Sick

I've had some sort of stomach virus most of the week so that's why I have been MIA. I didn't count points or exercise the majority of the week. My weight Friday was 224.8, which is a 1.4 pound loss. I am sure this is only due to being sick so I won't be surprised if its back up next week but for now I will take it. I am finally starting to feel better and be able to eat normally again so its back to the diet this week.

Crossed something off my 30 by 30 list!

I forgot to mention that I got to cross something off of my 30 by 30 list. Its one of the smaller things, but its nice to mark something as done. Before we went on vacation I got my first pedicure ever. I enjoyed it and it looked great. I probably won't get them done all the time but for special circumstances its nice. (don't mind the bad picture, it was taken at the airport waiting for our flight)

Happy toes!

Weigh in

Weigh in for this week: 226.2, for a loss of 1.2 pounds this week.

Today has been a bad day diet wise, I haven't been counting points and I have been mindlessly snacking. My husband is out of town and I've been just lounging around snacking today. I also need to get groceries so I have no good food in the house. I got called off my first 4 hours of work tonight so I am hoping to at least work out before I go in later.

Ran a mile

Today for my workout I ran a mile at 4.0 mph, so a total of 15 minutes. I also did a 5 minute walking warmup and 5 minute walking cool down. Total distance of 1.5 miles. I am glad I am still able to run this far but I wish I was still running 30 minutes. Running is definitely something I need to not slack on. I lose so much progress when I take time off. I probably could have gone longer but I was starting to struggle so I stopped. However, 4mph is faster than I usually run while running long distances.

I've stuck to counting my points the past few days, for a total of 4 days this week. My goal for next week will be to track for 5 days. I weigh in tomorrow, the scale is down today so hopefully it stays that way for tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I will be working :(

Back to working out

Yesterday before work I decided to get a workout in. Its been a couple weeks since I have exercised so I took it easy and did 21 minutes of Banish Fat Boost Metabolism. Today as long as I sleep well I plan on getting up early and working out before work again tonight. I'm not sure yet if I will run or do a DVD.

I ended up having 10 points left yesterday because I spent most of the day (finally) getting some sleep. As long as I stay on plan today I will hit my exact points number.

Sorry for the short post, I need to get to bed so I can work again tonight.

Dusting off the old tape measure

I just realized its been almost 2 months since I updated my measurements so I took some tonight. I am happy to see losses in almost every area. I do wish they were bigger numbers but I am happy to be making progress regardless. I thought the loss in my stomach would be bigger though, since when I did a sneak peak last month I was down more in that area. The numbers in parenthesis are the amount I have lost since 6/24/11.

Measurement 8/17/11                                     

Neck                   14 1/4 (-1/2)                                   
Left Arm            15 1/2 (-1/2)                          
Right Arm          15 3/4 (-1/4)                         
Bust                    43 1/2 (-1)                               
Waist                  35 (-3/4)                         
Stomach             45 1/2 (-1)                                
Hips                   50 1/2 (-1/4)                                 
Left Thigh          29 3/4                                 
Right Thigh        29 1/2 (-1/4)                                
Left Calf            17 (-1/4)                                     
Right Calf          17 (-1/4)                                   
Weight: 227.2    

Lame confession :)

I know I haven't been around in a few days and my reason is pretty lame: I discovered the TV show Glee this weekend and am now obsessed.  I downloaded all the episodes on my computer and have been watching them whenever I have free time. One bad thing about working nights is I always miss out on new shows and don't get around to them until they've been out for a while. Any of you guys fellow Glee followers?

Unfortunately, since I've been so lame I have been watching TV rather than exercising. I guess that means I need to go out and buy the dvds so I can watch while running :) I did go to the state fair on Monday did about 4 hours of walking, so I guess that is something. Although I did have a red velvet funnel cake (well, 1/3 of one, I shared with my parents) which probably cancelled that out a bit.

While we were at the fair we saw Rebecca Meyer from Biggest Loser season 8. We didn't stop to talk to her because there were tons of people there and we didn't have a lot of time. Unfortunately, she looks like she has gained a good chunk of weight back. She is still smaller than she started out though and looked good.

I've also been suffering from some insomnia lately. Currently I have been up for 26 hours and no sign of sleep in sight. I'm really hoping this isn't going to have a negative impact on my weigh in this week but I'm sure it will. I always have bad weigh ins when I am not sleeping well. I am back to work tomorrow night after being off 6 nights so hopefully that will get me back to my normal sleeping schedule. For now I am going to at least see if I can get a nap in today, wish me luck!

Vegas!

(I removed the photos because I don't like having my photos out there for everyone to see. I figure anyone who wanted to see them has by now anyway :) )

As you all know, my husband and I went to Vegas last week. We had an absolute blast! I decided not to diet while we were there and just enjoy myself. We really only ate twice a day since we had such big meals. Plus, in Vegas you walk A LOT so we got some exercise in.

Our hotel was amazing. We stayed at the Cosmopolitan which is a new hotel that just opened in December. We tipped at the front desk and got upgraded from a studio room to a one bedroom suite with a view of the Bellagio fountains from our balcony, it was amazing! The hotel was awesome, there is a bar made completely made up of a chandelier and its 3 stories of the hotel. The restaurants we are at there were great, I wish we would have had time to try more of them!

We ate at several buffets, the one in the Paris hotel, the one in our hotel, and the one in the Bellagio hotel. The Bellagio was the best, we went there twice. The buffet in our hotel was really good too. We hated the buffet in the Paris hotel, which was really too bad because we had heard great reviews about it.

 We stopped at Serendipity 3 and got one of their famous frozen hot chocolates. So yummy, and worth every calorie!

Frozen hot chocolate

 We went to see two shows while we were there. The first was Phantom of the Opera. I confess, I am a nut about this show and I love the movie and soundtrack. My husband has never seen it, because he thought it would be girly (though he does like musicals, go figure!). It was absolutely amazing! I was blown away. I already wish I could see it again. We sat in the third row so we had great seats. Amazing! The show was at the Venetian so while we were there we went to the wax museum and had a gondola ride as well.

The next day we went to see O, which is a Cirque du Soleil show. Neither of us had ever been to one so we didn't really know what to expect. We loved it! I wasn't sure which one we should go to but I am glad we picked O because I really loved the water parts. We were in the third row for this show as well, so we got hit with a few drops of water :) Some of the show was behind us so that was the only bad thing about being so close. Otherwise we loved it and our seats were great. While we were at the Bellagio we also went to check out the Conservatory and the chocolate fountain.

Our last day we rented a convertible and went hiking at Red Rock Canyon. It was a blast, but very hot that day! It was so beautiful out there and I nice contrast to the city. Very relaxing.  Then we stopped at the Las Vegas sign to get some pictures.

Weigh in

I am extremely happy to post today's weigh in. I wasn't expecting it to be that great, I used all my weekly points since I came back from vacation and yesterday I took a free day. I also haven't exercised since I came back from vacation. So when I stepped on the scale today I was pleasantly surprised. My weight is 227.4! That is a 5.6 pound loss since Tuesday! I am going to assume a good chunk of that is water weight from vacation, but I am still happy with it. Not only have I lost all my vacation weight, but this is my lowest weight since I began this journey!

I am downloading photos from my vacation right now, so expect an update later today!

Taking it easy

Just another quick update while I am waiting for supper to get ready. I promise I have vacation photos to share later when I have more time!

These past few days I have been taking it easy, easing back into dieting. I've been having a hard time adjusting to working night shift after my vacation and eating whatever I want so I am counting points but not exercising this week. I will start my week over either on Friday or Saturday and resume exercising. I also have been eating a little over my points each day, using up some of my weekly points even though technically I shouldn't have any since the beginning of the week I was on vacation. I started counting points on Tuesday and have used up 26 of my 35 weekly points so far. I don't have my meals planned yet for tomorrow because I need to go shopping, but I am sure I will use up the rest of my weekly points. I will also weigh in again at the end of the week to get back on my usually weigh in day.

Now I am off the finish getting ready for work, only one more night and then I get 6 nights off again! Our State Fair is this week and next so I might have to make one day a free day so I can indulge on some deep fried stuff on a stick, lol.

Post vacation weigh in

I'm back! We had a blast on our vacation. I will update more later but I will be working a lot the next few days so I won't be able to be on much. I just wanted to update with my weight today since we are back. I weighed 233.0, which is a 1.6 pound gain since my last weigh in before we left. Obviously I never want to see a gain but I don't think this was too bad for a week of vacation. I am actually pretty happy with that. Of course, since I had gained back a few pounds before we left I do have a few pounds (just over 4) to lose to get back to my lowest weight. Time to get back into the swing of things!

Farewell for now!

This is my last post until after I get home from vacation! We are leaving tomorrow. I might check in while we are gone but probably not, we will be too busy having a blast! :) I will try to post some pictures when we get back. I hope everyone has a great week!!

Friday weigh in

Just another quick update for now with my Friday weigh in: 231.4 :( I am on vacation mode already and slacking on diet and exercise for the past week. I'm not going to worry about it too much, I know on vacation I won't be getting much exercise and I plan on indulging in good food and drinks, so I will have to assess the damage when I return and move on from there! Now I need to go nap before work tonight. One last night before vacation! I hope everyone has a great week!

I'm still here!

Sorry I've been missing the past few days. I worked my 3 12 hour shifts in a row and I have been drained! Only one more night of work tomorrow and then vacation! I will try to make a real post later and respond to comments, right now I am trying to get caught up on all my blogs I follow! :)