My New Best Friend

I received a Magic Bullet for my birthday and I think it is my new best friend.  I LOVE IT!!  I can now make smoothies and not have to use my huge blender.  It is perfect!!  (except my husband used it last night to combine Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip icecream and milk and made a delicious milkshake! grrr)

~Heather

Weigh Day {January 19th, 2012}

I didn't go to WW today because I met a good friend for lunch.  Priorities, right? lol BUT I did weigh myself and it was 186.4.  I'm up this week but I'm not that surprised.  My birthday was last week and I think I've celebrated for a full week. 

~Heather

Where have we been??? ...AGAIN

No excuses!!  I'm back and I hope Kristie jumps on board too.  We tend to fall off when the other one does.  :( 

We both signed up to do a 5k on January 28th with our good friend, Alyssa.  I'm terrified...I haven't put on my running shoes in a long time.  Only have 2 weeks...better get movin'!!!

~Heather

The Best Cracker!!

I found the best cracker!  Blue Diamond Nut Thins!  They come in several different flavors and are super yummy.  They are made out of nuts and are very low calorie and you get a lot of crackers per serving. 

~Heather

Water

I've been having a harder time lately getting my water in.  So, I decided to buy a gallon size jug of water.  My goal is to drink one of these a day.  I am a very visual person so it will let me know how much I have left to drink through out the day.  Hope everyone is having a great Cyber Monday and finding great deals!! :)

~Heather

Importance of Rest Days



My new goal weight! lol


After speaking to a friend (who will remain nameless :)) today I decided to do a little research on the importance of giving your body a break every once in a while.  I fully believe that your body needs time every once in a while to recover.  I also fully believe that your mind needs a break.

My reasons are:

• You don't want to burn out.
• Your body will get used to the work out and plateau.
• You can hurt yourself.

Now, those are just the reasons I came up with, with no evidence to indicate one way or the other.  So, after searching the good ole' world wide web, I came across this article.

Runners World Article

Their reasons are:

• Prevents overuse injuries
• Restores glycogen stores
• Prevents mental burnout

I know for me personally, I sometimes feel that if I'm not doing things 100% then I'm failing but that's not true.  Last year I was having a lot of hip pain caused from my back.  I was currently working out and doing a lot of the elliptical machine.  That is extremely low impact but it was still causing my pain to flare up.  After talking to my surgeon, he encouraged me to continue to keep working out but the second I felt just the slightest twinge of pain to stop.  He said even if it was only 5 minutes to stop.  5 minutes was better than nothing but 10 minutes certainly wasn't worth hurting myself more.

 

So, my personal opinion, I think you will ultimately do yourself more harm than good if you don't give your body a break.  You have to take care of yourself, first and foremost, otherwise you might just miss a months worth of workouts vs 1 workout a week.

Family Picture

We had our family pictures taken last week while John's family was in town from San Diego.  We do it every year and it is fun to see how much the kids change from year to year.  While I'm not a fan of chain picture places, I decided to go ahead and get them to snap a few pics of my family since we haven't had them done lately. 

Well, this one particular picture would be so super cute if I didn't look so freakin' huge! lol  So, I'm using this as my motivation and a "before" picture.

From left to right: Preston (3), Me, Carter (5), John, and Liam (2)

This is the picture that I'm going to get printed .  Probably in black and white to hide even more of me.  Sounds really pathetic when I say that out loud.

And this is one of my favorite pictures of my boys! Love them!

Preston, Carter, and Liam

~Heather

Gobble Hobble 2011 - Very First 5k

I did it! I ran my very first 5k and had a great time! Alyssa picked me up about 7:45 in the morning and we made our way to Richardson and got there about 8ish. We picked up our bibs and t-shirt and started stretching. We found a nice little spot out of the way.

They started at 8:30 with a 1 mile family fun run. We used that time to run to the potty and get ready to start at 9. While we were stretching Troy Aikman walked by us. He was there with his family and ran in the race too. He is much cuter in person, I think. And extremely tall. Who knew he was so tall??

Alyssa and I before the race.

Troy Aikman

Anyways, we got lined up at the starting line and right at 9 am we started. As we were crossing the starting line I spotted my family cheering us on. John and the kids and my mom were there. I knew they planned to come to finish line but I didn't expect to see them at the beginning. It was very motivating to know they were already there. How cool to have your own cheering team!!

We started out running and then walked/jogged the rest of the way. We did get stuck with this lady who was with two young kids. It was actually quite annoying as she was just constantly yelling at them. We would try to get ahead of them but they would catch up. lol

The wind took me by surprise. In the little training I've done, sure there has been wind but I could also just turn down another street to get away from it or go a different direction. My lungs took a beating due to the wind. I was wheezing quite badly by the end of it. We turned a corner and could see the finish line. And I could see my family standing there cheering us on. We ran across the finish line while hearing my 3 boys yelling, "Go, Mommy, Go! Go, Mommy, Go!" Seriously, I think that is the best part of it...having the support and encouragement.



John and Preston giving me a hug after I finished!

 We crossed the finish line and grabbed a banana and bottle of water. We did it! We finished! AND WEREN'T LAST!!!!

My official time: 50:06.4
Pace: 16:10/mile
Placed 751 out of 817 (that is the best I can tell from looking at the results page)
Age Bracket 30-39 placed 108 out of 117

I'm not extremely happy with my results but I accomplished my goals.
1. I finished!
2. I wasn't last!

My next goal is to finish in less than 45 minutes. My ultimate goal is to beat the 71 year old that finished #32 at a time of 22:40.1!! lol

I'm going to try to committ to a 5k each month. And I also plan to go cheer on friends in other races. So, please let me know what races you have coming up and if you would like to join me in my future races.



You can see me and Alyssa right at the 0:51 mark in the far right hand side.

A huge THANK YOU to Alyssa for joining me on my first 5k. I love you dearly and so happy you were by my side the whole way! You are one of my most encouraging friends and I'm extremely blessed to call you my friend! Nothing is better than going through this journey than with friends by your side!!

We did it!!!! 

~Heather

Weather for Saturday

Let's hope the weather forecast changes and there aren't thunderstorms on Saturday!  Or I guess that could make for a great story of my very first 5k!

~Heather

Don't Google!!

My stomach has been hurting all day yesterday and today.  Something is just off.  Is it nerves for this weekend or is stress??  I could google webmd but then I would be convinced I had stomach cancer.  So, I'm going with nerves.  You eat less when your tummy doesn't feel good.  Which means you consume less calories.  Which means you lose weight.  Don't worry, I'm not starving and most definitely getting my nutrition and plenty to eat...just not craving food right now.

See y'all tomorrow!!

~Heather

5k nerves

I'm getting kinda nervous for my first 5k.  I know most of you think a 5k is no big deal.  It's only 3.1 miles after all.  However, I really don't want to be the last one to finish, I really don't want to be the one finishing after everyone else has packed up and gone home.  lol  I know I will be proud of myself for just finishing it and someone has to be last, right?  Will other runners be making fun of the slow ones?  What do real runners think of those that are just getting into it and are still terribly out of shape?  Hmmmm.....

~Heather

Ehhh...just another day

Nothing really special about today. I ate ok and got my workout at a photo session. That counts, right??? I had a 3 year old and 6 month old that gave me a run for my money. :) I was literally sweating after the session was over. I'm going with, yes, it counts!! ~Heather

Thought for the Day

The voice in your head that says you can't is a liar!

~Heather

Good Choices!!

I am doing so good today! I went to Starbucks and made the good choice and chose a skinny vanilla latte. It filled my yummy coffee craving and didn't break the calorie bank! Then at the mall I had subway for lunch and got a turkey on wheat, no cheese, lots of veggies, very little light mayo and baked lays chips. Doesn't seem like a big deal but every little good choice makes difference!!

~Heather

Just a Picture for the Future

Nothing to report today except a picture for me to look back on.  I had makeup on! yay!!  I had John take this tonight right before we left to go to Carter's first kindergarten program.

So, we didn't do anything we had planned on today.  I was up super late last night with a terrible cough.  I am soooo over being sick!!

~Heather

3 Way Mirrors...

Suck! lol  I stopped by Kohls and Target today to get some workout wear that would keep me a little warmer as the days get a little colder.  The dressing rooms have 3 way mirrors and even those help you see all of you, they force you to see all of you!! 

Here is a picture of me in a new shirt.  Please excuse the no make up...I hardly ever go out without at least some makeup but this morning was just one of those mornings and I ran out of time before taking kids to school.  This just reinforces why I must put makeup on before I leave the house.  I probably scared little children!!  And this was a picture with my phone so quality is horrible!

So, one of my goals is to actually look decent in this shirt.  This shirt really shows off every bit of love I have and I have lots of love! :)

~Heather

Fat Fingers

So, in an attempt to not have my last post as the top post for today... :)  One of the things I'm really looking forward to be skinny again...my fingers!!

Today John and I had to go to Frisco to make our final cruise payment to our travel agent.  Yes, we could have done it over the phone but our current travel agent doesn't have a very good track record for being timely so I wanted to do it person.  Well, do you know what's in Frisco right at Preston and 121??  In n' Out.  Mmmmmm!!  John is from California so he loves In n Out and there is only one thing to get there... a hamburger.  I ate that and only half of my fries.  So on the brighter side, I only ate half of my fries!!  But anyways, tonight after having so much salt today my fingers are swollen.  Nothing makes you feel fatter than fat fingers!

~Heather

Uggg...Am I really making this public????

So, my starting weight when I started weight watchers was 186 pounds.  OMG!!!  That is sooo super hard to make public knowledge.  I have to look in my official WW book to see how low I got before going back to what got me here in the first place.  My goal is 128...that is the official weight that will put me back into having a healthy BMI.  I want to get closer to 120 but my first and most important goal is to just make this a lifestyle.

Talking about lifestyle...when does this become a lifestyle??  How long does it take??  

See y'all tomorrow! :)

~Heather

P.S. I'm still feeling like crap...my allergies have turned into sinus infection.  Ran a fever yesterday and today I feel like I've been ran over by a truck.  I'm so hoping to be feeling better quickly!!

What Happened??

Kristie and I met for coffee last night to figure out what happened and what we needed to do.  We decided that we officially fell off the wagon right after the Jailbreak.  I know for me personally, my back was killing me right afterwards and decided to take a small break to recover.  Well, that short break lasted a long time.  It is super hard to get back on track from a break.

So, we decided that daily blog posts will help keep us on track.  I woke up super sick today so I actually haven't done anything special today.  I have eaten pretty well so that's a plus.  :)

~Heather

A New Beginning & Other Ramblings

So, after posting the video I came across on Friday, I have read almost all of this guy's blog. His story is definitely about losing weight but it is more importantly about DOING LIFE.  He blogged every day.  He ate well, excercised a lot, and had great friends that did it right beside him.  He made his journey about experiencing life.  His feelings about being fat and over weight are a lot of how I feel.  So, with the start of a new week, I'm going to start doing life.  I am very tired of being inspired for a week and feeling great and then the enthusiasm wears off. 

It's funny, I have some great friends that will ask me if I worked out today and send me some ideas of how to get my workout in.  But you know what?  That actually demotivates me.  Is that weird?  It shouldn't be that way, right?  That should make me want to work out, right?  Why is that when I'm asked about it and told I should, I just want to sit on the couch and do nothing?  Is it because it has to be my choice??

So, after seeing a few blogs and getting inspired (I'm kinda sick of that word, lol) I think the thing I like most about some of the blogs are pictures and videos.  Those keep everything real, I think.  So, as much as I hate, despise pictures of myself, I'm going to start doing it more.  I'm going to take progress pictures and maybe some video.  I do think it will be awesome to look back on everything.

I also find myself saying things like, well this guys doesn't have kids, doesn't work so he has so much time to go work out and "do" life, but those are just excuses.  There are people that have much busier lives than me and they do so much more than I do. 

So, I'm getting back on this doing life thing and let's hope it sticks this time.  lol  It will stick this time.

~Heather