I'm Leavin'...in a Mini-van...

...don't know when I'll be back again... 'cause I'm leavin' in a mini-van....

Bet you're singing along now, right?

Well, today's the day! We're heading west in a couple of hours, and won't be back until next weekend :-) I am hoping to get one more workout in before we leave, but if I don't I guess that's no big deal.

This last week was very good to me. I started out a little higher then I wanted, but was able to see several new numbers. Yesterday, I saw 183, so I'm HOPING to see 182 this morning...even though I didn't exercise and I ate pizza for dinner and had a Thanksgiving lunch with the kids at their school. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

182 is my next "mini" goal and will mark 50 pounds lost. 50 pounds! Can you even imagine? Holy cow, that's a lot of weight! If I don't see 182 this morning, I hope to see it by my birthday.

This next week, I'll be surrounded my family, friends, and LOTS of great food, so I'm hoping not to gain too much. I am going to try to go walking for an hour every morning at the college track. The weather looks like it's going to be beautiful the entire time we're out- highs in the high 60s/ low 70s and lots of clear blue skies, so we'll probably do a little hiking while we're out, too. I can't wait!

I still can't find my camera cord, so I think I'll have to take a couple of cell phone shots to put them on the blog. I'll update later today...time to get the kids up and ready for school :-)

Working on some before/ during/ after pictures

I've been asked several times for some progress pictures, so today I will start with some lovely "before" pictures. All of these were taken at my sister's wedding in January 2010. It was hard to find pictures of myself because I generally avoid the camera, and this was especially true when I topped out at 232 pounds. Looking at these, I KNOW I was that big, but I never felt that big. But WOW, I was big! hahaha....

So here go the "before" pictures:

On the downhill slide

Today I hit 186. This week I decided that I want to quit messing around and get this weight loss thing over with! I am sooo ready to be at my goal weight and refocus on lifting! I hate, hate, HATE cardio, so I have recommitted myself. I have been averaging 6 pounds of weight loss monthly. It's great and I am happy about it, but I am also getting really impatient! I am going to get strict again for the next 12-16 weeks and see how much I can lose.

My daily/weekly goals are:
1. Eat 1,200(ish) calories per day. I am cutting out my Friday splurge day for now. Right now I would rather have the weight gone than have a day a week where I stuff my face full of carp. I'm not saying that I am totally cutting out all sweets, but if I do have a sweet, it will be part of my 1,200 daily calories. I am also writing EVERYTHING down in my handy dandy notebook.

2. Drink 1 gallon of water per day.

3. 1 Hour of cardio most days.

4. 3-4 lifting days per week.

5. Burn 1,000 calories at the gym.

Everything is being written down, so I can keep myself accountable. I am also taking a multi-vitamin to fill in the gaps with my diet.

I am hoping to be under 150 by mid-March. My goal is to be at 142 because that will be an even 90 pounds lost, but anything under 150 will be great. Heck, even being in the 150's should be pretty awesome :D