I had a great weekend. BUT I did misbehave! I ended up eating out twice; once with Michael for dinner and once with my Mom for breakfast. My town puts on the UP Championship Rodeo so it was busier than normal this past weekend. I don't go to the rodeo, never had much interest but Michael and I did go to the street dance Saturday night and I had a few drinks. They had 2 bands that played & we ended up going home around 11:30. It was way past my bedtime! LOL - It was nice to get out of the house though. We are usually total hermits. I can't believe yesterday marked 1 month since we have been married! It all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye. <-- I was super tired on this day (note the bags under my eyes) - I think this new lifestyle change is wearing one me! I can't wait to have it be a habit. It seems whenever you go off of eating bad to healthy or vice versa you go through a change and there is a time period where you have to let your body adjust to the new things that you are putting in it. I will forever remember a motivational quote I came across a few years ago "It takes 21 days to make a habit" - I feel once I get to that point I'm in the clear and it will much easier for me to make better decisions; BUT DANG, these first days of getting back into the swing of things are the worst! I posted a screen shot below of a comment that I got on my weight loss video on YouTube. As tough as this process can be, reading comments like these really keep me going and also tug at the heart strings a bit! It motivates me to motivate others. What I give out I get in return, karma can be awesome. I have never been yelled at by a fortune cookie before! I cracked up when I saw this but it is true. I could be working harder & I have had a great start. I love being superstitious! As long as it motivates me, what can it hurt? Thank you motivational, personal trainer fortune cookie! You told me what I needed to hear. Now reading it and actually doing it are two different things but I am getting there! This morning for breakfast I had an omelet. I normally suck at making omelets but this one came out awesome! I have never made a more perfect one. Can you believe I didn't get a picture?! HAHA - I followed this version by Alton Brown to a "T". He had some GREAT tips. I did everything he said minus using the butter (I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil). Here is the link: The Perfect Omelet by Alton Brown Pictured below: A bird built its nest in our overhang on the sun porch. The bad thing is that it overhangs in the dog pen and Saturday I came outside to this baby that had fallen out of the nest pre-mature and my dogs were just staring at it.... I put the dogs back inside and then put gloves on and put the baby in a nest that I had found on the ground last summer. It seemed to be OK and was moving/chirping like I think a baby bird should - The overhang is too high for us to reach with our ladder to put it back in the nest so after looking online on what to do (because I was totally lost and didn't want to just leave it there) I came to read that if a baby bird has fallen pre-maturely out of its nest and you cannot leave it where it has fallen or reach the nest to put it back in that you should make a nest out of a plastic container (we used a plastic bowl), line it with shredded paper towel and nail it to a tree close to where the original nest was. I kept an eye on it because it said you will see the mother going from one nest to another for feeding. Every time I looked I didn't see the Mom but I know she was around. I felt so bad, but what do you do?! Anyways it is gone today and I like to think that it flew away. I love my new tablet! I have never had one before and they are so much fun. Good-bye to the life I knew! LOL Just kidding but it has sucked up a lot of my time getting it set up the way I want! For dinner I am going to have a grilled pork loin with some asparagus. I am not sure how I am going to make the asparagus. I love asparagus so I will eat it any way but I am leaning more towards grilling since I have never had it that way. I feel this posting is all over the place. I can't talk/type fast enough to get out all the things I want to say today! So sorry for the disorganization. That's what I get for waiting 3 days!
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Well I weighed in this morning at and I am 3 pounds down for this week! That is more than I was expecting to be since I was crossing my fingers to be just 1 pound down. I am now back down to 273 from the 276 that I was last week - 35 more pounds to go until I am back to being 100 pounds down. I still have a ways yet but I am super happy to be making progress again! It feels good :-) I remembered my lemon water this morning and also had a banana for breakfast. I know a banana isn't really much for a breakfast but for me it is hard to get myself to eat right away in the morning. At least I am getting something in my system since they say you should eat within the 1st hour of being awake. This post is going to be short since I am currently on my lunch break. I just wanted to check-in! I am pretty excited and very happy that I am heading in the right direction. Until next time... The past couple of days I have had a grilled pork loin fillet for dinner (pictured left) - It turned out amazing! This particular day I had grilled a green pepper to go with it - All together it was only 225 calories! It felt way more indulgent than that. I will definitely be a repeat offender of this meal. I had only bought a pack with 2 loins in it so the next day I had grilled up the other loin with some cucumber salad that I whipped together. I have posted about the salad before but to save you some back tracking it's just cucumbers and onions sliced up thin, seasoned with dill, cracked pepper & mixed with a little bit of ranch dressing. I let it sit in the fridge for about an hour before eating. It's very good, low calorie and refreshing! Tonight for dinner I finally tried that parsnip I bought. It was ok, I know I can prepare it a lot better but I ended up slicing it circle wise and baking it in the oven with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. I ate them with 2 eggs that I pan fried with my olive oil spray. I wasn't feeling too creative today. I was doing so good with my lemon water and I completely forgot to do it this morning before work! I totally spaced it off but I managed to get my coffee made lol - I don't think I can ever give up coffee, I love it so much! I still have yet to get back into the green tea. One step at a time I guess but hopefully sooner than later my lemon water will be such a part of my morning routine that I won't forget, I'll just get it done without having to think about it. I have been doing very well with self-discipline. Trust me, there was a big part of me that wanted to go get cheese curds today but I didn't! Now if someone where to put them out in front of me, I'm sure that would be a different story - lol This weekend I know I am going to be bad. Saturday Michael and I are going out and I plan to have a few drinks. I have already made up my mind that Saturday will be my cheat day. Nothing too crazy, just cheating with liquid calories and possibly a meal in moderation! It has been a great first week of seriously being back on track. I am actually looking forward to weighing in tomorrow. I hope to be at least 1 pound down. I have been behaving! Even when I went out for lunch on Wednesday with my co-workers I got a small side salad and chicken noodle soup. That is the hardest part for me when trying to be healthier is when I am at a restaurant and have to choose something besides a hamburger, fries, etc... In my mind, if I can't indulge, why go out to eat? I don't know, maybe it's just me but either way I'm proud of myself! I will blog at you guys tomorrow to let you know how my weigh in went! Until then have a good rest of your day :-) I have a bunch of fortune cookies left over from our wedding (they were part of our favor bags) so I have been opening one up everyday. This was my fortune the other night! So far, so good! I am getting pretty serious with this again. Yesterday after work I went grocery shopping and picked up a bunch of better choices. I am stocked up with bananas, carrots, green peppers, fish, pork, asparagus, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms, lemons and a parsnip! I remember being really little and my Mom frying parsnips up in a pan but I can't remember if I like them or not. From what I hear it is a mix between a potato and a carrot. On the health factor, I am not sure how good they are for you but I just got one to try. I have NO idea how to cook it! I don't want to pan fry with butter because well duh, lol - I have gotten many ideas though on how to prepare it. I don't have enough to make anything spectacular but I think I will slice the one I have up and bake it in the oven with olive oil and spices. I also got a huge bag of carrots. Michael hates almost every vegetable but said he can eat a carrot and the dogs LOVE them for treats so I told him we all need to start eating better, one carrot at a time! We got a new Infrared Charbroil grill from my parents for our wedding and we love it! I can't wait to make many meals on it. I wanted to get some chicken when I was at the store yesterday but they didn't have the kind I wanted so I got some lean boneless pork loins to try grilling. Our stove does not exist for the rest of the summer, ha-ha. I can't wait to try grilling asparagus and other vegetables! We had a grill but it was charcoal, I never grilled veggies on that because I don't think I would enjoy the charcoal taste on a veggie. I am going to weigh-in on Friday, hoping to at least be 1 pound down. I am full steam ahead! I am going to do a basement workout after I post this, it has been a while! I have today off which is nice to get all my things in order. I would go for a walk but it has been raining on and off. I wish this weather would warm up! We have had a funky summer. Yesterday I was running late in the morning for work so I did not drink my lemon water but I did this morning! For lunch and dinner I had half of a sub from subway. I got it on 9 grain honey oat bread and thought I'd try avocado on it but I did not like it. Any pre-processed avocado spread that can be left out without getting brown freaks me out, in the end I wish I never would have added it on my sub. It didn't taste right to me! Who knows what crap is in it to keep it fresh. But that also goes for 99% of anything nowadays! I am not sure what I am going to have for lunch or dinner today. I think I might have a grilled pork loin with some veggies! I got about 4 inches cut off my hair last week! You can't even notice, lol - But it feels so much better, got all that dead weight cut off! I wish it were that easy when it comes to losing weight "oh I just need 4 inches trimmed off my belly, thanks!" It was a cool summer night in the middle of July. The curtain was whipping up with a cool breeze greeting those in its path with a chill. Sitting parched I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. As I am replenishing my thirst I decide to open the closet and unbeknownst to me I stumbled upon the scariest thing I could ever imagine... It was... it was... THE SCALE! DUN...DUN...DUN..... After blowing the dust off I decided to give it a go. I was quickly brought back down to reality. Like I suspected I have gained weight. As much as it is embarrassing for me to say, I literally can't hide the truth! It has been many months since I have weighed myself. The last time that I can remember documenting a weigh in was when I had originally lost 100 pounds. That day I weighed in at 238 (100 pounds down from my starting weight of 338) - Since that weigh in, which was a little over 1 year ago, I have gained 38 pounds back. YIKES! Thirty-Eight! Currently I am freaking out trying to wrap my head around what to do next. I know I can't think of it all in one big picture because I will just overwhelm myself & in the end never get anything accomplished. This past week I have started back with drinking my lemon water in the morning, first thing before I even open my eyes. I squeeze 1/2 of a lemon and mix the juice with 1 cup of warm water and gulp it down. I have always been pretty consistent with my water drinking. Very rarely will I have something else than water, coffee or green tea. So I am not too concerned with liquid calories. It's the FOOD that gets me and more importantly my lack of exercise. But seriously what the heck happened?! I am mortified at the fact that I gained 38 pounds back. MORTIFIED! All that work and effort I put in to this whole process I just shot down the crapper. I have to re-do what I already did. I hate having to do something twice. This past week I have been going crazy, trying to squeeze every craving I have out of my system. I have been a bad, bad girl because I know Monday I am buckling down and getting with the program. The thoughts that went through my mind before sitting down to write this were to the point of not say anything at all. The question, "What will people think?" kept ringing through my mind; the embarrassment of starting over, feeing like a failure and a phony. But like I have always said before the first step is to GET REAL and my way of doing that is to blog about it. When it comes down to it, I am doing this for me. No one else's opinion of my situation matters as long and I am trying to live positively and better myself. And so it begins.... The reconstruction of my health, will-power & confidence! Buckle up because I know we are in for another bumpy ride. Happy day after the 4th of July! lol - I can't believe it is July already. It seems like June 1st and that I should still be planning a wedding. I can't believe it's all done and over with! Now Michael and I get to look forward to going to a pre-season football game in August! This summer is full of awesomeness for us. Every month we have had something fun planned. We have never been so busy! We had a low key 4th and lit off our own fireworks, grilled out and watched our town's fireworks from our porch. It was nice! We got 2 of our dogs "Thundershirts" from the pet store because they are scared of the fireworks & thunder. Overall they seemed to work with keeping them calm. So far it is a good investment. They are not cheap! I think... No I KNOW I need to dig out my scale and step on it. I need to get back in the swing of things here now after the wedding and our honeymoon. We have been on a roll with dining out and living frivolously! I need to start drinking my lemon water again in the morning & tomorrow I am going to start that since I have a few lemons. I need to have green tea in my life again too. It's going to be hard because I have been on major coffee kicks lately. Green tea to coffee just does not compare! I am going to go for a walk today, it is so nice out! I really want to go to the lake this weekend too. Can you believe we have not been there yet this summer? It's funny how I whined about it all winter and yet still have not went for a dip. We had our waterpark fun in the Dells on our honeymoon but chlorine & fresh water are two completely different water experiences. I always feel so rejuvenated after going for a swim in a lake. Well I suppose I will get off the computer and go weigh myself; it has been many months. Wish me luck! lol - I am nervous but it needs to be done! Until next time... Here are some more pictures from our wedding: Well guess what you guys?! I got married this past weekend! No one seemed to notice that I was missing a pearl out of my hair piece or that my veil was white and didn't match my ivory dress (or that it was a .50 yard sale score lol) - In the end all those little things don't matter. It turned out great and we were so happy to see everyone that showed up. It really was a day that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I didn't want to see Michael the day of the wedding so the night before I slept in the guest room, it was uncomfortable and I hated it but I wanted the next time he saw me to be walking down the aisle. I wanted to keep the butterflies alive! I am also superstitious lol - I wore something blue (my underwear), something old (a heart charm), something new (my necklace) & something borrowed (earrings from a friend) AND I have our cake topper in the freezer to eat a year later! It also rained earlier in the day before our ceremony and they say that is good luck. I'll take it! I am just glad we didn't get wet! If you ask me we couldn't have had better weather. We decorated most of the day before and all of Saturday before the ceremony. I almost forgot to get myself ready! I was so happy with how it turned out, it was exactly what I had envisioned! Planning a wedding is tough work & I thought for sure I would forget something obvious. I seemed to have all the bases covered besides that fact that Michael and I forgot to practice dancing lol - Our song was No Rain by Bind Melon, which is kind of an up-beat song so it took a little bit of awkward motions & foot stepping to get it right but we got er'. I shared some pictures from the wedding in a slideshow below. Six of them are the photographers (which are marked), the rest is what I and others took. I can't wait to see the rest of her pictures, she does amazing work and I am so happy we went with Amberly Schmidt Photography! Our Honeymoon in Wisconsin DellsWe decided to honeymoon in Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at a hotel waterpark and had a blast. We felt like kids for a few days. We left on Monday and came back Wednesday evening. Michael got me to do some things that I never thought I'd do like ride the scariest water slide at the park and ride go karts. Neither of which I liked lol - The water slide was so scary I had rubber legs when I got off. I am not a thrill seeker that's for sure! The go karts were fun but the seats were so hot that I felt like I was going to get 3rd degree burns on my tooshie! That and my brakes sucked so I was terrified I was going to crash. Let's just say Michael caught up to me. I think I will just keep it to Mario Kart! The only downer of the trip was I thought we were getting a balcony room, and we did, it just happened to be on the ground level! Grrr. I had envisioned myself sitting on the balcony drinking coffee in the morning but instead I was more paranoid at some creeper breaking in through the sliding door. Then for the first day and half we were freezing in our room and the buttons didn't work on the air conditioner. Night #2 we noticed the thermostat on the wall. You can tell it has been a while since either of us has stayed at a hotel! I almost called the front desk to complain of a broken AC but didn't feel like having someone come in our room to check it out. Plus we were barely there anyways. I shared some pictures below from our trip in a slideshow. A quick video I put together from our trip :-) I have been having a great summer! This will be my last posting until after my wedding. I can't believe I am getting married next weekend already! Everything is coming together. My to-do list is dwindling day by day. Last weekend I went to Green Bay with a good friend and scored a bunch of stuff I needed. Yesterday my Mom and I went to Iron Mountain to pick up my wedding dress just to find out we couldn't pick it up because it hasn't been pressed yet. It was frustrating because we even called to make sure it would be ready a few days beforehand and that was the sole purpose of our trip over that way. So now tomorrow is the day that I can pick it up! I am so excited to just have it in the same town as me lol. I am going to make sure I go for a walk everyday now until the wedding so I feel good mind & body. I think it will also be good for me to get out at least once a day to clear my head because it has been on overload! I have been going for walks but not as often as I would like to. Now I am making it a daily priority otherwise I will have the worst case of BRIDEZILLA you have ever seen! A cool thing I thought I'd share is pictured below. I read on the internet that people have sent wedding invitations to The White House, Mickey Mouse, etc. We had a few extra invites so I thought we'd try it and we are amazed at the responses! So far we have heard back from 4 of the 6 we sent out. So if any of you are getting married out there, it is something cool to do if you have extra invitations! I thought it was very nice that the envelope from the White House was handwritten and the signatures themselves seem to be REAL! You can see the ink bleed from a pen and I have compared ours to other responses online and none are written in the exact same spot. Pretty cool if you ask me! Real signatures or not; I don't care. The awesome factor is still the same. The next time I will post I will no longer be Marilyn Ziebell! Here is to hoping I will not have a hard time getting used to writing Marilyn Manfrom! <3 <- My Mom and I out the other weekend for my bachelorette party! I can't believe I will be married in a few weeks. I went to my final dress fitting the other day and am just waiting for a call back once it is all finished. I can finally see things falling into place and am feeling the wedding love! My co-workers also surprised me with a bridal party. It was so nice and unexpected! I have been doing ok with the weight loss. I have not been weighing myself so it is hard to tell how much I fluctuate and I know now is not the time to weight myself, just weeks before my wedding lol - That is just asking for trouble! But I do notice when I don't drink a lot of water I get all puffy with water weight. I notice it a lot in my fingers and my rings will get tighter. It was either the decrease in my daily water intake or that I ate something with a lot of sodium. I am not sure but whatever it was it went away when I made sure to drink my full jug of water. Our bodies are a well oiled machine and it takes time to find out what works for us and what doesn't! I have been for many walks so far this year. We have been having some very nice weather but the mosquitos are terrible! We ordered a bug zapper today to put outside for the people at our wedding reception and then on the plus side we can use it for the rest of the summer. It's a win/win! I don't have too much to say. I just thought I'd check in with you all and say howdy! Until next time... Well hello there! It has been way to long since my last posting. It seems that has been my opening line more than not when posting blogs. I have been good and have been keeping busy with work, trying to stay healthy & active and planning for my wedding next month! I do not have much to say but I do have a lot of pictures to share from the past couple of months. We have been having some pretty crappy weather here in the U.P. of Michigan. This past weekend was actually our first really nice taste of "summer". Saturday and Sunday were in the 70's and then Monday it all went down the tube! It has been chilly and today we actually got some SNOW FLURRIES! This weather has been whacky and it is hard to motivate myself to stay active! I am just hoping it will be a beautiful day for my Wedding in June and there will be nothing but sunshine because we are planning to have an outdoor ceremony! The picture of my dog Chewie up above and down below are from our first walk of the year. It was chilly/muddy and looking at the pictures it is hard to believe that just a week later we got hit with about 5 inches of snow! I even got my car stuck in our driveway! Unbelievable. <-- My Mom and I on Mothers day. I walked over to her house and we just relaxed a bit on her porch and got to enjoy the sunshine before it went back into hiding lol. I took her out to eat and bought her 2 beautiful hanging flower baskets. She is my favorite person on this planet and I would be totally lost without her. The picture below is from one of my walks. I actually was out and about at 7AM - It is a whole different feel when you go walking that early! I enjoyed it but do not see it happening often lol! I have been keeping up with lifting weights. I need to work more on my cardio (what's new) but have been beefing up! Before you know it I will be the one carrying Michael in our room on our wedding night. I notice a difference in my strength and when I wave someone good-bye, I don't feel like I'm getting ready for take off anymore ha-ha! As it goes for my eating habits, it is stop & go. It seems I get really into clean eating one week but then the next I struggle with it. I am trying to focus on it but also am trying not to dwell on it. This should be a happy time and I don't need anymore added stress put on myself than I already have. I am conscious of what is going on and I am aware of all my actions. I had higher hopes for my weight at this point and I am realizing I have run out of time to be at my desired goal weight for my wedding. All that matters to me now is that I enjoy the process and take one day at a time. I will get there, slowly but surely, I will get there. I also wish I would blog more but sometimes it is just so hard to think of what to say. I feel guilty for not posting especially when I see that people still check in daily to find nothing new. A big part of it is my mind has been else where with wedding stuff. I just can't seem to turn it off. I hope to blog more after I get hitched. Anyone who has planned a wedding, I am sure you can relate to how I am feeling! I do appreciate all of the e-mails & messages with kind words encouraging me to keep on writing but lately I just have not been feeling it! Just putting this post together has taken me almost 2 hours! I have tried many times in the past month to write one but have come up with a loss for words.... UNTIL TODAY! :-) We had our first fire of the year this past weekend and it was perfect! I can't wait to have many more if this weather gets its crap together! I pass this scene every day and every time I go by I always think to myself what a cool photo it would be! On Monday it was very foggy and I took it as the perfect opportunity to take the picture. This is not even a 1/2 of a mile away from my house. I love abandoned structures, they have so much eerie character. I am pretty excited that over a year YouTube has finally put the music back on my weight-loss video! They had taken it off due to copyright reasons but after disputing the issue, even though it took a year, it is back on! I'm sure they deal with millions of these cases and that is why it took so long but I'm a happy camper. |
My name is Marilyn and I am 27 years old. I have been overweight for most of my life and on May 1st, 2012 I weighed in at 338 pounds. This blog is about my weight-loss journey.
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February 2016
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