Dieting sucks!!!

How do you like that title! It has been almost a year since I started this journey and I am down 65 lbs.  For that I am very proud and thankful.  And maybe today is just been one of those days but today I am not likeing the fact that I am doing this. 

I am stuck in my progress. I have not lost any weight in about a month BUT I have not gained any either. I'm still keeping up with my calories on My Fitness Pal and I am still exercising at least three times a week, mostly riding my indoor bike. The wonderful Mississippi weather is making it hard to walk outside like I like to do. Plus since the time has changed it is dark by the time that I get off work and there is just really not a good place to go walk after dark except for the mall and that is not where I like to walk. I have been going over to the VF Factory outlet some at lunch and walking and that's ok but I would much rather walk outside. Plus I have got to get some new shoes! I hoping I can find some after Christmas. I can honestly say that my legs, knees nor feet hurt after I walk so I am hoping that new shoes won't change that but the fact that the bottoms of my shoes have worn out reminds me that I do need new ones.

My plan for the remainder of the year is just to stick to my plan and to not go over board with eating. I feel like that that is completly doable for me and I am actually enjoying exercising. It's my "me time". Whether it is walking at lunch or riding my bike that is time that I am "alone". I may just be in the next room riding but with my music going or listening to the bible I am in my own world for at least 30 minutes. When January rolls around I will start hard and heavy trying to get things going again. I've got to do some tweaking to my eating and I just don't know what to do. A co-worker has lost a lot of weight doing the "slow carb" diet, bascially just eating alot of meat and no foods that are white or could be white. I am thinking about doing away with breadsof every kind and uping my water intake. That is just one of the many ideas that I have rolling around in my head.

Rae has started basketball this season. They had their first game this past Saturday and you could really tell that it. She was huffin and puffin after just a few minutes of running up and down the court. She was walking with me alot but once again since the time has changed she hasn't been going with me. That's another reason for me to find somewhere good at night to go. I don't want her to grow up and be embrassed by her weight. She's not really fat just thick but she is also about a foot taller than all of her friends. At 9 she is a 4" 11 1/2". I believe that she is going to be tall and if she is she will get it honestly. There are lots of tall people on both sides of our family. Brady is just about to pass me height wise. I still have him but just a tiny bit and I am hanging on to it for dear life. He just turned 13 (how can that be possbile) and has slimmed up so much. The pants that we bought him at the first of the school year are now to big! Which is a really good thing except they keep falling off of him.

Phil--I love that man but I truly wish that he would get on board of this weight loss journey with me. I know that part of his problem is that I keep buying things at the grocery store that I shouldn't and he keeps eating them. Normally when he sets his mind to doing something there is no stopping him. And I love that about him. I need to learn to be an encourager for him instead of a nagger to him. I love him just the way that he is but for his health I would love to see him lose some weight. It would be so much better for his back and his sleep. He has to sleep on a CPAP machine and recently his doctor order a oxygen meter for him to wear at night. When he wore it that  night his oxygen level was NOT GOOD AT ALL. It was really low like in the 70's. This really scares me. I know that I really have no room to fuss at someone about their weight but I really hope that he will join my on this journey. I might even have to change up this blog some and start posting on a regular basis if he does.

The Gum Tree--I am actually starting to think that I will not be ready for it by May. I have tried to start the C25K program a couple of times and I just physically can not do it yet. Maybe thing will change enough after the first of the year so that it will start being easier for me to do. I really hope so because as scary as running a 10K is to me it is something that I really would like to do.

Goals--I hit my first goal several months ago and I am only 8 lbs away from my next one. That goal is to weigh what I weighed when I got pregnant with Rae. I am close but not there yet. The next goal is to weigh what I did when I got pregnat with Brady. That's 30 lbs lower than the previous goal. Next will be what I weighed when we got married, 20 lbs lower that the previous goal and then another 30 lbs and I will be at what I weighed when we got married. WHEN I get to that weight, if I don't lose another ounce that will be ok. I will technically still be overweight by about 40 pounds based on what all the charts say but I can honestly say that when I met Phil I was happier with what I weighed and how I looked than when I graduated high school and that was 70lbs lighter! So I am 88 pounds away from my final goal. In my opinion that is in sight because I have already lost 64 so what's another 88 after this?

I CAN DO THIS!! And would love to do this with Phil.

Karen

1. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
   1 Corinthians 6:18-20 

CELEBRATION!!!!!

This title reminds me of my very first concert that I ever went to. It was Cool and the Gang and they were in Starkville. It was on a school night because I did everything in my power not to have to go to this concert. It wasn't that I didn't want to go but I was going with two couples, Jima and Tim and Andy and Anita. Going to a concert when you are single, going with two couples and one of those couples being your sister and her boyfriend was not how I wanted to spend my night. But Momma made me go.  The night started off kinda rocky when Andy almost back down the hill in our front yard. But I guess it turned in to a good night.

ANYWAY....

What the title is really about is Phil's birthday. Its not actually until the 25th but because of everything going on this month we celebrated it early. Friday night the 16th we went to Bob and Barbara's and had the Willis party. We always have so much fun when we all get together. We eat what the birthday person wants, they get what ever they want for dessert and then you take your chances when you open up the birthday cards. If its a funny card you HAVE to read it out loud.  We have had some FUNNY ones over the years.

Reading birthday cards

He wanted Lemon Ice Box Pie

Funny card of the night

Earlier that day we had all went to WalMart to help Papaw celebrate his retirement. He has been there for 13 years and is having to retire because of his health. If it had been up to him, he would have never left. He really loves  his job and the people that he worked with. You could tell from the crowd that greeted him at the door just how much he was loved. They had him a beautiful cake and some going away gifts. It was really a special occasion and I'm glad that we all got to be a part of it.

This is what greeted Papaw when he got to the store. He had not been able to work since Thanksgiving day. He fell that day and hit his head and while he was off of work from that he fell and broke his hip. So he was happy to see all of them and I believe that they were happy to see him also.

 

 

 

WalMart gave him a beautiful pocket watch.

His Old Fart hat

Basket full of goodies

The man in the blue shirt said the prettiest prayer over Papaw and for Papaw.

Mr Howard, Store Manager and Papaw

These two are the biggest buddies. When Papaw was in rehab for his hip, Mr. Howard was out of state with his wife because she was having cancer treatments and he would call Papaw and check on him.  He is the nicest man.

Saturday night we celebrated some more. We had the Steele birthday party at Jason and Amber's. Jima's birthday is on the 17th.  Amber and Jason fixed the best supper. Jason is an awesome cook and he grilled some burgers and some of the best squash and zucchini. Amber had fixed a BLT potato salad that was awesome. Of course our entertainment for the night was Little Ms AG.

AG was already enjoying her supper when we arrived.

Two pretty girls!

Enjoying her Nilla Wafer

 

Rae doing her job for the night. She loved it. AG is lookin awful hard at Uncle Tim.

What you talkin bout Willis?!

She loves her Mommy

The girls

Jima got a pretty MSU bracelet from Jason, Amber and AG

Something was funny!

When I asked Jima what she wanted for her birthday she told me dirt. So we gave her some good ole Auburn dirt (and a Lowe's GC) for her birthday.

Jordan is an outdoors man 100%. He loves to be outside. I was hoping that we would catch us some catfish to throw on the grill.

We just partied all weekend and had a great time!

Lazy Saturday

I love love love not having anything to do on a Saturday. Every Saturday since early December we have had a basketball game to go to. Rae's season came to an end in February. The very next Saturday we had the AWANA games in Southaven. Then last Saturday when I had the opportunity to sleep as late as I wanted what time did I wake up????? 7:30!

We found an old Nintendo system that we had and  Phil and Brady played some of the old games for awhile.  Rae was watching a movie in her room until she figured out what was going on in the living room and then decided she wanted to play also. 

I walked into Rae's room while she was watching her movie and tried to get some pictures.

I had taken her lamp shade and tried to "fix" it.  Originally it was pink and white. She decided at some point that she wanted to write on it. I tried to cover it up with orange paint but when you turned the lamp on you could still see the words under the paint. So I had saw online where someone had made a ruffled lamp shade (wish I could remember where and I would link to it but they are all over Pinterest). It was pretty cute until the shade pulled off of its frame.  I was in Dirt Cheap last week and found a lamp shade for $2. It was a little big for her lamp but for $2 who cares! So I turned a plain white lamp shade into a pretty (at least in my opinion) ruffled lamp shade.

Even Lola had a lazy Saturday!

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say REJOICE!!!

I'm back

Boy!!!! I was gone a LONG time!! I never meant to stop blogging.  I guess life just got in the way.

I hope I can catch up on the last 3 1/2 months.

So here goes with a condensed update.

AG turned 1 on October 14. Jason and Amber had a bday party for her at there house on the deck and they could not have order a prettier day.

Phil and I had the privileged of doing AG's cake.

And if I can brag on us I think that we did a fairly good job. I've learned when we do things like this that its better for me to just listened to Phil and follow his directions cause things always work out better if I do. But don't tell him that cause I don't want him to know that he is usually right.

I think that the birthday girl had a good time. She got lots and lots of great stuff and I think she was the prettiest 1 year old at the party.

Phil and I did another cake (mostly Phil) for Jordan's football homecoming party. Jima had several of Jordan's friends over the Friday of Tupelo's homecoming for supper.  Then after that they all went to the game then came back to Jima's for dessert.

Then there was Halloween. Brady and Rae have not dressed up for Halloween in several years. For the last three years our church has had a fall festival on Halloween and we have always worked it. This year was no different. Phil, Barbara, Bob, Adam, Brady and myself worked the ring toss booth. Rae had several friends from school that came so she was playing all night. I think that they said that we had around 800 people that came through the festival!! Each year it seems to get bigger and bigger. This is an awesome outreach program that the church does. It makes me proud to be a small part of this.

Amber let me make AG's Halloween costume this year. I was so happy!! Thankfully it was very simple to make, even for me! The first time she tried it on she wasn't real sure if she liked it or not but thankfully the next time she was ok with being a pretty little ghost.

I can not get this picture to turn!! Sorry.

I think that does it for October!

Rae had a field trip to Memphis with her gifted class. She also had a Dr's appointment that morning in Memphis so we decided to make a day out of it and took the whole family. Everything was great at her Dr's visit.  After that we met her class at The Fedex Forum for lunch. I had never been there before. That place is huge.  They got to listen to a tour guide tell them about the building then they ate lunch on the steps before they headed to the Orphium. The show at the O was a CSI production. It was an ok show. All the kids seemed to enjoy it but as soon as the lights went out Rae got upset. She is not a fan of the dark. She was sitting on one end of the row with her friends and we were on the other end. She climbed over everyone in the row to get to where Phil and I were.

Fedex Forum Guy

Rae and Mallori

 

Rae and Lindy



Of course a trip to Memphis is not complete with out a trip to Target. Especially when Mom makes you pose for a picture.

We were trying to get back home so that Rae could get to her first basketball practice of the season. That will be a whole post on its own. Lets just say that her basketball abilities have greatly improved since last year. I guess they both needed a nap from their long hard day.

Just needed a reason to throw in this picture of AG. She's gonna be a reader like alot of other ladies in her family.

I had talked in one of my other post about a Bible study that we had been doing at church called The Table Experience. The end project for The Table Experience was the church's Thanksgiving meal. Every lady that took the class plus several who didn't fixed a table for Thanksgiving. We brought out our best dishes, glasses, silverware, everything that you would need to feed guests at your table. The men of the church provided hams and Phil and I cooked the rest of the meal. It was a great night of fellowship with our church family and everything turned out so pretty.

Saturday before the meal when we went to set up I was walking around looking at all the beautiful tables. One table caught my eye and when I went and looked at it closer the china on the table was the same china that my momma had. I have a setting of mom's china but I have never seen it anywhere else. So was so sweet to see it there. It actually belongs to a teenager in the church whose aunt had given it to her and she was letting her mom use it for the dinner.



Brady had a band concert in November. The 6th grade band is huge! The concert was really good and Brady even had a small solo which he did really well at. For someone who does not practice at all he is really good at the trombone. They also played with the high school band at one of the home football games. They played "Louie Louie" and did a great job. Of course my camera decided it did not want to work right that night so all the pictures that I have are horrible. It was probably more of the operators fault than the camera.

More Later!!!