Week five, week five... what can I say about week five? For me, this was one of the more challenging weeks that I have had, and I think that had something to do with me not losing any weight last week - and also gaining a smidge. You see, I kind of weigh myself through the week to see where I am going, and the only one that "counts" is Tuesday morning, but I like to know where I am at.

My gosh - this week I was up wayyyy more than down. I weighed myself at one point (granted it was after dinner and I was clothed, now that I think about it), and I had gained 3 pounds. I was really upset! I felt like giving up. Not so much on the "working out" part, but on the diet. Passing up all those old foods gets difficult in situations like at work - where EVERYONE is eating the pizza/cookies/donuts. I hadn't lost any last week, and based on what I was weighing when I was checking my weight through the week, I thought for sure, I would not lose this week. I thought I would gain again. For sure.

Secondly, let me just say how tremendously proud of my husband I am. He is the reason I stuck with it. He constantly told me how well I was doing, no matter what the scale said. He continues to drop weight like crazy, and it does get difficult not to be envious! It is like the commercial below, I swear:

Yes, yes, I realize men & women are different - and no, I am not going to go out and pick up some Slim Quick - but it does show how I feel to a point sometimes, haha!

So anyway, on to the results!

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Hans lost 1.2 more pounds, putting him at losing approximately .638% of his weight, and is now up to losing 13.2 pounds TOTAL!

I lost 1 more pound, putting me at losing approximately .709% of my weight, and am now up to losing 10 pounds TOTAL! Wait, I won?! WooHoo! 3-2 score for the 5 weeks!

Stay tuned for next week!

Week Four: Weigh In!

Here we are, one month into 2010, and Hans & I are still going strong! Both passing up opportunities to eat like we used to at work when there are the "bad" foods around, like donuts and pizza. Which is very hard to say the least! I caved in on Saturday morning though when a coworker brought homemade, cheesy, creamy hash brown casserole. I couldn't help myself. I had a scoop. It didn't kill me, but I know that it had to be not that great in retrospect for my "diet". Oh well, at least that day at lunch I passed up the Hungry Howie's sausage, pepperoni, & extra cheese pizza. *whew*!

This passed week Hans and I did a Spin Class together Wednesday night and it was so much fun! Have I ever said how proud of him I am? Doing this with him has made it 10x easier than if I were to do it alone. With each achievement he makes and each goal he reaches, I love him and am just amazed at his commitment to this and to making ourselves healthier and more fit for our family. I love my hubby! I also tried a Power Pump class yesterday for the first time. Oh. My. Gosh. I am so sore! My abs and thighs are feeling it today, but it is a "good" pain. Sore, but not excruciating. Power Pump is basically cardio, weights, bands, & a giant ball - and the trainer just rotates through various exercises with each element, or a combination of two. It is a TOTAL body workout. Upper, lower, mid, everything. It is intense, but I must be crazy, because I hope to go back, haha!

Anyway, back to what everyone is waiting for (LOL)... the weekly weigh in results!

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Hans weighed in and lost 2.2 more pounds, having him lose 1.17% of his body weight.

I weighed in and GAINED approximately .2 pounds, meaning I gained back 0.14% of my body weight.

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Yes, you read that correctly, I gained this week, but it was not much in the grand scheme of things. I am just going to chalk this one up to "I am gaining muscle" . There's no way that the hash brown casserole from Saturday could have done this, right?? :oP

So, HANS WINS THIS ROUND! We are tied, 2-2. Several weeks are left, who is going to win?

STAY TUNED!

Week Three: Weigh In!

Here we go, week three. Things are still going strong! Hans & I are still eating well - we even went to a birthday party for a little guys 1st birthday, and managed to each only take one bite of cake. We ate before we left so we weren' t tempted by all the wonderful buffalo wings and chips. While we were there we sipped on either water or diet soda. We made it through!

Both of us have still been working out an average of 4-5 days a week. I love spin classes and YogaFit, and Hans also loves spin class and he is really getting into running. He did 3 miles the other night on the treadmill - I am so proud!

Anywho, here are the results for this week when we each weighed in this morning:

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Hans weighed in and lost 3.6 more pounds, having him lose 1.85% of his body weight.

I weighed in and lost approximately 3 more pounds, meaning I lost 2.08% of my body weight.

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WooHoo! I win this week, so therefore I am "ahead" in the game, score 2 to 1. No big deal though, I am sure that next week he can catch back up!

Also, for those keeping count, Hans has lost a total of 9.8 pounds, and I have lost 9.0! :)

Stay tuned for next weeks results!

Week Two: Weigh In!

On previous "diets" that Hans and I have tried to do, we have stuck to it for about a week then fallen into our old habits out of lack of motivation and honestly, the cost of eating healthy! I think my husband said it best when we were discussing eating healthy and being overweight. In comparison of foods that can be chosen: You can feed a family of four (4) double cheese burgers from McDonald's for $4, or you can feed only yourself a healthy meal from the grocery store for the same amount. No wonder a lot of Americans are overweight, especially right now with the "recession" - fast food and unhealthy food is so CHEAP! I was happy to see that Dunkin' Donuts is at least trying by offering an egg white & cheese on an english muffin. Now, if only ALL fast food restaurants would jump on the bandwagon and offer a HEALTHY option for an inexpensive cost. And not only offer it, but for goodness sake advertise it! McDonald's, Burger King, and the sort all have a "dollar menu", but everything on it is fattening, greasy, and terrible for you. Would it really kill them to put one thing on there like Dunkin' Donuts did? Granted, I am sure the egg white thing from DD is still more fattening than what you can make at home, but it is a foot in the right direction!

Anyway, off my soapbox (HAHA!) - the weigh in results!!

This week, I am going to just get right to it. My husband kicked my butt!

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Hans weighed in and lost 2.2 more pounds, having him lose 1.12% of his body weight.

I weighed in and lost (*gulp*) 0.8 more pounds, meaning I lost 0.55% of my weight.

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Hey, a loss is a loss and I am still excited! I know why I only lost that much though, and I know that this coming week is going to be much better. The competition is still on and heated, so stay tuned for next weeks results!

Goodbye, Fast Food!

One thing that has been a challenge for me on this new leaf that my husband & I have been turning over with "eating healthy" is that if I want to have breakfast in the mornings that I work, I can no longer either 1) go down to my work cafeteria and get whatever fried/high fat items that they have that morning or 2) go to McD's.

Fast food is my weakness! I think I am the only person in the world who actually really likes the food at McDonalds, with all it's unhealthy greasiness. Their fries are awesome. Anyway, back on track, here. My point: eating healthy and being on a diet isn't always that convenient. So, I have had to improvise.

I was going to purchase some breakfast sandwiches from the store that were pre-made so I could put them in the microwave at work, but OMGoodness they were so high in fat and calories! So, that was not an option. Then I thought to myself, self, you can make those yummy sandwiches yourself - in bulk - on your day off and then freeze them just like good ol' Jimmy Dean did, and make them low fat.

*GASP*

And that is exactly what I did:

English muffin with 1 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese

Add 1/4C cooked Egg Beaters and one slice of bacon, halved

Put them both together...

...then wrap, and freeze!

I've already tested this out and if you take one and put it in the fridge the night before, it will be thawed by morning. Grab it, put it in your purse, reheat for one minute in the microwave and you are good to go!

McD's verson has got nothing on this - for a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese biscuit at McD's it is 420 calories and 23 grams of fat.

My version has 215 calories and 8 grams of fat. Not too bad, that is 205 less calories and 15 less grams of fat!

(Not to mention 5 WW pts versus 10 WW pts - that is half!)

WOOHOO!

Week One: Weigh In!

Well, today concludes the first week of my quest to become a better, healthier, skinnier version of myself. My husband and I are both doing this together, and we have dubbed Tuesday morning as "weigh in" day. We're basically calling this our Biggest Loser challenge for one another.

Each week, we will eat as healthy as possible and will work out as much as we can (with two full-time jobs and two kids, of course). We even did a "last chance" workout together last night since our big weigh in was today.

Personally, I am trying to aim for 5 days a week working out. Sick, I know, but I recently joined Gold's Gym in South Lakeland and my gosh, I think I am becoming a workout junkie! All of those hours I used to put into cooking tremendous amounts of cakes/cookies/dinners when I was stressed or had a bad day at work, I have redirected to going to the gym. And I love it. I told you I was crazy! I even found out the other day that if I go on the treadmill with my iPod filled with some really good music, I can sorta "zone out" and jog over 2 miles in just over 30 minutes! And I didn't die! :)

We have also been eating really healthy for a change. For example, at breakfast I will either have a bowl of Special K w/ 1% milk and a cup of coffee, or I will whip up some eggwhites and a slice or two of bacon and an english muffin.

Anyway, back to our challenge. Biggest Loser. Each Tuesday Hans and I will weigh in and who ever loses the biggest percentage of weight, wins for that week. Wins what? Bragging rights really, it's just friendly competition, haha (surrreeeeee). I want to lose a total of 25 pounds and Hans wants to lose a total of 30. So, this morning we each individually weighed in.

****drum roll please****

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Hans weighed in and had lost 4 pounds, which puts him at losing 2%!

I weighed in and had lost 5.2 pounds (YESSS!), which puts me at losing 3.46%!

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I am so excited! Now, I only have 19.8 more pounds to hit "goal", and Hans only has 26. We are on our way!

Let's try this again!

So, here we are in another new year. It is now 2010, and almost 19 months since I gave birth to my second child, Jake.

Right after I had him, like anyone else, I lost quite a bit of the weight I had gained! It was just coming right off. Let me also add a note here: I didn't work out or eat right by any means, this was just natures way of getting rid of weight that most women lost during the whole childbirth process. I was 180-ish (gulp!) when I had him, and within a few weeks was down to 150. (Prior to having him, I was 132. I am 5'4" tall, so that is right within "normal" range for a BMI from my calculations.)

Then, I stalled.

Last year I tried the Weight Watchers Points system, and working out by going on a treadmill when I could and walking around the neighborhood. Lets just say that didn't last more than 2-3 weeks. I am very easily bored and dissatisfied, and while the Points system let me eat what I wanted, it would be worth TONS of points if I really ate what I wanted (like chocolate chip cookies and whole milk before bed... my weakness). So, I did what I usually did. Gave up, stopped working out using "working all day and taking care of two kids and being a wife/mommy" as my excuse. Luckilly, I haven't gained any weight, but I stepped on the scale yesterday and sure enough, 150.00 pounds. ON. THE. DOT.

I can't stand looking at that anymore! I can't stand looking at old pictures when I was pre-Jake and about 130-133 pounds, because I do want to lose weight. But the lazy person in me doesn't want to do the work!

So, after the new year rolling around, I decided (AGAIN) that I would give it another "go". Maybe 2nd time is the charm? I also told Hans that we can do this together (since being married he has gained a little bit also - I am sure it has nothing to do with all the deep-fried, gravy/cheese/chocolate covered cuisine I have been serving him since then, right? :-X) and we would hold eachother accountable... and he agreed! WooHoo! I have a workout buddy - and he just happens to be my bestest friend.

Check this off as day one, and all my bloggy friends, keep me IN CHECK! Please feel free to comment and give me any low-fat recipes, work out tips, ANYTHING that can keep it interesting and motivating for me. Tell me what works for you! By this time next year I would love to be between 125-130 and adorable again! *grins*