random collection of thoughts

- I got new running clothes yesterday, I loved my run today because my pants did not fall off while I was jogging.
- My chin has become more defined.  (read: double chin shrinkage)
- Sweating during a great work out is almost as good as being sore after the workout. 
- Scarves now look way better.

^^^^TRUTH^^^^

- This week I will be more intentional with tracking what I eat.  There are some days I eat way to little and others a eat way too much, that is a bad habit to get into. 
- Oh!  I almost for got this as of two weeks ago, I'd lost 84.2 pounds! 

"Skinny" stories...

I have been trying very hard to keep off the 6 pounds I lost last week and I wasn't feeling to good about my efforts. Until yesterday when I was doing a little birthday party shopping and ran into an family friend.  At first I was a little sad because she didn't seem to recognize me.  After a couple of seconds it clicked and she said, "Sara, why are you so skinny?"  I laughed and told her why.  If that doesn't make you feel good, I don't know what will.  So even if I do gain a little bit of that back, I'm not going to worry (or at least try not to). 

This is my new inspiration!  I really did feel like this when I was jogging up massive hills this morning. 

Update: Week 34

Goooooaaaaaallllll...

I did it! I accomplished yet another goal.  75 pounds, 75.4 to be exact.  My goal was to get to this point by October 17th, but I got there early and couldn't be happier about my timeliness.  I actually expected to gain yesterday when I hopped on to the scales, I had been making good choices and was still exercising but just was not feeling like I had lost.  Surprise, surprise, surprise! So now I have to work even harder this week to keep it all off, I CAN DO IT!

I have really been getting sick of salads for lunch so yesterday I made tuna salad (tuna, light mayo, mustard, celery, dill pickles, salt, pepper) before I went to work and kept it in a glass container.  At lunch I put it on my wrap with lettuce and cheese, it was amazing! I am still trying to eat more protein.  It seems like chicken and turkey go bad before I can eat them so I have been eating fat free cottage cheese, greek yogurt and boiled eggs.  I still eat meat but it is usually when I make a meal for others (tonight Chicken Yoki Soba).  When I am eating on my own it seems easier to eat finger foods, like the aforementioned, then add in some fruit and veggies.  I also usually add something salty like pretzels or "cheap" crackers (I say cheap as in WW points cheap). 

My favorite snack this week was Perky Turkey Jerky.  Great taste, filling, cheap in points but expensive price wise.  I must find a turkey jerky that is responsibly priced. 

Three week update: 31, 32, 33

Oh gosh, I have been feeling extra busy lately.  Week 31 was a little rough I had a gain, but I have come back from that gain and during 32 & 33 I lost 1.6 pounds a week.  My over all weight loss totaling 69.4 pounds.  I wish I was losing .4 pounds more a week, but hey beggars can't be choosers so I will try very hard not to complain. 

Last week I actually gained 90-ish activity points from many things, but most of them were from jogging.  I do not plan on earning as many this week, especially since the recommended amount per week is 14 points (last week I got at least 14 each day).  At this point I have come to the realization that now that I have started to exercise, I will never be able to stop.  It's just not going to happen. 

I am trying to kick my habit of needing to eat while I watch TV, that's been difficult.  I am trying to visualize my self being successful with not eating while TV watching, we'll see how that goes. 

I have been eating a lot of tomatoes and listening to a lot of Prince and Ke$ha, while working out. 

In other news Apple Pie has been difficult for me to say no to.

Weekly (bi-weekly) update, weeks 29&30

Oh the craziness of life! My schedule is busier than ever and I am loving it! Last week I lost 5.4 pounds and this week I lost 2.8! Especially after camping the 2.8 was a shock, I love my camp hotdogs and s'mores!

This month Weight Watchers is doing "Lose for Good" it is a program where the corporation donates $1 for ever pound a weight watchers member loses! I am very excited for this, gettin' fit and helping others eat, what a great combo!

I also had a realization last week about my weight loss, I want to share more on that later.  For now I will just say that God has blessed us with amazing bodies that do super duper amazing things!

Part of the reason I have been so busy is that I have started my own side business.  I am now a Pampered Chef consultant!  Feel free to check out my website, here. 

Loving fresh tomatoes from my garden!
And loving Apple Pie, not eating a piece would just be crazy!
Loving Prince on my workout playlist!

Week 28: Update

I am lacking in sleep and I gained this week.  Needless today I am cranky! I want to eat a half gallon chocolate-peanut butter ice cream and watch Gilmore Girls. 

I won't. 

I believe I should reward myself for dealing with an exhausting, horrible, depressing day.  So I am breaking out my shoes goal shoes, putting on workout pants and not eating ice cream. 

Update: Week 27

I am pleased with myself today, I made it through the fair and actually lost weight! 8ish pounds which brings me up to 62.8 pounds of weight lost, no one can say that's not awesome, right? I've had a few revelations the last couple of days one of them is, I can't believe I've been doing Weight Watchers for 27 weeks!

27 WEEKS!?!?! That's 189 days, over 6 months, more than half of a year.  That's dropping pop and picking up my water bottle one more time again, again and again. That's not eating french fries, minimizing my chocolate/sugar intake, eating fruit and vegetables like I've got scurvy, that's down 6 dress sizes.  That's more miles run than I can count, fewer emotional outburst, gaining an ability to reward myself with something besides food.  That's saying goodbye to almost an entire wardrobe of clothes, having a collar bone, seeing muscle definition, and not having fat sausage fingers.  That's A LOT of changes. And I like them.

My other revelation is exercise, because I have been so busy the last few weeks I have not been jogging.  Yesterday I went jogging walking.  It was so difficult to jog after not doing so for weeks, my hope is to never go that long without jogging.

I've been eating a lot of fresh green beans lately (I also canned 26 jars of them today), fresh from the garden.  Also Cucumbers, watermelon and cherry tomatoes.

Pie, there is a lot of pie in this house and I love pie.  Damn pie.

As a huge Mandy Moore fan the song Candy has always been the perfect tempo (beat, rhythm, or something like that) for jogging.

I have also been craving Zucchini Lasagna.  Here is a recipe for Zucchini Lasagna from Skinny Taste. I made my recipe up but this is similar except that I used ground turkey, store bought sauce and cottage cheese instead of ricotta.  It was AMAZING!     

Weeks 25 & 26

Confession time: I gained last week and I have no idea if I lost this week.  For last weeks gain I blame no one but myself and my love of "good"  food.  Chocolate, beer cheese soup and fresh cut french fries, who can resist all that "goodness"?  NOT ME!  When I weighed in at meeting last week our leader was funny, "I take it you know how this happened?" I sure did know! She was also very supportive and we talked about pushing our limits, sometimes so we need to find out how far we can go before it is too far (apparently all those french fries were too far). 

This week I have been volunteering at church and baking scone every morning for the county fair.  So I did not make it to meeting last week due to delicious scone baking and I do not trust my scales at home so I am working for a loss on week 27!

Even though I did gain last week and I am pretending that this week does not exist I am considering this a success, because I learned something (or was I reminded of something?).

Diverging off of topic: It's funny how we keep our lives together.  For years my health was atrocious, absolutely horrible!  And I had my job/career together, I was successful, I was good at my job and for the most part I liked what I did.  Oh how things can change in just one short year, I have my health on track but am severely lacking in the job/career department.  - I don't absolutely hate my job, I am VERY thankful to have my job and consider my self lucky to have one, I love most of my coworkers and the corporation isn't horrible either. -  I know that there is something else out there for me, I need to be patient keep looking and wait for a more fulfilling opportunity, but MY PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN!  Life is funny that way I guess, maybe one day I'll have it all together. 

Because I have been getting up early to bake I have not been exercising so no favorite exercise song.  However I have been listening to a lot of Adele. 

Still trying to kick pop and drink water.

Lovin' nectarines and watermelon!

Shoe Inspiration

My shoes! 

There is something about a pair of cute shoes that makes me want to run just a little further.  

Update: Week 24

Another week down in the books, am I am down another 3.6lbs! I am feeling fortunate because this last week held challenges but they were easily defeated by just a few smarter choices.  I didn't do too well with all of my goals, I drank a pop and did not drink two liters of water a day.  The pop was clear and diet so I did resist the temptation of "the hard stuff," and I am happy with that.  As far as the water goes, two liters is a lot, especially when I drink coffee too. 

I got new jogging shoes this week, because they are ADORABLE, not because I needed them.  I am going to wait to use my new shoes so I can treat them as a celebration or reward.  I am not sure what I will be celebrating but I know it will be worth the wait.
 
This week I earned 42 activity points! Totally AWESOME!

I have been snacking on nectarines lately, the deliciousness of a peach minus the fuzz. 

I am still fighting the pop habit, hopefully I'll do a little better this week. 

My favorite work out song this week is Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel.

My goal is to continue working on my water consumption.  

 

Knowledge is Power

I found a pretty good article about health/fitness myths , it reiterated a few things for me and made me feel better about others.

For instance, it made me feel better about my inability to be into or even do yoga.  Maybe it is because I am doing a video instead of going to a class, but I just cannot keep interest in yoga. 

The article did shed light on my favorite form of activity/exercise, running/jogging.  Since heart disease is a part of my family history (and part of the reason I want to live a healthier life) it is always good to hear advice about my heart.  And in a time where I feel like many people my age are running marathons, I was happy to hear that JUST running 10-15 miles a week will add plenty of years to my life and that running, so no need to run a marathon to increase my heart health.

They also discussed eating while you exercise and hydrating before you exercise.  Neither of which I do, I usually exercise as soon as a get up in the morning, rarely drinking a glass of water before I do much less eating anything.  So I was happy to hear that doing so wouldn't hurt my routine.

Stretching, I NEVER stretch before I exercise.  I do however take a few minutes to warm-up, usually by walking, so I was happy to hear that stretching is more important post exercise.  As far as I am concerned it also feels better.  

My favorite myth was "you can loose weight just by exercising." I totally used to believe this, spend some time exercising then eat whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted with no results.  Now I use my exercise as a starting point, holding on to the idea of "6 pack abs are created in the kitchen not the gym."  I have also started to make better choices after I start my day with exercise.   

Thanks Weight Watchers!

I did it! I hit my first personal goal, as of Wednesday I have lost 52.4 pounds! I am very happy with myself and can't wait to hit my other goals and finally be a healthy weight.  Now that I am losing weight, I can't believe I ever let myself get that far out of control, it's kind of embarrassing, but the good thing is I know I can fix this!  

I am a believer in the Weight Watchers way of life it has helped my build my support system, I love my support system!

This week I have earned 17 activity points (probably more but I am bad at counting them).

My favorite food this week if any kind of berry (rasp, marion, blue, straw) I'll take any of them.

I am still trying to kick pop, I almost screwed that up last night out of frustration with work but I switched to water!

My favorite work out song is Love In An Elevator by Aerosmith. 

My goal for this week is to drink two liters of water everyday. (Needless to say I have been using the bathroom A LOT!) 

 My reward for hitting my goal was a trip to a Lavender Farm, this is not my lavender but I bundled a bunch of it and have it hanging around.  I also bought to plants (I can't say not to a pretty plant); lavender and rosemary. 

Here's to another successful week. 

Love

Love Endlessly...

Whimsy Loses

I have not written in a very long time, creative and fun things have been happening but I just have not been in the swing of writing.  However I have been making some life changes, so to document these changes and challenges I am going to blog them! 

I am becoming healthy. 

Approximately four weeks ago I started a healthier living program and I am happy to say that it is working!  The program is simple and I think the simplicity is part of what keeps me involved in the program.  I have also started exercising again and am committing to running a 4th of July 5k!  "Eating Healthy" has always been a challenge for me and will probably always pose some sort of a challenge for me but my goal is to live in the moment and to continue to look toward a horizon of healthy eating habits.

Challenges: 
This morning just putting on my workout gear was a challenge, but I did it and I hit the pavement. 

Overcoming the Challenges:
As I was moving across the pavement I didn't choose a point to focus on and pass, I focused on the horizon.  In my focusing I realized that the challenge/journey is day by day, hour by hour but there is no end goal just a horizon to move toward, a horizon of "betterness."  If a day or an hour are ruined, there will be another where the wrongs can be come rights.  As a car came down the road toward me I began to focus on it instead of the horizon, when I focused on the car (read: obstacle) my posture became slouched and I felt exhausted, when I changed my line of sight and focused on the horizon I stood straight and was stronger.  I came to the conclusion that I need to focus on the always moving, always changing horizon instead of on the daily or hourly obstacles.
  
Feelings:  My allergies are driving me crazy, so that's not good but I am feeling strong this week and for some reason relieved. 
Favorite "Healthy" food: red peppers 
Favorite exercise song: Eminem "Not Afraid"
Favorite "Un-healthy" food: Easter Candy!
Couch to 5K update:  Week 3 and loving every step

Motivation:  Look toward the horizon.
Loses: 2.2

Kepping busy with crafting!

With a lack of internet at home I have had trouble posting some of my creations, but without internet I have been able to create a lot of lovely things lately. Which is nice since I will be a part of my first craft show on the 19th of November!  I'll be selling some very fun things that I wave wanted to sell for a long time, I will share pictures of my merchandise before I head out to the craft fair but for now I would like to share two other projects I have been working on.  

 

This is the first project; I used two framed screens and cleaned them well, first with soap and water then with bleach and water.  After rinsing and drying the screens I spray painted them, they are a nice bright addition to my room.  I used paper clips as hooks to hang the necklaces, I was a little worried about how the paperclips would look, but you can barely tell they are there and they hold my necklaces well.

I have also been working on this lamp, I found the the actual lamp a few months ago, at that point it was a dirty looking white color so I decided to change that and painted it pink!  I found a couple of really neat lamp shade ideas the first one I found was with ribbon, then while reading the paper I found the idea for this coffee filter lamp shade and loved it!  The lamp shade is a little big for the lamp so I do think I will find these two new mates eventually, but for now they work well together!  Doesn't my bed side table look happy?

dressing dressers

This summer, along with a few of the other projects I have already shared, I refinished this dresser!  

It isn't an antique or anything special but it was a fun project and ended up being pretty cute.

Like everything else I started by sanding all of the pieces.  

This project was simple, I just had to choose a paint scheme and get down to painting.  

I love this green color and how it alternates with the white. 

I also repainted this side table, which I love! 

The happiness of finishing these projects is very fulfilling and each piece makes my bedroom look better than the next!

Happy Desks

I have still been working on multiple projects to keep myself busy and here are five of them! These children's school desks were my mom's and she gave them to me to refinish.  

I started by sanding all of the desk, which was a task, because they were not in the best of shape and needed a great deal of sanding to remove the rust.  After sanding I started by painting the red desk with regular old paint and quickly moved on to spray paint realizing that regular paint with take forever on the metal and would leave streaks.  The spray paint was very messy, but I was much happier using it than the regular paint and paint brush.  If you look close to the black and teal desk you'll see they still have the tape and paper on them from the spray paint.  

The wood tops of the desks and the seats and backs of the chairs were, like the metal parts, not in the best condition so they also needed to be sanded.  I chose to paint the wood parts with a clear polyurethane, giving everything a nice finish.  What I am going to do with five school desk you ask?  I am going to try and sell the pieces on Craig's List or possibly at a Craft Bazaar in the next few months.       

A New Chair: Part 2

This is the second project I tackled this summer, another chair, but one with a lot more work.  In its previous life it was the Elton John of chairs, I mean check out this purple velvet, you cannot be serious?  While the fabric on this chair was in better condition than the other chair, it smelled horrible and had to go the chair was also missing an arm, so I decided to remove the still existing arm to make things a little easier. 

There were a ton of tacks and decorative tacks in this pieces so it took a little more work than the other chair. I also had to remove all of this chairs padding.  

 This chair was then sanded and repainted, I chose white - obviously I am really into white furniture lately - then a few coats of polyurethane for shine and added staying power.

I also added the detail of the last piece with the decorative chair tacks.  

While posting these projects I am working on others, currently I am painting metal, which is a huge pain in the butt.  I am starting to think it is not worth my time to use paint and a brush, spray paint would be a great solution and a time saver.  So while I work on my fourth coat of paint I'll also be planning to buy spray paint.  I hope you enjoy the cute a comfy chair!

A New Chair

I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping myself busy lately and one of the things I have been doing is refinishing furniture.  I have really been enjoying the furniture projects, they certainly give me something to focus on and I think the outcome is pretty great too.  Here is the first project I completed.

 This is what the chair started out as, pretty ratty.  The fabric on the seat obviously needed some changing, so did the padding and the wood. 

 After I dismantled the chair I sand it, keep the board and the hardware to use again later.  Nothing else on this chair was really worth saving, the next step was painting.  I choose white.  Then I put new padding back on the chair and covered it with fabric. 

This was the outcome of my project!  This was simple and I would gladly redo more chairs like this, I think I will be on the look our for a few more like this more to make a mismatched dining room set.  I love the finished result of this project, and was very proud of myself, who's ready to see my next project? 

A cross country move

At this point is it obvious that I made it from Iowa to Portland Oregon, with Winston, Nana, Papa and all of my things!

The trip was eventful and full of driving (obviously). 

I finished work around 11:00am on the 31st of May and off we went, driving through Iowa and about 300 miles through Nebraska.  On June 1st we headed out early in the morning and made it the rest of the way through Nebraska, almost all the way through Wyoming.  Then at mile post three I smelled smoke and saw a huge plume coming out the back end of my car, EEEK!  We stopped and took a look at things, luckily the car still drove - just no power steering.  As we got back on the highway Nana got out her GPS and we found that there was a Chevy dealership a mere two miles away!  God was smiling on us, we were very blessed to be so close to a place that could help us so much!

After stopping at the dealership and making an appointment for the morning (Papa made the appointment, as I was a sobbing mess "my car, my car...") we drove another 2 miles to a hotel. The next morning we got up early and waited at the door of the dealership to open, come to find out the power steering line had come loose and the engine burned a hole in the line causing the fluid to hit the exhaust pipe which the caused smoke.  It would be another day until we could get the line from Denver and repairs would cost $500, there  was also no guarantee that the pump would work after the line had been run dry.

We opted to pay the pretty penny for a U-Haul truck and trailer, throwing my things in the truck and pulling my car with the trailer.  We left Wyoming around 11:00am, drove through Utah, Idaho and Oregon, making it to Washington around 2:00AM.  Exhausted but happy we collapsed in to bed, WE WERE HOME!

Along the way we did see some sights, including this list of license plates:
Iowa
Texas
North Dakota
Kansas
Nebraska
Indiana
Oklahoma
Illonios
Missouri
Florida
Arizona
Pennsylvania
California
Wisconsin
South Dakota
Colorado
North Carolina
Georgia
Utah
Idaho
Michigan
Washington
Tennesse
Ohio
Maine
Oregon
Arkansas
Mississippi
New Jersey

Canadian Provinces:
British Columbia
Ontario
Manatoba

Special Vehicles: 
The OSCAR MAYER WIENER MOBILE!!!!!

That's thirty states, three provinces and ONE Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, all in three days!