The BIG 100 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well since weigh in on Wednesday I was getting pretty excited. The light at the end of this long dark weight journey tunnel was peeking through at me and waving. Saying .2 more and you will hit the big 100. You got that in there don't you? I knew I did. I knew I could. I made good choices the rest of the week. I stuck in there when the going was getting tough.

I forced myself to accept reality, that tracking and weighing and measuring were necessary if I wanted to get to goal weight and stay on track. So I did what I know how to do best, I went for it full blast worked hard. And I won :)

I walked into Stacy's Weight Watchers meeting today and waited for her patiently to weigh me in. I do not know who was more excited Stacy or me LOL but it was such an awesome feeling to see this:

That is right I hit the big 100 pound mark!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe it!!!!!!! I feel amazing, accomplished, excited, happy, so much emotions right now. Kind of speechless at this point! So this will be a short on words post :)

Next week we will have a big party at the meeting and I am super excited for that. I will be taking progress pictures hopefully this weekend! I cannot wait. :)

Thank you for supporting me through this journey, and remember never give up!!!!!!!

How do you like your coffee?

Over the course of my journey one major change I have slowly made is the way I drink my coffee. It may not sound like a big deal but to someone who is an addict it was. Pre weight loss attempts I was a 2-3 cup a day girl. Every cup of coffee had extra cream and sugar. I know ouch right. When I look back on it I was probably consuming a ton of calories just on that alone. I was a frequent customer at Dunkin' Donuts ordering a medium ice coffee or hot with extra extra.

Anyways so in comes weight watchers and of course I had to change the way I drank my coffee. In the beginning I worked on just reducing the amount of cream and sugar. It was baby steps. I stopped having 3 a day and went to 2. Then over time I cut out the sugar and started using splenda. Then over time I stopped using cream and went to a fat free creamer. This like all of my healthy additions did not happen over night. And now I come to realize that this may be how everything has been effective.

When you start a diet the urge is to purge and go full blast calorie slashing and drop pounds quick. But when you are changing your life style permanently you cannot do it. It will not become a habit if you force it all at once. So by looking at the way I consume my coffee is kind of a mirror image of this. Eventually I went to a fat free non dairy creamer made by Coffee Mate and 2 packets of Truvia. That my friends took 9 months! But after all this time it is habit for me and when I even take a sip of bf's coffee with normal cream and sugar it tastes gross to me.

Last week I decided that there were more ingredients that I could not pronounce in that creamer, and that if I wanted to continue with my clean eating plan that I needed to find a coffee alternative. In comes So Delicious!

Since going dairy free for March I have felt much better. My stomach bloating has gone completely away and I feel better. So now I must add dairy free to the gluten free diet I already follow. It is ok because I have found some great things and this creamer is one of them! It has no fat, and at only 10 calories a tablespoon it is a deal!

So now my coffee consists of this coconut milk creamer, some cinnamon, and 2 packets of truvia.

mmmmmmmmmmmm How do you drink your coffee?

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Weigh in Wednesday Spring Into Action Week 4 Check in

Well I have been having a rough 2 weeks. It seems running those 2 half marathons 3 weeks apart from each other threw my weight loss into slump. Plus I was stressed out, I started to let myself get too wrapped up into losing and hitting goal and just became a bit too stressed out for my liking. I felt like I was letting my awesome partner Monica B down for the challenge and I knew I needed to get my ass in gear to pull out some numbers. I love the Shrinking Jeans and their challenges because it always keeps me going when the going gets hard.

I posted over the weekend about getting back to basics and this is just what I did. I went back to my clean eating habits. No refined sugars in foods, no salt, only 1 serving of whole grains in the morning and thats it for the day and as usualy my water only all day policy. That has not changed since the shrinkvivor challenge and honestly I tried to drink a crystal light packet last week I got as a sample. And I could not! It was so sickly sweet I threw it away. So I guess I have settled into a boring old lady hehe I have coffee in the morning with non dairy creamer and truvia and all day drink water. I never thought I would. I used to drink ice coffee's with extra extra, extra cream extra sugar, and diet pepsi all day. That was why I suppose I was so heavy. My unhealthy ways. But I am glad I have turned around and glad I cleaned up my act because it felt so damn good getting on the scale this morning.

Last week's weight was 155.4. This week is 152.8!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoa baby I made the scale my biznatch today! ;)

Total loss is 2.6 pounds! for week 4 and I managed 53 push ups!!! And I even managed 1 handed push ups this week. I did 9 on each arm military style 1 handed pushups!!!!

That is a good freaking week for me :) I did weigh in at home because I am moving to my Saturday weight watchers meetings. The scale at home is exact to Weight Watchers standards because every week before I go weigh in there I weigh in at home ;) I may or may not have OCD and this may or may not be the 3rd scale I have owned since starting over a year ago haha

But yes sowhat did I do differently this week? Well I just said 'Colleen you know what you need to do. Be honest with yourself you know if you want results you have to stop snacking on crap and start putting good clean healthy food into your body. get it together girl because we have goals to hit'. I did have a pep talk with myself. It is hard I won't lie. My toddler is gluten free too. So she has yummy gf cookies and this cerel thats really tasty, it is not unhealthy but for me its dangerous. You do not realize that you snack with them as you are giving them treats sometimes. This is where I put a stop to things. Also dinner at night, it is hard cooking for a man who eats fried chicken and buttery oily rice, and then serving yourself a big plate of steamed or grilled veggies with lean protein. But again it has to be done. And I know mentally I can talk myself out of it now just by reminding myself that my body feels better when I eat clean. I run better when I am eating properly. And the scale is my friend.

This week the scale is my friend again because I took a stance with my weak self and said no more. I plan to keep up this friend ship for awhile. Remember I do not want to be this girl:

(I put that on the fridge for some extra motivation this week)

I kinda like this girl much better ;)

Yes that is my ugly belly and yes that is why I am working so damn hard. I want me some ABS!!! :)

I have to thank everyone who pushed me this week and reminded me to keep going. You always keep me in check and support me and I appreciate it so much!!

P.S. Who remembers what my Weight Watchers starting weight was? (252.6) :) I think a 100 pounds lost party is in the works!

My Tracker

A few people have asked what I eat on a daily basis and to share my tracker. I have done it in the past but since starting a new cleaner menu this past week I will share it again.

I track everyday. I always have the entire journey and honestly I can say it is the 1 thing that has kept me successful. When I first began I tracked in the 3 month journal. Then it ran out and I bought another, after a month into that one I discovered an Android application on my phone and downloaded it and fell in love! It is a virtual tracker with a calculator in it and everything. So I use it everyday and it works well for me.  I am such an obsessive tracker that when my phone broke I was using post it notes lol. But whatever you use just use it and track. By tracking it allows me to control what I am eating throughout the day and take control of my intake.

My daily points plus allowance is 29 per day. I am working on keeping to those points only. I have found that when I do not use many weekly points then I am more successful at weigh in. Also I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and I have this theory that they are not totally 'free'. I mean we know they have calories and do add up. So my theory for my body is that if I do not eat my weeklies then they are being used up with the fruits and veggies.

Also I eat every 2-3 hours. I get hungry often and I find by eating every 2-3 hours it keeps me satisfied longer. Also my days are long, I wake up at 5am everyday and eat dinner at 7pm so I have to stretch my points out to keep me going all day :)

Monday

Breakfast:
1/3 cup gluten free quick cooking oats with 2/3 cup of unsweetened almond milk, frozen peaches, and cinnamon - 4 points plus
Coffee with fat free non dairy creamer and truvia - 1 points plus

Snacks before lunch:
grapes - 0 points plus
egg white quiche - 2 points plus

Lunch:
Salad with grilled chicken and fat free dijon dressing - 6 points plus
orange - 0 points plus

Snacks before dinner:
Corn thins - 2 points plus
Carrot sticks and 1 tablespoon of hummus mixed with 2 tablespoons of fresh salsa - 1 points plus
Extend Bar post workout - 4 points plus

Dinner:
Turkey breast chop baked with Mrs. Dash - 6 points plus
Steamed vegetables and veggie shreds cheese - 1 points plus


Dessert:
Apple with peanut butter 2 - 2 points plus


That is just one day. My days are usually similar. I like to keep my whole grain serving early in the morning because it keeps me satisfied and fuels my workout later in the day. Lately I have been working out after work. Sometimes I do workout early in the morning before work. It all depends on my schedule and what is planned for the day.

here a few pics of my recent dinners. My daytime meals are usually similar but at night I get creative and roast veggies and lean protein and try cooking it different ways.

What does your tracker look like? How do you like to track?

Getting Back to what I know how to do

Well this week was a huge emotional roller coaster for me. I had an amazing half marathon and then my weight was up and it just went all hay wire from there on. You may or may not know I was wrestling with staying on Weight Watchers due to leader issues, BMI goals etc. but I have decided I will stay with it. I will pursue my lifetime goal weight of 150 pounds and I will still try to work for them in the future etc. Stacy the amazing leader that she is and I meet weekly for a walk/run and we met this weekend and she helped me a lot.

She gave me this analogy which helped me really get over the slow down of my progress and why these last 4 pounds are coming off slowly. She compared my loss to squeezing a lemon. When you make juice at first a lot comes out quickly, but then you have to keep squeezing to get the rest out. And before you are done to get the last bit out you really have to squeeze extra hard. Weight loss is like thatthose last few pounds you know are there are just stubborn and you have to work extra hard. I never thought of it like that, it really made more sense to me! So thanks for your great advice again Stacy!

I plan to crush the lemon lol

So now I am a woman on a mission! I am going to squeeze the last few pounds off in the next coming weeks and hit all my mile stones once and for all! First up will be hitting the big 100 pounds lost. Current I weigh 154.4 so that means I have 1.8 left to lose to make it. Then 4.4 to go till I hit lifetime!!!!

I am going back to basics, back to what I know how to do best, exercise hard and eat a little less. One serving of carbohydrates at breakfast (my 1/3 cup of oats) and then rest of the day lean protein and fruits and veggies! No refined sugars, no salt, and no dairy. I cut dairy out march 1st and it has made my stomach issues so much better! So its a little harder being gluten and dairy free but I have come to enjoy some almond milk! Plus it is a lot less carbs which helps with my over all goal ;)

Today I am prepping some chicken breasts with some Mrs. Dash and baking them for salad toppers for the week and I got in a great workout this morning at the gym!

How was your weekend?