Busy

I know I know I am always saying how busy I have been but really I have been super busy the past week and a half. I can not wait for a vacation!

So let me catch you up on what all has been going on. First event was attending a surprise retirement party for Shaun's aunt Patti. I think it went really well even though we had to tell her before she got there in order to get her there. She retired from being a principle and the school threw the party (they had her a roast! I have to say it went better than I thought it would!) Here are a few pictures from that night:

The 2 retirees! Patti & Iris                    The whole Family!

Me and Shaun at the Party.

Then I helped my two friends plan their mother (Iris who retired from being a teacher, her and Patti worked at the same school) a surprise retirement party. It was a lot of hard work but it was really fun also. I can't believe how great our decorations turned out. Our theme was the little birdie flying the coop. Here are a ton of pictures from that:

The BEAUTIFUL Cake!

The Sweet Tweets Table!

Me and Devin                              Me and Wendy

The Table Centerpiece.                   The Main Centerpiece.

The Guest of Honor and Her Youngest Grandchild.

The Really Cute Bird Cookies I Made.

Then believe it or not Wendy and myself threw another retirement party the next day for someone we work with. Check out the pictures from it...these decorations also turned out super cute:

The Really Cool Palm Tree we Made!

Beach Theme Cake!

Mickey (the Guest of Honor) and Me

Now do you believe I was busy? This all took place in the same week. I was so tired. So I guess that is my excuse for not posting and not doing my weigh in. So here is my weigh in from this past Friday:

Starting Weight: 280

Weight This Week: 234

Pounds Lost This Week: 5

Total Pounds Lost: 46

WOW! I was so impressed with myself. I have never lost 5 pounds in one week. I hope this trend continues, though I'm sure it won't. Hopefully I will get around to writing another post this Friday.

Weigh In - Broke Through the Plateau

I'm very happy to report that I broke through my plateau! I cut back on how many calories I was eating, I think my body was use to how many I was taking in and was in maintenance mode instead of loss mode. So without any further delays:

Starting Weight: 280

Weight This Week: 239

Pounds Lost This Week: 2

Total Pounds Lost: 41

A picture I took of me this

week in a new dress.

I'm so excited to be in the 230's and out of the 240's! Only 40 more pounds and I will be out of the 200's all together! Since I have lost 20 pounds since my last before pictures I'll take a new set this weekend and post them under by before and after tab, make sure you check it out.

Let me tell ya'll how proud of myself I am for resisting temptation yesterday. I went to one of my favorite restaurants in the world (Carey Hilliards, if you aren't from the Savannah area you probably don't know what that is nor do you understand how good it is). Normally I would drink sweet tea, because they have the BEST sweet tea but I ordered water instead. Then my favorite appetizer (onion rings) was ordered (not by me) and I didn't eat any, not even one little bite!! And after all of that I ordered a grilled chicken salad and split it with someone else at my table. This was a huge accomplishment for me. This is a restaurant that I would normally go to 3 or 4 times a week and have the biggest sweet tea they have with probably 2 or 3 refills, split a large order of onion rings with one other person, and then probably eat a six piece fried chicken fingers with fries! The hardest part of it was having the onion rings within inches of my plate. But I managed really well and now I have my good weigh-in to show for it.

I'm still going to the gym every morning at 5:30. I have been doing at least 30 min of cardio (most of the time on the elliptical) and then I alternate days of doing weight training on my arms and legs. I don't love getting out of my bed at 5am every morning but I do love the feeling I get from working out. Anything worth having is worth working for!

Struggling

So the last week and a half have felt like an eternity when it comes to my weight loss journey. I haven't really posted anything because I have been depressed, which is really all the more reason I should post. Isn't it funny how we forget so quickly the things we are suppose to be proud of when the going gets tough.

I KNOW that I have been doing great and putting in the work.

And I KNOW that I have already done better than I ever have by losing 39lbs.

And I KNOW that weight loss is a process and doesn't come over night.

And I KNOW that I'm probably gaining muscle.

I know all these things but it doesn't stop me from going to a bad mental place when I try so hard and see no results. But regardless of me being discouraged I have pushed on in the hopes that I will see results soon. (Normally I would have given up at this point.) I feel like I have been stuck at the same weight for like 3 weeks but it really has only been a week and a half.

So since I didn't post my weigh in this past Friday like I was suppose to here it is:

Starting Weight: 280

Weight This Week: 241

Pounds Lost This Week: 0

Total Pounds Lost: 39

On a happier note I have been loving the gym! I have been almost every day since my membership started. Most days I have been getting up early to go before work and that seems to be helping me have energy and be in a better mood....Who Knew?

How have you dealt with a plateau? How long did it last for you?

Mother's Day Weekend

Real quick let's get this weeks weigh in out of the way so I can talk about Mother's Day:

Starting Weight: 280

Weight This Week: 241

Pounds Lost This Week: 2

Total Pounds Lost: 39

I'm still so proud of myself! It is slow going but at least I'm headed in the right direction. Oh, yeah I have some exciting news I almost forgot to mention, my job is giving employees a free gym membership as part of our wellness program!! Now the real fun is about to begin!

As everyone knows, Sunday is Mother's Day. So I wanted to share a little bit about my mama.

My Beautiful Mama!

My mama's name is Haroldene Davis. She is a kind, loving, emotional, sweet-hearted, giving, thoughtful woman! If someone needed the shirt off her back and she knew it she would give it to them. She has made me into the woman I am today, and most people say I act just like her.

My mama is my biggest supporter. She believes in me more than I could ever believe in myself. It doesn't matter what my goals are she will be there to be my cheerleader. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a parent that goes above and beyond to make you feel special and loved (the truth is that not everyone does). When I am finally blessed enough to have a child of my own, I pray that I'm at least half the mama that she is.

I know on Sunday that my mama will be missing her mama, as well as, I will. My mema was another fine woman that can not be replaced. So for everyone that still has your mama here with you, don't forget to show her how much she means to you.

So mama, if you are reading this I just want to say that I know I don't always tell you or show you, and I know that I sometimes give you a hard time but I LOVE YOU from the bottom of my heart and you mean the world to me!!

I hope all the mother's out there have a great Mother's Day!

My First Ever 5K, But NOT My Last

So I know ya'll have been waiting on this post, and I know I have been promising it, well it is finally here! I want to tell you about the whole day of my first ever 5K.

I got up and out of the bed at about 5:30 am. Everyone that was riding with us was meeting at my house at 6:30. I got ready and I fixed me and Shaun scrambled eggs for breakfast (we were told you should eat eggs the morning of a run so we did). We were both really nervous since we had never participated in a race before, Shaun even wanted to back out but I wouldn't let him.

After everyone arrived (Rita, Marie, and Wendy) we all loaded up and headed out. We all chatted about how nervous we were. I'm not sure what our fear was...maybe coming in last or falling down or not being able to finish or just the fear of the unknown.

We arrived at about 7:30 and the race wasn't going to start till 8:15. We got everything squared away at the registration table and I got my first ever race number (I was super excited over it, sometimes the simplest things make me happy).

Pre-Race Photo!

From left to right: Rita, Marie, Myself, and Shaun.

 

 

We all went to the bathroom like three times trying to make sure we wouldn't need to go during the race, sure didn't want any excuse to stop. We were all still really nervous and being there and seeing all the thin fit people sure didn't help. I just tried to remember that I was there to do my very best not there to compete with anyone else.

 

As everyone lined up near the starting line we were kind of in the middle. We knew we wouldn't be the fastest but we didn't think we were going to be the slowest either. And before we knew it the race had begun and my nerves went away, it was just me running just like any other day. Even though I had my RunKeeper App on I really wasn't paying to much attention to my time. Shaun was a good bit ahead of me from the very beginning but was always within site.

 

Like all my other runs it was a run then walk pace. I just wanted to finish. Before I got to the half way mark there was a girl that passed out (later I found out she had an asthma attack) and was laying by an officers car waiting on an ambulance. You don't really want to see this on your very first run. It was a little scary.

 

I thought I was never going to make it to the half way mark. In this particular race he had to go to a point and turn and around and go back to where we had come from. So I kept seeing all these people that were in front of me coming back so I kept thinking I was almost to the half way point but it was much further than I realized. It was at this point in the race that I realized just how great the running community can be. Now don't get me wrong I don't know that I consider myself part of this community yet but they sure made me feel like I was part of it. Everyone that was headed back the other way was encouraging me and telling me how good of a job that I was doing. I'm not sure why this shocked me so but I didn't expect people to take such an interest in my success.

 

I kept trying to catch up with Shaun but I didn't until we were almost 3/4th finished. For the rest of the race we pretty much stayed together. I looked at my phone to check our time and we seemed ahead of our normal time which surprised me. I was excited at the prospect of beating my own personal best time.

 

The closer we got to the finish line the more exciting it became. We could hear the crowd cheering for people as they crossed the finish line. We kept pushing ourselves harder and harder wanting to finish in the best possible time. When we rounded the last corner we could see the clock at the finish line. I couldn't believe what it said: 43:20. My fastest time running a 5K at home was like 54 min, here I was about to cut 10 mins off of that. We began our sprint to the finish...and my finial time was 44:03!! I couldn't believe I had done it so quickly. (I know many of you reading this are probably thinking that isn't quick at all, but for a 240+lbs person who has never done one it was like I was the fastest runner ever!)

 

 

Me and My Love!

I was so glad we did this together!!

 

 

Shaun finished right behind me and we were over joyed! We had just accomplished something we never thought we could do. Of course we weren't able to run the whole thing, but none the less we were proud.

 

 

Post-Race Picture!

 

                      

 Me, Shaun, and Wendy



 

All of us at the finish line!

 

 

So that was my first ever 5K experiences, not a bad start I have to say. On the way home we discussed all the races to come!!

 

Since I missed my last weigh in lets get that out of the way real quick:

 

Starting Weight: 280

Weight This Week: 243

Pounds Lost This Week: 1

Total Pounds Lost: 37

 

Another week of only losing one pound but I'll take one pound over none or gaining any ole day of the week.

 

I swear I'm going to start posting more, but between work and my workouts it is really hard to find the time. Thanks for hanging in there with me and for taking the time to read this. Talk to you again soon.

Two Week Weigh In

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Sorry I haven't posted anything and really sorry I didn't do a weigh in last week, but I'll just combine it into one weigh in.

I have been a little depressed the last couple of days, really wanting to eat bad and feeling like the weight isn't coming off fast enough. I know that it takes time and I shouldn't be in a hurry but some days I just don't feel like that should be the case. When I'm outside jogging/walking and all out of breath I feel like the weight should be melting off of me like ice cream in the hot Georgia sun! None the less my walking buddies helped encourage me not to give up and to look at how far I had come already. (Thanks Rita and Marie!) So with their help I didn't do bad...now for the results:

Starting Weight: 280

Weight This Week: 244

Pounds Lost In Last 2 Week: 4

Total Pounds Lost: 36

I'm almost 40 pounds down! EEEKKK!! That means only a little over 40 more and I will be in WONDER LAND! I can not wait to get out of the 200's. Persistence's does pay off!

I also have really exciting news......I'm running my very first 5K TOMORROW! Ok let's be real, I'm probably not going to be "running" it but I'm going to jog and walk. This is kind of going to be my practice 5K. Wish me lots of luck. I'll post pictures and my time sometime over the weekend or next week.

Me weighing 244!

Positive Thinking Really Does Help

So I have still been trying to train for my very first 5K but it has been slow going. I am by no means a runner but maybe I will be one day. Not sure if I even want to be a runner but I decided a 5K was going to be one of my goals so for now I'm going to run.

So what does positive thinking have to do with training for a 5K? Well, positive thinking gets me through each and every one of my runs. I'm 100 pounds over weight so training for a 5K is NOT easy! When I'm out side doing my interval training with C25K (the app I have been using to get me ready for a the 5K) I literally have to coach myself through each run. I have mentioned this in an earlier post, you can see it here.

I'm very negative to myself normally, always calling myself fat and ugly, out loud and in my head. I know this isn't healthy but it is how I see myself and how I feel. I'm really trying to move toward being more positive. I truly believe that positive thinking can help you accomplish your goals. While I'm running I will tell myself over and over "you got this" or "this is nothing." I think my mind is holding me back way more than my body is. I had a poster on my last post that reads "Your legs are not giving out. Your head is giving up. Keep going." This seems to ring so true for me.

It is really hard for me to understand the mind game you have to play with yourself to run. I guess I have been telling myself for so long that I CAN'T do something instead of that I CAN...some how I have to get out of that mind frame.

Are you a positive or a negative thinker when it comes to yourself? What has helped you think more positive?

Me working out on the Bowflex after a run.