How does Jessie measure up? Read on to find out.

Happy Pioneer Day, all.  I hope you all have your snappers, parachutes, and fountains ready to go.

Part of my first appointment with Allison at the Diet Center was getting measured.  Everywhere.  Ever wondered what your knee size is?  I now know.

Here are my beginning measurements (all in inches):

Neck:  13.5
Upper arm: 13.25
Upper chest:  36.25
Chest:  37.25
Midriff (ribs):  32.5
Waist:  37
Abdomen:  42.25
Hips:  45.5
Bum:  45.25
Thigh: 25.0
Knee:  17.75
Calf:  16.25

If you're paying attention you'll notice a few things.  First, I'm a pear shape.  Second, I carry approximately 2/3 of my body weight in my thighs.  Twenty-five inches around just one of those babies!  Yikes.  Third, I have a bunch of work to do.

So now we're all caught up.  And you all know way too much about me.  I'm sorry / you're welcome.

JD loves JD!

How do you celebrate the cool down portion of a work out?  I listen to a couple of songs by John Denver.  You read that right.  Turns out "For Baby" and "Goodbye Again" are amazing for that.  The tough part is not singing along.  (I run outside.)

My C25k is going well.  I finally made it through week five, day two.  I've been on week five, day one for weeks.  I didn't think I could jog for eight minutes.  Tonight I did it.  I totally did it.  Twice!  I jogged for eight minutes, walked for five, and jogged again!  It might not sound like much to you but I am really proud of myself.  Yay for Jessie!

Meeting with my dietician is going well.  It's sad I had to pay someone to tell me to eat my veggies.  It's good to get her advice and to have someone to be accountable to twice a week. 

Ok.  I found the paper with my measurements on it.  I'll post those tomorrow.  I know you (my imaginary reader) can hardly wait!  Today I'll post my yesterday weigh in.  I'm at 171.something.  I'm nearly 48 lbs down.  When I drop another twenty I'm getting my hair cut short.

I almost forgot!  I was able to wear some really cute pants today.  Pants that haven't fit since 2008.  Everyone clap for Jessie!  Plus they're dress pants so I can totes wear them to church on Sunday.

I'm heading to DC!

And by DC I mean the Diet Center.  (Please don't judge the whole franchise based on the sad, sad website.)

It's how I lost the weight in my mid-twinties (sic).  I went from 180 to 140ish.  It was amazing.  I kept the weight off till I moved to Rochester, MN.  I knew no one, it was too cold to walk around outside, had no job, and couldn't go anywhere because I'd get lost.  So the fridge, LoveSac, and I became good friends.  Oh, and the PS2.  I played the entire RPG Kingdom Hearts before I eventually found a job there.

I digress.  I went from 140ish to 160 in almost no time at all.  It's impressive, really.

Five years later I'm back (down, sadly) to the mid-170's.  I am ready to get back in to my smaller clothes, have more energy, and I saved enough of my babysitting money (I'm not twelve, honest) to go back to my favorite dietician, Allison.

Today she took my measurements.  Turns out my arm and neck are about the same size.  She said that's typical.  I will never look at people the same again.  I didn't get a copy of my before measurements.  I'll get those and post them.  I go back on Friday.  I'll go twice a week and weigh in each time.  I'm excited to see progress. 

My current weight is 174.5.  Good luck, Jessie!

Happy dance! and a weigh in.

I am back down to the weight I was in 2009.  Hooray!  That puts me at 180.  Getting back down to that weight was my little goal.  Now that I'm there I'm going to focus on getting down to my healthy weight.

I am going to start going to The Diet Center again, in May or June.  The Diet Center is how I lost all the weight the first time.  (I kept it off for years.  Then MN happened.)  The Diet Center is fabulous.  If you want more information let me know.  If you have questions or want to join with me let me know.  I would love to have a buddy on this journey to a healthy weight!

Now I can give myself permission to get new pants.  It'll be nice to wear pants that aren't comically large.

One more cheer for Jessie!  Hooray!

Here's the Skinny

So, I'm sure you've Jessie's noticed I haven't posted in a while. I've come up with a few things sometimes, but alas, "It's not that funny!". So I haven't bothered to publish them.

I figured I could always address the fluffy-to-fit topic, but it's just so embarrassing! I confessed to Jessie that I wasn't ready to post on here until my current weight would be less humiliating... and then realized that my weight loss ticker is still on the bottom of this blog. That blabbermouth ticker! (I'll save you the trouble of scrolling down - "Wendy's lost 0 lbs.")

Anyway, since it's a winter wonderland outside, and probably will be for the next few months, it's hard to be motivated to exercise instead of curling up with a book, a blanket, and a pastry. Have you found anything that works for you? I have! But not anything that works for me yet. HA!

But seriously, winter workout/weight loss ideas - Go:

It makes me cringe. And it makes you look stupid.

If it's a list or a line it's a queue not a cue.

Interests aren't peaked they are piqued.

There are so many more.  But I'm at my weekly allowance for snide.

Free music Wednesday

From time to time Amazon will give $2 credits good for MP3s. They're doing it right now! Use code FALLMP3S to get a Free $2 MP3 Credit on Amazon! I suggest doing it as soon as you can. I'm not sure when the code expires.

This time around I got "Hallelujah" by Rufus Wainwright and "Two of Us" by Aimee Mann from the "I Am Sam" soundtrack. Two great songs but I'll never buy the albums.

What did you get?

+!

I've finally been invited to Google+. (Thanks, Jeremy!) I'm still figuring out how it works. I think I'll use this more than I use Facebook. (I use Facebook approximately never.) When Google+ is out of beta I'll be able to use Facebook just for coupons. Yipee!

You've given me Gmail, Gmail chat (which doesn't always work), Picasa, Blogger, and image searches. Now Google+. Love you, Google.

Are any of you on Google+? What do you think of it?

.12 x 25 = super fabulous

I am a soap snob. I don't have to have the best but I do like having the cutest. When I was newly married I made it a rule that we would always have nice hand soap. By nice soap I mean the stuff Bath & Body Works sells. It smells so yummy.

Last March we started to run really low on BBW soap. But there just wasn't room in the budget for a run to the mall. Sad, isn't it.

For my birthday (back in March) my Aunt Jojo gave me a $25 gift card to BBW. I love Aunt Jojo.

I really wanted to run out and buy five hand soaps right then. But I knew the semi-annual sale happens in the summer. So I was patient. It wasn't easy.

The sale was going on last week. I stopped by the South Towne location. I got a great parking space. Always a good sign the shopping goddesses are favoring you.

I purchased three full size body washes, nine hand soaps, three mini hand sanitizer holders, and ten mini hand sanitizers. Without sale prices it would have been $91.50. Eep.

After the discounts from the sale, my coupon, and gift card I spent ... are you sitting down? ... three dollars. That's including tax. Three dollars exactly. It's about a 97% savings. Eat your heart out, Utah Deal Diva.


Aren't they pretty? Here, enjoy a close up of the hand sanitizers. You're welcome.

I spent an average of twelve cents per item. Rock on.

Something I want.

Glass drinking straws. I love it. I'd never considered how much plastic waste straws generate. I'm trying to be more environmentally conscious. My little sister did a lot to inspire me while I visited her last month. She uses cloth napkins. I'm totally going to invest in some of those.

Back to the straws. They're not economically smart. I think it would take me eight hundred plastic straws to pay for one glass straw. But the environment would appreciate it after the first time.

Picture from Glass Dharma

If you get one or know someone who has one let me know how they are. Oh, the site where I got the picture from offers a life time repair or replace if the straws get broken. That's impressive.

Are they really so awful?

Has anyone out there heard of these? I think they're a great idea. I'd love to have a pair. The only time I've read about them is people complaining about how weird and unnecessary the design is. .............................................................................................Source: REI.com

They are supposed to make it so you run more naturally and therefore it's better for you.

What do you think? Are they for weirdos? Just for sports? Are you wondering if they come in pink? (They do!) Let me know in the comments.

What's Your Excuse?

Have any of you noticed I'm not posting my weigh-ins anymore? Yeah, I didn't think so. It's for the best. Really. I haven't been exercising or eating as I should, and whatever half-hearted attempts I've made at counteracting my poor diet aren't working.

I've come up with all kinds of reasons this week as to why I'm in such a state. And then I read this article this morning, and you know what? I've used a couple of these! And just as it says, they're not reasons. Just lame excuses.

http://fitbie.msn.com/lose-weight/tips/6-lamest-excuses-not-losing-weight/tip/0

So, my question is, which ones have you used? And how do you get past them?

How Do I Get Off?!

Well, another week has passed on my weight rollercoaster. First we go up, then way down, then slightly up, then slightly down, and on and on...

It's so boring it's not even worth blogging about.

How do I get off this ride and onto that one that plunges down and it's over (like the Tower of Terror)? I mean, besides shifting my weight off the scale...



http://www.chron.com/



Packing on the Birthday Weight

Yeah, yeah. I know. I didn't post my weight yesterday like I was supposed to. Does anyone really care to see that trainwreck?

I have a few words/phrases to describe why I didn't post:

• Tucano's
• cake and ice cream
• a pound a day
• lack of peer pressure

So there.

More Merry-Go-Round Than Yo-Yo

chron.com

Here we go again. I'm almost back to the beginning. And that's not a good thing.

I've decided the road to obesity is another road paved with good intentions. I intended to exercise this weekend. And I intended to eat healthier, too. I've been intending to do all these things since I was 15. Obviously, the scale once again reveals that I didn't. Today it read:

181.5

 
I tried to justify that maybe it said that because my scale was broken, but I really don't think so. Just my momentum. SO. The plan for this week: Walk to and from work every day (it equates to about 2.5 miles roundtrip) as well as adding other cardio three days a week and strength training the other three.

It's my birthday week, so I'm also going to limit myself to one birthday treat per day. I can do this! Right?

Weigh-in on my way out.

This will be my last published weigh-in for a while. I'll keep posting how I'm doing with my exercising, eating, and overall goals. I did finally get a stroller so I can leave the house during daylight hours. Weeee!

My weight this morning: 172.0.




My reasons for no longer publishing my weight are extremely personal and, my two readers, I won't be discussing them online or in person any time soon. Thank you for your understanding. (Note: there aren't any exceptions. Even if you're sure you should know.)

Wendy's Weigh In

Yes, I could think of no better title than that. Today the scale said:

179.5

Not bad, considering. But it's so ridiculous that I'm basically just maintaining instead of losing. I've been fluctuating around this number for about a year now. The ridiculous part is I know exactly what to do and how to do it and I just don't.

So. We begin again. This weekend I need to work on strength training and diet. I'm doing ok on cardio, or I was, until it snowed. I'm not walking to and from work in that!

It's still snowing, by the way. I'm pretty sure we're going on 20 hours straight. But annnnyway --  a loss! Hooray!

What have I always said is the most important thing? Breakfast.*

This morning I ate before I weighed myself. Combine that with my sedentary weekend and I'm at 172.8. Bah.







*I have a prize for the first commenter who guesses the source of this quote. You may not google it.



.

I Saw This One Coming

I gained. I'm now back at:

180.5

But really, I’m not surprised. It was Conference weekend, so I spent at least 8 hours sitting in front of a tv/computer. It didn’t help either that I was feeling pretty low about a couple of things and had homemade caramel popcorn and other weekend treats at hand to console me.

I know - Food should not be my comfort. Why? Well, because of all kinds of psycological reasons. But even more so because I go to it for solace and this is what it does to me! Gah!

Friday weigh-in

My number: 172.2. A tiny step in the right direction. I've been more dedicated to making time in the morning to exercise. This weekend I need to get healthy snacks to have around the house.