Shoes to Lose

I've never been able to wear my friends clothes. I've never even considered asking. I've always been the fat friend. I used to be so jealous of other girls that had 4 times the wardrobe because they could share and swap back and forth. The only person I've been able to share clothes with was my sister and I haven't been able to do that for years. This past weekend, that changed. I was with some friends and sat down on a bench that had recently been sprayed off. My whole back side was soaked. I was upset because I knew this meant that I had to spend the rest of the evening in soggy jeans. Then one of my friends piped up, "You can borrow a pair of mine!" and rushed off to her bedroom to find something suitable. I had a quick flash back to "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" when they come up with the idea to share pants and the larger of the girls says, "You think that a pair of pants that fits all three of you is going to fit...all of t

This year I've found a lot of motivation in competitions like the biggest loser group I participated in. I also was inspired by the thought that if I could lose just 2 lbs a week, I could lose over 100 lbs in a year. There is a third inspiration I haven't shared with you. Back in March, Matthew and I booked our anniversary cruise. This November will mark our second year of marriage and we're celebrating by taking an 8 day cruise down to Acapulco, Mexico and I couldn't be more excited! Since the time we booked it, I've had visions of what my vacation pictures could look like. How healthy I'd look. Last November we went on a cruise and our pictures were so bad I didn't really want to show anyone. I was so embarrassed of my size. We didn't even purchase any formal pictures on the cruise because I couldn't find one that I liked. This year will be different. This year, I'll be hunting down the professional photographers on the ship an posing for all t

If you knew how I'd been eating this past week, it would come to no surprise to you that I gained on the scale again. My Saturday morning weigh-ins have become things I dread now when they used to be one of the highlights of my week. I felt like all of my efforts were validated and that I was headed in the right direction. Now it seems like I'm getting a test back that I know I didn't study for. I'm not really sure why I'm off my groove most days of the week. I can understand allowing myself special occasion food, but I'm having a hard time deciding what counts as a special occasion. I remember when I first started my diet I had to come to terms with not always eating what I wanted, whenever I wanted it. I had to understand that just because something sounded good, didn't mean that I should eat it. I'm finding myself falling back into that hole more and more lately and I need to find a way to reel myself back in. Speaking of special occasion food, this l

Do you guys remember way back in June when I told you to look forward to a review and a giveaway from CSN stores? Well, that day has finally arrived. The hardest part about this giveaway was choosing what I wanted. There are so many items in so many stores! They carry everything from dining tables , to fitness equipment, to shoes and accessories. I browsed through many, many different stores but kept going back to the shoe section. (Can you blame me?) Being a good weight loss blogger I would have purchased something in the health and fitness section, but where is the fun in being good all the time? After several hours pouring over the different shoes, I picked a pair and submitted my order. Immediately afterward I got an email telling me my order had been received and that it would ship from the warehouse within two days. The first day came and went with no news from the store. The second day I received an email telling me they were checking with the warehouse to see why my item had no

As I approach the 100 lb mark, I have done a lot of reflecting about the changes I've made. I know that it is all too easy to slip back into my old ways. Its always easier to just not care but this certainly isn't something I want for myself and my future. I need to make sure that the changes I'm making are truly lifestyle changes and that they are sustainable. I've done some experimenting. I've stopped counting my calories religiously and I've loosened the reigns on what I'm eating. This resulted in a gain of 2.9 lbs on the scale. Its certainly not the result I was looking for but I think that I'm finding my balance and deciding what is important to me. I don't want to always be the person at diner ordering a salad with no cheese or bacon and dressing on the side. I don't want my family and friends to plan meals around "What I can eat." I don't want to log my calories and exercises every day. I do want to go on a date with my hu

For those of you that don't know, Matthew and I were participating in a friendly round of couples biggest loser. Well.....Drum roll please.....We won! This news is coming a little late as the competition ended a little over two weeks ago but I realized that I never shared that with you. Matt and I lost an average of 16% of our body weight in 11 weeks. Holy smokes! Matt did such a wonderful job and lost 60 lbs. Losing weight is much easier when you're married to an inspiration. I'd like to send a shout out to my brother and sister-in-law who made the competition a challenge and kept the competition steep. They lost a combined 13.9%. Today I wore a size 14. 14! I'm still shocked at that number. The smallest size I ever remember wearing is a 12 and I wore that when I was in jr. high. In high school I wore an 18 so I'm not quite sure when 14 got jumped, but lets just say I was young. The pants I got from my sister when she came down to visit nearly a month ago. She

Lyndsay over at Thinspiration tagged me in a question game where I answer 8 questions she made up and then make my own questions and tag my friends. So here goes.... Who's your favorite Muppet? I never watched the Muppets. I'd probably have to say Kermit just because he puts up with Miss Piggy. What's your favorite school supply? Pencil boxes. They were always such a big deal in elementry. I've been considering getting a funky one for my work desk. What's the best costume you've ever worn? One year I went as a Chip-munk. I work a monk robe with little bags of chips pinned all over it. I'm all about the play-on-word costumes. What's your least favorite word? Anyways. Its anyway. There is no need for the "s" at the end. You covered all of the ways available when you said "Any". If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be? Virginia, Alaska wouldn't be too bad either. Who's your favorite Care Bear? Are th

So my friend Dawne over at " It's My Time " always talks about falling in love with exercise. I agree that it is definitely something that will need to happen in order to be able to maintain this weight loss. To be honest, I'm not in love with the elliptical. There. I said it. I know it is surprising that I don't enjoy moving in the same spot, looking at the same thing, but I just don't. Lately I've really enjoyed riding my bike but let's be realistic. I live in Utah. In a few months that isn't going to be an option for me. I dabbled a bit in tennis, but I was really bad at it right off the back (who would have suspected) and I ended up just being really frustrated. I'd like to think I'm going to be a runner, but I have pretty bad knees and I'm not sure that will ever happen. I have, however, found a fondness in doing yoga. It was very unexpected. I tried it out a little at the beginning of this year when I was much larger and it just w