Last week, I asked for a punishment if I didn't break 300 lbs.  Some of your responses were awesome!  I love the support.  My favorite response was Mia, "Your punishment should be that you have to bake me a chocolate or pumpkin cake but you can't eat any of it."

Weight: 298.6
Total lost to date 14.3

Getting a little discouraged... and getting over it. (Week 9)

Oh Gosh, it's been a while.  Let me catch you up.  My latest weigh in was 301.1.  A little bit of a gain, but to be honest, I don't think it's anything more than hormones and water weight.  I've never been a big fan of getting discouraged and living there.  So, I have been a bit discouraged, but more than anything, just busy.  I'm working, My oldest child just started college courses at the local JC.  We are in contract on a house and will be moving soon, and life... just life.

My diet has gotten a little off track, but I'm back on.  I would venture a guess that my weigh in this next week will break the 300 lbs. mark.  But to be fair to the power of accountability, what should my "punishment" be if I don't reach that goal.  You see, there's rewards for doing well and should be some kind of drawback when I don't do well, so help me come up with creative "punishments".

Walking a little slower

Recently, I started a new job.  My new boss is amazing and I've had fun chatting with him about my weight loss competition and blog.  So, I told him that yesterday, my sweetheart woke me up really early because he couldn't sleep and that we decided to go get donuts for the kids from our favorite donuts place in Raytown (It's called Doughboy and I feel not guilt about the shameless plug).  He replied, "I thought you were on a diet."

I felt no guilt in saying I had one, my favorite one (the red velvet.... mmmmm).  I'm always within my caloric budget (except for probably three or four days over the last six weeks) and I've lost a steady two-ish pounds a week.  If I keep this up over the course of the year, that's approximately 100lbs. lost, but let's not get ahead of ourselves :). My gym attendance is existent but slim.

So, in response to this, my boss said that I should feel free to get up and move around to clean the office.

The Sixth Step (week 5)

Weight 300.4
Total lost to date 12.5 lbs.

This week I felt thinner.  Not a lot, but a little.

This morning I had to run to the grocery store to get food for breakfast (we were completely out of milk, eggs, cereal, bread and butter... very unlike me :) ). As I walked into HyVee, I saw my reflection in the window as I walked in and felt thinner.

When I'm down on myself for not progressing quickly enough, I look at the meat department and compare five and ten pounds of fatty meat and think, "that's what I lost... that's something, isn't it?"

There you have some random thoughts for the day.

When You're Walking...

What do you think about?  Do you memorize scriptures?  I used to memorize the plays and skits that I was participating in.

I'm not much of a walker.  My back has some problems, but I don't mind cycling.

That's actually not what this post was about.  As I'm walking this path, I'm impressed by so many things people say.  Many are too scared to say anything for fear of offending me.  If I were easily offended, I wouldn't take the chance to publicly share my journey with the remote possibility some jerk will get on here and tell me what a fat pig I am and anything of that sort.  I was fully aware of that possibility.

I'm here before you all to tell you that I NEED your comments, good bad and ugly.  I think about a lot of things including the comments you share, the recipes, the future, the past... all of it.  When my last post received some comments about books and videos to watch, one in particular struck me.

Forks over Knives.  I haven't seen it yet, but I'm to understand it's a plant based diet.  My friend from church had cancer a few years ago and switched to plant based diet.  He is the healthiest older man I know.  If he dies before he's 100, it will be a fluke.  I like meat, but I'm not foolish about it.  My husband LOVES meat and insists that most meals should have it.  That is something I've been trying to work on.

It's also really difficult to find the time to prepare meals to that degree.  I've worked on it one little bit at a time and will eventually get there, but it takes work and it takes time.

I'd love more of your advice and I will update you on the progress after I watch that movie.

The Fifth Step (Week 4)

I'm not so proud as to not admit that I look like a complete idiot in this video :).  The code question was what was my favorite thing I've done this summer.

Yesterday was my birthday.  I found that the frosting was kinda gross.  Today is my youngest child's first birthday, so it's been a fun weekend.

Weight: 304.0
Total lost to date: 7.9 lbs.

This is not a lot, but, just like the last post, it's consistent.  I can't complain when I'm still losing.  At one point, I weighed myself in the morning and I was down to 298.8.  I'm currently retaining water, but it was nice to see that number go below 300 for just a little bit.

I am working my new job, haven't been to the gym, but have done a lot of work around the house, like removing wall paper and taping off the exterior windows for the painter to paint our house.  So, I've not been completely sedentary.

Now that I'm done with this post, I'm going to go take the tiles off my bathroom wall.

Peace out!

The Fourth Step (week 3)

Perhaps it seems odd I talk of elephants, but the code word for this weigh-in video was our favorite animal.

Weight: 306.6 lbs.
Total lost to date: 6.3 lbs.

It was a little harder this week (and based on some of the other comments, I'm not the only one struggling with it) but at least I've been consistent in losing.

I mentioned yesterday some of my goals.  Any comments, suggestions, opinions or ideas are welcome... that's the whole point of the blog.