Oh, What's In a Day

As with any household you have good days and bad days.  With as many children and pets as I have, we tend to take these highs and lows to the extreme.  

Somedays I feel I am about one dumbass away from losing it, and then there are days like today where the fates align and I wish I could hold on to these days forever. 

Not only did I do self care; ate healthy, worked out, pampered myself, but I also had fun with my family and am in bed early so I can blog to all you peeps.  How is this possible? I have no idea!!! Why are days like today possible while other days I can barely breath?

I had a total of 9 kids in my house today.  My 5 plus two of Serena's teenage friends and then two neighbor girls came over to play with our hellions.  I have to admit I have no idea that teenagers provided such free entertainment:

Yes, my daughter is the one with the bad mouth....we are working on it.  

We are a dinner table family, which means we eat as a family at the table about 99% of the time. Tonight I decided to change things up and I let the kids eat their turkey sliders while dancing around the kitchen to DeadMau5.  Even The Baby got his groove on.  It was nice to let loose a bit and the kids always enjoy the change in routine. 

I was getting tired of singing the same songs to The Baby every night while I rocked him. There is only so much "Row Row Row you Boat" and "Twinkle Twinkle" you can sing before you want to gouge your eyes out.  So I spent about 20 minutes trying to memorize a song via youtube and have included 'Rainbow Connection' in our routine.  The Baby LOVES IT!

Dyanna and I tagged team today so we could both get our workouts done today.  I am starting to feel the effort in my arms and it makes me giddy with excitement.  I might actually have skinny firm arms soon!!!!

Today had its down, G-man went to bed early, J had a meltdown, and Serena had her phone taken away for a bit until she realized what 'get you chores done now' meant. But even in those moments I realize how blessed to have such a large loving family.   

We have set-up M's Birthday Morning Surprise for tomorrow. He is turning 7 years old.  He is getting so big.  

I know this doesn't have a whole lot to do with weight loss, but I felt I needed to share the gift which is my family.  It is for them and because of them that I am able to be so successful in my weight loss journey. 

You Mean I Have to Do Something

Personal Trainer Man (as he is now deemed) came to G-Man’s t-ball game on Saturday and we started chatting about work outs which inevitably got me to complaining.  I HATE my arms and I was telling him the arm part of the elliptical machine is useless because I never feel ANYTHING!  He then asked me how I was using them. I look at him like he was an idiot and said “I hold on to them and move back and forth with the machine, duh.” 

Personal Trainer Man than enlightened me that I actually had to push and pull on them, not just let the machine move my arms for me, to get anything out of it.  OOOOOHHHHHH!!!! That was NOT written in the owner’s manual. 

So as of this weekend, I have a set work-out routine which I am hoping to do 3-4 times a week if not more:

30 min on elliptical (with actually utilizing my arms)

20 crunches

Arm weights – I have been doing three moves I remember Personal Trainer Man teaching me years ago in my two week stint to get fit.  I will eventually Google the sweet exercise routines he carefully planned for me.

I am also trying to involve more activity in my daily life.  On Friday I bribed my best friend to join me and we took J, M and G-man on the 1 mile round trip walk to the Lake.  If you ignore the 2 snotty, crying, heart stopping meltdowns that ensued, it was a really nice trip. 

Then on Saturday, I decided to walk to the grocery store instead of drive (1 mile RT). I took my youngest daughter, J, and it was such a wonderful walk.I remember taking this very same walk to the store with G-man about 9 months and 36 pounds ago.  The way there was pleasant but on the whole walk back my mind was whining “ARE WE THERE YET!?!?!?” I felt like I just done a full blown workout at the end of it and had to rest on the steps for a bit. Saturday’s walk felt like a light enjoyable walk…what a difference.

And now for the numbers!!!!!

Current Weight: 222.0

Starting Weight: 258
Week 16: -2.8
Total lost: -36.00
Goal Weight: 140
Total to lose: 82.0

GOALS:
- 40 pounds gone: - 4 pounds to go
- Another 10%: - 13.0 pounds to go
- Below 200pds by end of summer: -22.1 pounds to go in 17 weeks (1.3 pounds a week)

YAY ME!

And now for something completely different:

EXERCISE

If you have a bad heart or a propensity for fainting spells you may want to sit down for this….I, my friends, do not like to exercise. 

I KNOW!

Who would have guessed, when I look at the image below I don’t laugh as much as wonder where I can get me one of those.

We decided to get  a large dog in hopes that she would motivate us to start moving. Unfortunately she seems to be lazier than we are:

I am not opposed to movement per say. I enjoy hikes and a walk once I am on them… just getting the drive to go on them is where I tend to fail.  Plus my body is self sabotaging and after a graceful trip (aka fell on my face) last August my left ankle is pretty sore.  Don’t worry, I just got insurance so I am going to get this checked out.

Then this tax season my lovely wife begged for the 100^th time to get a home elliptical machine. I had images of a large, ugly, awkward clothing rack hanging out in our family room but eventually obliged as after years of her dealing with my random wants and need (by the way honey, I told you I would use my Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter ALL THE TIME), it was time for her to get something she really wanted.

Initially I was doing pretty good and was on it 2-4 times a week.  I finally decided to increase the resistance and incline by .5 and my ankle resisted.  Last night was the first time I was on it for a few weeks and I am feeling good that I can get my exercise mojo going again.

Do you want to know what the BEST workout distraction is? Seriously, 30 minutes goes by so fast you don’t know what hit you.  Romance audio book novels. I kid you not my friends, get me going on a good romance story and I bam I am done!!  (Bad Side Effect: May causing yelling at children when they interrupt you for the 100^th time during the good parts).  If you are interested, leave me a comment and I will send you some of my favorites.   

My work is having a Walk-On competition in the month of May.  We are split into divisions and each person who wants to participate is giving a pedometer.  Each week our number of steps are logged and the division with the most steps wins. Since winning the last competition I am super motivated.  I think I may need to find some walking trails.

Now for something completely different:

Appear/Disappear

I am a bad blogger.  I appear on stage with a ton of gusto about blogging and then disappear on you.  Shame on me.

While my mother always taught me to never devalue an apology with an excuse…I do have a good one.  My best friend had an extreme emergency and I spent most of Tuesday with her helping her through it, then all of Wednesday dealing with emotional aftermath on my own, and then all of yesterday making up for being physically and emotionally absent from my home and kids for two days.

BUT NOW I AM BACK!!!

While we have had some crazy emotional up and downs in the past 4 months, this week was the kicker when it came to dealing with emotional eating. I am the ‘get up and do something about it’ type and when there is nothing to do but sit and wait I become the ‘stuff as much crap into your mouth until you are sick’ type.  I look a smidge like this:

Except he has far better make-up than I.

I knew when I got the call at 3:30am it was going to be a bad day, so I stuffed a Luna bar and WW snack bar in my purse along with my normal lunch so that I had healthier options to go to when the cravings started.  This consideration for my bad eating habits is new and a huge signal of how far I have come.  Over the past 4 months I have listened to my body and felt around for my triggers and stressors and now I can accommodate.  I am happy to say I was able to get through the emotional mess with minimal over eating. YAY FOR ME!

Ironically, the topic on binge eating episodes came up in a conversation with my daughter Serena.  She was having a bad day and was craving some sort of fast food.  I declined driving her to get said food and she got very upset and said that this diet would never work if she could never have a French fry again.  I explained that she was free to have whatever food she wants in moderation but she needs to make sure she is eating it for the right reasons.  I am more likely to accommodate an off diet splurge if it is a natural/healthy craving.  If my craving is more along the lines of “OMG! I am so tired/stressed/angry/sad/depressed, I am going to kill someone unless I stuff a big cheeseburger down my throat” I am less likely to oblige.

The funniest part of the whole thing is that I rarely if ever indulge in my cravings, BUT, to avoid doing so I eat what I consider healthier snacks. Unfortunately I think it would have been more diet friendly to just stick with my original craving:

Craving - Peanut Butter Twix = 8 points

Food eaten to avoid craving

Granola bar = 4 points

Banana = 0 points

Hummus & Pretzels = 4 points

½ oz cheese with 1oz turkey = 2 points

Few more pretzels = 1-2 points

As you can see… I would have been better off with the Twix.  Some might say that option two, while more points had better foods and was probably way more filling but in all honesty, I wasn’t even hungry at this time.  I have a pretty strict eating schedule and when I stick to it I rarely get hungry.   On occasions where I do, a banana usually covers it.  The fact was that I was craving something and in my attempt to fill said craving with other things I created a monster.

I am not saying that every time you have a craving for greasy/sugary unhealthy food that one should indulge, I just think that sometimes we may cause more harm than good then completely denying ourselves what we want all the time.

I was hoping to have a temptation free weekend as we had no functions, dinner parties, birthday parties, or other such food related things going on but alas, I am not so lucky.  Best Friend mentioned above is coming over tonight and requested that I teach her how to make my yummy Chicken Tetrazzini.  Just looking at the recipe card makes me loose all 49 of my weekly point allowance.  I have grandiose dreams of accepting a small portion and then filling myself on spinach salad and staying with my daily points….keep your fingers crossed.

And now for something completely different:

The Ugliness Inside

Every time I step on the scale, I think I am going to see 258 pounds again. 

Every time I make a good food choice there is a nagging voice in the back telling me that it is inevitable that I will eventually give up.

Every time I lift weights or get on my elliptical I feel like I am pretending to be a person who exercises.

When will I stop feeling like a person pretending to lose weight and make a life change? When will I become the person I working so hard to be?

I have worked ridiculously hard the past two weeks and have lost 7.2 pounds but instead of pride I feel confusion and fear.  I feel like somehow my body is playing a trick on me,  that tomorrow I will step on the scale and will gained it all back. 

As I commented on a fellow bloggers blog earlier today, I have the attention span of a gnat, and the fact that I have stuck with this weight loss plan for 17 weeks is mind blowing.  I feel stronger and more motivated in my weight loss than I did on the first week but part of me is still waiting for me to revert to my old eating habits. 

I just need to shake this old me off. I am not her anymore.  I care about myself, I care about how I look, I care about how my children perceive me, I care about being  good role model for them. The time for excess and Russian roulette with my health is over.

Weekly Weight Update - April 23, 2012

What a gorgeous weekend!!! The weather was AMAZING the entire weekend for the first time, I even had to go digging for my sunglasses though less for the sun and more for the reflection off the white legs of my fellow Seattleites.   

Here are my numbers for this week:

Current Weight: 224.8

Starting Weight: 258
Week 16: -2.8
Total lost: -33.2
Goal Weight: 140
Total to lose: 84.8

GOALS:
- 40 pounds gone: - 6.8 pounds to go
- Another 10%: - 15.8 pounds to go
- Below 200pds by end of summer: -24.9 pounds to go in 18 weeks (1.4 pounds a week)

COMPLETED:
- Step down from morbidly obese to just obese: COMPLETE on 3/11/12
- Have less than 100 pounds to lose: COMPLETE on 3/18/12
- 10% total body weight lost: COMPLETE on 4/8/2012

Princess Lola buttercup had a comprehensive visit at the vet today and they weighed her at 118.  Oddly enough that is the exact amount of weight I will need to lose at the end of this journey. 

Yes folks, I have to lose this:

 

Princess Lola Buttercup 1st birthday - April 9, 2012 - 118 pounds



 That sure puts things in perspective doesn’t it.

I won my work’s ‘Biggest Loser’ competition this week!!!! I first prize was $420.00 smackaroos!!! That went directly into the ‘I need smaller clothes’ fund.  Seriously my pants look like this on me:

Numbers

I know I am a little late with the numbers but with 5 kids, a full time job, a menagerie of pets and an alarm which goes off 4:30 each morning….sometimes things get dropped. 

Plus I’ll take time with these cutie pies over time in front of a computer screen any day.



April 18, 2012 The Baby & J



 Aren’t they so adorable… can you tell from The Baby’s facial expression that he was in the middle of saying “CHEESE!” Don't let his cuteness fool you, this little guy is responsible for more gray hairs on my head then all the others put together.

So I had these GRANDIOUS ideas for photo shoot to show off the thinner me  and give you some idea of my goals but those will have wait as I am still trying to convince my daughter that my idea is AMAZING!! Which it totally is, she will come around.  So for now here is the most recent picture of me with my lovely daughter:



March 24, 2011 234.2 pounds



When I saw this picture, I had to take a double look. I can really see the weight loss in my face.  I am about 7.8 pounds lighter now as of this morning.

I weigh-in every Sunday; this is the results from April 15^th:

Weight: 227.6

Starting Weight: 258
Week 15: -4.4
Total lost: -30.4
Goal Weight: 140
Total to lose: 87.6

GOALS:
- 40 pounds gone: - 9.6 pounds to go
- Another 10%: - 18.6 pounds to go
- Below 200pds by end of summer: -27.7 pounds to go in 19 weeks (1.5 pds a week)

COMPLETED:
- Step down from morbidly obese to just obese: COMPLETE on 3/11/12
- Have less than 100 pounds to lose: COMPLETE on 3/18/12
- 10% total body weight lost: COMPLETE on 4/8/2012

MORE TO COME!!!

Getting To Know Moi

Hi! My name is Channie and I am a Sagittarius.  I not a big fan of long walks on the beach….but get me on a moped and you can eat my dirt (well technically sand, but you get the drift).   

Oops…sorry...wrong introduction. 

Hello! My name is Channie and I am addicted to food.  Like seriously…258 pounds of food to be precise.  I started Wei*ght Wat*chers (WW), on January 1, 2012 and have lost 30 pounds so far.  The lovely image you see before you is me on December 31^st, 2011.   

December 31, 2011 258 pounds. I actually was feeling good in this outfit the day too. :-(

Since I have Facebook crazy friends who LOVE to tag, I have tons of pictures of my morbid obesity like this all over the internet. Actually that is one of the best. The rest looked like this. 

October 2011



Yes, I totally know the creepy guy in the back row...he is one playing creepy techno music in my basement as I type this. 



December 31, 2012 - Me and my little Sis after a silly string fight.



 BLAH! Gross! LET’S MOVE ON! 

I am joined in this WW adventure with my dear wife/friend/partner of 10 years, Mama D. She has expressed interest in writing some posts of her own, so look forward to some amazing words of wisdom from her.  

My gorgeous daughter, Serena, also joined in the adventure. I didn’t get permission for this photo so, shhh, don’t tell on me.

I was inspired to start a weight loss blog by reading Lyn’s blog “Escape from Obesity.” She has been an inspiration and promise to gush about her tons later on. I will have to run some data, but I will post the numbers for you guys to gawk at later tonight.

And now for the cast of characters you will probably run into during this ride:

THE LITTLES: Starting from the left we have G-man, J, The Baby, and M. 

THE PETS: Starting from the left we have Princess Lola Buttercup, Disney and Trixie.

THE TRAINER: This body building/husband of my best friend is giving me direction on how I can help tone my body as I lose the weight.  

So STAY TUNED as you will shortly learn the who, what, when, how, and the OMG I didn’t need to know that, of my weight loss journey.