Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Day 16 - Hoping to Hold the Lead

The results were posted for the first weigh-in and looks like I'm in the lead! But what's that saying..."The top is a very lonely place." Haha I've got a lot of work to do to keep the close competitors out of first place.

Not too much more to say today, but I saw this quote on Pinterest.com and it struck a personal cord with me today:

Yesterday's Recap:
1/30
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Banana
Lunch: Salad - lettuce, green peppers, onion, carrot, roasted red pepper dressing - and some tuna salad on top (canned tuna, little mayo, relish)
Snack: Apple and mixed nuts
Dinner: (thanks to my future hubby for shaking it up) Spicy chicken breast with sweet caramelized onions, brown rice, and peas
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 1 hour ZUMBA!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 15 - The Results Are In! (First Weigh In)

Drum roll please................. -10 pounds!!!!! That's a 5.32% loss!

Today was our first official weigh in and this weekend was full of challenges so I'm thrilled!

Saturday we went to the JMU @ GMU basketball game. Before the game, we met up with some friends at Fat Tuesdays. Challenge #1: not drinking beer and getting rowdy with a bunch of JMU fans.

Next, we walked over to the basketball arena. Challenge #2: not buying snacks in the convenient store even though I was hungry and wanted to so badly. I brought some snacks to the bar (grapes and apple slices), but it just wasn't cutting it. I went into the convenient store to "see if they had anything healthy" (aka drool over all the yummy goodies). I came out with a Special K meal bar, which was delicious but not filling whatsoever.

Then we finally made it to the arena. Challenge #3: I was bombarded with the smell of all things delicious: hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, nachos, BBQ, pizza, cotton candy, ice cream, etc. I was really impressed with the size of the Patriot Center, but hey I guess if you don't have a football team.... :) The game was fun (even though we lost) but I was soooo hungry! The banana I snuck in my purse helped a little.

We invited some friends over after game...enter Challenge #4: hungry boys wanted Chinese food...my weakness. As soon as the take-out menu came out, I put on my tennis shoes, hooked Jasper up, and immediately went out the door for a run. Anything to get me away for the tempting General Tso Chicken and egg rolls.

Challenge #5: When I got back there was lots of beer drinking going on so I posted up on the couch with my bottle of water. Good self control, right?

Sunday at home was pretty typical...went to church, slept on the couch most of the day while Seth watched sports, a couple house chores. Lucky for us we don't really have any snack foods around because both of us were pretty hungry all day. Because of my naps, my eating schedule was completely thrown off. But I guess it all worked out in the end because I was pretty pumped to see what the scale had to say this morning :)

2 weeks down...7 to go!

Weekend recap:
1/27
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Grapes
Lunch: Salad - lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, onion, carrot, Balsamic Vinaigrette 1 calorie spray - and some chicken salad on top (canned chicken, little mayo, onion)
Snack: Almonds
Dinner: Seafood stir fry - leftover seafood mix from the seafood counter at Safeway, brown rice, and broccoli with Ken's lite Asian sesame with ginger and soy dressing
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 1 hour walk/jog with Jasper

1/28
Breakfast: Banana smoothie (cooked oatmeal, 2 bananas, light vanilla yogurt, and ice)
Snack: Grapes and apple slices
Lunch: Special K meal bar and a banana
Dinner: Catfish, couscous, and zucchini
Water: not sure...probably three or four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 30 minute walk/jog with Jasper and lots of walking around GMU campus

1/29
(Late) Breakfast: Banana smoothie (cooked oatmeal, 2 bananas, light vanilla yogurt, and ice) not as good with fresh bananas....let them sit and get brown first!
Lunch: Hard boil egg and a couple spoon fulls of tuna
Dinner: Tilapia, rice, and green beans
Water: not sure...not very much at all :(
Exercise: rest

Friday, January 27, 2012

Day 12 - Egg-cellent!

Steven: the amount of eggs that you eat is nasty
Sent at 9:57 AM on Friday

Well thanks brother! We may look alike but we certainly has different taste! And just for that comment I'm posting this picture:

I've never met an egg I didn't like...(here comes my Bubba Gump moment) scrambled, fried, over easy, over medium, poached, hard boiled, deviled....egg in salad, egg on a burger, I could go on and on!

But why do I eat eggs everyday (other than because they're delicious)? Here are some health benefits I found:
  1. A randomized control trial led by Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of infection and obesity at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center found that overweight and obese women who consumed a breakfast of two eggs a day (for five days a week or more) for 8 weeks, as part of a low-fat diet with a 1,000 calorie deficit:
    • lost 65 percent more weight
    • had 83 percent greater reductions in waist circumference
    • reported greater improvements in energy levels than their dieting counterparts who consumed a bagel breakfast of the same calories
  2. Eggs are great for the eyes! Researchers found that people who eat eggs every day lower their risk of developing cataracts, also because of the lutein and zeaxanthin in eggs. **Go to know because cataracts runs in the family :( **
  3. They are a good source of choline. One egg yolk has about 300 micrograms of choline. Choline is an important nutrient that helps regulate the brain, nervous system, and cardiovascular system. **Getting smarter by the egg :) **
  4. They contain the right kind of fat. One egg contains just 5 grams of fat and only 1.5 grams of that is saturated fat.
  5. Eggs are one of the only foods that contain naturally occurring vitamin D.
  6. Eggs may prevent breast cancer. In one study, women who consumed at least 6 eggs per week lowered their risk of breast cancer by 44%. **Hell yea - shout out to my Grammy who kicked breast cancers ass!**
  7. Eggs are cost effective! I'm definitely more likely to buy a pallet of eggs for $5 that will last a while!
  8. Not only have studies shown that eggs do not significantly affect cholesterol levels in most individuals, but the latest research suggests that eating whole eggs may actually result in significant improvement in one's blood lipids (cholesterol) profile.
So there....enjoy something egg-quisite!!

Yesterday's recap:
1/26
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Mandarin orange
Lunch: Progresso Light Soup: Chicken and Vegetables - with some leftover couscous
Snack: Grapes
Dinner: Stuffed peppers! See below for the awesome recipe I created.
Water: five 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 45 minute walk/jog with Seth and Jasper (which I kind of regret because they walk/jog too fast for me haha)

Stuffed Peppers:
Saute 1/4 onion and one clove of garlic in a pan with some extra virgin olive oil. Once the onions are translucent, add about a half pound of ground turkey. When the meat is done, add one can of roasted tomatoes. Heat up the tomatoes and then add some cooked brown rice (I cooked a half cup of uncooked brown rice in our steamer beforehand). Cut two green peppers in half lengthwise and remove the insides. Lay the peppers in a glass baking dish, load them up with the stuffing, and sprinkle some shredder cheese on top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Eat up :)

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Day 11 - H2-Ho

So I'm wondering what is so different this year that I would lose 7 pounds before the first weigh in?? The only thing I can think of that is different is that I drink a LOT of water now....I mean a LOT....I've become an H2-Ho (get it? get it?)

Maybe since I drink so much water and have to pee all the time, I'm getting exercise walking to the bathroom?? Haha I duno but I did a little research and found a pretty cool site: 10 Ways How Water Helps You Lose Weight

You can go to the site to read the extra details but here is the list (along with my commentary of course!):
  1. Water suppresses the appetite - hmm the jury is still out on this one.
  2. Water helps reduce cholesterol - good to know. I got a pretty scary voicemail from the doctor last year after I had some blood work done: "Hi Amy, this is the doctor's office. Can you please give us a call back regarding your test results?" First thought: I'm dying. Second thought: I'm dying. Haha not quite...but my cholesterol was approaching an unhealthy level. They recommended diet and exercise...of course.
  3. Water helps to tone muscles - the first thing I think of when I hear muscles + women = body builders...yuck. I'm not sure how much I want to "tone" my muscles, I just don't want to be flabby anymore. But hey, if water will help me look like this, I'm in:
  4. Water is necessary for proper digestion - I'm gonna disagree with this one and leave it at that :)
  5. Water helps the liver to function - well this combined with no alcohol...my liver must be a happy camper!
  6. Water helps soothe digestive problems - see comment #4
  7. The right amount of water causes the body to stop retaining water - this is probably the most interesting fact I learned. I assumed that the more water I drank, the more I would retain, and the more bloated I would feel. But that's not the case! Feeling good :)
  8. Water stops you confusing hunger and thirst - nope...still hungry.
  9. Water moisturizes the skin and makes it more radiant and supple - I duno about this...maybe it's just the winter weather or the fact that since I have to pee all the time I'm constantly washing my hands, but my skin is soooo dry! I feel bad for the one dude that sits in our room at work since he has to smell my Victoria's Secret "Amber Romance" lotion all day...sorry Phil!
  10. Water washes the toxins out of the body - as I was filling up my water bottle for the billionth time yesterday, a lady at work asked, "So are you just filling up on water??" I responded, "Haha trying to! I don't know how water helps you lose weight but I hope it's working." She said, "Well yea, it's flushing out all the toxins"........WTF are toxins anyway and how the heck did they get in me??? Oh well, I'm sure they're bad so if water gets rid of them, fill up my glass :)
Yesterday's Recap:
1/25
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Mandarin orange
Lunch: Salad - red leaf lettuce, green pepper, cucumber, onion, carrot, roasted red pepper dressing - I attempted to eat a pre-cooked chicken breast because it was terrible. How many chicken breasts have you seen that are round? The fake grill marks were a nice touch, but it was so obvious that it was processed like a chicken nugget..and not a yummy chicken nugget (mmm I want Wendys!) ...Exhibit A:
Snack: Almonds (about a palm full) and sugar free Jello
Dinner: (shout out the future hubs!) catfish, couscous, and steamed broccoli
Water: five 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 1 hour and 10 minutes in the gym (45 minutes cardio, 25 minutes strength)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Day 10 - Feeling Good!

I was filling up my water bottle this morning in the kitchen at work and asked one of the ladies I work with next to me how she was doing. She replied, "Fine, thanks! You're awfully smiley today..."

And I guess I am! Yesterday, I successfully ran over 1.5 miles without stopping! This may seem trivial to many, but even at my smallest, I was never a runner! In fact, I purposely played defense on the soccer team because there was LESS running involved. By the way...

The simple fact is...I don't like running. I don't like not being able to breathe, I don't like my calves and thighs burning, I don't like cramping in my sides and back, I don't like my ears aching from the cold, and I certainly don't like people seeing me running:
(Thank you Pinterest.com)

...I DON'T LIKE IT OKAY?!?

But on my way home last night, I decided to measure out a mile in my car, just out of curiosity. I picked one street, drove up and back to my house....1 mile total....0.5 to the end of the street and 0.5 back.

I told myself that if I could just run to the end of the street and not die, I'd be a good day. Well not only did I run to the end and back, I also took a couple detours around a couple cul de sacs! Yes, I did want to die afterwards but the pride of not stopping outweighed the pain (pun intended). Now if I could only get more good weather days like yesterday I'd be set! But it's back in the 40s again today, so back to the gym I go...oh how I hate thee treadmill.

Oh one more detail I almost forgot to mention....I'VE LOST 7 POUNDS!!! Hopped on the scale this morning and was more than pleased to read that I'm down to 177! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

In celebration and for your viewing pleasure, because who doesn't love a little Michael Buble:


Yesterday's Recap:
1/24:
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Mandarin orange
Lunch: Progresso Light Soup: Italian Style Vegetable, with some leftover brown rice stirred in. (And I think a part of me died while I was digging out the pasta noodles...RIP pasta...you are loved and missed)
Snack: Almonds
Dinner: Chicken stir fry: chicken breast marinaded in Ken's lite Asian sesame with ginger and soy dressing, frozen stir fry veggies, and steamed brown rice.
Water: five 24 oz bottles!
Exercise: ran 1.5 miles in the neighborhood :)

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Day 9 - It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

Sitting next to a window all day has its perks, but on days like today...it just makes you NOT want to work. Blue skies and sunshine all day long! Totally skipping the gym tonight and going for a long run instead :) Gotta take advantage of the vitamin D opportunity and the endless paved sidewalks throughout my neighborhood. So pumped!!

Yesterday's Recap:
1/23
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Grapefruit
Lunch: Should have listened to Seth when he warned me that my leftover salad from Saturday night wouldn't be good...he was right. So I picked out the tuna, green peppers, cucumbers, and carrots and had a bag of grapes.
Snack: Sugar free jello
Dinner: (shoutout to my future hubby!) baked flounder, zucchini, and couscous
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 1 hour of ZUMBA!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Day 8 - One Down, Eight to Go!

It's officially Monday morning, which means I've officially completed week one of the Biggest Loser competition! And I am proud to report that in spite of this weekend's temptations and lack of exercise, I've already lost 5 pounds!! This is extremely good news and very encouraging, especially since at last year's first 2 week weigh in, I only lost 1.69%! But this year, after only one week I've lost 2.69%! Whoop Whoop!

I missed blogging yesterday so here's a two day recap:

1/21:
Breakfast: Hard boiled egg and banana smoothie
Lunch: Teriyaki chicken and white rice from Yama Sushi in Vienna...YUM:

Snack: Almonds
Dinner: Caprese salad from Delia's: mixed lettuces, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, grilled chicken, with a couple dips in the raspberry vinaigrette dressing
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: none :( unless you count the workout I got from taking down and hanging up heavy wedding dresses :)

1/22:
Breakfast: Hard boiled egg and apple
Snack: Almonds
Lunch: Sweet and spicy chicken from Chili's "Lighter Choices" menu: chicken breast, steamed rice and broccoli
Snack: Almonds
Dinner: (thanks to my lovely future hubby) Tilapia fillet, brown rice, and steamed broccoli
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: none :( unless you count walking around The Great Bridal Expo with my mom :)

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Day 6 - Holy Motivation

Short post today because I'm enjoying spending time with my girlfriends :) But today we went dress shopping!! Mostly for the bridesmaids dresses but I felt I needed to try on a couple for the experience, especially because my mom was there. First let me mention that ALL of my girls are itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeney! So ALL of the dresses they tried on were baggy. But when it came to my turn...not so much. Apparently they don't make many dresses for big girls. But I won't dwell on it...I did try on a BEAUTIFUL dress that fit me like a glove. About $500 more than I wanted to spend but it was fun standing in front of the mirror while everyone swooned. Oh well, I'm even more motivate to do some sheddin' for the weddin'

Yesterday's Recap:
1/20
Breakfast: Two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Grapefruit
Lunch: Small salad - red leaf lettuce, cucumber, green pepper, onion, carrot, and roasted red pepper dressing and a small piece of leftover salmon
Snack: Grapes
Dinner: (thanks to my fab hubby to be) almond crusted chicken, green beans, and couscous. Almond crusted chicken was NOT as good as I expected...see the post yesterday for the recipe. The almonds and paprika gave almost no flavor. After it was done we sprinkled some cajun seasoning on and it brought it up a notch but I don't think we'll be making it again. However, I still wouldn't recommend it.
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: none :(

Friday, January 20, 2012

Day 5 - Weekend Challenge

This weekend is going to be tough....First of all, this is the first weekend into the Biggest Loser challenge. I feel like its much easy to get into a routine during the week when, for the most part, everyday is the same: get up, drive to work, eat breakfast, work, eat a snack, work, eat lunch, work, eat a snack, work, workout, drive home, eat dinner, hang out, go to sleep. Whereas on the weekend, you're left to your own devices, including meal and exercise time.

Secondly, my out-of-town girlfriends at coming to visit! My best friend/maid-of-honor, Allison, is taking the train up from Raleigh, NC this afternoon, and another friend/bridesmaid, Meagan, is driving up tonight from my hometown Forest, VA. (Shout out to Kristin, my sister-in-law/bridesmaid who can't make it this weekend) And what do I want to do when they get here??? Go out to eat and drink lots of wine!

Regardless of what I want to do the plan for the weekend is to make my girls suffer tonight with healthy food (sorry girls!). But I found a yummy-looking recipe for a baked almond crusted chicken from a fellow blogger (minus the flour: http://hungrynomadeats.blogspot.com/2011/03/almond-crusted-chicken-baked-low-carb.html) I'll let you know how it goes! Well, I'll let you know how it goes for Seth, who so graciously offered to cook "all the chickadees" dinner, but escaping to a friend's house for the rest of the weekend :) Love my future hubby!

Then tomorrow, we're going to meet up with my mom, Seth's mom, and my cousin/bridesmaid, Emily, for lunch and go bridesmaid dress shopping!!!!

**Side note**As I mentioned yesterday, I'm planning on wearing my mom's wedding dress on my wedding day. However, I might try on a couple dresses this weekend just for fun and because I really don't want to miss out on the experience of dressing shopping with my mom(s) and girlfriends!

We're going to lunch at Yama Sushi and even though I don't like sushi, they have other hibachi options, which *confession* is my weakness. There is this amazing, hole in the wall Japanese fast foodish place back home that I must frequent anytime I visit, which coincidentally is called Yamazato (must be a Japanese thing). And I miss it dearly. But I'm planning on just ordering plain chicken, rice, and veggies (stay tuned Sunday for the recap to find it I can actually do it).

Then, Saturday night we'll probably just head back to my house, cook another healthy dinner, and watch some girly movies and talk wedding stuff (unless they can convince me to go out to dinner in which case I will be forced to make another healthy choice). The former plan was to crash at my cousin Emily's place in Arlington and go out on the town. However, going out on the town doesn't really fit in with my no alcohol plan. I definitely offered to be sober-Sally that night but my girls graciously opted for a girls-night-in inside :)

So here's to making healthy decisions this weekend, both meal and dress wise :) Wish me luck!

Yesterday's Recap:
1/19
Breakfast: Grapefruit and two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Mandarin orange
Lunch: Small salad - red leaf lettuce, cucumber, green pepper, onion, carrot, and roasted red pepper dressing (not light but its my favorite and only 40 calories per 2 tsbp) and tuna, which had very little mayo, relish, and onion.
Snack: grapes and a palm full of almonds
Dinner: another hard boiled egg (I like eggs, OK?!) and a banana smoothie (I wasn't very hungry when I got home from the gym...yay!)- awesome recipe I found on pinterest.com (minus the almonds because I didn't have any and light vanilla yogurt instead of Greek because I think it's nasty :) haha) http://www.chiquitabananas.com/Banana-Recipes/Banana-Oatmeal-Smoothie-recipe.aspx
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 1 hour and 15 minutes in the gym after work (about 50 minutes cardio and 25 minutes strength)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Day 4 - Looking Forward

Everyone always mentioned "visualizing" your goal when you talk about overcoming something. There is one thing I'm looking forward to after losing weight, besides feeling better, being more healthy, blah, blah, blah:
Looking better in my mom's wedding dress than she did (sorry Mom)!

I'm wearing my mom's wedding dress on my wedding day! Although it needs some updating (the long sleeves gotta go!), it absolutely beautiful and has the lace detail I always dreamed of having on my wedding dress. I had always teased my mom about her dress because of the long sleeves, but I never really looked at and I had never seen it in person.

Seth and I were visiting my parents last July 4th when I asked my mom if I could look at her veil as my possible "something old". My mom being...well my mom, started to cry and said she was flattered. I went upstairs into the guest room and drug out her old wedding bag that contained her dress and veil. I tried the veil on and kinda just had to laugh...I guess veil "hats" aren't my style. But then I took the dress out of the bag. Since I had never really looked at it, I completely missed the beautiful detail.

For shits and giggles, I decided to try it on! And much to my surprise, it was the perfect length and FIT LIKE A GLOVE! I had heard of other girls wearing their moms' dresses and updating them but never really gave it much thought (it was really hard for me to look past the long sleeves haha). Well the rest is history. I've got an appointment with a seamstress in February to get some ideas of how I can make it my own. I'll be sure to mention that it's going to have to be taken in...a lot I hope ;)

Yesterday's Recap:
1/17
Breakfast: Grapefruit and two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Mandarin orange
Lunch: Savory Vegetable Barley Progresso Light Soup with about a 1/2 cup leftover brown rice
Snack: Sugar free jello cup
Dinner: (thanks again to my fabulous hubby to be) 1/2 a Salmon fillet, couscous, and zucchini
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 1 hour and 10 minutes in the gym after work (about 45 minutes cardio and 25 minutes strength)

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Day 3 - Can I Do It Again?

Today I thought I'd take a trip down memory lane and talk about what I did last year to lose 18 pounds. Besides exercising at least 6 times a week (well, most weeks), I cut out ALL of the following:
  • Most Carbs, including bread, pasta, crackers, cereal, waffles/pancakes, and all other delicious things I love
  • Most Dairy, except light or nonfat yogurt
  • Coffee (FML)
  • Red Meat
  • Sweets
  • Alcohol (except for Super Bowl Sunday....priorities)
So what does that leave, you may ask? Pretty much: fruits, veggies, rice, fish, chicken, and ground turkey. This year I'm taking the same approach. It took my body a little while to catch on to what I was doing so it took a couple weeks to start seeing real results. However, I saw this quote on my favorite site Pinterest.com:
"It takes 4 weeks for you to notice your body changing, 8 weeks for your friends, and 12 weeks for the rest of world. Don't Quit."

Yesterday's Recap:
1/17
Breakfast: Banana and two hard boiled eggs
Snack: Mandarin orange
Lunch: Apples slices and a small salad - red leaf lettuce, broccoli, cucumber, onion, carrot, raspberry vinaigrette 1 calorie spray dressing
Snack: Almonds (about a palm full) and another Banana (I love bananas and they go bad fast)
Dinner: (thanks again to my fabulous hubby to be) shrimp stir fry with veggies and brown rice and lite Asian sesame with ginger and soy dressing
Water: four 24 oz bottles
Exercise: 45 minutes in the gym after work (should/would have been longer but I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction...live and learn)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Day 2 - The Game Plan

Every good plan has a good game plan right? Well here is mine - each day (hopefully) I'm going to post about my food and exercise from the day before. The idea is to keep myself accountable. And don't worry, there will still be some overall commentary on the day.

1/16:
Breakfast: doesn't count because it was before weigh ins, but for the record I had McDonalds...and it was delicious.
Snack: Banana
Lunch: Small salad - red leaf lettuce, cucumber, onion, carrot, raspberry vinegarette 1 calorie spray dressing
Snack: Mandarain orange and sugar free jello cup
Dinner: (thanks to my fabulous hubby to be) tilapia fillet, brown rice, and broccoli
Water: four 24 oz bottles (which also translates to approx. 18 trips to the bathroom)
Exercise: walked a couple laps at lunch around the building with Jess (my awesome coworker and fellow competitor) and 1 hour Zumba after work

Feeling pretty sore this morning....immediately regretting asking our Zumba instructor to "kick our butts" last night. Oh well... no pain no gain, right?

Monday, January 16, 2012

Day 1.5 - I'm Hungry

The end.

Day 1 - And they're off!

9AM officially marks the start of the Biggest Loser competition at work!

We had a choice of taking off today for MLK Day or President's Day in February. Coming off the holiday high, I decided to stick it out until Feb when I'm sure I'll need the break even more!

So it's pretty quiet around here today, which is GOOD....I didn't have to fight any vultures off while I took my first step onto the scale-o-doom for the initial weigh in. I made to sure to make a quick stop at McDonalds this morning for some hotcakes - gotta bulk up before the weigh in. Seth and I pretty much pigged out this weekend in preparation for the beginning-of-the-end. But I must admit, I feel pretty awful today. A three day binge can really bring a girl down, literally.

I'm pretty sure I heard the scale groan when I stepped on this morning...or maybe that was me groaning when the numbers flashed. Remember that "honesty" thing I mentioned in my previous post...well here it comes...a whooping 184. *Sigh* Well that was painful.

Now that we've gotten past that punch in the face, let's move on the my GOALS.
Goal #1: Last year I started at 178 and ended at 160. AND I WILL GET BACK TO 160! So that's 24 pounds....9 weeks.....13.5% loss. The winner last year lost 10.98% so with 13.5% I should have it in the bag! I need to lose 3 pounds every week, 6 pounds at every bi-weekly weigh in. Here's the breakdown:

Weigh-In             Goal
Jan 30                 178
Feb 20                172
Mar 5                  166
Mar 19                160

Goal #2: My target weight for my wedding day is 130. Totally do-able in 271 days...right??...right?? That's only 1 pound a week, 2 pounds for every bi-weekly weight in. Here's the breakdown:

Weigh-In           Goal
Apr 2                158
Apr 16              156
Apr 30              154
May 14             152
May 28             150
Jun 11              148
Jun 25              146
July 9               144
July 23             142
Aug 6               140
Aug 20             138
Sept 3              136
Sept 17            134
Oct 1               132
Oct 13             130!!!

Now that all the numbers are out on the table, it's time to get to work! Never fear....ZUMBA tonight! For the past 6 weeks, I've been taking a Zumba class in the office after work on Mondays. I'll be sure to tell our instructor to step it up tonight...the game is officially on!

On that note - I think I'll go for a walk on my lunch break!

How do I start this thing?

Welcome to my first blog post - EVER! I'm so excited to be starting this new chapter in my life and want to share it with...well anyone....who wants to read :)

For those who don't know, last year I participated in an Unofficial Biggest Loser competition at my work. I came in third place, but I lost 18 pounds! This year I'm back for revenge!

Here is a little background on the competition...
Q: What is Biggest Loser Competition?
The Unofficial Biggest Loser Competition is an 9-week wellness/ weight-loss competition. The challenge will start Monday January 16, 2012 and will end Monday March 19, 2012.
Q: How Does It Work?
Each competitor must commit to participate by Monday January 16, 2012, and must do the first Weigh-In by Noon Monday January 16, 2012. An entry fee of $20 will be charged per competitor and payment must be received by COB Friday, January 20, 2012.
There will be regular weigh-ins and all competitors are highly encouraged to weigh-in first thing in the morning since you tend to gain a couple of pounds of water weight as the day progresses.
Q: What Are The Rules?
  1. This is an Unofficial work event – we cannot and will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages as a result of participating in this competition.
  2. Always consult your health care professional before making any significant changes to your dietary habits or your physical routines.
  3. The Winner will be calculated based on percent of weight loss and not total weight lost in pounds.
    Example: if Initial Weigh-in weight is 200lb and final weigh-in weight is 180 lbs then loss percent is 10%.
  4. Weigh-Ins should be done by Noon on the dates mentioned above. If you are in the Vienna office, please stop by my desk (#309) for your weigh-in. If you are remote, please email me a picture of the weight posted on your weigh scale – see guidelines next.
  5. Your weight will be kept confidential – only percentage of weight lost will be reported for tracking purposes.
  6. Wear regular work clothes for weigh-ins – no sports coats/ jackets will be allowed during weigh-ins. Shoes must be removed. Your “Body Weight” will be the posted weight on the scale minus 4 pounds to account for weight of clothes.
  7. No disrobing or loading up allowed during weigh-ins.
  8. Healthy eating and exercise are encouraged during the course of the competition – we want this to be a lifestyle change!
  9. Drastic weight loss (over 5 lbs/ week) is discouraged.
  10. If you miss a weigh-in, your previous week’s weight will be recorded for the missed week.
  11. No money refunded if you choose to drop out of the competition.

So now that you know the rules, you must be asking - Why are you doing this??
Last year was tough, but this year I have the motivation! The answer is simple:

I'm lucky enough to be marrying this cute guy above. And on my wedding day, I want to look my absolute BEST!

In order to keep myself more accountable, I'm going to [try to] be 100% honest. This blog will serve as my journal, progress report, confessional, venting outlet, etc. If nothing else, I hope my blog will be an entertaining read. And maybe, I can encourage someone else out there to do some Sheddin' For The Weddin'.