What an AMAZING week so far!!

I've gone walking everyday, except Sunday for 10 days now.  From anywhere from 2-4 miles.  Depending on time and how I'm feeling is how far I'll go on the walk.  This morning my walking buddy couldn't go with me, so I went solo and went about 2.75 miles.  I have so much more energy during the day if I get that walk in early in the morning.  On Sunday when I slept in and didn't go walking I felt SO tired all day!  It was crazy.  I'm still going to use Sunday as my day of walking rest, but I think I still want to get up early and maybe do something in the house instead of going out walking.  I just need that energy for the rest of the day that exercise gives me.  By the way, I would have never thought that I would be saying these things.  Not in a million years.  For me to like walking and exercising.  ha!  That's a new one.  I'm happy that I like it though.  And, I'm dreading winter, even though we're in the middle of summer right now out here, I'm dreading when winter comes and I won't be able to go on my morning walk.  I'm almost tempted to rearrange my house and save up some money to get a treadmill.  I would get a used one of course, but I just can't fathom not being able to get up early and walk.  I'll have to figure something out.  I've got a few months before I really need to worry about that.

Now onto the other AMAZING news!!  On Monday I had weighed in at 281, 19 pounds lost.  Tuesday I was down to 280 and then today, Friday, I'm down to 276!!!  24 POUNDS LOST!!!  Booyah!!!  hahaha.  I'm so excited about this loss!  I'm sure I won't continue losing like this every week,  but it's nice to experience it!  My official weigh-in is on Monday, so I've got 2.5 more days before I weigh in that day.  I hope I can maybe lose one more pound over the weekend.  That would be AMAZING!  We'll see.  I've been going on a low carb forum lately, and they call this kind of a loss a WHOOSH!  I'm happy for my whoosh!  Todd had his own little whoosh since Monday too, he's down 3 lbs so far this week!!  Way to go Todd!!  He's losing a little slower than me doing low carb, averaging about a pound a week, so he was excited to see that he had lost 3 lbs in the last 5 days!!

Oh!!  I'm also going to look in to Zumba classes in the town closest to me.  The dance studio that they do it at always looks closed, but that might be because they block off the windows, I'm assuming for privacy of those that are doing the classes.  That might be fun though!

Just Keep Walking, Just Keep Walking....

Walking, walking, walking.....  I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo, but instead of swimming, I'm walking.  :)  I started walking last Tuesday.  I started with a little over a mile and just today I walked a little over 3.5 miles.  Sunday is my day of rest, but I felt so lazy yesterday not walking.  I'm really enjoying walking and getting in that exercise that my body needs so badly.  It feels good to use some muscles that haven't been used much in the past.  I don't walk fast, but everyday I've been pushing myself a little harder to go a little farther.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to start walking a little faster. I've got a walking buddy too.  It's nice to have someone to keep me accountable.  I can't just sleep in and skip the walking because I know I have someone waiting for me.  Although I do feel like I'm holding her back a little since I walk kind of slow, she doesn't seem to mind, which is very nice!  When she asked if she could join, I told her that as long as she walks my pace, then she was more than welcome to join.  It is nice to have the company.

The weight loss is going good.  I lost another 2 pounds this week, so I'm down to 281 right now.  I was really wishing I'd be down to 279 today, but I'll take the 2 pound loss.  :)  Maybe I'll get to 279 for next week's weigh-in.

I'm really excited about my goal of getting down or below 200 lbs for my birthday next year.  That is really pushing me even harder.  It gives me something to look forward to.  Something to strive for and try harder to attain.  I've got 8 months and 11 days, 257 days all together until that goal.  If I lose 10 lbs a month, then I should be right on track to reaching that goal.  I'll have to push myself pretty hard, but I think it's reachable.  I'm on the right track so far!  I started low carb May 6, so two months will be July 6, and I'm sure I'll be down 10 lbs for my second month.

So, my mini goal for this week is to lose another 2 pounds and to keep walking everyday this week, except for Sunday.  :)

A reminder to myself

When I look in the mirror, I don't see this.  You know why?  I suck it in.  Even when I pose for pictures I suck it in.  These pictures, I did not pose for.  These were taken the day before I started low carb.  

May 5, 2012.  I was almost 300 lbs.  With my clothes on that day, when I weighed-in after the party, I was actually 299, then I subtracted 3 lbs for clothes and that's how I got 296.  Sigh....  I'm posting these to remind me that I don't want to look like this.  Not now.  Not ever.

Goals

I want to set some goals for myself, and I thought today would be a good day to do that.  My long term goal, is to lose 150 lbs.  When I talk about the weight I've lost, I'm talking about since the very beginning, when I weighed 300 lbs.  So, I ultimately would like to weigh 150 lbs.  Now, I have never weighed that much.  I remember weighing 200 lbs when I was 12, so who knows how young I was when I last weighed 150 lbs.  So, I don't know what I'll look like at that weight, and honestly, I might think that I'm too skinny at that weight.  So, for now that is my goal, I might change it when I get closer to that weight.  I might want to be 170, or I might want to be 130, I really don't know yet. 

A shorter term goal that I'd like to make for myself is to be under 200 lbs by my 30th birthday on March 8, 2013.  At my weigh-in this morning I'm now at 283, I lost 4 lbs since last week!!  So, I would like to lose 84 lbs in 263 days, or 8 months and 18 days.  I think I can do it! 

An even shorter term goal that I'd like to make for myself is to be able to fit into the six or seven pairs of size 22 jeans that I have in my closet.  I'm currently a size 24, even when I weighed 300 lbs I was wearing a 24.  I go down in sizes VERY slowly, unfortunately, so I'm not sure what weight I'll be when I can get comfortably into those pants.  When I was in high school, I had lost a bit of weight, and was down to about 230 and was wearing a size 20, but now that I've had kids, my body is different.  So, it's a guessing game for me when I'll go down in sizes or what I'll weigh when I'm at those sizes.

So, those are my goals for right now.  I'm sure it will take probably two or more years to get to my final goal, but having smaller goals is always a good way to stay on track.   

Update

I haven't had much time to update this blog.  But, I'm still going strong.  After being slightly off track for a week while in California for vacation and gaining 3 lbs, I've lost that weight and am now down to 285 now.  Feeling really good and enjoying cooking lots of low carb recipes that I've found on Pinterest and low carb blogs.  It makes things so much more enjoyable to have new ideas and recipes to try out!

I need to start exercising and with the kids home from school now for summer, it's kind of hard to find time.  If I break out the kinect, then they want to do it with me and I can't do things the way I want to with them right next to me.  And, if I wake up early, they will too.   *sigh*    And then at night, after they go to sleep I'm tired too and don't want to exercise.  I'm almost thinking of getting up super early, like 5:30 or 6:00, which is early for me, and just going walking.  That way my husband will still be home, asleep :) and if I leave quietly the kids probably won't wake up.  Maybe I'll start that on Monday. 

Other than that, I'm loving the low carb way of eating.  It's really not that hard and I don't feel deprived.  :)