New Trainer

My trainer that I've had since February quit a few weeks ago. No notice, but I was pretty sure it was coming. I knew he wasn't happy with his job. I was super nervous when I found out because I wasn't sure that I wanted to start all over with someone new. Someone who didn't know a thing about my past workouts.

It took a lot for me to not be negative about it. But, 3 weeks into working with the new trainer and I think I'm going to like her! She has a very different approach to the workouts than my old trainer did, but I think it's good! I've shocked my body (aka she tries to KILL me) and I've finally jumped over the pleteau that I was on almost the entire summer. I'm now down 46 lbs. I'll measure on the 17th of the month and see how many inches.

It's nice to be leaving the gym feeling like I'm going to puke and shaky. I didn't want to admit that my old trainer had slacked off on the workouts, but the new one has made that obvious.

I kind of have a renewed faith in working out and I'm excited to go to the gym... Something I never thought I'd say.

It's the Dress

My husband's cousin is getting married this Saturday. I'm pretty excited to get to attend a wedding because I haven't been to one since my own last year. But the most exciting part is that I get to wear one of my bridesmaid's dresses from my wedding.... Which is 2 sizes smaller than my own wedding dress was. Last weekend D and I were trying on our "nice" clothes to make sure that we had things that fit for the wedding. I put on the dress that I wore on our honeymoon (the same size as my wedding dress, obviously) and D zipped it up. When he let go, the dress fell to the floor. I was torn with excitement and sadness. I love that dress but I'm excited because that size of dress is behind me forever. So now I get to wear a cute orange flower dress that I almost bought for myself when 2 of my bridesmaids chose it as the dress to wear at my wedding.

(The dress that I'm wearing is the one on the furthest left.)

And we had a get together with D's family that is in town for the wedding. D's aunt noticed right away that I had lost a significant amount of weight and commented on it. People noticing that I don't see all the time is something that keeps me motivated!

Back from the Dead

I'm bringing the blog back... It's been a long time since I updated but apparently learning how to take control of my life takes a lot of time.

But I'm happy to report, since my first weigh in, I am officially down 43 lbs and about 30 inches. I just took new "progress" pictures because I could feel myself falling off the wagon. Boy did those help! I don't see the difference in myself every day but in the pictures, when they're put next to my "before" pictures, I see a HUGE difference. That put me back on track.

I have a lot of reasons that I've finally been able to stick with this weight loss journey for 9 (!) months so far (seriously the longest I've ever stuck with any "diet") but that is largely in thanks to my personal trainer that I've had since February. Ryan, as much as I hate him when he's killing me once a week, has been my motivator and my cheerleader. He's pushed me and it's amazing how much having someone hold you accountable helps. Seriously, I know I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for him.

But I haven't reached that goal yet. I'd really like to lose about 124 more pounds, but I'm pretty sure I'd spend the rest of my life trying to reach that number. Really, 84 more pounds and I'll be the smallest I can ever remember being and I'll be healthy.

I have some new goals to keep me on track with my weight loss:
1. I'm going to run (I mean run, not walk) a 5K in May. My goal is to run the whole thing.
2. Within the next year and a half I'm going to run a half marathon.
3. Sometime in the future, I will run a marathon. It may take me years to get to that point, but the nice thing is, once I've lost this weight, I'll have the years in my life to do it.

So I stink at blogging...

So obviously I'm not good at keeping up on blogging. It didn't help that I broke the screen on my laptop and was computerless for a few weeks while the husband and I decided what to do and what kind of computer to get. But I'm finally back online!
My weight loss is still going. I started to get off track there for about a week and caught myself. On Thursday I joined a gym! I walked in there just to get some info because I had heard that it was a pretty good gym and ended up walking out with memberships for both the husband and I!
I have a plan where I am going to have a personal trainer 1 time a week. My first time was yesterday and let's just say I'm sure I looked like a fool. And I'm sore!
He's set me up on a meal plan and I need to be working out about 5 days a week. So even though I can barely move right now, I will be heading to the gym today to see if I can stretch out some of these muscles!

2 lbs down!

That's right... 2 pounds in one week... According to what I thought I weighed and what I really weighed today. But I think it's probably more of 5 or 6 lbs.

BUT I just thought of today that I need to make some goals to keep giving me motivation..

So if I lose 15lbs I get something, 30lbs something else, 50 lbs... another.

I think for 50 lbs I've decided that we'll get a dog! I've been wanting one badly and know that I need to wait until my Master's program is over so I have time to commit to it. I'm thinking 50 lbs down would be about that time.

But I need goals for other milestones... Any suggestions?

Wednesday Check-In

Yesterday was a busy day. I've taken over as secretary for my riding club and last night was my first official meeting. Needless to say, I'm overwhelmed but it's good to get more involved in something.
Calorie counting is actually going pretty well. I'm having a lot of fun figuring out different combinations of foods to eat and figuring out what to eat and when to keep myself from getting hungry.
And... I joined sparkpeople. It's going to be good to have some motivation and to have some people answer to when I start falling off the bandwagon.
Unfortunatley exercising has been non-existent this week. Thanks kindergarteners for giving me a sore throat and leaving my body to fight off a cold which has made me exhausted. And the husband has been sleep talking like crazy this week... He's sleeping well but I'm sure not! I'll get onto the exercising for sure on Monday after my weekend of class is over and I can get my 21 days in a row done so that I can get my routine built.
I also hi-lighted my hair today and I think I'm going to like it. It's fun to have something new! I'll get pictures up once my camera battery is done charging. But since I haven't really had a whole lot to post about that's been extremely important and I hate blogs without pictures, I'll leave you with a few of the loves of my life... My horses and dog.

Anyone else make resolutions? Keeping up with them?

Happy (?) Monday

Is there really such a thing as a happy Monday when it involves going back to work? It makes it even worse that it was the first day back after 2 weeks off. On the positive, my students were quiet and well-behaved today. I doubt that will last long.

Today was the first day of my new "lifestyle." I'm not calling it a diet because I'm not really dieting but just changing my lifestyle and eating habits. And so far... I'm hungry. I knew it was going to be hard but geez I'm starving. Part of the probelm is that I need to go grocery shopping and the other is that I'm afraid I'm going to go over my calorie allowance. After going grocery shopping tonight I'm hoping it will get a bit easier.

No pictures today... I'll get back on the picture train tomorrow. But until then, what do you do to help keep your mind off food and eating when you know you're not really hungry?