U-turn

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, beautiful day, beautiful day. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Won’t you be mine, won’t you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor? Yes, Mr. Rodgers neighborhood has been flowing thru my brain this AM. Some mornings are like that. Actually I consider it a good sign since I clearly must have a fairly optimistic view of the day if I’m signing at all and a throwback to my childhood nonetheless.

For some reason I am in a good mood today and that is nice. It’s Wednesday, so half way thru the week. Well technically around noon would be my half-way point. Friday is payday so tomorrow will be busy for me getting that done, etc. But who doesn’t love payday? And today is officially two weeks away from my Vegas trip. I am currently listening to Pink on i-tunes to put myself in the mood. Not that I need to get in the mood so much. It’s Pink after all and she kicks ass. That is one of the many reasons why I respect her so much. She is such a strong woman and I aspire to that.

Speaking of strong women I watched the newest Biggest Loser last night and I have to say I appreciate that Jillian Michaels is showing her softer side. It’s about freaking time. I know her whole identity is based on being the badass tough trainer but it’s nice to see she really cares to. I actually had a great workout last night. I bumped up my speed a notch and managed to do my whole 10 mile run at just a fraction faster. For some reason I was just feeling it last night. I was also sweating like a pig which always makes me feel like I got a kick ass workout in. It was mentioned last night that they are at the half way point on the show and I’m like, seriously, the show has BARELY just started. Why are they giving us such a short season this year? I’m so disappointed in that. Coming from a total Biggest Loser addict I wish it was on every week. Nonetheless I will enjoy it while I can.

After I finished up my run I got my new bosu ball out and did squats and some leg presses and arm lift things on it. Total and complete love for my new bosu ball. I am truly madly deeply in love already. It’s just fun. I am going to watch that stupid DVD it came with sometime and really see what I can do. For now I am just thrilled to do some minimal work on it. Fun!!!!

I actually can’t believe tomorrow is Thursday already, which means another weigh-in. I honestly haven’t thought about it too much this week or stressed about it which is nice. I’ve been so preoccupied with other things that this healthy living stuff just happened. I set a personal goal for myself when I started this weight loss journey in October for my Vegas trip. I had a weight in mind that I wanted to be when I went to vegas. I have tomorrows weigh-in, then technically two more weigh-ins. The following Thursday and then I will weigh in on Wednesday morning the following week since I will be in Vegas on that Thursday morning. Anyway, I am 3.5 pounds away from the goal weight I set for myself. That is not too shabby and I’m pretty confident I should hit that goal. Considering when I set that goal for myself that was a total of 45 pounds that I wanted to lose in approximately 4 ½ months. And here we are almost here. Some days I feel like I haven’t made progress but you can’t deny those numbers. After I booked my Vegas trip and was feeling like shit about myself I weighed almost 45 pounds more than I do now… no matter what happens I will be going to Vegas weighing 40-45 pounds less than when I booked the trip. That is progress anyway you look at it.

The funny thing is I have no concept of how much I weighed at any point over the last two years or so. This is what I know for sure, the end of March 2011 I was working out a lot I was down to close to goal, I was gearing up for my June 2011 Maui trip and my wedding! I was feeling pretty good. April 2011 I was still going fairly okay. Then the stress started to kick in and the middle to end of April and then all of May were not that good. I went to Maui in June not at my smallest. I have no idea how much I weighed because a girl in denial NEVER weighs herself. But I was happy and didn’t think I looked awful. I got married and was happy. I also ate whatever I wanted while in Maui.



When I came home from Maui I never got control of the situation again. My weight started to escalate from there on out. And honestly it started to escalate pretty quickly. November 2011 my sister Erin got married and honestly my weight was already out of control at this point. I have no idea what I weighed but clearly in 5 months I gained a lot of weight. This is a picture from my sister’s wedding and the photo taken the day of the wedding at the nail salon.





Despite the horrible reality of the photos above I still did NOTHING to change my situation. After Erin’s wedding we booked a family vacation to Disneyland for February 2012. I thought okay that is a great opportunity to lose some weight. And nothing happened again. Off to Disney I went HEAVY and miserable.





After Disneyland the photos are few and far between. Who wants to take a photo when you know you feel and look like shit. But my weight was always on my mind. The rest of February, March and April passed with me being miserable and sick. Then May 2012 came and I wanted to do something about it. Around the end of May I went to a weight watchers meeting and saw a HORRIBLE number on the scale. A number that put me back towards the very beginning of my journey so many years ago and then some. I went to weight watchers for like 3 weeks and then I quit. My heart wasn’t really in it. Also, I joined at a stupid time. My birthday was the end of May, Chris’s birthday is the end of May. Our 1 year anniversary was the beginning of June and we went to the beach for the weekend and this is where I lost it and never went back.
June passed, July came and went August was here and I was getting more miserable. September 2012 hit and I was starting to get ready and then of course the end of September I booked my Vegas trip and then for some reason October 2012 was FINALLY time.

I guess my point in all that is where I sit today I have little concept of the last time I was this weight. For a long time I thought I was still weighing more now than I did in Disneyland or at my sister Erin’s wedding, but I don’t think that’s true anymore. I am thinking my current weight might be closer to my Maui weight. I might have been a few pounds lighter in Maui 2011 but I’m thinking I’m close now to around there. And of course I’ve got 4 months until I go to Maui again, lots of time to get down to goal and drop the rest of this weight.

This has been a nice little look back thru memory lane for me today. I need reminders like this to truly see the progress of how far I’ve come. I also need to remind myself that I am capable of anything I put my mind to. Anything really is possible. It’s only taken about 4 ½ -5 months to change my life, my outlook on myself and how I feel. How I feel is the most important part. I haven’t felt this good in well almost 2 years. You’d have to go back to April/May 2011 to find me at this place in my life.

I guess my pinterest for the day sums it up better than I can really…