With A Little Help From My Friends!

First, The Beatles are awesome.  I don't really need to expand on this.  We all know it, so enough said.  Second, friends and family and coworkers and everyone else are awesome (almost even more than The Beatles).  I have had such great support and encouragement from you all this past week and I appreciate it SO MUCH.  It's amazing what you can accomplish with a little help from your friends.  I've had people offer to go to the ballet class with me.  I have a friend that is going to possibly sign up for Weight Watchers with me so we can force each other to go to the weekly meetings and weigh ins.  I went to dinner twice this weekend with friends and we went to places with healthier options.  I went hiking twice this past week (see pictures below) with a friend.  And my friend and I are going to check in each night this next week just to keep the motivation going ALL week long.  So, the ground work has been laid, now it's just time to get to work!  This last week was good to figure out everything I need to do and when and how I need to do it each and everyday.  I also lost 1#, so current weight is 259#.  As I said before, slow and steady wins the race and this time I will finish the race because you all are so inspiring and helpful.  If you need a little help from your friends to get motivated with something, don't be afraid to ask.  If you have such great friends as I do, you'd be amazed at the things they are willing to do to help support you.  Thank you thank you thank you!  

These are both from a hike that I took with Angie to The Living Room.  The hike itself wasn't the prettiest except for the VIEW!  Hiking this last week has made me appreciate living in such a beautiful place.  Sorry the pictures are blurry, they were taken with my phone.  I am red in the picture from exhaustion (it was HOT!) and the sunset.

Where does the time go????

This has been a busy summer so far.  I can't believe it is already August 14th.  This summer has mostly been consumed by taking a boards exam to become an IBCLC (international board certified lactation consultant).  I started studying for this test in April and finally took the test on July 24th.  As I was studying I definitely let things go in the working out and exercising department.  Along with many other things, I kept telling myself that I would get back on track with this "after the test".  I am sure my family and friends got sick of hearing me say that I would do this and that "after the test".  In fact I kind of got sick of hearing myself say that. 

So now it is "after the test" and I still am not back on track.  I went to a family reunion and even though we try to have healthy things there, we always end up eating a lot.  So I told myself that I would get back on track after that.  And to be quite honest, I didn't.  Instead last week I was very lazy.  I ate out WAY WAY too much.  I didn't exercise until the end of the week, and that exercising was more of a social thing than just exercising for health (Disclaimer, even though it was social, it was also intense and I realized how out of shape I am.  3 hour hike up Bells Canyon.  Walked in a Relay for Life team for 2 hours in the middle of the night on Friday.  Oh yeah!).  Well the excuses have to stop.  There will always be a reason not to work out or to eat that extra serving.  In fact there will always be something that I can say, "after _____, I will get back on track".  I am right now at 260#. Yup, sucks. Since this time last year, I have gained about 11 pounds (my lowest weight I got to was 249# last fall sometime). This is all due to lack of motivation and giving myself stupid excuses.  I hate putting my weight up on my blog for all my friends and family and people that stalk my blog to see.  But there is no time to be sad, the weight will come off again. PLUS, I have to be happy to not have gone back up to 279# with all the lack of exercising and eating right that I've been doing pretty much since January.  So it's got to stop and today is my last day of being a lazy bum.

My friends of the blogging world (which pretty much all of you are part of my real life world too, love ya!) it's time that I start checking in with you again on a weekly basis.  When I was blogging consistently, I was doing really good overall and losing the weight.  So I need you all, whether you read it or not weekly that's your prerogative, to check in with.  If by some chance I don't update my blog each Sunday night, then I want you to harass me.  Comment on my facebook, send me a text or e-mail, give me a harsh dirty look when I see you, tell me how disappointed you were to not see my update.  Do what you wish, I need it. 

Here are the other things I plan to do to get back on track:
- Use Fatsecret again on my fancy phone (one of the main reasons I use a smart phone) to track my eating.
- I am going to update my embarrassing poster at work each and every Friday.  (Yes Angie, I think we should do it each Friday and not Tuesday.  Let me know what you think about that.)
- More physical activity.  I need minimum 30 minutes each and every day.  Overall goal would be 90 minutes at least 4 times/ week. 
- I am actually going to check out a Weight Watchers group.  I need someone to check in with on a routine basis where I have to weigh in right in front of them. 
- There is a couple of continuing education classes (Adult Ballet, starts on September 1st for anyone interested in joining me.) that I plan on starting.
- And again and most important, updating my blog EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY!

So there we have it friends.  It all begins when I wake up in the morning.  I had a delicious, not so healthy dinner to fill my canteen.  I ate some better than sex cake and now will probably donate the rest to either my boyfriend, roommate, coworkers, the garbage disposal, or anyone else that wants it.  I don't even want to figure out the calories on that.  :)