Hello? Anyone out there?

I kind of doubt it, and don't blame you. It's been 3 months since my last post, crazy!

I'm hanging in there and despite not being an active participant in WW, have gotten below my goal weight! Still not as toned as I would like to be, but I have all kinds of time to work on that as long as I can continue with a more healthy lifestyle to stay at the same weight.

I've been walking a lot more lately and I've actually worn a hole in the "air pod" in one of my Reebok Easytones, and the other foot is probably not behind. Everytime I take a step there is a "whoosh" sound. I find this development pretty annoying, considering the price and only having had them 3.5 mo. I guess it won't hurt to check for some sort of warranty, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

A new pedometer based competition at work has made me "step up" my game- har har. Luckily the weather has been gorgeous the last couple of weeks so I have been taking my entire lunch break to walk about 3.5 to 4 miles! Now I'm thinking that the only way to increase my steps any more is to jog....I am NOT a jogger (I refuse to call what I do running b/c it's so slow) but I can't add time to my day, so I'll just have to try and get more steps in in the same amount of time that I have now. So.... I started my first day of Couch to 5k today! I'm not sure I will finish out the program, but I would at least like be able to a jog/walk combo on my breaks to increase the distance to 5ish miles.

So, with this new jogging routine, I was thinking about buying new shoes anyway, since the Easytones are designed more for walking. Still sucks that they didn't last longer though!

Looks like another beautiful week ahead, so wish me luck in my endeavors! I'll make it a point to keep up with my C25K progress on here, so at least that will guarantee frequent posts for the next several weeks (assuming I continue with it that long!)

Hoping there is some truth in advertising!

This week I was finally able to start using one of my Christmas presents! Who has seen the Reebok commercial with the woman that has the toned legs and butt that I could only DREAM of having? Well, I saw it back in November, and since I couldn't get them for my birthday present I decided to see if I could add some EasyTones to the old Christmas list. If you haven't heard of them at all, here is a description from one of the shoe websites:

"The Reebok EasyTone Reeinspire is designed to help give definition to your legs and butt. Simply walk and let the balance pods under your shoe do the rest. The slight instability created by the pods feels similar to walking on sand and forces your muscles to work a little harder, toning you up as you strut your stuff. The EasyTone™ technology improves muscle tone in the hamstrings, calves and glutes up to 28% – not bad considering all you have to do is walk around as usual."

I figured this would be a good option for me in the quest to tone up, since my main source of exercise other than weight machines is walking. After 3 walks I obviously can't say they are "working", but they did make my knee feel better after I literally thought I had fractured my knee cap on Sunday! So why not try to get a little extra oomph out of something I am already doing, especially when I can get momma to pick up the bill :)

As far as keeping up with my weight-loss, yet again, all I can say is that my pants still fit! I also ordered 2 new dresses online in a SINGLE DIGIT SIZE and they fit too! whoa- didn't know that was possible after being in the doubles for....forever. That is another reason I need to step up the toning effort in my legs especially. These dresses, while not indecent or anything, are way WAY shorter than I have worn for years. Luckily I have a couple more years until I am OVER 30 (you're not over 30 until you are 31, right? :p) so I figure I need to take advantage of still being "allowed" to wear short things according to 'the rules'.

I've also finally gone through my Cooking Light magazines from the last year and compiled a bunch of recipes that I hope to start trying out. We need some variety in our meals, and they need to be healthy, so if I try some that we really like I'll definitely share! It's a little disappointing to see that they can't make all their yummy desserts good for me though :-p

Fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at lunch!

(name that TV show :-p)

I'll get to the fashion show in a minute, but first I want to do an update of sorts. I ate lots, exercised little, and have no idea how much I currently weigh due to the lack of a scale- but... My pants still seem to fit, so I'll call the Holidays a success (well there is still one more to go though isn't there...)

Today I went to the mall to spend a gift card and went in not really knowing what I wanted (possibly perfume, dinnerware to match my new holiday settings, or maybe a few accessories like belts etc), but I got sucked in by the clothes and never looked back!

Which brings me to the fashion show. Since I was running out of time, I didn't see the complete outfit all put together, so I went to the bathroom at work and tried them on again to get an idea. Then I realized that I said I would put some real pictures on the blog, so I took a couple of (blurry, sorry) photos!

So even though I spent 3X what the GC was actually for, I am happy with the results! I did get one other little shrug type cardigan that isn't pictured here, and I'll probably have to buy a little belt to go with it- It's cute, hopefully my vision will pan out!

So without further ado- some "real" after pics!

I have a sickness

I am not trying to be cute or exaggerating when I say I honestly think I have some mental illness when it comes to sugar/dessert. It probably has always been like that, but I am noticing it more lately with the holidays and trying to maintain this weight loss. If I am around dessert I CAN NOT STOP EATING. I swear, it is like some obsessive compulsive order- I don't lock and unlock the door five times, but I have to have just one more bite, one more cookie, one more lick. It is maddening.

Finally on Friday when I was making cookies and I had already licked myself sick on icing, I put some gum in my mouth as was suggested a while ago. It worked for a while, but eventually, I got an especially delicious glob of white chocolate on my finger and took that gum right out of my mouth, licked it off, and stuck the gum right back in. (disclaimer- I do wash my hands, etc after these tastes, so don't think you are getting all my germs if you are so lucky to receive baked goods this year!)

And just now, I innocently went past the break room and happened to peek in to see a Christmas tin sitting out. Some delicious chocolate cookies and caramel bark were in it. So I take one cookie and one piece of bark and walk out. But shoot, I forgot that I will need my water now that I was eating something, so I went back into the fridge to get my water and had to get another cookie. A physical need for another cookie. It's a sickness, I know it is, and it is making me even more desperate b.c I don't want to undo all the positive steps since May. I'm enjoying the season, but I am ready for Christmas and New Years to just be over already b/c it's just so hard :(

Not sure what I am looking for with this post, but there is the whole ugly truth!

Confessions and What I See

Confession time first.

I have been miserable at keeping track of my eating this week! I don't think I have written anything down since Tuesday at lunch. I could probably try and go back to fill it in, but I don't even remember what I wore yesterday, much less every little thing I ate 3 days ago! Oh well. I haven't been horrible though, I do know that (that comes in two days when I have multiple parties to go to over the weekend!)

Another confession- Even though I have been able to make it to the gym several times a week lately, I am still not working on one of my major trouble spots; the post-beingoverweightfor20yearsandhavingababy-belly pouch. Now I am not delusional enough to think that I will ever ever ever have a flat stomach (until I save up enough $$ for a tummy tuck of course, so...never) but I feel like it HAS to get better than this right? But what am I doing about it? Mostly just letting myself get down over my ruined body and watching TV instead of getting on the floor and doing some crunches.

This brings me to the other topic for the post. What I see when I look in the mirror.

Apparently other people (coworkers) see someone who is about to "blow away" b/c they are so skinny and are telling me I need to stop losing weight b/c I'm too small. Granted, I've lost weight and have some thin areas, but what I see is the aforementioned belly pouch and jiggly cellulite- infused thighs. It's not like I want to settle with what I have and stop working at being healthy, but why can't I also be more satisfied with the results so far and not beat myself up that I'm still just a big old mess! Ugh- body image can be a pretty ugly thing sometimes!

Weekend Roundup

I think I need to go all the way back to Thursday, so here goes;
Thur: 24 pts
Fri: 27 pts
Sat: 29 ish pts (1 activity pt gained)
Sun: 27 ish pts

From Friday on, things got a little hazy. During the week, I can sit at my desk and basically plan out the whole day's points. On the weekend, I may not know what I am going to eat when, and generally just don't bother to write things down. Also, I made cookies on Saturday and Michael made a big breakfast of fried potatoes, bacon and eggs on Sunday- so that increased my total. I will say that I am 99.9% positive that I did not use all my extra points for the week, so overall I would call it a success.

I am going to try to stick to my points for one more week, and then for the rest of the Holiday season I'll just try my best to make smart choices on types and portions of food!

New Pic

I just put a new pic up over in the side bar. It's pretty bad since I took it myself with the timer and no really good surface to put the camera on! Oh well, maybe one of these days I'll do a full picture with some of my new clothes on!
Oh and today's total was 23 pts and 1 activity pt gained!