Checking In!

Hi everyone! I'm checking in again!

I have finally broken through my weight loss plateau! I couldn't be happier! A couple of weeks ago, I spent the weekend researching how to break through a plateau and the only thing that I could come up with that I wasn't already doing is calorie cycling. So I checked out a calorie cycling calculator and made out a three week plan to try.

Well, it just so happens that on the Monday I was to start my calorie cycling, I woke up in the middle of the night coughing, fever, and body aches. Ugh! I went to the doctor tested positive for Influenza A. (Side note: the way they test for that is by sticking a cotton swab up your nose. Like WAY WAY WAY up your nose! It was awful! I may have been upset if I hadn't tested positive for the flu and they stuck that thing way up my nose for no reason!) So, I was out of commission for a few days, but still went ahead with the calorie cycling (CC) anyway. The first week, I lost 3.2lbs. That is HUGE for me! I wasn't sure if it was from the CC or from the flu, but I was happy to have reached a new low weight!

I continued the CC for the next week, seeing what would happen. I was sure that the weight loss was just a FLUke (haha! Get it? Flu-ke! Like, the flu! Okay, I'm done!) But I weighed in this morning at 181.4 which gave me a 2.8lb loss for the second week of CC! I'm so stoked!

I have 3 different cycles I'm using. After this week, I'll go back to the first one again. I hope I continue to lose!

There is a 60lb difference in these two!

The Story of the Vanilla Ice Cream Cone

Before I started losing weight, I ate ice cream often. However, I never ate plain vanilla ice cream. Why? Because I was super obese and a sugar addict. It's like an alcoholic only having one drink. Vanilla ice cream didn't satisfy me. I had to have chocolate syrup, M & M's, cookies, etc smashed up into it. I didn't even like the ice cream of a Blizzard to be vanilla, I preferred chocolate.

The other day, Paul, Elliott, and I were at a local restaurant and I had a coupon for a free vanilla ice cream cone. I thought I would get one and share it with Elliott. And let me tell you. It was the BEST ice cream cone I'd ever had! Now that I'm not constantly eating to maintain an average blood sugar of 800, I can enjoy a "plain" vanilla ice cream cone. It really opened my eyes that I am really changing.

Get Fit Week 1 Weigh In

Weigh in for week 1 for the Get Fit Challenge

Wow! A 6.6lb loss! I have this horrible cold to thank for it! I can't smell or taste anything, so I have a diminished appetite. Also, no holidays to put loads of food in front of me!

This also means that I am officially down 50lbs! In fact, 51lbs! I am so happy to have finally hit that milestone! 9lbs until ONEderland!

I have a very ambitious goal of getting to ONEderland by May 2nd. We will see...

Hope everyone else did well this week as well!

Tornado Alley

OMG! What an exhausting 24 hours! I woke up Saturday feeling horrible so I decided not to run. Then I also decided not to go to yoga, or the birthday party because Elliott seemed sick too.

We had been having a forecast with some bad, possibly tornado producing, storms. I wasn't sure about the concert. I asked Paul what he thought. He looked at the radar and said to go, it looked like the storm was going to go north of us.

So, against my better judgment, I left at 6pm to go to the concert. The sky did not look good. I got inside and I was the first to arrive. Kara, Michele, and Tim got there about 7pm. Kim and Kevin got there as the first act got on at 730ish, but still no Kate and Byron. They arrived at about 830pm. They said that there were 2 tornadoes in their town so it wasn't safe to risk leaving. We enjoyed the second act, then Miranda Lambert came on. I did not have any cell service in the arena, so I was unable to contact Paul. Kara had service, and her boyfriend was texting her that it was getting pretty bad. He then told us that we were officially in a tornado warning and we were told to take shelter.
I was going to go to up to the top to see if I could get reception to call Paul out there, but as soon as I got out on the concourse, I was rushed by security and told to get back in. Then they had the act get off the stage and told everyone to remain in their seats and calm. When I got back to my seat, I sat down and started to cry. I was so upset, I had the sound knocked out of my cry. I almost, couldn't breath! I tried to use Kara's phone to call Paul, and he answered, but couldn't hear me due to my sick voice, the loud arena, bad reception. I had been trying to text to ask if they were safe. I got a delayed text from him that said a huge tornado was supposed to hit at 10:20pm. All the while, these two stupid drunk girls behind us we saying "I don't know why everyone is freaking out! We are probably in the safest place in town!" I wasn't worried about my safety. It was my family that I was worried about. At around 10:45pm the arena said that the storm had passed and Miranda was going to come back out. I myself, got out of there. I got a hold of Paul and he and Elliott were safe, but we had lost power. A tornado destroyed an area about a mile away from us. When I got home, we went over to Paul's brother's house with our dogs and slept with them in the basement. There apparently was 97 tornadoes spotted last night. Our average per year is 57! Luckily, we had no loss of life in the state!

I slept like crap. I slept on the floor, with 5 less pillows than I'm used to, and Elliott would not go to sleep. I think I got about 2 hours of sleep.

This morning my niece made us breakfast. She is working on a girl scout patch and one of the requirements is to make a big weekend breakfast. I had some potatoes, eggs, a small piece of sausage, and 1 piece of bacon. We had a small disaster while cooking. Jennifer started heating up a sauce pan to cook sausage in because she only had one skillet. I guess she has never cooked sausage before and she put oil in the hot pan and it immediately caught fire! Flames shot up into the air and she was going to pour water on it! I said "NO! Cover it!" and we smothered it.

We got home today about 3pm and we had power! We all took a long nap! Now I'm nursing this cold and hoping to feel better tomorrow.

Kim and I at the concert before the craziness

Sick

I'm supposed to have a really busy day today. Running, yoga, birthday party, and concert. But. I'm super sick! I hate this. No running or yoga for me today :( and most likely no birthday party :(. I am, however, going to the concert because I paid $50 for the ticket and I'm not letting that go to waste!

Like everyone does, I hate to be sick! It has, however, made eating the right things much easier!

I'm expecting a great loss this week! I'm pretty sure I will be at 50lbs lost! I'm so freaking excited for that milestone!

Not feeling too hot today...

So at my weigh in on Wednesday, I weighed 224.8 for a loss of 1.4 pounds! I was able to cross off a goal on my list! My next goal weight is 219, which was my highest weight ever after my wedding.

Stephanie and I ran with the S2F group on Wednesday night. Our longest running interval was 5 minutes. It wasn't bad. I feel like I'm trucking right along! We got our certificates for our 5 free yoga classes and they had a yoga clinic after the run. I'm kind of excited about the yoga classes! I had a cross training scheduled for yesterday and I had planned on getting up and going to the Y at 5am, but when my alarm went off, I was way too tired. Then my stomach started hurting really bad at work, so I didn't go at lunch or after work either. I'm trying not to feel guilty about it because I need to listen to my body. I'm still not feeling well today. I left work at lunch time to come home and rest.

Tonight Elliott and I are going to see Disney Princesses Live with my SIL and niece. I hope I feel better by then. I'm going to go either way, because it was $50 for the tickets!

We have another S2F group run tomorrow morning. I REALLY hope I feel better by then, because I do NOT want to miss any of my runs.

The other day a lady thought I was pregnant. It kind of upset me, because I have been feeling really great because I'm losing consistently and then someone has to go and think I'm pregnant! Ah! She was talking to Elliott and I, and told me about her daughter being pregnant and she said that she was due March 20th. I told her that Elle's birthday was the 17th and she asked how old she was going to be, and I told her she was going to be 2. Then she said "And you're having another baby..?" and I said "Nope." But in my head I was thinking "Actually, I've recently lost 35lbs. Thanks for taking me back down a notch!" It made me realize that I have come a long way, but I still have a LONG way to go! By this time next year, no one will think I'm pregnant ever again!!!!!