore. Sam made pudding last night, but all we had was cheesecake flavor, and I don't like it...which works out well.

::mumbling::

dumbstupidpieshouldn'thavebeeninthefridgetostartwithdamnitican'tbelieveiatethepie...

There, I admitted it.

On to a better (and less sugar-filled) day!

What a day!

Today my 6 year old was home from school. Poor thing. :( He has complained about his mouth hurting for a few days, and I thought it was his 6 year molars. Then he woke up screaming in pain the other night. We got him in at the dentist yesterday and it now appears that a tooth that they worked on back in September is infected now. He is still in tremendous pain (and hates the taste of orajel), but the antibiotics should start working and fix him up soon.

Last night he was in pain and wanted pudding. Well, I decided to make it a pudding pie. Got the crust made and went to grab a box of pudding and the two sugar free/fat free were way out of date! The only one I had that was edible was a regular vanilla pudding...but since I had the crust, I went ahead with the vanilla. I cut small pieces of the pie and it was wonderful...then I caught myself going back for more. So I had another small piece. Then woke up this morning CRAVING it. I have now seen first hand (and paid attention to it) how sugar makes me crave more sugar. There are 2 pieces left and I am going to get someone else to eat them tonight, or else I will throw them away, after convincing myself that they aren't good anymore.

My scale was up today, but I'm ok with that because I had tacos late last night.

Plan for tomorrow: Walk Away the Pounds!!! (haven't exercised voluntarily in ages...so this is a big deal!)

Weighed in...

Alright, in the first week of 2008, I went from 233 to 230.8. Not a huge loss, but still a loss, just the same! I've also not been "dieting", just working on modifying my eating, so I would say that this is a great accomplishment!

Sooo...

January 1 - 233 pounds
January 8 - 230.8 pounds (-2.2 pounds)

New year, new me??

Alright, it is now 2008, and I have started making changes in my lifestyle. The first major thing I did is that we have stopped eating fast food. We have been fast-food-a-holics for years...which is why I ended up weighing as much as I did! We would eat fast food EASILY 10-12 times a week. Well, that has stopped, and now I'm cooking! It's amazing how much more I feel like we are a family when we are all eating a home cooked meal around the kitchen table, as opposed to in a tiny booth at McD's yelling at the kids to stop picking on each other at the playground!

The second thing I have done is that I have stopped drinking my cokes. Yes, my beloved cokes are no longer a part of my life. I realized that I was drinking probably 800 calories a day, easily! I started the day with a few glasses of coke, had one every time I went through the kitchen, and several with meals. I would easily drink a 2 liter a day if given the chance...and loved every minute of it!

I am finally starting to realize that I am an adult, and I can no longer eat and drink like I could 15 years ago...I have to take responsibility and grow up...and show my kids the right way to eat! I'm so proud that they haven't had fast food in almost two weeks...I also haven't bought them candy even though they have begged. It's hard, but it'll be so worth it.

The third thing I am doing is that I am no longer going to bake every single day...or even every few days! I love baking...it makes me so happy...almost as happy as eating the crap I make, LOL! From now on I am only baking if we are going somewhere to take my creations. No more baking to eat it at home. This is going to be so hard...but I can do it! If I HAVE to bake, I'll send it to work with Sam.

And the last change so far is that I am not serving bread with every meal. Instead of having biscuits, rolls or loaf bread with every meal, I am only serving it with spaghetti-type meals and buns if we have burgers or sloppy joes. This is going to make a huge difference too!

My weight on January 1st was 233. I am going to weigh in the morning and see how my first week has gone.

Baby steps, baby steps!