Nice Saturday...

It's been nice to relax today. We haven't been able to do that in about two weeks. I ended up going to my weight watchers meeting this morning and then came home and just chilled for a bit. I then got some motivation to clean the kitchen up, mop the floors, and wipe off the woodwork with some murphy's oil soap. It looks terrific. We then went out and ran our errands. We managed to walk out of Costco only spending $30, went to Big Lots armed with a 20% coupon and bought a few things, headed out to dinner at the Thai restaurant, and then hit Meijer Outlet again because I had to return a crockpot that I bought (Amazon rated it a 1 star so I didn't want to fool with it and we got the cats a remote controlled mouse that didn't work). While I was there, I spotted a body fat analayzer for $5! I looked it up on Amazon and it usually goes for $32. Awesome!

My current body fat is 28%. My weight drum roll {please} is 182.2 this week so I lost two pounds! I knew that last week was a temporary gain :) those things happen but I definetly didn't let it discourage me. I'm not going to let a gain mess me up. The WW meeting was interesting today. Several members discussed their frustration with adding in excercise and gaining. It happens, really! Just expect that when you work out, it's not like the biggest loser where you will lose a ton the first week. My reality was that it stalled the scale going down but the inches were coming off. So if you're in that boat, be sure to measure.

We went to our weekly dinner out and hit a Thai restaurant. It's fairly good and their Tom Yum soup is super. Their chicken pad thai is good but it needed some more spice so I asked for some more chili sauce to spice it up. I was really craving some Indian food but to tell you the truth, I'm afraid to go there because everything is so unhealthy (but it's so yummy). Making healthy choices there would be difficult. The Tikka Masala usually runs in the 20+ grams of fat per serving and I just don't want to do that. I've just got to make some at home because I have some Trader Joes Masala sauce.

We're going out tonight to celebrate a co-workers birthday. We're going to hit a bar that I haven't been to. It's Billy's Lounge. It looks awesome and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her and her clan. It's always a good time. Chris will be happen since the place offers some microbrews from some of his favorite Michigan breweries. I will probably drink off of his or have a drink. I prefer craft brews to mixed drinks but I usually don't drink. I just like to eat the calories :) nor am I light beer lover so those brews usually have a lot of points. Enjoy your Saturday all and have fun! Kellie

Darn that Meijer Outlet!

I am a weak human being when I walk into Meijer Outlet. Meijer is a chain of grocery stores in the Midwest and they happen to be headquartered in Grand Rapids. They have one outlet store where they side their overstocks and clearanced merchandise. It's an amazing store. Items usually range from 40-90% off. I got out of work today at 4:00 so I decided to stop by. There in front of my eyes was a Keurig Coffee maker. That shopping impulsivity kicked in and I wanted it. My in-laws have one of these things and I love it. So I grabbed the box and headed straight to a manager and attempted to ask for a discount. I tried but nope, they declined and showed me how much the item retailed for well, I was okay then I called Chris and after discussing the pros/cons of getting it. Well, I bought it. Darn me...I've got to stop this impulsive shopping. Yes, I will use it but did I need it? Well, not exactly but it will be nice to have when we go to the gym and have a nice cup of joe in our mugs! I'm just shaking my head right now. It was a great deal but urgh...take care all-Kellie

Is this week over with?

OMG, is this week over with? I swear this is the longest week ever! It's been a strange week and I'm ready for Friday! Thank God it's Friday eve :)

I've had a utterly busy day starting from 5:15 am until 8:00 pm. I was in the go go go mode. I knew it was going to be a rough day...or maybe, I just set myself up for a rough day by my attitude. I forgot to set the alarm this morning so luckily, I woke up at 5:15. We scramble to the gym and I was not feeling it today. My Ipod was dead, my legs were not wanting to move, and I was tired. I make it to work, race into a 8:30 meeting and then it's non-stop sessions for the morning. A co-worker drove me to one meeting and my mind was a blur from the non-stop meetings I had earlier. Then after the meeting, we had to grab lunch because I forgot mine at home. We ended up going through the Arby's drive through and I asked for a grilled chicken sandwich without mayo. They gave me a crispy...argh. Luckily, I said no mayo but it was still 9 points. Then none stop sessions until 5:15 pm. Then the commute home was awful. I almost got into an accident because some jerk decided to pass and missed me by inches. I was quite shaken. Sucks. So I'm using visualization tonight. This is what makes me happy: It made me smile. That's my baby. I got my flip video from Big Lots and it is awesome. I can't wait until I have some more stuff to post.

I think listening to NPR has also made me depressed a little bit. It's hard times out there right now and it seems like there is nothing too positive in the news right now. People are losing jobs left and right. It's so unsettling. I was less than thrilled to know that my 401K lost about $32K this year...and I'm sure it's continuing to shrink in size. It took me almost 8 years to get where I was, now I have the same amount of money as I had in 2005. I only have a 401 type of savings at my current job. We don't pay into the social security system. I know it will rebound but home much more can I lose? Ah, retirement is another 30 years out if I make it but I highly doubt if I will have the money in the account like they predicted. Oh, well...it's just money. I got my health, my husband, and a good job which is totally priceless! I will be in a better mood tomorrow, I promise! Take care all-Kellie

Wow I'm browsing from the wii

I'm actually making this post from the wii. Since getting it, I haven't used it so much but now I will. We went to Chris'x folks this past weekend and he set up the wireless system for them and they wanted to try the net on the wii and we got hooked so we downloaded it when we got home. Chris played with it all night so I didn't get a chance to until now. All I need is that wireless keyboard...here I go shopping again!
Things are going good here...drum roll please...gained 1.6 pounds. Now I wish I had a better answer to why this happened but I don't except it was that time so I'm sure next week will be awesome. The only tweaking that I'm going to do is go back to my homemade soup/spinach salad lunch. This week I'm having butternut squash soup with roasted pecans. My salad is baby spinach with feta and balsamic dresxing by Wishbone plus a Gnu bar. That's my kind of lunch!
The early workouts are going great but I'm actually falling asleep @ 9:30 pm. That's not so good but it is nice getting home so early! Well that's it for me today, take care all-Kellie

Yeah, out at 11:00!!!

I was done with jury duty at 11 am! Chris was nice and offered to drop me off at the courthouse so I left my car down at the YMCA where I work out. We get there and the court woman talked for 20 minutes straight about procedures. Then we listened to the judge telling us how important it was to be on a jury, etc. After that, they picked 50 randow jurors and took them upstairs for the selection. We waited another hour then they pulled another 50 people for selection. At 11 am, the woman came back down and told us that we are relieved from our duties all week so that was jury duty for me. I planned on taking the bus back to my car but after thinking about the 10 minute wait for it, I walked back from the court house to the Y. It was good to get in some exercise. The old me would have waited in the cold for the bus. Instead of going back to work, I decided to take the rest of the day off. I had not appointments anyways so it worked out nicely. I've done absolutely nothing today except watch the inauguration. Which was awesome to see.

We're on day two for the morning work outs and so far so good. It's an awesome feeling at night to get into my car for my hour long to commute to just come home. We were getting home so late especially in the last month, that I appreciate the extra time that we have. The mornings are definitely more interesting that the night. There are some hard core athletes there so that's inspiring to see. There's also your typical strange folks. I still question if people look at what they are wearing prior to working out. I've seen several women poured into tight sports bras and spandex (bare bellies showing). Yikes, how about a T-shirt to cover up a bit? Skin is not in...really, even if you have a rock hard body, honey, cover up. The wife beater t-shirts that the men wear also irk me. Humm, same thing, how about a shirt. I don't need to see your pits sweating all over. Cover up please.

The body bugg is interesting. I'm not too sure about it yet. I've found their website to be lacking but I like to see the calories that I have burned and the steps. Today, I'm at 10000 steps already and I've burned 1900 calories so far. During a typical day I burn about 2600. I'm not inputting my food because their website is lacking a lot of the foods and then you have to manually put it in and that's a total pain. I also don't like the fact that it will not allow you to input calories from working out when you are not wearing the bugg. For instance, I went swimming on Sunday and I couldn't even put my calories in. I knew that I burned about 400 because I wore my heart rate monitor but I just can't log it into the site.

I picked out a new weightloss outfit. Sorry for the crappy pics. I love our digital SLR camera but sometimes it's too advanced! The jeans were a good idea but I actually can wear them now. So I decided to pour my butt into the below outfit. They are a sized 12 pair of shorts made by Royal Robins (usually this company runs a little big so it might be closer to a 14). Right now, it's not a pretty sight but come summer, it's going to look better. So for your amusement, here they are!


P.S. I've added my Blog Followers so feel free to add if you want to stop being a lurker.

Jury Duty...

Chris is so excited that I have jury duty tomorrow. They actually pulled me in for the pool! I'm less than thrilled because the way that the county has it set up. I have to park just outside of the downtown area to ride a bus to the court house. The last time I road a city bus was in the 1980s when my parents took me down to Detroit for an event on the plaza when the people mover made it's debut (there was a whole event celebrating that). I think I would be okay if I could park right across the street but nope, that's not an option.

We switched from working out at nights to the mornings now. Wow, it actually takes a lot of prepwork but we did it. We packed all of stuff last night and rolled out of the house about 5:40 am. The kitties looked at us as if they said "WTF mom and dad, why are you up so early?" I'm so proud of Chris getting up so early. He's not a morning person (typically he doesn't even turn on a light in the morning until he has to). We got in a whole workout and settled in to having breakfast with each other at the Y. Now hopefully, it will flow that smoothly in the future. It feels great to come home after work because typically we were pulling into the drive at 7:30/8:00. Now lets see if this becomes a habit.

PS...Anji- I'll shoot you an email about Canada...would love to see you! We're about 3-4 hours from Sue Sault Marie (I think) so we definitely could do that or more. It sucks that they are making us get passports into Canada. We were thinking about getting a passport anyways because Chris is talking about wanting to go to Europe this summer instead of Colorado.

The weekend is flying by...

This weekend has really flown by quickly! Thank goodness we get to relax today. Originally, Chris's parents were going to come up for his mom's birthday (their idea because we would go down usually) but the weather is challenging so we're going to hook up with them next weekend. Nice because I don't have to scurry to clean the house until later!

Yesterday we hooked up with Ryan and in typical trainer fashion, he challenged us greatly. The exercises were pretty challenging because I have minimal core strength and he's targeting those areas. Another challenge with myself is balance and switching over like when doing backward lunges...switching from the left leg to the right leg is a semi-challenge for me. That right/left switch is something with me. Another thing that I have noticed about my learning style is that when explains the exercise that we are going to do, I have to have the weights in my hand and actually feel it. I just can't pick up on most of the movements when he is just explaining it/demonstrating it. I don't know if I can chalk this up to my lack of experience in the gym or simply my learning style. We're going to hook up with him again in about two to three weeks so that will be good. Chris and I now have a wide variety of things to add into our workouts.

Drum roll {please}...I am down 1.8 pounds! Wow, what a week. I was pleasantly surprised to see this number because I haven't lost this much weight during a weeks time in so long. I had to ask the receptionist twice if that was correct. She laughed and noted that it was. I explained how generally, I lose about .5 pounds a week and she noted that today is my week! I opted out of not celebrating my success in the group with getting that 5lb book marker or what ever you get when you reach a 5 pound loss. In the past, I've contributed to the class by sharing my thoughts on what they were talking about but this time around, I'm not doing that. I'm keeping the mouth shut. Partly because the majority of the class is at a different stage that I am at. For example, a woman shared that she just lost 20lbs but she is not eating any of her flex points nor activity points. One thing that I have learned is that you have to eat to lose and move to lose. I can't imagine going back to eating only 1200 calories a day. I would be starving and extremely irritable and probably killing my metabolism. It's like I wanted to shout out, "Girl, eat those points" because when she starts to add those points in, what's going to happen? Nothing but frustration because you get the "I'm not losing spiel". I also heard 5 people grumbling about adding activity to their plan and all of them thought that they were going to get these huge losses but guess what? They didn't. It's almost like Weight Watchers needs to print somewhere in that exercise book that "Don't expect a huge loss when you add intense activities to your life because it's not going to happen for a few weeks". Stick with the activity and you will be pleasantly surprised in a few weeks. We also discussed how to eat pizza, chocolate, etc. As I sat back and just thought...eat it. Really, have that pizza but make your own and load it with your favorite toppings. Eat that chocolate if you are craving it but watch your portion size. If you want a beer, drink a beer but keep it realistic, don't binge. If you don't eat that now when you are on plan, it's not going to be a smooth transition when you are going to maintenance. This time around, there is no food off limits to me because I'm cooking it at home. I can whip up some healthier options than some of it's restaurant versions.

I also talked to Ryan about the loss because I was a little freaked out but he noted that when people tend to change their workout, you will see a better result because your body gets used to things. I switched up two things last week. I added in personal training and swimming on the sixth day of working out. So we'll see how next week goes.

It's been a good weekend so far. Chris and I ran our errands yesterday and we managed to walk out of Costco with a $20 bill and Meijer Outlet for $5! Though, he spurlged at Gamestop so I think the Anji idea is working out. She suggested an allotted amount for fun spending. Good idea because when it's gone it's gone. At first he was afraid to do that because Chris is like "I don't want to spend it unnecessarily" but it's hugely benefited when we walk into a Gamestop store and goes "Humm, this game is 50% used" so it totally helps out. We also splurged and went to a "Brew Ha Ha" event put on by a local radio station where they had micro-breweries. Chris and I love to scope out new breweries especially when we are traveling we have a few favorites. There was a couple of MI breweries we haven't been too so we decided to check it out. When we got there, we were kind of ticked to see that we had to pay $5 for parking because it was going to cost $30 to get into the door. So we paid for our tickets and we were supposed to get a glass but we were too late for that. We get in there and there's tons of people and some of the breweries are already gone or out of beer. It started to turn around when I found some sample tickets on the floor so all is good (it makes up for not having the glasses). I found that it's true "Grand Rapids" fashion that they are under prepared for how popular the event was going to be. That's the one thing that I've noticed about living in this town is that they are under prepared for some of the events or the popularity of it. It's like we are somewhat cultured over here. Growing up in Detroit, they had expos up the wazoo but Grand Rapids feels like they are just getting started sometimes. My only other complaint about this town it takes so long to get unique things. We finally have an excellent Mediterranean joint, a decent Thai joint, a great Ethiopian and Indian place. We're finally getting a Chipolte (I'm spelling this wrong, I know) this week. I hear that they are giving out free burritos on Thursday. Now only if we get a darn Trader Joes sometime soon! It stinks that the closest one is in Novi, MI or Tinley Park, IL. Well that's it for me today, take care all-Kellie

Got the bodybugg...

I just got my bodybugg the other day and I'm not too sure if I like it. It was a real pain in the bottom to get set up because of the java function. I finally figured it out yesterday and I began to wear it last night. They want you to basically wear it for 23 hours a day to get a proper read. Today, I burned about 2291 calories and consumed about 1552 calories. Which is interesting because I remember seeing that in an average day, I need about 1452 calories to sustain my weight. At this point, I think that I wasted money on this product because I already have a heart rate monitor. I'll give it a chance to see if it works though.

It's super cold here. It's that type of cold where it freezes your nostrils when you step out in the air. Days like this remind me of my freshman year of college when I went to Central Michigan. It was in late January/early February where they shut the university down for 2 days because of the cold. I remember being on a fitness kick at that time and I walked from the freshman dorm to the SAC (Stundent Activities Center) which was about .75 mile only to find out that the center was closed. If only I would have stayed on that fitness kick!

The gym has been packed lately. Chris is getting so irritated about it so it looks like we may be moving to mornings for a while. Logistically, we'll have to figure this one out because there is a lot of prep work that goes into working out in the morning (showering, eating, organizing for the day, etc.). So we need to talk out how we are going to do this on the weekend. I purchased us 6 buddy training sessions with Ryan (our trainer) until the next Move It To Lose It class starts in mid-March. He kicked our butt last weekend so I'm expecting the same on Saturday when we have a training session with him.

I went out with my Curves friends on Wednesday night. It was great to see them. We wanted to get together before two of them left for Florida (lucky them!). I'm way too proud of myself because it was the first time I controlled myself at my favorite burrito joint. I thought ahead this time and looked at the menu. Instead of getting a burrito, loaded with meat, cheese, and sauce and a margarita. I opted for some fajitas minus the shells and water (I'd rather eat my calories than drink it). Nice! While we were at the restaurant, one of my friends told us how her work just recently let go of 450 co-workers. She noted that it was super stressful last week and she is happy to be working. She said that no one had a clue because the company has been doing extremely well so the cutbacks were puzzling. She said she spent the whole afternoon in shock, just waiting for her box. Luckily, it didn't arrive. That totally stinks. Hopefully this economy will turn around soon. Well that's it for me tonight, take care all-Kellie

I never have any luck with lentils or peas!

Last night I got the great idea that I wanted to make golden split pea soup so I threw the stuff together and had it cooking in the crock pot thinking that it would be ready but guess what? The peas were still hard! Even after initially cooking them and letting them set for an hour. I have the same luck with lentils, they just never come out! I just don't get it.

I got back in the pool yesterday and it felt terrific. I wore my heart monitor to see how much of a workout I got and I was surprised by the results. For 45 minutes, I burned 343 calories, my maxium heart rate was 142. Which was semi-surprising because I swam for 15 minutes straight twice so I thought my heart rate would be higher than it. On my regular cardio workouts, for 45 minutes of working out, I would have been around 520 calories. I'm going to treat swimming like a reward. I figure if I can get my bottom to the gym 5 times a week, I will treat myself on the 6th day with swimming.

I usually am not around to watch Oprah but I caught some of her show today about the weightloss issue and it looked good. It was sad to see how the Biggest Loser man weighs over 300 pounds and the woman who was on the show who wore bikini in 2003gained it back. It just goes back to how really easy it is to lose the weight but to maintain the loss is so much harder. Which is true. How many times has one's weight been a true yo-you situation. Mine sure has. It all started in 1985 after we moved after having the house fire. From then on, I've bounced somewhat. Like 5-10th grade I had weight issues, I was a normal weight from 11th grade until I was a college freshman, then total obesity from college junior until I was 26 then the weight slowly came back until I decided to do something about it. I've spent the majority of my life with having some extra pounds on my. Where I think I am stronger now more than before is that I no longer loathe myself or feel uncomfortable in my own skin. I remember when I was 20ish, I would spend nights, crying to sleep over my weight. This hasn't happened for since I was about 22. I like who I am. I think what I am doing now is only helping me for the long run. I pretty much new how to eat (well minus the dining out stuff and eating over 1500 calories) but the exercise stuff I never really got until the class. I feel like that is the missing link to my success. I love going to the gym and working out. It's like my "me time" and I make it a priority. Well, that's it for me tonight, take care all-Kellie

Doing a shout out!

Hey there...you know who you are. Chris gave me some crap for not being polite but heck, lets be for real here, to be fake isn't me and it's definitely not you. I'm happy you all are friends (really I am) and I'm glad that the wifey is nice to Chris but that's not me, never has. My beef her is the talking crap behind the back when you are supposed to be "friends" and with you is that you've been pulling a Mary Prickett for six months or more and that's semi-creepy but of course we did it to her but at least she didn't know. Unfortunately, I do.

He kicked our butts!

OMG, so the class has been over for 2 months now and being a part of the class we had one freebie personal training session. I decided last week that maybe it would be a good idea to hook up with Ryan again for some training. We scheduled it for yesterday and we got a killer work out especially core work. He's a kind person with a brutal workout. First up, he had us use the kettle ball and balance ball. We used our legs to swing up the kettle ball between our legs while the other exercises was just to sit on the balance ball with your knees to stabilize. We did 3 of those rounds. Those kettle balls are amazing. Then we used the bosu, freeweights, and a few free motion machines. All I can say is "Wow, this was an amazing workout". We have some new ideas to add into our routine. The most challenging for myself is that he had us on that ab standing up machine and we were to hold our legs up as long as we could. I lasted maybe 15 seconds so I'm going to challenge myself to work on that station in the future. After the session, I was like "aren't you glad we did this?" to Chris and he noted "At first I thought you were crazy to schedule so early with Ryan because I thought it was too soon but now I am glad you did because I really need to work on my core". We get an extra pay check at the end of the month so after thinking about Anji's suggestion, I think we are going to purchase 6 sessions from him until the graduate class starts in March. It's worth every penny and it's cheaper for two people instead of one.

After the gym, we had our one time a week eating out experience. We haven't been to this place since the summer and we missed it a ton. Usually we go there for breakfast but we opted for a lunch. It's a quaint little mom and pop place. The chefs/owner was originally at a five star restaurant in Grand Rapids but left and opened this place. It's located in the NW part of Grand Rapids and it is called The West Sider Cafe. Their menu changes up and the specials always change but they offer some killer Polish Food. We opted for a Polish Combination plate that had some rye bread, perogies, stuffed cabbage, sauerkraut, and a few pieces of Kielbasa. What a meal! When we go out we enjoy ourselves. I'm accountant able because I track the calories/points but I'm getting what I like instead of what is a more healthier choice. Funny thing is that yesterday at Weight Watchers we got the materials on dinning out. We didn't talk about it in the class but I read over the book and it noted "Don't cut eating out totally out of your plan. Just make sure you make wiser choices. The average person eats out 5.8 a week". I was one of those 5.8 times a week people. For the most part, I ate healthier options but I wasn't satisfied from the experiences because it was the norm. Now we are super picky on where we eat because that's all we have. Gone are the Qdoba Tuesdays and the Saturday meal at Noodles & Company, it's really not worth it for us and I know we can stick to this ideology.

We were wiped out yesterday when we got home. Totally lazy all day long. We were supposed to run errands but with the crappy weather we vegged out, which is good because we never do this, I'm always doing something in the house. We decided it was a pizza night so we made our own pizza. My favorite crust is the Jiffy Brand crust. You can find this at Meijer for 55 cents. It makes the best crust ever. We put our favorite toppings on it and it's better than any take out meal. Funny thing is that we had everything but the cheese. Luckily, we had some cheese sticks so Chris grated up the sticks and we sprinkled it on the pizza and it worked beautifully as you can see. I love pizza night!

Drum roll {please} I lost another .4 pounds so I'm down to 184.4...nice! I'm taking it nice and slow like usual but the pounds are coming off. I'm still eating between 1500-1700 calories per day. The workouts usually burn between 600 during cardio days (45 minutes) and 800 for strength/45 minute cardio days. I love it that the weight watchers scales measure in .2 increments so I see more progress that "just a pound".

I need to get my butt in gear today though. We have some errands to run, Christmas stuff should come down, and we got the gym later. Weekends go by so quick! Take care all-Kellie

Oh, the guilt when you break a resolution...

I have broke two resolutions so far and it's only January 9th! Yikes! The spending freeze got unfrozen. Chris splurged on some items for the WII (awesome deal) and then I bought the bodybugg. Argh! I feel totally guilty for this so I need to refocus on my financial goals. Maybe setting a goal will help with this process. Yes, we have a goal of what it is but we don't have a goal of the target fund. Maybe I need a financial goal of saving $1000 a month for house stuff and by June we should have $6000. Maybe that will get my attention and focus. The other resolution, well, I can't say what that is but my boss noted to me "Tell me how that works for ya" and it worked for a couple of days but BOOM! back into my same old behaviors. That goal wasn't realistic at all but I had good intentions! Really, I did!

So I'm a total sucker. I got enamored but the bodybugg that was shown on the Biggest Loser this week. Did some research on it and thought "Wow, this is awesome. I need this". Now what I should have done is go "Wow, that is awesome. I want that" so I then could think it over a little before purchasing it. On the chat boards, people are liking it but I still feel a tremendous amount of guilt for buying it, even though I found it for $100 off the going price because we were on a spending freeze. Okay, I officially need NOTHING now. Darn that show and their product placements! Take care all-Kellie

A little rest is good...

Planned rests are good for you from the gym. I was going to have a semi-late night so we opted to forgo the gym tonight. That's always healthy because when you get into a mode you want to go every day, you don't need to go every single day.

We're meeting up with Ryan on Saturday. He was one of our trainers from the class. We have two free personal training lessons so he's going to ramp things up for us. Chris is noticing that his heart rate is not getting up there as much and I'm worried that my routine is getting standard so we need to mix it up. I checked out the Shape Magazine workout book at the library and I liked it so much that Chris bought it for me. I'm looking forward to getting it in the mail so I can make notes in the book. I love the look of some of the core excercises.

The kitties have to go to the vet on Saturday. I'm not looking forward to that because Bolton has issues with transporting. I'm not ready for a *hitty kitty :) According to the vet, if we don't feed them the morning of, they shouldn't have any problems so hopefully it will go well. The last time we transported Bolton he went all over. All I can say is that cat poop is the worst. If I can take kitty poo, baby poo is nothing, right?

We're doing good about the shopping. We made it through Costco and only spent $29 but then when we were at the resgister we learned that our membership expired so we had to renew so there went another $50. We also avoided the Meijer Outlet this weekend so we can do it. As Chris said today "I don't want anything, I don't need anything" so this is good.

Well, I need some help. I have two new frames that I need lenses put in. I bought them at Costco a few weeks ago and I am now second guessing my picks so could you help me out here. Are these glasses lense worthy? I was thinking the darker pair could be my future sunglasses and the brown could be my everyday glasses. Any thoughts? Oh and yes, my tree is still up. I'm going to take it down on Saturday! Take care all-Kellie

The F-Bomb, really?

I was a witness to some bad gym behavior today that wasn't too cool. I was just telling Chris that I've never seen any bad behavior at the gym because Chris mentioned a friend had a ruin in with someone. I'm there using the freemotion machines and someone actually dropped the F-bomb and started to scream at a regular at the gym. Apparently, the regular went back to wipe off the machine and then a woman thought that she was going to jump on it and started to cuss at her. Wow, unbelievable, really. The women were both in their 40-50s too. Really, what a shame because this is not how the gym is. The thing is that you can actually feel the tension around the place though. The atmosphere has changed because it's busier, people are doing odd things that tick off the regulars like removing the spray bottle to spray off the machines (instead of taking the bottle, wetting the towel to wipe off the machine this is my pet peeve), not wiping off the machine when you have completely sweat over it, running in the walking lanes/walking in the running lanes, bumping into people, machine hogging where people are not finishing up sets in a respectful manner, etc. We were all newbies once so we can't forget about that but I can't wait until things slow down because it happens all the time. Heck, Chris and I were doing this two years in a row until we finally committed back in September. It's nice to know that we established the good patterns then so we got a good grove figured out.

The cool things about going regularly to the gym is that you get to notice the little things that motivate change in yourself. There is this one woman who started the other weightloss class the same time we did and she is looking great. About a month ago I went over to her and told her how great she was looking and found out that she lost 35 pounds. Every time I see her I smile and say "hi". Another neat thing is that you learn new tricks. I saw a woman doing a cool move with the weights so I went up to her yesterday and asked how I could modify it to my fitness level and she was more than happy to help me out. Another place that I saw change was Weight Watchers. I hadn't been back to my regular Weight Watchers meeting since last March when I fell off the wagon. Two of the ladies that started last year were at their goal weight so it was terrific to see how much weight they lost. That's motivating because I can get there if I want. I feel that losing the weight is the easy process because you know what to do to lose it. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is much more challenging because you are there at your goal but how do you keep it healthy. I'm hoping that the changes that I'm making now will help me later.

Oh, that dinner on Saturday was awesome! Restaurant.com had the gift certificate super cheap so we checked the place out. If you are from the Detroit area (or visited) the Mediterranean food was excellent in Dearborn. The owners of the restaurant came from Dearborn and the food was the best I've had in years. The only thing that would make this place better if they baked their own pita bread. The chicken was tender and moist and as much I planned on avoiding the garlic sauce, I did end up having some and they had it perfect. I think we will be regulars. The cool thing about Mediterranean food is that it is super healthy for you. This week it's my turn to pick so we may have to go back again!

Chris got after me a little about blogging. We never openly discuss the blog nor has he ever read it. He was like "why on earth do people blog and put things out there?". Humm, that's a good question. I started my journaling process almost 10 years ago and it's just been part of me. It captures who I am at that point in my life. When I started this process, I was 23, not married, not comfortable in my own skin, broke, in graduate school, in a miserable relationship, etc. Now, I'm 33, happily married, I'm pretty positive, have a cool home, great job, two of the most loving cats whom I adore, and I like who I am. The thing about blogging is that I never put out stuff that I'm not comfortable in sharing with my own worst "enemies". People stumble onto your blogs that know you or knew you so I don't put anything out there that I wouldn't be comfortable in sharing with others. I notice that when I blog more, I'm more accountable. Sometimes I like to look back at the pictures of myself and find it motivating. Any little help is good when you are trying to be healthy and you have a goal in mind. Take care all-Kellie

Saturday weigh in results!

Drum roll {please} I lost .4 pounds this week. So I am down to 184.8 pounds according to the weight watchers scale! For it being a holiday week, I handled myself pretty darn good. At the New Years party, I stayed away from the food and alcohol for the most part. I had a few shrimp and cheez it's but it's no where near what I would have eaten if I wasn't watching my weight.

I'm in the 24 point range of eating and I ate all my flex points plus 25 of my activity points. After looking at my journal, I actually earned 36 activity points last week (not the 34 I posted below). I chatted with the secretaries (leader was busy) and as long as I am "under the direction of a trainer and my doctor knows about it" (typical WW CYA) I can earn above the 28 points but I was told not to over do it though.

In the meeting, they discussed habits of success. It got me thinking, "Why haven't I been a lifer yet?" I know the program in and out but never made it to goal weight. Thinking about that, made me ask "Why haven't I?". Here's my thoughts. I never incorporated the exercise before. Yes, I was going to Curves but I didn't switch it up ever. I loved my Curves experience and it helped me lose the weight initially but the focus was on Cardio and not really incorporating strength. Another issue is the lack of planning so I'm on it. I'm too busy not be be organized so I always need to be in a planing mode like "What days are you going to the gym?" "What days are strength?" "What's a good crockpot meal?". Finally, not being as patient as I should be. I'm patient now, really. I ran into Carly my trainer and she noted that I'm so realistic when it comes to my goals. I really set my self up for success and not focus on the number of what I weigh. What I do is that I set my mind on how many workouts I'm going to get that week and the healthy habits fall into place naturally.

I love Saturdays. It's our errand day today so we're going to hit Costco and I have a list! We always love to have the pomengrate juice in the house, spinach, apples (or oranges depending on Chris's mood), Odwalla Mango Tango, pecans, and some feta cheese. The only potential impluse buy today is that I'm having a taste for some stuffed grape leaves so I might spring for some of those. Our dinner out tonight is going to be at a Mediterrean place. I got a coupon at restaurant.com that is $25 off for $2. Hopefully, they will have some good food because I'm craving some good chicken shawarma and hummus. I'm going to lay off the garlic sauce because I have no clue on what's in there. Last week, we were disappointed about our eating out place so hopefully this one will offer some good food.

I also need to get organized tomorrow. My house is a disaster. Since I am on oncall, I think I'm going to attack my closets and get out the clothes that I don't need anymore. I have so many items that I just don't wear that need to go. The Christmas stuff needs to come down, too. Humm, busy weekend!

First full week back on Weight Watchers

This week I integrated what I learned from the Move It To Lose It class into Weight Watchers and it went okay. I'm averaging about 32-34 points per day because I've earned 34 points for working out this week. There's some discrepancy on how many activity points one can earn during the week so I'm going to firm it up with my leader tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm not going to change anything because the program is working for me. I still track my calories on spark people but I've been using that "tiny" point journal to help me write things down at work or after meals so I can input it into the computer. I have weigh in tomorrow so I'll see how it goes. I'll see if I can get back into this weekly weighing thing.

Am I the only one who likes making resolutions?

As crazy as it sounds, I like making resolutions. There is something about the new year that makes you feel like you are getting a fresh start in life again. Don't we all need that at certain points in our life?
So here are mine: 1. Take another Move it to Lose It course in the spring. Keep on getting in shape so that when I get pregnant I will be a healthy mom. 2. Make it to Colorado or Utah for a back packing trip 3. Balance healthy work hours so that we have family time 4. Have a spending freeze so we can have major $$$ in our savings 5. Replace the remaining windows in our home, thin some of the trees in the back yard so we can have a pergola on our hill (that is a picture of a possible one at Costco. 6. Maybe getting established in a church. 7. Reconnecting with old friends/Making new friends.

When you set goals, it's always good to look at the barriers. So here's the barriers to the above goals 1. None, I am going to be healthy. We've really changed our lifestyle for the better. We both look forward to going to the YMCA. 2. No foreseen barrier except that we might find another state to do the trip in. Regardless, we are going to take a major backpacking trip. 3. Anything can happen with work. I just have to keep a good balance there. I hate major late nights and need to keep them to a minimum. 4. One barrier, Meijer Outlet and Costco. Those stores tend to be my weakness. I should avoid those places for a while until I can curb my impulsive good deal shopping. 5. One barrier, money! Saving can help. 6. Chris and I are both on the fence about this one. We want to do it but it's somewhat anxiety provoking. We have faith but tend to shy away from the organized religion. I had great memories of the church as a young child/teenager but once adulthood hit, I recognized the back biting/petty behavior of others. Maybe a more open mind. There's two churches that we're going to check out in the coming months but we're still kind of wounded from the past. The idea of going back is that I think it's important to raise a child in a church atmosphere but we're more on the liberal side so we're not too sure what to do. I was raised Methodist. We like the Methodist Church downtown and there's a more radical liberal church in town too, so we just got to commit to getting our butts out of bed on a Sunday. 7. Time/fear is a major barrier. There's a few woman I've met this year that I would like to get to know better but it's difficult for me. Time is one barrier because it seems like I'm only available on the weekend. My shyness/being guarded is another. In my work, establishing relationships with clients, I can do rather quickly but in my own life, well, I'm closed almost completely. People burn me out because I tend to pick unhealthy relationships. I hate dealing with back biting, insecure people who have the need to tear down others. I'm a good friend but when someone violates trust, I'm done, I have no place in my life for them. Connecting with old friends is another. I need to make it down to KY to see Teresa some time. It's been over a year and a half. That sucks! I would love to see a few other friends from graduate school that I reconnected with on Facebook. Plus seeing our friends Ron and Jodi. We ended up going to their New Years Eve party and it was so good to see them again. The last time we saw them was a year ago. They are such good people who are sincere, honest, and giving. They would give you the shirt off their back and to neglect that relationship like we have, has been sad. We've got to do better.

So those are my resolutions...so what are yours? Where do you want to be in a year?