What Is Awesome Wednesday

First, I want to thank Corryn, Sabrina and Kris for the helpful vacaction advice yesterday. I will be in control, I will do my C25K runs in the morning and I will plan ahead meals. If I can't bring my own food, I'll check out menus before I go, just like I do at home.  I can DO this!

Now, on to some things I think are awesome today, there is one that I have to mention that is *not* in photo format and that is the #priorfatpack! I love you guys! If any blog reader out there isn't already part of the pack and would like to chat with us on Twitter, just follow the hashtag #priorfatpack, introduce yourself! We are a super supportive group of people that are in the beginning, middle and even end weightloss and healthiness journeys. I love you guys!

Okay the photo version!!

caprese salad

fresh springrolls

Spicy Tuna Rolls



seaweed salad









Priorfatgirl "One Bite. One Decision" confirmation bracelet



OMG! Buckled leather sandals with dark silver kitten heels!



I'm nervous for vacation

On Thursday evening I'm leaving with my boyfriend and his dad for a 13 hour drive to Cleveland, 3 days there, and a 13 hour drive home.

I'm not nervous about the driving, or even the pit stops/meals when driving, I will be in control, I will still be in the company of familiar people.

I am *SO* nervous about the long weekend in Cleveland! We will be with my boyfriend's family, who are all super nice people (so I've heard), and we will be staying with his grandma.  I don't want to inconvenience anyone, but I also don't want to sabotage my healthy lifestyle right when I got in to a new plan and everything!

Maybe its just my anxiety and fear of the unknown, because I asked my boyfriend if we could stop at the grocery store so I can pick up fruits and veggies for his grandma's house and he said we could. I also asked if people will be offended if I don't drink and he said they won't at all, in fact his sister is a couple years sober and so there will be definitely lots of NA options all weekend.

Its going to be hot hot hot in Clevelend and there aren't any LA Fitness clubs and his grandma/family doesn't own a treadmill anywhere. So I am worried it'll be too hot (like 90 and humid hot) to run outside, and I won't have a place to do my C25K!  If its super hot we may get a hotel room cause his grandma doesn't have AC and I'm kinda pushing for it, cause then there would be an exercise room with a treadmill, I can control my food by having a stash in the hotel and I can just be more relaxed in the mornings not wondering who else is up/using the bathroom, etc.

I am bringing my workout gear! I am not giving up on being able to workout even before I get there, but I'm still worried.

I think the rest of the aspects of the vacation will rock...speaking of I get to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lakes Brewery, taste a famous sandwich from Schleiman's...perhaps go on a river cruise. Oh and the main reason we're going, is a wonderful outdoor wedding in an apple orchard!

Okay I'm done obsessing, it felt good to write it down, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Favorite things weekend

This weekend I got to do some of my most favorite things!

I went to my favorite hairstylist and friend Crystal at the Ulta in Woodbury, MN, its a 40 minute drive for me these days and totally worth it!  She always chooses the perfect foil combos and an added bonus this weekend is she curled my hair for me!  Also awesome is that Smashbox was doing free makeup and I got mine done with first time ever "smokey eyes." I was so impressed I posted pics and bought the eye shadows!

Yes, their ploy worked, but it made me feel great! I also won the drawing for a free Smashbox gift basket, how cool is that? I still have to go pick it up.

Saturday night I went to the local casino with my boyfriend and we heard Bill Maher from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher do his thing. Hilarious! I also got to show of my glam look at the casino, hubba hubba!

You'd think that'd be enough excitement! But, then on Sunday I attended the "Red Shoes and Sushi" event hosted by Fabuliss and @PrincessSushi of Twitter fame!  I did try on quite a few pairs of red shoes, but I ended up buying some much needed black summery shoes, some shoes for a wedding...and these babies:



Shoes that make me think of summer, picnics and blue skies

 Thank you Nordstrom's Shoe Department at the Mall of America for the fabulous service! Two hours and probably 30-40 pairs of shoes if you count what all the girls tried on!

After shoes, we dined together at Tiger Sushi in the Mall of America.  I love sushi, and normally I totally go overboard and have 2 or 3 rolls, plus some edamame and gyoza.  But, with my new focus on cutting calories and getting fit, I need to revise this!  What did I find? Well, along with a super yummy seaweed salad I had "The Volcano" which is SO PERFECT! It had 3 kinds of fish (octopus, tuna and salmon), plus mango slices, strawberry slices, and cucumber, and a very light japanese mayo/chili lime garlic dressing.and no rice, thus reducing the carby/calorie intake..check this baby out:

Volcano

After running around all day, going to the casino and eating at the buffet, and even an event that involved eating, I was able to stick to my calorie intake goals for the weekend.  This just shows me that as long as I think before I eat, I can enjoy myself and not freak out with food.  YAY!

Hungry Runner Girl Rules! She's Giving Away Stuff, too!

Hey folks!

Hungry Runner girl is giving away some awesome workout duds from Anonya and you guys should check out the site AND her contest here

Have an awesome weekend!

I made it to 2nd base!

Okay, not *that* 2nd base, I mean 2nd base in kickball! I am on a just for fun kickball team and we just started this summer.  I've only ever got out as soon as I kicked the ball or made it to 1st.

I think with my c25k and focus on weights, I've gotten stronger and faster! Woo 2nd base NSV!

Another NSV....I put on smaller jeans! (thank goodness cause my bigger ones that I've fixed 3x already have another hole in them!)....and because I really have no filter and I'm silly and it makes me laugh, I want to show you how AWESOME these smaller jeans are:



I have a butt!

I like to focus on NSVs because I think they come up more often and make me feel a lot prouder than weekly weigh ins...although scale victories are pretty awesome, too! This week, after my first week of calorie counting instead of WW, I have lost 1.6 lbs! Yay for success!!

What are you proud of this week?  (hey quit looking at my butt)


Let's Talk Weight Loss Plans!

I've been doing Weight Watchers on and off for years, back when I was 22 years old (over 10 years ago), I did it for the first time...I lost 45 lbs, my goal weight was supposed to be 132 lbs..I was at 135..and stuck, I was unhappy because I was always hungry and people said I was too skinny. But I was unhappy because I couldn't get to my WW goal! What? Yeah..well, obviously I couldn't stick to it.  I didn't exercise back then either..okay some walks...but I just ate my points for the day full of fat free, high fiber stuff and moved on, boring and not maintainable!

Flash forward 5 years from that...I did WW again..but I also was learning to do lots of cardio! The WW foods I ate didn't change, but I was at least getting more fit because I had a personal trainer and I worked my tuckus off at the gym...I looked better, but still, it wasn't maintainable, the food wasn't a good balance for me and I had to work out WAY to much and life got hectic.

Boom...here we are...I'm 34 years old, at my pretty much highest weight ever, and guess what, even though WW has changed, its not something that I can stick to, probably cause its easy for me to bend the rules and if I can't get to a computer its easy for me to throw a weekend or a vacation out the window. I forget to log one day and its out the window for the week sometimes. Or, I log and I go over my points and I give up...also, its just online, nobody else is really in my court...nope not working for me.

So as I discussed a little yesterday, I'm now counting calories using My Fitness Pal I even have the little "how much weight have I lost" tracker at the bottom of my blog. I started it at zero because I want to track from the beginning of this blog :) This program also has a very easy to use android app for my phone, which pretty much works everywhere (other than WW which was hard on my phone).

I worked out a level of calories (1300-1400), and a workout plan 2x a week weights, 3x a week minimum cardio with my personal trainer.  She also helps me choose the right foods to make up those calories, I am wiping out as many processed foods from my life as possible.

Wanna see what I did yesterday?

Exercise:
30 minutes of legs/core using free weights and body weights

Food:
Breakfast:
1 cup skim milk - 86
Thomas Bagel Thin - 110
1 TBS Creamy peanut butter - 95
2 cups of coffee - ? 0?
Viactiv soft chew - 20
Banana 00 105

Snack:
1/2 cup blueberries - 41

Lunch:
5oz can of chunk light tuna in water - 80
1/2 a cucumber sliced - 10
4 dill pickle spears & juice - 0
(mixed the juice in with the tuna and the cucumber slices)

Snack:
Chobani Black Cherry 0% Greek Yogurt - 140

Dinner:
6 ozs of rotisserie chicken breast, no skin - 162
Medium sweet potato, no skin - 194
5 g of parmesan cheese - 20
1/2 cup of edamame - 120

Snack:
1/2 cup 2% Cottage Cheese -  100
4 medium sliced strawberries - 15

Total calories: 1297


What do you guys do? What do you eat? What do you think of my plan?

Well hello..

I've been encouraged to share my life via blogging and because I do love to share, I'm here!

Just a bit of background on me, for as long as I can remember I've been a big girl, always choosing what to wear based on my size being available vs what I really want. Choosing not to participate in sports because I would get too tired. I focused on studying and watching TV and going out to movies and restaurants with friends in my free time instead.

I've always eaten healthy at the core, but snacks, treats and portion sizes that are too large have snuck in to cause me to maintain or put on weight depending on the year or the situation in my life.

I've been married and then divorced, I've lived in my parents' basement and been out of work, I've been in horrible relationships, ones that ended tragically and wonderful ones (which I am in now). My life has excellent happy experiences which cause me to eat out of joy,  and sad sad times which cause me to comfort myself with food and not exercise.

I'm pretty much at the highest weight I've ever been and I'm making the decision to turn it around and I would like to share that with whomever wants to read :)

Just to start off, this week I started using MyFitnessPal to track calories, I'm learning to run doing Couch to 5K and I workout with a personal trainer 2x a week, plus my own running/cardio at LA Fitness.   My personal trainer has recently helped me put together a meal plan and I started it yesterday! Oh I have about 55 lbs to lose, and I want to be healthy and I want it gone for GOOD.

I'm going to try and put a weight loss tracker gadget thingy-ma-dinger on here, but I have to figure out one that works, MyFitnessPal has one but I can't get it work here, boo.

I want to thank Misty @ Off the D List  for encouraging me to get my bootay online and do this!

Umm hmm, just to make you smile....what do you call the two sexiest animals on the farm?



Brown Chicken, Brown Coooow!