Weight-ing Around

It's weigh-in day, folks! And the theme today is "2 steps up, 2 steps down." I managed to lose those two pounds that I gained last week, and not a smidge more. I guess I'm happy with that, although I was really hoping for a bonus pound as a reward for coming to my senses. :)  Ah well, considering I missed three gym days last week to take the dogs for a walk, I didn't burn quite as many calories as I should/could have. So I'm good with two pounds.

I've decided something. I know in the past I said I was only going to track my weight loss since January and not count the 5 lbs I lost in November/December. Well that's just stupid. Because in my head I'm still including that 5 lbs and it's just getting downright confusing tracking two different numbers. Plus, it's weight that's gone off my body, why shouldn't I count it? I was at my heaviest weight EVER around Thanksgiving, so I should be counting any weight lost since then. There, it's decided. So I'm down 17lbs. That's a big chunka change, folks! Looking at myself, I don't really know where I put it! Guess I was bigger than I thought.

AND! AND guess what! There's more! You know my handy dandy scale with it's fancy doohickies that measure body fat? Well my percentage went down! I was at 31.somethin' (after we figured out how tall I really am *hehe*) and this morning it read 28.7! That's a significant drop, isn't it? So I guess I'm building some muscle, which is great. To be honest I haven't even worked that hard at strength-training yet. I've been doing mostly cardio with some weights thrown in every once in a while. So I was pleased to see that number had changed. :)

Here's what I'm most excited about. Remember the great weather I told you about? Well it spurred me to dig out some shorts and capris from the depths of my drawers. I thought trying them on might give me some extra motivation, y'know, to shrink into them. But they FIT!!! Hallelujah! My super cute denim capri's that I ballooned out of last Summer are fitting beautifully again. 

And then there's a couple pairs of shorts that I bought last Spring on sale. They were too tight when I bought them but I planned on losing some more weight so they'd fit. I never managed to do that, so these shorts were sitting in my drawer with the tags still on them. Tragic! But I was able to get them up and zipped AND still breathe in them. :) It was a very good day.

A-weigh down south in Dixie!

(Have you figured out that I find it necessary to give all my weigh-in posts punny names? Wonder how many plays on "weigh" and "weight" I can come up with...)

I skipped last Monday's weigh-in since I was in Minneapolis indulging beyond my dieting limits. So today's lost pounds are from a two-week period (that included way too many calories and several skipped workouts.) So I'm quite pleased to tell you I'm down 3lbs!  I don't know if I gained after our Valentine's romp...I didn't weigh myself afterwards. So this loss could include a gain, but I'm not complaining!! No siree! 

I sometimes feel like it's coming off too slow...like maybe there's something I could do, or something I could deprive myself of, to get faster results. But then I think, y'know, I am getting results this way and it's not torture. The occasional treat (I had about a handful of peanut butter M&M's and several Twizzlers at Saturday night's crop) not cutting anything out entirely... (I mean, I had pancakes for breakfast again this morning. What kind of diet IS THIS? *haha* They were Fiber One pancakes of course, but golly they're so good they taste sinful!!) The odds of me sustaining this long enough to reach my goal are much higher than if I were eating nothing but tuna and lettuce. (I don't even like tuna!) So I'll just plod along, doin' what I'm doin'. Slow and steady wins the race, right? If I stop losing weight, I guess I'll reevaluate the situation.

Hey I have some other news! My blog got an award!! I know, right? Who would've seen that coming?  :) But it's true. (I would also like to note that I now have 22 followers! I am beyond boggled by that...thanks for reading, folks!) Etta from over at Adventures In Holy Matrimony deemed me worthy of this cute little bloggy award:

TaDa!

I am quite flattered! Thanks Etta! And now, because this honor has been bestowed on me, I get to pass it on! Here are the rules of selection:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So in no particular order, here are my nominees!!

1. Michelle's My Little Crazy Corner of the World

2. Toni's Creative Impressions

3. Samantha's And Then I Said... 

4. Kim's Don't Bother Me I'm Scrapping

5. Mary's Scrapper's Unite!

6. Nikki's A Scrappy Chick

7. Krissy's A Window To Who I Am

8. Ginny's Chris & Ginny

Due to the "Friend" nature of this award, I chose to give it to the bloggers I do know in "real life." But I couldn't even fit all of you in, since I'm limited to 8. (I have way too much guilt over this. *haha*) 

"Cel-e-brate good times, COME ON!"

Guess who was able to fit into her "skinny" jeans today?!?! That's right, ME! (Clarification: There's really nothing skinny about these jeans. They're still a size bigger than the smallest I've worn. BUT, these were the jeans I bought last Spring after dieting and working out, but then quickly grew back out of. THESE jeans:)

Two weeks ago, I tried these on and I couldn't even get them up past my...erm...hindquarters. They stopped at just above the knee and wouldn't go any further. But not today! I got them all the way up aaaaand with a little sucking in, I even  got'em buttoned! *haha* Oh yeah! Woohoo! :) I'm especially psyched, because last year it took me January through mid March to get into this size. Well, after gaining all that weight back (and a smidge more *phooey*), I was starting completely over this January. And here it is, EARLY February and I've gotten into these jeans already! Talk about encouragement. I am so, so happy.

Something else fun happened today. Jeremy told me that he was looking at Priceline.com and found an excellent travel package for Valentine's Day weekend. You know, one of those plane, rental car + hotel deals where they name when you leave and where you stay and you save like 60% or something crazy? Well, he's taking me to Minneapolis! I know, I know. Minnesota in February? Going to be a tad more than chilly. But I've got three little words for you: Mall Of America. We'll never even have to go outside! *haha* I'm very excited! We went there as a family when I was younger, but true to my family's vacation style (due to my Dad's gung-ho leadership) we saw the entire mall in a single day! I hope this time we'll get to spend a little more time browsing (SCRAPBOOK STORES!) and eating (SPLURGE!) and riding some rides (MOTION SICKNESS!). Yay!

The Weight Update

I am down 13 pounds, thanks partially to a "miracle 3 day diet" I participated in last week and have started again this week. You basically stick to this fairly strict (but not torturous) plan for three days of the week, and they don't even have to be in consecutive order. Then the rest of the week you should eat sensibly, but my three pounds I lost last week included pigging out at Olive Garden (I told myself to leave more in that bowl...but DANG that pasta was yummy!) and Sunday night's early Thanksgiving feast.  I had "plateaued" at 10 pounds almost a month ago, so it was nice to see the scale move again.  I won't go into the diet's specifics (unless you want 'em) but my Mom did the diet with me last week and she lost TEN POUNDS in the first three days! Pretty impressive, I must say!

Honestly, in the back of my mind, I don't know why I'm bothering at all. When you look at our itinerary for New York City, about 60% of the places we're going involve FOOD! *haha* And not just food but an excessive amount of pancakes and desserts and chocolate and cheeeeeesecake...(New York style baby! I am drooling just thinking about it.) So the plan is this: I'm going to do this miracle 3 day diet right before we go and right after we get back, so I'm hoping that will stave off any ridiculous weight gain. I mean, seriously, the menus we have planned could rival any cruise ship, and don't people usually gain weight on cruises? So that's what I'm sayin! *haha* And not to mention the Food Eating Holiday of the year is in two days and I don't plan on holding back...so basically by the end of all this we'll see just how big of a miracle this diet really is?!? :)