1.30.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 180

Total Loss - 9.9 pounds!!

Breakfast -

1 McDonald's Bacon Egg & Cheese McMuffin

Lunch -

Pot Roast with potatoes and carrotts

Dinner -

the other half of my La Fiesta Fajita Burrito

Again, no workout. However, we had an open house today, and had yet to even touch our house to clean it! So, we deep cleaned the house in 3 hours and broke quite a sweat! It felt good and our house is clean! Life is good!

You may have noticed just how terrible I ate this weekend. I guess considering the circumstances, I could have eaten A LOT worse! For example, I could have had 3 pieces of pizza, but I only had 2 (and I didn't even eat the crust on the 2nd piece!) or I could have had the Bacon Egg & Cheese Bagel meal instead of just a Bacon Egg and Cheese McMuffin. At any rate, I feel like this weekend was a whirlwind of being here there and just about everywhere! But it was a great weekend filled with many incredible moments! And I praise God for bringing me out of it alive :-)

1.29.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 180.4

Total Loss - 9.4 pounds!

Breakfast -

Coffee!

Lunch -

1/2 a Fajita Burrito from La Fiesta - no sour cream

Dinner -

2 pieces Pizza Hut Hawaiian pizza while waiting in line to get into Winter Jam!

Even though I didn't exercise today, I feel like I got quite the workout corralling our youth group all night long, as well as climbing the stairs to our 3rd floor seats about 10 times in the night!

1.28.11 - Weigh-In & Food Detail

Weight - 180.8

Total Loss - 9 pounds

Breakfast -

2 Lightly Salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes

2 Tablespoons Apple Butter

Snack -

Banana

Lunch -

2 cups Dole Italian Blend salad

black beans

diced tomatoes and green chiles

mushrooms

1 tablespoon light sour cream

Dinner - date night at Casey's (the place we get to go once a year cause it's so expensive. But we had a $25 gift card that expires Feb. 6th, so tonight's the night! It's also where we had our rehearsal dinner for our wedding... ahhh, memories..... if you were there, you know what I'm talking about!)

I had the...

Filet Mignon

1/2 a plain baked potato

house salad with French

No workout... didn't get home from picking Aiden up until almost 10 :-(

1.27.11 - Weigh-In & Food Detail

Weight - 179.8 (not too bad after 3 pieces of pizza!!!)

Total Loss - 10 pounds

Breakfast -

2 Lightly Salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes

2 Tablespoons Apple Butter

Snack -

9 Fit & Active Cheddar Rice Cakes (1 serving)

Lunch -

2 cups Dole Italian Blend Salad

2 tablespoons Kraft Fat Free Italian Dressing

1 package mixed steamed veggies

1 Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb Cheese Wedge

5 Ritz Whole Wheat Crackers

Snack -

1 Banana

Dinner -

3 cups Dole Italian Blend salad

3 Kirkwood boneless, skinless, grilled chicken tenders

black beans

diced tomatoes with green chiles

mushrooms

2 dollops light sour cream

Snack -

1 1/2 cups rainbow sherbet

1.26.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 179 (still under 180!!)

Total Loss - 10.8 pounds

Breakfast -
1 Banana
10 oz. coffee

Lunch -
2 cups Dole Italian Blend salad
2 tablespoons fat free Kraft Italian Dressing
1 left-over packet of Wendy's croutons
2 Claussen dill pickle spears
1 Granny Smith Apple

Snack -

10 Fit & Active Ranch Rice Cakes (1 serving)

Dinner - we had dinner with our pastor! Always such a joy getting to meet with him and discuss the awesome youth who bless our lives each week!

PIZZA!!!!! Oh how delicious.... now I must go work out! NOW!

Work-out -

(See, I told you I was going to!)

Did another round of week 2 c25k training... I could definitely feel the pizza in my sloshing around, making me work out that much harder. But I completed the work-out (maybe at a slightly slower pace than usual) but at least I did it!!!

c25k Week 2 Day 1

5 minute warm-up walk followed by 20 minutes of 90 seconds running and 2 minutes walking intervals, then a 5 minute cool-down.

After week 1 I could already see a noticeable difference in my stamina. By the end of the week I was able to do 20 minutes of Tony Horton's 10-minute Trainer AND my c25k training! This never would have been possible at the beginning of the week!

So, as I entered into week 2, I knew I would have to push myself. I literally prayed for the endurance to make it! I knew going into it all that it wasn't going to be easy; there would be pain, sweat, and lots and lots of pushing myself further and further than I ever have!

As I began the work-out, I felt good. The 5 minute warm-up came and went and I started running for my first 90-seconds. I made it through without even feeling winded! "Alright!!!" I thought to myself, "This is easy-peasy!" So, I walked for 2 minutes and then ran for the next 90-seconds... a little tougher this time, but nothing I couldn't handle... this continued for a couple more sets, and then I came to my second to last 90-second run. This time, all I could think was, "FEEL THE BURN!!!!" But instead of giving up or secretly cutting out the last 10 seconds of the run, I added 5 seconds to it! I pushed through it all because I knew I could. It only made the last 90-second run that much easier!

I can already feel myself building endurance, and that makes me so excited to see where I will be by May when I run the 5k. I may not be the fastest runner out there, but just doing it (without dying!) will be enough for me!

1.25.11 - Weigh-In & Food Detail

Weight - 178.2 (yes!)

Total Loss - 11.6 pounds!

Breakfast -
2 Lightly Salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes with 2 tablespoons Apple Butter

Lunch - leftover dinner...
1.5 servings of Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat pasta with steamed broccoli, 1/2 a tablespoon parmesean cheese, 1/2 a teaspoon olive oil and some lemon juice and garlic.

Dinner - we went out to Applebee's with the ever-so-amazing Lindsey Warner and Sean Hunn!

I had the Signature Sirloin & Garlic Herb Shrimp meal from the 550 and under menu. I ordered it without the creamy sauce, though.

Work-out -

Week 2 Day 1 of c25k... not at difficult as I thought. Burned 285 calories and 80 (I think) fat calories. Felt good!

1.24.11 - Weigh-In & Food Detail

Weight - 179 (I literally jumped up and down and did a little dance when I weighed in under 180 today! I know there's a great possibility of going back up to 180 with weight fluctutations this week, but to see that number started my day off perfectly!)


Total Loss - 10.8 pounds!


Breakfast -
2 Lightly Salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes with 2 tablespoons apple butter


Snack -
1 Granny Smith Apple


Lunch -
1 Wendy's Side Salad, no croutons, no dressing
1 Wendy's small chili (poured half over the salad; super tastey, and 1 small chili is only 220 calories and 7 grams of fat! I was shocked!)


Snack -
10 Fit & Active Ranch Rice Cakes


Dinner -
2 servings of Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Pasta with 1/2 a tablespoon Parmesean Cheese, 1/2 a teaspoon olive oil, parsley, lemon juice, and steamed broccoli.

1.23.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 180.2 (yay!)

Total Loss - 9.6 pounds

Breakfast -

1 cup Fit & Active Fat Free Vanilla Yogurt

1/4 cup frozen blueberries

Lunch - with CARA!!! (We hadn't seen eachother since 2006 when we graduated college!) We went to Mimi's Cafe at The Greene

Broiled shrimp platter with spinach salad with fat-free balsamic vinaigrette dressing and asparagus

We went shopping around The Greene afterwards to walk off what we ate :-)

Dinner -

Kinda sorta forgot to eat...... we get SO busy on Sunday evenings with youth group that we usually skip dinner.

Workout -

Tony Horton's 10-Minute Trainer - Total Body

Tony Horton's 10-Minute Trainer - Cardio

Week 1 Day 3 c25k training - 90 seconds walking/60 second jogging intervals.

It's amazing how much easier the workouts are getting already! I've been doing it for a week, and I already feel SO much more stamina! Last week I NEVER would have been able to do 20 minutes of workout and then do the 25 minutes of c25k training that I did! I would have fainted at the thought of such a thing! But now, I find that I can push myself further and further and I feel great after each workout!

1.22.11 - Weigh-In & Food Detail

Weight - 181.2

Total Loss - 8.6... still

Breakfast -

Nothing... we were running late getting Aiden to his 9-month check-up at the doctor...

Lunch -

2 Grilled Chicken sandwiches on whole wheat buns with dijon mustard and romaine lettuce. I put 1/2 a wedge of Laughing Cow Cheese on one of them.

Dinner -

We celebrated my dad's 51st birthday at the Polaris Red Lobster. YUM!!!

5oz. grilled Tilapia

asparagus

broccoli

Proud moment - we went to my brother and his wife's house after dinner for brownies and ice cream... I had NONE! I even baked the brownies in our house before we went and as yummy as they smelled, I did not partake of any of it! Not even the licking of the spoon after pouring the batter into the baking dish!!!

1.21.11 Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - Didn't weigh-in - I was snowed in at my in-laws last night, so I didn't have a scale to weigh this morning. Probably a good thing since I'm a slave to the scale! So, at my last weigh-in I was 181.2.

Total Loss - 8.6 pounds

Breakfast -
2 lightly salted Fit & Active rice cakes
2 tablespoons apple butter

Lunch -

Didn't get to pack since I was at the in-laws... so my boss went out and grabbed lunch....

1 Lee's Famous Recipe Roasted Chicken Breast

3/4 Lee's Famous Recipe chicken wing

Dinner -

Went out with some of the most awesome people I know for Mexican!
1 skillet of Chicken Fajitas made with no oil and eaten with no tortilla and only guacamole and lettuce.
I indulged in some chips and salsa, but definitely stayed within reason!

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1.20.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 181.2

Total Loss - 8.6 pounds

Breakfast -
1 cup Fit & Active Non-Fat Vanilla Yogurt
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 K-cup of Green Mountain coffee

Lunch -
2 cups garden salad with 2 tablespoons Fat Free Italian dressing
2 Claussen dill pickle spears
2 servings of steamed garden veggies

Snack -
1 wedge Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb Cheese
5 Whole Wheat Ritz Crackers

Dinner -
3 boneless skinless chicken tenderloins with italian crumb coating

1/3 cup spaghetti with 1/8 cup spaghetti sauce

Workout -

1 did Week 1 Day 2 of my c25k training! It was quite rough today... much more so than expected! If I had to guess why, I would say because I didn't get enough water in throughout the day. Yep.... that's probably it. *Note to self... DRINK MORE WATER TODAY!

1.19.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 181.0


Total Loss - 8.8 pounds

Breakfast -
2 Lightly Salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes with 2 tablespoons Apple Butter
1 Granny Smith Apple

Lunch -
2 Cups garden salad with 2 tablespoons Fat Free Honey Dijon dressing
1/4 a cup steamed broccoli florets
2 Claussen dill pickle spears

Snack -
10 Fit & Active Ranch rice cakes (1 serving)

Dinner -
2 small pieces (3x1 each) of Stauffer's Lasagna
1 bowl of romaine and spinach salad with fat free Italian dressing

Workout-

repeated week 1 day 1 of c25k training since I didn't get to run Monday or Tuesday. Also did 20 mintues of Zumba and tried 10 situps and a few pushups.

Snack - 1 granny smith apple

1.18.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 181.6 :-( But not surprising... no workout and pasta for dinner. Oye...

Total Loss - 8.2 pounds

Breakfast -
2 Lightly Salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes with 2 tablespoons Apple Butter

Lunch -

2 cups garden salad with 2 tablespoons Fat Free Honey Dijon dressing

1/2 a cup of imitation crab meat

2 Claussen dill pickle spears

1 Granny Smith Apple

Snack -

7 Whole Wheat Ritz Crackers

1 Wedge Laughing Cow Cheese - Garlic & Herb

Dinner -

Broiled Cod with lemon juice and Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb

Broccoli Florets - steamed

Roasted Red New Potatoes cut into wedges and baked in the oven with garlic and parsley

WAY under calories today... feeling good though. I am finding that I am used to eating when I am bored at work. So, I am doing my best to retrain my thoughts from thinking I'm hungry, to being able to recognize true hunger.

1.17.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 180.6 - SOOOOOO close to being under 180!!!!


Total loss - 9.2 pounds!


Breakfast -

2 hardboiled eggs

1 medium Granny Smith apple


Snack -

10 Fit & Active mini Ranch rice cakes (1 serving)


Lunch -

2 cups of salad with 2 tablespoons Fat Free Honey Dijon dressing

1/2 a cup of imitation crab meat

2 pickle spears


Snack -

7 Ritz Whole Wheat Crackers

1 wedge Laughing Cow French Onion cheese


Dinner - Chicken Penne with Asparagus!

Whole Wheat Penne Pasta

Grilled chicken tenderloins

Parmesean Cheese

Diced Tomatoes

8 Asparagus Spears


Snack -

1/2 a cup of Non-Fat Fit & Active Vanilla Yogurt

1/4 of a cup of frozen blueberries


How I feel about today's eating.... bloated. I don't know why, but I do! Maybe it was the pasta. I'm thinking pasta, even whole wheat, needs to go away! I LOVE pasta, so this could be an issue. But as I narrow down foods that are not helping, I just keep reminding myself that once I shed all these pesky pounds, I will be able to eat (in moderation) the foods I love and still be able to maintain a healthy weight! No going overboard like before that got me into this situation in the first place! Enough to satisfy my tastebuds but not pack on the pounds! Oh what a sweet day that will be........

Week 1 Day 1 - C25K Training

January 15, 2011 - Week 1 Day 1 of my Couch to 5k Training -
5 minutes warm-up walk
60 seconds of running & 90 seconds of brisk walking intervals for 20 minutes
5 minutes cool-down walk

I survived.... I wasn't sure that I would... but I did. And for that I am proud!

I went over to Lacey Price's house and used her treadmill while she used her eliptical and we jammed to some tunes. The 5 minute warm up walk went great! I'm thinking the whole time, "This feels good! I'm glad I'm doing this!" Then the 60-second run comes..... and by the end of 60-seconds I was thinking, "WHY THE HECK AM I DOING THIS??????????? I'M GOING TO DIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!!!!!!!" But, I pushed on. The 90-seconds of walking was very helpful at getting myself together, helping me push through the next 60-second run.

So now, how do I feel? I feel great! I feel like I made a huge accomplishment by pushing through the workout! I never once skipped a 60-second run or gave up! I pushed on and I feel great!!!

1.15.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 183.2 (kind of to be expected after Olive Garden last night. But it surely could have been MUCH worse if I had eaten what I typically do there!!!)

Total Loss - 6.6 pounds

Breakfast -

2 hardboiled eggs

1 Granny Smith Apple

Lunch -

We went to my mom and dad's house and had lunch with them and my brother and his wife and their baby Eli. It's always so fun to have the 2 boys together! Anyway, we had...

Pot Roast with tomatoes

Corn & Green Beans

Oven Roasted Gold Potatoes

Snack -

10 Ritz Whole Wheat Crackers

1 wedge Laughing Cow Cheese

Then I went and worked out at Lacey's house. I did my first day of the Couch to 5k Program... I'll post about that in another post...

Snack -

1/2 a cup Non-Fat Fit & Active Vanilla Yogurt

1/8 of a cup of frozen blueberries

(I had Jeff try my yogurt with blueberries, and he actually liked it! That's a big step for him. Lol)

Anyway, I feel good about my progress so far. I feel like I have shown an incredible amount of self-control! For example... at my parent's house, there was an opportunity to put butter on my veggies and potatoes, as well as eating a piece (or 2 if you're my husband!) of cherry pie!

Grocery Shopping

Jeff and I went to the grocery today. Here are some healthy choices we made...

Whole Wheat Tortillas (a recommendation by miss Laura Schaller... thank you!)

Whole Wheat Ritz crackers and Laughing Cow cheese wedges for snacks (also a recommendation taken by the afore-mentioned ma'am)

Ground turkey for making tacos and turkey burgers instead of ground beef

asparagus (it's my all-time favorite veggie, and although Jeff won't eat it, I can easily boil some green beans for him and bake some asparagus for me without much added work)

Low Fat Fit & Active vanilla yogurt and a bag of frozen blueberries to add to it for a nice afternoon snack!

Cod - we don't eat much fish, but I am finding that it is LOADED with so many good things (Omega-3s to mention one...) and the lack of fat on fish is amazingly healthy too! So, I am going to try a baked cod recipe and see how it goes!

Those are just a few of the healthier choices we made.... things we normally wouldn't have bought (for example, we would have bought cheese & peanut butter crackers instead of Laughing cow cheese and whole wheat crackers). It felt good spending a little more money to make ourselves a lot more healthy!

1.15.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 182.4

Total loss - 7.4 pounds

Breakfast -

2 eggs, hardboiled

1 banana

coffee

Lunch -

a frozen Fit & Active enchilada meal - ick!

Snack -

I grabbed 4 little pretzels (26 calories) and 1 small Ranch rice cake (7 calories). I needed something salty, and this was what we had. I think I did good, considering I could have grabbed a whole handful!

Dinner -

We went to Olive Garden to say goodbye to one of my best friends, Emily, as she leaves to move to South Carolina next Saturday :-( Typically, I would order the Seafood Alfredo... but not today... instead, I ordered...

Parmesean Crusted Tilapia with a side of Asparagus. It comes with Angel Hair pasta in a butter sauce, but I took one bite and decided against it! It was tasty, but I could taste how buttered it was! Also, instead of the salad (which has calorie-loaded dressing on it!) I opted for a bowl of ministrone soup - super tasty, jam-packed with veggies and beans, and only 100 calories! *I didn't even eat the chocolate mint after dinner! I chewed on a piece of gum instead!*

I am SO pleased to see my weight slightly decrease today! (I know I shouldn't be weighing myself every day, but it is something that I have done for YEARS! Even when I would see the numbers go up almost every day, I still stepped on the scale... every day! So, that's not going to change.) Anyway, Mexican food is my all-time most favorite food on this planet! I LOVE the chips and guacamole and cheese dip and beans and fajitas loaded with sour cream and beans.... oh yum!!! BUT, we went out for Mexican last night and I experienced such a great deal of self-control, and it is reflected in my weigh-in where I gained nothing!!!! I'm so proud!

A tip to make healthy choices when eating out...

We don't really eat out often, (even though this week we will have 3 times by tonight... ugh). But I have found a strategy that has REALLY helped me with making healthy choices in a restaurant.

As you all know, restaurants are filled with so many tasty, yet unhealthy, options! Just walking to your table you pass other people and see their burgers, fries, crispy chicken, etc. It all looks so good and it's so easy to say, "That's what I'm having!" without thinking about any of the consequences (not only on the scale, but on your heart!)

So, here is my secret to success....

Before we go to the restaurant I get online and look at the menu (if available, which for most restaurants it is). While looking, I also put the name of the restaurant into my calorie counter app on my phone (I use My Fitness Pal, but I know there's others like Calorie Counter). I find an item on the menu that looks good and then I look up the nutrition facts on my app. I do this until I find something that fits the guidelines of my taste buds and my diet! That way, before I even get to the restaurant I know exactly what I am getting, so there is no need to look at the menu and have to see all the other options there are! And, by the time you get there you have thought about what you will be having, and it sounds so good, you don't find yourself wanting anything else!

1.14.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 183

Total Loss - 6.8 pounds!

Breakfast -
2 lightly salted Fit & Active rice cakes with 2 tablespoons Apple Butter

Snack -
1 banana

Lunch -
Romaine salad with Fat Free Honey Dijon dressing
2 servings artificial crab meat

Snack -

Oat & Honey Granola Bar

Dinner -

Had some errands to run, so we went out for Mexican!

I did REALLY well (for myself) and only had about 10 chips with salsa or guacamole.

Chicken Fajitas - made with no oil and I ate them with lettuce, pico de gallo, and salsa - no beans, no sour cream, no tortillas.

I think I ate about 1200 calories (hard to tell cause my calorie counting app doesn't have the restaurant we went to in it, so the fajitas were estimated.

I am finding something that REALLY helps when going out to eat... I'll share it in my next blog...

1.13.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 184 (??????????) Seriously... what the heck is that about?? Ugh...

Total loss - 5.8 pounds

Breakfast -

2 lightly salted Fit & Active rice cakes with 2 tablespoons of Apple Butter

1 banana

10oz. coffee

Snack -

1 apple

Lunch -

Romaine salad with 2 tablespoons Fat Free Honey Dijon dressing

15 baby carrotts

Dinner -

We went to Ruby Tuesdays...

Petite Sirloin

Broccoli Florets

Sugar Snap Peas

Diet Coke

Total Calories today... 891

How do I keep coming in so low on my calories?? Yikes! I am finding that I am hungry between lunch and dinner... maybe I need to throw a snack in there somewhere. I think I'll take the suggestion of an old high school friend, Laura - Laughing Cow cheese (35 calories per wedge) and some whole wheat crackers. Sounds delicious!!

A New Goal

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to say, "I'm going to start exercising!" And then you never do? Or you do that day because you are full of this awesome motivation, and then the next morning you wake up, unable to move a muscle, and you think, "Why did I do that? I'm never exercising again!"

Well... I'm going to start exercising! *insert hysterical laugh here*. No, really! I am! And you want to know how I KNOW I am going to? Because I've been given a challenge, which gives me a goal... something to work towards...

what exactly is this "goal" and "challenge"?

Are you sure you want to know?

Are you sure you're ready to know?

Cause I'm pretty sure if you know me at all you are going to laugh...

Okay....

Here it goes....

I, Ashlee Marie Freeman, am going to run in a 5k on May 7, 2011.

Okay... you can laugh now.

Are you done yet?

How about now?

Okay... so, yeah. That's my goal. My friend Angela asked me if I wanted to join her and another friend. I talked to Jeff and prayed about it and I feel as though I need to do this. I feel like by doing this it will give me an excuse to HAVE to work out! I don't take failure well. So I WILL succeed! And with this goal, I will only be working harder at achieving my overall weight-loss goal! So, it's kinda like a 2-for-1 deal :-)

I have downloaded the "Couch to 5k" app on my Droid. This will guide me through each day's workout. I will start with a day 1: 5 minute brisk warm-up walk, followed by intervals of 60-seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking, for a total of 20 minutes.

Each day will get harder, more intense. Eventually, I will go from a couch potato to a 5k runner. And I can't wait!

1.12.11 - Weigh-in & Food Detail

Weight - 183

What did I eat?

Breakfast - (you will see this meal often! I LOVE rice cakes, but you add Apple Butter and it's AWESOME! Apple Butter has 35 calories and NO FAT per serving, whereas peanut butter has 190-220, and almost all of it is fat!!! It's a great alternative!)

2 lightly salted Fit & Active Rice Cakes with 1.5 tablespoons of Apple Butter on each

1 banana

10oz. coffee

Lunch - Salad with fat free Honey Dijon dressing (1 serving of this dressing is 35 calories and NO fat! I buy Meadow Grove Farms brand... super tasty!)

2 servings of artificial crab meat

Dinner -

20 mini shrimp with Jamaican Jerk Rub (instead of using oil with the rub like it calls for, I just spray the shrimp lightly with a cooking spray! Great alternative and no sacrifice of flavor!)

2 Red Roasted New Potatoes (also used cooking spray instead of butter of oil) with parsley and garlic and 1/2 a serving of Low Fat Sour Cream

1 serving of broccoli florets, steamed, with salt and pepper.

Oh, and I chewed a piece of Key Lime Pie gum ;-) (5 whole calories)

Overall, I took in 913 calories... WAY under what I should. But I just wasn't hungry...

From the Beginning...

I made the decision to start a better life for us on December 28, 2010. I stepped on the scale that morning and weighed in at 189.8 pounds. I cried. Almost 190 pounds... sure, I have a beautiful son to show for it, but I can't live with that as an excuse forever! So, I figured it's almost the new year... what's the old saying, "out with the old, in with the new"! And so that is where this journey began....

189.8 pounds on December 28, 2010.

Now today, January 12, 2011 - I weigh 183 pounds. That is a 6.8 pound loss in 15 days. I am quite proud of this.

From now on, each day my blog will consist of less pointless ranting (I promise) and it will contain my weight for the day, as well as what I have eaten. It may get boring at times, but hopefully with this will come success... OH, speaking of that, I should probably mention my target weight. My goal is to weigh.............

140 pounds. That means I need to lose 43 pounds. I don't really have a timeframe in which I want to do this. However, we are going on vacation to North Carolina in August.... so it would be nice to look good on the beach! :-)

Why am I starting this blog?

Monday, January 10, 2011. It was a day like any other. I was driving to work, listening to 96.9, K-Love. The only thing that was different was what they were talking about on the radio... accountability. As they discussed what this meant, based on the book Made to Crave, I started trying to think about what the best way would be for me to be held accountable for my new life-style. The best thing I could think of was to start a blog, and put it all out there for anyone to see.

So, here we go... this is my Accountability Blog. A place where I will put myself, my challenges, and my successes out there for anyone who wishes to see it.

Here is a little background on why I am taking on this new life-style...

My whole life I have struggled with the way I look. I was always over-weight as a child, teenager, and young-adult. I never liked the way I looked, so I typically wore baggy clothes to cover it up (by "it", I basically mean "myself"). When I was in college I met the love of my life, Jeff. He never once had a problem with the way I looked. He knew I did, but he always found time to tell me that I'm beautiful. When we got engaged, I did my best to look good for the wedding. And I did. I was wearing a size 12, which was the thinnest I had been in a long time. However, after the wedding I just let the weight pile back on. Then my husband and I decided to go back to Jamaica, where we went for our honeymoon, for our 1-year anniversary. I figured this was the time to get into the best shape of my life to look good in a bikini! So here's what I did...

I wrote down every single piece of food I put in my mouth. I counted every calorie and gram of fat and carb that went with that food. By writing it down, I was holding myself accountable. I could relfect back on what I ate that helped, and what I ate that didn't.

I cut out butter, oil, most fat, grease, etc. Now, most of you should know that I am a Mexican food-aholic! I LOOOVE me some chicken fajitas! So, I started ordering them without oil... mmm, they're even better that way!

Anyway, I digress... I exercised for 30 minutes a day on our eliptical, burning 500 calories each time. I found that if I turned on the TV and watched 1, 30-minute show, the time flew by and I never felt like I was exercising!

I was also working on campus while going to grad. school, and I had to walk a lot for my job. So in addition to my 30-minute workout at home, I was walking for about and hour or 2 every day at work.

So now, 3 years later, here we are. The heaviest I think I have ever been. I have had an incredible child, the most loving husband a woman could ask for, and am the happiest I have ever been in my life. But my weight still bothers me. So, I am making a decision for me and my family that from this point forward, we WILL live healthily! Not just ME, but WE! My son will grow up making healthy choices (apples instead of chips for a snack after school; playing basketball in the driveway instead of watching TV, etc.).

So now, what is it I ask of you, as my reader? I ask that you travel through this journey with me. I ask that you pray for me and my family as I am sure we will have many bumps and struggles along the way. And I ask that you hold me ACCOUNTABLE for the decisions I make in my life! If I slip up, slap my hand! (not literally, please.) But tell me how you feel about the decisions I am making for the betterment of our life.

Thank you for embarking with us...