It has been 0 Days Since My Last Pig Out

Yesterday, I didn't eat an afternoon snack which means I was ravenous when I got home. Instead of cooking up a nice healthy dinner, my stomach was making decisions and forced me to log on to Dominos.com and order a pizza. Sigh. Of course this morning I regret it!

But it just goes to show how important NOT getting too hungry is. When you're just mildly hungry, your brain can still make decisions. If you're super-duper hungry, then your stomach starts making decisions and it rarely, if ever, makes a decision you'll agree with later!

Today, I vow to eat some snacks so that when I get home, I'm not super hungry. Then, I can plan a rational dinner!

Well That's a Bad Sign

It's always a bad sign when a weight loss blogger stops blogging. You KNOW what is happening in their life? Right? Weight gain. I am no exception! I am officially back up to 173 after my weigh in on Monday. I'm trying to get back on track but it just seems so much harder than before. I don't know what it is.

It was never easy to hop out of bed at 4am and walk the dogs. But now...it's like there's a giant weight on my body keeping me in bed. I can't even get a toe up! Also, I feel like I'm hungry all.the.time. Like ravenously hungry. No, I'm not pregnant! Just a former fattie apparently trying to get fat again!

So if there is anyone out there...suggestions please! I need to mix it up! I need to get my mind back in gear.

Woah. Did that really happen?

I have a special treat for you today!!!

We were backing up an old computer a few weeks ago and we found these pictures of me... I can't believe it! I think I must have fat-amnesia because I seriously don't remember looking this big! Scroll down for pics of what I look like NOW.

-90lbs later

Brrrr!!!! The chill is freezing out my motivation!

It's cold here in the Northwest! Really, really cold! It's my fault, really. I saw "Frozen" at the theater last Sunday so the universe must have thought that I wanted it to be cold. Well, newsflash: I don't!!!

It's been in the low 20's this whole week. That makes it super hard to get motivated to exercise. Normally, I walk my dogs each morning, which is about the only exercise I can stand. When it's that cold, there isn't a thick enough coat in the world to get me out the door. That means I'm stuck with the treadmill in our house. Ugh. Sigh. Barf. Can we say, "Bored to death"?

I hate the treadmill. I hate staring at the wall because the only thing I can think about is how much I hate exercising. When I'm out walking my dogs, I'm busy thinking about the scenery. My neighbor just painted their house. Is that shrub new? Oh no, they lost their fence in the windstorm yesterday! But on the treadmill...it's white, white, white wall.

So let's hope it warms up quick!!!

On a more fun note, I've mixed up my breakfast routine and I love it. I was eating an egg white omelet with spinach and mushrooms. Now, I eat an egg white omelet with Italian Seasoning, cheese, and lightly salted fresh tomatoes. It's a tiny change but it's delicious! I've loving me new breakfasts! I get in an oil serving, a fruit serving, and a dairy serving. Score!!

Short-Term, Medium-Term, and Long-Term Motivations

I've been thinking a lot lately about short, medium, and long-term motivation. I think when people talk about their weight loss goals, they focus most of their energy thinking about long-term motivation: Be XXX weight, get off blood pressure meds, bead diabetes, wear a size XX, and so on. For some of us, accomplishing those goals are months, if not years, away.

But what about today? And tomorrow? Wouldn't it make more sense to focus on what's motivating me right now? One of my favorite Blogs, DeepExistence.com, had a great quote a few weeks back. I even wrote it on a post-it note and placed it on my moniter:

Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow.

This relates to almost every facet of life, but I'm going to focus on weight loss. So let's break it down:
What do I want tomorrow? To me, this means the long term goals described above. My long term goals are the usual--Fit into a size 6, be 144 lbs or less, etc.

So what am I doing to get me closer to those goals? This is where short term and medium term motivations come in. Each of these is designed to get me closer to where I want to be tomorrow.

My medium term goals are a few days or weeks away. For example, one goal is for me not to go crazy with my eating this weekend. My motivation is that my weigh-in day is Monday!

My short term goals are what I can do today. My goal today was to wake up early before work and take the dogs for a walk. My immediate motivation is that my dogs need exercise and drive me crazy when they don't get it. This action is immediately rewarding with tired dogs but it also gets me closer to where I want to be tomorrow...and where I want to be next year.

What are your short, medium, and long term goals?

And what are your motivations to accomplish them?

Clothes!

One of the very best things I love about having lost weight is being able to wear MUCH cuter clothes. I recently discovered a site called Stitch Fix and I am thrilled! You can read a more detailed review here.

If you're interested in joining Stitch Fix, please use my referral code by clicking here.

The maroon sweater and dark skinny jeans are both from Stitch Fix. The necklace and the cuff are from Wantable.com

I get a ton of compliments every time I wear this outfit. It's flattering and modern but also has a classic flair that is exactly my style. Wearing these kind of outfits makes me feel more confident...which has the great side-effect of helping me stay on track. If I feel good, and I look good, then I want to perpetuate that feeling!

I highly encourage anyone who is struggling to find at least one outfit that makes you feel smashing. I don't care what size you are, there will be an outfit you can piece together that makes you feel like a million bucks.  For me, the outfit pictured below is one of those! It's a lot easier to stay on plan and workout if you feel happy!

This picture was after my husband starting teasing me... This one is just for fun!

Don't forget to enter my first-ever giveaway by clicking here.

Stress Eating

It happens to the best of us. Stress sneaks in. Or, in my case, stress rides in on a giant brown stallion with a huge lance, chopping off the heads of the villagers. Wearing a kilt. The kind of stress where all you can really do is duck and cover and hope that it just passes through without really noticing you.

Just try not to duck and cover in the cookie jar.

Keeping my health goals on track is really hard when I'm experiencing stress. I'll stand with the fridge open as I search for cheese and bread that I never actually bought at the store. This is how I combat it. The whole "Keep control of your spaces" soapbox that all diet/lifestyle plans tout. If there aren't cheeses, cookies, and chips in my house then I can't eat them. Plain and simple.

Today work is a different story. Our cafe sells these giant sugar cookies with pink frosting. I can't stop thinking about them! Their sugary goodness would take the edge off just enough for me to sneak out of the scary village described above. But not for long. I'm pretty sure that's how the kilt-wearing stress monster finds me even faster. Because I tried to run! I envision that I'm running down the main street (which is a dirt street, by the way), eating my pink cookie. The stress monster sniffs the air. He, too, can smell the delightful pink sugar crumbs. And then he pounces on me. And not in the good way that my husband does. (Oops! TMI!)

Overall, I think it's better to not have the cookie. It would cause more stress because I'd more than likely beat myself up over it. As it turns out, you don't earn any activity points by beating yourself up so it's just not worth it.

Struggle

I've been struggling with this blog. Not because I'm struggling with my weight; that's just fine. I'm struggling with what to post because I had some crazy idea in my head that I could only post something if there was a picture to go along with it.

Where did that notion come from? I honestly don't know other than the fact that I, personally, like pictures!

I decided today to give anyone that finds this blog a little more credit. It's possible you might find some inspiration here regardless of an absence of pictures in every post! So here goes...

I hereby resolve to post more often, even if there is no picture!

Update on my weight loss journey: I had some set backs in December. A lot of parties and not a lot of self control. I'm still 2 lbs higher than my best weight so far. I know that I'll get those lbs off and I'll get right back on track to finally hitting my goal. I'm eating a nice, healthy lunch as I type this!

My Crazy Blisters! Caution: Gross pics inside. You've been warned

I posted yesterday about my crazy big blisters. I took pictures to send to my mom, who lives in another state. Then I thought, why not post them here? A lot of people love gross pictures!

I have one on EACH foot. Owie!

I'm not even squeezing on this one! I'm just showing my thumb for size comparison!

My mom recommended that I pick up some callus cushions to help ease the strain that's being put on this area of my heel.

I drove to the store and picked up Dr. Scholl's Round Callus Cushions in the largest size I could find! Luckily, I got the cushions just in time! If I'd waited much longer, they would have been too small!

I've only been wearing these for about an hour, but I do think they help soften the pressure on my blisters. The real test will be when I go for my jog in the morning. I'll be sure to give an update!

Blisters! AAAH!!!!

I have a giant blister on each my my heels! They are each the size of a small grape. Seriously. I thought about taking pictures for you, but didn't want anyone to lose their breakfast over it.

I took Sunday off jogging to give them a day's break. Didn't work. :\  My walk this morning was extremely painful! I don't think it's my new shoes because they really are very comfortable!

But what a bad way to start the day!

Dr. Scholl's Active Series Review

I received these Dr. Scholl's Active Series Insoles complimentary from Influenster.com for my opinion and review.

I really, really wanted to like these. I've been very consistent this past year about exercising daily. I am up to over 5 miles per day, which I'm rather proud of. My heels had begun to cause me pain so I was hoping these Dr. Scholl's Active Series Insoles would help alleviate that.

You're supposed to completely take out the insoles that come standard with your shoes and replace them with the Dr. Scholl's Active Series Insoles. Unfortunately, I threw my original insoles away.

The first walk I took in these, I thought they were just ok. They definitely didn't make me go "Wow! It's like I'm walking on clouds!"

After weeks of repeated use, my knees, shins, AND feet were all crying out in pain whenever I walked. At first, I just thought I was overdoing it. But then, I switched to some different running shoes. Pain gone. So the only thing I can imagine is that these Dr. Scholl's Active Series Insoles were causing the pain in my legs! I start using them--pain starts. I stop using them--pain stops almost immediately. I've been back in my other running shoes for a week now and my knees, shins, and feet are still doing well.

Therefore, I can not recommend that you buy these insoles. I just recommend a good pair of running shoes!

Set my official goal. Eep!

I've been avoiding setting my official Weight Watchers goal because I was afraid I would jix my weight loss! Well, two weeks ago, I decided to finally bite the bullet and just do it. I decided on 144. The top of my weight range is 146, so I figured with my 2 pound wiggle room, I'd always be a healthy weight. I'm currently 10.4 pounds away!

10.4 seems like A LOT.

It also seems like almost nothing after having lost over 85 of them.

So what am I changing to get those last 10 lbs off? Nothing! My routine has worked to get 85 lbs off, why would I change something that's working?

Ok--I'm lying a little. I am starting to lift weights. BUT that has nothing to do with trying to get the last 10 lbs off and everything to do with how I want, nay--NEED to tone my arms.

And now the internet knows about my plan! Here we go!!!!

Weight Watchers ActiveLink - My Little Digital Friend Part 1

I'll just say it: I'm madly in love with the ActiveLink. Don't worry; my husband knows about my emotional affair.

As I was writing this, it kept becoming longer and longer and longer. Therefore, I'm going to make this a multi-part post. I don't know how many parts because I'm going to write a post and publish almost right away. I'll stop each post once it starts feeling too long. :) I'll tag all of them with the label of "ActiveLink" so you can find them all easily.

I purchased the ActiveLink the second it was available in my city. November 11, 2012. Yes, I remember the exact date. I pre-ordered and was counting down the minutes until it would arrive. It's been my constant companion ever since. I plan on taking it to a nice dinner on our one-year anniversary. ;)

For those of you that don't know, the ActiveLink is a little device that you clip to your bra, belt, or pocket. It tracks all of your movement throughout the day. Then, you plug it into your USB port on your computer and it converts all your movement into activity points. But...it's so much more than that.

It's inspirational. It's motivation. It's encouraging. Everything you'd want in a friend! Sometimes, if I'm tired and groggy, it even laughs at my jokes.

Before ActiveLink, I was clocking 1-2 ActivityPoints per week. I thought I was hot stuff. My dogs didn't. Fast forward 10 months. I'm earning upwards of 60 AP's per week!!! WHAT?! I know! In less than a year, I went from 2 to 60 AP's a week! That is just how amazing the AL really is.

Here's how it works: Once you purchase and activate the device, you wear it for one week. This is called your assessment period. It is determining your current level of activity. Simply wear the device each day, morning to night, and follow your normal routine. There is no need to reduce or increase your regular activity during the assessment period.

After the assessment period is complete, it assigns a challenge. For me, I wasn't even hitting the minimum required baseline of activity per day. Therefore, my challenge was to earn just 4 AP's by the end of the 12 week period. That means, the first week or two, my goal was to simply reach my baseline! While I wasn't earning AP's those weeks, I was still slowing increasing my activity. My challenge 1 was many months ago, but here is a screen shot of the results:

See that little grey line? See you it jumps weeks 4, 8, and 10? It did that because I was an overachiever. Can't fool this device! It knew I was doing much more than what it originally assigned me, so it readjusted my goal to be higher. This readjustment also works the opposite direction!

Ok--that's going to be it for this post. I'll write more in a day or so. :) Please let me know if you have any specific questions about activity in general or the ActiveLink.

Spinning my wheels

Lately, I feel like I've just been spinning my wheels. I've lost just 2 pounds since the first week of June. I guess my consolation is that this is practice for when I start maintenance!

In order to try and get out of my funk, I decided to officially declare my weight goal at my meeting yesterday. My weight range us 117-146 lbs. I decided to pick 144 as that will keep me in the healthy weight range, even if I gain a pound or two. My "real" goal is 135 but I just really, really want to make lifetime! Free membership, hello! How can I not want that?

My husband is also pretty close to his goal. We both have promised to focus much harder for a few more weeks, get to goal, and then stay at goal!

I want to do a review of the ActiveLink but it's a daunting task. :) I have the post being written by my sub-conscience, so stay tuned!

Here I am enjoying lunch on the water last weekend in the beautiful and wonderful Pacific NW!

Oh, and I have no idea how many PointsPlus I ate at this lunch because I was a bad girl and did not track!

Full Circle Produce Delivery

My husband and I have been getting into eating more locally grown organic foods. We discovered a company called Full Circle that delivers just that right to your front door! This is the second box I've received and I must say, I'm impressed.

The food is tasty and fresh. Plus, getting unique things pushes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to try new recipes!

Here's the packing slip of everything I got. I like how they show you exactly where everything comes from. Sorry about the shadows in the pictures. It was 5:30 am so there wasn't any sun to help with the lighting!

mmmmm....fresh mushrooms. These babies are going in a new quinoa recipe I found!

Beautiful leeks! I've never cooked with leeks before so I'm going to have to search for a recipe!!

This is my favorite of the box. These just looked so fresh and delicious. I'm going to saute them up for dinner!

So the other day, someone posted a full body shot of me on Facebook...and I didn't hate it! I think it's taking my mind a lot longer than expected to catch up with my body. Here's the picture that was on Facebook. Pictured with me is my furbaby, Lena. She's a rescue that is super shy. I've been working to teach her that the world is *not* scary! It's fun!

My Routine

If someone told me a year ago that I'd be getting up at 4am to exercise, I would have thought they were either crazy or had me confused with some sort of fitness freak.

It didn't start out like that. I used to get up at 6am, barely in time to be at work by 7. Then, in November 2012, Weight Watchers launched the ActiveLink device. I plan to do a full review on that later. In short, it seriously motivated me to increase my activity.

I started my simply getting up 5 minutes earlier and walking 5 minutes on my treadmill. That's it. Just 5 minutes. Which became 10, then 15, and so on.

As soon as I hit 20-25 minutes, I figured I may as well take one of the dogs out for a walk instead of walking on the treadmill. All three were overcome with joy.

Bandit, showing his joy.

Nowadays, I try and go at least three miles. I use the RunKeeper app on my phone to keep track of distance, pace, and time. This is a great app. If you do outside walking or running, I highly recommend looking in to it. Here's an actual screenshot of the walks RunKeeper has tracked for me.

When I get home from my walk around 5:30am, I take a quick shower, get dressed, and make breakfast. I've been having an egg white omelet with mushrooms, spinach, cheese, and salsa. Yummers!

Then I'm off to work! Where I sit on my butt all day.:( I try and get up to talk to people and move around which makes my ActiveLink very happy. :)

Introduction

My name is Anne and I used to be morbidly obese. I was always a little chunky growing up but my weight really ballooned when I went to college in 2002. I joined Weight Watchers and dropped about 40 lbs.

Then, life caught up with me again and I gained it back. I met my husband in May 2005. We started dieting together and I lost 50 lbs. I was able to keep it off until after our wedding.

 When we got back from our honeymoon, I was unable to get back on track. I kept gaining weight. I had a few false starts with Weight Watchers, but I finally got it together in December 2011 and joined the day before Christmas!

 Highest weight: 240 lbs In January 2012. I had just joined Weight Watchers again--this time, more committed than ever.

 Here I am today, 83 lbs lighter. I still have 20-30 lbs to go. In this picture, I'm 157 which is still too much for my 5'4" frame.

I wish I had started this blog in December 2011 when I first started Weight Watchers, but at the time, I was way too embarrassed to have my fat pictures readily available on the internet. I figured that there is no time like the present to start a weight loss blog! So, I'm going to blog about my last 20-30 lbs and then this will carry me into a lifetime of maintenance.

I hope that you'll join me for support, inspiration, and I'm sure--a few slip-ups!