I Don't Even Want to Talk About It!!!

Today is the big Reveal for Fit Friday...And, yes, it is gonna be big. As in, I still am! This should not come as a surprise to any of you faithful Fit Friday-ers, I have struggled every step of the way! At my best, I had lost about 6 pounds, then I gained them back, then I lost 2. If you combine all those...that is an 8 pound loss!!! Pretty good. But if you look at the actual result, I have lost a mere two pounds. :(



Now, I could give a lot of excuses here, the holidays, a very sick baby, a husband who was NOT doing Fit Friday and was off work until Jan. 5. But the truth is, I ate too much junk, didn't exercise enough and became unreasonably addicted to Facebook, spending an inordinate amount of time sitting in front of a computer reconnecting with long lost friends.



I am back on the wagon now, so while I will probably not be the grand prize winner...I definitely see some good benefits. I am back to my regularly scheduled exercise agenda and I am now the proud owner of a Wiifit, so I am pretty faithfully exercising and now that most of the holiday goodies are gone, I am doing better on my diet.

Even better, Tigerfan has seen fit to start losing with me, so we are going to invest in a food scale and work together. He, by the way, has lost 4 pounds...yes, 4! How unfair is that, he has been trying for like a week! Ugh.


Anyway, I was going to bail out of the picture out of utter humiliation. But Missy our generous host did it, so at the last minute this morning, I made Tigerfan snap a picture and after a freakishly long time trying to figure out how to get a picture from my camera to my computer, I decided to own up. Please understand how much I love ya'll. This is an "untouched up" photo. I have on no make-up (I never even look at myself with no makeup) and I just finished walking on the treadmill...I promise, I will NEVER subject you to such horror again!

I really have no dignity left!

So, hope ya'll had more success...although I totally wanted to win and I hope to see you back here soon...hopefully seeing a slimmer, trimmer, healthier me!

I Hope My Pants Will Fit Friday!

My downward spiral continues, so I am thrilled to see we are taking a couple of weeks break. Thanks, Missy! Hopefully, I will use that time to get back on the band wagon and not fall further from it!

This week has been rough! Hubby and I have been up entirely too late too many nights. Tigercub has had two ear infections, Baseball boy had been sick, we have had threats of bad weather keeping us in the house and parties, etc. at tutorial, church....

Anyway, I have not exercised. Not one time. At least not officially. Chasing tigercub has GOT to count for something.

The fortunate thing is I have been so dad gum busy that I haven't had time to eat as much as I normally would so hopefully that is helping a bit. Today, I weighed AFTER I ate breakfast and I held steady at 133. Not the pound or two I would have liked to see gone, but no gain after a week of no exercise either!

Anyway, my little Fit Friday sisters, I'll miss checking in with ya'll for a couple of weeks! Have an awesome holiday and don't stress about the weight too much. In fact, I would like to highly encourage you to relax, kick your feet up and let me slide into the winning position to take that gift card! Cause that is the ONLY way I can win!

Merry Christmas!

Throwing a Fit Friday

This is where you SHOULD find my fit Friday post. Hosted by the beautiful and getting fit Missy! However, I have officially given up trying to be a hottie for the holidays, I will resume efforts on January 1st. I will continue to do my best and try to exercise, but the fact of the matter is, I am worn slap out and when you never get into bed before midnight or 1 a.m. it is just too dang hard to drag your booty out of bed at 5 to exercise! I am trying. I made it three days this week (at least I hope...I am optimistically typing this Thursday night assuming I will get up Friday, which I need to do because when I am through typing I am going to go sit on the couch with Tigerfan, watch House Hunters, eat popcorn and peanut M&M's and drink a Diet Coke and there is NO SHAME!). I ate okay, I have no idea what I weigh. One day I weighed in at 133 and did the "happy dance" but let's face it, the scales lie, so if I stepped on it now, it could say 139 and I would slip into a desperate depression, so I won't look...sometimes it is just better that way. Anyway, the next two weeks are crazy with parties and party food, choir productions, tutorial activities, blah, blah, blah. So, I will do my best, but I am not going to beat myself up over it and when I make my annual tray of goodies to send to Tigerfan's office, I WILL sample! I mean, I have to make sure they taste right!



So, one of my good friends sent me this in an email because she knows about my weigh in woes. Thought my Hottie sitters might enjoy it! I would love to give credit to the original author, but I don't know who it is, surely a Hottie in Training like us!


HOLIDAY EATING TIPS:



1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.





2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It's rare. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!





3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.





4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.





5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?





6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do.This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.





7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.





8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?





9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.





10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.





Remember this motto to live by:"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "WOO HOO, what a ride!"Have a great holiday season.

Fit Friday

My daddy used to say, "I am so far behind, I have to look forward to see backward!"

That is how I feel right now. About EVERYTHING. I am just struggling to keep my head above water! As a result, I have not been too successful in the weight loss efforts lately! I have million excuses. One of which is being gone for 10 days 6 of which were in DisneyWorld, not a good place to be watching your figure! I have been so busy and so darn tired, I just haven't exercised like I should. And, frankly, I am just too dad gum tired right now to even try very hard, I have slipped into my old patterns of eating the kids leftovers, getting my easy breakfast, blah, blah, blah. I should have maintained my "no fail environment" as Dr. Phil would say, but that would require effort and I just don't have it in me right now.

I know, you are all astounded at my wonderful attitude!

Anyway, in three weeks, I have lost about 1 pound. Considering my efforts, that should be good news and I should be grateful. frankly, I am just bitter that I can't lay around in bed eating bon bons and miraculously lose 10 pounds.

I really am going to try to do better. I will try to get back on board this week and get serious. No more excuses. Really.

Fit Friday Week Something

This will be short and sweet. This week has been crazy busy but I have managed to keep up with my exercise and haven't completely blown my food consumption. I haven't been on a scale, but I am pretty sure I have just kept steady, which is okay considering the week.

We are leaving in about an hour headed to FL to spend Thanksgiving with Mickey. I am not sure if I will ever get a chance to check in or not and am pretty sure I will not be able to post next week...or diet...or stay with my exercise routine. But people, it's DISNEY! Give me a break!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Fit Friday #4

Taking a little break from my bloggy break to check in with my Fit Friday Friends. My report is this: DON'T ASK!

My diet has severely suffered from the attack of the blahs not to mention the fact that, while I started the week off with a bang exercise wise, I ended it the last two days with nothing, NOTHING! I hope to get some in at some point today, but frankly, sleep has just won out for me. I have not stepped on a scale (too depressing!) so I do not know what the numbers say.

I will try to get back on track this week (sounds freakishly familiar, doesn't it!) because if I don't just get into a habit of healthy eating and exercise soon I think I am going to have to change my goal from "Hot for the Holidays" to "Slim in the Spring" or maybe "Sweet by the Summer" or, if I continue on my current trend "Fantastic for the Fall".

Good luck this week to all my Fit Friday friends, may you eat light, exercise hard and watch another pound slip away! For more Fit Friday go to It's Almost Naptime.

Fit Friday

After a VERY rough week last week, I was determined to do better...and I did!

I did not miss a single day of exercise (yeah, me! and yeah, kids!). Just that alone makes me feel so much better! I would like to get some different workout videos and I am trying to convince Tigerfan that I really NEED WiiFit for Christmas! But, regardless, I exercised! This morning I even did a little dance workout I found on YouTube...oh if you could have been a fly on my wall this morning...cause, people, this white girl cannot dance!!! But it was fun, so who cares?

I did better eating as well. This was quite an achievement considering the busy weekend, 3 sick children, dance lessons, angel practice for the boys, etc. It has been a wild week. Perhaps the most deadly thing to my diet was the extreme desire to drown my election woes in chocolate. And I did...to some extent...but overall, I did better than I have in two weeks.

The result...drum roll, please, NO LOSS! In fact, I may have even GAINED a pound back! I cannot remember what time I have been weighing in, so I weighed twice..once I was steady, once I had gained a pound.

I guess I shouldn't whine...I mean I do deserve it after the last two weeks...but, really! I think I'll chalk it up to water retention due to my increased exercise this week--I feel better that way. And, I should probably remove all signs of Halloween candy from my sight! By now the kids are sick of it (imagine that!) and so it just sits on the counter and mocks me! I think I probably gain a few tenths of a pound every time I walk into the kitchen!

Anyway, I am going to keep trying this week. Does anyone have any good low fat, low cal dinner suggestions? I do pretty good with breakfast and lunch but could really use some help with relatively quick and easy supper ideas.

Hope everyone's week went well! For more Fit Friday, check out It's Almost Naptime!

Hippo for the Holidays

As you can probably guess from the title, this has been another BAD week. Why is it that as soon as I PUBLICLY commit to weight loss, I go from doing okay to just blowing it constantly?

In my defense, and it is a pitiful defense, my life has just spiraled out of control. It has been right on the brink lately but I have managed to hold on to one tiny thread and keep going. Not this week.

I have posted in the past about my desperate need for a time management course. I even asked Tigerfan for a personal assistant for Christmas but he ignored me! Well, my lack of organizational skills has finally hit me smack in the face.

For several months now, my schedule has been something like this:
5:00 a.m. get up and do cardio for 30 minutes
5:30 a.m. breakfast and quiet time
6:00 a.m. shower and get ready
6:45 a.m. get the children up and begin the day, fix breakfast, do morning chores, etc. I also use this time as our "read aloud" time for school so while the children eat, I read to them from our current novel.
8:00 a.m. (hopefull) officially begin school. We usually begin by starting the laundry, doing pledges, learning a song for church choir, reciting our heart verses, and doing our Bible lesson. All of which I need to be present and involved in. Then, the children can choose what subject they work on next and we get started.

I assist with school where needed and try to keep laundry going. However, by keeping laundry going, I mean realizing one load is through, putting it in to dry and starting another...going to pull clothes I do not want to dry all the way...putting them in a basket to take upstairs to hang up to dry...getting distracted by a child needing assistance...realizing the dryer is through...putting clothes on the couch to fold...getting distracted by a fussy baby... by the days end, I usually have a basket of wet clothes weighing approximately 500 pounds and a couch so full of unfolded clothes that no one can use the living room!

11:30 a.m. we would break to fix lunch
12:00 eat with Daddy and then the kids take a break while I visit, clean, and probably find myself something to eat because in all likelihood, the baby needed to eat, then Tigerfan came home and needed lunch, and then the kids needed something, and soon everyone has eaten and left the table and I have a mess to clean and have not yet eaten, as a result in a frustrated and half starved craze...I grab whatever carbohydrate is close by and devour it. Most recently, that has been the Halloween candy stash! (this is not one of my prouder confessions)

Anyway...the rest of the day goes much like this. We often do not finish school until 4:00 at which time, it is time to fix supper, get baths, prepare for the next day, do night time activities...etc.

By the time the children go to bed, the house is a disaster, the laundry isn't done, I have not prepared for teaching at the tutorial, etc. So, I begin trudging through it all. Folding laundry, hanging wet clothes, ironing, ironing, ironing, cleaning the kitchen, preparing tutorial and on MWF doing my strength training. The result? Most weeknights, it is between 11:00p.m. and 1:00 a.m. before I go to bed and then it all starts over at 5.

I am not whining, I am not proud of this...it just is how it is. But this week, I have hit a wall. My body just physically can not take this much more. I am tired and cranky and stressed and my faith tends to waver a bit. The problem? What do I do? This week, I overslept 3 days! 3! That means no exercise and no quiet time and that means a scary mom! I know I am failing in certain things. I know the kids should have to help out more. But, usually, while I tell them they are helping that day, we get entrenched in school, and housework becomes undoable. By 4:00, they are tired, I am tired and the work involved in getting them to do chores then is just more than I can do!

So, here I am. The scale tells me I lost another pound (although one day this week it also told me I weighed 119 pounds). I do not see how that is true. Unless chocolate, muffins, and chips have become a healthy food group, I think there is a mistake! Regardless of my weight, however...I want to live a healthy, balanced lifestyle and I am not. I just do not know what to change or cut out to make life more manageable. And the busy season is just about to start!

I did not mean to make this post a whine fest, but I am REALLY frustrated. Any advice out there? I would love for it to include a weekend retreat with my husband and an unlimited amount of fat free, calorie free chocolate, so if you could incorporate that, it would be great! Hope all you other Hotties out there had a better week. And there is always next week, right? I'll get started on that...right after we celebrate the candy and calorie laden Fall Fun Fest at church tonight!

**I forgot to link to the host site! For more Fit Friday posts go to It's Almost Naptime!

Calling Flylady...Someone needs your help!

To those who had a wonderful first week for Hot For the Holidays...I curse you! Okay, not really. But my week, not so good!

Did you see the great ONE blog I posted? My blogging tells the tale of all success stories this week!

I did most get in my required exercise (according to Sparkpeople) by Wednesday, but have not done one bit since then, although I totally plan to today. Sometime.

Eating has not been so successful. I have found I just do not have the time to track my food through Sparkpeople. I guess I need to just do it the old fashioned way...with pen and ink (gasp!) I always do great at breakfast, but then things quickly decline. I think my problem is not having a lot of healthy choices around here. Which I would, if I would get them at the grocery store. Which I would, if I would make a list. Which I would if I could get my life organized and find time to sit down and write one instead of realizing that I cannot feed my children because there is NOTHING in the cabinets to feed them with and if I do not want a visit from Social Services, I must go to the store NOW! And I probably could get organized, if I could just get my house in order and find that darn household notebook I started 5 1/2 years ago! Which I could if Flylady would fly over here and homeschool my family, fix meals and give me life changing lessons until they all became a habit and we would all live happily ever after in a clean, well stocked home with lots of healthy food options and a skinny mommy everyone would be jealous of.

Thank you for letting me rant. We will now return to trying to do better this week. In all fairness, this week had been plagued with projects for tutorial, Extra stuff to do for church and I had a HORRENDOUS headache Wednesday that just sucked the life out of me. But, today is a new day!

Despite it all, the scale reads that I lost about 1 pound, although if I weighed at a less opportune time, it would probably have a sadder tale to tale. However, I did not gain any, so I guess I can't complain. Good luck fellow hotties and may this week find you eating right, exercising, and becoming your inner hottie (okay, when I first typed that, I accidentally typed hootie which leads to a whole new post subject about how the little weight I have lost seems to be coming from the "hooter" area, which is just wrong!!!)

Hot For the Holidays

I am joining in with It's Almost Naptime to try to finish off my weight loss goals. I started out great this summer but after vacation and trying to get back into school, I have sort of fizzled out. So maybe this will keep me accountable because heaven knows Tigerfan's sweet gifts of chocolate to eat after the kids go to bed are appreciated but not figure friendly.

So, here it is: the ugly truth.

When I married, 13 years and 4 kids ago, I weighed about 115 pounds. After a little summer weight loss and on a good morning, I weigh about 138. I should have taken a good let it all hang out picture but those who have been around awhile know my technology issues so I am just putting in a couple of recent pictures that highlights some unflattering rolls (oh, please be kind!).

Do ya see 'em? The rolls? Yuck!

Okay, so here is the plan:

Continue to do cardio at least 30 minutes a day MWF and 20 minutes on T and Th. Strength training on MWF and hopefully a little cardio on the weekends. I already do this but have "missed" several days this week, like this morning because I am nothing if not dedicated to being a "hottie".

Okay, I will also get back to eating between 1200 and 1500 calories a day with guidance from Sparkpeople and will start tracking my calories again because as a dedicated rule follower there is NOTHING worse than having to write down an offending food and I therefore will not eat it!

I will, however, continue to rebel on Thursday nights for popcorn and Peanut M&M's because, there are limits, people!!!

Other than Thursday nights, I will stop eating late night snacks, especially while ironing and watching Project Runway which will be relatively easy because Project Runway is now over (and, may I add that the WRONG designer won, although I ALWAYS choose the wrong designer, but Korto (or however you spell your name,) the win should have been yours!).

I have also gotten a little lazy about my water consumption so I will try to get back to my 8 glasses a day (I have been doing about 5 glasses lately).

Okay, so there it is! Feel free to hound, heckle or guilt me into being faithful to the cause! And feel free to join in yourself because everyone knows that misery loves company!!!

Happy Friday!