20% & My New Goal!

Today marked the last day of my third round of the Biggest Loser challenge with my board ladies! Since January 1st I have lost a total of 7 pounds (4.52% of my body weight). Since I started this journey June 18, 2010 I have lost a total of 37.4 pounds which is 20.17% of my body weight!



Last Week: 148.3
This Week: 148.0
Wk 13 Loss: 0.3 lbs
Total Loss: 7 lbs (37.4 lbs)

Thanks to a nasty cold that I have been fighting for the last two weeks, I haven't really had much energy to run (or do any exercise for that matter). So I am really happy that I have not only been able to maintain my weight but even lose a bit more! I have been very vigilant in regards to my diet and it's really made a big difference. It also helps that I can't really taste much thanks to my runny nose! Ha! I am hoping to get back into the swing of things really soon, especially since as today ends one round it's also the start of the next round!

I have set my goals and it's a simple one this time. As I get closer to my goal weight, it is coming off a lot slower. I like setting small (realistic) goals because it's really discouraging when you don't reach a goal that you have set for yourself. So my goal for the next 13 weeks is to weigh less than the Doc and maintain it! It has been almost 3 years since he started his weight loss journey and he lost 40 pounds. His average weight now is around 144. That means I need to lose a solid 5 pounds to reach that goal. That would also put me at my wedding weight which was 8.5 years ago! I am ready to get going!

Wind Him Up & Watch Him Go!

Evan's getting braver and braver! He started walking around the room at the Rec today by pushing a sit and spin, so I decided to see how he would do with the wheely cart. It was a little fast for him at first but he caught on quick! Once he masters his sense of balance, he'll be walking on his own in no time!

Forgive the bad video quality, all I had was my phone today, which is better than nothing!

SHORT Shorts!

For as long as I can remember, I haven't put on a pair of shorts even in the dead of summer. Instead I wore Bermuda shorts or capri's, anything to cover up my THUNDER thighs! Ha! So anyway, I was out shopping last week, and of course I had the boys with me making trying on clothes pretty much impossible. I decided to grab a bunch of different styles to buy and try on at home and then return what I didn't like. One of those items was a pair of 5" shorts (keeping in mind the shortest pair of "shorts" I wore were 12" Bermuda's).

I was curious to see how they would look on me and imagine my joy when I tried them on and they didn't look gross!! The reason I never wore them before was because shorts that short were pretty much tight around my upper thigh and let's just say it wasn't pretty! Dare I say I might actually enjoy bathing suit shopping this year!!



Fitting into SHORT shorts was just the beginning of a great week in my weight loss journey! Today I finally broke through that brick wall that was the 150's. I haven't been in the 140's since right around my wedding 8 and a half years ago!



Last Week: 150.0
This Week: 148.3
Wk 12 Loss: 1.7 lbs
Total Loss: 6.7 lbs (37.1 lbs overall)

That means, that since starting this journey, 9 months ago today, to be exact, I have lost the equivalent of my four year old! Bring on summer so I can rock my new SHORT shorts!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we headed to NH for our annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration and a delicious corned beef and cabbage dinner!



This was Evan's first St. Patrick's Day and he was a big fan of the corned beef dinner, though really there isn't anything you put in front of that kid that he won't eat! I only wish I snapped a picture but by the time I thought of it, he had gobbled it all up! But I have this one of him taking a little nap before dinner!



It was such a nice day outside that I packed the boys rain boots so that they could play outside and since there is still lots of snow left that was melting it was nice and muddy! But they had lots of fun and that is all that matters!





Hope everyone enjoyed their green beer and corned beef! Erin Go Bragh!!

Under Agreement!

Last week we headed north in search of our dream home. On our first trip up (Saturday, March 5th) we saw some really nice houses but none of them felt like "the one" to us, I wanted to feel like I was at "home". We decided that maybe it would be worth a second trip up north, as there was one particular listing we had not seen that we saw online, and our Realtor had mentioned a couple other listings that he could try to get us in, so we planned to go back on Thursday, March 10th.

On Monday we received an email from our Realtor, apparently he started to look at some old expired listings to see if any of them would be listing their properties again. He attached an old listing sheet for a house over in another part of town that we hadn't really thought about looking in before. We drove up on Thursday morning and started our tour. We were going to be seeing another 6 houses, plus we were going for a second look at our top choice from Saturday. Already after seeing the first three houses we knew we were going to have a better day. We were a little discouraged after that first day about not finding "the one". Now we had already seen a few that would be perfect!

We got to the second to last house late afternoon and when we pulled up to the driveway, even with the property buried in about 8 inches of snow still, I was in love! It probably helped that I had seen the exterior picture from the old listing that was obviously taken in spring/summer, which showcased the house even more! Since the house wasn't even listed, and currently being rented, the owners had a friend of theirs give us the tour. It was even better than I could have expected. It definitely gave me the warm fuzzy feeling I was hoping for! So we got home looked at all the pictures from our tours, talked and talked it over, looked at all our pictures and decided that we wanted send them an offer. The next day they sent us a counter. We had already discussed our options if that were to happen and after talking it over with our Realtor we sent them back a FINAL offer. They accepted, but it wasn't until today, 4 DAYS LATER, that we finally got the singed contract back and officially became that much closer to our new home!

The exterior from the old listing in spring

Close But NO Cigar!

So I didn't make it to the 140's this week but you cannot really get any closer than that! Ha!



Last Week: 150.9
This Week: 150.0
Wk 11 Loss: -0.9
Total Loss: 5 lbs (35.4 lbs overall!!)

This was also a very big week for me running wise! I chickened out last week running at 6mph on the treadmill, but this week I got out of my head and went for it. As I was got to a 1/2 mile, I was still feeling pretty good so I decided to keep running at 6mph. I wanted to make it a mile! So I pushed myself (which got a bit harder after 7 minutes!) and did it! I ran at 6mph for one whole mile! I cannot believe it! I ran a TEN MINUTE mile! It was one of my running goals for 2011 and I am pretty darn proud of myself for reaching it!!

Mark My Words

That number WILL be a FOUR next week! There are three weeks left in this round and I WILL be in the 140's even if it kills me!!



Last Week: 151.9
This Week: 150.0
Wk 10 Loss: -1.0 lbs
Total Loss: 4.1 lbs (34.5 overall)

Forgetting about the scale for a minute though, last night marked my best run yet! I ran for 35 minutes at an average speed of 5.5mph, including running for a 1/2 mile at 5.9mph (I thought about trying 6mph but I chickened out). This run also marked my fastest 2 miles (21:17) and my fastest 5k (33:07). Next time I won't let myself chicken out, I will run that 1/2 mile at 6mph, I need to just get out of my head.

Evan: 10 Months

Today Evan is 10 months old. Hard to believe that in two short months he'll be ONE! He's finally starting to sleep better, not 100% through the night yet, but he is no longer up THREE (sometimes FOUR) times a night. What is nice though is that now if he does wake up I don't usually have to go in, he fusses himself back to sleep on his own. On really good nights he is down at 7 and up around 5am to nurse and then back to sleep until about 6:15-6:30am.

He has been officially off baby food for a month now. He eats what we eat and when I say eat, I mean EAT! I have started referring to him as our little Garbage Disposal, most nights eating more than David and Shaun COMBINED! Last week he even tried Salmon and he loved it! He's never really refused a food that was put in front of him, which can be a challenge since he still only has the two bottom teeth, making chewing a challenge. He's been pretty fussy the last few nights and so I am thinking it could possibly be new teeth but I haven't seen anything yet.

He is into everything now, and he especially likes sitting in front of the TV stand to play with Daddy's X-box. He likes turning it on and off because it makes a ding sound. We have started keeping a toy in front of it so he won't touch it, but he just found that he can move over to the DVD player. Other crazy things he's been doing is trying to climb the stairs and pulling plates out of the dishwasher.


On the one hand I am glad he lets me put him down more often (he's still quite the velcro baby!) but on the other hand, he is just getting into ALL kinds of trouble! Thankfully during those times the other two boys will help me out and keep an eye on him. David likes to say that he is "in charge!". That way I can get dinner prepared and not have to worry he's getting into too much trouble!!