Rebooting

It's time for me to reboot.  At least that is what they call it at Reboot Your Life.  I finally watched the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead that I blogged about here in March.  I've been trying to talk myself into doing something drastic another Clean Program cleanse since June, and decided I needed some inspiration.  It was just what I needed complete with video interviews of people in my city!

I did alright at maintaining my 42 pound weight loss all summer.  BUT WAIT, I am not supposed to be maintaining at all.  Even though I told myself I was enjoying a small break, learning how to navigate maintaining in case I ever get to maintenance land and want a head start, and building up my metabolism, all of that seemed reasonable for a short amount of time, until that time extended through the entire summer.  Shockingly, August is almost half over.  Suddenly I am beginning to feel that familiar hopelessness of the days, weeks, and months flying by while my scale stays the same...or goes up.  Somehow I started playing that game of eat what I want today and Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday I'm on board with the plan to knock off the remaining pounds.

I confess my choice in food even progressively declined, to the drastic point of polishing off birthday party cake, chips, goodies, and Peanut M & Ms.  The latter of that list which became a handful here and a handful there indulgence this last week.  I don't look good, and I don't feel good.  Worse than that my spirit feels defeated.

I am sad, worried, and discouraged in some other areas of my life.  There is a lot happening  that is hard, tough, and not like I want it to be.  There is always something in life that is hard or disappointing.  Medicating my emotions with food will not better the situation.  The ONE thing I can control is what I put in my mouth.  THANK GOODNESS.  Really I am thankful for that, and I should be.  I don't have any physical issues right now that dictate what I put into my mouth, or don't let me eat certain foods.  In a world where there is so much I would like to change today and cannot, I need to embrace what I can change.

Remedy?  I need to put down the sugar and step away from the party leftovers.  I need to stop starting/failing and start doing/following through.  The movie last night was just the inspiration I needed to give me a push in the right direction.  So I decided for my hubby and me (lucky for him, ha) to jump head first into juicing today.

Out came the juicer and every vegetable and fruit in the house.  I was hoping to fill up my 128 ounce jug for the day....giving us each 64 ounces of fresh juice for day 1.  Wow.  It takes a LOT of veggies and fruit to fill up that jug.  What veggies I had on hand, and I had a lot on hand, only made  80 ounces of yummy juice.

GOLD, VEGGIE GOLD. 80 ounces of apples, spinach, carrots, broccoli, lemon, melon, ginger, and 1 tomato.  It is really filling and really good. It also gets things moving if you know what I mean.

Good and frothy.  I hope to reboot through juicing and raw food smoothies the days remaining in August 2011.  That's 16 counting today.  I need to for my physical and mental health. This is something I considered doing in June, and I regret that I didn't.  I do not want to get to November wishing I had done this in August.

UPDATE:  I started this blog earlier today, and it's almost bedtime and I accomplished Day 1 of juicing raw foods only!!  It feels really good to have a successful day after many failures this summer.  I hope and pray I make it through the next 15!  I plan to blog my progress!

It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To

Only I really don't want to.  It's been a fantastically fast birthday week.  August reigns as our heaviest family birthday month with birthdays on the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 18th.  I've checked the box on the first four...one more to go this month.
We started our busy week out last Friday celebrating my youngest's birthday a week early.  He turned the big 7.

 There he is with his dramatic pause making his wish.

The next morning we all woke up and drug a trailer across the state to move my oldest girlie back to school.  I'm so proud of her, she's enjoying RA training this week.

 Oh to long car trips with eight people in the vehicle.  Behold my sleeping beauties.

 Behold my singing beauties.

 Oh I LOVE my Sea Bands.  Best purchase ever.  Instant cure for motion sickness.  I can read in the car now.  Yay!  Thank you Laura for educating me on these!  Seriously, my 11 year old wore them to the amusement park and DID NOT throw up for the first time after riding rides.

 Unloading.

 A little toasty weather for moving day!

After we spent two nights moving our daughter, we dropped off our rental trailer, hitched up our hitch haul, backed our hitch haul into another vehicle, bought another hitch haul, and after assembling it traveled on to Chattanooga.  Here we left our two youngest for the week to torture their Aunt hang out with their cousins.

After a tour of UTC for daughters 2 and 3, and a stop for dinner at the Cheescake Factory in Nashville (it is birthday week you know), the rest of us arrived home very early Tuesday morning.  Tuesday August 2, the day this pretty daughter turned 16.  We couldn't let that pass us by (even though her party was ahead on Friday), and frankly my husband and I were feeling a little too FREE with those crazy youngest ones gone, so we headed to dinner and double feature movies.  Seriously, I don't think I've stayed that late at the movies since my pre-children days.

Again, feeling the freedom and possibly suffering from a little heat stroke, my hubby and I headed out ALONE Wednesday evening to Bonefish grill and a movie.  We didn't do any type of vacation this year, and I think maybe we just enjoyed a little staycation.  By Thursday night I said enough already though because I was getting ready to hostess the big SWEET SIXTEEN BASH for my cutie on Friday.
I love a party!

 Purple and Blue...Whoo Hoo.

 Deliciousness.

 Yum.

 Sweet Seesters.

So excited from the partay I stayed up way to late, and after less than five hours of sleep my man and I drove almost eight hours round trip today to pick up those two youngest boys we were missing.  Well, he drove and I (wearing my sea bands) talked his ears off...it is my birthday and I can talk if I want to!

So whew.  What a week!!!!! I did pretty well on the calories, and was happy to see me sticking at minus 41 pounds total still on the scale yesterday morning.  HOWEVER, today was a total eating disaster.  This has all been fun, but I am ready to jump into our fall schedule this week.  I plan to start in earnest recording, reporting, and losing again beginning this Tuesday.  My goal is to get to a regular BMI by November.  Now I'm off  to rest my tired eyelids.  What a fun and busy summer it's been!  God is good...all the time!

July is Passing Me By

I cannot believe this is the last weekend of July.  This month has been a little crazy...lots of fun, sun, company, and not a lot of projects or serious stuff.  I waited all winter to enjoy summer, and I think I accomplished that this month.
There was lots of:


EATING AT THIS PLACE and PARTYING WITH COMPANY.

 A TRIP DOWNTOWN FOR FIREWORKS ON MUD ISLAND.

ONE BEAUTIFUL GIRLIE POSING FOR HER SENIOR PICTURES.

KIDDOS GOING TO  CAMP.

KIDDOS COMING HOME FROM CAMP.

LATE NIGHT BAKING EXPERIMENTS ASKING FOR MY PARTICIPATION IN GUESSING THE INGREDIENTS.

MORE COMPANY INSPIRING ANOTHER TRIP TO THIS PLACE.

FOLLOWED BY THIS PLACE.

A FEW BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR MY DAD.  WE WANT HIM TO REPRESENT TENNESSEE WELL IN ILLINOIS!

I DISCOVERED THIS PLACE...A BLOG TO EXPLAIN COMING SOON!

MISSION TRIPS.

LATE NIGHT FAMILY POOL PARTIES.

AWARD PROGRAMS.

DOCTOR CHECK-UPS.

GIRLS NIGHTS OUT.

AND THAT'S JUST A SMIDGEN OF MY JULY.
IT WAS GLORIOUS.
IT WAS GRAND.
IT WAS EVERYTHING I'D DREAMED OF IN JANUARY.
I LOVE YOU JULY.

While I was doing  all of those July/summery kind of things I took a little break from blogging.  I took a little break from jotting down every nibble too.  Which led to more and more nibbles.  I am happy to report that I am still holding strong; weighing in at minus 41.5 pounds total this morning.  I seem to have parked around the minus 42 pound mark.  Considering all the company, partying, and nibbles I am happy with that.  I'm not happy with staying there forever though.  In fact, staying there for two months is starting to feel dangerous.  It's not where I should be or want to be, so I am back to the grind.  August is my month to kick it back into gear!  I figure I only have three months left to lose this year before I buckle down during the two last holiday months and hold on for dear life during the crazy eating holiday roller coaster.  Those last two months my dream will be to maintain.
So this coming week I plan to be back recording my progress and blogging regularly.  I have 22 pounds until I hit the NORMAL BMI range.  I want to reach that goal before November.
So here's to August, getting back into a routine in all areas, and getting to my next goal!!!