Now

Santa Rosa 2009,  I'm on my way. 50lbs to go.

 

At my son's 5th grade graduation 2009

befor e

 Yosemite 2008

Cabo 2008

Hawaii 2007

This is what I always wanted to look like vacationing with my hubby. Whatever!

" T ip of the day"

Always ask for the nutritional information at restaurants and fast food places. Usually you won't give a second thought to the items with the highest calorie content. Beware of salads, with added dressing and toppings some salads are worse than burgers.

One weekend down!

I need to catch up and tell you tell you how my weekend went. Not to make too many excuses, but to make some all the same, it "was" the weekend!! I've taken my weekends off since the beginning of the year so overall I feel I did ok, but there is definite room for improvement. Friday's menu consisted of :  Breakfast - Oatmeal with milk.(200cal) Snack - Fruit and walnuts.(300) Lunch - Roastbeef 6 inch sub from Subway.(300) Dinner - Date Night at Outback! BBQ chicken and veggies,(500) half a cup of onion soup(not french onion,)( 150) bread and butter.(115) Dinner alone was 765 calories, overall a good choice, less calories than one small order of plain aussie frys.(over 1200 cal). We did do Dessert - small Gelato(200) Total calories for the day 1775. I'll try to do better next Friday. Exercise: Pilates,(40min) running ,walking, and jogging on the treadmill.(60) Total of 1hr 40min.
Saturday and Sunday I did not exercise, I should have on Saturday, try again next week. My food log for Sat.: Breakfast - Oatmeal with milk.(200) Lunch - 1/2 DiGiorno crispy flatbread pizza - Tuscan style chicken, really, really yummy!(420 that's less than half the cal. of regular pepperoni DiGiorno) Pringles, 16 chips.(140) Dinner - Chicken tortilla soup, two bowls(400) Salad, no dressing(40) Dessert, two nights in a row AAHH! One chocolate caramel pretzel and three dipped stawberries. (400) Oops! that is 1600 for the day. Sunday: Breakfast - Oatmeal(200) Lunch - 1/2 a 6 inch roastbeef sub.(150) 5 lil smokies in blankets,(240) sugarfree lemonade (10) slice of cantaloupe.(10)Dinner - 2 bbq chicken pizzas on whole wheat tortillas.(450) Total for the day 1060 calories. Back to an easier schedule tomorrow, weekends are hard. Weigh in tomorrow, we'll see how I did.

" T ip of the day"

You will make better choices all day long, even in diet and exercise, if you take the time to pray in the morning and ask for help. It works, really, I've tried it both ways.

Not too bad...

When I woke up yesterday morning my coversation with myself was a little different. I knew I was going to have to report in so there wasn't a question of whether or not I would exercise, it was more... what video was I going to put on? The 4 mile walk the day before was still being felt in my knee with every step, so it was going to have to be something low impact. I walked slowly down the hall until I found the light switch, and then made my way into the kitchen to grab a glass of water. When I reached the kitchen, there it was, glorious and completley awful. On any other day I would love running into "a friend" so early in the morning, but not today. Not when I had promised myself that I was going to share everything about this part of my life. Who is this friend you ask? Maybe the question you should ask is.. Is Sherri really as weird as I think she is right now? To answer the later, I'm way more weird than this.. way! My friend on this particular morning was nothing more than a half eaten chocolate cubscout cake that my nine year old had made and decorated the day before. Pathetic, you may think to yourself. To that I might suggest that you have never had chocolate cake with homade buttercreme frosting before 7am. It ranks pretty high on my all time favorites list. You would have thought that seeing all the funky colored sprinkles on top of it might have changed my mind, but no. I swear I could smell it through the air tight purple tupperware "cake taker." A decision was made, and I don't know if I'd make the same decision right this minute, I've never written down the calories I consume before the rest of my family awakes. I think it would be a scary number. So on this morning I made friends with my  yoga video instead.(40min) The rest of my day was uneventful and is recorded as follows: Breakfast - Whole grain blueberry oatmeal with milk(145cal)That's not counting at least 15 calories I fed the microwave when it boiled over. Smiles. Snack - 1 organic gala apple and 10 walnut pieces.(200). Lunch - 2 grilled chicken and pesto pizzas with lots of veggies on whole wheat tortillas. Very Yummy.(500) Dinner - I wasn't really hungry until later so I ate 1cup organic rolled oats cooked with 1 cup fat free milk, cinnamon, and splenda.(400) Total for the day 1245 calories. I exercised one more time, pilates.(20min) Total exercise, 1 hour.

Yesterday in review

El Torito was not a great place to start trying to be good. I ate too much, but the food was fabulous. I try to make lunch my biggest meal of my day, I suceeded, but had to make up for it with a tiny dinner.
Food log:Breakfast - weight control oatmeal and milk(200cal.) Snack - 10 raw almonds and a diet soda, I need to get rid of the soda.(100cal) Lunch - Small tortilla soup(220),chips and salsa(150),cheese enchilada(270),and a chicken tamale(300). I know, I know, I should have stopped afer the soup but my stomache was still stretched out from the free food the day before. Anyway..
Dinner - salad with light balsalmic dressing(60) making the grand total for the day 1300 Calories. I try to stay between 1200 and 1400 but this was a bad day because I did not eat my whole grains. On to exercise: In the morning I did the "Biggest Loser" Cardio Max(40min), after work I did a 4 mile walk(60min). Thankyou to Debbie who filled in and was my walking partner. Then in the evening I did Pilates(20min)for a total of 2 hours. Not too shabby. Side note...why when you are trying to be good do the cakes the cub scouts made even look good???

"Just my thoughts"

Reason #124 ( I just made that up) why it is important to drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday:  Someday (or today if your me) your chapstick may fall out of your pocket and into the toilet. It is not nearly as gross to retrieve it and throw it away if you can't see your pee!

The beginning..well not really...The middle, but kind of the beginning.

So obviously did not start posting when I said I would. I could blame it all on my incredibly crazy busy life, but unfortunately, that is not the only reason. You see, at times, and with certain things, I have found that I am a procrastinator. Well that is putting it kind of gentle like, sometimes I'm just too lazy.... but, I am busy too... smiles. I'm writing now so... let just see how it goes. This would be a little bit easier though, if I could type more than 10 words per minute. You think I'm lying, but I really just counted and it was 10, ok 11 but one of the words was "a" and I don't think that should count. What would be a good number anyway? 25, 40, 150, I have no clue and that is probably for the best, I don't need to know how bad I am at this. Wow, I talk a lot even when I'm not talking....smiles! (FYI, I say smiles whenever I, or anyone else makes me smile or giggle a little bit. I make myself giggle way too easily, but I guess there are worse things.) Ok, ok, ok, so why have I decided today of all days is the day I will sit at the computer and record my thoughts and doings? I will try to explain and in the process I hopefully will not confuse too many people. Wish me luck, I confuse myself all the time, at the very least I am an emotional, hormonal, and physical roller coaster. I have a love hate relationship with roller coasters.

This morning started the same as most of my mornings. The alarm went off at 4:56 a.m. and I hopped out bed in hopes that it would not wake my prince of a man who sleeps next to me. We have, unfortunately, been keeping different sleep schedules since I started work in January. Anyway, I "hopped" out of my bed and to the dresser where I clumsily turned off the alarm and then I kicked my red platform heels (very cute, by the way) that I should have put away two days ago. I then hobbled to the bathroom. It was on the way back from the bathroom, in front of the vanity mirror, that I started having the conversation with myself. You know the conversation;
Do I really want to work out? Lost was on last night, and I stayed up for it! Don't I deserve an extra hour of sleep? Oh, and I'm sure you've all used this one... Why does it even matter after what I ate last night? It totally wasn't my fault that Jack in the Box was giving out free sandwiches, I mean FREE, all I had to do was buy a really BIG soda. Nobody can blame me if It wasn't diet, the sandwich wasn't low calorie, why pair it with a watered down soda? Ok so I didn't "need" a shake but it had been a "chocolate" day, and when the little girl behind the speaker thingy told me that if I made it a large I could have another FREE sandwich well........
You get the picture, I had made my case, I was going back to bed and leaving exercise in the fate of the rest of my day. Then it happened, the voice, the voice of reason, or what I believe, help from a Heavenly Father who loves me, either way I heard it. I was reminded that going back to bed was not going to help me get rid of those two free sandwiches, large soda, and half of a very big chocolate shake. I then did what any well adjusted grown adult, mature mother of six would do... I stood there looking at my not so perfect body, and I cried, and cried, and then I worked out.

I decided that I need to to something a little different, I need to be accountable to someone or many someones that aren't me....I'm way to unstable... smiles. I want to start posting my daily exercise and food intake along with daily experiences that make me, me. Eventually I also want to add pictures of my family and so on, but for now this is for me. I need the motvation and at some point I would like to motivate others. I hope that this can become a place where friends and family share their motivation, tips , and maybe even some healthy recipes. I figure I'll never know who's checking in on me, so I'll have to "try" a little harder.

As for the title of this section, I refer to this as "The Middle" because I have not just started dieting and exercising. No, this last attempt has been going on for a little over a year. Don't worry, I have made some progress. I started 2009 at a short and round (can't believe I'm putting it out there) 230lbs. FYI, at 5'1 that is very short and very round!! This morning I weighed in at 185lbs. Before you are too excited for me, I did visit the 160's for about a week in October, but that was before the Hollidays and, oh ya, FREE food! I went from a very tight size 18 to a tight size 12, and I am a work in progress ... in more ways than one. I want to lose about 60 more pounds but, despite what I wrote about crying in front of the mirror, I'm actually Ok with myself and my body right now, but there is always room for improvement. Well, there you are, hopefully it will be worth your time to check in with me every once in a while.... I'll pretend people are checking in everyday. First challenge in a half hour...meeting a friend at El Torito. Is there anything low calorie at El Torito?