Friday thanks!

Thanks to everyone for such awesome comments on my post yesterday regarding my new financial situation. I got chills from reading the comments I was so moved!

I never thought blogging would end up being such a source of support for me. Most of us go into think no one will ever read it and then it becomes something we can't live without! Now that I won't be able to go to my WW meetings for a while I need as much support as I can get.

I've decided to approach my budgeting like Weight Watchers. Saving "points" for special things and not wasting money on crap. After I called my accountant and figured out what the difference in take home pay was it didn't seem so bad. Basically we're back to when my husband first moved here and was working part time. Our mortgage payment was higher back then so we can do this again! I'm going to try to do some freelance work and some serious budgeting and we should be fine. I'm trying to look at it as a challenge!

I'm also happy to report that while I've had a few "bad" things during this emotional roller coaster ride, I haven't sought comfort in food nearly as much and the scale is still moving down. I'm working it in to my daily points but next week I need to add some more veggies. Hopefully after all this rain MY vegetables will start to pop up!

Surprisingly, I'm feeling great. I'm happy to be at work and I'm happy everyone else is at work too. The sun is shining, my gym bag is packed for tonight and it's going to be a good weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

I make less money now than when I woke up...

I knew it was coming sooner or later. Luckily I'm still employed but found out I'm getting a whopper of a pay cut.

I went out after my meeting and came back to find this on my computer screen

Sorry for the crap picture but these were some cute name tags my co-worker got from a Post Office promotion. It makes me feel so much better knowing that we are all staying employed even if it means making a big sacrifice.

I'm going to have to cut back on expenses A LOT. Probably having to give up my WW meetings but still do it online. I'll probably cancel satellite radio and Netflix and any other luxury items I can think of to cut. Joy. I'm so thankful I don't have kids right now because we would be in serious trouble. I feel for all the people out there that are going through this and have families to support.

Enough with the buzz kill. Onward and downward...on a budget.

How much did she lose this week?

Why it was this lovely laptop.
-2.6 pounds!

I'm thrilled about it considering my boredom binge. This just proves to me that this getting right back on track thing works and I haven't been able to do that well until Weight Watchers. The accountability to them and to y'all has really helped too!

I'm going to the pub tonight AFTER my water aerobics class to watch Scotland play and I hate that this place doesn't have their menu online. I like to be prepared these days! Oh well at least I'm going to my class first. Normally I would have skipped my class to allow more time at the pub but I'm committed to this exercise thing. I'll just go straight there with wet hair :)

I love the Jillian Michaels podcasts! I listened to almost a full one on my hour drive home last night. So much less frustrating than the news or the stupid satellite radio stations that play the same song over and over. She is very easy to listen to and she has a lot of great advice. It also gave me something to think about other than my ever growing road rage.

Last thing is Jen from Prior Fat Girl is giving away Pop Chips. These things are amazing if you haven't tried them. Trader Joes has their own brand but this brand has more varieties of flavors. I would love to win these!

I can totally do this

I'm pleased to report I had a butt kicking water aerobics class last night and I still got up and did some elliptical at 6am. Sure, it was only 15 minutes but I plan on increasing that every day as I get used to getting out of bed early.

I've been fooling myself thinking 2 or 3 days of exercise is enough and it needs to be double that. Back when I lost 100 pounds I was working out 6 days a week. While Weight Watchers is working really well for me I need and WANT to average 2 pounds a week instead of 1.

I plan on going to my water aerobics class Monday and Wednesdays after work. All other days will be up early doing BL Yoga, Elliptical or other various DVDs. Maybe even an extended dog walk in the morning with the husband. Saturdays will be a long walk with the dogs or a trip to the gym if the weather is bad and Sundays will be my day off. I'm going to make a chart of my schedule and tape it to my alarm clock :)

I'm trying to take advantage of all the help that's available to me. I've been reading the material Weight Watchers gives me and more than once so it really sinks in! I've also just downloaded a ton of Jillian podcasts to listen to in the car on my hour-each-way drive. These things are there to help me and it's time I used them to help motivate me and educate me.

If anyone has any more Podcast suggestions I'll take 'em. :)

Boredom Binge

Blogging has made me so much more aware of my feelings about food and why I have a problem controlling my eating. I don't consider myself a true binge eater because I don't consume mass quantities of things when I binge. Just lots of variety!

I was bored bored bored this weekend. The weather was awful and I was super lazy which led to a comatose grocery shopping trip and way too much bad food. I ate so much crap that I ruined my sleep in Sunday morning with horrible stomach pains. Just because I was bored and lazy.

This is getting serious. I have NEVER been lazy. I normally love to clean and do house projects all weekend not to mention all the other weekend type things like long walks and meeting friends in the pub.

I've gone through a list of reasons why I feel this way so I'm putting them all down here so maybe I can address them one by one. Some things I can control and some things I can't (like the weather)

a. weather has been awful every weekend and I tend to get depressed from lack of sun.
b. the bout of flu I had
c. I'm on meds for anxiety/depression that may need to be changed. Do they stop working after a few years I wonder?
d. lack of exercise
e. too much sleep (I have no kids) :)
f. I work a lot of hours and I'm getting older
g. all of the above

That's an overwhelming list to me and I'm not sure where to start. I know I feel best when I'm exercising so I'm committing to that this week. Pool tonight then up early tomorrow morning for BL Yoga. (that counts for 2 since it's exercise and sleeping less). I'm also making extra effort to be happy today and am going to sit in the sun for lunch today! I also need to go get a physical so I will put that on my list of calls to make today. Ugh. Scale at the doctors. I've been avoiding you.

See? I already developed a plan just by writing it down. Another thing my mom was right about.

All I can do about my binge is get right back on track and try to undo any damage done with eating clean and exercising this week. There was no way I was going to face the scales this morning. I will wait until my weigh in at the WW meeting on Wednesday.

Have a great week everyone!!

Friday!

Thank you all for your advice yesterday about the husbands plateau. I looked up some things for him on Spark People and sent him a link to some manly workouts on FitTV which we have On Demand. That should be a good start for him. I think we will eventually share a trainer once I'm not afraid to spend money anymore! I'm super busy at work so that's a good sign.

Today started with a chicken biscuit which is not good but I logged the points and will eat a light lunch. I'm still starving after my flu but I'm trying to keep it under control. Especially with the weekend coming up.

If it ever stops raining we are going to walk to Decatur and back (5 miles round trip) to get our morning coffee on Sunday. Other than that I have no major plans for the weekend which will be nice to recover from my Chicago trip last week. My gym bag is packed for tonight and even though the pool will probably be closed due to weather, I'm going to try to force myself to go. Not sure why but it's extra hard on Friday nights.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pushing past the plateau for men?

My poor husband is about to enter onederland but he's stuck at 203 and can't seem to get past it. I asked him this morning how long it's been and he said about 10 days. I can usually mess around with his calories a little and break him through but this time it's not working.

I think it's time for him to start lifting weights and I think it would be best for his schedule to do some free weights at home at least to start. He has access to the machines at the gym but has trouble changing it up because he doesn't know enough about it.

Anyone have any ideas on setting up a routine for him at home? I haven't done any research yet but I thought I'd put it out there for the asking. Maybe even something we could do together! I thought about exploring some DVD's or FitTV or something like that. We have free weights and a ball. I might try to get him to do BL Yoga but the poor thing is not at all flexible.

Boys are still a mystery to me. I never had any brothers so I'm kind of hopeless when it comes to knowing anything about them :)

How much did she lose this week?

It was an expected GAIN. + 1.6 pounds. This is after my huge loss last week due to the flu. I think anything I ate was going to put a little of that back on after not eating for 3 days. My co-worker found this image of a 1.6 pound beach blanket and wrote "Dirty Justin Memorabilia" on it. It's a long story. It is however representative of something I hate.

I'm still averaging 2 pounds a week and I'm so happy with that. Weight Watchers is the best. My next goal is to hit the 10lb. mark which should happen in the next week or two if I behave myself. I've been afraid of exercise lately and now that I'm feeling better, I keep making excuses and talking myself out of it. I keep thinking it's leftover tired from the flu but now it's just plain laziness.

I'm diving back in to the pool tonight after 3 weeks off. I hope I remember how to swim:)

I didn't think feeling better would be a bad thing!

I want to eat everything now that I feel like eating again! For some reason my usual, healthy favorites aren't filling me up. Must have been all the bagels I ate while I was sick to settle my stomach. Damn those white carbs! I also ate so many chocolate covered caramels that I made myself feel sick again. I'm doing so well so why do I sabotage myself?

Today is a new day and even though it's probably too late to salvage my weigh in tomorrow, I have good food packed for today and I'm ready to get back on track. I'm walking the dogs tonight and will go back to my water aerobics class tomorrow night. Hopefully that will get me going on the exercise again after my lovely flu.

Off to drink my water and get some work done for a change! :)

Back to earth

I can't believe it but it actually feels good to be back to the routine today!

My trip was amazing and Oprah was better than I ever imagined. Michael J Fox and Dr. Oz were the guests so we got really lucky. It airs on the 31st of March and I highly recommend it! Oprah is everything you would imagine. Gorgeous, nice, larger than life. It feels good to have accomplished something I've wanted to do most of my life!

I finally feel well enough to stop eating white carbs and I have no other trips planned until April. The weather is gorgeous so I plan on a solid week of eating well and exercising to keep myself on track. I really didn't overdo it in Chicago but I know I will gain some since my last weigh in was post-flu.

Just the small bit I've lost so far has helped me so much. I felt more comfortable on the plane (even in the middle seat on the way back) and I feel more flexible and energetic. I walked around the city in boots with heels in the jeans that were uncomfortably tight on my birthday but are now a little too loose. Also, my sweet husband has hit the 15 pound mark and we're using this momentum to keep going and to kick the exercise up a little more.

Have a great week everyone!!!