On a brighter note

First of all:

32 pounds down!     :)

Hubby took the boys to the playground while I was at work Friday. I got to see all of these awesome pictures plus more.  :)   My boys are getting soooo big!  EKKK!  I just ran across a video of A. at about 3 next to B. at about 6 months and he is singing his ABC's.  Soooo cute! I would link it but it has B's name and I am not ready to share those details yet.

The month is almost gone

Well there went July pretty much. It happens every year though. With so many family/friend birthdays this month it always flies by to me.

I have been under tremendous personal stress for the past week and a half. My eating has been on plan but I have said goodbye to my 5k steps a day goal. (I made it through half the month which is more than I thought I would to be honest) It was either emotionally eat to soothe myself or stop the steps. I chose to stop the steps. I am not even sure where my fitbit is to be honest. :X

This personal conflict is not solved but it has been beaten into submission for now. I am trying to make the best of the situation and just grinning and bearing it. I am however working on back up plans so that when this problem arises again I can leap and pray the net appears. I am not giving to much info because this is a public blog. If your really curious your welcome to email me. While they rarely read this blog a particular person has a link to my blog and I am not ready for them to know of my plan yet.

Chapter 2

I thought briefly about taking tonight off of the treadmill walking.

But then I realized I hadn't hit 5k steps anyway so I needed to. Of course silly me forgot to put the fitbit on when I changed till .5 of a mile in. Whoops!  About 90% of chapter 2 listened to in 30 minutes while dinner was in the oven. I didn't finish the whole thing because I looked ahead and Ch. 3 is only 25 minutes so I wanted to at least pad it till 30 for my next walk.

1.50 yesterday 35 min
1.25 today  30 min
I wonder how many miles I can get (rounded) out of this book. LOL

It was really nice to be looking forward to my treadmill time for a change. Most of the time it feels like a chore but today it was enjoyable.

My secret weapon for movement

I know I need more movement in my life.

As you know I have started working on that with my own personal challenge of walking a minimum of 5000+ steps a day in July. Yesterday I failed at that. :(  Monthly time and I was still stewing over something that had happened prior this week. Rather than stuff my face due to the emotional combo of the two I let myself have the day off. Complete. mental. health. day. It was faboo!

This evening I pulled out a pair of workout pants and slipped my sneakers on planning on walking (drives hubby batty that I do not tie and untie) as my steps were low today from mental health day carry over. Whoops!

I also tested my new weapon with new ammo.  pew, pew (Yes- I am the mother of two small boys lol)

I have found a secret weapon to get myself on the treadmill. I used it Wednesday night with some trial ammo. Tonight I brought out the heavier ammo and it worked perfectly. Would you like to know what it is? Audio books. Simple huh? LOL  I love to read! I found a book that I would like to read on Amazon that had the whispersync to voice option. $1.99 for the book and $2.99 for the professionally read narration from audible.com. I found in my researching that it was cheaper to go that way than buy the book straight from audible. The same audio book straight from them was almost $16.00. I listened to the first chapter while on the treadmill. 1.5 miles later I was done as was dinner from the oven. :) For $5 I have over eleven hours of motivation. The rule is I can only listen if I am exercising.

Only down .2 this morning. No complaints though as it is still down.

How old are you now?

My itty bitty booger turned 8 years old today.  sniff, sniff

Oh and I turned umm (does math) 36? Hmm I thought I was already 36 but the math doesn't lie. Yes, I seriously do not know/pay attention to my age. It may seem weird but it just isn't something on my radar. Wow, that means my brother is going to be 42 soon. (In a week to be exact)

Today is basically a lounge around the house day. Friday night was all about me and Saturday was about him.

• Friday night hubby stayed in with the boys and I was taken out by my brother for sushi. Yum! There might have been some sugar free self serve frozen yogurt involved as well. (Cheesecake flavor and sliced almonds)
• Saturday as you know we went to one of the many springs near us. We are in Central Florida and there are tons of them around here but I had never been to any of them. The closest I had been was the KP hole at Rainbow River which is a awesome four hour tube ride down a lazy river. However that isn't small child friendly. 

We went with a online friend of mine and her family. Her and I met on an old AOL July 2005 message board. Her family moved here like 5 years ago for her husband's job. It took us like 2 years to meet because we are lazy. LOL  We finally met and get along quite well which is nice. Her girls and my boys really enjoyed hanging out. The water is seventy two degrees year round. Buuurrrr!!  We ended up leaving just after 4 pm when the dark clouds started rolling in. Perfect timing to get out of the water as the rain started when we were all loaded and in the car. We came home to shower then met my brother/lil sister/ and her hubby in town for dinner.

Then I spent the evening looking through old family photo albums that my stepfather scanned onto CD for us many years ago. The boys had killed my copy so I requested my brother make me one of his and he did. Well really my sister's hubby did- two copies. One for me and one for me to send the aunt I visited last month. There are pictures on there of her and my uncle that I never would have know were them but for meeting them.

Hubby/the boys/ my inlaws went above and beyond and gifted me with a GC to a local day spa. Yeah! I have always wanted one of those. My sister drew me a picture of a swan. My mommy sent a check (thanks mommy!) my brother got me a swan shirt. Pleasantly surprised as usually my mom and inlaws are the only ones to remember my birthday.  Everyone else forgets that A and I share a b-day. LOL

A few pictures for you:

My three boys! Love them

I don't know why the face is a little blurry in the picture. Maybe how I was holding it.

Whoops

I forgot to tell you why the pants needed duct tape.
     A hole in the thigh from all these steps I have been walking lately.

:)

Off to bed.

I have to be up and in a parking lot in 7 hours to travel like 35 minutes to a natural spring.

For A's b-day instead of Daytona we are going to Alexander Springs.  (Both A and I share the same B-day on Sunday the 14th)

Twas good

I had a full post planned for today.  I even wrote most of it by hand out earlier this afternoon.

However I am tired and don't feel like typing it all up now.

I will leave you with an updated ticker though. :)  Twas still good this morning.

I must say goodbye to (or duct tape hmm) my most favorite pair of pants. The size 18 jeans that currently fit. Ones that are not super tight but not looking like they are about to fall off either. (Like those weird L4 jeans) In their place thankfully I have those 2 new just my size capri's, the khaki capri's and some other utility khaki thin material pants. It is kinda mind f'ery that the latter two are size 20's but I just ignore that. Oh, also many pairs of work out/yoga pants as well. I am scared to count them all honestly.

Sporadic blogging.

Lately I just have not been feeling the blog urge. 

Then I feel bad because apparently I am insecure about it as I worry that you all think I am mucking up and off plan. (We all know a lot of times that is why people stop blogging) Of course some people just plain outgrow it as well. I don't foresee that happening to me at this point so I guess I will just blog when I want to.  

I used to enjoy blogging every single day (Jan & Feb) but then the love just slowly seeped away with my regular readers as I slacked off with blogging over the past few months. I know you all still read this as I just hit 130 followers a few days ago. :)  I guess I feel that I am getting tired of my daily life recaps so you must be too.  :/

The good news is that if my WI this morning is any indication than tomorrow will be a kick ass WI. Which is excellent as I was starting to feel a little rocky there after last week with being on track and still gaining. My liquid intake was slacky last week and is on track this week so that probably didn't help any.

 I am here enjoying my day off since I was originally to work this day. Monday, my actual day off, ended up being a work day for me as my coworker's babysitter had personal issues and flaked out on her. So she had to spend the day looking for a new babysitter. 

Huge shopping trip to Sam's Club yesterday that ended up costing us even more (ick) as our membership expired on Monday. I also picked up a huge pack of ziplocs for meat sorting. When I got home to sort I realized I accidentally bought gallon sized. DOH! Those should last for years around here as I rarely use that size. I will pick up some quart ones on my way home from work tomorrow. 

There is so much food in the house currently I am still trying to figure out what is for dinner. Eat light because weigh in is tomorrow? Or eat normal?  Hmmmm...  

My husband is a BLEEP!

Fill in your word of choice for when your husband/significant other does something that does not help your path towards weight loss.

 Husband ran the 4 on the 4th I mentioned yesterday morning. He texted me when he was done asking if he should bring home donuts because they went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. I reply back to him saying none for me but maybe 2 for the boys. Proceed on to about a hour later when he arrives home.  With SIX donuts!! @@  Then he leaves them on the kitchen counter in my view along with the boy's half eaten ones because they didn't like the stars and stripe jelly filled ones. Ugh!  I put the half eaten ones in the box and then put the box up above my eye level to try and stop the thoughts about them.  That worked and I was able to ignore them.

My weigh in was less than stellar. Little bummed about it but as in what seems to be a pattern around here I found more *new* pants that fit. These are some size 18 just my size capris I got from Walmart well over a year ago for about $2.00 each. (I scored TONS of clothing in 1X sizes that trip from $1.00 up even though they didn't fit- so that is what is starting to fit now) I pair of size 20 khaki capris now fit that hadn't this whole time.  My next *to fit into* will be size 18 shorts that I bought like 4 of for $1.00 each. My issue is my pannus with the buttoning as always. :/

My five thousand steps a day is going very well.  Most nights you will find my pacing up and down the hall to get those final steps in. I posted the last email stats so I shall post the newest one I got tonight.

• Fitbit - 1101 steps on Thu 6/27 
• Fitbit - 1873 steps on Fri 6/28 
• Fitbit - 1637 steps on Sat 6/29 
• Fitbit - 5013 steps on Sun 6/30 
• Fitbit - 5075 steps on Mon 7/1 
• Fitbit - 5307 steps on Tue 7/2 
• Fitbit - 5181 steps on Wed 7/3 
• Fitbit - 5135 steps on Thu 7/4 

Yeah me!  LOL

Grrr

So as you know I am working on this whole 5000 steps a day thing that I have set for myself. I realized if I put my laptop on the dresser I could walk in place while I read your blogs and gain some steps. THIRTY MINUTES I did this today. I kept meaning to check my step count and see how I was doing but I kept surfing blog after blog instead.  Finally after thirty minutes of walking in place (in which hubby had gone out and completed an outdoor run and come back) I looked down to see what my count was at.  Any guesses?

It seems that my walking in place didn't trigger the fitbit to register steps.  GRRRRR  Lots of walking around the house and I hit my 5k steps today again. Four days in a row now I have gotten 5k (min) steps. Just to show you my normal step here is the earndit summary for last week.

• Fitbit - 3423 steps on Thu 6/20  (Visited Aunt and Uncle in Alabama)
• Fitbit - 4577 steps on Fri 6/21  (In car driving home from vacation)
• Fitbit - 2886 steps on Sat 6/22 
• Fitbit - 1334 steps on Sun 6/23 
• Fitbit - 1874 steps on Mon 6/24 
• Fitbit - 424 steps on Tue 6/25   (did not wear- was at a water park)
• Fitbit - 2580 steps on Wed 6/26 
• Fitbit - 1077 steps on Thu 6/27 

You can see that my normal step counts are very low so this 5k a day is very big for me. :)

No set plans for tomorrow. Maybe the water park- Will decide that tomorrow. Hubby is running in the annual 4 on the 4th race tomorrow morning that he adores. The kids and  I will be sleeping in.  :)  

Back in the zone

Happy to report in with the fact that I am back in the zone. :)

I am back in the honeymoon stage where everything is rainbows and big puffy heart clouds. Now to stay in this zone for the rest of time. LOL

I have been eating overnight oats with chia for the last several days and I am still not sure how I feel about them.  I mean they are edible of course or I wouldn't be eating them. LOL  It is more of the I am not sure how I feel about the carb counts in the oats and yogurt yet. I didn't have one today and probably won't tomorrow as WI is Thursday.  Maybe more of a once or twice a week thing?  I bought more of the protein shakes that I was out of.  I know I am weird but I actually like the Atkins shakes. I had scored a bunch of them with sale and coupon in the start of the year but I had gone through them all. They make fantastic quick breakfasts for me as I am a last minute riser.

I have decided to make a goal for myself for the month of July. I actually started it June 30th (yeah I know, I like to be difficult and never start anything right on time) and so far I have been able to do it for two days so I plan to continue. It is simple for you probably but very big for me. My goal is to walk a minimum of 5000 steps a day using my fitbit. Usually I am lucky to hit 1500 on a normal day so this is way more movement for me. Even if it means walking the house for x number of steps before midnight. Which I might have had to do the last two nights. Hehe

I hope your Tuesday is going well!