yet another New Years Eve post

I've never been a big fan of New Years Eve. I never thought about why until I started blogging and I realized that it's because I never felt good about what I accomplished throughout the year. Personally and professionally. This year is a little different. I have done a lot this year and I'm sitting here with this weird sense of what might be pride.

I made a decision last year at this time that 2010 would be about survival. When I lost my job I gave myself a few days to be wreck but then I got right back to work figuring out how I was going to pay the mortgage. I've tried to apply that "if it sucks do something about it" attitude toward everything I've done for the whole year and it worked.

I seriously just took a break to wander in the kitchen and take a bite of a "crunchie" my husband brought me back from Scotland...I digress...

I didn't lose as much weight as I wanted to which I mentioned the other day but the pounds I did lose made a big difference. I tried things I was afraid of 30 pounds ago like yoga, riding a scooter and flying down the hill on a sled on our very rare white Christmas in the south. I'm proud of that. Again with the pride thing.

2010 was about survival, 2011 is all about progress. Personally, physically and professionally. I resolve to grow my business and shrink myself. I will push myself out of my comfort zone and attend networking events. I will feed my body what it needs to exercise more than ever before.
I have no excuse. I have my own business and I have no kids.

I feel like crap today. I've gained about 6 pounds over the last few weeks from eating sugar and carbs like an addict. To continue my "if it sucks do something about it" mission into the new year, I have a yoga class at 4:30 and I literally can't wait. It's only 1:00 and I have my stuff packed. I don't think I have ever worked out on New Years Eve.

Finally I'd like to give a shout out to my dear friend Cat who has faithfully kept a blog for an entire year posting a picture every day. I'm so incredibly proud of you for sticking to it!

Thanks to everyone for being such a huge support to me during this crazy year. Great things are ahead so stay tuned. Happy New Year my friends!

Christmas day at my moms house in Franklin, NC

Tales from the drive-thru

I wasn't going to write about this. Mostly because I wanted to pretend it didn't happen...partly because I now know some of the people who read my blog. But maybe I need to acknowledge it. The proverbial slap-in-the face wake-up-call kinda thing.

I was in the drive thru at McDonald's yesterday. Don't worry, I was only there for a skinny latte. Then it happened. The 350+ pound woman at the window asked me when I was due. I said "what?" and she asked again if I was pregnant.

In all my years of fatness, this has never happened before. I've read numerous blogs about that particular question being the last straw for some.

I'm devastated by it and I wish I wasn't. I've been so incredibly happy and grateful this holiday season and I'm trying not to let this ruin it all. I did lose 30 pounds this year and I've been trying to talk myself into believing that's good enough but it's not. There's so much more work to be done and I'm sitting here writing after just having had a handful of m&ms I didn't need. No exercise so far today because I was out late. Eating and drinking.

All I can do is try to use this for good and motivate myself to finish what I started.

doing well and doing good

I know I have not been a faithful blogger lately but I’ve been so busy and I don’t want my blog time to become a chore. Things are winding down on the business front for the year and now I can take some time to relax and enjoy the things I like to do.

I’m doing well on the exercise front and up and down on the eating front. T his time of year is so hard. We all know that so I’m not going to dwell on it. Yoga has been a life saver. I’ve been going 3 days a week which I know is great exercise but I’m not doing much else right now. I need to be running as well! To keep myself sane I promised myself I would do some form of movement every day through the end of the year. Yoga, running, swimming, whatever.

On to the doing good. I have had an amazing year despite the fact that I lost my job a year ago. I was terrified at first but I busted my ass and made it. I decided to pay it forward and do as much good as I can during the Holidays. It’s kept me busy but very, VERY fulfilled.

I will be catching up on my blog reading. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Friday!!

After a brutal week of workouts and super clean eating, I lost 6 pounds! Still not back at my lowest but getting really close. I'd like to get on to some "fresh" pounds but next week is going to be a challenge.

My best friend from high school is turning 40 and decided we should celebrate our birthdays together so she's coming to visit on Wednesday. I'm thrilled to have her but she's a single mom and when she gets a break from her kids she likes to party. I don't blame her at all but I'm on a roll and not in the eating and drinking non-stop frame of mind. I'm trying to plan some active activities but we will probably be eating out a lot. With some careful planning I can probably maintain but losing might be a stretch. I WILL leave her at home as to not miss yoga class!!

There were many victories this week. I did two 75 minute Bikram classes this week. One night is was pouring rain and freezing, and last night I was so sore from running but I went anyway. I even got compliments on my progress from the instructors both nights. I tracked and measured/ weighed everything I put in my mouth and never made it over 1200 calories. The one goal for this week which I thought would be the hardest wasn't at all. I gave up my evening snack which is usually a 1o0 calorie pack and a glass of milk. I had to change things up and that was an obvious thing that had to go. It all seems to have paid off on the scale. Plus, my skinny (er) jeans aren't cutting me in half at the waist anymore.

I can't think of a better way to celebrate a great week than dropping off all of this at the Can-A-Thon in a couple of hours...

This is a big event in Atlanta every year and this is the first time I've participated. My mom told us all she didn't want a Christmas gift but wanted us to do something charitable instead. My sister and I will drop it off and have someone take a picture of us and that will be my gift to our mom. I even made a sign to hold up. I will post some pictures over the weekend. All of this was only $90 at Aldi and that's a small price to pay when there are more people needing help than ever before. I tried to get mostly healthy stuff so there are 150+ cans in there of collards, veggies, chili, tuna, sweet potatoes and soup. There is even some not-as-healthy ravioli for the kids.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

December? Really?

Can anyone believe it's the last month of the year already? I turn 41 in a week and it seems like 40 was yesterday.

I've kicked things up a notch in the fat fight in hopes of spending New Years Eve proud of what I've done (for a change). I've lost 30 pounds this year so far and would like to add another 10 to that number. Even that's 60 pounds short of my true weight loss goals but I'm choosing to focus on the fact that I've lost it and it's stayed off.

It's been a great week so far. I've tracked, weighed and/or measured everything that I've put in my mouth and have been drinking a ton of water. I felt the benefits of that immediately at my 75 minute Bikram class last night. I made it through the whole class with no break and held one set of "standing bow pose" for the full minute. Ummm, I don't look quite like this when I do it (yet!) but I know I did a good job because I got a huge smile from my teacher. I think I'm a bit of a project for her which isn't a bad thing :) I don't know why I haven't looked it up before but according to most calorie burning calculators I've used, this class burns 1200 calories. I'm going to try to afford two a week for a while.

This morning was absolutely freezing so I decided to wait until lunchtime for my run. I will decide whether it's an outside or gym day when the time comes. Outside would be preferable!

If you want to be inspired, check out these weight loss stories on Dr. Oz. It's in 3 parts and all are worth watching!
The Secrets of the Skinny, Pt. 1

Have a great day everyone!