34 Day Challenge: Day One

Well....here we are.  Day one.  

You'd have thought I'd be all gung ho and that I would have drove my happy ass to the gym this morning.

You'd have thought WRONG!  

I thought starting this on a Thursday would be different.  

Here's my problem.  I drank too much wine at Chuck E Cheese last night.  

True Story!

3 Buck Chuck E Wine

It was my daughter's birthday and to get through the 2 hours of dirty, gross table tops and rides and games.  I medicated myself.

I'm sure the wine came out of a box because I have a MAJOR headache today.

The good news is.....that I only ate a small piece of amazing cake and I'm on track with my eating today.

Side Note: the thing about eating really good cake...is that a small amount is totally satisfying.



Goals for the 34 Day Challenge

No Sugar
No Processed Food
No Booze
No Soda
Lose 10 pounds

First Weigh In and measurements will occur tomorrow.

Weigh In and a New Plan

Saturday's weigh in....208.2.  I think this is the least amount I've gained during TOM in a while and I'm crediting all of the water.

My daughter's birthday is tomorrow.  We're going to Chunky Cheese and then having cake.

I was thinking seriously about doing the hCG diet again....but my husband has asked me not to.  Instead...I'm going issue a challenge to myself.

For 34 days (until my son's birthday in April) I'll be working really hard!  This is my commitment to myself:

Exercise (at least) 4 days a week
Eat low and slow carb
No Alcohol
No Fast Food
No Processed Food (if God didn't make it...I won't eat it)
No Soda

 I can do anything for 34 days!

Water Works!

I tried a new trick for drinking my water yesterday that seemed to help!

Every single time I went to the kitchen....I drank a glass of water.  If the kids needed a snack...I drank.  If I wandered in there thinking I was hungry (when I wasn't) I drank.

I drank 8 glasses of water.

I was down .2 pounds this morning.  WOOT!  Take that TOM!

A Challenging Week

I weighed in Saturday at 207.   Up one pound since last week.....

TOM is arriving today.  I'm going to work really hard to NOT GAIN this week.  I went to the grocery store yesterday and I DID NOT buy pop tarts or candy.  There isn't any soda in my house.

I'm going to drink water and eat low carb.

I'll see you on Saturday with an update!

How My Husband Lost 6 Pounds

He lost ANOTHER pound.

*connie shakes her head*

We went over everything he ate and drank this week.  We did eat more salad and there IS the Quinoa that we tried but I think we figured it out.

He stopped drinking ZERO soda.

He lost 6 pounds and his beer belly has shrunk up a little bit because he stopped filling his body with chemicals.

Also...his horrible stomach pain has almost disappeared.

Damn Diet Soda!

UPdate: Many of you have asked me how much soda my husband was drinking.  Amazingly, it was one or two cans a day.  He has switched to one can of regular soda a week and all of his stomach pains are gone.  And now he's down 7 pounds.

When Husband's Lose Weight

My husband announced as he was walking out the door for work this morning that he's lost 5 pounds.  I'd love to know exactly how this has happened because he's been prowling through the cupboards most nights after I've served him a nicely balanced, adequately portioned meal.

He's not been to the gym in two weeks.

Last night, he ate a half a stick of butter on several pieces of toast.

How on earth is HE losing weight?

****

Two nights ago...I served Quinoa instead of rice.  I'd eaten it several months ago and liked and kept hearing about it.  It's gluten free and I wanted to experiment serving it to my husband.  He has type 2 diabetes and his blood sugar levels have been all over the place.

2 hours after eating the Quinoa...his blood sugars were 30 points lower than most evenings.  And he liked it.  We'll be eating more...especially if it's responsible for his weight loss.

Bad news...kids' wouldn't touch it.

********

I've been drinking tons of water today to flush out all my bad eating on Wednesday.  I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I don't like PB&J.  I don't know what I was thinking.

I also haven't been to the gym.  Sickness has struck my house for the 4th week in a row.  I'm about to quarantine myself at a 4 star hotel with a spa and room service.

.6

I worked hard last week.  I went to the gym twice!  Which is twice more than the previous 30 days. My eating wasn't awesome...but it wasn't bad.  I called a truce with the remaining box of Thin Mints.  I'm going to see how long I can keep that box in there without opening it.

Here is a picture of that box.  I'll update weekly to keep myself accountable!

So...my weigh in on Saturday:

Last week: 206.6
This week: 206
Loss: .6

Not bad...I'll take it. I started the month at 205 so I have a lot of work to do and water to drink! Especially since I went a little crazy with the wine over the weekend.  Oops.

How did you do this week?

2 Days....

This is twice this week friends! I'm a freakin roll!

I ate too many damn Thin Mints (they are not making me thinner) yesterday so I really stepped it up today.

25 min Elliptical
20 min Bike

I was even sweating!!

I have one box of Thin Mints left and I'm not going to open them.

Nope. Not going to do it.

I think...my son gave me his cold. He coughed right in my face on Tuesday. My throat is sore and my nose is running. I'm hoping that working out made the germs run away in fear!

My husband isn't going to want to hear this...but i saw another naked chick in the locker room.  I see more (*)(*) than he does!  HA!

Looking for Consistancy

I made it to the gym this morning and here's my proof! I struggled...going to the gym once a month is hard. I need to be much more consistant!

sweaty guy in coat!

Yesterday...my 4 year old woke up at 2am sick, so there was no working out. I was bummed. I really was!

I did really well with my eating yesterday and I actually felt...thinner.

I also started a new twitter account for my weight loss struggle. If you tweet...please follow @skinnyconnie.

Dear Ass, Get in Gear.

This post is about how I need to get my ass in gear!

I've jacked around with the same 5 pounds for two months now and I'm sick of it.

I feel like this....

My husband registered us for his 30th High School Reunion yesterday.  It's on July 30.

160 days!

I have to do something!

I went to the gym today...and it was closed.  Whoever was supposed to be there at 8am didn't show up.  I went to Whole Foods and went back.  Still not open.

I tried to go walk around the lake with my son.  The wind came up and he was too cold.

DANG IT ANYWAY!!

Tomorrow...I'm going to the gym.  No Excuses!

Fat Like Me

I've decided that I shouldn't blog during the week that TOM* is visiting.  If fact, I should really be allowed to move into my own apartment for that week because I really believe that PMS is a mental illness and I'm afflicted with it.

So...TOM was here last week and he brought a couple pounds with him that don't want to leave.  WHY do I have to deal with this every month?  I'm so tired of it.

Speaking of tired....I'm really tired of comments from my husband.

Sunday night...he was making me dinner for Valentine's Day (salmon with red onion and mushrooms) and I was sitting at the table enjoying a glass of wine and looking at my stats on this blog.

I told him that I love reading some of the things people google to get here and that most of them include Fat Mommy and hCG related searches.

He asked me if this blog is a joke.  Since I'm obviously not losing any weight.

My feelings were hurt.  Badly.

I joked it off like I always do...that's how I handle people that are supposed to love me making comments about my weight.  Oh and I normally eat a box of cookies.

I didn't have any cookies.....

Last night...we were laying in bed talking about the kids and I mentioned how my 3 year old Mallory is always hungry.  She's very thin and appears to have a very high metabolism.  I think she burns her food really fast...so I'm constantly feeding her!

My husband told me that he thinks she's trying to get fat so that she looks like me.

He might has well have stabbed me in the heart.  In fact, I swore to God I was bleeding somewhere...turned out to be tears.

My heart hurts so badly this morning.  I can't imagine that this is why she's hungry all the time.

Or is it my husband's passive aggressive way of telling me that he doesn't want a fat wife anymore.

If he's trying to motivate me to lose weight...this doesn't help.  It makes me what to eat cookies.

This is what I grew up with.

This is where this all started.

My Fitness Pal

I love weight loss apps.  I have about 4 of them on my phone/ipad.  There's one that I paid $10 for that I completely regret.

My friend Teri just told me about a new one (new to me...it's been around for a while) and it's free!

My Fitness Pal

One of the things I didn't like about many of these apps is that they don't have a water tracker.  This one does.  And you can get friends and comment on each other's posts for support.

I need support!

So...if you use My Fitness Pal...friend me.  Connieaw.

MyFitnessPal - Nutrition Facts For Foods

Detoxing is working!

I've been doing Suzanne Summers Detox this week and after only 4 days...I've lost 3 pounds.

I've been eating eggs and veggies (mushrooms, onions and tomatoes) for breakfast and then if I'm hungry..I have a piece of fruit 2 hours later.  But I haven't been hungry and eating the fruit messes up my lunch time schedule because I like to eat lunch while watching The Young and The Restless at 11am.

In the afternoon, I have been eating an apple or strawberries because I have a habit of eating around 3pm. I also want more coffee at this time but I'm trying to resist.  I didn't resist yesterday because it was snowing.

I love to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the snow fall.

Ahem...so for lunch, I've been making lettuce wraps. Hormel Natural Turkey (no preservatives or nitrates!), swiss cheese and avocado wrapped up in a big lettuce leaf.  On the side...snap peas and celery.

For dinner I've been having a 3 oz piece of meat (roast, chicken, pork) and a salad of romaine with a sprinkling crumbled blue cheese and died cranberries. I hope it warms up a little bit because I'm running out of grilled meat and I need to make some more.

Last night I had a glass of wine.  I miss wine.

I did cheat a little bit....I had half of a tortilla, a piece of toast and a glass of wine.  Not too bad!

Now...the good news. I've been feeling....better!  The fogginess has left, I have a little more energy and I've been sleeping better.

Now I just have to figure out how to incorporate some Veganish into this low carb plan.  They don't seem like they can really go together.

Have a great weekend!

Going Veganish

Did you watch Oprah on Tuesday?  She and her staff took a 7 day Vegan challenge.  I was really interested in what Kathy Freston (author of Veganist) had to say because the woman is beautiful and has the body that I want.

I watched the program and thought there could be some merit to eating this way.  I don't think I could ever be a Full Time Vegan...but I think I could be Veganish.  I was encouraged by the stories of the Harpo staff that said they felt better and had more energy.

I want to feel better and have more energy.

I talked to my husband about the show and I already knew he was going to fight me.  I suggested Meatless Monday and he said NO.  Later when I joked with him on iChat about going Vegan...this was his response to me.

We are designed by our creator to eat all kinds of food. We were given brains to determine what we can eat based on our environment. If we have so many choices, we also have free will and self discipline to regulate what we eat and don't eat.

Why does he have to be so difficult?

Anyway...I'm going to experiment with a couple recipes and will serve him some kind of meat with his so he doesn't know I'm tricking him.

I've been having some success with my detox and I'm excited to tell you about it tomorrow.

I'm Ready!

I'm ready to begin a wheat detox tomorrow.  I'm anxious to see if it alleviates some or all of my problems.  I'm going to really miss bread if this is the issue.  And pizza.  Crap!!!

I think I've discovered one of the main reason that I can't seem to lose weight.  Unfortunately....I can't detox from my husband.

We ate out THREE times this weekend.  Friday we met him for lunch at my favorite restaurant and I had a cream cheese and jalapeno stuffed burger.  Saturday we went out again and today we went to lunch at Popeyes.  I should just tell him no....but I like to eat.

I'm going to be partially forcing my detox diet on him this week....maybe he'll see some improvement too!

Thanks to everyone who gave me links to articles!  Great info!

Getting Old(er)

I'm not feeling well...and I'm up 2.5 pounds again.

I blame Obama. 

Tuesday night, I ordered pizza and drank two Lemon Drop Martini's during the State of the Union speech.

There seems to be more than just pizza going on here.  I'm still not feeling....well.

I'm exhausted.  I'm sweating in bed at night (night sweats?). I'm bloated and I'm experiencing headaches.

I wake up tired. 

I wake up foggy.

I'm craving chocolate and soda.

I need help!

I watched Rachael Ray this week because Susanne Summers was on and she was talking about getting older and being sexy and she looks amazing for 64 years old and I want some of that.

I watched it and it was like she was sitting here in my living room talking to me!

I signed up for a 7 day free trial on her website. I'm not going to link to it because I agreed to some crazy terms that confused me about linking and wording and I don't want some lawyers calling me.

If you are curious.  Google Sexy and Forever. 

Anyway, based on two days of reading on that website...I believe I'm experiencing a hormone imbalance and a food intolerance.  

I'm going to do her detox (it's supposed to last 30 days) this week and see how I feel next Saturday.  If everything seems like it's working out...I'll keep going.

The main part of this detox is that you don't eat *carbs*. What I consider a carb to be bread, pasta, rice.  The carbs that I will be having are fruit.

And she says you can't eat carbs with protein/fat. Interesting.  Also...fruit on an empty stomach or 2 hours after a meal.  AKA a snack.

I'm also going to track down some supplements.  DHEA and Wild Yam.  

Wish me luck!

Tired.

I weighed in Friday and weighed 205 again.  This was down from 207! 

TOM brought a pound and a half and then I made treats for the Golden Globes and all of that sodium killed me.  2 pounds that it took all week to get rid of.

I'm also been doing a little stress eating but it hasn't been all bad things.  I'm using the LOSEIT app and my calories are where they should be.

I registered my son for Kindergarten AND found out he needed glasses.  All in one week.

I don't know if it's the stress or I've caught some kind of bug...but I've been exhausted all weekend.  I didn't set my alarm and just decided to let my body decide how much sleep it needed.

I slept an extra two hours every day!

I'm going to take the kids to the gym daycare today and see if we can pick up some new illnesses.....

Class of 1981

This little postcard in my mailbox this week stuck panic in my heart. I looked at the date and realized I had approximately 6 months to transform into a REAL trophy wife for my husband to take to his 30 year high school reunion.

You know what this means right? It means I finally have to ditch all of my excuses and the sugar and get my ass in gear. I want to look good for this event. I will never go to my own high school reunion so this is my chance to really do this right.

Starting today.

Weight Loss App #FAIL

Saturday I started back up at the gym again.

My husband got a 6 month gift membership when I joined in November but he couldn't cash it in until last week.  We went together and took the kids to the gym daycare.  I haven't been utilizing this daycare situation because my membership only allows one kid.  The other one costs me $3.

I was freaking out about leaving them....because I've never left them with Non-family or non-friends before.  My freaking out was for naught (even though the daycare lady spoke limited english)....they loved it, didn't want to leave and can't wait to go back.

I need to find $40 in my budget for monthly gym daycare.

Hubby and I didn't work out together.  But it was comforting having someone in the gym that I knew.  And it's really entertaining to watch your husband look for you in a crowded gym.

I don't know if I can stand this man getting any sexier....

iKeith

Before we left the gym I asked one of the trainers about getting my body fat measured.  She ushered me into a little room after weighing me and punched my info into a video game controller with metal handles that she then had me hold for 10 seconds. One nice thing...she looked visibly surprised when I told her I was 40.  The bad news....I have 40.3 percent body fat.

I really, really need to find money in my budget for daycare....

After our workout we went to The Village Inn across the street.  It was probably a bad idea because my LOSEIT app didn't have a listing for any of their food and I checked online after we ordered and had trouble finding any nutritional info.

We went with the Healthy Start Crepes...they are new to the menu as of last Monday and they contain egg whites, turkey sausage, artichoke hearts, spinach, tomatoes and covered in a lemony hollandaise sauce.  It came with fruit too.  Out of season cantaloupe, grapes and pineapple.

Before

After

I ate the fruit, some of the crepe and hollandise and then just the inside of one of the crepes.  I got full fast and left a lot! 

I've emailed The Village Inn to ask for nutritional info....so far I haven't heard from them.  In the meantime, I don't think I'll be eating there again. 

It's hard to know if a meal is really healthy without the numbers.  You know what I mean?

I'm addicted to apps and enter my food and exercise into several of them everyday.  There is also one that i just track my weight with a date goal.  It does some analyzing.  I'm all about analyzing...I'm a Virgo after all.  Here is what this app told me this weekend.

At this rate, I can reach my Target Weight of 190 pounds on 9/28/2015! 

Basically...I suck!

UPDATED:  Village Inn wrote me back and said they don't do nutritional data for their menu items....but thanks for inquiring.  I won't be dining at Village Inn until they get their act together.

Weigh In #1

Happy Friday!

I haven't really started my resolutions yet....because I've been so sick.  I'm finally better and ready to jump in! AND my husband joined the gym and we're going to go together a couple times a week. YAY!

Last Week: 205
Today:        203.8
Loss:              1.2 pounds

YAY!

It's not a lot but it's pretty good considering I didn't move my body very much.

I did manage to not eat fast food...I went to McDonalds but it was just for drinks.  Yesterday I just had to have a Iced Coffee.....

TOM is lurking around the corner and I'm planning to try something I've done before to get through it.  NO CARBS.  Just for the 3 days that he's really pestering me and then I'll return to normal.  I'll be eating eggs, and chicken...maybe a steak!

How did you do this week?