Weekly Weigh-In #3 & #4

I actually started this post last week, but I could not upload pictures, so here it is. Better late than never.
Weekly Weigh-In #3
I actually weighed-in on Monday, but this week has been super crazy. This week was the first week back for teachers and I am exhausted. I could so totally sleep for days. While this week has been crazy and I have not been able to work-out everyday like planned, I rocked it last week and it showed on my scale.

My previous weigh-in was 191.2.

This week's weigh-in was 187.4.

Week 7: 9 pounds gone

Week 16: 22 pounds gone

 

Weekly Weigh-In #4

Despite eating in range everyday I gained 4 oz., due to little working out. My total weight now is 187.8. When am I going to learn that I have to work out to see a difference. I know it but I have just been busy with school back in session. Praying that it will all calm down.

 

How are your weigh-ins going? Are you reaching your goals?

 

Love,

Jamielynn

Weekly Weigh-In #2

My week was good and I could tell I was doing great with my goals. Bam! Then the weekend came and it set me back some.  It was a great weekend filled with several events, events with great food.

My weight loss this week was going to be pretty great before the weekend came but I am still pleased with my loss.

This morning I weighed in at...

191.2

That is down by 1.4 lbs!

 

 

Here is some progress pictures, not a ton of difference but still progress.

 

Week 11 Weight 194.4

Week 15 Weight 191.2

 

 

Week 11 Weight 194.4

Week 15 Weight 191.2

My Weekly Goals #1

I love to make goals and I am learning to accept that it does not always happen perfectly like wanted.

Here are my goals for the next week:

1. Workout everyday by running, 30 DS, or weight training.
2. Start Level 2 of the 30 DS, I have been doing Level 1 since May.
3. Get in my 10,000 steps everyday. My Fitbit is really making me more aware of how active I am.
4. Hit the 20 pound loss mark before the end of next week, only have a little over a pound to go.

What goals do you have? What steps are you going to take to make them?

 

Love,

Jamielynn

I am linking up to Operation Skinny Jeans Weekly Goals Link Party.

 

 

My Cup Runneth Over

I am not going to lie about running. First, running did not come natural to me (still does not) and the first time I ran it was not pretty. I think the mile and a half took about thirty minutes. My lungs were burning and I had a metallic taste in my mouth. Some days it does not seem much better. I still can not run a full mile, I actually more or less walk and then run.

My time and distance yesterday. I love this app, only I use the free version by the same company.

 

I actually sometimes wonder why I put myself through it. Why go get hot and sweaty? Why stress my lungs? Why push myself so hard and I feel like I do not have anything to show for it?

 

The view I have when I am running.

 

So why do I run then? First, the view is amazing. I love running here because of it. Secondly, I love running because of the way I feel when I am done. I feel full of energy and accomplishment. Third, I run because fortunately I can. I can move, I can walk, I can run (even though it is not pretty). Fourth, I love the soul cleansing that it does for me. When my feet get heavy and my lungs are burning I know that I am stronger than the pain. I am strong enough to pick up my lead feet. I know that I am one day closer to my goal and one more unhealthy, sedentary day is behind me. I think about how I am a fighter, how a couple of years ago I fought what doctors thought would happen and walked through the hospital doors for my surgery, how at one point I would fight to climb stairs, and how now I will fight the pavement. I will win the battle like my mom is winning her battle with breast cancer. She is strong and if she can fight cancer why can I not fight the pavement and win.

 

My run yesterday was one of rare solitude because normally there is quite a few people there. I caught myself during those moments of solo running shedding tears. Why really I do not know, oddly enough it felt good. I started remembering a dream I had. Four years ago my mother was freshly diagnosed with breast cancer and it was not odd for me to bust out in random tears when no one was around. Around everyone but hubby I was strong, because if I cried it was like I was giving up on her and I would never do that. My mom is tough. During this time I remember watching the Iron Girl and I told myself I will do that one day for my mom and for other women. Well it was a dream at the time and I am contemplating making it a goal.

 

Do you have a dream? Do you have a goal? Are you contemplating doing something that you have never done before?



 Love,

Jamielynn

Weekly Weigh-In

 

Sorry that I have been gone for a full week. I have finally wrapped up summer school and am able to work on some things around the house. Like....


Cleaning the Adirondack chairs so that they can have a fresh coat of stain.



Cleaning the deck so it can be stained.



The finished project, I love how much cleaner it looks now and how many people we can sit out here.

 

 

So much easier to maintain now, I am too young to be spending my free time weeding flowerbeds.

 

Well I will shut up and get to the chase. I have not worked out as much as I would like to this week but I know all this yard work has kicked my butt. I did go for a couple of runs and did 30 DS a couple of times.

 

So, last Monday I weighed 195.6, up from 193. I knew it was going to happen and I was upset, but this week I am happy because I am down to...

192.6! 

 

I am hoping this week that I fit more workouts and runs in. I know that the yard work was strenuous because my fat was crying a lot this week. I am not normally a person who sweats, but sometimes I would come inside the house for a drink of water and I would be completely saturated and my hair would be wet like I had taken a shower. GROSS!

 

Did you weigh-in today? Did you make your goal?

 

Love,

Jamielynn

 

My Story- The Present

Sorry for taking a week off, my lovely mother came to visit and I spent all my free time with her.

 

Here is Part III of my story, The Present. You can find Part I here and you can find Part II here.

 

I left you off at the end of my surgery. I felt like a new person, a person who had energy to move and did not take several naps a day. A person who could eat and enjoy food.   After being denied food for so long I began eating what I wanted and when I wanted. This is where a new battle began, my obsession with the ability of being able to eat. Had I been smart I would have started a diet at this moment because my stomach had shrunk so much and I had a fresh start on my hands. Hindsight.

 

So here I am almost three years later. So much has happened in that time: About 20 lbs gained, given the news of high cholesterol, my niece getting diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, and watching my mom's battle with cancer. I have had a wake up call. I need to be healthy for my myself, for the quality of my life, as a model of healthy living for my niece. I need to be healthy for me.

 

Tomorrow will be the 13th week of my healthy lifestyle change and as of last week I had lost 17 pounds. Here are some before pictures

 

Here I am on week 7 and 9 lbs down. I hated taking this picture and I hate even more saying the numbers I weighed in this picture, 200 lbs.

 

Here I am week 11 and my weight is 194.4 lbs. I am down by six pounds. It does not seem like much but the difference between the pictures to me are dramatic.

 

Here is a side by side.

 

I have to admit all weeks are not good and I do not make my goal all the times. My goal for the beginning of the school year was 180. I am concerned though that it will not happen. This week while my mom was visiting we enjoyed healthy meals together, figuring points, discussing meal ideas, and packing snacks. We ran/walked one day but the other times we did yardwork, shopping, and stayed busy other ways. So overall it did not seem like a bad week, but I gained. The lesson learned was some people (like my mom) can lose weight by just eating right and staying active, I on the other hand need the physical activity along with the eating. 

Maybe I will not make my goal, but I am going to get back on the horse tomorrow and bust my butt to try to make my goal. I will not do anything unhealthy. I will eat healthy, work out, stay active, and try to make my goal.

So what happens if I do not make my goal? I will shoot for the moon, if I do not make it I will land amongst the stars. Even if I do not make it I will be more pounds closer to my goal.

 

What is your goal? What habits do you have to change to make your goals a reality?

 

Love,

Jamielynn  

My Story- The Past Continued

If you have read my story so far you know that at this point in my life I am battling with my weight. I see it, but I ignore it overall in the fact that I did not intervene.

We are now going on year two of our marriage and I am having restriction when I eat. I finally decide to go to the doctor and get it checked out. I postponed going to the GI doctor until I started throwing up my food. After several tests I am told I have Achalasia, essentially my esophagus has stopped working in two ways. After a consulting with my GI doctor we determine that the only true option is to have surgery. Since my condition was progressing rapidly and I needed to be in the best shape possible my GI doctor rushed the surgery date. But there is a process to having surgery and I had to go through all the steps.

At the airport waiting for hubby to return home. I had not kept anything down in days at this point. Luckily, I had the support of my family and friends like Amanda.

3 weeks before my surgery I am no longer able to hold down most things, not even liquids. I was put on an Ensure and Coca-Cola diet, to this day both those items make me feel sick. I called the surgeon to be told my only option is not really an option and they are concerned if I will make it to my surgery date. During this time I forced myself to go on a hike with hubby and friends, it is on the list of the top hardest things I ever did and my body hated me for it.

Despite what the doctors said I weirdly enough did not drop the weight, it was a blessing in disguise though. I was fatigued and hungry but I walked into those hospital doors the day of my surgery and today I have no major problems.

I spent the next two weeks on a clear liquid diet and finally after 7 days I got real food. Right after my doctor's appointment my hubby took me to get mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese from KFC, it was one of the best meals I ever had. 

The beginning of my food journey has begun, I was sick of being deprived of food so I began eating anything and everything.

What has happened along your life journey that has derailed your success at being healthy?  

Stay tuned to the next portion, My Story- The Present.

Happy 4th of July! Stay Safe.

Much love,

Jamielynn

My Story- The Past

As a child I never had problems with my weight, I was actually very petite mainly because I played outside and had to be called inside to eat. As I matured I started to gain weight. By high school I was dieting with my mom. We did Weight Watchers, Atkins, and I even tried cleanses. I would cut carbs, eat on a particular meal plan, and even would stay abnormally low on my points all in the name to drop pounds. Normally, I actually dropped them well. But who would not drop pounds eating pork rind pancakes or lettuce wraps (which I still eat and actually enjoy).

Senior Prom with two of my best friends, I am in the middle.

 

College- My friend Jenny B.

 

Jump forward to college where I took diet pills, developed my artificial sweetener taste buds, and became active through running and dancing. Around this time I met my hubby and started planning our dream wedding. Due to stress with finishing college, planning a wedding, and moving 7 hours away the weight melted off of me. At this time I was 170, the smallest I remember being. Overall on my wedding day I knew that I still had to lose more weight, but I felt beautiful.

 

June 21, 2008- Me and my love.

 

Slowly, I started packing on weight. I tried to stay active around the house by unpacking stuff, working in the yard, etc. I watched my portions and tried to cook healthy. Nothing worked. During this time I noticed I easily became fatigued and if I sat down for too long I would fall asleep. 

1 year anniversary- We met building houses in New Orleans after Katrina, so we revisited the site.

 

In that first year together I am not sure how much I packed on, but I know I gained weight. During this time, I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism. It was a relief in some ways because I was concerned that if it was left unfixed then the likelihood of my body starting to attack itself was high. Being on medicine for it did not help the weight issue, it just allowed my body to function more properly. I am not always freezing cold or becoming easily fatigued.

 

 This is only the beginning of my story, come back tomorrow for the second half.

What is your story? What is your past? What will you make your future?

 

Much Love,

Jamielynn

My Trip to the Big D

So Tuesday I flew out to Dallas for work. We managed to fit a little fun in after our conference everyday. I will admit I was scared how my weight-loss goals would go on this trip. I did not hit my goal before I left for Dallas, which was to be down 15 lbs from my start weight. I had a little over a pound to go.

 

My fun part of the trip was composed of:

 

Good food with good co-workers. We had Spaghetti Warehouse, Iron Cactus, and Colt's Bar-B-

Que. It was all good. I even had Tres Leche one night. I tried to eat healthy throughout the day and then splurge within reason at night. Come on, I was not at home and wanted to enjoy the local food places.

 

If it was not for all of the following though I would have been concerned.

We did a whole lot of walking in the couple of days that I was there. The last day we were there the expected high was 106 degrees! Oh my and we busted our butt walking that day trying to catch a train that left us. I am so glad I had my Fitbit to document our steps and miles.

 

I woke up every morning to this:

I woke up at 5:00 to workout two of the three mornings. I did about 20 minutes on the bicycle, then lifted weights with 50 jumping jacks between each set, and finished it out on the treadmill for a couple of minutes.

 

My goal was to work off what I was enjoying for dinner each night. I did not splurge the whole day, just enjoyed my dinner. I made sure not to overeat, especially because I had to walk back to the hotel.

 

So my weigh-in...... I lost two pounds! Yes! Finally I have broke the 15 lb mark.

 

Today, I decided while my out-of-commission honey was sleeping in I would go for a little wogging (jogging and walking). I had not gotten a run in for 2 weeks in and it was my best time yet, down by about 2-3 minutes for the mile and a half. I know the time is not great, but I have grown so much as a runner and I am proud of myself.

 

Stay tuned for some recipes.

 

Love,

Jamielynn

 

Follow me on: Bloglovin

 

Highs & Lows

So my weigh-in did not go as anticipated. I wanted to be down 2.6 lbs this week in time for my trip coming up. I had anticipated to be down by some because of the fact that I do a couple of what I call check-in weigh-ins. I know it is horrible to constantly weigh yourself, but I promise I limit myself.

Anyways, I weighed myself and there was no loss. I know I am doing well on working out because my Fitbit  is helping to hold me accountable. I just am going to be careful with my splurge points this next week.

On a high note though my clothes are starting to be loose and some of my smaller sizes are starting to fit me! I have to remind myself of the positive. When I started this journey I had 60 lbs I wanted to lose, now I only have a little over 46 lbs to go.

My OBGYN is great and gave me such wonderful encouragement when I started this journey. She said lose 20 lbs, see how you look and feel afterwards, She told me that the BMI Index is not always what is healthy for all individuals. Her words made me feel better. Even at my smallest I was a size 8-10 and weighed 170 lbs. The BMI Index made me feel like I would never be successful, her words made me feel like I could do nothing but be successful.

 

On to the good stuff. I showed you last week one of my two favorite breakfast items. Here is my other favorite breakfast item.

Overnight Oats: 1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal, 1 cup Milk, 1 package Stevia. Shake and place in fridge overnight. The next morning I add 2 tablespoons Milled Flax Seed and 1 cup of Berries. This is a really satisfying breakfast. I hope to try it with peaches one day this week.

 

Yesterday while I was grocery shopping I was trying to find a healthy snack to take on my trip next week. We all have heard the saying, Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. I have learned this the hard way, when we go out to eat I plan what I might get. If you have a plan then it is so much easier to be successful. I wanted to plan a snack for my trip and really wanted the Cocoa Roasted Almonds that my niece eats, but could not find them in individual packages at Kroger. I know that by taking individual portions I am setting my self up for success. So, after going between several aisles and ruling out several options due to the fact that they will not travel well I decided on the following:

 

They are only 2 points original Weight Watchers and the sugar content in them are pretty low if you are a whole foods dieter.  The Coconut one has 7g of sugar which I thought was not bad since any chocolate bar would have at least that. I selected the flax one because the sugar fit into the whole foods diet and flax is a food known to help cholesterol. I tried both of them and they are yummy. My plan is to used them as either snacks or breakfast if needed.

 

 Yesterday, I not only did my 30 Day Shred but also did a jog/walk with the hubby. I am not fast at all, not even near fast. But I enjoyed it, I feel alive after despite the sore muscles. I took today off because it has been crazy. I plan to do the 30 Day Shred everyday until my trip since this heat makes it hard to run. I can remember the first day I did 30 Day Shred and the pain I felt. Everyday I complete it the workout gets easier. I have to remember to keep at it like it is my job. Thanks SkinnyMeg for that piece of advice. It reminds me that I do not get the opportunity to go back to bed instead of go to work, I have to get my butt up out of the bed. Time for me to get my butt up and get active.

 

Much Love,

Jamielynn

 

Fitbit Love

My end of the school year happy was waiting for me Friday when I got home. That is right as a teacher I get an end of the school year gift, only because I have a great husband who spoils me.

Here it is......

A Fitbit.

I was very apprehensive at first, but I am starting to love it. I can simply tap the screen to see my steps, distance, and my calories burned. Right now it is sticking its tongue out at me because I am not being active.

I can sync it to my phone.

This is a shot from Saturday. I worked hard that day. I not only did the 30 Day Shred but also got in some yard work. I was able to log each one in the activity tab so that it could accurately tell me how many calories I was burning. I log my 30 Day Shred as circuit training and because I push mowed (that is right suckers, I push mowed that baby, well part of it) I logged activity with moving or pushing heavy items.

 

You can do so much with the Fitbit. I use it to track my water consumption, weight, and am trying to start tracking my calories via it. I have not decided if I will swap from counting points to counting calories anytime soon, but I like the easy option. I so far LOVE the Fitbit and I am so glad that my husband decided to show his support for my health journey by getting it for me.

 

If you have any questions about the Fitbit do not hesitate to ask me. I fortunately had someone that was using one and they helped me. They love theirs so much they are swapping to the bracelet.

 

Much Love,

Jamielynn

New Leaf

Sorry, I was gone for so long. I love technology, but it is not always my favorite thing, If it is not easy for me I often give up and overcome because of my crazy schedule.
 

Anyways... I have been busy in the past year. I have moved and started fixing things up, I will post my diy things next time, I need to hunt down the camera.
 

If you know me well you know I am always into something. This school year I started a mission to defunk the house of chemicals. We are trying to get rid of the processed junk out of the house and eat healthier. I am not perfect at it by no means, but I am attempting.
 

I am on my eighth week of changing my diet and upping my workouts, I have lost 12lbs so far. I started this journey and then found out I have high cholesterol. Total shocker considering I am pretty healthy overall, not perfect healthy. The cholesterol test gave me a nice kick in the butt.
 

Right now I am working on trying to build up my stamina for running. I alternate between sprinting and walking. I am also doing Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred. Some days I swear Jillian hates me, but I keep coming back again for her to kick my butt.
 

I am trying to count points for my food intake, I do better with points versus calories. I am always in a hurry so I need whatever works best.
 

Here is a picture of my breakfast:

 

It is so yummy. Greek yogurt, fresh strawberries, flax (helps cholesterol), chopped almonds, and local honey. This breakfast is like a grown-up version of a yogurt parfait. It is my one of my two go to breakfast items.

 

I am doing Summer School so I packed my lunchbox with my breakfast and some snacks.

 

Do not hate, my sweet MIL got me the bowls from Tuesday Morning. I packed my berry yogurt parfait, carrots, lite Goddess dressing, and a yummy local peach into my fabulous Thirty-One lunchbox. I love it.

My hubby purchased this for me as a gift. It is great because it is large and roomy.

 

One more thing about my food is the awesome dressing I found. I am a ranch girl, always have been. Let me just tell you that I LOVE this dressing because it is so yummy, so not diet tasting. I eat it on my salads, dip veggies in it, and enjoy it on the side of my chicken tenders also.

Sorry, it would not flip properly, but you get the idea of what dressing I am eating. I would recommend it, I like hummus though and it has some similarities.

 

Lastly, if you are looking for some motivation with your weight loss or health journey check out these links.

 

Skinny Meg: She is so funny, I found her blog via Mama Laughlin. Love reading both these blogs to keep me inspired, they are real women and they keep everything real.

 

I will try not to stay gone so long next time.

 

Love,

Jamielynn