Dawn’s Weight Loss Journey

Happy Friday Slimmers of the world!!!

 Well…The madness that is the holiday season is FINALLY slowing down. I will say this year was one of the quietest holidays I have ever had…And I think I am okay with that!!! Had FIVE days in a row off of work, and that was a MUCH needed refresher…

Ahhhhh….

I am much less crabby now…WOO HOO!!!

One day I spent the WHOLE day in my pj’s (Do some of you old timers remember how much I loooove my jammies??). Seriously. Spent the whole day in my room watching movies, haning with my dogs, and sleeping off and on. It was the laziest I have been in years…And it felt deeeeeeeeeeeelightful!!!

I felt guilty for about five minutes…Then I moved on!

So, I weighed in this morning…And I am happy to report that I am “As Is”. Yep…No change…

I made it through the holiday with no change…

I am calling this a success…

For, since Thanksgiving, I am officially down three pounds. I know. I know. Three pounds she says…Like thats worthy of celebration…

Well. It is….

I read an article once that says it is typical to gain 5-7 pounds from Thanksgiving through New Years…Soooo…Even though I did some yo-yo-ing and lost and gained the same 3-4 pounds, I managed to finish with an overall loss…During the toughest time of year to decide to restart your wagon…

So, yeah…I am okay with this…

 I dusted off my food journal again this week…Gonna give that another go around…Still working out two times a day and thats going well…My eating has been pretty good all and all through the holidays…

So basically, I feel okay about things…

I have moved my weight loss to the top of my priority list for 2008, and thats sure to help…

It’s gonna be all about me in 08!! Spread the word!!

Take care buddies…

First of all, SOME of you need to get your minds out of the gutter!!!! Hah! 

So… I have a cat, right? 

I have a Christmas tree, right? Anyone want to guess where I might be going here??? 

Right… My precious, super sweet, cute as pie kitty, is about two years old…Miss Bridgette Kitty is her name…Sweetest cat in the world. Truly. LOVES all three of my dogs…LOVES me…Will lay on me for hours slobbering… 

Yes. She drools. Something fierce… I don’t mind…Well, not much…Nothing better then kitty snot! 

Anyway. I had her last Christmas, but perhaps she was too young to understand the damage she could do…Perhaps she is acting out in her teenage years…Perhaps she has used the whole year to plan all her attacks…Perhaps she has wayyyy too much time on her paws!!! I don’t rightly know… What I do know, is that the damn cat will NOT stay out of my damn tree! 

EVERY FREAKIN MORNING, I come down to something… Bows on the floor. Broken hummingbird wing. TEN LAYERS of cat hair on my red velvet tree skirt…NIIIIIICE… 

And the kicker? Last night I come home to a broken, smashed to smithereens, gold ball…I was so disgusted, I didn’t even have the heart to clean it up… 

At this point, I am no longer even putting the crap BACK on the tree…I am leaving it on the floor… Yep. I am starting a new trend… 

Gonna start decorating the floor AROUND my Christmas tree, and allow any holiday visitors to use their imaginations to see how my tree would look decorated… Happy Holidays everyone…Anyone want a cat for Christmas????

Happy Saturday buddies!

I am surrounded by a blanket of snow!! WOO HOO!!…I am staying warm and cozy inside…

Sooo. I had my weigh in on friday and I stayed the same…BUT. I am happy…

 WHY OH WHY would you be happy with that Dawn? (You may be asking yourselves….)

 Well, my little buddies, it is because TOM is here…I have made NO SECRET about my hate for him…He sucks and this time he brought ALL his damn luggage…He was mean and nasty…

Bringing me cramps from hell. (Sorry male readers…TMI????) Felt like I was flowing like the Rio Grand River…And boy, was I an emotional dillushional wreck…(I know, not much different then my normal way…LOL!)

In all my weight loss history, it is a solid fact that I gain 2-3 pounds of water every month during this week…

So I was NOT looking forward to my weigh in…

But, to see the scale stay the same, says to me that my double workouts ARE working, and I am most likely actually down this week minus the water retention.

So now I am INCREDIBLY pumped for next weeks weigh in. It will be the final one as we head through the Christmas chaos…I am hoping for a five pounder!!!

I truly want to start plowing through this fat and be back where I was by February…

I KNOW I CAN I KNOW I CAN I KNOW I CAN…This is what I tell myself!

Stay warm buddies and go kick some weight loss butt!!!

Hello everyone! Hope all is well with you guys… 

Just a quick update on my mother situation…All is well…I sent her a letter. We met for lunch. Talked a lot…Both admitted some mistakes…And basically discovered we had only one major issue… Lack of communication… 

She had no idea some of the things I told her…And I pointed out I purposely did NOT tell her some things because she could not remain objective, and always blurted out her first impression… So. We talked. We listened. And all is well. She remains my mother. My friend. And my biggest hero… 

Soooo. What else to blog about… Weight loss…Of course… 

I have not been blogging much about it because I don’t feel like I have anything useful to say at the moment…I come on, and check on all my buddies…Especially some of the “Old” gals… Jo. Nikki. Erica. Mary…Then I check on a few of the “Younger” gals who have had great success…Catrina. Wonder Woman. Etc…You all remain my inspiration… 

Then I check around to see if any newbies need anything I might have to offer…  This is kind of my routine! HAH… 

But as far as weight loss, I feel I have kind of fallen out of the Realm of Weight Loss Wisdom…It was a hard fall…I think my ass still hurts from hitting the floor… Basically, I fell off the wagon for 6 months…Not entirely, but I was surely hanging on by a bootstrap!! 

Broken heart. Broken marriage. Stressful busy job…Family fights…All these things ran right into my wagon…Jarred me from my seat… But something else happened…Something that I KNEW must not… 

I stopped putting myself first again…And EVERY time I have done that, I have been a failure… Buddies…It’s hard to put yourself first…If you are a wife. A mother. A friend. People just don’t get it. They call you selfish. Self involved. Egotistic, etc…They don’t understand… 

But I believe with all my heart that you MUST do this to be successful… And no, it doesn’t mean you go off on a mountain top for 6 months and live as a hermit… 

It simply means that you must make time for you and your needs above all others. And yes, in the immediate future, relationships WILL suffer, for you must take from those whom you love and whom love you… But the investment will pay off BETTER for them at the end…For if you can conquer and control the weight, then they will get a mother, wife, friend, that is 10 times happier, healthier, and better to be around… 

I truly believe this… So over the last few months, this is what I have been working towards… 

I have been slowly, VERY slowly, been working my way back towards this goal as well as several other personal goals… I don’t think that my journey will ever stop…Really. I think I will eventually get to goal (Just like you Jo Jo!) I will…Someday… 

But the journey will still continue to maintain…To not regain…UGH…It exhausts me sometimes to think about being 80 years old still doing my elliptical!!! I know for sure that I do not want to go back up…I have recently, and I don’t like it. Not at all… 

Even a 15 pound regain was too much…My clothes were tight. My muscles started sagging a bit, and overall, even tho MOST people did not even notice…I NOTICED. And I didn’t like it…I wanted the good feeling back. The confidence…The happy sense of accomplishment one gets from staring down a candy bar and walking away victorious…I wanted that back… For even last year, at 179 (my lowest to date!), which is STILL on the obese scale, I felt BEAUTIFUL…Accomplished. Proud. Loved.  

Back up to 194, I did not…Even though I knew I was still a success story, having started at 242, I could not get past the failure of letting myself down, and regaining 15 pounds… So. That’s where I have been the last few months… 

No lies here. Its not easy. I truly think RE-losing is the hardest job of all…For some reason, once that weight comes back, even in small amounts, it doesn’t want to budge!! And the funny thing is, because of all my workouts, I regained it differently!!!! 

My body put the weight right on my belly where I had not really carried my weight before… I think this is because that was the last part of my body to get a good workout…My arms and legs, hips and thighs had all come along way and retained a lot of muscle… 

My belly, not so much… But, I am proud to report I am losing again…Very slowly, about a pound and a half a week…UGH…But the scale is going in the right direction… 

I still refuse to repost my ticker…Mainly because it makes me sad… And I have had to work REALLY hard for it…Much harder then before. 

I am now working out TWICE a day… Once at 5:30 in the morning, and once after work…Mostly cardio this time, with just a bit of leg and arm weights to retain my current muscle… 

I have a great great friend out in
California who has become very dear to me in the last few months, and he is a former body builder and trainer, and he has REALLY set me straight on the weight lifting part… So, things are going well…Trying to get through the holidays with a small loss, but wont be sad if I simply maintain either…It’s a tough time of year… 

So thats me in a nutshell…I truly hope to be back down to 179 by February…And I know I can do it if I put my heart and soul into it… Take care all!