Well tomorrow is my 2nd weigh in. I've gone strong so far. We'll see.

Still I've peaked my scale and my weight has fluxuated between 3 lbs all week. Incredibly frustrating. ;/

I know I'm not supposed to make it about the scale, but that's  really hard!
Hopefully my inches will speak louder than the number staring at me from the floor.

My mom's starting soon! I'm so happy to have someone to be in this with!!

Yesterday was my berday and things went really well. With the exception of Nate ordering a large popcorn at the movies. It was pretty hard to resist and I definintely ate more than I should have.

But . . . I did my 1st Tabata Sprint! It went . . . Well? I don't know how high it would have ranked but I did it ok ;p

Today went well too. My body was feelin' it after those sprints but I still walked an hour and even did my 4 essensicals! :D :D

To say the least I'm feeling it. This all better pay off ; )

It's Sunday night and as my first weekend comes to a close I think I should recap of the past few days. . .

Friday
Nate was off work and I started out by going to the Chrio. Then we went to Solon to meet up with Mrs. Simpson for my birthday lunch and, suprisingly, I think I did really well :) I ate a few samples that I could have left where they were but it was small and killed my curiosity, so I'm ok with it. :)

Saturday
Yesterday we had almond flour pancakes. Thank God. They totally kept us full enough because I thought eating at our christmas party would happen at 2 or 3 and it didn't happen until like 6:30, which wasn't a big deal because Nate and I don't struggle with sugar.

Also, when given a sugar thing I was really suprised at how sugary I thought it was. Not only that, but over the course of 10hrs, with a tray of SO many christmas goodies and cookies I only had 2 buckeyes, 1 1/2 peanut butter fudge cube and a half a oreo. 1st off, that's amazing for me. 2ndly, the 1st buckey and 1/2 of a peanut butter cube were yummy, but the rest just didn't seem worth it. I think that's an important place to get to: content. I didn't eat like craZy. If I didn't eat them, I would have REALLY wanted to. Thought about it later. Felt deprived. And the next time I came in contact with anything similar I would have shoved my face and regreted it later. Now I can walk away with a "ehh" feeling and keep that in my back pocket the next time  I try to convince myself that it's "worth it." :)

Sunday
Today Nater and I had a salmon/bacon/avocado salad and later had steak and Brussel sprouts for dinner. We didn't "work out" but we rearranged the basement so we were moderately active and got something done at the same time. :)


I'm feeling good about my 2nd weigh-in on Friday! Tomorrow Nate and I are going to Ruby Tuesdays for my berday and then we're supposed to do something active to make up for me not being at the Rec 2m but I'm not sure what it'll be.

I'm really hoping I can keep this up but the only way that's going to happen is I don't make it about the numbers. I have to judge my sucess by how I feel and how my close fit. Not what size they are, but if it feels good to wear them. I pray Jesus will help me stick with this and keep Him and Nate in the front of my mind when I feel like caving in. :)

Ok, so I made it: at the Rec 4 out of 4 days :) (I've decided to rejoice in small victories!) Even with the craZy weather yesterday.

I feel good about sticking it out, but I don't want to have the idea that this is a race - not a life time journey.

I want to do well. I'm not going to beat myself up if I fall short, but I don't want to use excuses or get off track. I trust that the more I keep with it, the better/easier/consistent it will be. One of the bigger reasons is because I don't want to ever say "I was doing good for a while" or "I just quit/gave up/got frustrated"

A lot of people put up a picture of the person they want to look like, some really fit model or athlete, but I couldn't think of any better motivation than a picture of my mom and dad toward their later life, that's really what drives me: I picture my mom and how heavy she was, with all her health problems it made it tough for my dad to take care of her. - I don't want to do that to Nathan. So I'll have a picture of us and a picture of my mom and dad.

Back to today, I did 3 Essencials with Nathan tonight! :) And eating went well too :) I'm hoping to see progress, but if I make that what's the most important, I don't think I'll finish. But results would be a great motivator/reward for all of this ; )

Also, Danae's gonna start her own weight-loss deal on my berday so I'm excited to have a partner in this and we can be there for each other so I'll definintely be praying for her.

I'm going to be very careful to not obsess about the scale and I'm focusing on my measurements after a month and a half. I think the date for me to really asses my progress will be Feb 28 :) Maybe it'll help me get through March and April :)

The other dates I'm looking forward to are Jan 21, Feb 4th, and Feb 18th. I guess we'll see what happens, how good I do :)

Today I walked for 50 min not including anything off the tread.

I memorised Prov. 31:10-31 while doing it :) It was sweet. I think I'll alternate between verses and weights each day :)

I'm supposed to do the 5 essentials today - I don't feel like it. I actually dread doing them. But it's not that bad:
Pushups
Squats
Side/full planks.

- I alternate on the other days with pull ups. and I'm not allowed to do over-head jack presses. But Friday should be my 1st sprint!

Right now I feel soreness in certain areas, which I love. And I asked if I could use my 5's and they said no again. Nate thinks I should switch to the track . . . . we'll see.

O yeah, and parking was AWFUL. I think I'll just walk to the rec on T/R. M/W I think I'll be so tired of sittin gin my BORINGGGGGG classes that I will be dying for some movement. Plus I can walk off the anger/stress they'll give me - I know  it's coming.

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be REALLY bad. Nate said the roads tonight are terrible. If they are, I might just try to make it home and not worry about walking 2m. Saftey is more important right ; )

Nate and I have been working out occasionally, but nothing's set in stone. We'll have to be more faithful. It's basically doing Mark's 5 essensial movements - I can only do 4 according to my chiropractor, which I'm ok with ; )

Well, after a horrid day of school, I drove to the rec. Here are the potentical problems I see:
-Deciding to turn down Spicer instead of just continuing to Fountain to go home.
-Not becoming frustrated with not being able to find a parking spot
-the Weather. 1) would it be safer to just head on home 2) Do I really want to walk to the rec while it's snowing.  (The weather is a serious concern, but shouldn't effect my attendance TOO much, so I don't want to be a flake and back out all the time.)
-I need to contact the president and be allowed to wear my 5fingers. This is so wrong.

Besides being told I needed to change my shoes, it went really well!
-I walked for 30 min (not including all the walking to get there and at Sams club and at school, which I like to point out ; ) ).
-I used 2lbs weights which I'm going to love. At first I felt like they weren't helping at all. Then I decided to alternate moving them above my head, and at my sides. Which I did 3x each and really liked because I actually felt soemthing. Well, I went to wipe off my tred mil, and the woman next to me was running - hard core - I was like Whoo! to myself. She was really nice! She was like "that was a good idea with the weights, keep it up." :) How sweet :)

Well, I think it'll be important for me to come up with a list of reason why I'm doing this, so that's coming soon. I want to really think about it. K bye!

Ok, so I've been trying to alternate days on pull ups while standing on a chair - which I haven't been too faithful about - BUT I tried it yesterday without a chair and I did a fraction of a pull up!!

This may not sound like much but 2 weeks ago when I tried while my friends were over, I hung from the bar as my body shook with no upward movement. - It was pretty hilarious actually. :D

Anyway, I was happy to see that I had something. I showed Nathan when he got home and he was so proud of me. He makes me feel so good about myself. :)

I haven't been too big on my lifestyle lately. It's very hard to resist at family functions and when friends are over. I'm hoping things will get better once school starts: I thrive on routine. After that it's all about my determination. I'm thinking of finding pics that motivate me. I also need to load up my Zune with more workout songs and make sure my second book bag is packed :)

Needless to say, I haven't weighed or measured myself. I want to wait until I see progress visually before that. The way I see it is, once I'm where I want to be, I don't want to check with measuring tape or get on the scale. I feel like weight fluctuates and that's ok. But if my pants start to get tighter, I know there's a problem. Likewise, if my pants feel looser, I know I'm making progress and THEN I can check with the tape to see how much. I think it'll keep me from getting obsessed and keep my mind on the fact that this is my lifestyle, not my diet to loose weight.

Pray for me!