A "New" Dress

In spring of 2013, I bought a dress. That may seem like an unremarkable thing to most people, but I am not a "dress girl".  Actually, I think dresses are lovely and when I wear one I usually feel quite lovely.  However, wearing a dress sometimes makes me feel self conscious, like it will draw too much attention.  I would much rather blend into the crowd than get noticed in it for the most part.  Wearing a dress sometimes makes me feel like I am wearing a big neon "fat girl" sign.  I'm not really sure where that comes from.  Maybe some mean kid made fun of me when I wore a dress at some point in my childhood/adolescence?  Who knows?

Anyway, last year, I had lost a bit of weight, reached a goal I had set, and decided to do a little reward shopping.  I found this super cute teal and brown dress at Dress Barn.

Store name rant begin.
Really people?  Why would you name your store after a building for large animals?!?!  I will never understand that!
Rant end.

I was drawn to the dress right away, and when I put it on it fit great.  Then I took it home and hung it in the closet with my other dress (yep, just one).  I didn't have an "occasion" to wear it, so there it hung.

Last summer, I lost focus on my goals and as a result gained quite a bit of the weight I had lost back.  And I pretty much forgot about the dress.  Earlier this year, I needed a dress to wear to a wedding, Since I had lost a bit of weigh I decided to try on the "new" dress (now a year old).  While I did manage to get it on, it was snug, and I got that "fat girl" sign idea in my head.    So, I went with the other dress, which fit well and made me feel quite lovely.

I've lost about 12 lbs since then, and I am happy to say I finally got to wear that "new dress" today!  I like dresses.  They are lovely, and they make me feel lovely.  I think when I reach my next goal I will treat myself to another new dress.  If I keep buying and wearing dresses, maybe I can reprogram that "fat girl" sign in my head to read "lovely girl" instead!

Here is a lovely girl in a lovely dress!

      -29.6 lbs!!

I Won!

I won my diet bet!  YAY!!!!

I've decided to bet again, but this time, I am doing a 6 month challenge.  I begins July 1 and ends in December with the goal of losing 10% of my weight. 10% loss from my current weigh would basically put me back at my record lowest weight.  How cool would that be?!?!

The difference with this long game is that each month there is a goal and a pot to split.  I look forward to sharing my progress on the goals here.

The biggest challenge will be the fact that the challenge ends right after the dreaded "holidays".  I'm not sure how I will handle that.  But I'm thankful for the motivation DietBet has been and will be for me!

I've set new HealthMonth goals too!

These are slightly different to my June goals.  I took out a couple of things I felt I had mastered and added a goal for staying under my recommended daily calorie intake.  I'll be using the Lose It!  App to keep track of calories.  I'm loving the app so far.  You should check it out!  https://www.loseit.com 

I keep forgetting to include my pic & weight update! Here it is!

-27.7 lbs

6 Days to Lose 1.4 lbs!

I am happy to report I've been doing pretty great this week.  I've done an awesome job making sure to get at least 10,000 steps.  The one area I didn't do so well in this week is strength training.  It was a super busy work week, so there just didn't seem to be room in my schedule for that.  I still managed to keep my calories pretty low and meet my other goals though.

Here is my DietBet update!

I am pretty excited about this.  1.4 lbs in 6 days seems totally possible!  I just need to watch my calories, get my steps, and workout as much as possible.  I wonder how many people will meet their goal for the bet?  Any part of the $25,550 would be great of course, but I'm really curious to see how much each winner will get!  I feel pretty sure I can do this!

     -26.3

Fit Bit Zip

One week back on track and I feel like I've made quite a bit of progress.  It was still a work week for me, so I didn't get in as much exercise as I had hoped, but overall I would say it was a win for the week!  I did manage to get in 10,000 steps on at least 5 of the days.  I even walked laps around my coffee table one night to get in those last several hundred! Go me!

Here is what my week on Fit Bit looked like...

I really like my Fitbit Zip! I've become quite obsessed with figuring out how many steps I earn for certain activities.  Here are some of my favorite examples from the week:

• Walking my boyfriend's dog - about 2,000 steps
• Dancing the "Cupid Shuffle" - about 800 steps
• Taking out the trash - about 300 steps
• Walking around my entire apartment complex - about 2,000 steps
• One lap around the coffee table - about 20 steps

  

I've made a plan for working out more this week. Since I only have to go to work on Wednesday this week, it will be much easier to get to the gym. Yay that!

-22.6

The Journey Begins Again... Again!

I started this blog in December of 2012 with this blog post:

The Journey Begins Again

I set a goal of blogging and losing weight for 52 weeks.  I made it 30 weeks.  Not exactly perfect, but not too shabby (especially if you compare it to some of my other attempts).  In those 30 weeks I managed to lose 27.5 lbs!  Awesome!

I struggled to stay on track last July, then completely fell off the wagon (scale) in August.  I've made some moderate attempts since then to get back on track, but have let life distract me from my weight loss goals.  I'm not really beating myself up about it, since I at least haven't packed all of those pounds back on.  I'm happy to report that as of writing this post (10 months later) I am still down 22.7 lbs!  Which means I have basically maintained (+/- 5) for the last 10 months! Umm... that is kind of awesome! Right??!!

Right!

So, I am here to say I am beginning again... again. :-D

I have pretty much quit Weight Watchers.  I know it is an amazing program, and I know it works, but I wasn't doing it.  And if you don't do it, it doesn't work well at all.  I feel pretty sure I'll go running back to it at some point, but for now I am going to give this a try on my own (using what I have learned from various programs).

We all know I'm a geek (nerd, if you prefer) and technology always excites and motivates me.  So I plan to use 3 online tools to help get me back on track in June.

1. Dietbet.com - I wrote about Dietbet last year.  I'm participating in FFTFC's Summer DietBet. I put in my $25. If I lose 4% of my starting weight, I will split the pot with all of the winners. The pot for this bet is $19,925 so far and there are 797 players.  Amazing!  Can I lose 9.5 lbs in 28 days?  I hope so! 
2. Healthmonth.com - I wrote about HealthMonth last year too. I've picked some pretty tough rules for June.  However, I've picked a pretty awesome reward.  If I finish the month with at least one life point, I am going on a Groupon Getaway with my best friend! Here are my rules: 
• Walk at least 10,000 steps at least 5 days a week.
• Do weight training at least 3 days a week.
• Drink at least 50 glasses of water a week.
• Allow only 3 sodas a week.
• Take a multivitamin 5 days a week.
• Allow beer/alcohol only 1 day a week.
• Blog at least 1 day a week.
3. Fitbit.com - I had been using the WW Active Link, but decided to make a switch back to FitBit.  I had the original FitBit years ago, and loved keeping track of my steps!  I'm excited to have a Fit Bit again.  This time I went with the Fit Bit Zip.  So far (day 1) I love it!

Here we go again... again!

  











-22.7

Getting Back On Track

I'm happy to report I've done a LOT better this week with food choices.  I'm also going to WW on Thursday night for my next weigh in since I missed last week.  I also have a plan for August:

• Meetings - Attend all 4 Sunday meetings in August.  I'm switching back to my Sunday WW meeting since things kinda went off the rails when I switched meeting times, due to a lot of other factors as well, but figure going back is a good way to get back on track.  I will not miss an August meeting!
• Tracking - 6 days a week. I've really slacked off on this, and I'm ready to get back to it!
• Weight Training - 3 times a week
• Walking/Treadmill - 2 times a week
• Yoga - once a week

How will I stay on track with my new plan?  I am offering myself a REWARD!  If I meet these goals, I will allow myself a $300 shopping trip for new fall clothes in September.  If I fail, I'm going to do a push-up pyramid (probably my least favorite exercise) as punishment.  I will keep track of my progress using HealthMonth.com. Each day I will check in with health month and record what I did the previous day.  I start the month with 10 hearts and lose a heart each time I fail to reach one of my weekly goals.  If I finish the month with at least one heart, I get my reward!  Health Month is a great way to keep track of your health goals.  They have lots of goals to choose from (many that are not diet related).  Go check it out!

Doing It Wrong

I've spent the last week doing it wrong.  Missing workouts, overeating, you name it.  I'm a little irritated and frustrated with myself.  I know what I need to do and how to do it, but just have not had the discipline nor focus.  The result?  A gain on the scale (not surprised).

I need my frustration to change my actions.  I know that.  So far I have done better with eating this week, but not with working out.  Must do better!

On the bright side, I'm not giving up and I have lots of room for improvement!  :-)

 -22.6