How did the week go?

With ice and snow here all week and school closed part of the week, some of you maybe wandering how my week went. It was interesting to say the least! Check out the family blog for more information on that:)

I started calorie counting on Monday, and I started writing my food/exercise journal again. I must say, I did a GREAT job all week recording all of my food intake. I wrote down everything, even the cinnamon roll I ate on Tuesday.

It would have been really easy this week to fall off the wagon. The kids were home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Kevin was home. They wanted cinnamon rolls. I only ate ONE!!! That is huge for me! I did great on my calorie intake and I have managed to workout each day since last Saturday. I feel like I really accomplished something great this week! Just working out everyday has made such a difference!!

I have also been carefully monitoring my fluid intake and been writing it down. I have successfully drank my required allotment of water everyday. I have not had a diet coke in almost one week (it will be one week tomorrow!!!). That is huge for me! To go from 4-5 a day not even a month ago to 1 in the last two weeks! And I don't miss it. It doesn't sound good anymore. When I drank one last Saturday, it took me four hours to complete it. It used to take ten minutes.

We are also eating better as a family. I have taken a nutrition class, and I am schedule to take another one next Tuesday. It was eye opening to me. My Calorie King book is also one of the best things I have ever bought. It has almost every food you could think of in there with the calories and fat grams, and it has over 200 hundred popular dining restaurants listed with their most popular food choices. It has become my bible for weight loss.

I am eating apples, celery, carrots, oranges, whole grain rice, and protein bars instead of chips, diet cokes, white rice, and candy. It is small changes that have made a big difference in the way I feel. I have never eaten peppers or onions on anything. I cook them in margarine for Kevin because he likes them. Last night, we made beef fajitas together. We cooked green, yellow, and red peppers in 2 Tbsp of light olive oil and added some cumin and curry along with pepper....I added them to my corn tortilla with a green sauce and a little bit of cheese, instead of my usual flour tortilla, sour cream and cheese. IT WAS AWESOME!!! It is something I would definitely eat again.

In the coming weeks, we are also planning on cleaning out our entire pantry. I haven't gotten the nerve to do it quite yet, but I am going to strip it down to NOTHING. We are going to start planning meals and buy only what we need in order to fix those good, healthy meals. Stay tuned for that in the coming days and weeks! It ought to be an interesting time in our household to say the least!

Calorie Counting...AGAIN!!!

I am going back to Calorie Counting. I tried it when I first started. I then went to a protein based diet. I am now going back to Calories. I have had a hard time. I love food...That is the biggest problem, but who doesn't, right?!?!

I have also weaned Kinsley in the last four months, so my hormones are trying to adjust to that being over. And then the lovely holidays came rolling around. I couldn't win for loosing. LITERALLY!!!!:)

So, I am going back to the calories, the food log, the exercise journal, and water intake/sodium watch. Who knew that when you were trying to loose weight, you had to become more obsessed with food? Seems backwards in so many senses to me, but I understand the reason why.

I know if I make myself more accountable for what I am putting into my body, then it will become easier to loose. It just seems ironic to me that in order to loose, I have become a gatekeeper to my mouth!!!

I have done good in the last 36 hours. I have ate low fat cottage cheese, fresh carrots (with LIGHT ranch dressing) one slice of cheese, whole grain rice, three protein bars, 1.5 grilled Chicken wraps, and NO DIET COKES!!!! They don't even really taste good anymore, and I am now at the point (THANKFULLY) where I am craving water!!!

I also braved the ice covered roads and went and worked out this morning. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to leave the house. And I sure didn't want to drive the twenty miles on the ice patches to go work out. But I did. It wasn't so bad when I got out there and got started. The worst part was afterwards when the parking lot was glazing over. It is up hill and I started to slide back down. That was pretty comical with Kinsley's stroller!!! But the queen of clumsiness didn't fall!!!

I just have to remind myself that everything is a choice and that I have choices when it comes to eating. I don't have to eat what everyone else is in my household. I don't have to eat just to satisfy boredom. I don't have to eat just because something is sitting there staring at me.

I have taken up the hobby of knitting again. It is to keep my hands busy. I like to do it and it keeps me from getting bored. It is better than TV watching because it requires both of my hands in order to do it...So I can't snack and knit!!! Or I can't do it easily at all!!!

Going the other WAY!!!

The weight is going the other direction again! I got on the scale this morning and it was back down again to pre-water-swollen-level. I will just have to be more careful since I am now drinking so much water and my body is hydrated the way it is supposed to be. It was a good lesson in the mechanics of our body.

I haven't posted about my virutal assistant practice much since I started this blog. I think the weight is easier to talk about somehow. I know that is hard to believe. It is for me too. I think it is one of those things where I can't believe I talked about my weight issues, and now that I have, I feel very free and open to discuss the weight challenges in my life.

Virtual Assistance is something that I really wished I would have found years ago. I have always had a nagging sensation that something had to be out there that I could do from where we live and still be fully involved and present in my family's life. My children need that. My husband needs that. I NEED THAT!!!

Virtual Assistance also focuses on helping others achieve their dreams and further their success. It gives entreprenuers time to focus on the part of their businesses that is most important to them. Therefore, it gives me the ability to do something that I love doing: helping others.

I really could talk for paragraphs and days about being a virtual assistant. Instead, I will add tidbits here and there. I will weave it into the fitness/weight posts and am considering eventually starting another blog dedicated solely to being a VA, because life isn't crazy enough that I need something else to keep up with!

Sodium....Who KNEW???

Ok, I must say that after the last post two days ago, I was bummed. I had had enough!!! I knew it was the right thing to do to come to this place and post! It gave me a chance to read those words over and over and over again.

I texted Paula on Sunday and she mentioned my sodium intake yet again. I have been so tired of hearing about my sodium intake because I love salt. I always have. I have decreased my sodium intake drastically in the last couple of months, but I was shocked when I started reading food labels yesterday morning. You don't realize how much sodium is in regular foods. It is ridiculous!!!

After paying closer attention to that yesterday and drinking WATER yesterday, I felt better. I woke up and was extremley swollen yesterday morning. My hands hurt I was so swollen. I drank some coffee trying to get some of the water retention to go away. Thankfully by yesterday evening, the water was starting to come off. I have lost most of the water I was carrying around with me this weekend.

I can totally understand how easy it would be to give up. I have done it before and to see the numbers on the scale Sunday, it would have been so easy to do. I know why I have given up in the past: I didn't have a great support system. I had Kevin, and I love him dearly. However, he loves me for me, and not the way I look. He is also a male and doesn't understand how the female body works! That is what makes this time so different!

I have a great personal trainer: Paula Hendricks. She is there for me to not only workout with, but she is my go-to-girl when it comes to anything health or fitness that could be affecting my goals. She is my sounding board when it comes to my weight loss struggles and successes!!! I couldn't have gotten this far without her!

I also have a dear friend who has followed my journey up to this point. She even emailed me the other night after my rant to encourage me. And she is going to quit following me and JOIN ME at Paula's now! I am so excited for her! Right now, I know she is concerned about what is in front of her (I remember that same feeling), but I know what is ahead! She will do great and it will be fun to have her there and get to do it together!

Another great female support has been my business/life coach, Stacy Brice. She founded the profession of Virtual Assistance, started the training place for VAs, AssistU, and coaches the VAs as they build their businesses. She is phenomenal, and I wouldn't be where I am at today both personally and professionally without her!

I know this time will be different. I know I am different. I am doing this the right way with the right support and the right frame of mind for the right reasons!

One of those Discouraging Times!!!

I am gaining weight. I have been working out like a mad woman. I have gave up Diet Coke. I was drinking 3-5 per day, and in two weeks time I have had less than 10. In the last five days, I have had 1!!! Anyone that knows me, knows that is my drink. I always have one in my hand!!! However, I am gaining weight at an alarming rate. I have put on six pounds in the last three days. I don't feel like I have gained that much, but the scale is showing that I have. It makes me frustrated and upset. It makes me hate myself and the fact that it is going up, when it should be going down.

Is this going to make me give up and say "Oh, well, better luck next time." NO NO NO!!! Not this time. I am discouraged. I am disheartened. I know that means I need to work that much harder at this. It is worth it for myself. I am worth that! I am worth working hard in order to feel the way about myself that I want too!! My trainer and I will just have to devise a new plan tomorrow! I will get going on it, and things will be much better!!!

I had a very big day of food today. I had my brother and sister-in-laws birthday parties and our woman's church group at my house tonight. Tomorrow is a new week, a new day, a new beginning. I am going to journal my food intake, even if I have to do it here and be accountable to the world!!! I am NOT going to give up. It is a hard fought battle that I DO NOT intend to loose!

I also have an interview with a potential client from Italy on Tuesday. I am very excited about that. Hopefully, I will be able to keep myself busy preparing for that and keep myself out of the kitchen, except when I am supposed to be!!!

Have a great week!!!! And check back often for updates!!!

Up and Down and all around!!!

I promised in my first post that I would share my weight loss journey on this blog. I want accountability and feel like if I blog about it, that maybe it might be a great way to be accountable. I also know that my trainer will be reading this too, since I sent the blog to her as well:)

My weight issues started when I was a teenager. I wasn't fat by no means, but I was never a size 0-2 like most of my classmates and like my sisters. I was always bigger. Size 8-10 clothes were always what I wore. What I wouldn't do right this moment to be in them again. It is funny how the further we go in life, things take on a new perspective.

Well, as I went to college, I put on the usual college weight. I went up a size. I was getting married though, so I had to do my best to fit into the wedding gown. I was stressed working all the time, taking 20 hours of school and planning a wedding. I started eating chips and a diet coke for lunch everyday. It was all I was eating. I would go back and grab something quick for supper and go about my business. I was so busy that I lost weight and fit into my dress nicely.

After getting married, I quit caring. Sure there were times I would try and loose weight. I did Slim Fast, or Atkins, or whatever the latest craze, but it never lasted. I was at my heaviest in that point in my life right before I became pregnant with the boys. Twins did nothing great for my figure. After they were born, I nursed them and the weight flew off quicker than quick. I was smaller than I had been in high school. It didn't last. I started drinking Vanilla Cokes in the can like they were water. The weight came back and I stopped nursing the boys by the time they were fourteen months.

I went back and forth, up and down. Then I got pregnant again. I was determined this time any weight I lost after our daughter was born, would stay off. The weight started to come off but there is a difference in nursing one baby and nursing two. It eventually quit coming off.

The sizes kept going up through all of this. I have found that if I am not willing to admit what size I am, then I am just denying that it has happened. Last summer, before I started working out, I weighed 232 lbs, and was starting to buy clothes that were size 18. I can't believe I just said that or posted that, but I have! No one ever believes that it is so, because I guess I have hid some of it pretty well; and my trainer also says it is my height at almost 6 feet that helps. But it is the case.

I started working out with a trainer in the end of July. We have had times of going at it strong, and then, as some of you know, I am accident prone, so our time was not so strong. I have been sick several times, burned my arm really bad, fell at my sister's wedding and screwed up my leg, hit the lip of a sidewalk and skinned my knees and so on. I don't have the best luck sometimes:)

Right before Christmas we measured and weighed again to start the official counter for the new year. I had lost 15 inches since we started; I was pumped!!!! My weight had been down when I started training with her, she never saw 232. But since that time my heaviest, I have lost 22 pounds.

It is not noticeable to me yet. It has been a gradual change (My trainer, Paula, assures me this is the key to lasting weight loss). I wish that I could fast forward and be the forty pounds lighter that I want to be right now. But I know that I am working on it. I know that my size 14 clothes are getting really close to fitting again. I know that the size 10 - 12 shorts I have in my closet from years ago will soon fit again. I know that I am doing something for myself that will pay dividends into my future. I know that I may be sick now for admitting to all of you how much I weigh...But I hope that it gives each of you hope, that if I can slowly change my life, you can too!!!

Welcome!!!

I have decided in addition to the family blog, I am going to start posting updates to MY LIFE. This blog is going to be dedicated to the specific things going on in Lesley's world. I want to give to others. I feel like the best way I can do that is to share what is going on in my world with the hope that I might inspire someone to take control of their own life, as mine is a work in progress:)

This will be the place to learn about my journey to make this year my year of making myself better. I have been on a journey of a new career path for the last year. My virtual assistance path has not always been great, but it is growing and getting better. I am determined to make my mark on the world with it.

This will also be the place to follow my weight loss path. I have struggled with my weight since I was a teenager. You can read more about that in the days to come. I look forward to sharing my story and my life with each of you, and I look forward to making myself accountable in my journey of redefining who I am outside of Kevin's wife, and Damon, Dilon and Kinsley's MOM:)

Welcome!!!!