So I’ve been away from blogging for a couple of weeks.  I’ve missed it (and you!).   The absence is mostly due to visiting family from out of town.  My mom (see pic) was in town from California for 10 days and then my in-laws visited over the weekend from Tennessee.  It’s been a busy couple of weeks!  (Note: About the picture, Hubby has been left unidentified to protect the innocent.  Mom on the left, me on the right.)

One big development is that my mom has decided to move close to us!  She will be moving all the way from California to North Carolina… a swapping of the coasts, if you will.  And we are thrilled!  She will get to see her granddaughter (and future grandchildren) grow up and be a big part of her life.  And Hubby and I will have a night out every once in awhile without having to pay an arm and a leg for a sitter!  It’s a win-win for all.

Another new development is that I have joined Weight Watchers to help me get to my goal weight and get rid of this last 25 pounds.  I feel good about it and I’ve heard a lot about the program.  So far, I am one week in and will have my second official weigh-in tomorrow night.  I’m nervous.  I have not eaten well in recent weeks and getting back into healthy lifestyle mode this past week has been difficult.  And I most definitely went over on my points. 

I will keep trying because I know that I will get this right.  I know that I can lose the rest of this weight and live a healthy lifestyle.  This is not a goal that is out of my reach.  It’s a goal that I have to keep persevering towards and not give up no matter what.  And part of that is realizing that there will be setbacks but they are not excuses to give up.  No matter what.

I’m back to blogging.  So much to discuss in good time.  I’m also thinking of instigating another weight war with Hubby… any ideas on what the stakes should be? 

OH! and by the way… our grass died!  Hahaha… okay, sad for the “curb appeal” of our house but hilarious that I only had to mow twice in July because the grass has seriously died in this hot weather we’ve been having!  Maybe I should offer to mow again, ha!

And to think it all started with a simple challenge. 

Well, the challenge ended yesterday with some surprising twists and turns.  As it turns out, on Saturday our daughter went to stay with her grandparents for a week, leaving Hubby and I with some much needed free/alone time!  We decided to take advantage of this time by heading out to the beach.  WOOHOO!  Talk about relaxing… it was wonderful!

So, as I’ve documented in the past, I have a very hard time maintaining my diet while I am out of my routine here at home.  There is this part of me that begins justifying poor eating and making all kinds of excuses for blowing up my healthy lifestyle.  In a word, Self-sabotage.  This is something I am going to be looking into over the next few weeks/months as it seems to be something that I really need to address.  As you can guess, I began to eat poorly just as soon as we were out the door.  And so did Hubby. 

This changed things for the Weight War because we both let our defenses down and allowed the chips to fall where they may.  Self-sabotage.  We ate hamburgers at the beach, homemade ice cream walking around near our hotel, chocolate turtle chex mix was the snack of choice on the beach, and of course Mellow Mushroom pizza to top it all off.  Self-sabotage.  My excuse was that I was already going to lose the challenge so hey, why not?  Self-sabotage. 

And let me just say that it is very hard to admit that after everything I have learned on my weight loss journey, I am still capable of caving like this.  I don’t want to just gloss over it because it is an indicator that I still have so much to learn.  I think I will always be a student of the healthy lifestyle.

As many of you out there doing the weight-loss thing know, eating poorly like this can just blow the scale up for a few days and even if no actual pounds end up being gained, it takes awhile for the scale to adjust.  All that being said, here are the final results of June’s Domestic Weight Wars Challenge:

Week 4 #’s
Hubby lost: 0.2 pound
Julie gained: 0.2 pound

And the final results for the month:

Hubby lost a total of 8.4 pounds!!! 
And I lost a total of 6.2 pounds!!!

So by all means of the agreement we made at the outset of the challenge, Hubby won the challenge!  Huge congratulations to him for sticking with  it and making big changes to his diet!!  And I am thrilled to announce that he is going to continue on this path of healthy eating and exercising! 

If you are interested in the percentages, they finished as follows:

Julie lost 4.07%
Hubby lost 3.99%

Ouch, says me.  But we already know what I learned about percentages!

So, being the me that I am, I wanted to get this whole mowing thing underway and not give Hubby all month to tease me about it.  So once we tallied up the numbers yesterday morning, we got busy right away with Lawn Mower Training!    And then there was the Weed Eater (also known as PURE EVIL) and learning to use that sucker was a whole new experience in and of itself.  Let’s just say that next time I will be wearing pants, sleeves, shin guards, elbow pads, and a helmet when I weed-eat.

So here I am mowing my little heart out. I soon discovered that mowing is very similar to vacuuming!

And showing a little sass for the camera.

Dude. Weed. Eating. Sucks.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

And the final results of all my efforts! Not too mention burning 320 calories in the process!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
What are the lessons I learned through this month-long challenge?
1) Seriously, I need to not be cocky. Go with percentages next time.
2) Healthy competition can be great for a relationship.
3) Healthy competition can be incredibly motivating.
4) I still have a lot to learn about my eating habits and triggers. Self-sabotage is something I will be tackling.
5) The readers of my blog are AWESOME!! The support and encouragement meant the world to me!!

And did you think that this would be the end of the Domestic Weight Wars? Not a chance. Look for upcoming challenges real soon. I’ve got a comeback to pull off!!!

Tune in tomorrow for the results of the Domestic Weight Wars!  Today is the final weigh in day and tomorrow all the results will be posted along with pictures and video.  Don’t miss tomorrow’s blog post for all the details! (Incidentally, Hubby and I are “kid-less” right now and using every second of our time doing fun “stuff”!)

Until then, have a fabulous day!

Well folks, there’s something I’ve realized as the Domestic Weight Wars challenge has continued on… I am too cocky for my own good sometimes.  Did I make a mistake in challenging my Hubby?  No way!  Did I make a mistake in making the challenge stakes pretty high?  Heck no!  So where did I make the critical, crucial, game-changing error?  <sigh> 

In insisting that we NOT use percentages!!  UGH!!!

My cockiness led me to believe that I could wipe the floor with my Hubby in this challenge by the mere pound to pound weight loss comparison!  When drawing up the details of this challenge, I felt no need to use the percentages, after all, I was going to win no matter what!  And that, my friends, was my fatal flaw and a lesson I am going to spend the whole month of July learning. 

The fact of the matter is that I am winning in percentages and losing in pounds.

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So on Saturday I ran my first 5k, the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure, and I had a blast!  There were so many things that I learned and noticed that I really did not expect.  The experience was so new and so different for me, that I almost felt like a kid running around with that child-like wonder. 

Let me start out by saying that there was a ton of people there.  The website states that there were at least 23,700 people registered participants but they don’t have the official numbers yet.  A LOT OF PEOPLE.  Very cool.  So it took me awhile to get up to the starting line because there were so many people packed in waiting for the race to start.  It actually started before I made it up there! 

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Do you smell that?  No?  Wait… wait for it… Yep!  You guessed it. 

The smell of fresh cut grass.  Maybe.

Okay, so I lost Week 2, folks.  Apparently burning 50 gazillion calories during my 5k run wasn’t enough to push me past Hubby’s 2.2 pounds of weight lost this week.  Yeah, you read it right. 

Official numbers are as follows:  Hubby lost a total of 2.2 pounds this past week.  And I lost a total of .4 of a pound. 

I’m not discouraged though!!  Oh no, my friends, I have the heart of a fighter (poor Hubby, I know) and I am not going to give up!  Plus I suspect there are reasons for the small number this week.  I have a feeling that I retained a lot of water from the run on Saturday.  (I had been weighing less all week long until Sunday.)  And there are also feminine reasons that need no further explanation.  (Never in my life did I imagine that I would be blogging about that!!!)

This momentary setback only furthers my determination to win this Weight War!  GRRRRRR!!!!  (Can you tell I’m getting all pumped up?)  Help me stay motivated!!!  I don’t want to be that lady in the picture!!!  And I sure as heck wouldn’t be smiling!!!

What do you do to get all pumped up?!  How do you keep up your momentum and motivation?  And seriously, I need help with this one because summer and ice cream are synonymous in my mind… what are you eating instead of ice cream in the summer?!

I did it!  I did it!  Not only did I run the 5k, I ran the entire 5k!!  WOOOHOOO!!!  Yaaaay me!!!! 

…and now I am ready to crash!!!  Here are some pics from the race!!  I will write more soon about how it went and let you all know my impressions.  I learned a lot from this first race and I can’t wait to share it with you all!!

Okay and one more thing.  In the picture of me running and looking at the camera, I look like a total freak!  I had been looking for Hubby and it was that exact moment that I found him, and the dawn of recognition was entering my face.  So please pardon the goofy look on my face! 

Oh oh oh and we have some video too!  I will post that soon.  The video is funny because it was taken right after I was done and I was ready to pass out from the heat so I was somewhat delirious.
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So last night Hubby, Aly, and myself went out to the mall where they were having packet/t-shirt pick-ups for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  Wow, did I feel cool walking into the mall for that reason!  I was so excited to get my shirt and my cool number to pin on my shirt while I run!  I get to wear a number!!!  I will really look like a runner now!  (Okay so they give them to walkers to but hey, don’t burst my bubble!) 

The race I am in, the Open Recreational 5k, is set to start tomorrow morning at 9:00am.  Apparently there is supposed to be 30,000 people there in the morning and we will all be taking shuttles from the RBC Center over to Meredith College, where the festivities are.  That will be interesting!

I am drinking plenty of water today to prepare for running in the heat.  Earlier this week I was able to run the complete 5k on my treadmill without any problems.  It felt great!  So my goal for tomorrow is to run the whole thing.  I am not so much concerned with the time at this point as I am with just running the whole distance. 

I will make sure to post pictures tomorrow after we get back!  I’ve asked Hubby to make sure he gets some shots of me actually crossing the finish line. 

I can’t believe it’s finally here!

So Week 1 of Domestic Weight Wars (that’s what I’m calling the battle of the bulge between me and my hubby now) is officially over!  After a week of hard work, exercise, and sweating our brains out in our North Carolina heatwave… this week’s Biggest Loser is…

ME!  YAAAAY!!!!  GO MEEEE!!!! 
(I hope hubby doesn’t tune in and see how badly I am gloating in this post.. or maybe I DO!!!)

So the official numbers are as follows:  Hubby lost a total of 2.8 pounds for the week and I lost a whopping 3.6 pounds!!!

I’m thinking my super massive huge 3.6 pounds is partly from the fact that I didn’t eat so well the two days prior to the challenge starting so some of that is probably fake weight.  But NOT ALL OF IT BABY!!!!

Yeah, I’m stoked to see that my weight losing abilities are back and that I am finally making progress again!!  My first 5k is coming up this Saturday so I am looking forward to another nice, healthy week of running and healthy eating.

Thanks for all the support!  You guys have been awesome in helping me stay motivated and focused! 

Hubby and I are both very competitive people.  We love to challenge each other and we are both so stubborn!  So it’s only fitting that today while waiting in line for gas (for cheap gas!) we came up with a challenge for each other. 

You see, hubby has been riding the fence for awhile now about losing weight.  I think he feels like there is never a right time to start and it’s very hard for him to fit exercise into his schedule with work and family time.  I understand but I would much rather him cut out a little family time or leisure time to get healthy… it’s worth it in the long run, right?

So, I’ve been hoping that my efforts might eventually rub off on him and perhaps motivate him to make a change.  Well, it’s not so much my efforts that have gotten him going as it is the idea of a competition with a reward!  

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