WOW! I'm feeling good today!

I don't know if it's a new determination or what.  Here's what I've done already today:
Good health Guidelines
Activity
.75 mile jog in 10 minutes = 3 AP
1 mile walk in 15 minutes = 2 AP
100 sit ups = 1 AP
Shoulder press w/5 lb kettlebell
50 x each arm for a total of 100
Leg lifts w/5 lb kettlebell
50 x each leg for a total of 100
Knee lifts w/5 lb kettlebell
25 x each leg for a total of 50 = 1 AP
Water
I've had 40 oz (5 cups) already
Milks
I've had 1 serving (vanilla WW smoothie packet) in my smoothie
I'll have the other in my iced coffee
Fruits & Vegetables
ALL IN ALREADY
These were in my smoothie
2 cups of berries = 4 servings
3 cups of spinach = 3 servings
Banana = 1 serving
Total of 8 servings of F&V!!!
Healthy oil
2 tsp olive oil in my smoothie
Can't even taste it at all!

I still need to take my vitamins and finish my water for the day, but I'd say that's a great start by 10 am!
~Crystal

Weigh in 7/7/11 {Crystal}

Starting weight: 245.6
Last week's weight: 233.6
Current weight: 233.4
Gain/loss: -0.2
Total gain/loss: -12.2
Pounds to goal: 73.4

A loss is a loss and that's all I have to say about that! 
~Crystal

Weigh in {Crystal} from 6/30/11 (A little late)

I'm way late on this blog entry only because I wanted to pretend that it didn't happen.  With the family reunion we had spanning a few days I didn't eat the greatest and it definitely showed on the scale, BIG TIME!  I'm going to take it in, think about how to do things different and move on!

Okay from now on I'm going to do my weight loss a little different.

Starting weight: 245.6
Last week's weight (actually 6/23): 231.8
Current weight: 233.6
Gain/loss: +1.8
Total gain/loss: -12.0
Pounds to goal: 73.6

A minor setback, but time to get back on it...again!!!!
~Crystal

Fast Track Mile

Yesterday my family and I did the Fast Track Mile.  We had planned to do it as a family, but things worked out to where I ran/walked with my daughter and my husband ran with my son.  You could tell when you got there that people were there to get the best time they could.  There were a lot of school teams there to see how fast they could do the mile.  That's not the reason I was doing it.  I was doing it to prove that I could and to do something active as a family.  I didn't have the best clock time, but to me that's not what mattered.  What mattered was running down the street 2 blocks from the finish holding my daughter's hand and watching her cross the finish line.  I do feel like I held her back by not being able to run the whole thing, but she did even care.  She kept saying to me the whole time, "You're doing great Mommy!  Keep going!"  That made it a little easier!  But at the same time it made me feel bad.  I'm supposed to be encouraging her and there she is my little 7 year old encouraging me and pushing me.  My husband and son did so well.  The running clinic really has helped my kids and now they love to run!  They loved it so much they want to do the kids triathlon in a few weeks.  Noah won't be able to do it because he'll be in Canada on a fishing trip, but Shara-Lyn wanted to do it.  She asked if she did it would I take pictures.  So, I signed her up and I'll be cheering her on! 

My kiddos getting ready to run!

Mother and daughter

Shara's time 13 minutes 44 seconds

My time 13 minutes 49 seconds

Father and son

Noah and Craig's time 8 minutes 51 seconds

Father and son running side by side

Next year I will run the whole thing and I will get a better time! ~Crystal

****WARNING!! EPIC FAIL!!!****

I feel like the last two months have been an epic fail!  I will admit to my failures and admit that I haven't been a good girl.  I haven't been staying on track.  I haven't been tracking my food.  I haven't been exercising.  I haven't been taking care of myself.  I haven't been doing what I need to be doing to succeed.

EPIC FAIL!!

I'm not sure what's been going on.  It may be a lack of motivation.  It's definitely a lack of self control.  I've been on a downward spiral with the food and exercise.  You could say I've fallen off the wagon.  I start out with the best of intentions and something trips me up or I get too down on myself if I make a mistake. 

For the past few months I have been on a pattern of weighing in on Thursday and then thinking that Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are just free days.  Then I start to feel guilty and start tracking and trying to do better on Monday. 

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having a treat or even with having a bad day every now and then.  It seems like I've been having a bad two months. 

I'm not sure what the reasoning behind all of this is, but I am determined to figure it out. 

Maybe it's true what they say about the lazy days of summer.  I've been trying to keep the kids busy and keep them involved in activities, but maybe in doing that I've forgotten to take care of myself.

I'm going to make a promise to those of you that read this blog and to myself that I am going to make more of an effort to stay on the right path.  I may stray off and venture away to smell the roses or get distracted along the way, but I'm going to take it meal by meal, day by day.

I need to get back the motivation I had when Hope and I started this blog!  Can someone tell me where to find it?
~Crystal

Inspiration from a song

This song is on Ben's video I posted a few days ago. You really need to listen and understand what the words are saying. This song really speaks to me and I wanted to share the words.

Fix You by Coldplay

When you try your best, but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

From high above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know just what you're worth
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face when you lose something you cannot replace

Tears stream down your face and I...

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes

Tears stream down your face and I....

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you


You need to listen to this song. It's become my new favorite. It's really speaks to me and how I'm feeling. As it says if you never try you'll never know. Too many tears have streamed down my face over this whole weight loss situation and now it's time to fix me and learn from my mistakes.
~Crystal

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WWED (What would Elizabeth Do?)

I have the greatest WW leader EVER!  I'm not saying that just because she read this blog either.  I have been a member of WW since 2001.  That's 10 years in case you're counting!  You'd think by now I would be super skinny and know everything there is to know about losing weight and being fit...I DON'T.  I've had my ups and downs with my weight loss journey, mostly my weight has been up and my motivation down, but through it all Elizabeth has been there motivating me and encouraging me all the way.  I don't know what I would do without her.  We've laughed together, we've cried together, she's seen my kids grow up...shoot they probably know as much about WW as I do.  We were just talking about this today in the meeting.  When you know you're eating something you shouldn't and you wonder to yourself, "What would Elizabeth think?" or "What would Elizabeth do in this situation?"  She talked about how I had taken a picture of her and I said maybe I need that picture on my refrigerator, cabinets, the fridge out in the garage and the deep freezer in the garage.  I do have her permission to share said photo with you all so hopefully she won't kill me for this!  So, without further adu...my wonderful and loving WW leader Elizabeth!!!

She really isn't as mean as she looks...honest!  She did this at my request over a year ago and this is the photo I should have posted everywhere!  It might make me think twice and think WWED?

LOVE YOU ELIZABETH!!!  YOU'RE THE BEST!!!  I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD HAVE DOWN ALL THESE YEARS WITHOUT YOU GUIDING ME AND ENCOURAGING ME TO STICK WITH IT!!!

~Crystal

Little Goals = Big Victories!

I decided it's time to get re-motivated and recommitted to this whole weight loss thing.  After my month of May debacle with the bad weigh ins and bad food choices and just all around bad behavior it's time to get back with it.  I'm going to start by setting some small goals.  I REALLY should have already lost 15 lbs by now and so that is my goal for my next weigh in.  In order to reach that goal I need to lose 1.2 lbs this week.  That seems attainable if I just stay committed to my allotted points and really try to work in all the good health guidelines.  So, here are my goals for this week:

1. TRACK, TRACK, TRACK
2. Exercise at least 5 out of the next 7 days
3. Get all the Good Health Guidelines in each day
4. Take some time for myself, whether it's reading a book or just committing myself to the exercise, that's my time and I'm going to use it to recharge my batteries so to speak

Those goals seem easy enough, but sometimes when you're not motivated enough they fall by the way side.  I did this a couple of weeks ago with my exercise regimen, but after day 3 I lost the motivation and will power.  I'll check back in next week to let you know how doing these things affected me at the scale.
~Crystal

Weigh in 6/16/11 & 6/23/11 (Crystal)

I somehow missed blogging about my weigh in last week.  I don't know how I missed that considering it was the first time I had lost since May 12th!  Like I said though, I had no one to blame but myself.  I wasn't trying and was falling back into that rut of, Why should I do this? This isn't working for me?  I'm bored...I even missed 2 meetings from the May 12th meeting until June 2nd! 

Anyway...I weighed in thinking it would be the same as it had been for the previous 3 weigh-ins.  I went into the meeting and sat down and after sitting there for a few minutes I finally decided to look at my weight log book.  Down 0.8 lb!  I was SO happy!  I still wasn't doing EVERYTHING that I should be doing (and I'm still not 100%), but it was better than nothing or staying the same.  I was able to get my 5% lost out of hock and that made me feel pretty good!  If you don't know WW sets small goals for you to achieve.  The first one is 5% of your starting weight.  My 5% was 13 lbs and I did that on 6/16 with my weigh in of 232.2 lbs down a total of 13.4 lbs lost.

Today's weigh in I was expecting a little bit of the same thing, but was pleasantly surprised with a 0.4 lb loss.  A loss is a loss is a loss!  Down to 231.8 for a total of 13.8 lbs lost.

Slowly but surely I'm chipping away at this...even if it's 0.4 lb at a time.  Slow and steady wins the race or in this case keeps the fat off!
~Crystal

Kids running

In an effort to keep my children busy this first few weeks of summer vacation I signed them up for a summer running clinic that is put on by our local Road Runners Club.  They meet twice a week for an hour and run, but it's not just straight running.  They are teaching them about stretching, conditioning, pacing, etc.  They are getting them ready to run the Fast Track Mile on July 4th.  The first day my son couldn't make it because he had a tournament game, but my daughter went.  She loved it!  She even wanted to run more after it was over.  That day they did a total of a mile.  I walked a little while they were running.  I tracked 1/2 a mile then I came back to check on them and was just kind of standing around and one of the moms there asked if I'd like to walk with her.  I did and was glad that she asked or I would have just stood around when I should have been exercising.  I ended up with a total of 1 3/4 miles.

The 2nd day both of my kiddos went and they loved it!  After I dropped them off I looked up and saw my dear husband.  He stopped by to see what the kids were doing and to walk with me.  That was so sweet of him.  We ended up walking 1.8 miles...I was hoping for 2 miles!  The kids were so pumped after they were finished and I was surprised because that had been such a busy day.  My daughter had a tennis lesson, we went bowling, they did their running thing and afterwards they ran around at the softball field while my husband played ball. 

I'm so glad that I signed them up.  We'll be doing the Fast Track Mile as a family and to me that means so much.  It is so much more than I would have been doing a year ago.  We are becoming a more active and healthier family day by day.
~Crystal

Excited for fellow blogger

I'm so excited for a fellow blogger.  Ben from Ben Does Life, his Pa and brother have set off on a Do Life 5K tour to get the word out about fitness and just getting out there and Doing Life. They'll be meeting up and running/walking/skipping/jogging a 5K and then meeting up to have a meal and talk afterwards. 

Ben's Story in video form...Have some tissues handy...

Do Life Tour video

 I will be making the trek from here to St. Louis to meet up with Ben and his family and hopefully some other bloggers next month.  You should check him out and check out the tour dates.  He is very motivational and was one part of starting this blog!  Thanks Ben...and Pa...and Jed!
~Crystal

Vegas! (Hope)

I haven't posted this past week, because I was on VACATION!!  My husband and I went to Vegas to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary, which was on May 18th.  We also celebrated both of us turning 40!  My husband, Kenny, turns the big 4-O on June 29th, and I turn 40 on July 4th!

We had the best time!  We were able to tour the hotels and casinos, have drinks by the pool, and go out to dinner every night.  We gambled just a bit, and decided that if we were going to be losing money, we might as well go shopping!

I wasn't concerned about my diet, because we walked at least five miles every day.  It was hot, but at least it was a dry heat, so I wasn't dripping with sweat.  Our resort had a super nice gym, but I forgot to pack my running shoes!  My husband ran 4 miles every day, and ran the strip once.  I thought he was crazy to run in that heat, but he felt better afterward. 

As much as I enjoyed the time with my husband, I was happy to be reunited with our four kids and get back to our busy lives!  I bought a bunch of fruit at the grocery store last night, and took the little boys for a walk with Megan tonight.  I went to weigh myself this morning, but the battery in my scale was dead, so I need to buy a new one.  I don't think I have gained, though, because my mom gave me three pairs of capris that are 2 sizes smaller than I am used to wearing, and 4 sizes smaller than I wore in February, and they fit!  That's pretty exciting!  I'll have to post my weight when I replace the battery, but until then, here are some pictures from my fabulous vacation with my husband!

Can't wait 'til my next vacation!

~Hope

Discouraged...Disgusted...Disappointed

This can easily describe the way I'm feeling right now. 

I'm discouraged with my eating/exercise habits over the last month and a half. 

I am disgusted by the things I have been eating. 

I am disappointed that I haven't been able to have more willpower and that I haven't been keeping on top of the eating/exercise. 

I have no one to blame but myself.  And the only person I'm hurting is myself. 

When will I learn to take care of me and my needs? 

When will I learn to take a little time for myself and focus on what I need and what my body needs? 

I'm not a selfish person, but maybe I need to become one. 

I have been avoiding my weekly weigh-in posts because to be honest I have weighed the same since May 14th!  This is all my fault too!  I know that I need to buckle down and really keep track of what I'm eating and how much I'm eating.  I'm finding myself stressed about little things and going to the salty chips and the sweet candy bars for comfort when I need to look elsewhere for that comfort.

I feel like my body/mind is self sabotaging itself.  It almost seems subconscious, but I know somewhere deep down it's not.  I know what I'm doing, but then it's like I look back and think, "Did I really just eat that?  I don't even think I tasted any of that!"  These are things that I haven't looked at during this journey and I'm laying it all out there for everyone who reads this to see.  I have faults and have stumbled HARD the last month and a half.  Now it's time to own up to it, move past it and try to start again.   I need to evaluate my thoughts and actions and really think about what I'm doing to my body.  I wish I could go away for a day or so and just be with my thoughts, but that's not possible right now.  I think I'm going to have to get up early in the morning and just have some time to think and time to blog about what I'm thinking/feeling.  I'm going to be hashing it out here for the everyone to see, but that was the whole point of starting this blog.  We started this to be a public journey, now I'm just letting everyone in a little deeper into what I'm feeling.  It's raw and real, but sometimes that's the way it has to be.
~Crystal

Light reading

I'm sitting here at the hair salon having some "me" time getting my hair conditioned and reading a book that I'm going to tell you more about later. But this is how I know this book is for me. There's a paragraph that says, "This book is for all you women who know you're too nice, who recognize somewhere deep inside that overdoing for others leaves nothing for you, who don't get why you can't stop eating when you're not hungry, who feel the need to apologize for any particle of your being that isn't wholesome and angelic, who take care of others with love and take care of yourself with food, who work too hard on being perfect, live to please others, think no and say yes, and have to make things right for everyone." I will review this book as soon as I'm finished, but I like where it's going already. I totally do exactly what this says. I'm a yes person, but thinking why did I just say yes to that. Take care of myself with food, I do that. Overdoing for others while not doing for myself, I do that too. Other than being here at the salon, which by the way I've rescheduled twice because I was either called to sub at school or volunteered for something at school (which I love to do), I don't do for myself. My time is spent being a Cub Scout leader, Girl Scout leader, I volunteer at school (which, again, I love to do) and all the other duties that come from being a mom. I've lost myself and the ability to take care of myself. Hopefully at the end of this book I'll get some clarity on where I'm going wrong.
~Crystal


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Drive and a Walk

Today was the first day of summer vacation for the kids!  My daughter is starting out in style....with a DRIVER'S PERMIT!!  I can't believe that my daughter is old enough to drive, but she is!  My husband and I let her practice driving around the subdivision after dinner.  Later on, she and I walked a 5K together and talked about how she is growing up.  I absolutely loved spending that time with her today and am dreading the day she heads off to college.  I will savor every minute of the next three years!

She's such a cute little driver!

~Hope