Week 11 Weigh In... Take Two!

Since we added another week to the Biggest Loser competition, I'm just repeating week 11 again.

To the left is a picture I took of our Amaryllis flower. I love it! After I lose all of the weight I want, I plan on getting a tattoo to symbolize my weight loss journey.

I'm thinking an Amaryllis because first of all, they're beautiful! Second, there's a little story behind my Amaryllis...

Charlie's mom bought it for me, I don't remember what the occasion was, but I thought it was a nice gift! It came from target in that pot, with a bulb, and the dirt all compacted into a little disc.

I just had to add water to the disc of dirt and plant the bulb in it and watch it grow! So last year it grew, got 2 flowers that lasted for awhile, and then died.

What I heard from a few people is that these flowers don't usually tend to grow back. They only last one year and that's it. After it died, it didn't look like there was much hope for it to come back, but I decided to keep it through the winter anyways just in case. I don't give up on things that easily;)

It was inside the house for awhile, but Charlie eventually kicked it out, telling me "That thing is dead!" But when it got really cold, I brought it back inside and put it in the guest room. It did look like a dried up old bulb, but I still kept it!

To be honest, I didn't even water the poor thing the whole winter! Every month or so I would remember and drown it in a whole bunch of water and Charlie would just laugh at me!

About 3 weeks ago I checked on it and noticed a tiny green leaf starting to grow out of the bulb! At first I thought maybe it would just grow a stem and some leaves, but then it kept going!! I was so surprised and of course told Charlie "Good thing I decided to keep it!!" lol:)

Ever since then it's been on the window sill, soaking up the sun and I've been watering it regularly. They grow so fast! I've taken a few pictures of it ever since it had buds and I plan to make a little picture collage of it growing:)

So I think that my weight loss journey has kind of been like this flower...

At one point I considered myself beautiful and I took good care of myself. Until one day I just let myself go. I stopped caring. Didn't eat right, didn't drink enough water, and never exercised.

I was gross and had sort of lost hope that there was nothing that could be done to improve myself.
Randomly I would get in a really motivated mood to want to eat right and exercise, but it would never last more than a week

Then the biggest loser came along and I started to gain my confidence back. Seeing the results of all my hard work was like seeing that tiny bit of green leaf coming from the flower bulb. It made me want to keep treating myself better and better, till I finally feel like that beautiful person again:)

It just shows that you should never give up hope. I didn't give up on the flower, and in the end it came back to life and it's so beautiful. I won't give up on myself. I'm choosing to be healthy and live a better life for myself and I feel like this flower represents my journey so well:)

Anyways, enough with the sappy story... onto the weigh in!

Previous weight - 206.6

Current weight - 202.4

4.2 pound lost. Total so far = 29 pounds!!!

I passed my 25 pound mark which I wanted so badly and now I'm really close to 30 already!!!:) I'm so happy!! Never would I have seen myself losing 29 pounds in 3 months!!! I would love to get under 200 by my next weigh in, so wish me luck!!

ONE MORE WEEK till the FINAL weigh in!!! Ahhh! So nervous!! I don't know what place everyone is in currently, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. All I know is, I'm going to bust my butt this week!!!

Stay tuned for next week's weigh in. I might not update till then!

Love you all!!:):)

Anna

The Week So Far...

Just a little update about my week so far...

Sunday I was off and Charlie was at work so I hung out with my sister Rayna all day. We went to Columbia mall and shopped. I got some stuff at Sephora and Victoria's Secret:) It was fun!

I had a gift card to Dick's Sporting Good's from Katie, so we went there next and I got workout capri's, a sports bra, an under amour shirt, and some socks:)

Next we decided to go to Outback! I know, tsk tsk, but we were really craving it! We both got the Salmon with vegetables! So good! Mmm! (Rayna, lol I said mmm!)

Since we splurged, we decided we needed to work off all those calories. We came back to my house and did Jillian Michael's "Target Your Trouble Zones" It's a 45 minute video and we did the WHOLE THING! This was the first time I ever finished the whole dvd. Rayna had to take a few breaks but that's ok, it was her first time doing it!:)

Sunday night I went to the firehouse and slept in. It was ok. We only got one call and didn't even make it there because we got cancelled on the way! Oh well... lol.

Monday Charlie and I went over to his sister Katie's house to keep her company because she's on maternity leave already and has been bored at home alone lol. We went out to eat at Bob Evan's. Bad, I know! But, I did get a salad and it was really good! Surprisingly, they have a lot of good options for low calorie foods.

After we left there, we had to go to my parent's house for my mom's birthday dinner. Her birthday wasn't  until today, but she had a pottery class tonight, so we celebrated last night. We had Chinese food (ahhh!) but I tried to be good. I only had a tiny bit of each dish and 1 1/2 pieces of my mom's amazing (gluten free) carrot cake! I love cream cheese icing!!!:)

When I got back home, I had to do Couch to 5k, week 6, day 1. I guess after the weekend break it was kind of hard. Plus, I did Jillian Michael's 30 minute Yoga BEFORE C25K!! Now it goes...

5 minute brisk walk warm-up
5 minute jog
3 minute walk
8 minute jog
3 minute walk
5 minute jog
5 minute walk cool down

I finished the whole thing and I was sooooooo tired!! I probably won't do a workout dvd BEFORE Couch to 5k again! lol:)

Today my sisters and I decided to spoil my mom! She deserves it though:) And it was a surprise!;)

They all came over to my house around 12 and we went to the nail salon that I always go to. I got a fill in, Rayna got a manicure and Roch and my Mom got Pedicures.

Can you believe my mom has NEVER had a pedi in her life??? SHAME! So glad she finally got one today lol. I think she liked it;)

Next up we took her out to Bethesda to a gluten free place called "Lilit Cafe"

My family has been there a few times before, but I've never gone. It's really cool because they have TONS of gluten free stuff. Almost everything on the menu is gluten free, and they also have lots of gluten free food you can buy there and take home!

I got the crab cake, basmati rice and salad. It was really good!! We also got shrimp cocktail appetizer, which was such a rip off for $10.99!! lol! Oh well, it did taste good:)

My sisters and mom all got sandwiches and we all got desserts to share. They were really good, especially for being gluten free!!:) Overall, it was a really good place and my mom had a good time:)

When I came back home, Charlie and I went to "Today's Pet" in Columbia and just browsed through the pets lol. I loooove puppies, so we held one!!:)

It was a cute little basset hound!! His ears were so big, as you can see!! lol:) He was adorable and so cuddly:) Wish I could have gotten him:( lol!

Afterwards, we went to Wal-Mart. Charlie got some ammo and I got a new yoga mat and "Dancing with the Stars, Latin Cardio Dance" workout dvd!!:)

I tried it as soon as we got home, but first I did JM's 30 minute yoga;) It was a good workout, but really challenging.

It starts with a little bit of stretching for 5 minutes then you do 4, 10 minute intervals of different Latin dances, and then a 5 minute cool down, which wasn't cool at all! lol... it was actually kind of hard!!:(

It's definitely gonna take some practice because the dance moves are really difficult and they don't give you much time to learn. You sorta just have to copy off of them as best as you can!

Sometimes I felt like I was just running around moving my feet lol but at least I was moving!! I definitely have more respect for Latin dancers now... it's way harder than it looks!!:)

So I decided that from tomorrow, till I weigh in on Thursday night, I'm going to fast. Yup. Just not eat anything. Only drink apple juice. I know it's going to be hard, but I really need to lose and it seems like even with all the exercise I'm doing, it's still not coming off.

That's my little set up in the basement:) Treadmill, yoga mat, 5 pound weights and my little tv to watch my workout dvds!

So hopefully after this weigh in, I won't go out to eat AT ALL. That's my goal for the week!

Crap, I just remembered I gotta do Couch to 5k tomorrow... Ughhh :( Hopefully it's not too bad!

Oh, forgot to say also that I walked Chief for 50 minutes this morning! It was a nice long walk with my Dane:)

Anyways... time to go to sleep. I'm so tired!! Can't wait to just sleep for about 15 hours straight lol:)

I'll update Thursday night after my weigh in. Please  cross your fingers that it's a good one!!!:)

Goodnight!

Anna

Week 11 Weigh In & Other News

Sorry for the delay in updating! It's been a fun but busy week!

Yesterday was the weigh in, ugh. Let me just tell you now and get it over with.

Previous weight - 206.8

Current weight - 206.6

0.2 pounds lost. Total lost so far = 24.8 pounds. SO close to 25!! Arghhh!! I was really disappointed:( But, I have to move on and try even harder this week!

At least I have an excuse as to why I barely lost. It was the week of my birthday!:) Let's see if I can remember what we did...

Thursday I worked so I probably slept most of the day Friday, I can't really remember lol. Later I went to see my friend Angela who I haven't seen since my wedding in October. It was great! I really missed her. As a plus, I also got to see my friend Varsha who I haven't seen in YEARS probably!:) It was so fun seeing them!

When I got back home, Charlie and I did major spring cleaning in the basement. He organized the storage closet while I went through bags of clothes and my dresser. I was able to bring out some old clothes that fit me now, and packed away some too big clothes and labeled them "maternity" lol:) Yay! The house looks way better now!:)

Saturday I went and got a mani/pedi which was a present from Charlie:) After that we got ready to celebrate! We went out to Fat Daddy's. It was so fun!! I'm so glad a lot of my friends and family were able to make it out. I definitely partied hard and was so happy I got to take a shot of Patron(e) with Caitlin!!:)

Sunday we just recovered:) But I did manage to exercise!!:)

Monday we went to Arundel Mills mall and shopped around Bass Pro. Charlie got some new shorts and beef jerky lol. We stopped by Scrubs & Beyond because I really needed to get a better fitting pair of scrubs. All my scrubs are 2x and I was able to get a pair of Large scrubs!! Top and bottom!!:) Yay!! They look awesome!

After the mall, we went over to my parents house for dinner. It was great, we had a Chipotle inspired dinner. My mom basically replicated everything at Chipotle, and it was perfect! Of course I HAD to have flan, my favorite dessert of all time. My mom makes it sooooo good!! It was also kind of sentimental because March 19th last year we had dinner at my parents, including flan, and that's when Charlie proposed! Awww<3<3<3 That's a picture of my moms amazing flan above!:)

I got some really good gifts! My dad gave me some cash, Mom made me a cute piece of pottery herself and she put together an awesome photo album of pictures of me and my family from when I was a baby till now! I love it!! Roch got me a gift card to Target and her and Rayna both got me some new workout tops! I love them. Here's some pics of me wearing them after working out!;)

Love the bright colors!:) Thanks Roch and Rayna!!

Tuesday I had my tattoo appointment to add more stuff to my peacock. I wasn't able to work out because we stayed up way too late Monday night so I didn't get up early enough to do anything, and of course I couldn't workout after getting the tattoo:(

For some reason it hurt REALLY bad this time around. I didn't remember it being too bad on my back, but apparently I was wrong lol.

She finished the outline in 45 minutes and then we took a break but when we started again... woo! It was BAD! All together it was around 4 hours and 15 minutes or so.

We weren't able to finish everything in one sitting, but I love how it turned out! She added leaves to my Chrysanthemum and colored those in.

She added water, waves, clouds and bubbles to my "tramp stamp" and finished coloring in a lot of that.

And she added a nice big peony to my left side which we couldn't color in yet. It's probably going to take 2-3 hours she said... *sigh* But it's going to be a beautiful bright pink! Can't wait to see the finished product!!:)
Here's what we have so far...

I'll try to get a better picture later:)

After the tattoo, Katie (my sister in-law) invited us out to dinner. After laying there for so long, I was dying for a good meal! We went to Longhorn... Mmm. I'll admit, I didn't even try to eat healthy!:( I got a house salad with ranch dressing and a 9oz filet Mignon with a loaded baked potato. So delish. At least I drank water... lol:)

When we got back to their house, we watched some of "The Office" The episode where Pam gives birth lol, getting Katie prepared;) and I shared some of her Cheesecake:) So good!!

Yesterday (Thursday) Charlie and I went to Target and spent way too much money lol. I got Jillian Michael's Yoga Meltdown and tried it out that day.

It's really good! It's not so cardio like her other videos. More strength and toning. It's surprising how much you can use your body to create resistance. It's pretty hard!! My arms are really sore. I do like how it makes you more flexible though:)

Let me give you a little update on how week 5 of Couch to 5k has been! It's different than how all the other weeks have been where you do the same thing all 3 days. Now it changes up.

Week 5, Day 1 -
Warm up walk 5 minutes
Jog 5 minutes
Walk 3 minutes
Jog 5 minutes
Walk 3 minutes
Jog 5 minutes
Cool down walk 5 minutes

Week 5, Day 2 -
Warm up walk 5 minutes
Jog 8 minutes
Walk 5 minutes
Jog 8 minutes
Cool down walk 5 minutes

Week 5, Day 3 -
Warm up walk 5 minutes
Jog 20 minutes
Cool down walk 5 minutes

The crazy part is, I did all of them!! I was shocked that I did the 8 minute intervals, but today I did the 30 minute JM's Yoga dvd, and THEN did the whole jogging for 20 minutes!! I was so proud of myself. I was drenched and out of breath, but I was so happy that I finished it all!:) I don't even want to look at week 6 yet... lol:)

Currently I'm still in second place for biggest loser. BUT, the good news is we added another week because the first week was really just our first initial weigh in, so we want it to be a whole 12 weeks of competition. Which is awesome for me!:)

Anyways, gotta get back to work and eat my orange and banana that I just bought from the Dr. Bear Cafe;)

I'm gonna work my butt off this week!!! My goal is to lose 5 pounds by the next weigh in!!!!:)

Wish me luck!!

Anna

Week 10 Weigh In

Weigh in time!!! Yay... not.

I hate weighing in. I always get so paranoid and I try not to get my hopes up, but it's hard not to.

I thought I did pretty well this week though. I did go out to eat twice. Stanford Grill and Silver Diner. But I also exercised every day this week. And good exercises at that!

I've been doing Couch to 5k consistantly. Week 4 is really tough!! But it makes me so happy afterwards when I finish!

Here's how week 4 is...

5 minute warm up walk
3 minutes jogging
90 seconds walking
5 minutes jogging
2.5 minutes walking
3 minutes jogging
90 seconds walking
5 minutes jogging
5 minute cool down walk

The first half goes by ok, but the last 5 minute jogging interval is tough! It feels like it's never going to end! All together it burns 313 calories or so, which is great!

As you can see, my meals have been really good this week. My new thing is turkey sandwiches. I've also been doing tuna fish sandwiches too:)

When we went to Wal-Mart I decided to get some multi vitamins since I don't take anything right now and I figured I should start taking something. I had no idea they were going to be THIS big!! They're huge. I was really scared to take it, but it wasn't too bad lol.

Anyways, I thought I did great this week, so I sorta had high hopes. But the results weren't as great as I wanted...

Previous weight - 208.0
Current weight - 206.8

1.2 pounds lost. Total weight loss so far = 24.6 pounds!:) I'm really excited to get to the 25 pound mark... it just sounds better lol:)

It wasn't the best I could do, so I really need to try harder this week. I know I always say that but I have 5 days off so I'm gonna try to make the best of them. The only bad day will be Saturday because we're going out for my birthday, so I'm gonna splurge a little.

Unfortunately, I have some bad news. I'm currently not in first place anymore for the Biggest Loser:( Sad, I know. Another girl on my team got a "colon cleansing" and it made her lose a ton of weight. Fortunately, she's only ahead by 0.32%, so I still have a chance!:)

I can't believe there's only 2 weigh ins left! When I first started this, I thought it was going to seem like forever. I guess the fact that for me, it really is going to be forever, has made it go by a lot quicker. It's no longer a game or a competition for me. Yes, I would love to win. But this has become a lifestyle now. So whether I win or lose, I'm still going to be happy that my life has changed forever.

In other news, my sister got her second tattoo today and I absolutely love it!! I also love the fact that she is following in my foot steps:) I love my sister!

It's so beautiful!!:) I'm proud of her for going through all that pain. But in the end, it's so worth it...

Ok, time for me to get back to work. I'm so glad this is my last shift. Can't wait for these 5 amazing days off, celebrating my birthday with family and friends!

Goodnight all:)

Anna

The Past Few Days...

Sorry I haven't written anything for awhile! I worked Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. It was a very busy 3 nights!!

Sunday morning I got home from work and slept till about 3pm. I got up and got ready to do Couch to 5k (Week 3, day 3). I woke up Charlie to let him know I was going out and he decided to come with me!:)

Even though he hasn't been doing Couch to 5k with me, he decided he would try at the same level as me anyways.

It was so nice out and I really enjoyed our run! Charlie did so great and never stopped! He kept up with me the whole time. I was so proud:) We felt awesome afterwards!

After we did C25K, we decided to stop by the house and get Chief. We took him for a short 20 minute walk. We went to this little "pond" area down the street. Not quite sure what it is, but Chief had fun:) He's really bad at posing for pictures, as you can see! lol.

After our walk we got ready to go out to dinner with Charlie's parents, his sister Katie, and her husband Raffy.

We went to Stanford Grill in Columbia. It was really good!! Mmm! I got the Hickory Smoked Tenderloin Filet which came with Red Skin Mashed Potatoes and Spinach. I ate all the steak and potatoes, but I didn't really like the spinach. I also had a house salad with their special dressing, it was really good! I liked that it had crumbled goat cheese in it!

Of course I only drank water:) But I also had to have dessert! We got this chocolate cake, almond, fudge, caramel, vanilla ice cream with whipped cream... cake thing lol. I can't remember the name but it was a lot of really good (but bad for you) stuff!!! Mmmm! It was huge, so all 6 of us shared it and that was perfect!

All in all it was a great dinner and my in-laws are awesome and got me some stuff for my birthday too!:)

Today we had a really productive day! Although we woke up late, we still managed to do a lot!

First we went to go to Kaiser over in Silver Spring, but when we got in the car I realized I had lost my sun glasses (at Stanford Grill lol) so we went to Target first. Then we picked up my prescription.

While we were out there, I wanted to go to Wheaton Regional Park. I love that place! It was also super nice out today. Perfect weather to go for a walk/run.

We got there and parked where the playground USED to be. They tore it all down!! I loved that playground. But we saw the plans for the new one, and it looks sweet!

First we walked by the lake and took the wooded path towards the Nature Center. We ran almost the whole path! Which was a 1/2 mile, yay! Once again, I was super proud of Charlie. Since he hasn't been doing nearly as much running as me!! lol:)

Once we got to the end of the wooded path, we went into the actual park and walked around looking at all the neat stuff in there:) There was a few flowers blooming, some ducks swimming around, and a few people out enjoying the nice weather.

On our way back we decided to run the wooded path again. It was MUCH harder this time! There was a lot more uphill running than on the way there.

I wasn't able to do the whole thing. Charlie finished way more than me! lol!:)

We were so tired when we got back to the car! We walked/ran for a good hour! It was nice:)

We were really hungry after that but couldn't think where to go. Then I remembered that Silver Diner sent me a coupon for a free entree and dessert for my birthday! So we went there.

The thing I like about Silver Diner is they have a lot of healthy options. They have a whole "Under 600 Calories" section in the menu, which is nice.

Charlie hates it when I take pictures of my food, but I said "I have to! For my blog!" lol!

This is what I got, the Summer Citrus Salad. It's so delicious, and only around 500 calories! They give you a lot, too!
I also shared some of the "Tropical Hawaiian Milkshake" that Charlie got. Mmmm, I love it!!!
Our bill was only $15.00!! lol Thanks for the coupon Silver Diner!:)

After we ate, we went to Wal-Mart to do some major grocery shopping! We got LOTS of really healthy stuff!!
Lean cuisines, bananas, yogurt, sugar free pudding, bread, bagels, turkey, cheese, blueberries, REAL mayo with olive oil (lol Caitlin), milk, orange juice, 100 calorie packs, tuna fish, and some other stuff! Our fridge is nice and stocked!:) It should be, for $150.00!!! Jeez! But we did get a lot!

What a great, productive day! I'm so glad we got so much done. We really needed groceries. And we burned lots of calories at the park:) I can't wait to go back again when all the flowers are in bloom!

The rest of this week should be good. I have to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so my eating will be fine. I just have to get the strength and will power to wake up and exercise! Which I did during my last 3 in a row, so I should be good!!

I get my tattoo on the 22nd!!! Can't wait!!:)

I'll update again if there's anything new, if not, I'll just update with my weigh in on Thursday!

I'm putting some pics from today at the end of this blog, hope you like!

Have a good week!:)

Anna

Dedicated to the people killed by the DC Sniper

The people who lost their lives

Charlie's hands are too big for my small camera phone! lol

<3<3<3

Charlie said "Stand tall!" lol

Daffodils!

I'm definitely submitting this to Peopleofwalmart.com!

Week 9 Weigh In

Ok, so I have to make this kind of quick. I'm at work and it's really busy tonight!

I was super nervous about my weigh in tonight considering I ate pretty bad this whole week... Chinese, Pupusas, Red Robin, Chipotle! Not good.

Let me just tell you about my day yesterday. First I went to Kaiser to get my blood drawn to check my thyroid levels. They came back normal! Normal range is around 0.3 - 5.5. Before the medication my level was 7.something. Now It's 0.73! So it definitely got a lot lower, which is good I guess:)

After Kaiser I went to my parents house and my sisters and I went for a walk at the lake. We walked for an hour:) It was good!

After our walk we were hungry so we decided to get Chipotle. I split a bowl with my mom, so it ended up not being too many calories! Then, my brother Rob was too lazy to drive himself to McDonald's so he asked me to take him lol. Since I drove him he treated me to a Fruit n Yogurt Parfait! Even with all that food I managed to stay under my calories for the day!

When I got back to my house I decided to take Chief with me when I did Couch to 5k: Week 3, Day 2 and we finished the whole thing together outside! It felt awesome and it was the perfect time of the evening to do it. It was still light but getting dark and there was a little breeze:) Quality time with my Chiefy:)

ANYWAYS! Now for the weigh in!

Previous weight - 210.0

Current weight - 208.0!!

2 pounds loss. Total weight loss so far = 23.4 pounds!!! Yay:)

I'm so glad I lost! I was gonna be pretty sad if I didn't, but now I don't have to worry about that:) I just gotta make sure I eat really good this week.

Anyways, I gotta get back to work! 8 more hours to go!

Thanks for reading!!!<3<3<3

Anna

Couch to 5k: Week 3, Day 1

Hello loyal readers:) Glad to see that people still enjoy reading my blog!

Yesterday I did Couch to 5k: Week 3, Day 1. Here's how it goes now...

5 minute brisk walk warm up
2 sets of the following-
90 seconds jogging
90 seconds walking
3 minutes jogging
3 minutes walking
And the last set of 3 minutes walking kind of just turns into the 5 minute walking cool down. In total it only ends up being 25 minutes, so it's shorter than week 1 and 2.

I didn't think it would be too bad, but that 3 minutes of jogging feels like an eternity! But I got through it and felt great!

After my C25K workout I went online and started researching 5k races in Maryland. There's so many! I'm not sure how well I will be able to run after the C25K program so I'm aiming towards something in June maybe? I'm nervous! I would feel so proud of myself if I did a 5k!!

I was hoping I wouldn't go out to eat at all this week, but last night Charlie's Mom and Sister invited us to go out to Red Robin! Mmm, I love Red Robin! Of course we couldn't say no:)

I did try to get a kind of healthy meal. I got a side salad with ranch dressing and a BLTA Croissant without the "A" which is Avocado. I don't really like avocados! I should have asked for no fries, but I just wanted a few, so I probably had like 5 fries and gave the rest to Charlie lol. It also came with cantaloupe on the side, so I had one piece of that.

I looked up the calorie content on MyFitnessPal and for the sandwich it was around 600-700 calories. Not bad compared to what I usually get, the Bacon Cheeseburger, which is over 1,000 calories! And as always, I drank water:)

When we got home I had one of those mini Kahlua White Russians drinks, which is 175 calories. Yikes!:(

I was so tired and just wanted to go straight to bed but the guilt was killing me so I went on the treadmill to burn off some of the calories I went over on my daily allowance! I felt a little better afterwards:)

I'm really nervous about my next weigh in. I feel like I haven't done enough since the last weigh in and I've gone out to eat way too much. I know starving myself isn't good, so I'm just going to work really hard on exercising these next 3 days before the weigh in on Thursday night! I hope I lost something!! Please don't be a gain!!! lol:(

I woke up early today, like 7:30am and haven't been able to get back to sleep. Charlie was snoring sooooo much so I decided to take Chief for a long walk. I wanted to do at least an hour, so we went all over the neighborhood! I got a few short jogs in there as well:)

I'm pretty sure we won't be going out anywhere today, so the food temptation should be ok! I'm hoping to get another workout in before the end of the day too!

My next update will probably be after my weigh in on Thursday night, unless something really eventful happens between now and then, which I doubt it will:)

Oh, I forgot to mention, I ordered my shoes yesterday! Can't wait to get them!:)

Have a great day!

Anna

Chinese, Pupusas, Booze... Feeling A Little Guilty!

The weekend is over, and yet again I ate like crap!

Seems like this is something I'm going to need to work on! I eat fine during the days I work, but when I'm off, I always want to go out to eat! And I'm bad at choosing the healthy option, or eating a smaller portion.

Saturday Charlie and I went out to shop for my 20 pound weight loss reward, new shoes! We went to a place in Columbia call RoadRunner. It's really cool. They have treadmills that you run on and they analyze your feet and how you run, to determine which shoes you should get. The only problem was it was PACKED in there and it was going to be awhile before I got to use a treadmill, and besides, I'm not THAT hardcore of a runner, so we decided to go over to Dick's Sporting Goods.

I tried on a couple pairs of shoes, but I definitely loved the Asics GT 2150's! The same shoes I got my sister. They were so comfortable!:) The only problem is they don't have them in black at the store, so I'm going to order them online:)

While we were there, I also tried on some workout clothes. I really wanted some sweat capris, so I tried on a few. I tried on Under Armour ones in a size XL and they were too big! Yes!:) So I ended up getting a size L! Great feeling!

I told Charlie this could be my birthday present so he got me the capris, some nice socks, and a yoga ball:) Who would've thought I'd want workout stuff for my birthday?! I don't get to open it till my birthday either!! Haha:)

After shopping we really wanted some chinese food, so we went to our favorite place, Mandarin House. If anyone is looking for some really good chinese, this is the place! I love it!:)

I had 1 egg roll, 3 steamed dumplings, half of the honey sesame chicken (I actually took the picture of our food lol I thought the carrot was cool!) and a little bit of shrimp lo mein, as well as some orange slices and a cookie. I did drink water with my meal though!

So all in all it was a lot of food! But it was so delicious!!!:) I did feel guilty afterwards.

Usually I would make up for it with a good workout, BUT, right after dinner I ended up going out with Alicia! I didn't really drink too much.
1 vodka and coke, 2 beers (I was desperate) and half of a fourloko.

The next day we went to a spanish restaurant in VA. I got 2 pupusas and drank water:) Oh, I did have some chips and salsa too... forgot!:)

When I got back home around 2pm that day, I decided to do Couch 2 5 K, Week 2- Day 3. I really wanted to take Chief on a walk too, so I decided to try it with him!

It was sprinkling out a little bit when we left, but half way through it started pouring! Luckily we were already running back towards the house so I just decided to go back in. Chief doesn't really like the rain!

He did pretty good though with the constant walking and jogging rotation! I was proud of him:) He just has trouble staying at my slower jogging pace. He wants to gallop! Haha... that little horse:)

Once I got back in the house I finished the rest of the Couch 2 5 K on the treadmill.

After that I took a shower and headed over to Phebe's house to hang out:) We watched some "That 70's Show" and some of a documentary about the Graffiti Artist "Banksy". It was really interesting but I guess I was SO tired that I couldn't stay awake! I kept dozing off and Phebe kept laughing at me! lol:( So I just decided to go home.

As soon as I got in bed I passed out! At 8pm... yeah, way too early! I knew that would happen. I thought it might be a quick nap, but the next time I woke up it was 2am lol! I was able to go back to sleep until 6am:) Yay:) Now I'm awake writing this blog and waiting for Charlie to get back from work!

I have labs ordered at Kaiser to get my thyroid levels rechecked since that could be the cause of me not being able to sleep lately. I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism last year. The only symptom I feel like I had was extreme fatigue! lol I thought it was just laziness. After taking the pills I can't say I see a huge difference. My sleep is crazy right now, so I don't know if my levels are too high or if they're too low now? No idea. But other symptoms I feel like I have are brittle nails and sensitivity to cold. If the pills are helping with anything, it's the weight loss! But anyways, I'm going to get that checked hopefully this week:)

Here's a picture taken of me on Saturday (3/5) holding a 20 pound bag of rice! The amount of weight I have lost so far. It feels crazy to hold it knowing that it's gone from my body! It makes you feel great!!:)

Ok people... I'll let you know tomorrow how Couch 2 5 K Week 3 is!

Thank you for reading and for your continued love and support!!!:)

Anna

Week 8 Weigh In

Hi Readers!!! It's that time again... weigh in!!

Yesterday I couldn't sleep and ended up being awake from 8am to 3pm! So around 1pm I decided to do my Couch 2 5 K AND Jillian Michael's "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" Man was I tired!! After that I took a 2 hour nap.

Last night at work I was so tired! It was hard to keep my eyes open!!:( But luckily there were lots of awesome people working, so I had good company:)

When I got home this morning, I immediately went to bed! I woke up around 4:30pm and tried to do "The Shred" but was so tired that I only made it half way through:( I tried though!

Now for the good part! I was pretty nervous about weighing in since I ate pretty crappy this week! But, I did exercise every day, so I had a little hope!

Previous weight - 212.2

Current weight - 210.0

Yay! I lost 2.2 pounds! I'm pretty happy about that. It's technically the "healthy" amount to lose per week, so I guess that's good:)

That brings my total weight loss up to 21.4 pounds!!! :) :) :) :) So happy! That means I get new shoes! Charlie and I are gonna go shopping for them on Saturday. Hopefully I can find a good pair!:)

I think that's all I have for right now. Gotta finish the rest of this shift (10 more hours!) then go home and sleep and come back for my last night. Then 5 days off! Yes!:)

Have a good night!

Anna

Da Bears!

I meant to write this blog yesterday, but I was way too tired!

Of course I woke up at 3am yesterday because I can't seem to sleep at normal times anymore. I tried many times to go back to sleep, but I had to get up at 10am anyways, so I just gave up.

We all have to do this "Service Excellence" training at my work, so myself and all of "the girls" decided to sign up for the same day, that way it wouldn't be too boring:)

Throughout the day we discovered many reasons why day shift sucks, and night shift rocks. The first being parking! What a disaster! Luckily though, we somehow managed to get a spot. Yay!

We got to the class, blah blah blah, and then it was over lol. Sorry, I don't really feel like explaining it. It wasn't that exciting. But it also wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I guess to keep people "occupied" AKA awake, they put a few "toys" at each table. Slinky's, squishy ball thingies, sticky ball things that are supposed to stick to glass when you throw them at it, which Allison found out does not always work!

We weren't allowed to take any of the toys with us, but we accidentally ended up with a little plastic frog. I have no idea how...

After the class we went to get Sushi by Erica's house in Arlington, VA. It really wasn't that far from Children's, but the traffic was terrible! So it took us a little while. I didn't mind the sight seeing though:)

We went to a place called "Cafe Asia"
It was delish! Even though Erica got my hopes up and said she was positive they had Boston rolls, they did not:( lol! But it's ok, I really didn't mind! Love ya Erica:)

Besides, we were able to order a shrimp tempura roll, without the tempura and it tasted really similar!

We had a feast! It was great. Some of the rolls we got were...
Maryland roll, Chesapeake roll, Dynamite roll, Fresh Crab roll, Tuna roll, Cafe Asia roll, Shrimp Tempura roll, as well as Shrimp Dumplings, Tempura Vegetables, Summer Rolls, Miso soup, and Chicken Lo Mein! Yeah, we ate a lot. But it was so yummy!

Towards the end of the meal the plastic frog had somehow made it's way onto our plate. We don't really know how. But we do know that it took Darla about 10 minutes to realize there was a frog in our Sushi.

We decided to put the frog into one of the rolls (the one with the lettuce sticking out) and see if the waiter noticed.

When he came to collect the plates, Darla goes "Omg! There's a frog in our food!"
To which the waiter replied "Did you put that there?" LOL!! Darla said "No way!" and we all just burst out laughing!!

He took the plates away and showed all the other waiters that he passed by lol! What a great time!:)

We honestly didn't mean to make it blonde's on one side, and brunettes on the other!

It just sucks that we all have alien eyes! Oh well, still a cute picture!:)

On the way home, we experienced another reason why working day shift would suck... traffic! Wow, it was bad! I would hate to drive home in that every day!!

I was so tired from being up since 3am that I passed out on the ride home lol. I got back to my house fine though. I felt guilty about the Sushi feast, so I decided to go on the treadmill for a quick walk/jog. Only 10 minutes (1/2 mile) lol. After that I tried to watch some TV with Charlie but immediately passed out:(

He woke me up around midnight and we went downstairs to go to bed. I fell asleep fast, but Charlie had slept all day, so he couldn't sleep at all! He decided at 1am to go shopping at the 24 hour wal-mart by our house lol.

By 5am he still wasn't asleep. I woke up and we talked for a little bit and watched some TV, then finally we both fell back asleep:)

Unfortunately, I woke back up at 8am and have not been back to sleep since. I have to work tonight, so hopefully I can catch a quick nap before work.

So far I've eaten some breakfast today and did some crunches. I got a (free) app on my phone called "Daily Ab Workout" It's pretty cool. It just shows you a video of 10 different ab workouts and counts down 30 seconds of each. Honestly, I couldn't do all of them. Some were really tough. But I just wanted to try something new:)

I have to do my Couch 2 5 K before work today, and then tomorrow is the big day! Weigh in! Ugh... I'm not really looking forward to it because I don't think I've lost anything this week. I was pretty bad! But we'll see...

Thanks for reading!:)

Anna