Slow and Steady

Ok, so all told I'm only down 7 pounds total from when my journey started.  It has taken quite a bit for me to focus on the weightloss, but the challenge has been a great motivator.  In just the last few weeks I feel like so many things are coming together.  My husband and I are talking a lot more and have a marriage retreat planned.  I'm getting up early to get to work on time so that I can pick up my kids when they get off school.  For once, my kids and I are getting into a solid routine that includes chores for them and lots of help for me.  I'm loving it.  Things continue to get better and I am so excited about the future.

Keep it up

The challenge is going great.  We have 12 participants which means the pot is at $600.  I'm so excited.  I've lost 4 pounds so far this week and I'm super motivated to keep it up.  The best part about all of this has been how encouraging everyone is.  We posted horribly embarrassing photos of ourselves, but we praise each other's accomplishments and success throughout the journey.  I'm excited to see what will come!!!

The Challenge

Ok, so I needed a new source of motivation and so did several people around me.  I present to you

THE CHALLENGE- "Lose Weight 4 Personal Change"

 

Our goal is to become healthier people and make life changes.  The Challenge will last 16 weeks: September 9th-December 30th.  In that time, you may use whatever method you like (short of medical interventions) to lose weight and body fat.  Everyone who participates will pay $50 and the WINNER TAKES ALL.

 

So, get as many people you can and make sure they're motivated.  We have a LOT to Lose and potentially a lot of CHANGE to gain!  Its going to be fun!!!

 

Right now, we have a group set up on www.myfitnesspal.com so that we can share our progress and encourage each other (or just talk smack if that's what you prefer).  Go there and set up an account- its free.  Get the app on your phone and join us from anywhere.  The group is called- Lose Weight for Positive Change - Join US!!!

 

How do you win? 

At the end of 16 weeks, whoever has lost the largest percentage of weight AND inches wins.

 

How is the winner determined?

To win the challenge you must complete the following and meet the winning condition above:

1. At the start of the challenge, post your "before" picture to your myfitnesspal profile OR email it to LW4PC@outlook.com . 

2. Every week (at least 16 times), post your weight loss to myfitnesspal OR the email (LW4PC@outlook.com). 

3. Every 4 weeks (or at least 4 times during the challenge), post your measurements to myfitnesspal OR the email (LW4PC@outlook.com).

4. On the final day of the challenge, post your after picture to myfitnesspal OR the email (LW4PC@outlook.com)

 

How many winners will there be?

There are two categories- Men and Women. Each category will have AT LEAST ONE winner. 

Men can only pay into the male winner's pot and women can only pay into the female winner's pot. Additional winners will be determined by the size of the pot.

 

How do I pay in to the competition?

There is a Paypal  account set up JUST for this challenge.  It is not attached to any of the constestants bank accounts. It will only accept payments and will pay out ONE time- at the end of the challenge!

 

If you have a PayPal account, you can send a payment to LW4PC@outlook.com and it will go into the winner's pot.  Make sure to indicate in the NOTES whether you are MALE or FEMALE

 

If you do not have a PayPal account, email us at LW4PC@outlook.com and we will send you a payment request so that you can pay by credit/debit card. Please put MALE or FEMALE in the subject line of your email so that we will place your money in the correct category.

Start weighing in on the 9th even if you can't make payment.  The last day to pay in will be October 5th. (Everyone will have a payday by then)

 

How will I know if I won?

If you join us on myfitnesspal via the website or the app, you will be able to follow everyone's progress and know where you stand.  The winner will be announced before the new year and the money will be immediately disbursed. If you are the winner and you have PayPal, the money will be transferred.  If you win, but you do not have PayPal, you will have to provide account information for where you want the money deposited (it could take 4 days to deposit).

 

 

Send any questions to our email... do you know our email address yet???

 



Back to Reality

I am nearing the end of 6 weeks of my new life to being more fit.  The last 2 weeks I have been on vacation and have not even stepped on a scale.  I'm nervous to see what kind of damage I've done, but at the same time, I'm ready for a routine again. 
 
So, my first week of vacation was in Destin, Florida.  The beach was gorgeous and being in a swimsuit everyday reminded me of why I had set my fitness goals in the first place.  The second week of vacation was split between Dallas and Chicago.  I fell in love with Chicago!  Oh my goodness, its a wonderful city.  GO VISIT!

My workouts have been much more consistent!  Yay!  I jogged in Chicago today and beat my personal record (I started tracking for this 6 weeks, not an all time personal record).  Running on the pier was absolutely phenomenal.  Every time I get outside and jog, I'm reminded of why its my favorite activity.  I absolutely love being in nature and experiencing the awe of seeing God's handy work.  While I jog, I listen to praise music and have my interval app on my phone reminding me when to run or walk the intervals.  Today, I skipped TWO of my walk intervals and just ran straight through them... yay!!! 

I'm headed home in the morning and its bittersweet.  I miss my babies sooooo much- four days was too long.  Going back to the busy schedule of work/home/kids will definitely be some added stress.  I have enjoyed my time off, but here I go- BACK TO REALITY.

P.S. I am going to start posting pics of my weekly weigh-ins... total accountability.

Holiday weekend

My weight is up a bit, but my workouts have begun. Last Saturday I did a spin class, one day of step aerobics with my 90's dvd at home, walked two days, and did run/walk intervals with my dog this morning.  After my morning workouts I drink the arbonne fizzy energy drink and I like that for recovery. Today, it felt appropriate to have a red, white,and blue shake for breakfast....yum.  Tonight I'm taking an awesome salad to a bbq so it should be easy to eat good.  Lots of veggies and reasonable portion of grilled meat-I can't go wrong.

Into week 4

Ok, week three was disappointing.  I'm down a total of 7.5 pounds and only 1 pound of that was lost in week 3.  Then, we had my son's birthday party at the pool and I was forced to see just how bad off I've let myself get.  I'm pretty much throwing a pity party today.  I ate pizza after summer camp with my kids and really acted quite childish.  Why do I do that to myself?  I was just thinking the other day that everytime I watched "Biggest Loser", week 3 was the worst week for weight loss.  I'm hoping I'm just in some sort of metabolism shift and week 4 will compensate for the low loss.

Alright, tomorrow is a new day.  I will stay motivated.  Here are some positive things I have noticed:
      1. I don't have near the muffin top over my pants that I had.
      2. My hair isn't falling out as bad- about 50% of what was falling out
      3. Energy is way up- almost normal, definitely not sluggish
   

 

I need to do a race soon. Is anyone out there running who wouldn't mind slowing down so I could join them?  Jogging is my all time favorite workout... gotta tap back into it.

My Family, Motivations

Meet my family! I am so proud of this bunch.  My little girl, A and my son, M dressed up at church today. The theme was super heroes and princesses. It was an amazing day of baptisms and barbeque. We love our church-www.peopleschurch.tv

 

As far as the diet. I lost another .5.  So, I'm down 6.5 in two weeks.  I'm happy with that.  I didn't do shakes this weekend, but I ate pretty clean.  I went to a PartyLite party where there was tons of barbeque.  I filled my plate with cucumbers, carrots, strawberries, a slice of pineapple and two dry ribs.  I'm pretty proud of that.  I did take a metabolism pill because I knew I may have a cheat...I did... a pina colada.  It was fabulous.  Back on the shakes in the morning and I'm ready for a busy week.  I saw this motivation on FB and thought it fit well right HERE:

Week 2

What a crazy week this has been.  I'm thinking that I'll blog at least once a week with an update on my weight loss and progress.  So far, I'm down 6 pounds.  I did have a cheat meal this yesterday and it wasn't totally bad.  I had rotisserie chicken, green beans, and about 1/4c of mac and cheese.  Too bad the mac and cheese wasn't any good...or maybe that's a good thing cause I really didn't want it.  The main reason it was a cheat was because I was supposed to be having a shake.  Back on it today and I think I need to focus on more water.  Doing the cleanse made it easy for me to drink all day, but its getting challenging. 

Next week- ADDING WORKOUTS BABY!!!  I'm gonna need some serious motivation...

YUMILICIOUS!

Oh my goodness!  I don't usually post more than once in one day, but this was definitely worth posting.  As I've said before, I get my gluten free meal plans from www.thefresh20.com.  Tonight, every bite was a little taste of heaven.  I had the BLAT lettuce wraps.  Here are the ingredients: chopped tomato, diced red onion, chopped avocado,  fresh lime juice, salt, pepper and crumbled bacon... wrap all of that in some butter lettuce and...yum, yum....ridiculously good.  We had fresh fruit on the side. All for less than 400 calories!  You just can't beat that.

 

For my kids, since I knew they wouldn't like the strong onion, I also made them a side of beans to put in their lettuce wraps with the bacon.  They ate it up.  I am so glad that tonight's dinner was a success.  Here's the nutrition facts and a picture:
 

One week down, 51 to go

Today will be last day of my cleanse...and Aunt Flo's visit.  I've lost a total of 5 pounds so far. That's exciting.  I'm hoping that next week will be just as productive for me.  My meal plan for dinners looks fabulous: skirt steak, scallops, melon gazpacho, bacon/lettuce/avocado/tomato lettuce wraps...  all the recipes look amazing and I did all my food prep last night, so I'm ready for the week. 

This week, beyond my physical goals, I am going to focus on keeping up with my house cleaning schedule.  We have several vacations in July that we're taking and if I get behind on the house, I'll never be able to get us packed to go.  I'm also looking for a book for my husband and I to go through so that we are continuously growing spiritually.  I think our community group will start a book on marriage soon.  Until then, we will focus on praying together and listening to some conference CDs that we have. 

This whole year is about growth.  This blog will  journal it.  The journey continues.

PS.  I have LOTS of pictures, but I need to get a new SD card in my phone so that I can transfer them... they will make these posts much more interesting.

Day4, Down4

Today is day four and I've been sick :(.  It makes it difficult to see exactly how much progress I've made.  As of this morning, I was down four pounds.  A few things that I think are skewing my numbers are 1.) my husband drugged me with cold/flu meds that completely dried me up...I'm not sure how well the cleanse can work with drugs like that and 2.) Aunt Flo showed up... Normally, she brings about 3 pounds of water weight with her, so I'm glad that I was down another .5lbs.  Another three days or so and everything should get back to normal.

As far as a review of the products I'm using- I'm loving them.  The Arbonne shakes with all the fiber in them really do keep me full.  I'm getting over 24 grams of fiber per day... that's normally hard to do without supplements.  I am so happy that everything is gluten and dairy free.  I do have some gastrointestinal bubbling (trying to put it nicely) from the cleanse, but I'm hoping in three more days and that will all be over.

Tomorrow I'm taking my hubby out for Father's day.  He really wants to see a movie. Hopefully we'll go out to eat too. I could really use a delicious salad and great steak- feel free to leave comments with suggestions for where we should go...I was thinking about the movie and the Warren and steak at Charlestons.  What do you think?

Day One-Success

Day one was very interesting.  I had a headache most of the day.  Undoubtedly due to caffeine withdrawals.  The amount of fluids I had to consume had me drinking all day long.  I didn't have any time to get hungry.  I did two smoothies for breakfast and lunch.  32 oz of the cleanse mixture and then had kale and corn enchiladas for dinner- thanks to www.thefresh20.com. 

I got up this morning to weigh and I was DOWN 3.5 lbs.  I know the weight will come off fast at first since I have so much to lose, but every partial pound will be celebrated! 

My Journey Begins Tomorrow

First of all, let me introduce myself.  My name is Autumn.  I have been married six years to a man that still adore completely.  We have a 3 year old daughter and a 5 year old son.  I work as an electrical engineer as a civilian for the Air Force and craft as much as I can in my spare time.  I am writing this blog for accountability, support and hopefully to encourage others.  I need to be healthy and encourage healthy habits in my kids.  I plan to draw on my convictions and faith to meet some pretty remarkable goals in the next 12 months.  A lot can happen! 

After tons of research, I decided to start my journey from fat to fit with a 7-day cleanse and then followed by a mostly vegan, completely gluten free diet for 90 days.  My goal is to lose 50 pounds in one year.  I will make this a lifestyle change.  Finally, I am breaking the string on the yo-yo.  I want to pass on healthy habits to my little ones. The clock starts tomorrow.  Wish me luck!