OBESE!!!.....NOT ANYMORE:)!!!!!!!!

January of 2009, I knew I wanted to loose weight. After having Allison I had gained a lot of weight. Maybe it was the continuation of eating everything and eating for two that did it, but it didn't matter, the bottom line was I was overweight. I absolutely hated getting dressed because nothing would fit me anymore and I wasn't about to go buy bigger clothes for me to fit into. It wasn't that my clothes were too small, it was that I was too big for my clothes, and I wasn't going to wear my maternity clothes either. My daughter was 5 months old, I was done wearing maternity clothes. I was very unhappy and quite depressed. I didn't want to go anywhere, nor did I even want to see my friends. My friends were so nice and knew that I wasn't doing well so they threw me a surprise birthday party...(which I actually knew about:) they had really good intentions but being so depressed I would have rather stayed home and hid myself. However, though I wanted to lose weight, I didn't really do anything about it. I still ate the sweets and didn't exercise. I was just hoping it would come off because I wanted it to.
The moment I actually decided I really needed to do something was when I went online and put in my weight and height along with age and it came up with....OBESE!! Not just overweight anymore but OBESE! I really could not believe that I had let myself get that far. No wonder I felt horrible.
In February or March of 2009 some friends started a Biggest Loser group. We had two teams and we would meet and play some sort of physical activity every Saturday and also weigh in. We also had points we could get every day for eating 5 fruits and vegetables, drinking 64oz of water, exercises for so long, not eating 2 hours before bed, 25g of fiber, and no soda (which this one was the only that wasn't hard for me). Doing these things gave you so many points each day. It was the beginning of me starting to eat healthy. I didn't realize you were suppose to eat so many fruits and vegetables a day, drink so much water, and have so much fiber. I knew you weren't suppose to eat so close to bed but this encouraged me to not eat close to going to bed. So the credit for me starting to eat healthy goes to Jim and Melinda. I have since then been more aware of how many fruits and veggies I eat, how much fiber, and how much water I eat every day. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Though I didn't lose much weight doing the biggest loser, at our last activity I did start talking to Cory about playing basketball in the mornings. I knew that it would be great exercise. I hadn't played in years and years and I had two babies since the last time I played but like I said it was great exercise. The first time I went to basketball was on a Friday and I was absolutely TERRIBLE. I was not going to go back because I was so bad but Cory asked me at church on Sunday if I was going to show up to basketball in the morning. I was so torn. I knew he must have just said that to be nice but I really wasn't going to show up until he said that. I contemplated what Cory said all Sunday and finally decided that I would go back on Monday. Since the time change had happened over that weekend, I didn't even have to bring baby Allison anymore since she slept in later because of it. Though I had to leave half an hour after basketball started so that Chris could get to his class on time it worked out great because I was so out of shape that just playing for 30 minutes was a huge workout for me.
I LOVE SWEETS!!! I LOVE SWEETS!!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE SWEETS!!!!
I have no willpower when it comes to sweets either. When I ate sweets I would eat them until they were all gone. I am sure I was taking it a TON of calories, along with no exercising was really killing me.
I LOVE No Bake cookies. Chris also loves No Bake Cookies. I decided that my deciding factor of whether I was going to lose this weight that I wanted to lose was going to be if I could make a batch of No Bake cookies and withstand from eating any of them.
I made the cookies and I had enough willpower to not eat a single one. I knew from then on that I was going to reach my goal. My GOAL was to lose 53 pounds even though I had only ever been 36 pounds lighter that I have known about. I had never had a scale until shortly before getting pregnant with Matthew. So the lowest weight that I know of was 36 pounds lighter then what I was but I still had a dream of losing 53 pounds. As if that wasn't going to be hard enough, my fabulous husband decided to through me a challenge as well, basically because he didn't think that I could do it. He said if I lost 63 pounds then I could have a shopping spree!! What girl doesn't want a shopping spree. He is obviously very smart because he knows that I wouldn't go crazy with the credit card even if I have the go ahead to do so. The challenge was on and boy has it been a long hard challenge.
I can finally say that I have not only reached my goal but I have reached Chris's goal. My goal was easy to reach because that is what I wanted to be. I was very happy with my weight at that point and so to put the work into trying to take off the extra 10 pounds has been really hard.
I can say that I haven't had a gym membership and I wasn't on any special diet plans (i.e. South Beach, Atkins, Nutri-Systems, Weight Watchers) our ward did start a healthy lifestyle group that I went to a couple times to weigh in and they were mostly doing the weight watchers points ideas but I tried it for a couple weeks and it didn't work for me. (I am glad that I did get to experience it for myself though) I could handle eating just 5 brownies all day because that was 25 point limit but I knew that wasn't going to help me lose weight. I had Chris buy me the Transfirmer for Christmas 2008 so I could lose the weight from when I had Matthew. So I would go to basketball from 6:15am to 7~7:15am (once Chris didn't have to be at school so early) and then on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I would do the Transfirmer. Though I was exercising the biggest part of me losing weight was watching what I was eating. Like I said, I cut out the sweets and noticed that it was easier for me to not have any sweets (though it looked good) then to just have one because then it put that wonderful yummy taste in my mouth. So all around it was just better to not have any. In the book that came with the Transfirmer it said that you should only have your body weight times 10 in calories for the day. So the smaller you get the less calories you are suppose to be consuming in one day. When I was actually serious (by not eating that No Bake Cookie) to lose weight I started a notebook that I would write down what I ate during the day. Some days it was easier then others to know exactly how many calories were in something. I did my best though. The days that I wouldn't keep track of my caloric intake were the days that I did really bad. Along with the date I would put my weight. I loved seeing my weight going down. If I would slip and eat sweets, it was pretty much guaranteed that I would gain weight.
I reached my goal before Christmas but it has taken my mind and my body since then to decide that I could finally get rid of the rest of the weight to reach Chris' goal. Shopping spree here I come.
Thank you for all my friends for supporting me along the way, and especially my husband for putting up with me complaining about how little I get to eat to achieve "his goal":) He actually said the deal was off a couple months ago, but I wouldn't give up that easily. He said I had done well and I deserved to get a shopping spree and that there was no 125 but it was always in my head. I had to get sick a couple times to get me closer and closer and make me realize that it was so close and to just do whatever I had to to reach that 125.
By the way, one of the funnest things was not telling Chris' family about me losing so much weight and then seeing them at Christmas. They were quite impressed since they have never seen me this small before. I even had to get my wedding ring re-sized because it kept falling off my finger. I even have a dress from my best friends wedding that my mom made me in High School and I can finally fit into it again, and actually I think it fits better now then it did then, it was a little too tight back then but she couldn't loosen it anymore.
So it took me a year to lose 63 pounds, but I am so happy to have achieved my goal that I set out to do.
Is it bad that my 3 year old son asks, "Mommy, how many calories are in that?" Hmmm...I wonder where in the world he has heard that?

Here are some pictures of me:)
One before, but the rest after.
(I prefer not to look at my old self:)

Above: My birthday party last year

Above: Me trying to duplicate that picture

My birthday party this year.

I am definitely happier and more outgoing this year.

Unfortunately I will always have a round face but hopefully I won't ever have as much fat around it as I did.

These are all pictures that have been taken in the last 4 months.


I love the new look of me!
Now I just have to maintain it:)

Texas A&M Football Games

This post is WAY past due but I wrote it during Christmas and didn't have the pictures to upload in AZ. I finally got the pictures I wanted to upload so here it is.

About 3 years ago Chris was an usher for the Texas A&M football games. He liked getting the paycheck at the end of the season in time for Christmas but that was about all he liked, oh I guess just seeing an A&M game is something you have to do while in Aggieland along with the band, other then that he wasn't a big fan.
This last season I decided to be an usher and we have a guy in our ward that is an usher supervisor in the section on the west side (less sun) and season ticket holders along with not being on the student side. Like Chris, I also got put in this section. However, I absolutely loved being an usher. As an usher you have to get there 2.5 hours before the game starts. The gates open 2 hours before kick-off. A few fans come in right when the gates open and so you don't have a lot to do. Instead of just sitting or standing and doing nothing I would go around and introduce myself to all the fans and chat with them, especially the "regulars" I got to know by name and joke around with. I really tried to do a good job and have fun. There is this thing called a Fan First Award that one usher and one gateman gets every game just for doing good work. I wasn't really sure what all it was about but the second game one of the fans asked me how they could vote for me. I had to go ask my supervisor. Game three I had won the fan first award. I went down on the field and received a certificate, along with a signed football from Coach Sherman, and video taped smiling, waving and showing off my certificate and football to be put on the Jumbotron (the big tv), though all my fans and I waited for it, we never did see me up there, oh well.
There were some guys that sat on the first row that always liked to say they were trouble and made my job really hard but they really didn't. Halfway through the season one guy stood up and motioned for me to go down there. I was ready to take care of something. He pulled a bag out and presented to me "On behave of the front row rowdies, we would like to present this mum to you for making it through half the season." It had a whistle to keep them in line and a small cowbell, so they could hear when I was coming down the steps. He wanted me to wear this mum the rest of the game. It was really nice of him/them.


Since I was in the 3rd section it was high and far but it was still so fun to watch the games.

Here is the Jumbotron. It was the biggest tv is the college arenas until our rivals UT put in an even bigger one.

President Bush (41) was at a lot of the games. He comes to Aggieland a lot. His presidential library is here.

Home of the 12th Man, Kyle Field, what a great place to be.
When the stadium sings the school song it is really cool because during the chorus they all hook on to each other and sway back and forth. Chris said that he could feel the stadium sway which I thought he was exaggerating but no, if you are leaning on the stadium you can feel it sway which is actually a little unnerving, but cool.


It was so fun this year. My fans were the greatest and they even would give me things, like I mentioned. A got a couple cards throughout the season thanking me for doing a good job and it made me feel good.
Winning the fan first award, I was invited to a luncheon on campus and while there I met the Supervisor for "THE ZONE" which is a big big deal to have tickets in "THE ZONE". After hearing my story about my fans giving me this mum, the usher supervisor of the zone asked me if I wanted to work under him this next season. They pay more and after much debate I decided that I would go work in "THE ZONE" (in the a/c) this season. I will be sad to leave "my" fans but I am sure there will be great fans in "THE ZONE" as well.

Here is the football and certificate I was presented and then the mum that the front row rowdies gave to me.

Updating

Other than my last post a couple minutes ago, it has been awhile since I have posted anything. Our last adventure was driving to Gulf of Mexico to visit Grammy Donna. Other then that we haven't done a whole lot. We were suppose to go to the Waco zoo with Matthew's preschool but the kids and I were sick so we have been having a lot of home time lately.
I hadn't had any motivation to clean my house but after laying on the couch for numerous days and staring at my messy house, it helped get my motivation back for cleaning my house. Thankfully my motivation bug and stuck with me so far. I am doing really well with cleaning the kitchen after every meal which is a HUGE improvement. Normally after preparing the food and eating the food, the last thing I want to do is spend more time in the kitchen but lately it has made me happier to just rinse the dishes, start the dishwasher, wipe everything down and sweep the floor. It is so much nicer to wake up to a clean kitchen rather then a dirty one. A lot of times I think "I am not going anywhere tomorrow, I will just do it in the morning."
At night I have been making the kids clean up their toys before going to bed which makes the house even cleaner! YAY! Hopefully I can keep this cleanliness motivation bug around awhile. Maybe it is just because I have been home so much I haven't been in a rush to get out the door that I normally am so I am able to clean up more.
Sometimes I just absolutely adore my children and other times, well....it is harder. I do have some really sweet kids though and here are a couple pictures of their cuteness:)

To avoid the mess, we normally feed Allison the yogurt ourselves but we finally decided to let her go for it herself. Here is the end result:)

Lately Matthew hasn't really wanted his picture taken :( but when I pulled it out to take a picture of Allison he wanted me to take his picture too:) He even gave me a really cute smile:)

Chris took this picture and he swears that they did this himself when he set them down to watch a movie. I totally believe it because Matthew is VERY lovable. When Allison cries he most often will go to her and give her a hug to make her feel better. He is very sweet with his little sister...most of the time. Sadly though, Allison doesn't always want all the hugs Matthew gives her which makes Matthew sad. He is a good big brother though.

St. Patrick's Day

Though I have homework to get done before tomorrow I have been inspired by my sister-in-law Deb to post something to my blog. It has been awhile since I have written a post. We have been sick lately so we haven't done a whole lot.

However, St. Patrick's Day did come and I tried to be a little more festive. I remember my friend Christina posted last year all the green stuff they ate that year and I thought it was really cool. I wanted to try to be that cool mom this year. I woke up on St. Patrick's Day and made German pancakes and put green food coloring in them. Then I put green food coloring in the gallon of milk. I didn't even think about trying to change the syrup...maybe next year.
For lunch, we normally have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but since I wasn't able to make those green at all I decided to give the kids Mac and Cheese. I made the noodles green but when I put the cheese in it, it wasn't as green anymore so I added blue food coloring and it turned it a dark green. It was perfect. Matthew had a harder time eating green mac and cheese. Allison ate it right up.
For dinner I made Broccoli soup (which I didn't even have to food green food coloring in). I made White Braided bread that I put green food coloring in as well as lime jello, and green beans. I had so much fun making everything green for the day and probably used WAY too much green food coloring but it was fun and Matthew even kind of enjoyed it to. Maybe next year I will work on having a treasure hunt for the kids and finding more foods that are green instead of using the food coloring.
The kids don't eat soup very well so I gave them left over baked potatoes. I had fun:)