Danger Danger!!!

Avoid these at all costs.......unless you want some absolutely amazingly fabulous chips.  

Holy crap these are amazing.  I made the mistake of seeing that the Lays flavor contest bags were at the grocery store.  4 flavors!  I bought three ::hides in shame::  But these are the only ones that I feel the need to eat.  Wasabi Ginger....seriously....if you like the taste of wasabi and ginger -- buy these!  The other two I picked up were Mango Salsa --- very mango-y and after one chip I closed the bag and will probably bring them to work for the people here --- and bacon mac & cheese (I think it was called) --- those were okay...nothing amazing (IMO).  The other one they had at the store was Cappuccino -- I told myself I was showing self control by only buying 3 bags... ha! I'll learn.

So last night was a slip.  Along with eating chips from the bag -- not measuring -- I had redeemed the free gelato coupon I had gotten.  Honestly, I don't think I'd buy that again.  It was way too caramely and just 'eh' tasting to me.  So I don't think I'll be tempted by what's left in the freezer.  

With my bad night, I decided to weigh this morning.  I needed to.  Needed to be honest with myself.  So after my bad weekend and bad night last night, I was up a lb from last week.  

Today Miss Harley goes in for surgery to remove a couple cyst like bumps.  I'll pick her up after work tonight, but as long as all is good I'll still be hitting the gym tonight.

My food is logged and I still have some room if need be for another pudding/shake or something.  I already ate my ounce of portioned out wasabi chips. lol  Ughhh.  Breakfast of champions huh?  Just means I miss out later on them.  

::fills up my water::

Cheers to a better day!

--Katie

Yesterday was GREAT!

What a freakin on par eating day -- I wound up at 1303 cals for the day.  And I made it to the gym!!!  

And this happened!

Yep -- 675 cals burned on the elliptical and then I did about 15 minutes of weights.  The sweat was pouring off me and it felt great.  I'm hoping to get back to the gym tonight too!  So yesterday between the elliptical and what my fit bit synced otherwise, it put me at over 1100 calories burned. Nice!!

It's amazing how different you feel when you're eating good foods compared to bad foods.  Bad foods just seem like poison.  Poison hidden in amazing tasting goodness.  But you get down, sad, tired, lazy and just wind up eating more poison because - well, why not, right?  I don't think I could ever totally cut out the "bad stuff" but at least if I'm consciously making better choices and striving to do my best it won't hurt me so bad.  :)  So my food is logged for today and things look good except my sodium.  That's kinda off the charts.  That's because I'm having soup for lunch.  But I'll keep up on my water and hopefully just flush it all out.  Progresso's French Onion soup is only 100 cals for the whole can.  I'm going to melt a 60 cal cheese stick on it too so it'll be semi like the real deal. 

Dinner will be steamed broccoli and leftover turkey breast tenderloin.  Yum!!  I wanted to weigh so bad this morning...well, kinda...but I didn't.  I need to wait at least another day.  I need to remember I did eat/drink SUPER poorly over the weekend. Give it a few days of awesome to get the good numbers back!!  After yesterday though, I feel like I can totally get my 4% this week!!  I'll see what reality says next time I get on the scale, but I'm feeling good!!  

Hope everyone has a great day.  I really appreciate you guys taking time to read about my struggles and successes and always being there for me :) 

--Katie

Weekend was good, but crazy bad

unfortunately, crazy bad = my eating/drinking for the weekend!

Today is a new day though and I've got everything logged and accounted for.  I went through and recounted what I could from my weekend and logged into MFP too.  It's seriously bad.  Like holy shit bad.  But I'm sipping my tea - had my planty shake and a hard boiled egg - and I'm just gonna water it up!!

Oh - and check out what I won at the bowling fundraiser.  LOL I'll have to share - a lot! 

Bowling was a ton of fun though. I bowled horribly, but had a couple drinks and a lot of laughs.  We also saw the Planes movie and the Purge 2.  One with Claire, and one without.  You can figure out which. haha  

Gym tonight. Gym tonight. Gym tonight.

I know I'm not going to want to, but I have to.  If I can get out of the house early enough, I'd like to get in 2 hrs.  I need it.  After all the bad choices and WAY too many excess cals, I have to.  No excuses.  Talking to Kelly- she asked if I weighed this morning.  You know I'm a compulsive weigher, but um hell no did I weigh this morning.  I'll weigh sometime this week.  Ideally Saturday.  But you know me and there is very little chance that I'll be able to wait that long.  

So my last weigh in on the Diet Better Competition - I was only 4.1 lbs away from reaching my 4% goal.  I'm still striving to reach that this week.  I know it'll be tough with the crazy calorie counts but I'm still reaching for it.  Worse comes to worse, I come close :)  I've got 22 days!  

Well, time to get some work done before this super long, super boring meeting we have this morning.  Ugh.  Doesn't make a Monday any better.  Oh well.  

--Katie 

5 days logged and tracked!

And going strong!

My scale pic from Sunday showed 263.9 and today I saw 257.4!  I am moving in the right direction and very happy about that.  Yesterday was a struggle.  No lie.  I was hungry!  By midday, I was starving - I couldn't wait for dinner to come.  I met Erin for dinner and scarfed down all my food lol  Luckily I had already recorded what I was having, and it was DELICIOUS!!!  Grilled shrimp, spaghetti squash and freakin amazing mashed potatoes!  Oh and they didn't even bring us any of their amazingly.good.but.oh.so.bad.for.you garlic cheese rolls so that was a plus because I would've been so tempted! Unfortunately, I was hungry again later on as Steve and I played Walking Dead.  But he was strong and wouldn't give in to my (not in the very least) subtle hints that I wanted ice cream.  I sucked it up, pouted a little, and had a string cheese.  :) 

Tonight I'll go to the gym and get a workout in. That's good because my calories I've logged for the day are kinda high and I haven't figured out dinner yet.  Worse comes to worse, I can do a shake.  But I'd rather eat food :) Tomorrow I'm going to try to keep my cals low during the day since we're going out bowling.  They're supposed to have pizza for us.  I'll stick to water or diet pop though.  No regular pop or drinky drinks for me.  It'll be great getting together with awesome friends and supporting the Homeward Bound Rescue League!!  And of course, I'll be trying to win all sorts of awesome prizes because that's what I  do.  It's for charity, right?!!! 

Must remember to log.  Whether I go over my cals or not, I just need to be accountable!  

I'm so glad that Friday is here.  I'd so rather be at home doing laundry and cleaning my house though.  Oh well.  I'll do some of that tonight and more tomorrow!  Running up and down the stairs will do me some good!! I'm hoping my FitBit works properly today and doesn't reset for no good reason.  It did that to me the other day and really bummed me out. Not that I was going to be close to 10K steps at all, but still!  Just annoying that it did that.  

So I've had my ups and downs and am heading in the right direction.  

One day at a time, right?? 

--Katie

One day closer!

One day closer to Friday!  YES!!!!!!  

Tonight I'm going to dinner with a friend and already looked up calories and logged everything.  I'm still within my cals!!  Yesterday I did choose to have one of those abolutely amazingly delicious coconut fruit bars by Edy's ....totally worth it.  So I exceeded my calories yesterday by 24.  Not bad.  BUT I can't make that a habit.  I'm not sure I'll get to the gym tonight, just because I want to spend time with my hubby and little girl -- but if I don't go today, I'll for sure go tomorrow.  Gonna make sure I get in my two days (at least!!) this week!  

Yesterday really was a good day. For dinner, I grilled and it all turned out really well. I normally don't handle the grilling, so I was pretty proud.  I ended up boiling sweet potatoes whole for about 5 minutes and then sliced them in half and brushed this mixture of spices and some evoo on them and then grilled them for about 15 minutes.  They were tasty!!  And then we had these marinated turkey breasts which threw on the grill -- and asparagus!  Yum!!

Here is my progress so far with the WL competition.  I've got 26 days to lose 5.7 lbs.  I've so got this!!  Almost half way to my 4% goal :) How exciting!  

I really like this diet bet thingy -- if I'm successful, which I WILL be - I might look at reinvesting and doing the longer, 6 month competition where you are challenged to lose 10% of your body weight. I think they break it up into smaller challenges tho so that's pretty neat.  My friend Sandy is doing that right now, so I'll check to see how she likes it :) 

Welp, I hope everyone has a fantastic day!!  

--Katie

You know I weighed LOL

Yeah - any time I say I'm going to wait until X to weigh....I weigh the next day. It really does help me stay focused, so whatevs -- I'm good with it. :)

I'm already down over 4 lbs.  Yay!!  I did make it to the gym last night and multi-tasked.  It felt good to be there actually.  I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy and burned 500 calories while on the elliptical.  I think that watching that will accompany my elliptical workouts from now on. haha  That's all I did last night - so about 45 min on it.  But that was a good start.  If I can do 45 on the elliptical and then do another half hour with weights or something, I think that'll be good! :)  I don't think I'll wind up going tonight because we'll have company, but I'll try to go tomorrow night after I go out to dinner with a friend I haven't seen in forever.  I did pick a restaurant that had lots of veggie options, so I'll stay on track!!  

Dinner tonight will be turkey breast tenderloin, sweet potato and asparagus. I'm excited! <--- yeah, it's the little things. :) I've got everything logged for my day and am under my calories. So that is fantastic!  I've been keeping up with my vitamins too, so I'm happy with that!  It's funny because as I'm logging my food and it's all healthy stuff, it seems like I have to add so much to reach my 1200-1300 calories.  I still have 127 cals left from what I logged, so if I don't add anything else to my day I might have a coconut fruit bar that I picked up.  They're soooo good and a much better splurge than ice cream or something like that.  

Glad that it's Wednesday.  Going to have another strong day!!  

--Katie

Game Day!

Here we are - day 1 of another challenge in my life.

4% in 28 days.  So if I see 253.3 on August 19th, I did it!! 

I've gone ahead and logged my day in MFP and I'm just over 1200 calories. And then add a workout to that tonight, since I AM going to the gym, and it's gonna be ah-mazing!!! I went to charge my fitbit for a few before work this morning, hoping that it'd give me enough charge for day --- but no such luck. It still had no charge before I was leaving for work.  So I'll plan on starting to wear that tomorrow.  Guess that is what happens when it sits in a drawer for months :( 

Well, I'm not the best meal planner --- I was hoping to have a weeks worth of meals laid out, but I just have some ideas. Guess I'll take it day by day.  Plan the night before. LOL  That'll work.  I've already got dinner figured out for tomorrow and I think I'll stick to my planty shakes for breakfast for a while. Kelly introduced me to them.  They are for sure different -- but not bad. I added a banana and a teeny bit of PB to mine this morning.  A little over 250 cals for my breakfast.  Not bad to get my day going!  So my food diary/log is open to all my friends on MFP so be sure to stalk me.  If you see that I am not logging, call me out.  I need to log for all of these 28 days.  Weekends will be my struggle. I know this. I know me.  Make sure I get to the gym tonight.  And that I keep going.  I can't work out 4 hours a day like Extreme Weight Loss, but I can work out at least a couple hours a week!!  That along with staying within my calorie goals will only bring me good things.

Since I weighed in on Sunday and didn't eat the best that day or yesterday, I'm going to probably try to wait a few days to weigh again.  If I can hold out, Saturday morning sounds like a plan.  We have plans Saturday night which will not be the healthiest, so I'd rather just *try* to do a weekly weigh in.  One of my friends in the challenge is already 38% to her four percent goal! That is awesome!!! Keep up the great work Ms. LashesAndLockets!!!!  I like that you can add your weight as you go. It's of course unofficial until the end, but still nice that you can see your progress, and progress of your friends, to keep everyone motivated!!!  

I've had my tea and am watering it up today.  I'm going to do this.  I like that this is a small goal.  Get us into the game of health!  I love that I have my best friend on board with me.  I know I make life difficult for him sometimes, and that I drive him crazy because I'm a girl who is emotional and loves food and the comfort it tends to give sometimes, but I'm glad he's always by my side. Cheering me along. Pushing me. Supporting me. And just being amazing. I'd be lost without him.  

So here we go!!  4% here I come. :) 

<3 Katie

Mosquitos are the devil

I never used to be affected by mosquito bites, but in the past few years, it's been bad!  Of course, I'm being a baby about it and complaining --- lol It's not THAT bad, but just so annoying.  I remember my cousin used to welt up like crazy, so I can't really complain with my little (tiny in comparison) bites, but still....I don't think anyone would miss them if they all just disappeared!!  

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

So yesterday I weighed in for the DietBet.  My weight and photos were submitted and approved so I am good to go.  I'm not happy with the results.  Of course, it's higher than I normally see partially due to having to wear clothes to submit the photos, but unfortunately I don't think I have 20 lbs of clothes on.  SIGH!  Since I am clothed and submitted these photos, I'll share them here too.  This way, hopefully at the end of this, there will be some noticeable difference.  I know it's only a 4 week challenge, but still. A lot CAN (and hopefully WILL) happen!!

Yep, not a number I'm proud of...nor one I want to see again!!  Granted, I wasn't on my game totally leading up to this, just because I knew I had the challenge coming.  Now I know that's not the right way to think, but that is where my head was.  I'm working on some meal planning today --- at least laying out options and calories to make it easy to eat healthy and stay within my calories. Steve is on board too, so we're gonna do this.  4% in 4 weeks is totally doable.  Can I just say that not having a planned meal in place totally sucked this morning. After a long day at the beach yesterday, Monday morning came way too quickly and is no fun.  Trying to decide on lunches was not fun, hence meal planning :)

So here is my goal.  Doable, right?  RIGHT!  

253.3 or less on Aug 19th!!  I'm gonna not only meet that goal, but BEAT it.  I've got Steve and Erin added as friends on the diet bet app -- if you decide to sign up, let me know so that we can root each other on!!  Other than lbs and inches, I don't have anything to lose.  You all already know how much I weigh, so I might as well try to make myself, and everyone else proud by reaching this goal :-D  I'm going to try to start out the mornings with some tea too -- and continue meeting my water goals.  Starting tomorrow, please make sure I'm logging in MFP --- Please keep me accountable :) I need it.  No matter what I say.  This is a month.  I can be diligent about logging every day for a month!  No excuses.  Gym tomorrow!! <--- yeah, hold me accountable for that too. LOL

--Katie

Chug chug chug

All aboard the water train!

I did NOT weigh this morning -- and not because I had a bad day, but because I chose to wait to see a bigger number.  Although I slightly went over my calories yesterday, it was still a really good day.  I hit all my promises: I did not have any regular pop (or any pop in fact), I drank over 120 oz of water, and I did my hair and makeup in the morning :) I am logging my food/drinks in MFP.  I'm trying to stick to my calorie goals but I'll really make sure I'm on track next week.  I think I can weigh in for the challenge on Sunday and it officially starts on Tuesday.  I'm excited!

Still addicted to watching/listening to Extreme Weight Loss. If I surround myself with all this inspiration, I'll surely acheive my goals too, right??  That's what I'm shooting for.  :-D 

Just a short post today -- not really much to report.  

Have a great day!!

<3 Katie <3 

Well, dang!

I did it...I bit the bullet and stepped on the scale. UGH. Way to get the day off to a crappy start. LOL

  (but still!!)

But again, it is what it is, and I can either choose to be down on myself...say screw it, and eat whatever I want (and don't want) just because, OR I can choose to make good choices, pick myself up, and do whatever it takes to never see that number again.  I choose #2

I am going to try to not weigh every day (I know, I ALWAYS say that) but I'd like to see a decent number on the scale --- seeing "5 lbs lost" would make much more impact than 1 lb here, .5 here, 1.5 etc  So I will try. I make no promises with that though. :)  Speaking of promises -- yesterday I didn't get my water in.  Bummer!! But I did do my hair/makeup and didn't have any regular pop.  So 2 out of 3.  Today I'll work harder at getting all my water in!!

Sooooo you know I'm always changing things up.  I came to the realization yesterday that if I set myself up to carb cycle - I'm kinda giving myself more chance at slipping and falling right back to where I am.  I get the science behind it, but it's still kinda gimicky -- just in the fact that "Am I really going to be able to keep up with this (and do I want to)??" It's going to take a lot more thought process than just eating healthy. So I'm going back to logging in MFP, sticking to calorie goals, still working on finding time to get back to the gym, and just being honest with myself AND others.  So stalk my diary on MFP (kdw6383), message me, bug me, ask me flat out if I need to confess anything.  I need the accountability and support. 

I don't want to see the girl I saw in the bazillion mirrors at Mackinac Island ever again.  
I want to learn to believe in myself.  
I want to not be afraid of disappointing and letting other people down.  
I want to do this for me.  
I want to feel pretty and shop for cute clothes at any store I'd like.  
I won't give up!

--Katie

It's Monday...again...

Man, the weekends go by WAY too quickly.  I am soooooo tired this morning.  If I could just sleep for 2 more hours, that would be AmAzInG!!! 

So I didn't get everything set to start carb cycling yesterday, but this week will give me the chance to finalize a meal plan and shop!!  Lean meats and lots of veggies!!  That Diet Bet with Chris and Heidi Powell is up to $23,500 in the pot!  I don't want to be the person who gives up their money because they didn't try.  Join me in losing 4% in 4 weeks by clicking HERE!!!!   I'm gonna have to suck it up and step on a scale this week just to guage where I'm at.  I'm assuming around 255 -- so losing just over 10 lbs would be my 4%. Piece of ca......carrot ;) 

We had a great time at the Queen + Adam Lambert concert over the weekend.  And then yesterday we did some walking at Greenfield Village.  I just need to get my eating in check and add exercise...any exercise to the mix.  

So even though I'm not starting my carb cycling this week, I will start with some promises to myself.  This week's promises:

• I won't drink any regular pop.  (yes, I probably should say no to diet too -  but that will come in a following week....baby steps..)
• I will put make up on every day and make take some pride in my appearance.  (too often I don't care what I look like going to work - and it does affect my mood and feelings about myself)
• I will focus on my water intake and make sure I'm getting at least 120 oz a day.

It's a start.  I'm not going to overload things with a bazillion promises at once. That would just be setting myself up to fail.  These are small attainable goals which I should be able to succeed at no problem.  I'll keep adding goals and challenging myself.  

--Katie

H2O

I've fallen off the water train....me... the girl who used to drink 100s of ounces a day.  Craziness. I need to get back.  I think I might pick up one of those big gulp cups or a pitcher to have at work and maybe add lemons to it too or something.

I signed up for this DietBet thing.  You pay $30 and are challenged to 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks.  Chris and Heidi Powell should be sharing tips and encouragment along the way, but you don't have to follow anything specific to lose the weight.  Meet or beat the goal and you split the pot with the other winners.  At the very least you get your money back!!!  It starts on July 22nd (weigh ins start on the 20th) so sign up with me!!! The more the merrier!! What do we have to lose - besides some lbs.  For me, 4% will likely be around 10 lbs. or so.  You know you want to..... http://diet.bt/pFjmgJ  

Right now there's over $12,800 in the pot with 429 players signed up.  It's going from July 22 - Aug 18th.

The mental hurdle I have to overcome with joining challenges like this, is that I feel like I need to keep eating crap until it starts so I give myself the best chance of winning.  Uh, Katie, you weigh over 250 lbs.  Even if you start now and lose some, you have plennnnnnnnnnnnnnnty more to lose in 4 weeks. LOL 

I've been watching more of those shows - the Extreme Weight Loss - and it is inspiring.  The only thing that gets me, is that it seems like everyone has a really sad story that got them to the point they're at.  They went through a bad divorce....or their mom died in front of them... or their husband had PTSD and killed himself....  It makes me feel bad - not bad for myself, I'm blessed, but moreso guilty that I really really shouldn't be where I am.  I don't have any crazy reason like that.  I don't know what my reason is.  I do know that I tend to be scared of failing and disappointing people so when I get close to a success, I sabatoge myself. I know it doesn't make sense, but that's what I do.  Obviously.  I mean, I was at 240.5 or whatever and I freaked out, gave up so to speak, and could get to the 239.9 that I was soooo close to.

I don't get it. It's weird. I'm still trying to lay out the carb cycling plan for myself.  I'm just getting stuck because I want someone to give me a set meal plan.  Not just give me some recipes and say go at it. LOL  I want a M-F tell me everything I'm going to eat - exactly what exercises I'm going to do - etc.  I am using the exercises laid out in the sample pages from Chris' book.  So I'll keep working on this and try to finish it up soon so that i can get started.  I want to start on a Sunday so if not this Sunday, I'll start the Sunday before the contest begins.  

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend <3

--Katie

I read a book!

Haha - something to be proud of I guess! I need to do more reading. But anyhow, I read Chris Powell's Choose More, Lose More for Life.

I first heard about Chris from a May Mom who posted about the show "Extreme Weight Loss" -- I watched an episode and that kinda stuff always gets me pumped. Then, I heard he had a book. For $2.99 from ibooks, I couldn't pass it up. The premise is carb cycling -- alternating between low and high carb days. It keeps your metabolism going.

What Chris suggests is one of 4 different plans - whatever best suits your lifestyle/needs....
1) Easy cycle: Low Carb Day, High Carb Day with Reward Meal, Low Carb Day, High Carb with Reward Meal, Low Carb, High Carb with Reward Meal, High Carb with Reward Meal....
2) Classic Cycle: Low Carb, High Carb, Low Carb, High Carb, Low Carb, High Carb, Reward Day......
3) Turbo Cycle: Low Carb, Low Carb, High Carb, Low Carb, Low Carb, High Carb, Reward Day.......
4) Fit Cycle: High Carb, High Carb, Low Carb, High Carb, High Carb, Low Carb, Reward Day

You're going to eat within 30 minutes of waking and then every 3 hours until you've had 5 meals. Sounds doable!! Breakfast will be a Protein & a carb for both low and high days. Morning snack varies depending on whether you're on a low or high carb day (low is protein & fat, high is protein & carb) same with lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. Low carb days, women should be eating 1200 cals, and high carb days 1,500 cals. Don't forget your veggies too! So, it's nice you're not shocking your body with few calories.

So what I'm going to try to do is create structure for me. I know it's all about making promises to myself, and being accountable. I need to lay out the whats and whens. From the 9 min Missions to what I'll eat for each meal to the other exercises. If I lay it out, and dedicate myself to it, I can will do it!

Has anyone ever done carb cycling before? I'm curious as to what you thought! Let me know the good, the bad, the ugly.... hahaha

If I can get my ducks in a row, I want to start Sunday. Right now I'm leaning towards the Turbo Cycle. If I lay it out, I can have discipline. This would put my reward day on Saturday which would be best since that's typically when we've got the most plans.

<3 Katie

Down 2 lbs

A good start!!!  Sticking with my HL today.  Had my morning shake, a couple thin slices of cheese and a trail mix bar --- water water water - and a diet coke and my tea!  

I'm feeling in control and much better.  I just want to keep seeing the lbs fall back off!!  It is amazing how the crap food makes you feel crappy.  

I started logging in MFP again yesterday.  Yesterday I did go over - not all the best choices - but I was working on getting rid of some stuff from the freezer.  Looking really good today. Tomorrow will be a BBQ for dinner with family -- looking forward to that! And we'll have another one on Saturday.  I don't think there's anything else that will really be a struggle for me though.  Like I said, I'm feeling good.  :)

A friend mentioned the show Extreme Weight Loss so I'm checking it out in hopes that it keeps that fire burning in me :) Need to stay focused and stay in that mindset!!  I still need to see that 235.....that will be huge.  22 lbs.. ugh.  Why do I do this to myself? lol  I was sooooo close.  I was 5 lbs away.. lol  

--Katie

OMG...and NOT a good omg....

So yeah, I'm totally like "Wow, I did so much walking and ate fairly well in Mackinac, I'll totally weigh myself this morning..."  Guess I forgot all the bad I did the rest of the month. I am wayyyyyy up.  Like almost to 260 again...WHY!!!!!?? Jk *sigh*...I know why...I had gotten back into the candy, snacks, vending machine binges, along with regular pop for most of the month. So yeah, I totally "earned" what I saw.

I should've taken a picture, but omg, the bathroom at our condo in Mackinac was hell....pure hell.  Not that it was in bad shape, it was great....but mirrors EVERYWHERE.  Mirror next to you as you're sitting on the toilet, mirror behind you....mirrors across from you around the jacuzzi tub.....mirrors mirrors mirrors.....I saw myself in more angles than I would've ever imagined.  It made me realize one thing though...my husband really loves me.  I never really realize how big I really am.  But seeing allllllllllllllll of me like that was eye opening.  

So on that note, I'm doing Herbalife right now.  Shake for breakfast, shake for lunch and no clue about dinner yet.  Getting back on the water train too.  I was too close to 239 to be where I am now...BUT I am here... and it's the choices I made.  So I have to do myself a favor and make some better ones.  Gotta get serious again.  I should've just jumped back into my VLCD today, but I himmed and hawed because of the 4th of July and game night this weekend.  But I think today through Saturday I'll do Herbalife and maybe jump to VLCD on Sunday.  Kinda ease back into that 600 cals/day. LOL  I'm gonna get back to the 240's in no time and then move forward.  Gonna stop drinking my calories. Between regular pop and booze...gotta just cut.it.out.  Who needs that stuff when you got good ole H2O?!! I mean, that's totally the best ;) 

Anywho - I'm totally sore today.  I've been totally sore the past few days.  So much walking, hills, hiking, etc.  It was really good exercise but putting on those nearly 20 lbs again hurt me bad.  Holy crap. All I could keep thinking was *gasp* I'm so *gasp* out of *gasp* shape *siiiiigh*  But I hiked up to the highest part of the island with Steve and Mary even though I would've rather (hypothetically) rested and took a nap.  It was gorgeous!!

Definitely worth the 5 mile round trip walk. :)  I really need to find a good pair of shoes for walking/hiking/etc.  My ankles hurt.  Part of that is from yesterday though.  I faced some fears and did ziplining.  I was soooo nervous and really wanted some anxiety meds as I was walking the path to get there. lol    It was fun, but ROUGH landings - and I know a good portion of that was due to my weight.  When I landed on the second zip line my helmet actually flew off my head.  Here's a couple pics -- the last one is Steve coming in on the first zip line.

So it was a great trip. Great time with family.  And just the kick in the pants I needed.  No more screwing myself over.  No more letting myself fall apart.  No more excuses.  Yes, I'm human...yes, I'll make mistakes....yes, that's OKAY! But it's not okay to use that as a crutch to say I can keep intentionally making bad choices.  I deserve better.  My family deserves better.  This sweet little girl deserves better :-D

--Katie