Not a whole lot...

Well, it has been completely and utterly boring around here... Sorry about that!  I think my third week at the cabin is turning my brain to mush.  I was solely focused on my weight loss for a bit and I even took a hiatus from my favorite creative outlet (Exploring Domesticity) to write here and keep that focus.  However, an extended vacation and plans for a Way. More. Exciting. Vacation have shifted my focus.  (More about that in a minute.)

Don't get me wrong.  Things are going well on the weight loss front.  I got rid of the weight I gained on my week off - and then some, I think, but I won't know for sure until I weigh-in tomorrow.  My running has taken a bit of a hit with a busy family weekend and a busy (and HOT!) week stuck inside with just me and my mom to wrangle the kids.  I managed to fit in a quick 1.8 mile run - who am I kidding, I'm slower than a snail so it was not a "quick" run, but by "quick" I mean I would have preferred to go a bit longer.  Eating has been pretty good too.  The exception being today when things were so crazy I skipped breakfast in favor of a huge early lunch, then only grabbed some zucchini for dinner.  I don't know what it was today but I was not hungry and I couldn't force myself to eat just to fill my cals.

Here's a little bit of adorable-ness from post-run playtime in the lake.

Gah!  I hardly even know what day it is up here!  Guess I should throw in some non-scale victories while I'm at it.  Let's just do it bullet-style.

• I had to finally make the decision to stop wearing my only pair of capris because they look awful!  The are SOOO big!  I refuse to spend the money on a pair this late in the year.  Although, I have to say I found one of the last remaining pairs at the store the other day.  They weren't in my size (a good one or even two sizes smaller than I was looking for) but I tried them on and they fit perfectly!  Also,  not sure if I ever mentioned my fantastic Target find.  Jeans on sale down to $6 AND a coupon for "buy one get one half off."  Perfect for someone hoping to fly through sizes.  So, I picked up 14, 12, 10, and 8.  Um... The 14's are too big!  And, for kicks, I slipped on the 8s and... They fit!!!  The upper sizes may fit a bit better but it's only a matter of time until those are retired too.





Yep, my 2-year-old photographer could use a few more lessons, but "hello size 8 pants, long time no see."



• Hubby came up last weekend.  He doesn't say a lot about my weight loss but he did say, "so how much weight are you losing?"  In super-sensitive-guy-talk, that's as good as saying, "you look smokin' hot" so I'll take it.
• Oh, back to that exciting vacation I'm giddy over....  We're going to Disney World!  Ok, we'll head down to Florida to visit my grandparents and hit up Disney for a couple days on the way back, but I'm excited!  How can you not be?  Well, the NSV of that is that one of the things that popped into my mind while planning today was creating a meal plan.  I would have never thought about that before.  It would have been "Vacation!  Drop the diet. Anything goes!!"  Not to say there won't be some of that thinking, but I'm hopeful that the decisions I make will be light years away from what they were last year.
• I have a meeting with a business mentor next week and I'm super excited/nervous.  This journey has sparked some awesome ideas in my head to make fitness a fun part of life and I can't wait to get started and try to turn it into more than an idea!  I also can't wait to figure out what the heck I'm doing enough to finally be able to spill the beans!
• Last, I've been consistently hitting two miles when I actually do run.  It's been a struggle, but at least I know I can push myself to two without letting the pessimist jogger in my head convince me to walk.

How are you all doing this week?  Any NSVs to share?  Any lucky ladies with poetic hubbys like mine?  Anyone read through that novel to get here???

Finally some relaxation {and NSVs}

Whew!  These past few days have been crazy!  My eating definitely hasn't been right on, but it hasn't been too off either.  I have been staying under my calories, but I can't say my eating has been right on.  I've missed breakfast a few times and finally gotten dinner in between 8:00 and 10:00 a couple times.  Definitely on a crazy schedule!

I had a mini-crisis at home the other morning and high-tailed the kiddos out of there just after they finished their lunch. I was in the middle of making my lunch and shoved the salad half-made in the fridge. I spent the rest of the day frantically cleaning the house - probably burned quite a few calories that day! I think I finally ended up eating that salad around 10pm (I had some lunch when I dropped the kiddos off, don't worry).

Yesterday we got out of the house nice and early and went out to the Mall of America. First, we made a stop at IKEA for some breakfast and a little bit of shopping. We walked around the mall for a few hours before heading home. What an awful day to forget my Fitbit - I bet I would have hit my step goal without a problem! When we got back home we had a really late lunch of fresh-caught bass lightly coated in Cornflake crumbs and a big ol' serving of veggies - yum!

That night, I had the most fun I've had in a while. We went out for my cousin's birthday and played laser tag. I haven't done that since about Jr. High, but I can't wait to do it again! It was a workout! I felt a bit like a crazy person running all over in flip-flops (bad planning) with one hand holding the gun and one hand holding my pants up! I basically ran all over the place the whole time, and realized about halfway through, after taking many hits, at I should be shooting as I ran. My tactic of running like a chicken with my head cut off must have worked because I took second to Hubby (who happened to be dressed all in white, which was also bad planning for a game in blacklight).

We ended up going out to dinner with them too, mainly because the kiddos had late naps and tons of energy left to burn off. We ended up at Applebee's, after a couple places didn't pan out. I got the Lemon Parmesan Shrimp which I split with the kids - pretty decent, but it would have been better if it wasn't so late.

Today was a rush of packing and a long ride to the cabin. I finally feel like I can breath. It is so nice up here - it also helps that I have my mom to help out with the kids and I can actually get out for a run and spend the time to cook good meals.

*sigh*

So. Nice.

Finally, I'm so happy to be linking up with two of the nicest ladies I've met since starting this weight loss journey, Ashlee and Katie, to share my Non-Scale Victories.

Here's what I have this week:

1) Did you catch when I said I was running around holding my pants up? Um, yeah, they're getting too big!! I desperately need a new pair of capris, but I've held out because I don't really want to buy this size, especially when I won't need them for long. I did load up on pants from Target - I got two pairs of Merona jeans for a total of about $16! They are on sale for about $11 a pair and I had a buy one get one half off coupon printed from their website. That's a price I can spend for pants that hopefully won't fit for long! The best part - I grabbed size 14 and size 12 and I think I have to take back the 14s for 12s! I may even grab a 10 because they feel like they have some give and could stretch out quickly.

2) I've explained before that most of my weight gain happened after the kiddos and, since my 2YO was a honeymoon baby, I didn't end up wearing my wedding ring for long before it got too tight. Basically, I haven't worn my ring since we got married. When I got pregnant with my second kiddo I bought a replacement ring to wear until the original fit again. I am happy to say that ring is now too big to wear on my ring finger! I've been wearing it on my middle finger until my real wedding ring fits again which, hopefully, won't be long.

Anyone else have problems with jewelry fitting? Did you resize, or refuse like I did? Do you also have a problem buying new pants when hoping to get to a smaller size?

Non-Scale Victories that helped make this a good-scale month

Happy Fourth Everyone!

It is also Thursday - time to celebrate all those small changes that help steer us to our goals. Maybe the scale is not so kind, but each time we pass up something deliciously sinful, push our booty a little harder during a workout, or track every little bit even though our self-control took a hike we are making gains that should be recognized.

If you've been keeping up, I've had some major Scale Victories this month.

More importantly, I recognized that I can do it.

I can keep up a record of what I eat each day. I can get used to trying new, healthy recipes. I can get my tush out there and run further, even when I am searching for the tiniest excuse to stop. I can pass up chips, candy, and ice cream, even when someone is eating it right next to me. I can reunite with my food scale and make accurately portioned meals, instead of "guessing" and overestimating my portion sizes. I can hang on for 4 weeks, even when it get's hard.

I will also admit that yesterday was my first post-dietbet day. I went way over my calories. I had pizza, chocolate, and ice cream. And, although that seems to go against all that I wrote above, I also tracked it all, pushed myself to go for a run immediately after my final weigh-in, and was more conscious of how I was eating. Even my splurge day was better than my average day before getting serious about my health.

I'm actually looking forward to using my DietBet winnings to roll into new bets. What a great motivator for me! Does anyone have any experience with how long it takes to find out how much you won?

Before I go, I have to share some pictures. We have a ton a eagles up here and see them all the time, but this was, by far, the closest I have ever gotten to one! This guy was perched in the tree on our bank, eating a fish and we were able to get within a few yards of him. It's hard to see in the first picture, because I only had my phone and couldn't zoom, but it gives you a good idea of how close we were. He's right in the lowest branch on that tree. He kept looking at us and didn't fly off until he had finish his meal. Amazing!

Eating healthy takes some planning and practice...

I never really understood people when they said they "forgot" to eat. I never forgot to eat. Fitting eating in was easy when I didn't care what I ate. Now I get it.

Without a plan, I'm having the hardest time eating enough. I'll fix food for the kids and keep wondering what to make myself until I eventually move on and forget that I never ate that meal I spent an hour thinking about.

Breakfast has been easy. Yesterday I had oatmeal with the kids and this morning I made us some eggs on a turkey sausage patty and sandwich thin.

Dinner has been ok, but lunch has been hard. I haven't had much for lunch because I have no plan of where to allocate my calories for the day and how to keep it well-rounded.

I need to plan a few more meals and start getting a repertoire of recipes so I don't sit and look at the fridge so long. It will get easier. Right now I keep struggling with lunch because I have no plan for dinner. I need to fix that.

We still don't have a/c. The kids and I have been doing fine and managing to keep the house from getting up past 78* by keeping windows open and fans blowing in the morning and closing things up around 10am.

Needless to say, my activity has been suffering a little. I can't even think about getting all sweaty with a run and not being able to cool off. So, we've been walking a lot. At least I'm getting out there. I've done an hour each day around the neighborhood and Sunday was spent walking around this place for hours.

We spent Father's Day walking around the MOA for about 3 to 4 hours. I'd say that makes up for missing a run!

I almost forgot - I have some Non-Scale Victories to share

1. I've been very conscious of what I eat. Even though I need some more practice with healthy eating, I've been paying attention to it and staying under my daily calories and getting a decent variety of foods.

2. While we were at the MOA, we ate at the Rainforest Cafe and I actually stayed on track. I looked up the different meals on MyFitnessPal and picked the Fish Tacos (not fried) and took one home. I'm happy I made the best decision I could instead of throwing the day away.

I can't believe I almost forgot the best one - COMPLIMENTS!

3. I usually get compliments from my husband out of habit like, "there's my beautiful wife." I don't even pay attention to them because he says it all the time, regardless of how I look. When I got back from the cabin, I got some genuine compliments. It's funny because he's not as free with those so he kept kind of sneaking them in and saying how good I looked. He also asked how much I lost and had to tell me how much he's lost. :) He's probably lost the same amount as me, mainly by cutting out regular sodas and limiting nighttime snacking.

Non-Scale Victories - I'm working on it!

I don't exactly have any non-scale victories this week.

I'm working on it

Since finally joining two DietBets (it's not too late to join the DietBet, it just started yesterday! http://bit.ly/11h3A74) I have been committed to staying on track. I will not lose that money! I have tracked my food (MyFitnessPal 2Momma2), not eaten any chips or chocolate, and started meal planning so I won't have trouble at the cabin.

I got creative with leftovers tonight. I used half of 2YOs bun for sloppy joes (which I would have loved to have since that particular recipe was delicious) and sliced it into two super thin pieces. I spread a really thin layer of Hidden Valley Farmhouse Originals Southwest Chipotle dressing (yum!) and added lettuce and my fish. It was sooo good!

Half a bun, cut in half :) it actually looks pretty thick! It wasn't...

I'll definitely have some NSVs next week - I'm counting on it!

So, here is my official Non-Scale Victory: I finally got some cute clothes for working out! I may have already posted a picture earlier today, but I'm that excited about them. I'm also happy that I' committed to keeping up with running, even though it is totally hard for me, enough to justify buying the clothes and that I feel like I'll be comfortable wearing them in public.

Finally going to look like I'm serious instead of some old slob in baggy clothes
attempting to move faster than the speed of snail!

NSV 4

Thank goodness for this!  Things have definitely not been so great on the food front and the scale has been going nowhere fast.  I almost thought I didn't even have any non-scale victories to report.

That's what's so great about about this linkup!  It makes you think about your week and realize it's really hard to break these habits that got us to this point, but even when we're feeling discouraged there is something we can find to be proud of.  It's so easy to get down on ourselves and let that completely wreck our week, but this helps to think of the little changes that are getting us to our goal.

Even if my eating wasn't where it should be, I started some good activity this week!  I did C25K four days in a row while at the cabin!  It was so nice out and I dragged my but out to the road and felt so good when I was done.

I guess I'm "resting" now that I'm home because look at this!

Seriously!?! I actually got a bit of a sunburn on Saturday and now we're back to frostbite? Look at the poor little flowers, I feel like I'm in Oz in the Poppy field!

So, we're back to keeping indoors. Not to worry! Tiny Twisters gymnastics is today! 2YO and I will do plenty of running and jumping to get that energy out! I also got together with a friend of mine who is a personal trainer and will help get together some backyard workout for me and the other ladies I round up!

Now if I could just curb the impulsive eating habits, we'd be in good shape! Literally! :)

Non-Scale Victories

I love this!  

I forgot about the importance of non-scale victories since weight watchers.  I love this idea!  I feel like all I do is beat myself up over the times when I indulge too much or don't make the best choices.  There are plenty of things I should remember to pat myself on the back for, and I need that to realize I'm on the right path.

Here are a few:

• By blogging I have realized that, although I give in to temptation every now and then, my meals and portions have actually been pretty great.  The portion size is the key for me.  I've been keeping them to the size that I give my hungry (almost) 2-year-old.  I think if I make sure to fit in the healthy snacks, I'll do much better.

• I have been trying to keep up with 2YO's activity level.  I run and play more with him and I'm making sure to get both kiddos outside each day for a stroller ride.

• Nighttime snacking has been cut out!  That used to be my biggest weakness, I couldn't relax in bed after I got the kids down, without getting my chocolate fix.  I think this is also aided by blogging since I tend to do it at the end of the day.  Let me tell you, it would have to be a pretty strong craving to give in to while I'm tracking my progress for the day!

Not too shabby!  

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