Labor Day...and Motivational Monday!!!

Happy Labor Day! As you may recall, I had set a goal for myself to be under 200 pounds by Labor Day, so this is a big weigh-in for me. I also wondered what I would see on the scale this morning, since we had a big BBQ at our house on Saturday, and I did have a few beers and a couple of shots. Otherwise I did well, including the extra trips up and down the stairs and eating healthy the rest of the week.

Well, I lost 2 pounds!!! I now weigh 204, and I'm very happy with that. I'm thankful that my celebration on Saturday didn't mess me up on the scale. I know I did not quite get to my goal for Labor Day, but I truly believe that I would not have even been this close without setting that goal. I am making a new set of goals, which I will post tomorrow. I'm down over 9 pounds since starting this blog, so I know I'm on my way to even smaller numbers!

This week my motivational person is Tara Costa from this past season's Biggest Loser. She is amazing, and if you remember she was even able to pull a car! She is still kicking butt and motivating the rest of us to reach our goals. She just launched her new site at http://www.taracosta.com/ in order to reach as many people as she can to inspire them!

Enjoy the holiday, and let's all make this a fantastic week!!! xoxoxo

Operation Fat Blaster: The Stairs!!!

Our mission this week is to take the stairs wherever we can, instead of using the elevator or escalator. If we don't have access to stairs, we need to get an extra 30 minutes of activity in some other way. The idea is to find little ways to get fit that you can sneak into each day.

I work from my home office, so the only stairs I have to climb are the ones in my house. I decided to take extra trips up and down the stairs when I don't necessarily have to use them. Every day this week, I have gone up and down both sets of stairs several extra times...the ones that lead upstairs to the bedrooms and office, and the ones that lead to our finished basement.

This is a really good thing for me. Every summer, when we go to Huntington Beach here in Cleveland, there are some really killer steps. They are numerous and quite steep. Going down to the beach is not so bad, but coming back up to street level always gets me. I get out of breath and my legs are very shaky...I have to stop and sit down on the closest bench, and it takes me a while to recover. (And at the top of those steps, there is an ice cream stand...doesn't that figure???)

I am determined that by next summer I will not have any problems with those beach steps. I also researched stair climbing, and found that it is actually a sport! You can check out more about that at www.stairclimbingsport.com . You can burn twice as many calories stair climbing than walking...now there's some extra incentive!

I also snuck in some other extra exercise this week...I parked further away at the bank, grocery store, etc. and got more walking in instead of just finding the closest spot. I've also been doing leg lifts in front of the computer. (You're picturing that now, aren't you?) It all adds up, and I will continue to find more ways to fit in little workouts throughout the day.

Motivational Monday

Well, I certainly thought I did everything right this week! I got on the scale this morning, really expecting to see a loss. I can tell how much looser my clothes are, and I now fit into a few things that were too tight to wear before. I know that is a sign that I am doing something right.

My scale did not show the number I was hoping for...I am back up to 206, which means I gained .8 pounds. I know that's less than a full pound, but I still didn't think that's what I would see this morning. I know I followed my plan, except for one single chocolate chip cookie on Saturday. Once again it's the time of the month for Aunt Flo to make her visit, so I'm thinking that may be the reason.

I have gotten past my initial disappointment, and I'm focusing on the clothing fitting better and the other positives that I'm noticing. (In being disappointed with the scale, I forgot to take my measurements...and I've already had breakfast so I can't do it now.) It's nice to hear my husband say that he can see me starting to get slimmer, and what a feeling having my son say that when he hugs me, his arms fit around me better now!!!

My motivational person for this week is the most recent winner of Nashville Star, Melissa Lawson. Not only did she go for her dreams of a singing career and win the competition, she lost 45 pounds while doing the show and continues to lose weight as she lives her dreams. If you want to find out more about Melissa, you can check out http://www.myspace.com/melissalawsonnashvillestar .

You know what else inspires me...the vision board I made for the challenge! I recommend this project to anyone on a weight loss journey. Looking at it will definitely keep you going on tough days, and motivate you even more on good days. It's the last week before Labor Day, so lets make it a great one!

Wow! I Have a Lovely Blog!!!

I just received my second blog award a few days ago. Thank you to Annie at http://annie-shrinkinggirl.blogspot.com/ for bestowing the One Lovely Blog Award upon me. She is definitely shrinking and really amazing! She also inspires me on my journey, and I'm sending a big hug out to her right now!

Now that I've received this wonderful award, I am to thank the person who gave it to me, which is taken care of above. The other part of this honor is that I am to choose 15 blogs that I think are lovely, and give the award out to them. I love them all, but here are my 15:

http://105in365.blogspot.com/

http://a-woman-of-moderation.blogspot.com/

http://mesohongry.blogspot.com/

http://fundamentalchange.blogspot.com/

http://rebornwright.blogspot.com/

http://melissacunninghamifpapro.blogspot.com

http://onewomanseye.blogspot.com/

http://positivelystar.blogspot.com/

http://robcohn.blogspot.com/

http://www.secretsofaformerfatgirl.com/

http://cycleblogbs.blogspot.com/

http://thoughts-of-pink.blogspot.com/

http://kristinemeldrumdenholm.blogspot.com/

http://kaewhang.blogspot.com/

http://emergingauthor.blogspot.com/

Please check out these blogs, they are inspiring and incredible...and thank you again Annie!!! xoxoxo

Stop Calling In Fat To Life! (the wrong way)

***The above photo courtesy of the Junonia Plus-Size catalog.


I read an awesome blog yesterday from Marissa Jaret Winokur. She is keeping a weight loss blog for People Magazine: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20300257,00.html . In the latest installment she talks about calling in fat, like you would call in sick to work. She mainly focuses on the fact that she took a little vacation, where she didn't count calories, went to the beach and just enjoyed the time with her husband and son. She also skipped writing her blog for a week. This version of calling in fat is something that makes sense to me...Marissa's been working hard, and needed a vacation to just relax and enjoy. We all do that from time to time, whether we are size 2 or higher!

She did also touch on the other way we all call in fat. We skip parties and events because we feel too fat to make an appearance. I can say I have done this, more often than I would even like to admit. Marissa got me thinking about the times I have decided not to go somewhere because I felt like people would be staring at my size or make comments. Sometimes I even skipped an event because I thought I would overindulge on all of the good food that was going to be served there. The problem was, I would always feel depressed that I was missing out on the fun, and then eat junk anyway to make myself feel better. Then I'd have to call in fat to another event, and the cycle continued.

I have decided that I will not call in fat to my life anymore! I will attend those parties and just enjoy myself. I'm learning how to control myself around the food, so that is not a problem now. Life doesn't start once you become a certain size...you are living it NOW!!!

I play tennis, dance, go to the pool or the beach, and do whatever I wish, at the size I am now. As I continue losing weight, the size of my clothes is becoming smaller, but I am going to enjoy and live life no matter what.

So calling in fat to take a little vacation is OK, as long as you get back to business once you come back. But don't skip having fun in life because of your size...go out there and just live!!!

Operation Fat Blaster: Recipe Makeover Mission!

This week, our mission was to take a favorite comfort food recipe, and give it a healthy makeover...so that when we do indulge, it's not as bad for you!

I made over my favorite New York Cheesecake recipe. Here are the ingredients for the original recipe:

3 Tbsp. Butter
5 packages (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 cup crushed graham crackers
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. flour

When these ingredients are processed and baked, one serving (1/16th) of cheesecake is 449 calories and 32 grams of fat. Now, here is the made-over version:

3 Tbsp. reduced calorie butter spread
5 packages (8 oz.) reduced fat cream cheese
1 cup crushed graham crackers
1 cup reduced fat sour cream
4 eggs
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbsp. flour

Heat over to 325 degrees. Line 13 by 9 inch pan with foil. Mix crushed graham crackers, 3 Tbsp. of the sugar, and butter spread; press onto bottom of pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, rest of sugar, flour, and vanilla extract until blended. Add sour cream and blend. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed until blended.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan. Top with fresh strawberries. Makes 16 servings.

In adjusting to reduced fat and lower calorie ingredients, one serving of cheesecake becomes 340 calories and 19 grams of fat. Still not exactly "diet" food...but it definitely won't do as much damage if you indulge, and you shouldn't have this kind of food all the time anyway. I prefer strawberries over cherries to begin with, so I changed the fruit, but any kind of fresh fruit would be great on this cheesecake.

I do also want to add a tip: When I make pumpkin pies for the holidays, I always use the fat free condensed milk instead of the regular kind. I tweak the spices a little, and otherwise follow the normal directions. Everyone always wants me to make my pies...because they like the flavor better. And the pie is a little bit better for all of us!

I'm so glad we had this challenge. I plan to makeover more recipes very soon!!!

Motivational Monday!

It's my ultimate day of truth each week...Monday! Time to reveal the number on the scale from this morning and my measurements, and also what I think I did right or need to improve.

The scale was my first stop this morning (well, after the bathroom!) and I was feeling good about my week. I hoped to see a big number, but also know that any loss is good. I now weigh 205.2, so I lost 1.6 pounds for the week. It's a little better than last Monday, so that's a step in the right direction. Then, I took my measurements, and I lost another 1/4 inch from my waist and slightly more than 1/4 inch from my hips. I love seeing these numbers get smaller!!!

I did really well with my workouts this past week, still hitting the treadmill and the elliptical. I stumbled upon a great deal at Giant Eagle while I was buying groceries...a couple of Jilliam Michaels DVD's for $9.99 each! You'd better believe I snatched those up...they are making room for new releases in their video department, so a lot of workout DVD's and TV series box sets were marked way down. This week I will be trying out those Jillian workouts!

I still did pretty well with my eating plan, but I did have some fast food on Saturday. My son and I were at the pool, and afterward we went to McDonald's. I was starving and got a Big Mac combo...next time I have to think smarter and get one of their salads, and not let the hunger cause me to make bad choices. Otherwise, I ate healthy food, and I did get right back on plan after my Saturday night splurge, so I am happy about that.

My motivational person this week is Julie Hadden, who was on Biggest Loser Season 4. She lost 97 pounds, and I love that she gives God the credit for giving her the strength to change her life. He is the reason any of us find our strength, and she is very open about that. She has a book coming out very soon, which is titled "Fat Chance". If you want to learn more about this amazing woman, she has a web site...www.juliehadden.com .

Here's to an even better week ahead, full of success and learning...I know we can all do this!!!