One Year, 52 Photos, 75 Pounds

2009-01-09T21:15:00.000-08:00

So I never got around to taking that picture. I still plan on doing it, but I just haven't had time. The first week back at school after an extended break is soo hectic. I have been so tired all week and just couldn't summon the energy to round up Gary and Alissa to try to take the picture. But I will get it posted.

Well, for the good news. I have successfully managed to make it 5 days on my healthy eating plan. Wednesday was super duper hard for me. I'm not sure why, but every time I try to break a habit the third day is a killer. I felt so hungry all day long no matter what I ate. And I did eat. I am not one of those girls that can starve themselves to death. I need food. I just need to make healthy choices with my food. I am maintianing between 1300 and 1600 calories a day, but I'm not really counting calories. I am keeping track of what I am eating and that seems to be the range that I eat in everyday.

I also found this wonderful support web site called Buddy Slim. It has a forum where you can take part in challenges and you can meet people and become buddies to support each other. It also makes daily blogging a breeze, although I haven't started blogging yet. But my favorite part about it is the food and exercise journals. Holding myself accountable for what I eat has never been easier. If you would like to check it out, you can Join me on BuddySlim!. If you click the link and join, you will automatically become one of my buddies and we can encourage each other!

Now for the bad news. Well, its not really bad, but it is a bit depressing for me. As I said in my last post, this is a whole family effort. Gary is also eating low-fat/healthy although he is a little more lenient on the low-fat part and does more counting calories than trying for low-fat. He doesn't exercise at all. And as of today he has lost 12 lbs. That is 12 lbs. in five days folks!!! And as proud of him as I am, I can't help but be a little depressed. I do not expect weight to just melt off of me. It didn't get there overnight and it will not take more than a week to get it off. However, after his revelation this evening I decided to go ahead and weigh myself just to see. I don't think the needle has even moved!! But that's okay! It just gives me more motivation. I can't let him get healthy and sexy before I do!

Buddyslim.com free weight loss blog

New Years Resolutions

2009-01-04T19:19:00.001-08:00

I don't have a picture to post yet. I have a really neat idea, but it involves both Alissa and Gary. Since school starts back tomorrow (yuck!), Alissa had to go to bed early tonight. We have been letting her stay up waaaayyyy to late for two weeks! She is so not going to want to get up tomorrow! Anyway, I didn't get around to taking the picture I want, so I will be posting it tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed!).

When I started this blog, I was so excited and motivated. But it was totally the wrong time of the year to be trying to diet. Well, it could have been successful with a proper support team, but with everyone offering you cookies and holiday candy and with all the stress of getting grades in, putting up christmas decorations, & shopping, it just wasn't a great time for me.

So, I decided to just give it a break until after Christmas. Well, after the new year really because Gary took a week of Vacation starting Christmas day and we wanted to really enjoy our break. In this household, "really enjoy" means eat all the high fat foods we want! And we did too! We had so much candy after Christmas day that I didn't think we would ever get all of it eaten, but somehow we managed to suffer through it. LOL! I think I gained 15 pounds over my two week break! I'm going to go weigh myself. Hang on....

Okay, so I didn't gain 15, but I did gain 5. I shouldn't have done that (weigh myself) because know I'm kinda depressed. I have been larger than this, but I didn't get on scales during that time of my life. So this is the first time I have ever seen the needle tip over the 220 mark. I guess it's a good thing the TOMORROW is the BIG DAY. Tomorrow is the day that my whole family is beginning a new chapter in our lives. The "We want to be healthy" chapter.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to feel good about my body. But more than that, I don't want my daughter to have to suffer all of her life with weight related issues like I have. The tired legs, feet, and ankles; back aches from that extra "woman fat"; and lets not discount the emotional toll it plays. Shopping when you are overweight is so difficult. Everytime I try to buy myself something, I just get depressed. I normally leave the store in tears. Well, actually, I normally manage to keep it together to the car then fall apart and cry all the way home.

Anyway, Alissa already has that tendency, the genetics to be a little on the chubby side. When you factor in the bad eating habits that she is picking up from both Gary and me, she is doomed if we don't do something. But I don't want her to worry about weight. So we are trying to stress that we are trying to get healthy. If we lose weight, great, but mostly we just want to be healthy people.

To help us out, we have decided to make a few changes in our lifesyle. Food is obviously one of them. We will be eating low-fat. We have done this before with success, but we didn't stick with it. Why? Because it is so much easier to stop off at Burger King rather than cook from scratch. So this time I am really going to work at not making this hard work. I know that didn't make a lot of sense, but what I mean is that I am going to look for healthy things that are easy for me to fix for dinner rather than slaving in the kitchen. I want to make our new lifestyle as effortless as possible so that we will stick to it.

Another major change is our electronics limit. Gary, Alissa, and I are all techy nuts. Alissa is also a big T.V addict. We spend way to much time doing our own thing on our own computers in our on rooms. Besides the fact that we are not being active, we are not spending time together as a family. So we decided that we will limit our electronics time to an hour and a half per day. We decided on that length of time so that we could watch a movie if we wanted to. But it also makes us use our time wisely, so I probably will not be spending as much time just cruising around on flickr!

One of my changes will be getting outside and playing with Alissa. I'm not a big "outside" kind of person. Just ask my mom. When I was a kid, I was much more likely to be found in a corner somewhere reading a book than playing outside. But we don't have anyone for Alissa to play with, so I'm going to become her biggest playpal.

And I know we need to get active. I'm going to start walking in the mornings. It makes me feel so good throughout the day to start off with a little exercise. But I'm not a morning person; I don't like getting out of bed. So that brings about a whole other change: getting to sleep at a decent time. I'm going to be putting myself to bed a 10:00, lights out by 10:30 (ya know I gotta read before I go to sleep). Which brings be to yet another change: Time management. Since I am going to be going to bed so much earlier (I rarely get in bed before 12:00, seldom not until after 1:00), I am going to have to manage my time much more efficiently so that I don't get behind on housework and school stuff. I'm not good with time management, but I'm determined to get good. I've got to.

Well, I have never posted anything quite this long. LOL! I guess I just need to sort of organize my thoughts. Know I have to get ready for bed so I don't start falling behind before I ever get started!!

Until next week......

#4 of 52

2008-11-14T16:22:00.001-08:00

#4 of 52, originally uploaded by lissykeeper.

So, I'm running a bit late this week. But better late than never, I always say. (Be the first one to guess that movie and I will buy you a coke) I had this awesome idea, but no time to pull it off. So this is pretty basic, but I was sort of practicing poses that are slimming for us larger girls.

I don't really have anything wonderful to blog about this week. I'm still not dieting, nor am I working out. I did decide to "run" one day last week. I knew I wouldn't be able to run for an extended period of time, but I thought I could run then walk. Well, I started off walking to warm up and stretch my muscles. Once I felt properly stretched, I started running. Everything was great for a couple minutes. I was actually enjoying it. However, when making this plan I neglected a couple of vital details.

#1-- I wasn't "prepared" to run. I didn't have the proper support in place, if you know what I mean.

#2 -- I forgot about the shin splints!

Back in high school, I developed shin splints while playing basketball. I had to tape my legs for every practice. I didn't have to worry about taping them for games since I didn't get to play.

Well, guess what.... shin splints do not go away. Within minutes of beginning to run, my legs felt like the muscle was being ripped away from the bone. If you have never experienced this sensation, you are lucky.

I do have good news to report. I have almost managed to eat all the high fat foods in my house. If I can just keep Gary from going on another "lunch" shopping spree, I will be starting my healthy eating plan very soon.

Hang with me folks! Sooner or later, I will be reporting weight loss instead of cookies eaten!!

#3 of 52

2008-11-03T19:33:00.001-08:00

#3 of 52, originally uploaded by lissykeeper.

Like the outfit? LOL! Last week was red ribbon week. We had themes everyday, and a few of my fellow teachers and I tried to participate so that the kids would too. Friday, being Halloween, was costume day. This is what I wore. Very fitting for a warrior.

This wasn't my original plan, but I decided to do this at the last minute. It didn't work out so well, but I'm just going to consider it a learning experince. This wasn't even the pose I really intended to use; it was just a crazy pose I did when I was checking my lighting. But since this is about how I have felt lately (crazy) I decided to keep it.

As far as the weight loss goes: Don't Ask! I did walk a couple times this week, but I ate like a hog. I have lost 2 lbs. I'm sure that is water! Don't give up on me yet folks. I will get it together. I just know I will!

#2 of 52

2008-10-27T15:51:00.001-07:00

#2 of 52, originally uploaded by lissykeeper.

So, I really wanted to have a picture of me lifting weights or doing push ups or something. My whole plan for this week was to get moving. But I'm nothing if not honest. I haven't even remotely began my weight loss project. In all fairness to me, this last week was all about surviving.

It all began on Tuesday when I ran over my dog. Alissa and I cried all the way to school. Turns out, she was just fine, but we didn't know that at the time. Gary took her to the vet and told them, "This is my wife's dog. Save it. I don't care what it cost." She had some bruised ribs and was really sore, but no broken bones or internal bleeding.

And of course, we had parent teacher conferences this week. UGHHH!

I wanted to slap a fellow teacher.

My horse pulled a good one on me at the barrel racing.

And to top everything off, my husband forgot I was trying to lose weight and bought a bunch of high fat snack foods specifically for my lunches.

Needless to say, I didn't even bother to weigh myself. Maybe next week...

#1 of 52

2008-10-20T21:25:00.001-07:00

#1 of 52, originally uploaded by lissykeeper.

Okay, so here it goes. This is my very first self portrait of my 52 weekly portraits. I obviously didn't bother getting all dressed up for the occassion. LOL! If you look closely, you can see the scales are very dusty and haven't been used in quite sometime. Hence the birth of this blog.

This is what I typically look like for work. And yes, I wear tennis shoes to work. I'm a fat woman that stands on her feet all day trying to educate our future.

I wish, after the fact, that I had set the scales to show my current weight. But the cheap things probably wouldn't work after that.

I didn't bother trying to set up great lighting. I wanted to get this first one under my belt before I changed my mind. See ya next week!