The Bloggest Loser -- Week Thirteen

I know, I know. I'm late again. But it's been a long week already.

Cindy won last week with a 2% loss. Good job, Cindy!!

I found a little happiness in a 1.83% loss this week. Hooray!! Thank you, everyone for your candid honesty and support. You all rock and I'm kind of sad that this is coming to an end. I hate the fight to lose the weight, but I love looking forward to hearing from everyone.

I don't know that I'll get to post next week, so the next time we weigh in will be for the final weigh in on July 31. How much more can you lose in the next ten days? Feeling confident? Need a pick-me-up?

For now, weigh in here. And be ready for a final, July 31 PARTY!!

The Bloggest Loser -- Week Four

Last week's weigh-in saw two winners: Cindy lost 2.45% with the birth of little Tommy. I love you, Cindy, but ya kinda cheated. Tara came in second with a loss of 1.72%. There wasn't a secret baby born with that, was there?

So, go ahead and calculate to see how you did this week.

I don't know why I'm hosting this competition. I keep sucking. No loss this week. I'm at a Goose Egg for the second time in four weeks. At least I didn't gain again. As I sat there painting this week I thought to myself, "Why am I expecting myself to lose weight when I don't have time to exercise or make healthy food?" This suuuuuuuucks. If I can finish the painting soon (like tomorrow) then I can get back on track and kick everyone's butts. Make way for the Come Back Kid!! You know, if I just literally ran to Home Depot every time I need something from there, I'd be completing a marathon with each errand. I'd get nothing done at the house since I'd be gone for most of the day, but I'd get my run in.

We've got our Final Four on The Biggest Loser. Any complaints? I'm good with it. Like I said before, I really am rooting for Daris, but he doesn't have much left to lose. I'd also like to see what Michael can do during this last bit of competition. I can't imagine losing 200 lbs and still being obese. I just want to see him succeed. And I'm looking forward to seeing how much Shay will win during the season finale. Remember that last season she was told she'd get $1000 for every pound lost between last season's finale and this season's. And according to the previews for this week's episode, someone comes back to the ranch from their month at home and gains 2 lbs. Who could it be?????

Now tell me. What was your weight loss percentage? Any good news this week? Any challenges you need to vent about? As Frasier Crane would say, "I'm listening..." (Yes, I know I'm a dork.)

The Bloggest Loser -- Week Three

Josh's weight loss of 1.08% was the winner of last week's competition. Good job, Baby!



Calculate your weight loss. Remember to use your current weight from last week as your start weight this week. And be prepared to tell me about your week!



This week was one of the toughest I've had.



Despite the wonderful news that our house has finally closed, my body has revolted against me. It's as if all the stress I've been feeling about everything lately has just hit me like a ton of bricks. And because of that, I now weigh as much as a ton of bricks. I had a 4 lb weight gain this week. I'm pretty sure most of that is water, which better give me a wickedly good weight loss for next week. Well, that and my new devotion to being healthy. I had to find some new motivation, so I dug this photo out.



This is me, May 2006. I know it's from four years ago, but when you're a fatty, it's hard to find any pictures of you. Somehow, the bigger you are, the better you become at avoiding the camera. I stayed this size until January 2008 when I began working out. It's hard to tell, but I was about 196 lbs. So, in the last year and a half I have lost 18.37% of my weight. Unfortunately, I've been at a plateau for about a year. A YEAR! I'm considering doing something drastic -- I might actually use a diet plan. Or join a gym. Or {gulp} find a hobby that will allow me to focus on myself so I don't have to feel like food is the only thing I can give myself.



On with the show. I love make-over week on BL. It is my favorite week of the season. Everyone looked so great and they looked so happy. I especially loved watching Mike and Daris. I think Daris is my pick to win. I really hope he does. Every week I root for him more and more. And what about Sam leaving? Did anyone guess he was the one that Stephanie was talking about when she left? I didn't. But, I can't help but wonder about why Koli went to Ashley about Stephanie playing the game against Ashley's mom, Sherry. (I feel like I'm talking about a soap opera.) That really bugged me that he did that, since it seemed to come out of nowhere. Now I can't help but wonder if Koli was trying to protect Sam by getting his love interest off the ranch so he would focus on the game and not her. Hmm. Anyway, almost to the Final Four. Who do you pick to win it?



So tell me how you did this week. Better than me, I hope. Anything that's working particularly well? Anything you've realized has to be done differently?

"I Will Triumph!"

Remember in the movie French Kiss when Meg Ryan is on the phone with her former future mother-in-law and she pitifully and pathetically says, "I will triumph!" and there in the background is the Triumphal Arch of Paris?

This is how I feel. It's pitiful and pathetic, but I will triumph!

This week's weight loss endeavor was as painful as the previous two weeks. One pound loss, so that's good, but only one day of exercise. School is taking over all of my day. I'm having a hard time falling asleep, which means I'm having a hard time waking up early enough to exercise before the kids wake up.

My solution is this: Insanity must wait. I've been wanting to finish the program so badly, but you have to commit to it. I can't commit to it right now. We'll return the disks to Josh's coworker who so graciously let me borrow them. Maybe by the time I have the time to do the workout I'll have to money to purchase it for myself. I think that's a reasonable goal.

In the meantime, instead of setting myself up to fail by having a painfully vigorous workout program, I'm going to start one of the other videos I have. It's less intimidating and therefore I shouldn't resent doing it or dread doing it or NOT do it. I'm sad I can't finish Insanity, but it's just not in the cards right now.

How'd you do?

Weight Loss Whoopsie

So, yeah.

This week wasn't my best week in the weight loss arena. This new school program may just be the death of me. We got our supplies Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday was mostly spent at the cardiologist, and so Thursday was our first attempt to teach with all the required materials.

Imagine with me: Three children, three curriculum plans, two children each needing to complete four hours of school and the third needing two, one laptop computer without wireless access so it was wired in the bedroom where Josh was trying to sleep after working the night before and the wire to the router is so short each kid had to sit with me on the floor against the bedroom door. We started school at 8:30am and finished sometime around 6pm. Needless to say, I missed some exercise, for a few days in a row. Then I fell off the bandwagon with a little bit of frustration and ate any chocolate I could find. (I was surprised how much I was able to scrounge up.)

So I lost nothing this week. Ugh. But, I'll just dust myself off and try again next week. And Valentine's Day and its plethora of delicious sugar isn't helping me any at all.

But, as we always say.....

WE CAN DO IT!!!

How'd you do?

How'd You Do?

It's that time again....time to admit how we did this week.

With all the new school stuff we're still trying to work through, I only got two days of workout this week. I've been a bit bummed about that, but it was recovery week and next week begins the really hard stuff.... {gulp}. I'm hoping my lack this week will not kill me next week.

In good news, I kept up on my food and I was able to lose another 2 lbs this week. My newest challenge is making sure I'm getting enough calories now. Someday I'll be able to balance it a lot easier.

It's a never-ending battle, isn't it? (BTW, Jeri Dawn, I'm very impressed with your FHE-cupcake-willpower. I couldn't have done it.)

My week was definitely overrun by school, but we'll try to do it again this next week.

How'd you do?

We Can Do It!

I've discovered a new tool. It helped me lose 6 lbs this week. Yeah!!! Can you believe with all the junk we're doing around our house, I was still able to lose 6 lbs. I'm happy.

Anyway, I took Tara's advice and checked out SparksPeople.com. It's really helping me keep my caloric intake under control. It's pretty much a goal-organizer. You input what your goals are (your current weight, your goal weight) and how much you want to lose a week. I said I wanted to lose about 30 lbs at 2 lbs/week. It figured that my ending date should be May 6. Our anniversary is May 8, so I actually changed my ending date to the 8th.

Then it gave me a suggested diet and workout program. It said how many calories I need to consume in a day to keep me on track and then I input the foods. It keeps track of my calories, carbs, fats, and proteins. It also helps me remember to drink 8 cups of water a day. Then I can add other goals I want to achieve. I've decided to monitor my sleep (at least 8 hr/night) and a reminder to take my daily vitamin (I always forget that!).

This first week with an online tracking system has been helpful. My suggestion is, if you need help figuring out your food, just check it out. It gives you the option to use their menu or add your own food. My only concern is that I don't know how many calories I burn using Insanity, so I may not be taking in quite enough calories.

Speaking of Insanity, if you are wondering if it's a program you'd be interested in, let me just say this.....

In the words of Shaun T (the Insanity creator), "That #$%@! is ba-nanas, yo!!" Twice this week I was scheduled to do the Pure Cardio workout. It's a little freaky when the instructor finishes the warm up and stretch with you and then says, "I'll be really honest with you, I'm really nervous about what's coming up." Uh, hello? I don't have the kick-butt abs he does. How the heck am I supposed to keep up? But I try and it's actually one of my favorite workouts.

If you're considering Insanity or P90X, I can tell you that you'll probably only love one workout or the other. Insanity is so much cardio and P90X is so much strength training. I love cardio, therefore I really like Insanity. Josh loves strength training and weights, therefore I think he'd like P90X much more. You know, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, it was actually a pretty successful week, despite my winter blues. I'm getting past those blues. Josh and the kids have been loving and patient with me. Tara watched the kids for us last night so Josh and I could head over the to Mesa Temple. That helped a lot.

I hope you had a good week!

How'd you do??

We Can Do It!

Upon Lori's suggestion (and Tara Bennett's endorsement---yes, everyone's opinions matter to me!!) I've decided to call the weekly weight check-in "We Can Do It." I also liked Jeri Dawn's idea of "Operation: Fit Into My Pants" but I wasn't sure if you had dibs on that one, JD.

Anyway, I've been religiously exercising this week. Everyday. We'll see how tomorrow goes, Saturdays are always so tricky. Especially since we have a trip to the zoo planned. My downfall is, and has always been, food. Either I eat too much or not enough. I can't seem to find the right balance. I use my Biggest Loser cookbook, but that only does me so much good when I pop myself a bag of popcorn at 8pm. Help!!! I really, really want to do something like the NutriSystem diet, but I'm scared to do stuff like that. What happens after I've lost the weight and begin making my own food again? I'll tell you what happens....

Hello, Fatty!!

I don't need that again. I remind myself quite often, that I began this journey two years ago. I was interrupted with a pregnancy, so that takes a year out of the count. In the year I've been doing this, I've lost 35 lbs. That's good. But why is this last half of my weight loss journey so tricky? Maybe it's because I keep changing tactics. I have become a bit of a connoisseur of exercise programs. I'm sticking with the Insanity program. This week has been a killer, but if I can stick with it, I'll see results soon, I'm sure. I've just got to keep exercising and working on my food choices. No more "cheat foods" or "cheat meals". Just because I did a good job working out, doesn't mean I've earned the naughty foods.

I'll try it out for a week and we'll see how it goes.

How'd you do?