<-- I got a medium pizza from Riverside for my big end of the month cheat day. Little did I know I should have ordered a small!!!!! This is what I had left over and I gave it to my Mom. I CANNOT believe I couldn't do it! I got mad because it all happened so fast lol but I am thrilled. I used to get a large and have NO problem polishing it off; let alone give away my left-overs! I treated it like gold ha-ha. I am so proud of myself. I literally could not eat any more. I forced the last 3 pieces down and got VERY uncomfortably full. CRAZYYY!!!!!!!!! 

Michael went to work at 4am and I could not fall back asleep. I ended up lying in bed until 6 and then got up & had an egg with a piece of toast. I then showered and got my walk in all before 10am! GO me! I walked Chewie to my Moms and then we visited for a little while and then I took the long way home by walking from her house to Caspian and then I got on the Apple Blossom trail and took that all the way until I hit the bridge on the road by my house. I really enjoyed walking early. I left my house around 7:30am and the roads were not busy; everyone still seemed to be sleeping lol. It was also nice and cool. Perfect walking weather and get this; I jogged half of the way to my Moms!!!

Below: Mine and Chewie's silhouette lol

<--This was my lunch today; pan grilled boneless skinless chicken breast with fried green pepper & onion and a sliced pickle garnish lol. I cooked the green pepper and onion with my 0 calorie spray. It’s weird but HEY whatever floats my boat! It was good and that's all that matters. 

I worked out in the basement earlier for a half hour. I did the treadmill and then my exercise bike. My little dog Chewie always insists on having me hold him for a little while when I’m on the exercise bike. He looks ahead like we are going somewhere lol. It is so cute.

Well… Tomorrow is the big day! My end of the month cheat day!!! Where I can order whatever I want for one meal without hesitation. I will get a medium pepperoni pizza with black olives, onions and have hot peppers on half. I am not sure how much I’ll be able to eat because my stomach has gotten a lot smaller but I’m ready! I also have plans to workout tomorrow and Friday. No cheat days with exercising for me this week! I feel so limber when I keep up the daily exercise and if I’m going to be having pizza tomorrow I know I’ll need to keep up the pep!

<-- This totally fits me!!! I suck at exercising but I do it anyway. You’re looking at a girl who sprained her ankle in middle school just by casually walking down a hallway and falling face first for no reason. I swear gravity hates me!! BUT I have to give myself kudos because I have only fallen once through this process and have yet to get a charlie horse or pull a muscle! Now; just wait… Now that I said that I will probably get one lol.

Michael and I took a walk today with our dog Silver and Nibbler (our 2 labs). They are very spoiled but we don’t take them for walks so they were horrible. Instead of focusing on getting a good walk work-out in; the whole trip turned into a “what would Cesar Millan do” session LOL. Little by little if we keep it up they will get better. I can already see improvements in Nibbler. I got her to walk great! Silver on the other hand is so sassy! We walked about a mile and a half.

Just a little while ago I worked out in the basement for 30 minutes. I was just going to call our walk today my exercise but at this point I feel I need to start putting that little extra in to each day. I have gotten a little lax lately with my strictness.

I went to the grocery store finally! I got a lot of fresh food. No frozen stuff. I got lots of veggies, fruit, eggs, skim milk for my wheaties and a 3 pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts. Oh and I also got some I can’t believe it’s not butter; the light kind for when I use a sliver here and then. I wanted to get fresh spinach but it all expired soon and there was no way I could go through the whole bag in such a small amount of time.

I can’t wait until next summer when I can get serious about a garden. I was too late into this summer when I wanted to get started. It would feel great to harvest my own food and almost completely live off my land!

I feel pretty safe now that I can say that I am pretty close if not there yet to the middle of my journey! As of Friday I was 2 pounds away from the 50 pound mark. I didn’t weigh myself today and I am going to wait to see what I weigh on this coming Friday. I can’t believe I’m half way to losing 100 pounds. I never thought I’d see the day. I am going to go places; I can just feel it.

Yesterday was my cheat day and I didn't think I was going to cheat with food but I did and I’m totally ok with it. We got Subway for dinner and I had one of their personal pizzas. It was very good!

I was also pretty active. I had a photo-shoot and we did a lot of walking to get to certain areas. Also Michael and I played some football in our yard.

Today Michael and I went for a 4.2 mile walk. It was nice having him come with me! I'll post a picture of our route at the end of this entry.

So the end of this month is on this Tuesday. Michael and I plan on getting pizza! LOL - I knew I’d resort to that. I just can't feel comfortable cheating with anything else. I feel like having Riverside pizza so I’m going to get a pizza from there and then Michael is going to get one from Scott's because he doesn’t like Riverside. I'm so excited! Since I’ll be cheating on a Tuesday I will have that Friday be a normal day with my diet & exercise.

I forgot to mention that I have been using a very, VERY thin sliver of butter when I cook my eggs now. It is seriously the thickness of 2 pieces of paper. The next time I go to the store I want to get some kind of smart balance butter so when I do use a sliver it is better than the blue bonnet that we have.

Yesterday I suprised myself and Michael at how good I could throw the football! We actually had a great streak where no one dropped it for a while. Then when we did drop it; we blamed it on the wind ;-)

I told him to not throw it directly at me! He almost hit my phone but I tought the picture came out pretty neat.

We took this picture a few days ago. I forgot to share :-)

Our route:

I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning when in comes to my weigh-in days. I have a hard time falling asleep the night before and I wake up earlier than I normally would. When I get up in the morning I hurry and go to the bathroom and then fly down the stairs and hit the scale. I weigh myself about 3 times in a row so I know it is accurate lol.

Today; I am at 290 pounds. I have lost 3 pounds this week which is 1 more than I was anticipating! All together I have lost a total 48 pounds! That is way more than I was expecting to lose in just 3 months! Well almost 3 months; 4 days shy. It would be awesome if I could lose 2 more pounds in the next 4 days; just so I could say I lost 50 pounds in 3 months but I’m not getting ahead of myself, lol… 

Well I’m off to enjoy the day. I have a senior portrait session scheduled for today at 2. I hoping this rain will hold off!

Below I found this picture online of someone holding 1 pound of fat so I multiplied it to 48 pounds and put together this picture. WOW! The next time I get discouraged I need to look at this.

I found these little frozen packs of green bean casserole in the freezer section at the grocery store. It’s by Green Giant and surprisingly tastes great! I had that and some steamed fish for dinner. All together it was 275 calories!

I went for a good walk today. My Mom came with me so I could show her my route. It’s about 2 ½ miles. Near the end I ran up the big hill that was across the highway. My Mom waited for me at the bottom. She was pooped! I don’t even know where I got my energy from. I can’t believe I ran up that hill rather than walked it. I just felt I needed to push myself more and I feel great now that I had done that little extra. There is a picture my Mom took at the bottom of this post. I am really, really small so I circled me in the picture lol. The hill looks much steeper in person.

This morning I had 2 eggs with my multigrain toast and for lunch I had a McDonalds Cesar salad with grilled chicken. I didn’t have croutons and I came home and used barely a serving of my fat free ranch. I just like to lightly coat the lettuce. All together the salad was about 230 calories.

Tomorrow is my weigh in day. I am anxious, excited and nervous! I have no idea what I’ll weigh in at. I feel better than I did last week so I am hoping I at least lost 2 pounds. We will see! I will probably get my blog done early tomorrow. I plan to weigh in, eat breakfast and then do a short post and go and enjoy the rest of my Friday cheat day! I probably won’t cheat with food; I will just skip exercising.

<-- I found this picture I was looking for a while back to go along with my post about my love for chips and dip. This was me when I was little all set up with my bowl of chips and bowl of dip. I don’t blame my Mom what so ever. I know she feels partly responsible for me being in this situation. No one knew that I was headed into the obese direction at this age. I just loved my chips and dip. This may sound completely crazy but I can honestly say I do not regret one single potato chip I have ever eaten. They have gotten me through some tough times. Speaking of chips; I HATED that Ruffles had to come out with their new ultimate ridges chips JUST when I started dieting!!! DROOL!

I want to apologize for the people that check in during the day waiting for my new post just to find out I don’t do it until midnight. I feel bad but some days I’m on top of it and others I like to wait until the end of the day so I have more to write about.

I just got done working out in the basement not too long ago. I had a great work-out! I wasn’t going to do it tonight but I just knew I would feel so much better about myself in the morning if I just dragged myself down there and did it anyways. I have been slacking lately. Even thought it may not seem like it; I can feel my heart isn’t as into it as it used to be. This does scare me at times but it also gives me some motivation to prove myself wrong. I am not sure if I am feeling this way because my new lifestyle isn’t so new anymore and it has become routine? I’m not complaining because I have dreamed about being able to stick to something like this for so long it almost seems surreal now that I’m actually in the groove of it.

I only got 3 hours of sleep last night. I hate not getting at least 7 hours! They say that getting enough sleep is a BIG part of the weight-loss process but I’m sure 1 rough night won’t make me gain 10 pounds. I was sleeping well until my dog Heidi got me up at 5AM howling at the thunder from the storm that was rolling in. I got her calmed down and then I couldn’t fall back asleep! I laid there for a couple hours until I got up and decided to start my day. Surprisingly today was a good day and I wasn’t as tired as I thought I was going to be.

After I came downstairs this morning I made myself eggs and toast right away for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I had a Lean Cuisine. I drank a cup of coffee with my breakfast this morning which was so nice! I like not having something for a while because then it becomes a real treat when I do have it! I don’t use sugar or creamer either so it’s pretty much guilt free!

I have to say THANK YOU all so, so, so, so much for the loving support! I am flabbergasted at the amount of people who care and are excited for me. One of my very good friends said once I get to my 75 pound mark she is going to make me this awesome owl rug I saw pictures of when I was at her house last! She is amazing with crocheting and knitting. She seriously blows my mind with her skill! I am so excited to get to my 75 pound mark now and it is a great motivator. I love her for thinking of doing something like that for me!

ALSO; I have been keeping up with that teeth whitening method where you take a q-tip and rub peroxide on your teeth and it works! I am very happy with my results. The only thing is that when I posted about this method before I said to rub it on your teeth and have it sit for 10 seconds. I was wrong! It is 30 seconds; not 10!

Picture below: Me during my work-out tonight; KICKING BUTT!!!!! Lol

I actually had 3 meals today! FINALLY! Lol – I made myself have breakfast. Even though it was a lean cuisine and wasn’t a breakfast food!

I did a 30 minute dance work out. I really need to switch it up and I love to dance so it’s a win-win. I haven’t gone for a walk in a while. Hopefully; this next week I can go for a walk for most of my work-outs if it’s not too hot.

The picture below was taken today. I’m getting there!!! Michael said he’s starting to see an hour glass shape so I’m excited for that. Hour glass is good right?

I forgot to mention in yesterdays post that I stopped weighing myself and am going to go back to just weighing in on Fridays. I have been squirming these past couple of days not knowing but I feel it is for the best! I realized I rather have just 1 down day if I were to not have lost anything than to have a roller coaster of a week by checking every day. I no longer will have expectations; just high hopes! I can’t wait until I can officially say I have lost 50 pounds!!

I never did get to working out last night. That made my 3rd day in a row for not exercising. I finally broke the chain and worked out today in the basement. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill and then did another 10 minutes on the exercise bike. It was a 20 minute work out but it was better than nothing! I can tell I was a little rusty because I had to stop about 8 minutes into my treadmill workout to drink some water and yawn LOL.

Today I skipped breakfast again! I know what it is. I need to get milk for my cereal or get bananas. In the morning I am too lazy to fry an egg! These past 3 mornings I had plans to make an egg and toast but it never happened. Eating breakfast is one of the hardest things for me to get used to. I have such a hard time eating when I first get up. I have realized if it’s not grab and go or easy to prepare I say screw it. For lunch I had a lean cuisine and then for dinner I had 2 eggs fried with my 0 calorie spray and 2 slices of my sara lee 45 calorie multi-grain toast. Not quite the time I wanted to eat eggs but I had the taste for them sunny-side up.

I cannot wait to be where I want to be! I was telling Michael when that time comes I want to go shopping in Appleton at the mall and get new clothes! My Mom has gotten me a few new shirts but I can’t wait to go “school clothes shopping” again! LOL – That’s what it will feel like but minus the me being in school part.

Other things that I have noticed since I have started losing weight; my arm tattoo looks so much better! It is actually wrapping around my arm nice instead of it looking like it’s in the middle of white arm fat. I remember when I got it done I had him do it a certain way so it would look normal if I were to lost weight. Chairs are no longer a huge enemy and restaurant booths and seat belts are a breeze! Part of me feels the same and part of me doesn’t. It’s hard for me to tell because I am me. Sometimes I wish I could meet myself just so I could see what I really looked like to other people. I haven’t really gotten any comments about losing weight. It either isn’t noticeable yet or they are too afraid to say something because it will offend me but I would love it if people spoke their mind! It would make me one happy camper just to know what I am doing is actually making a visual impact on my appearance.

I am so excited for my end of the month cheat day. I still have yet to figure out what I want to have. 8 more days!!! I was thinking pizza but I did pizza for the past 2 months cheat days. I was thinking maybe chips and dip but I don’t know. I think if I were to go buy a tub of dip and a bag of chips knowing I was going to sit down and eat them all for a meal I would feel guilty and probably not even make it to the check out lol. I will probably end up ordering pizzas with Michael. Nothing else seems worthy enough. I could go to McDonalds and get burgers and fries or those new spicy chicken McBites I have been drooling over or I could go to KFC and get their new chicken bites they have but I don’t think fast food is worth filling my end of the month cheat day. I want to have something good, decadent, rich and homemade. Also; I don’t want to have to make it. I have been craving steak so maybe I’ll get get a big steak dinner. Maybe I’ll ask my Mom to make a big nice home-style dinner with a roast or something. OK enough dreaming about my cheat meal. After all this is a WEIGHT LOSS BLOG, HA! Cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, water, lettuce! There… I made up for all the greasy talk.

I need to go grocery shopping again and get fresh food. I have been eating these frozen lean cuisine meals lately and I am missing a crunch, a crisp or a snap! I am getting sick of the mush texture. Speaking of Lean Cuisines; a while back I had went to Wal-Mart and I was AMAZED at their Lean cuisine selection!!!! So many to choose from at GREAT prices!!! I now have a new favorite that I wish I would have gotten more than 2 of and that is their stuffed cabbage!! I was excited when I saw they had that! It comes with a side of mashed potatoes and they are so tasty. The mashed potatoes have a garlic taste but it’s not over powering. I can honestly say they were the best mashed potatoes I have ever tasted in a frozen meal or instant for that matter!!! BUT nothing can top fresh mashed potatoes!!! Don’t get me started on the cabbage roll. I was in AWE! It was so, so, so, so good. My Mom might get mad if I say this but it tasted like hers would a day old. (This is a good thing. Cabbage rolls are always better the next day!) - Next time I hit up Wal-Mart I am going to buy a crap load of that kind. It left me feeling so satisfied. I could not believe the flavor and it was also only 210 calories!!!! Doesn’t get much better than that!

I have not been in the mood for blogging these past couple of days. Yesterday I was pretty busy. I didn’t get to eat breakfast or have my green tea and I had a little lunch and a lean cuisine for dinner. Later on I drank some spiked punch I made. I had about 4 glasses of it. It’s mixed with vodka, sprite, cranberry juice and a frozen lemonade mix. All in all I don’t think I went over my calorie intake for the day. I had a few snacks with a couple friends. I had some cheesy popcorn and a few kettle cooked potato chips and when I say few I mean like 4 or 5 chips. I made them take the chips with them when they left lol. I didn’t want to tempt my future self because I know I would have sat down and ate them all!

Today I missed breakfast again but I had my green tea and then I had a lean cuisine for lunch and some popcorn. I have not been having an appetite lately. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back on track with my routine. I also missed working out yesterday but was pretty active and today I was pretty active but still have yet to work out. This heat is awful! It’s starting to cool off now but I don’t know. I feel lethargic right now.

I finally got my guest room finished! Just put the last pieces together today. I thought I’d share a pic!

Guest room before: