Fat-Free Farewell...

I'm off, everyone! Early Sunday morning, my family and I will be taking a vacation to sunny Florida (Disney World, to be exact. It's my ninth time going!). I am so thrilled to finally be going with a child old enough to know what's going on!

I weighed 152.8 this morning, again. Not sure I want to know what the scale will say upon my return! I will be gone for two weeks, so...wish my luck! I'll miss writing to you!

xoxo

P.S. Like my random Elf on the Shelf picture?
P.P.S. Check out the post here. My picture is third from the top...

Goals I've Hit Recently...

I hit my wedding weight (153)

I ran 5k at a personal best (30:30)

I ran 10k at a personal best (1 hour, 15 minutes...oh heck, I'm just happy that I ran 10k!)

I fit into size 29 jeans

I had to buy size small (what?) exercise pants

AND...

I manged to stay away from the bag of dill pickle chips (my favourite) that SOMEONE brought into the house (against my wishes)...

...for two days.

Oops.

Okay, so truthfully, my eating hasn't been all that great. Okay, it's been bad. Again. Too much junk, too many calories, not enough fruits and vegetables. The fact that I have not yet gained weight is some kind of miracle. I have to snap out of this! Help!

Fat-Free Friday: Decisions, decisions

First thing is first: the results of the latest poll are in, and most of you agree that it is NOT too early to start decorating for Christmas. Good. Because I've already started :)

Next up: my weight this week. I stepped on the scale today at 152.8, which is just darned excellent. As some of you may have read previously, I have given myself a goal range of 153-157, and I really wanted to be at the 153 mark (my wedding weight) before my trip to Florida. I leave in just over a week, so as long as I can maintain this loss into next week, mission will be accomplished.

So, here is where I'm stuck: At 153, my total weight loss is 45 pounds. This is great, but I just can not help myself from thinking "If I just lose 5 more pounds, I can say that I lost 50lbs". And that just sounds awesome, right? But, do I actually care about losing another 5 pounds? Am I just getting obsessed with losing weight? I'm not sure. It's hard to tell. But, with my trip and Christmas coming up, I know that I'm going to be more focused on maintenance for now, so I have some time to decide. I'd love to hear feedback, though. What do you ladies think?

And here is another crafty project to show you: a wreath I made for my daughter's room. Please ignore the dirty floor in the background...I took this photo in my basement!

Check out my Guest Post

I am please to report that I have another guest post featured on the awesome fitness/weight loss blog, Fitness Unscripted. You can check it out here.

Now, go!

Good News, Bad News, and Crafting if Up (Old School)

Guess who is in a sassy-frassy mood tonight?

Yup, it's me. Because I have good news for you all. A few months back, I decided that I would LOVE to be able to fit into a pair of size 31 jeans. Yes, I realize that might not seem like a small size to some of you, but I have big hips and a big ba-donka-donk bum, so to me, that's small.

Anyway, I went jean shopping the other day. (Now, keep in mind that just a few weeks ago, I couldn't get the darned 31s up and over my butt.) Who wants to take a guess at what size pants I ended up buying?

29s!!!!!!!!

Needless to say, I'm ecstatic about that.

The BAD news is that I've been eating like a caveman this week. Well, not really...but I've been snacking way too much on unhealthy things. It really needs to stop. Pronto. Hold me to it.

Now, onto something more fun: my big craft project. It is done. And I am excited to show you the results:

It's a felt playhouse for my kids! And the best part is this: it's actually made like a slipcover, so it fits over my card table, which makes it easy to put away and store when it's not in use! Perfect! And no, I did not come up with the idea on my own. I found it online. I'm not THAT creative!!!

And now to end this post with another picture:

Fat-Free Friday: Goal Week 1

I weighed in this morning at 154.4....which is down 1.4 from last week! Score!

Although my goal weight was 157, I'm definitely thinking that a goal range of 153-157 is what I'm looking at. And I want to get down to that 153 (my wedding weight) before my trip to Florida, which is in about two weeks. Partly because I want to have that extra "cushion" in case I gain weight while down there (let's face it, that is likely), and partly because we went to Florida for our honeymoon 5 years ago, and it would just be cool to weigh what I did then!

In other news, I FINALLY finished my BIG craft project. I'm sure you're all just dying to see it (ha ha), but you'll have to wait just a bit longer. Pictures to come soon, I promise!

I'm also excited because we had a family photo shoot yesterday, and while the day didn't go perfectly (very hard to get both a toddler and a baby to co-operate at the same time!) I do think that we ended up with some great photos. So I can't wait to see them! The photographer did post a "sneak peek" of one image online for me, so I'll share that with you now:

Is it just me, or is he incredibly handsome?
That's all for now!

Goal Post

(Ha ha...it’s funny because there is such thing as an actual goal post...in football...anyone?)

Anyway...as you can tell, I have big and exciting news...

I AM AT GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I almost can’t believe it. I’ve been waiting and wanting to get here for almost FIVE YEARS – sure, two pregnancies got in the way, but let’s be honest and recognize that those really had very little to do with my problem. My real problem was that I was eating too much and not exercising enough – and no amount of whining and self-loathing was helping me to stop.

Want to know why?

Besides loving bad, evil, greasy and sugary food (and also sitting on the couch), I also had this weird, awful voice inside of my head telling me that I just couldn’t do it. Which is especially silly, seeing as I once lost almost 40 pounds and kept it off for awhile. But I just couldn’t allow myself to believe that I could do it again.

But, after reading Mama Laughlin's blog,Mama about a mother with the same start weight and kids the same age as mine, I realized how wrong I was. I quickly shut up that voice inside of my head, re-joined my favourite gym, and really got serious about paying attention to what I ate.

And I am SO glad that I did.

The results?

I lost 42 pounds, went down several pant sizes, and gained an invaluable amount of self-respect.

I feel like ME again.

From this:

To this:

Also....In other news, here is our pumpkin from Hallowe’en. Who else is impressed with my husband’s carving skills?

Fat-Free Friday...???

I am not weighing myself today.

Call me a cheater...but I want to see a good number when I step on the scale. And I KNOW that I will not be seeing that this morning. Why?

I ate out last night, and I know that I am retaining water something awful. I know this because afterwards I drank water like it was going out of style, and I barely had to use the washroom. Not a good sign!

I'm saving my weigh-in for either tomorrow or Sunday, depending on when I feel like this bloating is gone. Wish me luck!

I hope that everyone had a great Hallowe'en! I have some cute pictures to show you later, so stay tuned!