Worst. Picture. Ever.

My mother in law took this picture at my daughter's 2nd birthday party & decided to send it to all of our family members. (insert iPhone emoji wide-eye here).

Ok, first of all, this is a terrible angle & a horrible picture. I don't look like this. But as I type this, I realize, that yes, maybe I do.

This next picture was taken 3 weeks later, at Disney World. So I am going to blame the damn angle. I know I'm a little chunky but the flowy dress above + the flowy sweater + little person taking the photo from down below =  not a flattering angle.

Either way, using it as motivation.

My husband also does not have the pot belly that seems to be protruding from the picture above.

I guess we're just not a photogenic family. Ha!

2014 Goals

Twenty fourteen!? Say whaaaaaaat.

As I sit here & enjoy my mimosa on January 1st, I feel so blessed to be where I am today. I have a wonderful family, a beautiful daughter, a home that I love & a husband who adores me. I couldn't really ask for much more but...I'm going to.

Every year my husband makes a list of all the things he wants to accomplish that year & crosses them off his list. I want to do the same thing this year. I think writing/typing it out will give me some accountability & really make me appreciate how far I've come.

I don't start diets on New Years Day, because I might have a massive hangover & might need to find the greasiest food in the land to cure that. But, for once I don't! I went to bed at 10pm. Livin' the dream, folks.

Either way, we had a full bottle of Prosecco in the fridge so I decided to have a mimosa or three & do some post Christmas cleaning around the house.

Anywho...here are my 2014 goals

1. Lose 40 lbs 
That will put me at my pre-marriage, pre-pregnancy weight. It's not the skinniest I've ever been but it's what I'm shooting for. I know I can do it. I lost 9 lbs last November-December but I know I've gained some holiday weight. Weigh-in is this Friday. Game plan: Weight Watchers, treadmill & Jillian Michaels DVDs. Then maybe sign up for a gym again? I had a free gym at work but now that we've moved 2 hours away & I work from home, I would only be going there twice a month. So on to find a gym! My husband just signed up for Weight Watchers today too, maybe we will be in a couple's commercial next year! Haha.

2. Get pregnant again. 
This one, has been a challenge & honestly was one of my 2013 goals but for whatever reason, baby #2 does not want to grace us with his/her presence. This goal will conflict with goal #1 but I'm going for weight loss & if pregnancy happens along the way, so be it. I'm not going to focus on it anymore, I need a break from that process.

3. Be a better friend. 
I have many old, true friendships. I try to maintain them all but the truth is, I am not good with keeping in touch when it comes to meeting up & socializing in person. I can text with the best of them but when it comes to actually getting off my ass & making plans, I'm not good at it. I'd like to plan a social function (with or without kids) at least once a month.

4. Exercise 2-3 times a week. 
I know I can do this & I'd like to exceed this & do 3-5 times a week but I want to also set realistic goals for myself.

5. Pay Off Credit Cards
I have two credit cards (Target & Citibank) with low balances, which I rarely use to buy big ticket items/Christmas gifts but I want to pay them off when we get our tax return.

6. Run a 10k
I've run a 5k before (years ago) so I know I can do it. I told my husband that I wanted to run a 5k as my goal & he said to push myself & do something more than that. So 10k it is...yikes!

So those are my goals. Let's see if I can make that happen. For now, back to my mimosa.

75 minute walk before 8am

I did it again, I got on the treadmill bright & early (6:45am). However, not 2 minutes later did my daughter wake up & my husband was already at the gym. Disney Junior & some juice to the rescue! I put her downstairs with me & walked for 75 minutes!! I was only going to do 30 minutes but with Thanksgiving coming up, I decided to keep going. I know I'm only walking but I put it on an incline & I was definitely feeling the burn in my legs.

I watched 2 episodes of Glee & it went by pretty fast! My weigh-in Friday only showed a .2 lb loss but the next morning the scale said I lost 3 lbs. I blame it on Aunt Flow being in town...that bitch. I'm going to weigh myself Wednesday morning & not beat myself up on Friday morning when I gain 45 lbs from the Thanksgiving binge eating that will most likely occur.

Happy Holidays!

another early morning workout

I did it again, twice in one week! I woke up around 5:45, my daughter was crying & my husband was on his way to the gym. He put her in bed with me & a sippy cup of juice & once she decided to go back to bed (6:25ish), I went down to the basement, grabbed the iPad & got on the treadmill! I walked for 52 minutes while I watched Glee. It went a lot faster than Monday's walk. I went about 4 miles & burned 500 calories.

Ah...if only I was a runner but I'm not at this point. I used to run on the treadmill years ago but let's walk before we run, people!...literally. The thought of waking up at 6am & running...not so much. Walking I can handle. So that's what it's going to be for now. Slow & steady!!

Loving Glee, I'm half way through season 1!

6am Workout

So I dusted off the old treadmill, grabbed my iPad & walked for 40 minutes while I watched an episode of Glee....at 6am. That's kind of early for me but it was surprisingly easy! I laid my clothes & sneakers out the night before, which helped! Our 2 year old little girl was in our bed since she woke up in the middle of the night so as soon as my alarm went off I grabbed my phone, snoozed it, grabbed my clothes & went down to the basement where the treadmill is.

I'm glad I did it, I burned 4 activity points (Weight Watchers) & I'm pretty proud of myself. I mentioned it to my husband last night & he is always so encouraging so I didn't want to let him down.

Sidenote: I know I'm late to the party but I am SO into Glee - Season 1. I've been watching Season 5 (I tuned in to see the Beatles episodes, tribute to Cory Monteith, etc) & I really like it.

Treadmill is Fixed. Now I Have to Use It, Right?

Our treadmill has been in storage for the past 9 months (we moved, the house hunting process took some time). We got it all setup a few days ago & I hopped on today & started Couch to 5k, which I did a few years back and attempted to do last year.

Week 1, Day 1 was not hard at all, which makes me feel good. I guess I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was.  Nice. I did 5 extra minutes of cooldown at the end.

30 minutes = 293 calories

Do you want to change something? Then change some THING.

Soooo I am back up to 174. But I was 176.5 earlier this week so I will take that. We had a long weekend last week in Chicago which included:

• Chicago deep dish pizza - think: globs and globs of cheese
• Chicago style hot dogs
• Cheese fries
• WINE, BEER, StrawBEERitas, wine, and more wine.
• Eating out for every meal
• Binge drinking at the wedding reception & at the bar afterwards

So I can't say I'm surprised I gained weight & a few of those pounds are sticking around. I hadn't been weighing myself lately - which is what I do when I know I'm gaining weight & I'm in denial. I stepped on the scale before the trip & weighed 173.5 so...at least I'm closer to that now than I was.

I've cut out alcohol during the week and exercised 3 times.

• Tuesday: Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred - Level 1 & 20 minute family walk around the neighborhood
• Friday: Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred - Level 1 & 2
• Tracy Anderson 60 minute mat routine

So I met my goal of working out 3x this week & will try to continue on with that. I hope to lose 2 more lbs by next week.

Fingers crossed & hard work in progress.

The other night before I went to bed, something popped into my head. I was thinking about how I want to lose 20 lbs by my friend's wedding June 1 (um, not going to happen but whatever) and I thought I just need to change something. Then I thought, "Do you want something to change?" (yes) "then change some THING". So I've kind of made that my mantra this week.

I want to change one thing a day that I normally wouldn't do. This week that includes:

• Trading diet soda for water - I haven't had a soda all week & I'm not craving it like I was. I was up to 3-4 diet sodas a day, I craved the carbonation & soda bubbles in my mouth. I replaced it with filtered water and sparkling water with a lime.
• Skip the wine & drink sparkling water in a wine glass - I really enjoy this for some reason
• Instead of laying on the couch after work watching Bravo, I went & ran errands or went for a walk with the family
• Worked out instead of just thinking about working out
• Tracked everything I ate/drank in My Fitness Pal

So those are the little changes I've made this week. One step at a time...

168.8

Current weight: 168.8

Less eating junk, less drinking delicious wine. Seems to be working. Now I just need to get back into my workout routine. I haven't been to the gym in 2 years. I know this because it's 2 years to the day that I got pregnant with my sweet baby girl.

One step at a time....