New Years Eve 09

Today is a day to look back at what happen last year. There are some many good memories of the year, but I am really excited for the New Year. I have my list of New Years resolutions ready to go. You all know what is at the top of the list. There are only 3 on my list because to much more and none of them will get done. Here is my list: Health living style, Money, and Home Improvement. I thought about blogging on each one of them so what I did is roll the Money and Home Improvement into one. The funny part is all I have talked about is cooking. I need to seriously branch out on this one. I am a mom that does everything and would love to see my children be great parents and adults. Hey that will be my blog for to day. Train up a child in the way they must go. People think sometime we are hard on them, but now that they are growing into young adults they tell us thank you. We have always been on them about working hard and being kind to others. So I will save this for my other blog. Anyway everyone have a great New Years eve. Looking forward to starting a great New Year Habit. I bet the gym will be packed next week. lol............................



Ready set let the journey begin,

Working at Home

I have to tell you all I work at home. My job in in my home, which makes it quite difficult to not wonder down stairs and look for something to eat. I don't have a set time to eat so I just wonder in when I am starving. Since I have been reading this book it says I have to change my habits. One of my habits is eating. And it really does not help that I love to cook as well. So what I need to do is set some meal times. I need to get away from my office for breaks even if it is to do laundry or walk around the block. Set meal times will help also with not eating to late at night. Look it is almost 6:00 pm and I have not eaten dinner yet. I remember growing up and we at at 5:00 pm almost everyday. Balance is another thing I need to set, but I better start with meal times and breaks first.


Hey did I tell you I went to work out again. My walking is doing better. You all know I am training for a 5K. Still only doing 40 ounce of water. Now that the new scale is here I have been losing ounces. Ounces add up to pounds! Saturday will be my weight in day. I can hardly wait for this.


I think next time I blog it will have to be on the place if chose for a gym. Me and my family went to check out a lot of places.

Book: The Power of Focus - Habits

I read my bible everyday it is full of great inspiration. Today I went by the library and picked up a book called The POWER OF FOCUS. One of the authors is Jack Canfield he wrote Chicken Soup for the Soul. Well right now it is talking about habits and how we form them. I know this sounds dumb, but I have been working on a habit of keeping my bathroom clean. I am now 5 months into it and now it is routine to walk out of there with it looking great. So now that I have been blogging for about two weeks now I am slowly forming a habit of writing. This helps by put on paper some of my habits that I need to change. I am slowing changing a habit of drinking more water. It did not happen over night. I can now drink 40 ounces no problem. Salad in the house now has not become so foreign now. I made cookies to day and only had two really small ones. It is funny because my son and me looked at them for a long time tonight. He told me Mom I really want some more cookies and milk but......I told him I know son, but then the work out we just did would be for nothing. So we passed, this feels like a victory right now.

So this week I will right a list of habits I have noticed and need to change. You will see the habit we form did not happen over night. With these habit come a lot of excuses as to why this has happened.

Ready set let the journey begin.

I bought a scale at GNC

I just bought a new scale I was so happy. I got a good deal. It was a 39.99 dollar scale for 14.99 and if you bought another one it was just 1/2 price. Now I have a real scale, the other one is going in the trash tonight. Do pass go and go right into the trash scale. To the left is a picture of what it looks like.

Here is the funny part I was going down to weigh in and broke the machine. So while the lady was trying to get my money back that is when she showed me the scale. So breaking the scale was a good thing. lol......................

We all weight our selves and logged it in the book. My middle daughter has to gain weight, boy I wish I had that problem. But oh well I am feeling good because I was down that same two pounds again. Let see next week what happens. If I can just keep it off for good.

Ready set let the journey begin.

Day after Christmas 2009

Christmas went well, I think I did good and did not over eat. I wanted to give a tip I read in All You magazine his weekend. This tip will be posted at the bottom of the blog. As I was going thought I pulled out some receipts to try. As I try them I will post then and let you know how they come out. Today is full of activity which is good since that is what keeps the body moving and I have to remember when I sit down to eat use a smaller plate. I have this really cute crystal plate I have been using to eat on. I sit and watch my youngest daughter eat, she cut up all her food into small pieces and then eats very slow. She has always ate on small plates now I know why she is so thin. This week I will try and post a picture of me on my account. It is always nice to have a picture with the person. Till later.
TIP: To chew gum when cooking this will help reduce the nibbling while cooking.

Ready set let the journey begin.

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve, I have not weighted my self today. This weight lose challenge is that a big challenge. I remember the when I did weight watchers and the first two week were bad. All I did was thing of food and the is what I do now. So I know this is a good sign, because I am thinking about what I put in my mouth. Today I good the little Hershey kiss Cherry Cordial. Yumm I could eat the whole bad. Well I took a couple and had my girls take it away. They are going to have to hide them from me. You can't just have one of them. I figure by the time the holiday's are over I will be over that hump. Tomorrow will be all about portion control. So have a great Christmas tomorrow, I may take the day off of blogging family coming over.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ready set let the journey begin.

What do I blame for being over weight

Today, I have changed my mind set of who and what I blame for my weight gain. Oh and the what if. I use to always blame having kids was why I quite running and gained all that weight.

I am the one that eats the junk food no one puts it in my mouth. I am the one that choose not to go to the gym. I have made the chooses in my life no one else. I have to work to become healthy. I can't just sit here and complain why I can't go. I have created my weight gain.

This week I have got lazy and not journal my food. This is something I can't lack on. I have become lazy and now I am back to the same weight I have started at. I did good for the first week. As you can tell I stepped on the scale today and cried this time. All that hard work last week just to gain it all back this week. This only took a few day's to get back here. At this point I would just give up and go eat, but this time I am going to get back up. I have my water jug filled with water. I ate breakfast already and really have to think about lunch.

You know what is funny my daughter kept saying, " Mom you don't need to eat that." I would come back with I know, but ......................... And there you go a reason why I need it. lol .................... When I really don't. Self talk! I need to change this self talk from a negative one to a positive one. I am creating my life no one else.

Ready set let the journey begin.

It is the little things

Last night I never went to work out so it is the little things that keep me from going. My son had a bible quiz meeting last night. So here I am people watching like I do on what they are eating. So after the meeting they had good old SNACKS! Oh here we go again and there is my favorite on the table. It was like a light shining on it. lol.......................... So I walked over took my focus of my people watching a snatch up that cookie. It took about less than 3 min. to have it down. Then guilt set in big time. When I was putting that cookie in my mouth I kept talking to my self, do you really want to do this. I did the self talk and then looked over to the group of parents. One parent caught my eye.


There she sat nice and fit, never once did she go to the table or even when they offered one she said no. There you go, it is the little things in life that add to one big problem. Self talk will help, I almost said no, but then my self talk said well just a little won't hurt. I have to come up with a self talk that says yeah just a little bit will be a weeks worth of work.

Ready set let the journey begin.

Habits we form

I though a lot about this last night. It is so easy to create a bad or good habit. It takes time for them to happen. Like going out to eat all the time, cooking dinner all the time and just about anything. I usually wake up and start the coffee, I only have one cup. The cup I do have is a supper size cup, so today I pulled out the smaller one. Now I have a smaller cup of coffee and my water jug sitting by me.

Today I have on my calendar to hit the gym, Breakfast, lunch and dinner plans are already done. Hey this is a start, one day at a time. I know what I am eating for dinner is not the best, but I have to make the salad bigger on my plate. My goal is to form healthy habits. Maybe I can move things around on my board of encouragement. What I will do is take a picture of it so you all can see it.

Well I am off to see what other habits I can form.
Ready set let the journey begin.

5 k walk (3.1 miles) In an hour

After I wrote the last blog I just had to check out about 5k walks. I need to start setting my goal for this. You know I have a vision now, not just losing weight but something I want to accomplish in life. That is what the tapes say that I am listening to. Now it is starting to make sense on what they are saying. I googled about 5k walks and this article was the best. About.com, 5k walk Training Schedule for Beginners. That is me in a nutshell. They give great tips on how to do this. I printed it out and put this on my wall of encouragement. I do suggest a wall of encouragement this helps a lot. Put positive scriptures, quotes or sayings out there to look at daily.

Stating Monday if the weather permits I am going for a 15 min. walk that is it around my block. I think we can all have 15 min. I know I spend 15 min looking around. Hey I pick up the new All You magazine to. They have a great article in there about Drop 18 pounds. I love this magazine, this is my all time favorite. Here is something that was interesting: Obese people spend $1,429 more on medical expenses. Source: Health Affairs. I took that out of the magazine.

Ready set let the journey begin.

Christmas parties

There was not weight in yesterday, so I am going by my scale at home. It looks as if I lost about 1lb. Not bad, but now great either. They say if you lose weight slowly you tend to keep it off.

We went to a Christmas party last night. It was a blast, oh and I got a lot of ideas on how to decorate my house. Anyway I watched how people ate and what they ate. Several of the ladies I sat with look really good. Salad was the item they piled on their plate. So when you are watch what skinny people eat and how much they put on their plate. Then they put just a little of this and a little of that. I told them all I was doing a blog on my weight loss. So we talked about how they lost it and how they maintain their weight. It was nice to talk with them because they have the same struggles. One of the ladies is going to do the 5 k walk with me in the spring. It is usually in March. I hope it is not the same time we go on the Cruise. So I better find out when it is and plan for it. That made me excited, that someone was going to do it with me. Now it made me even more determined to do this. I think by having this set goal of doing a 5k walk will help. Maybe if I google it they will have something on training for a 5k walk.Stay tuned and I will see what I can do. I really need to go purchase a pedometer.

On day's it is warmer I am going to send out a text to my friends to walk the river walk. We have great place to walk around here. I want to hike one day to. Today I feel a lot better than yesterday. Women go thought a lot more emotions than men do. That is why exercise is so important I really should go work out today.

Ready set let the journey begin.

One week ago I started

It has been a whole week. I have to be honest I don't want to weight in. One because last night one bad meal may have put me right back to were I started. The depression is already setting in, to many cookies and to much food. It was good at the time, but this morning as I realize what I done is setting in. I can play the blame game that is was my husbands fault because he wanted his favorite food. You name it I have the words formed in my mouth. Here again is where will power comes into play.

It is only one week. When I joined Weight Watchers years ago I remember how hard the first two weeks were. All I could do is think about food, but once I had a plan it was a lot easier. Parts of me want to go right down stairs and just eat anything. Emotions are huge when trying to lose weight. Today I hope I can get by the mall to weight in. Today is going to be busy all away around. I haven't even gone Christmas shopping yet, here is were I just want to start crying. I better stop I feel the tears coming. I have people coming over so I better get down stairs and do some cleaning.

Ready set let the journey begin.

Friday Night

Well I am waiting for dinner to be done. And tonight I have to go to church. I really wanted to work out tonight, but that seems just like a dream. Tomorrow is just another day. While I am out doing some Christmas shopping I have pedometer on my list.

Tonight is going to be hard, my husband come home from a business trip and wants his favorite. His favorite is full fat and let me tell you it is good. Left see if I can stay to only two enchiladas and one chocolate chip cookie.

I wish I could plan better. Tomorrow night we are invited to a Christmas party. Potluck, so I am search for a potluck food that is good for you. Do you ever wonder when you get a cook book for health food always has food you never have in the house. I seriously need to have a garden this year. Last year I had two raised bed, but some ground squirrel ate all my tomatoes. I will take a picture of what they look like when it gets closer.


Ready set let the journey begin

TGIF - Up at the crack of dawn

Today is Friday, I would still be in bed right now, but the dogs had to go out. As I have been googling and reading books on weight lose they talked a lot about sleep. It is true what they say about not having enough of it. The longer I stay up the more I want to eat. So a good 8 hours of sleep helps the body. Can someone tell my dogs and body that. It is 4:41 a.m. on a Friday morning. Oh and something else about this Friday as well. If the scale is not broken at my house, which it my be since it is really old. I might have lost two pounds. We all will know on Saturday for sure.

Oh just a note, last night I was sipping water late. Which I drank almost 50 ounces thank you very much. Back to my note be prepared to be up all night going to the bathroom. So I can tell you today I am tired. With tired comes being lazy, here it is again no plan. When oneself is tired I sure do not think of cooking. I hate them fast food places.

There is a book or video I recommend, called Super Size Me. This will really wake your eyes up to fast food. My kids have been in heaven with all the food I have been cooking and they have helped in the kitchen to.

On last thing the Weight Watchers Oatmeal Banana Bread Recipe. It was good, but nothing like have a real piece of Banana Bread lets just say. This is going to be hard find things that taste good, but good for you. This will pose to be very hard for me since I can't have a anything with nutria sweet. My body, gets really sick on this stuff. So I have to find food that leaves it out, which is most diet stuff. I am finding that cooking with a lot of herb has been good.

It is time for me to start and indoor garden. What a great idea, stay tuned for that one.

Ready set let the journey begin.

The gym

I have to confess, I own a membership to the gym. Now, I go but not faithfully and I know the work out is not very good because I have not lost any weight doing it. My family said it is because I act like I am taking a stroll and not really working out. So it has been almost a week and have not set foot in there. Every night seems to be packed full of things to do. So I have set my mind to start going. I need to do at least 30 min. no less than that.

Tonight I will have to miss again. So like I said planning has everything to do with making changes in ones life. So I have it on my phone reminder and off to the gym I will go. I have to go because Saturday is weight in day at GNC. So I might even hit the gym before then. I let you all know of course. What was I thinking when I decide to do this during the holidays. Well till tomorrow, Oh and I will let you all know how my healthy dessert came out to.

Ready set let the journey begin

We want things now

Have you ever thought why we don't take time to enjoy life. In today's time we are all hurry do this and hurry do that. To go to bed and start this all over again. What happen to fellowship and spending time with the family. It has been replaced with computers, cell phones and fast food.

Fast food is not good for you. When I was doing weight watcher I found out that one stop at sonics made all my points for the day. Just one stop for something fast. See here again is when one has no plan for anything one is sure to fail. Today take time to plan just one day of meals. JUST ONE. I have to teach my self this. If I do the whole week I get frustrated and quick. Baby step. The bible says: I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. (1Cor3:2) So just do one meal even if it is for next week. Make sure it has breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner and snack. There will be one day that is stress free because it was planned.

Today, I am going to slow down. The kids and me are going over to a friends house after dinner. I have my recipe for a healthy dessert. I will post it if I like it. Today slow down have a healthily meal and sit at the table with you family. Turn off that TV, there is nothing you have to watch that replaces time with you family. For some this may be different, but in a few day's they will get use to it. Oh one more thing have the kids leave the cell phone in their room. There is nothing more annoying as when you are trying to talk and they are texting. You'll see a difference in everyone.

Day 4: How is it going

I can't tell you on Day 4 I have learned a lot about my self and emotions. Today I am making a grocery list. Slowly this week I have been weeding out the bad stuff. That would be 90% of everything in the house. My kids wanted me to make them something sweet to eat last night. Since I was making cakes for a funeral today. Then it hit me I don't know what to make that is not full of fat. So here I go to google again.

My journal I carry around is full of ideas now to make the time to do this. I look back at this week in a quick review and know this is one journey indeed. Stress, no menu plan, no healthy snack and no dessert to eat. Ever thing is full of calories. I did buy some bananas, apples and oranges and they are almost gone. My kids have hit this hard. Even the salad I made they have put in their lunches. I never realized how their body's were wanting this.

I do have something positive thought my water is getting better. Yesterday I was up to 40 oz of water. I plastic glass that has the ounces on the side so them I know where I am at. This has proven to be very helpful in tracking what I need.

Ready, set, let the journey begin.

Be prepared for day's like this

STRESS! There is no good way to say it, but plain stress. I am a stress eater big time. Today was a great example of what not to do when stress hits. I shoved food in my month with not even realizing how much I consumed. They are not lying when they said comfort food. So now this is a hurdle I am going to have to think about and have a back up plan. And then on top of all that I had no time to eat lunch. So what do you do you grab what is quick like the candy bar.

Plan,plan, and plan more. You need to plan your day, plan your meals,and plan, plan, plan. It is like when you have no set goal in life. You have nothing, but a huge void, with no direction. No wonder I set my self up for to fail.

I have no planned dinner time, no planned menu, no planed anything and then there is just plain stress of what to do with no plan.

What I need to do is have a drawer full of health snacks for day's like this. When I have been booked solid with calls and the stress hits. So look I have another short term goal. Let me search for some healthy snack I can save in the drawer. Stayed tuned for Snacks list to have on hand.

What happen to day one

Lets just say now that this is public and I am carrying a journal this is ugly. Let me just be open, this healthy living is going to take some work. Left me run down what I ate yesterday and you be the judge.

Breakfast (two slices of bacon, one fried egg and half scope potatoes, and tortilla) (Water)
Lunch: (went out to eat had the Shrimp Scampi, bread and Cesar salad) (Water)
(I will talk about this.)
Dinner: Kids happy meal at McDonald's (little chocolate milk and water) Did I tell you we went really later for this meal.
The water intake yesterday was only 30 ounces. As you see I really fall short here.

So as you can see I need to make some major changes. Sunday is the day we go out to eat, but this is going to have to change. Here is were planing is going to be key. So today I am going to plan out a menu. As you see I really only had on vegetable and Cesar salad and this is full of calories.

I may have to post more than one once a day for a while.
Ready set let the journey began.

Day one - Water, bathroom and water

This should not be hard at all water is my drink of chose. Since I can't drink diet soda that will be a blog by its self. So water is my main drink. As I pulled up the Mayo Clinic website to read about this it says 8 to 10 glasses a day (8 ounce glasses). Let's see if you weight over 160 lb it should be 10 glasses for today.

Talk about water logged no wonder you don't get hungry you are full off water. I will let you know how it goes. I have put some bottle water in the refrigerator already with my initials on the top. I let everyone know that this is for me today. This took up a whole row in my refrigerator. This seems to be a lot of water if you ask me. But then again I am not the expert and need to start somewhere.

If I go cold turkey my body will go into shock. Changing the habits will require some time. Since the habits I formed where little as well.

Here I go ready of not let the journey begin.

My Board of encouragement

I guess you all are wondering what this is all about. I went down to my local library about 7 days ago. Since I knew this change of life style was coming up, I checked out motivational tapes and books. At the top of my list is the Bible very good read which I read everyday.


Anyway back to my library adventure. The tapes were from Zig Zigler to Jack Canfield. In Jack Canfiled (The Success Principles) tape and book he talks about road mapping or visual board. So down to the local Hobby Lobby I went for supplies for my board. This is for my goal setting which will help with what I am trying to accomplish. I am very visual so this type of stuff caught my attention right away.

This will be hung in my office so when I am on a meeting or just plan looking around there it will be. A visual of what my goal is in plain sight. I don't want to hide what I need to achieve.


So what is on my board.

1) Picture of me (before) with the original weight on it. I printed this off on regular paper.

2) A spot of me in a month (my min. goal) with the new weight on it.

3) Short term goal (4.6lbs for the month), try one new healthy recipe.

4) To do a 5 k walk, to collect a menu of heathly foods

I will try and take a picture of it this week when I am fully finished with it. Just so you will have an idea if you want to create one as well.

What Next - How much I weight

Yesterday I went down to the GNC and weighed my self on the scale. Not pretty at all is being nice. If you only knew the emotions that went though my head. Breaking down in front of the store was not an option. Here in the middle of the mall, as people went by all I could think about was food. Yep, rule number one don't let emotions feed you so all the experts say. Have a back up plan to this emotion Blah Blah Blah.

Well this is something that inquires more investigation on my part. So this will be a blog all in its own.

Well back to the subject. Here is my official what I weight according to GNC scale at the mall. 190 lb 13 oz. Yeah read it and weep. The scale print out says my ideal weight should be 123lb to 135lb. Oh man they have to be kidding. I have not seen that size since I was in high school.

So I took the total and divided it by 12 (for Months) and came up with 4.6lbs. (rounded) per month. Hey that is not bad. This my be a goal I can reach every month than the full 55 lbs. I so kindly added over the years and want to see off right now thank you very much.

Now what? It is like trying to organize one's house where do you start. This is not some cold turkey thing. This requires baby steps. It would be crazy to go down stairs right now and toss everything out. It cost money you know, so what I will do is next time I shop bring something healthy into the house. Yep good plan if I say so my self.

Well till tomorrow when Istart making some kind of plan on how this weight is going to come off and stay off. The journey begin.

Introduction - Today I stepped on the scale

Hello my name is Tina, and today I stepped on the scale. Let me tell you I wanted to cry. I always told myself never would I weight this much. This was back when youth was still in my sight. Now married and three kids later that is not the case.

Today is the day for change. I can march down to weight watcher, or do this new diet everyone is doing but NO. As most I have done it all. Back about 6 years ago I lost 22 pounds to go on a trip back to California. Well you all know what happen while on vacation and when we got back. As the year when on the 22 pounds are back in, but double.

Now we are planing a crusie to the Bahamas. When we step off that ship into paridise I don't want to be covering my self with a big shirt. Then when we get back start this old habits again.

Here is where you all will see my victories and a negative word that will be kept to a minimum minor setbacks. You will know what works for me and what doesn't. This is exciting but yet once I hit the publish post the blog is on.