To anime or not to anime....

Alright, this is NOT about weight loss, but rather something I'm seeking some advice on.

Last night my daughter (currently 12 yrs old) asked if I could help her put together an anime outfit for a friend's birthday party. Her and her friends have been into anime for a while. She watches it on you tube ALL THE TIME! I always laugh since she has to be able to hear it, even though it is all subtitled and spoken in Japanese (and no, she doesn't speak Japanese or understand it...she reads the whole darn thing).

So I start thinking, sure! Its a cute idea for a costume party. Then when the hubby comes home she tells him that they will go on from the friend's house to an anime convention in Dallas. THIS made me stop for a second. I would post pictures I've seen of other anime convention goers, but they are SO NSFW (not safe for work)!!

So my question is, am I just being overprotective by thinking it is not such a good idea to take a bunch of 13 yr old girls all dressed up (and mind you my daughter HAS been mistaken for a high school and/or college-aged girl before) to an anime convention?

Oh my aching legs!!

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day here!!! The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, and temperature was cozy (not too cold, not too hot). It wasn't the perfect day, temperature-wise, but it was pretty close. So I went to early service at church and after Sunday school decided my plan for the day. I sat in Chili's eating a nice salad and figured I'd go for a brisk walk for my exercise for the day and then wash the convertible (it has REALLY needed it).

I got home, changed clothes, and then decided I needed to recruit others to join me. It was easy convincing the dog, she's ALWAYS willing to leave the house. Hubby thought it was a good idea, but wanted to shower, grab a bite to eat, and change clothes first. My daughter was ready and willing to get out of the house (and skirt any chance of having to clean anything). My son decided to stay home and pick up stuff around here rather than walk with us. No biggie, I figured at much.

So off we went. I had already planned our route in advance. We were going to walk to the skate park. I did NOT plan that this would be quite an undertaking. The distance is about a mile and a half. When we'd gotten in front of the middle schools (somewhere around 1/2 of the distance) I could feel my hips and upper thighs SCREAMING at me. They were pleading with me to STOP! GO HOME! END THIS INSANITY! But I kept on. Granted, I would slow down and keep up the back area of our little group from time to time. I felt what was important to consider though was that I kept going!! My husband would pick on me for slowing, but I just took that opportunity to remind him that my pace was not what he should be concentrating on, rather the fact that I was determined to complete this walk. And finish I did!!

We made it to the skate park, sat down to rest, and take in the show the local boys were putting on. I think they might have thought my daughter was about 16-17 years old, as they seemed to stay in her line of sight most of the time and tried to pull out their best tricks. hehe One of them even said to one of the younger boys, "Here, I'll show you how its done." My dear dog appreciated the rest as well. She sat in my lap and just relaxed for a few minutes before demanding we give her some love through scratchings.

After a short break we made our way back home. It might have taken a little longer to get to the house than we'd anticipated, but no worries. No need to call the boy and have him drive the car down to pick us up. hehe We got home and remedied the only regret I had throughout the whole trip. I'd forgotten to bring any water and the fountains at the skate park were not working. We all drank plenty of water and got rehydrated. Then we decided to play some board games. We played Settlers of Catan and then Uno to cap off the afternoon.

I made spaghetti for supper and then the Hubby and I took in some TV and were off to sleep around 9:30pm or so. A little earlier than normal, but we'd REALLY been tuckered out on our walk. So all in all, I'd do the same walk again, but next time I'll REMEMBER the water!!

Celebrating a small success!!!

So although I've been less than wonderfully dedicated to the exercise cause, I have been watching my eating (and writing it down) which is HELPING!!! I'm down 6lbs since last week! And by normal standards that is a lot, but when you're over 280lbs, it is understandable. I weighed in last Saturday afternoon and I was topping out at 284.5lbs...this afternoon the scale read 278.5. Yay, me!!!

My top weight has been 284.5lbs and quite frankly it scared me! My husband stated that he was more worried about me developing diabetes and that kind of woke me up again. I had FOR SURE been sleeping on the healthy job in the past several months.

I had a Tastefully Simple party last night where we tried all kinds of yummy foods. Jennifer Longstreet came by to do the party and she did a GREAT job!! Please feel free to click on her name and shoot her an email if you're ever in need of any products. I plan on incorporating several seasonings and things into my regular cooking schedule. I have to celebrate my keeping up with that schedule! I've diligently made a schedule of supper plans for two months now. And only about 3 nights a month ave we strayed from the game plan. I'm going to sit down tomorrow after church and make up March's menu. Perhaps some time I'll share my more tasty recipes with all of you!

Well, I'm off to watch one of my favorite classic musicals (Annie). I always preferred the older one with Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, and such... and possibly enjoy a small bowl of popcorn with the show. =) Laters, friends!

To loop or not to loop...

So since I'm a stay-at-home mom I peruse the channels on TV rather often. And there seems to be a lot of bariatric surgery (both stomach stapling and lap-band) commercials on during the day. And as I struggle through all this and fight my impulses NOT to work out (I truly detest the practice on a whole), I wonder if that option would make things better. Being severely obese (which I am at more than 100lbs overweight) I think this might make things easier.

But SHOULD things be easier? I mean, grated it was incredibly easy to put this weight on over the years, but perhaps it SHOULD be a struggle to take it off again. Maybe in that struggle you find your true strength and begin to appreciate those thinner days so many years ago. Or by chance, it makes you happier to STAY healthy when you DO achieve your goals, because you know how much work it would take to get there again.

I'm sure our insurance would kick in in the payment arena, being that I have a family history of diabetes and such. But I'm thinking that I NEED to just bite the bullet and struggle through. I do not judge others that have taken the surgical route at all! We each must decide our paths for ourselves. And I believe my path rotates on a loop upstairs in the gameroom and goes by the name of treadmill.

Helping out...

This evening my plans were a tad derailed...I had a friend call and need me to come over and watch her kiddos whilst she visited her mother who has recently been hospitalized. So I threw together a plan for supper, told the hubby what to get on the way home, and headed out.

I've sat here and read through a few blogs, and I'm only hoping that I can be inspired enough by these wonderful folks to continue the trek towards a healthier me. I'd say a better me, but I beginning to change my mind about that. I think I'm a pretty fabulous me right now, I am just not near as healthy as I'd like. Just last night (or rather QUITE early this morning) I got some reassurance from my Hubby. He woke me up around 1:00am for...SEX!!! Yep! He woke up in the middle of the night with a craving, and it was me!!! I have to admit I was mildly annoyed to be plucked from a deep slumber for a poking session. hehe But I can't say I didn't enjoy it and it does help to know he still finds me desirable.

So tomorrow morning I will wake up, exercise, shower, and get dressed...even if I never leave the house. Because I'm a pretty hot chick as I am, I just need to be healthier. =)

Can I take a personal day, please?

So this weekend I did pretty well on my food stuff, I have it written down here in a journal, but won't bore you with all the gory details.

My concern today is...can I take the day off? I plan to weigh in later this morning. But I must tell you I've been sneezing since I woke up this morning. Ugh!!

I got two new workout DVDs that I plan on trying this afternoon...




To be perfectly honest, I'm tired of watching all these celebs dance their butts off on the show and drop the pounds. So I'm hoping to learn some smooth moves (whilst dreaming of Maksim) and lose a few in the process.

In lieu of snacking...

So like some people who are trying to quit smoking or any other habit they're trying to stop, I've found that in order to stop with mindless snacking I need something to do with my hands. Sure I could get on the computer and play some equally mindless game, but somehow that just doesn't cut it. It would appear that the two mindless activities are drawn to each other, ugh! Go figure.



So I do crosswords. But I am kind of a cheater and not like a hardcore crossword doer. I LOVE LOVE LOVE People magazine crosswords. Every time they come out with the special puzzle books I snatch them up and take them home to get to work on. I don't complete most of the puzzles in the book, but will work on them from time to time. Usually before I go to bed, when I'd really rather go grab something from the fridge or pantry, instead I grab my puzzles and a pen and get to work. Of course this is only mildly mindless, since I have to think about the answers often times. Somehow this occupies my mind enough that I don't feel the need to snack at all!

What about you? Do you have some special activity that you do to avoid some habit you're trying to break?

The good day...

Today was not necessarily a good day in the eating department, but it WAS a good day in terms of how I felt!

Here's the run-down on food-stuff:

Breakfast:
Hot tea and strawberries

Lunch:
Chicken Sandwich
About 5 tater tots
2 mozzarella sticks
1 cherry limeade

Snack:
1 Pepperoni Pizza Pocket

Supper:
Spaghetti with meatballs
Garlic bread
Salad

Alright, so that's out of the way. Yep, I did a bad, bad thing, but I'm not going to punish myself about it.

Now onto the better thing! Today I felt genuinely pretty!! I got all dolled up to go to Ash Wednesday service. I'm in the process of growing my hair out, so its at that in between stage (too long to wear the normal way I was wearing it, and too short to do too much with as far as a medium length hairstyle goes). So I decided to try something I haven't done in over a year. I broke out the curling iron and went to work. And I LOVED the way it looked!! I put on my makeup and everything went just right. Lashes curled just so, no clumping of mascara, lines of eye shadow were just as I'd wanted them to be...it was greatness in the mirror. I grabbed a long skirt, my best pair of Spanx, put on my pantyhose, slipped a nice sweater over my head and I was out the door to pick up the kids from school.

I sat in the car waiting for my son to get out of class and saw my reflection in the side mirror. So I grabbed my phone and snapped a shot of it. Here it is:
So today, I felt pretty! I posted this picture on my facebook page and got a lot of great feedback about it. Sure, I still have a few more chins that I'd care to have and my face is a little more round than I remembered it being so many years ago. But today it didn't matter, because I felt pretty and tomorrow is another day to do better with my food and regain the me that is hiding deep inside...continue my search for my inner skinny and bring it out for all the world to see.

I did my best when...

Over the past couple of day, I've been trying to go back over in my mind when I had my greatest successes with weight loss. And I've come up with a couple of simple truths.

I did my best when I was keeping a food journal.
I did my best when I made it a point to exercise in SOME WAY every day.
I did my best when I drank plenty of water every day and stayed away from Cokes and such.
I did my best when I made a point of NOT eating fast food!
I did my best when I just wrote it all out.

So over the course of this week I will re-implement each of these things into my every day life. Today I start with the food journal. And I think I will use this blog to help keep track of that very thing. The best part about it is by doing these things I will be checking in and writing more (which helps with the last one). So here's what I had today:

Breakfast:
None

Snack:
1 cup hot tea with 1 TruVia packet

Lunch:
Chicken & Beef Fajitas
4 Flour Tortillas
1 Serving Spanish Rice
1 Serving Fat Free Refried Beans
2 Cans Diet Dr. Pepper

Snack:
3 Pork Egg Rolls with Sweet & Sour Sauce
Grapes
Strawberries

Plans for Supper:
Shrimp & Scallops with
Fettuccine noodles and
Light Bertolli Alfredo Sauce
Garlic Bread

So bear with me friends and supporters, and I'm sorry if this isn't going to be the most thrilling words I write. I need to get back to me. I need to get back to those wonderful feelings of wanting to be out there with others and see and be seen!! I have crawled into a cave known as my home and barricaded the door with things like laundry, needing to make dinner, miscellaneous housework, and so much more. and in the process, I'm barricading myself against my friends and family that have supported me throughout everything and whose love and affection hasn't wavered even once!

Snow + Exercise?

Alright, I know my northern friends will think I'm full of it, but I don't care. I LOVE the snow!!! Dallas got 11.5 inches of this beautiful white stuff yesterday!! We got 6 inches here at the house. Here's our snowman we built:


Yep, he's about 7' tall, because we do things BIG in Texas, y'all! hehe

The kids and I got up this morning and went to work on just enjoying the snow. Seeing as how we so rarely get any in Texas, this is a REAL treat! And the great thing is, its that good sticky snow (perfect for snowmen and snowball fights). I did my fair share of running around, chasing the kids, and pelting them with snow...so I think I might have burned off at least SOME calories in the process, right?!

So today, I'm going to continue to eat right, and just enjoy the day. I might even get around to the treadmill later on. I'm thinking about just going outside and taking a long walk instead though, gotta see if anyone else built Texas snowmen. hehehe