I'm Still Here!

I haven't forgotten about you, blog! I'm sorry I've been neglecting you lately...

So let's seeee, where did I leave off? I talked about changing my diet a bit in my last blog. That has been going pretty well!! I've really been working on cutting out meat, dairy and processed foods. There's a few things here and there that I eat, just because I still have them in my fridge! I'm not one to waste:-)

Pictured on the left is dinner from like two weeks ago maybe? Mahi mahi, scallops, steamed squash and zucchini, and jasmine rice. Along with my favorite wine, Riesling! Yumm-o!

Fish is one thing that I feel I might keep in my diet! It doesn't seem as bad as red meat or chicken. Especially if I get it organic from Trader Joe's!:-)

Since changing up our diet, we have been cooking a lot more! It's great. We're really having fun trying new recipes and an added bonus is that we're finally using some of our wedding gifts! Food processor, cheese grater, serving platters, etc. It's been really fun!

I find that with vegetables, you can kind of get away with just throwing a bunch of stuff together in a pan, cooking it, and it turns out good either way! I try not to add too much stuff to it, since butter and olive oil are just unnecessary fats! Although I still use them sometimes, because I'm not sure what else I can use as a substitute!

Sometime last week we tried a recipe for Creamy Avocado Pasta. The ingredients were pretty simple.
Avocado
Lemon
Garlic
Olive Oil
Basil
Salt & Pepper
Spaghetti Noodles

It definitely had potential, but it just didn't hit the spot. I liked the fact that the sauce was made from avocado, instead of cheese, milk, butter, etc. And I've never had Spelt Pasta before, but it was actually really good! I chose those noodles because they had the same amount of calories as regular spaghetti noodles, but they had way more fiber and protein! The consistency was the same as regular noodles, to me at least!:-)

I finally got to use the food processor! Yay! So fun:-) It works really well, and it's pretty quiet too. It blended up the ingredients nicely, creating a smooth, creamy avocado sauce! The sauce was good. Pretty thick, and a little too basil-y for my taste. If I were to make it again, I would probably use less basil, or none at all.

The recipe was for two servings. It said to cover the noodles with the sauce and "fluff" it all together. Well... I think there was too much sauce to really be "fluffy." It was really thick and creamy and there was definitely more sauce than there was noodles!

I could tell Charlie definitely wasn't fond of it! lol... but we did finish it! It wasn't *terrible* lol:-)

As you can see, the noodles are totally coated in the sauce! It looks much better than it tastes!

Anyways, I would maybe attempt it again, but do things a little differently next time!

If anybody has Netflix, I highly encourage you to watch "Forks Over Knives!" It's seriously really good! Very informative and makes you realize how much crap we really eat! And yes, I am very guilty of that! But I'm trying to change my ways, at least as much as I can. I don't think I could ever fully cut out meat, dairy and processed foods completely. But I can definitely try my hardest to not eat those types of things when I can. But if it's like a birthday or something special, then ok, I can splurge a little!:-)

Mango/blueberry mix + salad

So along with my change in diet, I've also been wanting to change up my workouts a bit. Typically, I do cardio. Lots and lots of cardio! Because it's kind of been forced into my head that cardio is the best way to lose weight and burn fat!

BUT, strength training, weight lifting, etc. builds muscle, which also burns fat! So, that is my goal... to work on strength training! I realized that I have barely been doing any type of strength training! Which I really need to work on because if I do get into an academy, I'm gonna have to be strong!

Last night I did "Jillian Michael's: No More Trouble Zones" and WOW! I forgot how hard it is! I think she recommends using 3 pound weights, but I only have 5. By the middle of the video, my muscles were burning! And for the first time in forever, I woke up sore today! I guess I had really been slacking in that department! So now, my goal is to do that video every other day! I obviously need to let my muscles rest, so I will do strength/cardio, every other day! If I don't have time to do that whole video, I'll probably do Ripped in 30, since she does strength training and cardio in the same video.

So we went shopping at MOM's the other day and wow! I was so excited! I guess the last time I went there, I wasn't on much of a health food kick, so I didn't really care about much of the stuff there. But now, I love everything! They have so many options for gluten free, dairy free, vegan, etc. It's awesome!

I picked up a few things. Some bread, soy yogurt, coconut milk yogurt, almond yogurt, vegan cream cheese, organic soups, TIGER BALM! and my favorite purchase of all... Coconut Milk Cookie Dough ice cream!! Mmmmm

Speaking of my family, Monday night I had my parents and Rayna over for dinner! It was really fun and delicious! The main point of having them over was to watch "Forks Over Knives." This is because my dad recently got news that his heart is in jeopardy. He had a stress test done, which showed an area of his heart was not perfusing as well as it should. So Thursday he's going in for an angiogram. I really wanted him to watch the documentary so that maybe he could get some ideas on how to change his diet and how it would greatly improve his cardiovascular system!

Since we wanted to set a good example, I tried to make a healthy dinner for them! We did Mahi Mahi, Asparagus, Mashed Cauliflower and Baby Arugula salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, walnuts and goat cheese! I also made my very first batch of Guacamole!! They loved it!! Everything turned out great and I was pretty impressed with Charlie and I's cooking skills! lol:-)

I think that my Dad liked the video and definitely listened to what they had to say! I hope that everything goes will with his angiogram tomorrow, and hopefully it's not as bad as they think!

Tonight I'm at work. Boo. But it's only one of two in a row. Then I'm off for 5 days! Yes!!:-)

Before I came into work I was pretty productive. Did my laundry, emptied the dish washer, ran 5 miles and then made whole grain quinoa with squash, zucchini and plum tomatoes, sauteed in a little bit of olive oil! Mmm!

Thanks to one of my BFF's, Caitlin, for giving me some quinoa to try! I'd never had it before and was wanting to try it for awhile:-) I liked it! I'm going to try it again sometime, maybe with a sauce or something.

The scale has not moved down at all lately. But that could be due partly to my crazy weekends of drinking. That is one thing I do that is NOT healthy! But, I'm enjoying my life and having a blast so that's something I just can't part with right now!! I could probably cut back on going to McDonald's afterwards though! lol:-)

I hope next time I update I have a loss to report!! But we shall see. Even if I can just tone up some, I'd be happy:-)

Sorry for the long update... hopefully it won't be so long before the next one!!

<3<3<3<3

Anna

One Year

January 9, 2011

The day I decided to change my life... Ok, I'm a little bit late. But I was busy the past few days and I didn't get time to write my one year anniversary blog on the actual day of. Sorry!

As you all know, I had been really hoping to reach my goal of 150 by 1/9/12. In my last post, I said I had given up on it pretty much. Well, I have a weigh in for you! Check it out:-)

Previous Weight - 152.8

Current Weight (On 1/7) - 150.4

Weight Lost - 2.4 Pounds

Total Weight Lost - 81 pounds.

0.4 pounds away from my goal! Really?! I couldn't just get off that last little 0.4 pounds? Nope. It wasn't going anywhere! The next day I even tried doing liquids only to see if that would help me lose the 0.4 by the next day. Nope. It wouldn't go away! Oh welllllll! It still felt awesome to see 150!!!

So anyways, I'm at work right now and extremely tired! I just wrote a sentence and looked at it... did not make any sense! So bare with me lol:-)

"So far my methods have been working! I just have to keep up with it and hopefully I will reach my goal weight one day! For now, my mini goal weight is to at least get down to 200 pounds.

My true goal weight is 160 pounds, but that will take me AWHILE! lol."

I took that from my very first blog, which was written on 2/15/2011. I can't believe it's already been a whole year since I started this weight loss journey! Time has gone by really fast. Which is good. I thought it would have taken forever to lose this weight, but it wasn't that bad at all!

There's been a few ups and downs. A few plateau's here and there. But all in all, a great experience. I have just come out of this more knowledgeable than ever! I went from just counting calories to wanting to actually make my calories count! After watching the documentary "Forks Over Knives" the other day, I have really wanted to change my diet up a bit. Go more "clean" so to speak. It's basically like a vegan diet. You focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes AKA beans lol. So I'm going to try and slowly cut out meat, dairy, and processed foods as much as I can. One thing I'm not giving up... tuna! Gotta have my tuna:-)

We went shopping yesterday and got tons of vegetables and fruits. We're all stocked up! Charlie is actually going to try this healthier eating with me as well! Hopefully he can stick with it! I really worry about his health sometimes:(

Now that I'm at 150 pounds, I realize that I'm not completely satisfied with that. So for now, I'm going to keep going down by 5 pound increments until I get to where I feel comfortable with my body.

I'm pretty happy with everything, just not my stomach. For right now, I think I just need to work on burning fat and toning certain areas. Then I'll work on maintaining!

I really thought this post would be more meaningful, maybe even a little emotional, but I think I'm too tired!:-( maybe I'll try again another day! But for now, here are a whole bunch of before and afters!! Enjoy and warning, some are just sports bra and underwear pics!:-/

On our honeymoon October, 2010

July 2009 - 1/9/12

July, 2009 - 1/9/12

July, 2009 - 1/9/12

March, 2010 - August, 2011

2/1/11 - 1/9/12

2/1/11 - 1/9/12

3/4/11 - 1/9/12

Top - 3/4/11 Bottom - 1/9/12

1/9/12

1/9/12

1/9/12

1/9/12

Best Christmas present ever!:-)

Sorry the pictures are a little revealing. And yes, I looked disgusting before, I know!! lol. Try to focus on the fact that I look good now:)

Ok, seriously super tired!!! Time to get off of this blog, otherwise I'm gonna write something really dumb! Thanks for looking!!!!!:-)

Hello, 2012!!

Me on New Years Eve!

HI RAYNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:-)


Since my sister is one of the few dedicated readers, I had to give her a shout out! I mostly wrote this blog just because she complained! And it's true, it has been awhile since I've written, so I guess it was time!

I haven't had the motivation to write since I was being SO lazy over the holidays! Ugh... I felt so crappy. It's crazy to me that even though I was still consistently working out like I usually do... I was still over eating and gaining weight! Which just goes to show how strict I will have to be on myself for... ever! Pretty much! I don't know if I will ever have a "maintenance mode" lol:-P

With Christmas at the in-laws, then Christmas at my parents, then New Years, then Fogo De Chao, plus ALL the stuff people kept bringing to work... it just wasn't a good week!! There was temptation all around and I was definitely weak. I wish I could be stronger when it comes to telling myself no. But I'm just a food whore. A dirty food slut:( Haha... JK... but seriously...

I did gain... BUT, I really didn't want to log it! I hate taking steps back, so I decided to just wait it out till I get back to my previous weight, then see if I can lose anything from then on. I have pretty much given up hope that I will get to 150 by 1/9/12. But that's ok! I'm still so happy with what I have accomplished. I think my new goal will be to get to 150 by Valentine's Day. Hopefully I can do that!:-D

I was thinking also... I'm only a few pounds away from 150, yet there's a lot of things about my body that I need to improve. Definitely a lot of toning, but there's still more fat to lose! Despite what SOME people say, I am NOT too skinny. I don't know what makes people think that. Especially when they weigh 120 and they're telling me 155ish is too skinny? Ok... that's enough! lol. So once I do reach 150, I might change my goal to 140!:-) We'll see when I get there.

 

I'm not sure if I've put up a picture of my calendar every month, but I do try. And I do fill it out, religiously! It helps me to see what I've done and to be able to look back and see what I did that was good or bad.

Exercise wise, I think I did pretty well! I exercised 25/31 days. I just added it up, and all together I ran about 56 miles in December! Wow!:-D That makes me happy! I love running and I really wish it wasn't so cold because I'd love to go running outside, rather than on the treadmill. Although I'm pretty proud of myself... I ran 8 miles straight on the treadmill yesterday! It was fine, and I barely got tired. It's just the fact that it's boring that gets me!:-/

I'm happy that it's 2012 now and I'm excited for my fresh start! Tuesday  I had an AWESOME day and Wednesday was pretty good too. I'm going to try and do great on my diet from now on, unless it's a special occasion. I will try my hardest NOT to eat anything in the lounge at work. It's my enemy!! :-(

I'll weigh myself soon and see if I have a loss or something. I will update if I do!

Thanks for reading:)

Anna

Merry Christmas and a Happy Weigh In!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I hope you all are enjoying this weekend at home, rather than at work, like me! Oh well, I'm not too mad about it. I do have today off, but have to come back in tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to Charlie's aunt and uncles house. I'm sure there will be some really delicious, bad for me food there! I'm going to TRY to have small portions. I just have to keep telling myself "This isn't your last meal! You're not starving! There will be other yummy meals in the future!" lol but lately, I haven't been the best at self control.

The Holidays are difficult at work. Everyone loves to bring in good treats like cookies, cakes, candy, bread! All enemies! But they're so darn irresistible! Especially when I'm sitting in the lounge on break, and they're just staring at me saying "You know you want me!" Arghh!! So hard to resist!! Tonight I had 4 amazing cookies that a co-worker made! OMG they were awesome! And someone brought this really good Challah bread! So obviously I won't be doing so well on carbs today!:)

I'm really excited to be writing this blog becauseeeeeee... I weighed in! And it was good!!! Actually, it was great! Here's what I got...

Previous Weight - 155.2

Current Weight - 152.8

Weight Lost - 2.4 Pounds(!!!)

Total Weight Lost - 78.6 Pounds!!!!

*Jumps around for joy!*

Yes, I was soooo excited when I woke up and decided to get on the scale. Chief was next to me as I stepped on it. When I saw that number, I was in shock! I always double, sometimes even triple check it, and it was still the same! I yelled to Chief "Yay Chief!! Mom had a loss! Mom had a loss!!!" lol!! Yes, I am his Mom:-)

Now I'm just trying to figure out what it is that got me over my plateau! Since I started doing so many things different at once, I can't really pin point it. Or maybe it was the combination of all of it? I cut way back on my carbs, started taking my thyroid medication again, and started drinking LOTS of green tea!! So who knows!:) I just know that I am thrilled and now have more hope for reaching my goal of 150 by 1/9/12!

I visited my tattoo artist, Dee, yesterday before work and we looked at her schedule. She's booked for all of January!!! So that makes getting my goal reward tattoo out of the question. So I think to give myself more time to save up money, I will wait till March and make it a reward/birthday present:-) And hopefully a "congrats" present too, for HOPEFULLY getting the PGFD job! Of course I will definitely let you all know when that happens. I am patiently waiting to hear some good news!:-)

Well folks... I have 30 minutes to go at work! I cannot wait to get home! Charlie and I are going to open presents when I get home since he and I both work on Christmas! I'm excited:-) Then Sunday morning I'm going to my brother Rick's house to open presents with my family. This year we did Secret Santa for the first time! I'm really interested to see how that goes! lol:-)

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Love,

Anna

Hurry Up 2012

Guys, I don't mean to be so grumpy, but I'm really ready for this year to be over! Not because it's been bad, but there's just so many things to look forward to in 2012!

That, and the fact that this month has just been really bad, food wise. I'm ready to start fresh and not have so many holidays to eat crappy for!

Although, I must say I've done pretty well with my eating lately! Yesterday I kept my carbs under 50 grams and my sugar under 30!:) Yes!! That is crazy good and I'm pretty proud of myself!:)

For those of you who have been following me for awhile now, you might remember a blog I wrote awhile back about my Amaryllis flower. I used it as a metaphor for how I had let myself go, but was slowly working on making myself beautiful again. I also mentioned wanting to get it as a tattoo for my 1 year anniversary/reaching my goal. That's still the plan! I really like this picture of it, so I think I'm going to show this to Dee and see what she can come up with:)

Speaking of the Amaryllis... once again I kind of abandoned it after it finished blooming this year. I left it in the guest room and sort of forgot about it. While I was rummaging through there the other day, I noticed it and picked it up. It was so dry! I felt super guilty and took it over to the sink and drenched it in water! I'm trying to rehabilitate it again, so we'll see! Luckily I haven't done that to myself yet! lol:)

I forgot to put this picture up from Rayna's birthday last week:) She made this GIANT, gluten free, chocolate, vanilla, coconut cake! It was really good! And gigantic! lol.

I can't believe she's 16 already!! It's funny how I can remember back to conversations Roch and I would have about her. Being like "Man, I wonder how it's going to be when Rayna is our age!" and now the time is here! Sure does make me feel old!!

Time is flying and it's really depressing. But I must say, I think I am making good use of the time I have. Rarely do I just sit around on the couch and "be lazy" anymore. I don't let myself get "bored" like I used to. Whenever I have free time, it's usually spent working out, and I love it!

Ever since losing weight, I've felt like I've been growing up in reverse. I feel like a whole new person who has to experience things all over again. Especially when it comes to social activities. The old me was way too shy and embarrassed to go out and drink. I never felt cute in anything I wore, and I just felt so uncomfortable in social situations. It sucked. I was like a freakin hermit!

Now? I feel reborn!! lol! Seriously... it's like I'm getting to experience things in life all over again, but as a different person. I'm having so much fun, enjoying life to the fullest! There's no limits to where I can shop, I don't feel embarrassed to dance, I actually get compliments! It's awesome and I couldn't be happier. I never want to go back to my old ways and I hope this blog will be a constant reminder of how happy I am at this point in my life! I can always look back on this and think "Wow, I was awesome!" lol:)

So since I've been doing the whole "low carb" thing lately, I've had to change up my fruits a little bit. When I researched low carb fruits, it said berries were the best. So I went out and got some blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. I'm now addicted! I've been eating them every day, sometimes multiple times a day! They're just so good! And I got these from Target! Definitely good quality:)

A lot of people ask me what I eat, as if I'm on some type of diet where I eat the same thing every day. Not the case! But, I do tend to eat a lot of the same things. And I'm not a huge cook, so most of my meals are small things that I just put together and call it a meal! But if you want to know some of my staples, here is a list!

Light tuna fish
Chobani Greek yogurt
Light string cheese
Baby carrots
Eggs
Spinach
Trader Joe's light champagne vinaigrette
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Canned chunk chicken
Tuna or Salmon fillets (comes in pouches like tuna fish!)
Chicken tenderloins
Berries of all kinds
Cottage cheese
Almonds
Milk
Green tea

Those are just some of the things I ALWAYS get when I go shopping. I can't decide if I'm going to cut out the Greek yogurt or not. It's so good for protein, but the carbs are a little high, so for right now I might cut back on it! Even though I really love it:(

So I'm off today (after I get off work in the AM) and I have so many things I want to do! I definitely am going to see my tattoo artist. Then I'm going to visit Phebe and hopefully Connor too! He's visiting for the Holidays, so definitely gotta hang out with him:) I'm not sure what I'm going to do exercise wise. I want to get a good burn in! We'll see how the weather is. If it's nice, I might do some outdoor running! *Crossing fingers* :)

As for a weigh in, I think I will weigh in Friday or Saturday morning. We'll see... Nowadays I'll sometimes just weigh myself randomly and just record it if I have a loss. Not so much pressure anymore:)

Alright peeps, thanks for reading about my life:) <3 you guys!!

Anna

Now & Then: Tattoo

Hey guys! I'm in a much better mood than the last time I blogged. Could be because I'm not at work, but there's also other reasons!:) First of all, aren't you proud of me for writing another blog in the same week?! That's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself:)

Today is my last day off, before going back to work tomorrow night. Boo! But it's been a really good 3 days off, and tonight should be fun! We're going over to my parents house to have dinner with them, my sisters, and her boyfriend. She's finally introducing him to my parents! So nerve wracking! I remember those days lol. I think she's more worried about how the house looks, than if they'll like him or not! He's a good guy though, and she really loves him, so I think they'll like him too:)

We're having an Italian dinner... !!! Yum, but definitely not going to go well with my "low carb" thing I've got going on. Oh well, it's one day! Besides, I did SO awesome yesterday! I only had 65 grams of carbs, and 24 grams of sugar!! That is amazing for me... not quite sure how I pulled that off:)

So I'm not quite sure what did it, but I had a loss! Could it be cutting back on the carbs? Or, because of my "good luck" dinner that seems to bring me a loss quite often? lol:-P Thursday was Rayna's birthday, and we went out to Sardi's. Normally I get the ceviche de pescado. But, I had ran 5 miles that day, in preparation for that night, so I had 1,700 calories to spare! I got 1/4 white meat chicken, fried yuca, and fried plantains. Mmm mmm mmm! Love it! It really wasn't the healthiest choice, but hey, I wanted to splurge a little! I also had cake and ice cream that night!! So I call that my "good luck" dinner because in the past, when I've had Sardi's, I always seem to have a good weigh in the next day! And no, it's not because it gives me mad diarrhea or anything like that! lol:-P

I'm not sure what prompted me, but I decided to just weigh myself and see how much I had probably gained from pigging out the night before. Here's what the scale said...

Previous Weight - 156.4

Current Weight - 155.2

Weight Lost - 1.2 Pounds

Total Weight Lost - 76.2 Pounds!!!

Wow, I was so happy! Finally, FINALLY... a loss!! Ahh, it felt so good!:)

Oh, another thing I kinda forgot to mention that COULD have been affecting my weight loss... my medication. As I've mentioned before, I take medicine for Hypothyroidism. Well, generally that helps with weight loss, but I can't say how much it really had to do with all of my weight loss. But, I had forgot to refill my prescription and I was slacking, then when I did refill it, I never went to pick it up and yeah... I'm just lazy when it comes to other things besides working out! lol. So needless to say, I wasn't taking my medication for about a month or so. (Don't hurt me Allison!) So I'm wondering if now that I have it back in my system again, if that'll help me out some? I guess we'll see:)

I am SO CLOSE to my goal, it's ridiculous!! This is going to be a real nail biter, seeing if I can lose the last 5.2 by January 9th!!! If I haven't lost it by January 6th, I'm just not going to eat for 3 days!!! ..... just kidding guys:) I wouldn't do that lol:) But I really, really, really hope I can do it!!!

You're probably wondering what the deal is with the title of this blog. Well I will explain that now:) I took a picture of my tattoo the other day and it made me realize that I've had my sugar skull/geisha chest piece for a year now! What?! I can't believe it's already been a year! But it made me think "Hmm, I wonder how I looked when I first got the tattoo?" So I got on facebook and looked back at my older pics, and found a picture I had taken right after it was finished. I got the outline on December 10th, then finished the color on December 21st:) Here is a side by side comparison.

Sorry, it's a little revealing;) I think the biggest difference is my face, obviously. But I can see it in my arm too. And now I actually have collar bones, yay!:) Speaking of tattoos, I need to go see my artist, Dee, and talk to her about what I want for my goal reward!:) Even if I don't reach 150 by January 9th, I'm still getting it! I think being this dedicated for a year is deserving of a tattoo:)

Well, time to stop putting it off and go work out!! Gotta get a good burn in for the pizza and spaghetti I'm going to have tonight... ahhh!! Hope you all have a fun & safe weekend:)

<3 Your Biggest Loser,

Anna

Feeling Stuck

As usual, I'm sorry it's been so long! I swear, every time I've been at work, I just feel too tired to write a blog! And when I'm at home, I don't even think about it!:( Besides, I have no losses to write about, unfortunately!:(

Here's my calendar for November. So I exercised 24/30 days. That's not too bad. I had a long streak going on, but had to break it when Charlie was in the hospital. I did a lot of running in November, it looks like. My first 10 mile run! I'm a little proud of that:) I did a 10k and a 5k race. I was supposed to do another 5k race on the 26th but as you can see, I was sick:(

So my last weigh in was on 11/20. I've weighed myself multiple times since then, and nothing. No loss, no gain. It's seriously frustrating! I'm trying not to let it get to me, but of course it's hard to not lose weight after all the hard work I do! Plus, it's coming up on a year soon that I've been doing this, and I really wanted to get to 150! I'm not so sure if that's gonna happen now:/

Baby spinach, grilled chicken, mozzarella, egg, vinaigrette:)

Since I haven't really changed anything since I started losing weight, I decided to take a different approach!
Low carb, high protein. At first I just upped my calorie intake from 1,200 to 1,490 to see if that would help. I also started eating most of my exercise calories back. That didn't seem to do much, but I do enjoy having the extra calories!

I'm going to keep that my limit, but I'm not going to purposely eat back my exercise calories. If it happens, it happens, but I won't force myself to eat if I'm not hungry.

So when I asked for advice on MyFitnessPal, a friend on there mentioned low carb. I've done a little research on it, and so far I like the idea. There's a thing called Ketosis. It's a state your body goes into when you restrict your carbs a lot. Basically it causes your body to start using energy from fat, rather than muscle or wherever else it takes it from. That might not make sense, but you can Google it... that will explain it better!

Regardless, it made sense when I read it. So I'm going to at least aim for low carbs. I've been watching how many carbs I eat the past few days and I've tried to limit them. It's definitely harder than I thought. Especially since a lot of the food I have right now is pretty high in carbs... Bagels, Greek yogurt, bread, fruits, cereal, etc. So my plan is, once I finish eating those foods, I will stock up on some low carb stuff and not get anything like that anymore. Although I love Greek yogurt:-(

Once I get rid of all those things, I'm going to make my daily goal to stay UNDER 100 grams of carbs a day, but preferably closer to 50 grams a day. I really hope it gives my body the kick start it needs to lose weight again!! I mean come on, I'm 156. I'm 5'5. 150 is NOT asking too much! I know people that are my same height and weigh less than me, so I know it's attainable. I don't even want to be THAT skinny. I just want to be healthy and in shape. And I wouldn't mind getting rid of that stupid little pooch, either!

The Hot Chocolate 15k. Yikes. What a mess! Don't get me wrong, I did have fun. But, it was a terribly organized race. There were 20,000 people running and the National Harbor definitely couldn't handle that many people. Luckily, we made it there on time. 6:45am like they had asked, for a race that started at 8:00am. Well, it didn't start at 8:00am... it started at 9:00am!! An hour delay, which according to the race officials was due to an accident. Speculation was that really there was just a TON of traffic from people trying to make it to the race, so they waited longer for runners to get there.

That's nice of them and all, but for those of us that had been waiting there for over 2 hours, it wasn't so fun! It was about 35 degrees out. FREE-ZING COLD! Our feet and hands were numb by the time we finally started running! The course was weird. The beginning was along Indian Head Highway and it was quite dangerous!

It was very crowded and people were almost getting hit by cars! Not only that, but there were lots of hills, sharp turns, and areas where only 2 people could fit side by side! It was really tough and I wanted to give up so many times, but I never quit! I finished in 1:30! Not too bad for how hard of a course it was! The delicious fondue and hot chocolate afterwards made up for it, a little bit! It was definitely yummy:)

So now we're getting close to Christmas... *sigh* I'm really not a huge fan! It's the same thing every year, and I think it gets worse the older I get! I just can't seem to get in the Christmas spirit as much as when I was a kid! We did put up our tree, and that helps a little bit. But I'm so unmotivated! I haven't bought any gifts yet... oops!

Rayna's 16th birthday is on Thursday. I'm going over there and then we're going out to Sardi's

I'm ready to get this year over with. I just want a fresh new start! 2012 is going to be a good year! I already have so many things planned... well, races mostly! lol. Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, Columbia Iron Girl Half Marathon, Warrior Dash, ??? I'm sure many more!!

Staying on a healthy diet during the holidays is just really tough, so I'm ready to NOT have so many things messing up my good eating!:)

Ok... that's about it for now. I can't think of much else to talk about. I'm really going to try and be strict about updating this thing at least weekly! I promise, I'll try! Even if it's just a quick little update:)

Keep your fingers crossed that I lose some weight SOON!! Thanks friends:)

Anna