Mini-Goals

Today is a happy day for me!  I have reached my current mini-goal of getting into the 160's!  I have found that setting mini-goals is extremely less daunting than looking at the full amount of weight that I want to lose.  I have two different types of mini goals.  One kind is scale driven, and the other is what I call a "non-scale victory."  I actually reached one last night and one this morning.  In case you are dying of curiosity, I will share my goals with you :)

Scale Driven Goals:

Original Weight (in November when I started focusing):  191
212 is the weight I reached when I had Anderson.  So I had already lost 21 lbs when I started being more "focused" in November.  So I am counting 191 as my starting weight.

191.0 lbs (Went from being considered severely obese to "just" obese on the BMI chart) - November 2012
181.4 lbs (5% of my body weight lost) - January 2013
171.9 lbs (10% of my body weight lost) - April 2013
169.9 lbs (Get into the 160's!  Woo hoo) - April 2013
166.0 lbs (25 lbs lost!) - Next on the list!
163.7 lbs (Out of the obese category and into the Over-weight category on the BMI Chart!)
162.5 lbs (15% of my body weight lost)
158 lbs (What I weighed on my wedding day)
152.8 lbs (20% of my body weight lost)
145 lbs (What I weighed when I graduated high school)
141 lbs (40 lbs lost) (or 72 lbs since having Anderson)
136 lbs (Out of the over-weight category and into the normal category on the BMI Chart!) (Not sure if this will ever happen!)

As far as my non-scale victories are concerned, these are mostly based on clothing sizes, fitness goals, etc.

Last night I was able to zip some of my old 10's without a problem!  This was a huge victory to me!  I have been in 12's for a VERY long time and even slid into a couple of 14's right after I had Anderson.  I would LOVE to be a solid 8.  I think I would be happy at that size.  But who knows?  Maybe after that, I will keep chugging along!  I tend to post about my non-scale victories right after they happen.  Often times, I don't even realize I had that "goal" in mind until it happens, such as when I ran 15 minutes without stopping the other day.  And of course I felt great about doing it! 

Latest Challenges

Well I have decided to start a couple of new challenges.  For all of you who know me (which I assume is everyone that reads this blog), you know that I am a goal setter.  I do better when I have defined goals to shoot towards.  For example, I have an excel sheet that lists what I should weigh every week to keep me on track to meet my overall "big picture" weight goal.  I have decided to add two more goals that I can track by numbers. 

I am going to start doing the 100 push-ups challenge.  You can see the challenge here:  http://www.hundredpushups.com/

My arms have always been a problem area for me.  When I gain weight, my arms are usually one of the first places to show it.  Which also means, they are one of the last places to get toned when I am losing weight.  So I am trying to jump start things a bit.  Yes, I am starting the challenge doing "girl push-ups."  But my thought is, if I can get to where I am doing 100 consecutive "girl push-ups," then I can definitely start the challenge over doing real push-ups.  So that is my current plan :)  I started Day 1 today.  But not before I took some lovely (or not so lovely) "before" pictures of my arms.  Hopefully when I take the after pictures in 7 weeks or so, we will be able to tell a difference!

I decided while I'm at it, I might as well work on my stomach too!  After having a c-section a year ago, things could definitely use some tightening up.  So along with the 100 push-ups challenge, I will be doing the 200 sit ups challenge.  You can see the challenge here:  http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

And yes, I took a "before" shot of my stomach, but I am not near brave enough to post that on here.  Maybe if the after shot is awesome in 7 weeks, I will post it.  But don't hold your breath :)

Until then, send me good karma for hitting the 160s this week!!  I am trying real hard to get there!

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

Well I haven't written a new post in a while...and here is why...I'VE BEEN CHEATING.

I have been too embarrassed to write because I haven't had good results to report :(  After Anderson's bday party a week and a half ago, I just got off the bandwagon.  I allowed myself a couple cheat meals in a row, and BAM down hill I went!

All last week I ate whatever I wanted.  I will say it was better than I used to be, but it was still bad.  By last Friday, I told myself "I'll start fresh again on Monday."  So of course Saturday and Sunday I stuffed my face.  Ugh, what is my deal.  I'm not going to lie, this is how I was feeling...



Anyways, this Monday I got back on it.  And I looked on the scale and had gained 4 lbs in one week.  OMG.  Seriously?  It takes a month to lose 4 lbs and 1 week to gain it back! I was so frustrated and disappointed in myself.  But seriously, after one day of dedicated focus the next morning I was 3 lbs lighter.  So that made me feel a little bit better.  I honestly believe drinking tons of water if key.  I hadn't been doing good with my water last week and I could definitely tell.  So now I am 1 lb away from where I was at my lowest 2 weeks ago.  I am 2 lbs away from hitting a new "decade" the 160s!  I WANT TO BE THERE SOOO BAD!  I am making a goal to get there by my weigh in on Wednesday, but that could be a stretch!  We will see!

I totally make mistakes and am still figuring out how to make this "clean" eating work in my life.  I absolutely believe that it is the healthiest way to be, but I am thinking that for myself right now, I can't be a 100% clean eater.  I am aiming to be a 70% clean eater and hopefully over time I will keep raising that percentage.  For the first few weeks of clean eating I did great.  But after a while I felt like I was eating the same exact things over and over and over again and got bored and wanted to cheat.  So, my new goal is to try to do a much better job of branching out, researching clean eating recipes, and totally mixing it up on what I am eating every week. Variety is the spice of life right?

I think this all the time....



But we all know this is a  life long journey.  I can't look at it as a diet.  It is a new lifestyle.  And if I want to have a few "Treat" meals every now and then that is okay.  They aren't "cheat" meals.  I just need to make them a "treat" MEAL and not a treat WEEK!

Anderson's 1st Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated Anderson's 1st birthday!  I can not believe that a year has gone by!  It has been an amazing year.  Knowing that he is 1 has been very bittersweet!  

We had a blast planning his birthday party.  I decided to go with the Dr. Seuss theme because I took some newborn pictures of him with Dr. Seuss books.  His room also has a quote from "Oh, the Places You'll Go" on the wall.  So it seemed fitting that we should celebrate his 1st year with Seuss decor!  Plus, Seuss is always fun!  You can't go wrong!  

So we started with an adorable invitation seen here:

I decided it would be cute to take pictures of Anderson and put Seuss quotes around them.  Dr. Seuss had some amazing "life" quotes and I wanted to find a way to use them.  Here are the pictures with the quotes added in...

"A person's a person, no matter how small."

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?"

"Today you are YOU, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive who is YOUer than YOU!"

I put these on top of the piano with some Dr. Seuss books and Dr. Seuss characters that we found at Kohl's.

I made the Happy Birthday banner out of scrap paper from Michaels and letters that I printed on my computer.  I found the Grinched font for free online.  It didn't take long to make the banner at all!

For the front door I wanted to try to make a balloon wreath.  I had seen a few on Pinterest and wanted to give it a try.  I bought balloons in "Seuss colors."  It took about an hour and a half to make the wreath.  And it had over 300 balloons on it!

I wanted to put a little something at the front door.  I had left over balloons so I just did a simple display with the "Oh the places you'll go frame."  I actually received this frame from my Student Council advisor at my high school graduation!  Awesome to be able to use it for my son years down the road!

A few weeks before Anderson's birthday, a good friend of mine came over and took 1 year birthday pictures with him.  So I displayed my favorite picture from that photo shoot.  Anderson in a "Thing 1" hat.  

Another fun Pinterest idea I found was having everyone sign the Dr. Seuss "Happy Birthday to You" book on their 1st birthday.  

Now... on to the best part...THE FOOD!  We had so much fun making the food!  My mom and I baked all of the chocolate cupcakes and my friend Lindsey decorated them all!  She also made Anderson's Thing 1 smash cake.  It was all delicious!

For all of the food, I did some searching online and found some neat food names that were Seuss related.  This part was the most fun!

"Green Eggs and Ham"

First I made deviled eggs and dyed the inside green.  Then I just took deli ham and rolled it up.  Very simple :)  

"Brown Bar Ba Loots Truffula Fruits"

These were just red and green grapes.

"Hop on Pop-Corn"

This is my dad and his wife's Erin famous Caramel Corn.  This stuff is addicting!!!

"Cat in the Hat Fruit Skewers"

We took sliced bananas and strawberries and skewered them on toothpicks.  We tried to do this at the last minute so that the bananas wouldn't brown.  And we sprayed them a few times with lemon juice.

"Yertle's Caramel Turtles"

We made these by just melting rolos on pretzels and topping them with a pecan!

"Three Cheese Trees"

I'm not going to lie, these were a pain to make!  But they turned out cute, so it was totally worth it.  I bought 3 styrofoam trees at Michaels.  We wrapped the trees in plastic wrap.  We then cut the toothpicks in half and just started stabbing cheese all over the trees.  It took a while, but turned out great!

"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Goldfish!"

Very simple,  just multi-colored goldfish.  And it was awesome, mom happened to have a fish bowl on hand!

"Oodles of Noodles"

Mom made this delicious pasta salad. It is bowtie pasta, brocolli, peppers, cauliflower, carrots, pepperoni, and italian dressing.  Delish!

"Assorted Greens and Other Things"

Just a veggie tray!

"Stink, Stank, Stunk Pretzels"

I was going to add some kind of spice to these, but I decided to take the lazy route and keep it simple.

"Yot in  Pot"

These were just meatballs and BBQ sauce.  They were definitely a hit.  They were the first thing to disappear!

It all wouldn't be complete without having red and blue utensils, plates, and napkins to keep with the theme!

Total spread.  It was quite a table full!  But there honestly wasn't that much food left at the end!

One of my favorite things about the party was the cute little kids table. We had 3 kids that were 1 year old so it was awesome to be able to use the small table.  For party favors for the little ones, I ordered Dr. Seuss toddler plates.

Baby feet!

I had so much fun planning this party!  Parties really are more fun when you pick a theme and run with it!  I really hope Anderson's second year doesn't go by as fast as the first.  But I'm not going to lie, I am excited to plan next year's party!  

I want to give a special shout out to my mom, sister, and my friend Lindsey!  They helped me a lot with party prep the day of!  You guys rock!