Quite a few things to talk about tonight…
1. Meggie’s comment on my before/now pictures
2. New Digital Camera
3. Record workout
4. Biggest FREAKIN Loser Finale

Meggie’s comments on my before/now pictures…I wanted to mention this before and keep forgetting…so here it is. When I posted my before/now picture in the post a few down (scroll down if you haven’t seen them yet), I called the girls in here after Clint saw them and Abbie was all full of compliments and smiles for me…Meggie gets up on my lap and I was telling her that the ‘me’ in the white shirt (before shot) was me before I had her in my tummy and of course the other is the ‘me’ now…and this child argued and argued that the girl in the white shirt was NOT her momma…the ‘now’ picture of me, fine, that is her momma…not the other…she was so determined that she didn’t know that woman and it fer sher wasn’t her momma that it convinced me there truly is a good bit of difference in the pictures…

Christmas came early for me Clint took me out on Friday morning (Black Friday) to Rex TV and Appliance place for a sale they were having on Digital Cameras. He found one that he really wanted me to have and it was $100.00 off on that Friday if we went at the right time. We went, we saw, we oogled the cameras, we bought and now the pictures just keep on comin’ It’s a Sony DCR-DVD92. This thing is a digital camera AND and video camera in one I’m a happy girl. and. AND. get this…it burns the pictures and movies DIRECTLY to a mini-dvd that is inserted in the side of the camera. It is the coolest damn thing I have ever seen. The little flip out screen thingee (haven’t learned all the terms quite yet) is a touch screen! I’m having a blast with this thing. Of course it’s my ONLY Christmas present, seeings how we could have probably fed a 3rd world country with the cost of it (not really, but you get my exaggeration of a point).

Inspiration once again from the Biggest Loser. I’ll get to the show in a sec, but I’ll be gosh darned if I didn’t kick some ass on my workout today. Seriously. This is a freakin record for me on Lippy. Within the 2 hour time that I watched the Biggest Loser Finale I did a total of 55:04 minutes, a total of 2.751 miles, and. get this. oh. freakin. gosh. I burned a total of 840.2 calories. I rock.

Ok. So. Biggest Loser. (Warning: winner is announced in the next few words, so if you haven’t seen it, cover your eyes, cuz I’m gonna spoil it)…I was SO excited that Matt won. I know everyone all this season called him a cry baby and whatever…geez even the poor guys ‘good friends’ were asking him if he was gonna be voted the Biggest Loser or Biggest CryBaby…I felt bad for him. There is nothing wrong with showing emotions, man or woman. He is a very sincere guy and it shows. I really did want Suzy to win it all, but I’m very happy Matt won. I couldn’t get over how they all looked. Even the ones that came back that were already voted off. The one that kinda made me laugh was Catherine. You could tell from her face from the second she stepped out onto the stage that she’s harboring some resentment or at the very least, not happy with what she’s lost since the show (which turns out, none)…she had the nastiest look on her face the entire time. Nobody’s fault but her own if you ask me…every single person there worked their butts off. Literally. They all deserved every ounce of loss…they were amazing and so inspiring. Really got me working on Lippy. If they can do it, so can I.

So the glum-ness of the Thanksgiving Holiday gain is now behind me and I’m back to bustin ass

A huge-mongous thank you to every single one of you for your compliments on my pictures and encouragement after my gain. I hear on my site quite often that I inspire you all to do this and stay motivated and on track and seriously, you all do just that for me. I don’t think I would continue if it weren’t for the accountability I get here…so any of you still just sitting around, thinking of starting your own journal, DO IT. It’s the best motivation ever when people you don’t even know are there for you every single day. Good day or not.

Food. Why the FRIG do we celebrate with FOOD. Is that NOT why I have this journal? Is that not the exact thing that I have been trying to limit and count and avoid with all I have in me?

Then TurkeyDay. Ok. So at the actual Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I truthfully made good choices and small amounts and was not able to eat half of what I had served myself, because after all, I am a mom. All us moms (and dads too I’m sure) know that there is just about NO time in our life when we are able to pee alone, let alone sit down to a wonderful, warm, festive meal and be able to sit through the entire thing until we are satisfied. Nope. I sat down, ‘Mom, I need more milk, please’…I get the milk…’Mom, I have to go potty’…we run to potty…’I'm done, can I go play??’…sure, maybe NOW I can eat…nope, now little sister is also finished, wants to play AND fight with big sister…I leave the room once more, all the while hearing the giggles of the other moms who know EXACTLY what I feel like at this moment. Activity points??? Nah.

We get home, what do I do? Have a nice helping of sweet potatoes, which would be fine, except I made them and I KNOW what is in them. Sugar. Yeah. Baked on top crispy ‘apple crisp’ kind of topping on the sweet potatoes. Later? Piece of pie. Ok, so maybe not as disasterous as some, but not as good as I had hoped for.

Saturday. Thanksgiving Dinner #2. All hell breaks loose. Dude, I totally got to sit through a whole meal/plate full of food. Again not huge helpings of any of it, but I had some of everything, except for white potatoes. I have weaned myself from white potatoes, bread and pasta unknowingly, and no longer even want any of it. Just kinda happened. Anyhow, had pie once again after dinner (only one piece, mind you)…

All in all it definitely could have been worse. What could NOT be worse is the gain on the scale. I never thought that a real, not counted, meal (or two) could create the kind of gain I am seeing at this moment.

I need to refocus. Holiday is over and I have just under 4 weeks (I think) until Christmas now. Plenty of time to start showing losses again. Tomorrow morning is my do-over. Tomorrow and there on out, not a bit of food will be consumed without it first being calculated and journaled. I will not be using points up on my drinks (not alcoholic, but I drank quite a bit of milk over the weekend which is also unlike me). Water water water is all.

You know the drill/routine. I am just going to be starting it all over again tomorrow. I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday weekend

Seriously, the ‘now’ picture of me looked better to me in the camera…now I’m not too crazy about it. Figures.
My before (around 295 lbs.) and me now in the brown sweater and before the eyebrow disaster (248 lbs.)…49 lbs. lost.
Dear God, PLEASE let there be a difference:

Ok, so I’m still not thrilled with the ‘now’ but I can definitely see a difference. Who the HELL is the girl in the white shirt? This is the girl I was saying the other day that I still feel like. It’s so funny cuz I know there’s a difference, but I don’t remember seeing the image in the mirror looking any different than it does now. Maybe it’s because it’s a gradual change, and I see myself daily…could be. I just know there is still quite the journey to go, but it’s now only 80-some lbs. left to lose compared to the 130-something I started with. Progress

Also, see in the white shirt where my hip is bulging over the chair? I can now sit in these chairs and my hips don’t even TOUCH the sides of the chair. Reality can be a girls best friend

First and foremost. I have overplucked. I now have a temporarily-permanent look of surprise.

I am waiting for my mom to e-mail me the ‘now’ picture that she took of me…it turned out kinda cute, so I wanna use that one for my most recent photo. I will hopefully update with photos in just a little bit. So much for the promise of having the photos posted 2 days ago, huh? Just talked to mom and she’s going to be sending them my way…I will update when they come through and post them

I will post this photo when I get home, I promise, but I had to tell the story of what happened to me about an hour ago.

A lady we work with asked my mom to get some photos of some of our co-workers. This lady is crafty and has something up her sleeve, so mom started pulling out photos from her desk of other co-workers. She came across this little beauty (not) of me, and figured I would want it for another ‘before’ shot and gave it to me before the lady could see it and take it.

The picture is from at LEAST 4 years ago. Abbie is in it with me, and she couldn’t have been more than 3. So, this is from before I even got pregnant with Megan, or could possibly have been JUST as I was pregnant with her (which makes it even sadder, because I lost weight right before I got pregnant with Meggie).

You would think when you see a photo of you ‘before’ that you would automatically be overjoyed that you have come so far, you look so much smaller, your face isn’t solid roundness, etc. A normal person would anyways. Here’s my take on the picture. Yeah, I look AWFUL. Seriously, when you see the photo, there’s nothing ‘cute’ about me at all in it. But what’s the first thing I think? Ok, well the FIRST thing I thought was OHMYGawsh…I KNOW I am not that big anymore. That’s a plus right??? Truthfully, when I see the picture of me being that big (and it is very close to my heaviest weight, I am positive of that), I know there is a physical difference, but right now, I still FEEL like that girl in the photo. I see changes in my body, my clothes, compliments I receive, that kind of stuff, but I still feel as big as I was then. When I look in the mirror I see THAT girl.

I guess just like with maturity, my mind needs to meet up with my body.

I’ll post the dreadful photo tonight. Maybe I can get Clint to take a ‘now’ one of me just for comparison and kicks, even though I don’t see much difference from the ones in my photos page…maybe we can do it just for fun and post-sake

My total minutes for today’s challenge day : 0 minutes.
Total Activity Points earned : 0
Total Steps (pedometer): 6,019
Total Points Used: 26 (26 is target)

Total minutes for the AKC week: 115 minutes (Monday 70 min; Tuesday 45 min; Wednesday 0 min)

Listened to my body tonight and skipped the workout time. One night off is needed once in a while. Especially when your body screams at you. I had some pain in my chest today, like a pulled muscle feeling, and my butt and hips are sore from the last few days workouts. I definitely think I did the right thing by listening to my body. I’m learning

It wasn’t a sit-around-do-nothing-day in the least. I still logged over 6,000 steps on my pedometer. And that is WITHOUT intentional exercise.

Heading to bed a bit earlier than normal as I want to wake up early enough to get in some time on Lippy. She looked sad tonight.

WOOT. Nother day down and it was indeed a good one I’m a little fiesty tonight (in a good sense). You have been warned, as I don’t know what will come out of me here.

So today. Here are my totals.

My total minutes for today’s challenge day : 45 minutes.
Total Activity Points earned : 4.5
Total Calories Burned: 569
Total Miles for intentional exercise: 3
Total Steps (pedometer): 8,492
Total Points Used: 21.5 (26 is target)

Total minutes for the AKC week: 115 minutes (Monday 70 min; Tuesday 45 min)

Now onto the good stuff.

My underwear and bra. Oh yeah.
You should SEE these things on me…it’s friggin hilarious. My underwear are now getting so big that they are literally HANGING in the but-tocks area-region…shoulda heard Clint laugh when I showed him, which was followed by a ‘HOW COOL!!!’…he’s really noticing the changes in me now, as I am. Thank goodness that I still have some hips, for the time being that is, because otherwise, I couldn’t hold them up at all. Now onto the bra. Picture this. Nice, fairly new white underwire bra, fit perfectly just a month ago. Today, put the lovely thing on, grabbed my t-shirt, raised it over my head, one girl falls out…I’ll fix it after I get my arms in. Put my arms in my shirt, other girl decides to join previous sneaker-outer. The thing is so big the girls made the Great Escape. Tucked ‘em back in, went on my way…they got a little sneaky a few times today, but managed to make them behave. Then tonight I get ready for bed, took off my shirt in the bathroom and saw in the mirror, that even UNDER my arms (you know that area where your boobs seem to have grown horizontally into your underarms??) there is a HUGE difference there. For one, my bra is all loose and floppy there, and that little ingenious chunk of oddly placed boob is DIMINISHING!!!!

I would say that’s a great note to end on To all my new men readers, feel free to comment about your underwears as you feel fit

Couple new reads added too ~
Scott @ One more thing…
Trish @ Scale Whore

Today is the first day of what will from here on out be known as the AKC … Ass Kicking Challenge. This is something that Jenn (from Against the Odds) and Karen (who I have as a constant daily e-mail supporter) and I are all doing for this next week. Today was Day #1. Just a little competition in good fun to see who can get in the most exercise in one week. The idea came from The Biggest Loser. Awesome show, but the maniacs work out for HOURS each day. They lose a ton of weight most weeks, so it has to be good So starting today and ending next Sunday, we will see who has the most total minutes of working out.

Today was a wonderful ’start-over’ day for me. I didn’t weigh in this morning. This past week sucked. The. Big. One. But today I feel rejuvinated. I feel like it’s day one again, and feel as though I really can succeed once again.

My total points for the day were 16. Yeah, a little low, 10 to be exact. And I never go below 20, but today just worked out that I wasn’t hungry and didn’t need to eat much. But seeing as how I earned 10 Activity Points from intentional exercise, and even though I don’t trade my activity points for food points, that puts me at a mere 6 points for the day if you look at it that way. One day won’t hurt. Makes up for a few bad days

So today. Here are my totals. (I will keep a running total for these daily)

My total minutes for today’s challenge day : 70 minutes.
Total Activity Points earned : 10
Total Calories Burned: 809.8
Total Miles for intentional exercise: 3.778
Total Steps (pedometer): 9,924

Crappy weeks. We all have them. This is mine. I feel a long rambly post coming on…have a seat…

I haven’t journaled in 3 days. I’m not thirsty in the least, so my water intake has also sucked. Exercise is for the birds. Now the exercise there is a good reason. It’s actully just the intentional exercise that is for the birds. I have been quite busy actually. To the point where the muscles on my hips hurt. Not my hip bones…the muscles (or at least I THINK that is what is causing the pain) ON my hips. Never knew you had muscles there. My neighbor (who’s a body builder) seems to think it’s because of the weight I have lost in my legs, my hips are compensating somehow in muscle use. Does that make sense? Kinda does to me, kinda sounds like bull. So to sum up my week ~ active, yes…devoted, no.

So here’s to a shotty weigh-in on Monday

Jenn, maybe Karen, and I, starting Monday, are going to be doing a ‘The Biggest Loser’ @$$-kicking workout challenge…our style You know how The Biggest Loser people work out like ALL THE FRICKIN TIME??!?! That’s gonna be us this week. We are going to see who can get in the most exercise…that will be a good kick-starter I do believe.

Here’s an off the wall question that hit me today…what do you think? Can compulsive liars pass lie detector tests?? I mean if they are the kind of liar (I’m referring to someone in my ‘real’ life that this has affected me and my family lately)…a liar where they believe whatever they have just made up to actually have happened and be perfectly true. Can they pass a detector?? They obviously belive it to have happened, therefore, basically there would be no fluctuations in their demeanor, correct? Something to think about.

My mom and I discussed what awesome millionaires we would make. I told her that I would love to win the lottery, have no money worries, and say at Christmas time, play Santa. I want to go and do shopping for families, adults and kids, wrap the gifts, and Christmas Eve, go around to houses and just leave presents on their doorstep as if Santa had been there. Mom suggested passing out $100.00 walmart gift certificates in front of the Walmart store to whoever was walking in. Like do $200,000.00 worth of gift certificates and hand them out like candy. Do you know how GOOD that stuff would feel??? Course then reality sets in, in my daydream, (kind of a oxymoron there, aye???) and I think, I would SO be mugged…you know someone would probably take as many from you as they could grab and run…or you would have someone going through the line 10 times…either way…at least I know what a great feeling that would be…we would make awesome millionaires…

Snow is in the forecast For Sunday night. The nutj0b I am…when winter comes, I get the winter blues…I want to be outside so badly that at work I seriously go outside and do laps in the parking lot…walking in blizzard conditions- scarf, gloves, ear muffs, and of course my MP3 player. No one in their right mind is even driving by with their toasty heaters on inside…but there you’ll see me! Laps around the friggin parking lot. Just so I can get outside. I forget what it’s called, but I do believe I definitely have it…where you get depressed being indoors all winter…I can never remember what that’s called…but I think I have it. Yeah, I have it. Did I mention, I have it?

.: Grumble Grumble Scowl:.

I had a loss…a total of 6 lbs. That is for just over 2 weeks time. So not bad…I am happy that it’s such a good loss. HOWEVER. I missed my 50 lbs. by ONE pound. So I was really hoping to see that this morning. I was 1/2 lb. under it yesterday, now this morning I was one whole pound under hitting it. Oh well. Still a great loss for just over 2 weeks time. That is about 3 lbs. per week…that’s a great loss!! Next Monday I will have hit my 50 lbs. PLUS hopefully a couple extra to give me some leeway and stay safely below that 50 lbs. mark.

Like I said in yesterdays post, this past week has been a helluva week for losing…I had to work so hard to get the weight off…usually just dropping points a few will suffice and a loss will show. This week, I dropped points a bit (always 20 or above though, except for Saturday) got in plenty of daily exercise and water…and it still seemed a struggle to get the pounds down.

When I had gotten my 50 lbs. the first time (about 2-1/2 years ago) I remember the same fight happening. That was the hardest number for me to hit. It’s like my body wants the break from losing, so it just stalls right here. Ups and downs and stalls. Hopefully the last 2-3 weeks have been exactly that, and it can be over now and the losing can continue