I need to correct something from my post from yesterday. I said I only have had fast food twice. Technically yes but I have also been getting Subway about once a week. I guess part of me doesn’t consider that fast food but it is! I get a foot long ham on flatbread with 2 green peppers, cucumber, lettuce, pepper jack cheese, black olives, mustard and pickles. It’s less than 500 calories and fills me up quick! I have a hard time finishing it.

So today officially marks 1 month! Even though I started this diet at the end of April I like to say I started May 1st when I started my blog. That is when I REALLY got serious and started working out. So May 1st it is. April was a lot of talk. I am super excited to weigh in tomorrow so keep your eyes open! I have decided when I update with my weight loss I’m going to write the whole amount instead of 3 pounds there or 2 pounds here. The last time that I weighed in I had lost a total of 15 pounds. The additional weight since then I will add or subtract from that number. I am hoping for it to add lol.

Well I tried taking Chewie for his first basket bike ride yesterday and it went ok. I had his harness on with leash and secured him in. He sat real nice and seemed to be enjoying it until he decided to jump out once we started to go down a hill. He's fine but an on-coming car stopped to see if he was ok. It must have looked pretty terrible but that’s why I had him in his harness in case that was to happen. He stayed in basket rest of the way but I had to walk the bike. Now I'm working on making some kind of tall wire topper I can put on the basket just in case yesterday ever repeats itself! I know he loves it!!!!

I went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up a few things. I have noticed I take a lot longer shopping than before! Big change. I look at all the nutritional facts and read each label. Before I used to just go "oh that looks good! PLOP in cart"...

Tomorrow will be 1 month since I have started this blog! What a month.

I have been having 2 scrambled eggs and 2 slices of my 45 calorie Sara Lee whole grain bread and some blueberries and 1 cup of light orange juice for breakfast. I ran out of bananas a few days ago but have been eating blueberries instead. I like eating blueberries instead of bananas because sometimes a banana is hard for me to swallow and blueberries are easier to stomach. I never was a huge fan of bananas; they were just convenient for me. I have my green tea and blueberries right when I get up and then about a half hour to an hour later I make my eggs and have my OJ. Funny thing about the blueberries is that my Mom had bought them for me the other day and I was eating them and started to read the cover and the brand they are called is “winners circle”. I am huge into signs and I feel if something unusual shows up twice in your life; something is trying to tell you something. Well to get to the point; the paint color of my kitchen is called “winners circle green”. Either I’m on the right track or I need to eat more blueberries lol. It just made me smile. This is for my Aunt Debbie: Yes, God works in mysterious ways ;-)

I love going back and reading my old posts. I inspire myself when I feel like giving up. At this point it’s almost stupid to even think to throw in the towel. Even though it’s only been like a month I feel like I have accomplished so much. Sometimes I feel like I’m a different person. I have to stop and say “who are you?” once in a while. The old me would have never stuck to anything like this. Another huge accomplishment for me is not getting fast food. GRANTED I have had fast food twice since I’ve started my diet but both times I was with my Mom and we were in Iron Mountain and I still calorie counted. It is huge that I haven’t gotten in the car and drove myself to Beef-A-Roo, McDonalds or KFC. I bet they miss me LOL…

Well the day is still young and I thought I’d write this before I forgot. The past couple days I have been bad by getting to post my blogs early. Last night I didn’t get to post until Midnight!

I made a veggie stir fry for dinner tonight. This whole large frying pan full of veggies is a little less than 450 calories! It will last me a couple days and it's something to not feel guilty over indulging on. I put a little bit of everything in there. Cabbage, pea pods, green pepper, broccoli, green beans, onion and mushrooms!

<-- I am so happy I can finally grow my nails out. They are so much stronger! Last night I actually had the patience to paint them nice.

Today I cut the back yard with the push mower and did some other yard work. I JUST beat the rain! I was so proud of myself because I actually got the mower to start ALL BY MYSELF! It has one of those pull things and as hard as I tried before; I could not get it going! I just didn't have the muscle. That just shows how much better of shape I’m in! Speaking of which I hate working out now because I have to work twice as hard to work up a sweat! I worked out in the basement tonight for a half hour and I think I need to make it 45 minutes now because my half hour is turning out to be pretty easy.

I steamed all of my green beans earlier so they are ready to go when I want to heat a bowl up. I LOVE garden fresh green beans! They are my favorite.

<-- I made my shish kabobs early. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and my mushrooms I had were going bad so we grilled out today instead. I wasn't that thrilled with the kabobs. They probably would have been better if I was able to soak them in some kind of marinade but I didn't want to do that because of the calories so I just seasoned them. Michael had the burgers. I didn't eat all the kabobs. No way I could have!

I have yet to work out today. I am debating on going for a bike ride, walk or going down in the basement to my "gym" lol..

My Mom gave me a shirt she bought for me today and it's too big!! I said Mom you should have ordered it in a smaller size and she said she did!! It's the same kind of shirt I already have except with a different pattern and my other shirts I have are 4XL and she got me a 3XL and it's too big!! Hello 2XL!

I went to the store earlier to pick up a few things to grill out and I beat myself up when I got home because I only have 1 banana left! Looks like I’m going to have to make another trip today or Tuesday because I’m sure the store is closed for Memorial Day.

Spooky thing! I have this book just for fun and it's over 200 pages. You are supposed to ask it a question and open up the book to the page you pick and there is your answer. Just a little bit ago I found it and decided what the heck and asked it "Will I be skinny in the next 5 months?" and the page I opened it to said "Pisces, The sign of the fish, assures that everything will fall into place." -It's so freaky because my astrology sign is Pisces! What are the odds? The book is filled with numerous things and that's the page I fall on...

Picture below: The hamburger and buns are for Michael but I got all this for $19!! There is another pack of hamburger patties under the first pack and I accidentally cut off the 3 pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts. The beans and peas will last me a while! I love a good deal.

I can’t wait to weigh in on Friday. I am so curious on how much more weight I’ve lost! I am so proud of myself for not weighing in early! I only have to wait 6 more days.

Today has been ordinary. Its Memorial Day weekend and town has just been crawling with tourists and people who don’t know how to drive lol… I’ve decided for Memorial Day I am going to have shish ka bobs. (I think that’s how it’s spelled?) They are going to be perfect on the grill for my diet!! I’m going to take mushrooms, chicken, onion, green pepper and maybe even broccoli and put them on skewers. I’ve never made them but I’m sure they can’t be that hard to make. I bought skewers yesterday so I’m set!

Yesterday I cheated but it was ok. I decided Fridays are my cheat days if I wanted to cheat. I usually skip working out on Fridays but since I missed working out on Wednesday I made myself work out. My Mom and I went to Iron Mountain and we ended up going to Taco Bell. I had what I wanted mapped out with my calories counted! I had some kind of burrito, a cheesy fiesta potato bowl & a Doritos taco. In the end it wasn’t that great.. I would have rather had a sub from Subway! On our way home we got Michael a Little Ceasers pizza to go and I ended up having 1 piece of that later on when I got home. It was sooo good! I savored EVERY bite! In the end I went over my daily calorie intake by 300. Not too bad but I wish I wouldn’t have had that Taco Bell. I feel like I could have eaten healthier and would have been more satisfied. Oh well!

As you can see from my last post I got a new bike! I love it. It is a ladies Nel Lusso Huffy cruiser. It came with a black wire basket but I bought a wicker one so Chewie could fit in it but it’s still a little too small. I need to figure something out where I can strap a cage or something on the back for him! I would love that but I have to come up with something tasteful! The bike came with the cup holder and I just HAD to buy the bell! I took it for a ride yesterday and was going to take that as my working out for the day but I ended up feeling so guilty later on at night about eating Taco Bell that I worked out at Midnight!!! I am very proud of myself for that.

Picture below: Body scan of 250 lb woman and 120 lb woman.

<-- This was my dinner last night. I am in love with those chicken sandwiches I’ve been making! I am so glad I love veggies to begin with. It makes this loosing weight thing a lot easier.

Yesterday I was bad. My friend cancelled our walk due to her kid not feeling well. I still could have walked but I didn’t. I also didn’t work out. This monthly visit really sucks! I have been craving everything and just want to sleep all day. Last night I brought my Mom to the gas station and I got a 99 cents bag of baked lays potato chips. It didn’t put me over my 1,200 calorie intake but still they were chips! I ate the whole bag and feel guilty about doing it so late at night. Oh well. I don’t know if that means I cheated or not but they were soooo good!

I have been slacking on drinking all the water I would like to be drinking. This week I’ve been trying to get back on track. Yesterday I drank all that I needed and today I am on the way to doing the same. I am down to 160 ounces now. I have this huge water bottle that I re-fill and I need 3 of those a day.

Today I cancelled our walk because I will not be home when we are supposed to go. We have plans to get back to walking on Monday but earlier I walked Chewie to my Moms and he stayed there when I walked back. I was so proud of myself that I did that! I don’t usually work out on the days I walk so it is nice knowing that my exercise is done for the day if I want it to be. I downloaded this walking app for my phone and it works as a step counter and tells me how many miles I’ve walked, how many mph I’m going and how many calories I’ve burned. It lets me set it for every detail; all the way down to the space between my feet every time I take a step. I always thought walking one way to my Moms from my house was 1 mile but my step counter said it’s a little over 2 miles. I will have to take Michaels car and see for sure. That would be cool if it was 2 miles one way because then I would have walked 4 miles today. I also wore a tank top when I went to my Moms! That says a whole lot because my arms are the one thing I am most self conscious about! All of my insecurities are slowly going away.

My underwear keeps falling off! It is starting to get annoying. Also my pants are loose and my shirts are either fitting better by hanging like they are supposed to or I am swimming in them. There is this one that I used to wear and fill out and it’s starting to feel like a dress on me!! It literally hits my knees like a night gown when I’m on the treadmill. I used to only be able to get shirts that were 32 inches long. It sucked because there are not many options out there like that for shirts besides dresses. Soon I hope to not have to worry about that! My belly is shrinking little by little! You guys won’t believe how gross my belly is/was when I post before and after pics. I feel over the years I have done a really good job and making it semi-unnoticeable. I can’t wait to be able to walk into a store and find something that fits me. I remember when I would go school clothes shopping and I would go into an Abercrombie&Fitch or an American Eagle and instead of turning to go into the women’s side; I had to make a b-line for the men’s t-shirt section. One time I was with my Mom and there was a sales associate by my and I didn’t want him to know I had to buy a men’s t-shirt for myself so I could have something name brand and  I ended up making something up about how we were looking for my Dad.

I think I need to stop saying how I don’t like Weight Watcher Smart Ones meals. I had one today and it was really good! It was the broccoli alfredo one. I got this huge piece of broccoli in it! I mean there are not that many frozen meals that will give you nice pieces like the ones I had today!

One of my favorite motivational pictures so far!

<-- Back in 8th grade with my friend. I just saw her yesterday to do her maternity portraits. It got me thinking about when I have kids. This whole weight loss is going to benefit me when I get to that point. When the time comes I don't want any complications because of my obesity.

Don't worry, no kids soon. I would like to wait until after I am married.

I have lost my way these past couple of days. I didn’t cheat; I actually ate less than 1,200 calories which I know isn’t good either. I skipped working out on Monday and I didn’t end up walking to my Moms Monday either but last night at 10PM after not having worked out all day; I DRAGGED myself down to the basement and set my phones alarm for one hour and forced myself to work out until it went off! I usually only do 30 minutes but I felt I had to make up for Monday. Let’s just say my heads back in the game after that! I could barely walk upstairs afterwards, ha! It’s amazing on what a little exercise will do for your overall well being. This week is going to be a hard one on the exercise front. I have no oomph! I have my monthly visit and am feeling so lethargic! I have decided to not weigh in on this Friday in case I’m bloated. I want to get the most accurate reading so the next time I will weigh in will be Friday, June 1st. This week will be my bi-week, like in footsball – lol
 
I went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up a few things I needed. I had been out of bananas for 2 days! My whole world comes crashing down if I don’t have bananas. I skipped exercising Monday and I was out of bananas. I almost skipped exercising yesterday and I was out of bananas. I go bananas if I don’t have bananas! With me I think it is a complete mind over matter thing. It’s all in my head but I feel my banana for breakfast starts off my day and when I have no banana I don’t eat any breakfast and then I get sad later in the day and that leads to not working out. By George I think I’ve got it! LOL

Speaking of going to the grocery store; I am amazed on how much cheaper my bills are just by eating healthier! I always used to use the excuse “I can’t afford healthy food” – “Healthy food is so expensive”… Well I was a moron! JUNK FOOD is EXPENSIVE! When you don’t buy junk food anymore and go healthy your bill gets cut in half. At least mine does. I also seem to get more for my money!! I got 4 lean cuisines on sale, 2 bushes of broccoli, 3 onions, 2 cucumbers, a head of cauliflower, a half a head of cabbage, 2 packages of button mushrooms, 1 green pepper, 6 bananas and 5 more packages of that frozen Pollock fish I had the other day ALL for $29!!!!

Lean Cuisine makes a really good Mac and cheese. I was pleasantly surprised! I made it in the oven like I do to them all and it turned out very good. My other favorites so far are the cheese ravioli, the Salisbury steak one and their chicken ones are good as well. The chicken actually tastes like good non frozen chicken! The only frozen meals I have said "yuck" to were the Weight Watcher Smart Ones. They have some good ones but I think Lean Cuisine has better quality/taste. Oh well, whatever’s on sale right?! Lol – I couldn’t imagine myself paying full price for one.

My friend and I are going for our walk at 5:30 as far as I know. I will probably have a picture to post from it tomorrow. I am hoping to sneak a nap in today sometime before then. I didn’t get more than 4 hours of sleep last night. I was up at 5am wide awake. Getting enough sleep plays a big role in someone who is trying to loose weight! This week is going haywire for me!

The picture below is my exercise bike. A couple years ago we picked it up for $5 off the side of the road lol - OH! I forgot to say before in a previous post that Michael got the treadmill working! I was so happy. Who’da thunk I’d be so happy over that?

Today is going to be short. It took me about an hour just to post this! My computer is giving me greif as well as my AT&T internet. High speed my butt!!!!! I am sorry to those who have been checking in to read something interesting. This motivational poster will have to do for today! Tomorrows post will be worth reading; I promise.