Ok, so I got the results of my xrays back. Diagnosis-arthritis of 2 discs and spondylosis of the vertabrae in my neck. Prognosis-chronic neck pain. Great. If only you could see my expression. You know though, one of my Young Women in my ward just found out she has a brain tumor!!! I think I'm ok with arthritis. I'm glad that I know, however, if one more doctor tells me I'm getting old I'm going to scream! It actually has given me the answer to some mystery symptoms that I've been having for two years now. Anyway, I'm starting to feel better from the Bronchitis and so I will definately be in the next round. Thanks for letting me vent. I'll get through the acceptance stage and get ready to kick butt with the rest of you. Yay for skinny jeans!!!!

Alright. I'm laying it all out here. I have done nothing as far as losing weight and it's so frustrating!!! The last 3 weeks I have been sick with Bronchitis, a UTI, and now I'm waiting on results from my neck x-rays. I am a physical mess!!! I don't know what the Lord is trying to tell me. I'm not sure if I should push through it or lay down until it passes but neither one of those options are pleasant. I'm going to drop out of this round just because I'm needing to concentrate on getting better. My poor family is feeling the strain of it and I'm feeling the guilt from not being able to care for them. Thank heaven for my wonderful husband Aaron. I broke down and asked him to take over and he really stepped in for me. Love ya babe!!!

The most frustrating part about all of this is that I had just set my goals on this blog the day before all of my illness started. It's hard for me to stay motivated to eat well when I'm ill and only want comfort food. I've been eating my veggies fresh and steamed, but I've also been eating too many sweets. Anyway, I'm sorry to drop out but I will strive to reach my diet goals starting today!! My exercise goals will have to wait until I'm healthy again. I don't like to quit but I thank you all for understanding. I will get myself better so that I can be in the next round and say goodbye to my fat clothes!

Somer, Jamie, Tiffany!!!

OK I'm calling you out by name because you are the only ones who haven't gotten your pictures to Carrie yet!!!
We want to know what you look like!!
Somer, I'm going to especially say to you - SHAME ON YOU!!! (only cause you are my SIL and I love you so much! :) )

Weekly Goals

For the past few weeks I have been bad and haven't worked out (one of the weeks was a legit reason, the other times though were just excuses). But I did stick to eating right for the most part, though I did allow myself a little more sweets then I should have, and I also had soda to calm my nauseated tummy a few times.
But since I saw the scale go up again, at first I was depressed and frustrated, but now I am newly motivated. So I started my work outs again. YAY!! And I even recruited a couple neighbors/new friends to go on my long walks with me. So now that they are expecting me to go, it makes it harder to let myself be lazy and let myself out of it. And the good thing about them being neighbors is that I don't have to get in my car to go meet them, I just walk out front. So any little thing makes it easier. Also like I said, they are new friends so I have the social aspect and getting to know them which makes my workouts fun (well a lot more enjoyable). Then I also found out that one of them used to be a personal trainer, so WOOHOO!!! She is more then happy to give me tips and help me out. (She can't do much to actually push me and work out HARD with me because she is pregnant right now).

OK so my goals for the week are:
(My "week" is Thursday to Wednesday)

Walk at least 2.5 miles at least 5 times (2 down, 3 to go)
Eat NO fast food
Drink NO soda
Do 2 strength training workout video workouts before Thursday
Do stretching/yoga 3 times before Thursday
Only eat a LITTLE chocolate each day
Cook dinner every night
Do all dishes before I go to bed each night

What are your goals?

Season 2 - Week 4

Well, for those of you who aren't paying attention, we are at the halfway mark of our competition. If you're like me, and you haven't put your all into this yet, now is the time. If you can't tell, this is my effort at giving myself a pep talk. Ok, your results...



Yay, Donna! I am so proud of you! Good job! (Am I allowed to be a little biased when my mom wins? I think so...) Apparently Valentine's Day and other things didn't bode well for many of us. So a special good job for those of you that actually lost weigh this week! I expect to see great things next week, people.

Season 2 - Week 3

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Here are your results for week 3:


Great job, Mike! Congrats! MUCH better results this week everyone! I know at least a few of you who worked really hard this week...keep up the good work. As a team this week we lost 17.3lbs. Last season, when someone didn't weigh in, they also ended up dropping out completely. So every time I don't hear from one or some of you, I get all sad! So don't forget to weigh in, and PLEASE don't drop out! This is so fun for all of us and such a great opportunity for motivation! So there's my pep talk for the week. Great job, and see you all next week!

Carrie

Reminder

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week and weekend. Don't forget to weigh-in tomorrow! I'll leave the deadline as Friday night in case you forget tomorrow.

On a personal note... I met some of my goals!! I worked out three times (thanks again for the DVD Cathy!), I didn't drink any soda, I didn't buy any candy, and I didn't eat any fast food! Wait a minute, I met ALL of my goals? WHAT?? Crazy... I think that's the first time I've done that. MAYBE I should set harder goals! haha. I wonder if I lost any weight? We'll see. I might adapt my goals in another week or so. So how did other people do this week? Any small successes?

Carrie

Pictures!!!

To those of you who haven't gotten your pictures to Carrie, do it!!!

We want to see who you are!

So please get your pictures to her soon!

Cathy

P.S. Good luck on your goals this week, everyone!

Season 2 - Week 2

Here are the results in order of percent loss this week. I have included your overall weight and percent loss so you can see where you're at.

Yay Cathy! Congratulations! It looks like there are a few of us (including myself) that need to step it up! Have a good week everyone!

Carrie

Who Wrote That?

It has been brought to my attention that the emails we get from feedburner don't say who wrote the post. There are 2 solutions to this problem. One is that you can sign the name at the bottom when you post something. The other is that you click on the link to take you to the blog to find out who wrote it.  I like the second one because once you're actually on the blog, you're more likely to comment. And I like comments. :) 

I have to admit, I have been "Joelle" this week. (Biggest Loser NBC) I have not been eating as well as I should (my husband marked Ben & Jerry's down to $1.50 at the store) and I haven't exercised once because I've been too busy. I have just stopped exclusively nursing my 10 ½ month old son so I've been engorged. Is that enough excuses for you? When I'm in the moment one excuse sounds rational, but when I just listed all my excuses I sounded like a whiner. If someone used these excuses on me to justify their mistakes I would have told them to decide whether or not they want to make excuses or progress. If progress is what I want then I have to make a way to get there. It's not going to come to me. Sooooooo, I'm going to list my goals as well and ask if I can be accountable to all of you to call me out on my excuses. Here goes. Now the nursing thing will make me fluctuate for a while until my milk is completely gone, but that shouldn't take more than a week or so if I remember correctly. After that I will be able to make progress a little more easily.

In the mean time I will go for a walk every day. Light or dark, rain or shine.

I will not eat more than one non-nutritional item every day. (treats, crackers, chips, soda, etc.)

I will not eat after 7:00 pm. (Oprah tip)

I will not eat fast food more than once a week. (Family movie night we have pizza and I'm indulging in that!=)

I will work my way back to my previous fitness level. My Firm workouts kick my butt when I'm in shape! There's no telling what they'd do to me now but I will work my way back to completing each dvd that I have.

I will find ways to reward myself other than ice cream! I love it and it must love me because it sticks to me and doesn't want to go away.

I will eat at least 3 servings of raw veggies every day as well as cooked servings.

I will drink only water. No straight fruit juice (too few nutritional benefits that don't out-way the sugar), soda, etc. (I don't like milk)

This sounds like a lot of new goals, but really they emulate the lifestyle I once lived. Of course I only had a 9 month old baby at the time and no money to buy unnecessary food items. Now I've got four kids and a pantry full of kid snacks. Anyway, I'm going to take this a little at a time in order to build better patterns. I want to look good in my formal dress that I wore on my honeymoon. Mostly though, I want to look good naked. The right clothes can camouflage my trouble spots from other peoples' view, but I want to know that I look good, not just my clothes.

Goals

Hi everyone! Before I get started, just a reminder- don't forget to weigh in today! You have until tomorrow night.

Ok, I wanted to get this conversation started at the beginning of this round, but things are crazy...as usual. I want to put my goals out there for you all because I'm not being very good at sticking with them. I'm hoping by telling you all what I'm doing that I will do it.

-I want to center my goals more on what I want to do to live more healthy as opposed to how much weight to lose, but since I'm a numbers person... I want to lost 10 lbs this round. I think I've lost about 2.5, so I'm 1/4 there!

-I will not drink soda, except for special occasions. I better clarify...Valentine's Day **maybe!**, anniversary, ...I think that's it for the next 2 months.

-I will not buy any candy.

-I will exercise at least 3 times per week.

-I will not eat fast food. This one should be easy because we're not spending money on that right now. I just have to be careful about letting my mom treat me to lunch. (Okay Mom? Did you hear that? Don't tempt me! You've been really good lately though, with the leftovers.) :)

So there you go. Maybe I'll report in once in a while and feel obligated to tell you how I'm doing. You guys have sure been quiet this round. What are some of your goals? Strategies? Workout methods?

Carrie