Euh. That’s my nickname. Among others. Did I ever mention that here before?? Euh (pronounced E as in the letter and uh rhyming with ‘duh’…euh) has stuck with me since my little brother (2 years younger) was able to say my name. Instead of Lisa it would come out Euh. Most of the family still calls me that, except for my Grandma who calls me Lynna (my middle name is Lynn)…well she did until her stroke, now she calls me whatever name comes to her first…and my favorite uncle has always called me ’stretch’…cuz I’m 6′0″ tall and passed up much of my family at a young age.

NO clue what all that rambling has to do with, cept for explaining ‘Euh’ in the title.

I am officially back on track. Today is day 3. I can tell you the weight gain I had over the holiday weekend was substantial. Actually it was from about a week of doing and eating whatever the hell I wanted. Just a tip, when trying to lose weight, that attitude is NOT helpful. I am serious when I say I gained nearly 10 lbs. in just over a week. I know that my ‘time’ was here as well, so that was probably 4 lbs. of it, but I really and truly let loose and had a ‘I don’t care’ kinda attitude for awhile, and it was a nice break from the stress of worrying about it all the time, but obviously that kind of attitude can also cause alot of damage.

Good news is, as of this morning I have already lost about 8 lbs. of it So I’m tickled.

There’s a few more things I wanted to write about, but have since gone blank on it all, so I’ll post again later if it comes to me

Christmas was amazing. Christmas Eve was at our house, full of family, alcohol and fun Christmas morning was just so exciting. We all had a blast. Spent the entire day in our jammies and played. Today, more of the same, but today, as an added bonus, we took showers.

Among other things, Clint and the girls got me a pair of 3 lb. weighted balls (like the WATP balls) and a Pilates/yoga mat that I wanted. To my disappointment, Keith Urban was NOT under the tree. The mat and balls however will have to do in taking Keith’s place. The mat is alot thinner than I had actually pictured a yoga/pilates mat to be. But if it stops my tailbone from bruising again, I’ll be happy.

Back to work tomorrow and back on track tomorrow as well. I’m sure I’m not alone, but this weekend was NOT full of good choices. I swear to you, I feel like I gained 15 lbs. over the weekend. I’m not kidding. I can even feel it in my face. I spent the entire day today with my head slightly raised up (as if I was looking up a tad) while talking to Clint so he wouldn’t notice if my face had gained or not. I’m sure it’s not that bad, but bloated/heavier I do feel. It’s also ‘that time’ again too…tomorrow or Wednesday to be exact, so I’m SURE that isn’t helping either. What can a girl do?

Tomorrow is back on program and FULL of exercise. Cuz I have my Biggest Loser workout DVD that I have been scared of since the first night I tried it…I swear it growls at me every time I peek at it…I have DVR’d a TON of awesome shows off of FitTV which will keep things spiced up a bit as well. Then there’s Lippy. Poor Lippy. She has been in the same position for about, hmmm…can’t remember when…guess I should have at least rolled her to her other side or something if I was going to ignore her for so long. I’ll make up for it this week.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!!! It’s time to get back to reality with me…we got some work to do and Christmas Calories to burn!!!

We got our entire house cleaned and ready today. Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, my family and Clint’s dad and step-mom are coming over, and I can’t believe our house is ready. I’m a last-minute kinda girl…like I’m still cleaning and/or getting myself ready as guests are arriving. Not THIS year!! I’m stoked.

So I won’t be here I’m sure until at least late Christmas day if then even, so I wanted to wish you all a wonderful

MERRY CHRISTMAS

My arms are weak, if I wasn’t in this computer chair, my legs would have me on the floor, it hurts like HELL to breathe…I am officially withdrawing my application to The Biggest Loser.

Take my advice, when Jenn said she literally HURT to walk the next day after doing the TBL workout DVD…take the woman as serious as a heart attack. She’s not exaggerating…I can’t even IMAGINE what morning is going to smack me with.

The DVD came TODAY I was so tickled. Two days earlier than they told me. Got the kids in bed, asked Clint if he would mind watching TV in our room so I could try the DVD. Had the living room all to myself. Got my little 2 lb. hand weights out (cuz I just KNEW I was gonna kick ass and need weights…cuz I’m WOMAN (just for clarification, the weights are in the same spot they were when I first brought them out…that should tell you where this
he-woman thing is going)…

I watched a few inspirational summary’s of this season, created my own ‘custom’ workout (which is a VERY cool feature on the DVD, btw)…and hit PLAY.

10 minutes later, here I sit.

I swear to you…I made it 10 minutes. I was breathing so hard I got dizzy. I had to sit down. Now I’m telling you, I’m on Lippy anywhere from 30-55 minutes at LEAST 5 times per week. I’m not a weak person. I’m not wimpy. I could NOT do anymore.

This DVD has motivated me. I couldn’t master it in the first night…therefore it’s a challenge. I want MORE. My body, however, does not. For the love of Mike, even after the friggin WARM-UP my legs were BURNING.

I’m taking my measurements tomorrow before I tackle the DVD again. I remember how Lippy kicked my butt for how long…I can’t wait till I’m to that point with this DVD because I can tell already it’s an awesome workout and SO much different from anything I have seen before.

Jenn, honey, I will NEVER doubt you in my life.

Thank you SO much for all the Merry Christmas’ you all left me. When I was complaining about people not saying Merry Christmas, I wasn’t referring to here on my site or anything…like that wasn’t a pity cry for ’say it to me’…I was just ranting about my offline life…thank you to you all though…and Merry Christmas to you too!!! I’m SOOO stinkin excited!! I am worse than the kids.

Just saw on the Shop NBC site that my The Biggest Loser Workout DVD has been SHIPPED. I cannot freaking wait.

I got ALL…yes, every single piece…of Abbie’s Christmas gifts wrapped tonight. I’m SO excited, seeing as how last year on Christmas Eve, I was up until after 2:00 a.m. wrapping EVERYTHING. This feels like a huge weight off of me. Tomorrow night I tackle Meggie’s gifts. Something that we do to make it easier than having to sneak ‘Santa paper’ into the cart (Santa always has different paper than mom and dad)…is I tell Abbie that Santa doesn’t do it all…that me and daddy have to help…so we get the paper (the kids pick out which paper they want Santa to ‘magically’ wrap their gifts in. Abbie chose ‘Bratz’ paper and Meggie chose ‘Dora the Explorer’ paper. I couldn’t find Dora, but my mom did, so she’s bringing it to work tomorrow for me so I can get Meggie’s all wrapped also I love the look on their little faces when you can just see the ‘Santa’ daydreaming beaming from them. I know Abbie is 7 and who knows how much longer we will have for the Santa thing to live, but I’ve always been so scared that if, God forbid, Clint or I ever lost our jobs, how on EARTH would we ever be able to explain to them that Santa couldn’t bring anything that year, or at least very little. So we have always told the girls that we have to help Santa…just in case…you never know. It is just so sad to think that Abbie is getting to the age where it may end at any time. The excitement just makes me giggle. They wrote their Santa letters last weekend, and I ‘mailed’ them from work…and what do you know, but Santa’s letters BACK to the girls were in the mailbox the next day. I let Abbie check the mail that day when she got off the bus. She read the envelope and who it was from and RAN up the driveway…I hope they remember these moments as I do. I wrote the Santa letters at work that day, and acted like I was checking the mail when we came home and snuck them into the mailbox when Meggie didn’t see…messing with kids heads…how FUN is parenting?!?!?!

I do believe that’s it for me tonight. We are hosting Christmas Eve for my family and Clint’s parents, so we’re gonna be busy the next few nights getting everything ready…I will post as often as I can…I cannot BELIEVE that Christmas is in just 4 more days…unreal.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all!!!! (Do you know I have only been told that 3 times this year??? Sick. Where is the SPIRIT people?!?!?!)

Ok, after reading Jenn’s reviews about The Biggest Loser Workout DVD, and how much her body is hurting from it…I went to ShopNBC and ordered it myself. It is due to arrive on Friday the 23rd. Hope so

I am still fighting with the same ONE pound. Yesterday I was back down to 249, today (after eating out last night but made good choices, and had two long island iced teas) I was at 250.

I think a new workout routine will spice things up a bit on the scale. Maybe my body is also becoming immune to Lippy?!?! The same old workout, my body could be very well adjusted to it. I do still throw in the Walk Away the Pounds DVDs and have TRIED (and I stress TRIED) the Pilates, but the only reason I haven’t succeeded with Pilates yet is I don’t have a comfortable mat to do that on. Folded up blankets just don’t cut it. So that mat is on my Santa List. Otherwise this Pilates kicks ARSE…works muscles I never knew I had…

Also, I have been reading more about plateaus and it says they can last weeks to MONTHS…what-friggin-ever…this sucka’s gonna be outta here LONG before I’m doing this for MONTHS. Not going to let the plateau hang around for that long. I did read some things about how to break a plateau and I’m using those ideas now. Like spicing up the workout and adding more protein/less carbs kinda thing…my body is obviously very comfortable with the way that it’s treated at this point and doesn’t feel it needs to give me anymore. It’s got a surprise coming

I took a couple of full-body shots the other day and will post them soon…I just need to finalize the DVD in my camera and get them resized. Maybe I’ll do them now…who knows…otherwise you’ll see them in just a day or two They aren’t the greatest pictures and I will probably REALLY hate them when they are enlarged to a computer screen, but right now, when they are small pictures, in the camera, it looks as though I look smaller than I truly feel. I feel like the 297 lb. girl still, and she’s definitely not who’s staring back at me in these pictures so far. We shall see…

Alrighty…I did them…Here’s me at 249. I will add them to my photos page sometime soon, but at least you can see them for now. As you can easily see, my hips are most definitely my worst area right now that still need a big loss, besides my arms. I HATE my arms.

*UGH* I know the jacket covers in the top picture…but that’s the one that I don’t think I look as though I’m 249…I feel a HELL of alot bigger than I look in that picture. The bottom picture I pulled my jacket back because the shirt is one that ‘fits’ tighter so you can see my ‘curves’ and you can see my hips really (too) well.

I will update again tomorrow with what the scale shows in the morning.

Monday’s weigh-in didn’t pan out anything pretty. Actually it was UP to 250. Only one pound, but STILL.

So, I decided that my scale MUST be broken (either that or it’s gonna die a nasty untimely death)…so I called Abbie in. She’s 7 and is too young yet to loathe the scale, so she was all excited she got to see how much she weighed…to my dismay she does NOT weigh 250 lbs. So I called in my 3 yr. old Megan. As happy as she was to jump on the scale as well, she too, does not weigh 250 lbs. So, without him knowing the reasoning behind why, I had my husband grab the dog. Our 2 year old chocolate lab. Yes. He’s a monster of a dog on my tiny bathroom scale. Why I didn’t just give up, or make it easy and just have my husband get on the scale is beyond me. Nope. I had to make a ‘Lisa’ situation out of it all. Anyways, he fights for about 3 minutes, holding the dog under his arm pits, the dogs hind feet are scattering all over looking for something solid to stand on, all the while I’m sitting on the potty too far away to actually help laughing my ass off. All because the scale HAS to be busted, mind you. The dog finally rests his paws on the bathroom counter and catches a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror and is very intrigued (you could see it in his eyes) and his feet finally sit still on the scale. Damn dog only weighs 85 lbs.

All that for nothing. Friggin plateau.

I have to say, even while typing last night’s entry, I was sitting here thinking ‘the scale’s not moving, what I’m doing obviously isn’t working, so what can I dive into in the kitchen???’…

This girl shut down the computer and jumped in bed.

I am still in ’stunned’ mode this morning. That would have usually been the perfect opportunity to just blow it, then waking up to see the scale up even more and then eating because of THAT…the nasty spiral downward would have happened.

Again this morning, the scale has not budged. I am still at 249. Thing is, it’s not getting me down at all. I had my Special K Red Berried and 1/2 cup of milk for breakfast and there is no craving happening. I’m satisfied with that, and don’t feel any need what-so-ever to go and eat. I don’t think I could put into words what progress this is for me. I want to scream like a little girl I’m so excited.

I am going to chalk this up to the ‘P’ word. Plateau. I talked it over with Clint this morning and he said he’s sure that’s what it is. He has seen my eating habits and my exercise commitment daily and he’s even shocked the scale isn’t moving, so it has to be a plateau. I’m not stopping what I’m currently doing. The water I know helps, the working out I know helps, and the points helps. I AM doing everything right…

Thank you Elizabeth and Monica for the comments on the last post also…and to everyone who has commented lately…ya’ll are awesome. Elizabeth - Thanks for always being here for me…you are such an awesome support for me…I just love it!!! Monica, I LOVE your site…I love your spunk Gonna add you to my reads if you don’t mind

We are going to Erie, PA to finish up Christmas shopping today (we go to PA because there’s no sales tax on non-food items…saves a bunch when you’re Christmas shopping ) So I’m really excited…we have a few things for each of the girls and have just a couple more things to pick up, then maybe 2 outfits for each of them and stocking stuffers. We aren’t going all overboard this year at all..we have done really well so far and gotten all the major things on their list and kept the money at a minimum…we’re good hahaha…shopping online with free shipping and Black Friday prices online have all helped in a major way

Have a great HEALTHY Saturday!!!

That’s right…someone better hold me back, cuz I’m gonna smash the friggin thing.

You guys, I’m doing SO good! Really I am!! I am eating awesome, stopping eating before 6:00 p.m. (actually I haven’t eaten after 4:30 p.m. for the past 3 days) drinking water, and I have been on Lippy faithfully EVERY stinking day for the last 6 days, at least 1/2 hour at a time, sometimes an hour total.

Scale moving? Nope. Damn thing. I’m trying SO hard not to lose my focus. It’s getting harder when the numbers aren’t coming down.

Now didn’t I JUST say, in the previous post what a friggin liar that dang thing is?? And here I am believing every number it’s spewing at me. If I used the ‘F’ word, I would insert that here…but I usually don’t, so I will let you imagine what I’m screaming at this moment.

NeVeR…trust a small metal box that screams nasty numbers.

Reason for late weigh in: Flu. F-L-FREAKIN-U…I was so sick Sunday and Monday with the flu that I went from 4:30 p.m. on Sunday until 8:00 p.m. Monday without eating and ‘getting rid’ of anything that was in my stomach before that. So Monday I didn’t even fathom weighing in seeing as how I slept until 2:00 p.m. So imagine my SHOCK and plain HORROR when I woke up Tuesday morning to see 256 on the scale!!!! How the HELL can I have a gain that big after not ingesting (or maintaining ingestion for that matter) food for so long??? So I was livid yesterday. Worked my ass off on Lippy. Ate minimal from icky stomach still…minimal water also.

Yet today, when I woke up, the scale showed me a beautiful 249. That is 7 lbs. gone in ONE friggin day. Can’t tell me it’s fat loss…and I doubt it’s water loss as there was nothing left in me. This one has me thoroughly stumped.

At least that is definitely an official loss from last week’s gain after Thanksgiving and the friggin monthly mess. So I am back to needing just 2 lbs. to lose to hit my 50.

Dang if I don’t get it next Monday. Nothin stopping me.

Lesson learned. The scale LIES. This just proves it. Even though I think I’m addicted, getting on the scale daily keeps me on track…and yet, the difference from yesterday to today just proves how crappy the metal things really are.

*Lesson well-noted*