I am a Slacker!

Man I am a slacker with this whole blogging thing.  I really want to keep up with it but the only computer I have right now is my work computer.  My laptop at home is busted!  :-) 

So the Spring Break Bikini Challenge is over and I came in 2nd place!  Woo hoo!  :-)  Didn't win the money but 2nd is the next best thing...and I won with losing weight too! 

Since the Spring Break Bikini Challenge is over my friend Aubrey and I decided to do a local weight loss challenge.  The Charleston Bikini Challenge kicked off two weeks after the other challenge ended. 

We have a bunch of local ladies that signed up and they are so supportive.  Our Facebook page is loaded with encouragement, recipes, and everyone comments and leaves positive feedback.  It is a great support system. 

So I have lost a total of 41 lbs since I've started these challenges back in November!  What what!  This challenge has actually been a little "challenging" for me.  LOL  I just haven't really been all that motivated after the first week to watch what I eat.  Brad was out of town for 3 weeks and I had my two boys by myself...needless to say we had several Chick-Fil-A and McDonald's nights and I didn't cook when I was home (lots of sandwiches and hot dogs).  :-) 

This is the weight I'm at right now as of Sunday.  I'm in the 130's!!!!!  Woo hoo!  So excited.  I'm hoping I can stay there with the stuff I've been eating.  I am going back to the gym this week now that my husband is home. 

I will try to update this next week of how the next weigh in goes.  :-)

Week 7 of the Spring Break Bikini Challenge

I lost 2.8 lbs this week! Shut the front door! SO super excited! I have 6.7 more lbs to go to reach my goal! I can't believe I've come this far. 33.4 lbs in about 17-18 weeks. This is the last week of the challenge. Some of the ladies have said they want another challenge right after, with a week off. I'm not sure I'll do the next one. $20 isn't that much money, but we are saving up for a trip to Disney around Christmas time and could really use the $20 to be put in our trip fund. We'll see...might scrounge up the money to participate to keep me accountable until summer.
I'm in second place on this challenge and I'm pretty pumped about that. $320 would be AWESOME right now to buy some new clothes for my new, skinnier, body! :-)
I am still craving some wings from Wild Wing Cafe, but I will not "treat" myself to them. I will see if hubby wants a date night and that can be where we go. I really want to go out and get some cute dresses for this spring/summer. Today I'm wearing a MEDIUM dress I bought from American Eagle (and yes I can wear it today because the temp is in the 70's) and I'm loving it. I still have the feeling of "holy crap I don't think I should be wearing this size" mentality, but I did ask my husband how it looked before I went downstairs and he said I looked great. And believe me he would tell me. He's really honest with me about what I wear, if asked that is. :-)
I can't remember if I mentioned in my posts before that I bought a new bathing suit. The one in the earlier pictures got TOO BIG! So I returned it. :-) YEEESSSS! (Imagine me doing a small fist pump in the air)
I will try to blog more, I'm still getting kind of used to it. And want to do more.
Hope everyone has a great week! And cross your fingers for me to win this challenge this weekend! :-)

Spring Break Bikini Challenge Week 6

Who's in the 140's?!?!?!?!?? THIS GIRL! That's right! Imagine me doing a little "jig" in my bathroom when I saw that number on the scale. I haven't been in the 140's in YEARS!! Like before I got married 10 years ago! I'm down another 1.8 lbs making that a total of (drumroll please) 30.4 lbs!! Woot woot! I'm so excited I can't stand it! The ladies at my kids' daycare have commented on how I look which is amazing. I'm still kind of shy about the comments of "You look great!" "You look awesome!" but I am starting to say really acknowledge it because of the numbers.
I have been sick the past several weeks. Just went to the doc about it Tuesday though. And I am on the line with bronchitis. I was given a Zpack and it is knocking it out. I haven't been able to run and finish my Couch to 5K app (I only had 2 weeks left!). I did sign up for the Flowertown Festival 5K this weekend a while ago and I still plan on doing it but probably will not be able to run the whole thing. But I'm fine with that. There are TONS of 5Ks around here that I can sign up for when I'm ready to run one. I did run for about 10 minutes last night at the gym and was finally able to get a really good workout in without feeling like my chest was going to cave in or just stop because of pure exhaustion. I feel like my health is looking up so that means my weightloss will too! I have 9.5 lbs to go to reach my "written" goal....of course my internal goal is 5 more lbs on top of that! ;-)

Week 5 of the Spring Break Bikini Challenge

Sorry about last week...I totally forgot to post anything. I was only down .5 lbs...but hey a loss, is a loss! And in my book that is GREAT!

Down another 2.2 lbs this week! That makes my total 28.6 lbs total! Oh yeah! That's right! Just imagine I'm doing a little happy dance in my office chair right now. The girls at work are probably thinking I'm a nut. I have 11.3 more lbs to get to my goal of 140.0 lbs! I'm praying that in the next 3 weeks I can hit that goal before the challenge is over. I'm not sure I can do 3.8 lbs a week though! I'm still happy with any loss and if it takes me an extra week or two that is fine by me...as long as I'm ready for bathing suit season! :-)

Speaking of bathing suits....had to return the one I bought from Victoria's Secret about a month ago!! It was TOO BIG! That's right I said TOO BIG!!! I ordered Large for both bottom and top and when I went to take half way challenge pictures it was rough. :-) Of course I lost weight in my boobs (which stinks because I don't have a lot going on up there anyway!) but the bottoms were baggie and not getting the job done. So I sent them back and went to the mall and got a new bathing suite in a size MEDIUM!!! The bottoms are still a little tight but if I lose 5 more lbs they will be good to go. Brad even liked it.

So I'm going to be brave right now and post my pictures. AAGGGHHH! Not sure how I feel about it just yet, but I'm sure once they are up I'll be fine. Here goes nothing!

The first picture of me in the grey sports bra was the end of the last challenge I did. It ended right after New Years. The middle picture is the beginning of the Spring Break Bikini Challenge and the left is now (well last week). I can tell a HUGE difference! I've been getting a lot of people saying how great I look and asking what I'm doing to lose the weight. I tell them counting calories and working out. My membership to Planet Fitness has helped me SO much! I wanted to learn to control the portions of what I eat as well as the types of food I eat. We ate a lot of "box" dinners (Hamburger Helper being the main culprit) but now I've been using Pintrest (LOVE IT!) and cooking things "from scratch" as like to say. :-)

Well since I'm at work I should probably wrap this up! :-)

Week 3 of the Bikini Challenge

So week 3 was a good loss for me! 3.3 lbs! That makes 25.9 lbs so far since I started the first challenge I was in! I'm SO super excited. My goal is so close I can taste it. 14 more lbs to go. That will get me to an even 140! I do have a secret (in-my-head goal) of 135 so we'll see what happens. But 14 more lbs...I could see that in 5-6 weeks! I have officially gone from a size 14 to a size 12 now. Of course I have only TWO pairs of pants in a size 12 and they are both jeans. I'm going to have to start scouring the Mom Swap site for some good deals on size 12 pants because hopefully I'm not wearing them for very long. :-)
I will eventually get brave enough to post my pictures on here. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. :-)
I have been doing really awesome with not eating hardly any fast food. We get it maybe once a week...and even then it is Chick-fil-a's grilled sandwich or salad. Maybe a few fries in there too, but I have to have my vices. LOL I've been a HUGE follower of Pinterest (if you aren't on it...GET ON IT NOW!) and have gotten some great recipes that I have been trying out almost every night.
I think I'm going to start taking pictures of the food that I'm cooking...and if you know me you know that I am not a cook by any means. But I am trying and have had huge success at it. I have to read a recipe verbatim 50 million times while I'm making whatever dish it is though. I'm so freaked out that I'm going to miss a step or not put something in. Last night's dinner was exceptional if I do say so myself and was by far the easiest thing I've made. Crockpot Chicken Tacos...I should have taken a picture of it. SO simple. Boneless, Skinless chicken breast (I used 2 becuase it is just me, Brad, and Bryce), a jar of salsa (I used picante sauce b/c I don't like chunky salsa), and a packet of taco seasoning! Got some flour tortillas, shredded some lettuce, can of black beans, some cheese, and sour cream and you have yourself a meal! :-) Brad AND Bryce LOVED it and Brad said he was putting that on his favorites list. SO excited.

Down another 2.5 lbs!! Woo hoo! That makes 22.3 lbs total so far! I'm actually kind of surprised because the Friday before our weigh-in we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I did okay but I got my favorite meal there..the crab alfredo. I did only get the half portion and only ate half of that, but I had 2 of their biscuits (they are SOOOO good), part of a shrimp nacho appetizer, and a cesaer salad. I felt awful after eating it. So the the whole weekend I was totally on it with my diet which was amazing because my oldest son was up Saturday night throwing up (ALL night long!) and my husband got the same stomach bug and was in bed all day Sunday.

I'm really not sure how this week is going to turn out. With my kids being sick, running them to the doctor and back and forth to work I haven't been doing the best eating wise. Also since my husband has been sick on top of that I haven't made it to the gym but twice in 5 days and I'm not very happy about that. I was thinking to myself the other day that it shocks me that just missing one day I'm itching to get back in the gym the next day. I really don't like skipping days because I feel like I'm cheating myself, but I know that everyone needs a break every now and then. The thing for me though is the gym is "me" time. I'm not a mom, I'm not a wife...I'm just me. I can "relax"...well as much as you can relax at the gym, put my headphones on and crank up my Pandora radio workout mix! :-)

My husband has been really supportive but is starting to get a little irritated with me going to the gym every night. I know how he feels because he used to be gone during the week working out of town and then on the weekends would want to go hang out with his friends and I would get so angry because I wanted to spend time with him. So he and I have agreed to set aside one day during the week that I can stay home and we can watch TV or a movie or something.

On a positive note my wedding rings are starting to get too big...as well as my size 14 pants! :-) I'm so super excited about going down in size, but not happy about having to find clothes that are smaller that I'm only going to, hopefully, wear for a little while before getting rid of them. Thankfully I'm in a Facebook group called Charleston Mom Swap that is like an online garage/yard sale and moms around the area post clothing, toys, kids stuff, etc. for cheaper.

Mid Week

I ran out of skim milk Monday and I have yet to stop at the store and get any. I don't keep breakfast food in the house, besides cereal for me and waffles or pancakes for my son. I've been really bad these past two days and gone to Chick-fil-a and gotten their 3 count chicken minis! They are SO good! I went over my calories yesterday, but the breakfast wasn't to blame. I didn't plan my meals out for the day to account for what I would be eating. I really need to go grocery shopping!
For me though I'm still breastfeeding my son and I know that me cutting back on my calories is affecting my supply...I got so upset this morning because I didn't produce enough yesterday (I pump at work and after he eats at home) for his bottles for daycare today. AF is in town so I know that has a little bit to do with it. It's like if I want to eat like a pig and feed my son, or eat like a bird and not feed him. I'm so torn...I'm trying to better myself but it hurts him in the process. I HATE that I might have to supplement with formula (even if it is just one bottle I still don't want to do it)!!!
Sorry about the little pity party story but I had a good cry this morning because I was so upset about the whole thing. I've been really trying to pump more every day these past few days to try to get my supply where it needs to be. :-(