And the Journey ENDS

Yes, you read that right. My weight loss journey has come to an abrupt end. I attended my final Weight Watchers meeting this morning, but I did not weigh-in. I simply went to tell my leader and some of the "regulars" good-bye. It was more emotional than I thought it would be....I actually shed a few tears. At the end I received lots of hugs.

I had my husband take an "after" photo earlier this week; it’s on the right-hand side of my blog. I look pretty good, if I do say so myself! ; )

Why am I quitting, you ask? Well…I found out last weekend that I'm pregnant… my estimated due date is July 1, 2009. I obviously won't be trying to lose weight for the next 8 months but I'm going to put my healthy eating habits to work so I don't use the excuse of "eating for two" and gain way too much weight. I'll eat more since I have to, but will make healthy choices instead of milkshakes, fried this-n-that, and candy bars. (Okay, I'm sure I'll have a craving every now and then...!) I also plan to keep on exercising (as much as my body will allow) and stay in shape for as long as I can.

After the baby is born, I plan to rejoin Weight Watchers to get the baby weight off and get down to my original goal of 145. I was only 5 pounds from reaching that the morning I took the test. I'm proud of how close I came and I know I would have made it had this little thing not happened. ; ) Once I start in again, I will bring "And the journey begins" back to life. But for now, this will be my last post.

Before I go, I want to tell those of you who commented regularly that I always enjoyed reading your comments. I love that I inspired some of you…and believe me, you inspired me, too. Good luck on reaching your goals...I'll more than likely keep visiting your blogs (you know who you are). Thanks again for all of your support over the last year. ((((hugs))))

In case you’re interested, I have started a new blog…this one will focus on my GROWING belly rather than my SHRINKING belly! Lol…. Feel free to visit Two Pink Lines if you’d like.

(Amy H in Lincoln....we aren't telling family and most friends till Christmas. We plan to break the news to you guys Monday at cask night...but in case you read this before then...sshhhhhh...)

Naked Weight

I've had a few questions about this...the reason I write "naked weight" every now and then is because any time I reference how many pounds I've lost or how many more I have to go, those amounts are WITH my clothes on since I can't strip down for the scale at Weight Watchers. lol.... That would be weird!

I make a note of my naked weight every now and then...like hitting 150.0! At WW that day, I was 151.2 with clothes.

I hope that clears up some confusion.

Quickly

The daily exercising definitely paid off....I lost 2.6 last week which puts my total at 69 pounds even. My naked weight was 150.0!

Keeping My Word and a Shout-Out

That's right folks....I've EXERCISED every day since last Friday! AND I even went to the gym last night! =)

I started back walking/climbing stairs here at work during my breaks and lunch. The stairs are kicking my butt...well, technically my calves. They are NOT very happy with me. lol.... I had a "note to self" moment yesterday...."don't look down to adjust the volume on your shuffle" because I wasn't paying attention to where I was and completely missed a set of stairs. Luckily for me there were just 3 of them, but it was still quite a shock! How I didn't complete biff it I don't know because by the time I recovered I was at the bottom of them and still on my feet, surprisingly enough. I'm just glad no one was up there to see it because I know my arms were a-flailing! lol....

I saw a number on the scale that I haven't see in oh, about 5 years, this morning! 151.4 which is .8 less than weigh-in last Saturday. =) Go me! (yes, I'm tooting my own horn here) Let's just hope it keeps going down over the next few days so I have a nice loss at my next weigh-in.

This is off subject, but I wanted to brag about my husband just a bit. Last November when I decided to do something about my expanding waistline and join WW, I never asked him to do it with me or said he needed to lose weight, too. As he puts it now, he just "came along for the ride." He makes better food choices, doesn't eat as much, and is at the gym at 5 a.m. M-F.

He's 6'3" and when he started his "lifestyle change" he weighed 285. Last Saturday morning he weighed 228. That's 57 pounds! I need to take an "after" shot and post it here with a "before" picture so you can see the difference. I'm very proud of him and I contribute my success to him because he's been uber supportive through this whole process.

So there's my 'shout-out' to my hubs. =)

I'll check back in after weigh-in this weekend.

Weigh-In Update

I only gained .6 pounds from my last "official" weigh-in which was 2 weeks ago. Not bad considering all of the full-fat Lay's sour cream 'n onion chips I binged on over the last week and a half. I confessed to my husband that I had had a lot of them when he wasn't around and his comment was something like "so that's where they went" since the bag didn't last as long as it should have. I told him we need to switch the door knobs around in the house and put the locking knob from the office on the pantry and when he's not around to take the key with him. I'm only half joking.

I walked over my lunch hour yesterday for 30 minutes and we took the dog for a walk, which also takes 30 minutes. And during halftime of the Huskers game we went for 30 minute walk. I just need to keep the activity going.

Our leader had us all set a mini-goal for the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which is November 22. That's 5 weeks from today. I really, really, really want to be at goal by then. To do so, I have to lose 8.8 pounds. I can do it. I just need to recommit and get my butt off the couch!

Get to Know Me!

I was tagged by Shanna (aka roobabs) to list 6 things about me. This was much harder than I thought it would be. Hopefully you find it somewhat interesting. Lucky for me you can't throw rotten fruit or spoiled eggs at me from cyberspace if you find it boring!

Here goes nothing…

1. I was born and raised in McCook, NE, a town of about 8,000 in the southwest corner of the state. My parents have been married for 41 years. I have one brother who is 3 years older than me. In 1994 I moved 230 miles from home to Lincoln, NE, the capital city, and have been here ever since. I live amongst approximately 235,000 other people and nearly all of them are horrible drivers!
   
2. I’ve been at my current job for 11 years. I’m afraid I could become a “lifer.” My office is in the State Capitol building, sometimes referred to as the “Penis of the Plains.” Seriously. I work in one of the “testicles” on the first floor.
   
3. I met my husband “the old-fashioned way” at P.O. Pears, a bar that has since closed….when I was 32. I find that funny because back in my early 20s when I went to the bars to actually scout for men I had no luck. Then on a night when I was just out with friends for the fun of it and not looking at all…I find Mr. Right. Go figure. He proposed to me 9 months to the day later. And we were married 1 year and 4 days after that. Our 2-year anniversary is December 9.


4. I was a band geek in school. I played two instruments; the clarinet in pep band and marching band and the alto clarinet (it’s bigger and has a lower range) in concert band. I made the All-State Honor Band and the Wesleyan Honor Band my junior year. I didn’t try out my senior year for the honor bands because we had a new band teacher who sucked and I lost interest.


5. My first car was “Claire,” a white 1982 Buick Skylark that my parents bought me a couple of months before I turned 16. I loved her and we had a lot of good times together. I’ve had 5 cars since her and she’s the only car I’ve ever named. And the only one I refer to as “her” and not just “my car” or “the car.”


6. I’m a horrible singer. Just ask my husband…he’ll tell you! Or the people who sit in front of us at church. I try not to sing too loud but still. Let’s just say I wasn’t asked to join the choir like my husband.

I will tag the following people to share some tid-bits about themselves with the rest of us: Matt, Heather, and Kari.

Unrelated to this post is a comment that Shanna left for me on my previous post that actually did make me LOL. "Glad to see that you didn't decide to run off to the north pole and make toys for children..." That cracked me up and made me wish I had thought of that because it would've made for a great title or intro. =)

Also, I forgot to tell you that when we went back home for the parade I came across the wool blazer I wore in junior high band that was part of our uniform. I tried it on and guess what? IT FIT PERFECTLY! How amazing is that? I'm back to the size I was when I was 14 or 15 years old! My letter jacket also fit. I really should've took some pictures...maybe when we go back for Thanksgiving I'll do that.

I have my meeting in the morning and as of this morning, I'm the same weight I was last Friday at my last "unofficial" weigh-in. The pound-melting fairy needs to visit before 8 a.m. tomorrow and take a couple of pounds with her so I don't show a gain! hahaha...

Back from a Hiatus

It's been more than 2 weeks since I updated my blog...mainly because I have no major news to share. At my last "official" weigh-in on October 4th, I showed a .2 gain. But in my defense, I wore a pair of jeans since it's colder these days...instead of my normal cotton capris. The difference in weight between these 2 articles of clothing was .8 pounds. So I actually lost .6 that week.

This past weekend we were out of town so I didn't have an official weigh-in, but I weighed myself last Friday (a day earlier than my "official" weigh-in would have been had I been in town) and I was up 2 pounds. Not surprising since I had some problems staying out of the pantry last week while left alone in the house on a couple of different nights.

I've been struggling lately with my points...I haven't been writing stuff down as religiously as I had been. I'm thinking about switching to the Core program but as I look through the list of Core foods, I'm already eating foods that are considered Core. The only things I eat that aren't are bread, yogurt (not the kind that I'm eating anyway), and the deli turkey I have for lunch. I'm going to talk to my leader this weekend and see what she thinks. They say that some members experience good losses just from switching plans, and since I've been at a stand-still, I'd like to give it a try. I want these last 8 pounds off!

I also haven't been working out. At all. I'm just not motivated one bit. I've been saying "I'll go tomorrow" for the last couple of weeks...and so far tomorrow hasn't come. I'm sure that if I'd just get active again, the weight would start coming off. I just need to do it.

On a lighter note, I am finally almost rid of all of my fat clothes! The sister of one of my friends came over a few weeks ago and took most of the 18s and all of the 20s, along with my 2x's. She asked if I wanted anything in return for them and I told her no. Then a couple of weeks ago, two of my friends came over and took everything else (14s - 18s; XL - 1X), with the exception of a couple pairs of capris and a shirt or two. Again, I didn't expect or ask for anything in return, but they went together and bought me a $50 gift card to Penneys! I was super excited because that's where I've been buying most of my clothes lately. So that was really nice of them.

I've still been checking blogs and have kept up with how all of you are doing (you know who you are). I was hoping that by reading about how much you're exercising and running that the pounds would melt off of me....but sadly, that's not how it works! lol....

Keep up the hard work, ladies....I'll try to get back to my regular posting. (Hopefully you haven't given up on my blog and will read this....I love seeing the comments you leave for me.) Till next time....ariva derche!