Finally

The house is on the market! Last night after the realtor left felt so weird because I didn't have a project to do. I took Friday off work and finished painting the deck and patio. We had extra deck paint so I painted the front of the shed too. I would have done the sides but there were way too many bugs over there for me. Saturday was spent getting the house cleaned and Sunday was spent putting a new fan in the living room. The old one broke at the last minute. I think it's going to be nice for a few days to relax but then it will probably start to drive me crazy to not have anything to do.

I really hope the house sells quickly. We're excited to move but I think we'll be sad too. We've put a lot into this house and now that all the work is done, it really looks great. I don't think it would be sad if we were upgrading to a better house, but knowing we're going into an apartment for a couple of years kind of sucks. I know it's for the better in the long run though. I would rather sacrifice now than struggle for the rest of our lives. We have debt but it's all old debt. We make enough money that we're not having to charge things, but we can't pay off our debt either which means money is always tight and it will be a long time before we get a second car. Not having a car is driving me crazy and we should be able to pay off the credit cards and our car in two years in an apartment. After that, we should be able to buy a new house and be comfortable.

Somehow, I actually lost 1.2 lbs. last week. I weighed in at 185 even on Friday. I ate pizza like 6 times with all the projects we had going on so I'm not sure how it happened, but I'll take it. Hopefully, now that I'll have more time to prepare my meals, it'll pick up again to the 2 lb. range. Of course, I'm happy with anything below 0 but the faster the better.

I think Lily's teething pain has subsided for now. We had a rough couple of weeks while her top two teeth popped through but she seems to be less fussy and sleeping a lot better now. Pete's family all have this hereditary gap in their two front teeth that they all hate and they were all hoping Lily wouldn't get but I think she's getting it. There's definitely some gum with no teeth in between the two top teeth. I said she'll have to get braces and Pete said no that'll just keep the boys away.

Best week so far!

I lost 2.2 lbs. this week bringing me down to 186.2. That's my biggest week so far and I'm not quite sure how I did it. Pete and I went to Outback last weekend for our anniversary and I definitely didn't watch what I ate and yesterday I had a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy's with fries. I try to balance it out when I eat something bad though. I'll eat a lot of veggies or something for dinner. Plus, I'm sure all this work around the house is helping. I power washed the deck for 6 hours straight yesterday and I still have to do the other half. The house is really starting to look good though so hopefully it will sell quick.

I'm back.

I haven't posted in a really really long time. Someone asked me about it so I figured I'd give it a go again. I quit writing after I started the shred because I was gaining weight. I did the shred 7 out of 9 days and gained 5 lbs. I know I was building muscle but that just isn't my goal right now. I'll worry about muscle after I lose the weight. So I started doing weight watchers again. I've been on it for three weeks and have lost 5.8lbs. I weighed in at 188.4 last Friday.

I was doing a biggest loser workout dvd. It's the cardio max one. I highly recommend it for someone who's wanting to lose weight, not necessarily build muscle. It's a great dvd and there are three different workouts you can customize. I "was" doing it because we've decided we're going to try and sell our house and we've been working really hard on getting it ready so I haven't had time to do the dvd. I've literally been working from the time I get home until the time I go to bed. The house is really starting to look good though so hopefully it will sell quick.

We're going to get an apartment and I know to most people that sounds like a step backwards and maybe it is but I really think it's the best thing for us right now. Our house is a nice house for a young family just starting out but it's not what we want in the long run so it isn't worth it to me to keep sinking money into it. I will never be able to put a big bath tub in the master bath and there's not even a yard Lily can play in. At least most apartments have a playground or at least a section of flat grass she can run around in. Being in an apartment will let us pay off our credit cards and hopefully our car. Then we can get a second car again and start house shopping, maybe even build our forever house. These are our goals with downsizing to an apartment so hopefully people will understand that and we won't take too much flak for it. There are sacrifices to be made when you decide to have one parent stay home and this is one of them.

Lily still only has the two teeth and she's crawling around like crazy and pulling herself up. No walking yet though. We had to take her out of her bath seat because she stood up in it and fell. She didn't hurt herself since I was right there but she could have. Now she hates the bath again. I don't know if it just scared her when she fell or if she just doesn't like for her butt to actually be on the tub but it's not fun. She tries to get out and I'm terrified she's gonna slip out of my hands and hit her head. So needless to say, she doesn't get daily baths anymore. I went back to every other day. It's less stressful for both of us. It's hard to believe she's almost 10 months old!

Anyway, that's pretty much the update on us. I'll try to post at least once a week. Probably on Fridays after I weigh in.

Woo hoo!

I finished C25k last night. After taking 3 lazy days off, I decided to just go ahead and go for the 30 minute run and I did it. I even kicked the speed up a notch for the last 5 minutes. Technically, I skipped about 4 runs but that's ok. The point is to get you where you can run 30 minutes or 3 miles and I ran for 30 minutes. I ran really slow though. Right now I'm running about a 14:15 mile. I'm going to kick the speed up a notch every run now until I get a 9:30 - 10 min. mile. If I have an exceptionally hard run, I'll just repeat it instead of speeding up but I think I should be able to move up pretty quickly. Each notch only shaves off about 20 seconds from your mile. If I do that and run at least 3 times a week, I should be at a 10 min. mile in 7 weeks, well, 8 since I'm going on vacation next week.

Last night I was sitting out on the deck cooling down after my run, and I looked down at my knees and realized I can see my knee caps now. That was exciting. I can see a lot of difference in my legs and arms already, I just wish some of the weight would come from this baby belly now. I've always heard it's harder to lose weight after you have a baby and I didn't understand until now. I've been dropping lots of weight but the belly is just hanging in there. I know it will come off in time though. Lily's not even 6 months old yet. I think we might try for baby #2 in about a year and I'd like to be done by then. My pregnancy was so hard and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was so big before I got pregnant so I want to be in better shape for the next one. I think a year to lose 40 lbs. is a realistic goal.

Food

I was getting really frustrated with not losing weight the last couple of weeks so I started looking around for other diet options. There's a site called sparkpeople.com where you can put in all your information and it will give you a calorie range to eat in if you want to lose weight. So I punched in what I would normaly eat on a weight watchers day and it was only between 1000-1200 calories. I'm pretty sure 1200 is starvation mode. Sparkpeople says I should be eating between 1330 and 1660. So I've upped my food intake. I've never been one to starve herself in order to lose weight. I want to do it the healthy way. It's really kind of hard to increase the calories. I haven't been hungry but everything I've been eating has been healthy so I'm just adding in things like an extra tablespoon of peanut butter or some butter on my veggies. I've been doing it for 3 days now and I got on the scale and it said 188.8 lbs. Progress! It doesn't really count because I only count what I weigh on Saturday but at least it shows a move in the right direction.

Now a confession... I've been lazy and haven't run in two days. I got really bummed about the no weight loss thing and was just really struggling to find my motivation. Now that I've seen the scale move again though, it's back. I'm gonna go for a 28 min. run tonight. I did get dressed in my work out clothes last night but Lily had a tough time going to sleep so it was 9 before I could run. I've done it that late before but I used it as an excuse last night.

Weekend

The weekend was frustrating to say the least. Friday night I didn't run because I was just in a funk. Saturday we weigh in and I lost..... drum roll please..... nothing. So frustrating. Pete lost 1.4. It was his smallest week so far but I'm so proud of him. He's doing great. So after we weighed in, I sat on the couch and sulked in a tub of fat free cool whip. It's a good thing there wasn't any ice cream in our house. I sulked for about an hour and then I finally decided there's only a slim chance I could do all this running and stay fat, there's 100% chance I'll gain it all back plus some if I quit now. So on to the treadmill I went. I ran Saturday and Sunday so I only have one more 25 minute run left before it goes up to 28 minutes. We took pictures this time so every month or so I can take new ones and hopefully be able to tell a difference in those even if the scale doesn't move. I'm going to do my last 25 minute run tonight and then I might take tomorrow off before I do the 28 minute run. Just depends on how my legs feel during my run tonight. Either way, I should be able to get in at least 1 30 minute run before I go on vacation.

Other than the weight stuff, the weekend was nice. I bought Lily a new bathing suit since her chunky butt won't fit into the one I bought on clearance last year. I got her some white sandals too. This week, I need to go through her closet and make sure she has enough summer clothes that fit her for the trip. I started to do that this weekend but after we struggled through the bathing suit, she was pretty cranky.

End of week 6

Finished week 6 of c25k last night with a 25 minute run. I didn't want to do it at all. That's why I hate taking week days off, it makes it so much easier to skip the next night. But I did it after a little encouragement from a friend of mine. I wish I could say it was easy but I can't. It felt good though. Once I got to that 15 min mark and knew I was more than halfway through, I knew I could finish. I was pouring sweat when I was done. I also did the second day of the pushups, crunches and squats. There are 3 more 25 min runs before they go up to 28 min. Tomorrow is weigh in day. I really hope it pays off this week. I need a good number. I've been struggling with my motivation this week. It seems like I'm working so hard and even though I can see my legs and arms getting smaller, until I see that scale move, I feel like I haven't gotten anywhere.