BLT4ever

Just checking in cuz’ I haven’t done so in a couple of days.  My blister was a little better so I went ahead and did my 3.2 mile “wog” Friday afternoon.  I got some moleskin and used that, my husband recommened it, and it really did help.  Walked for 1 mile, ran for 1.6 miles (that’s 1/10th of a mile further than before YAY!!!) straight without stopping and then walked .6 of a mile to cool down.  Damn blister is all soft and squishy again, hurting like it was a new blister again lol.  I should’ve given it another couple of days but I just couldn’t help it!  I was so ready mentally to get back to running, I just had to do it.  I’ve only got two weeks (October 12th) until I have to run at least two miles with my son for his black belt test run.  I am frustrated because I want to train for it…yeah, it’s only two miles and it may sound silly wanting to “train” for it…but I need to.  Although, I know that I could’ve pushed myself further yesterday, I could’ve done the full 2.0 miles rather than 1.6.  Especially if my heel was fully healed.  Thing is though, I’m no good to my son if I can’t run on the 12th with him just because I didn’t let the thing heal properly….so, I’m going to stop being frustrated about it and just let the thing heal.  Going to give it however long it needs.  But, it dang well better be done healing by next Friday!!!!  LOL

This morning my 12 year old son and I got up bright and early and walked the mile and a half to the dojo.  Since my heal was hurting something awful, I bent the heal on my shoe down and just walked on the thing.  We did run that last two tenths of a mile, just as an extra warm up.  I had my karate class from 8:15 until 9:00 and then we had our sparring class from 9:15 until 10:00.  Yeah, my son and I are in the same sparring class and get to have fun beating each other (and others) up with our padded gear on…it’s too fun.   After sparring class we walked the mile and a half home and had lunch at the park across the street.  I love these Saturday mornings!  It’s always so much fun, and it’s great for bonding, too.  I wish we had these classes every Saturday but for various reasons there isn’t always a class.  Next time we get classes on a Saturday morning is three weeks from now.  The weekend before my son has his black belt test.

Well, I’m going to head off now.  Just wanted to come on long enough to give a quick check in.  I am quite tired and thinking I might just go read for awhile before heading to bed early.  Been a long, very good & blessed day.  I hope that you all are having a GREAT weekend, too!

I hate to admit this because normally I have such drive and determination to move my sorry butt…but I am so dang tired today.  TOM arrived yesterday with all his usual baggage and you know you’ve got no choice but to let him in lol.  Normally it’s not that big a deal, but this time around I seem to be glued to the couch with sleepiness.  Didn’t do my strength training, thinking I’d just do it mid morning, but instead I napped mid morning.  Napped from just after 10 until about 1!!!  Before you ask, yeah, I do need more sleep at night lol.  Past couple of nights I’ve not gotten to bed on time and have had only about 5-5 1/2 hours of sleep.  So that doesn’t help.  Supposed to have a karate class tonight but my 12 year old son has a band concert at school, he plays the trumpet, so there goes that workout.  So, I have to cram in a bare minimum of two workouts today.  Going to have to slap myself around mentally to wake up and drag my sorry butt up to the treadmill and get in a wog, if my heal will allow it.  If my heal is still too sore, I can just get in some time on my stationary elliptical bike….wish it was just an elliptical.  Also, was supposed to get the bathrooms clean yesterday but never did get around to it due to other things going on.  So, gonna do that today too…that will be a good workout.  Go over em’ with a fine tooth comb.

So…yesterday, and the other things that were going on to prevent me from cleaning my bathrooms…gotta blog about those, as they were awesome!  Noah, my 7 year old got an award at school this morning for excellence in math, and my daughter and I went to Target to get him a few Star Wars the Clone Wars action figures as a prize.  When there I grabbed three booster packs of the latest WoW trading card game.  One of me, and one each for both of my older sons who play too.  Rarely see the cards around and never buy them at all anymore so thought what the heck, gonna get us each one.  Came home and held them out and had my 15 year old son pick his pack.  Then from the two remaining packs I picked one and put the third pack up for my 12 year old son to open when he got home.  There is a possibility to get a loot card, which gives you a code for a special in game item.  That is why everyone wants the cards.  You’ve got a very rare chance to get something really good that you can use in the game or sell on Ebay for lots of money.  Well, me and my oldest son opened our packs and of course there was no loot cards in ours.  Not surprising, and I said that it was of course a waste of time buying the packs because we’ll never get lucky and get a loot card anyway….My daughter and oldest son said that is why we never get loot cards, because I need to be optimistic about it.

My 12 year old son has been desperately wanting the loot card, “Ethereal plunderder”, he’s been asking for it for Christmas for a couple of months now.  So, I said how cool would it be if Nick’s pack had the Ethereal Plunderer in it.  My daughter said, yeah, we should pray about it.  I said, yeah…but we didn’t pray about it cuz’ it does seem kind of silly praying for ”things” like that.  Anyway, my 12 year old got home and I gave him the pack and he opened it all careful like.  I said it was kind of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory…like looking for a golden ticket lol.  I was making the meatballs for dinner in the kitchen and he says, “Oh my God I got it!”  He rushed over and showed it to me and I was floored.  He got it!  I was screaming, “Oh my God”!  It was just shocking, literally….I went on about how that was a miracle straight from God.  Do you have any idea how rare it is to get a loot card at all, let alone the ONE you want?  Astronomical.  Seriously.  Utterly and completely a miracle from God….dunno, it may seem silly because of the subject manner…but wow…most exciting thing to happen around here in a long time.  Boy am I glad too, that I don’t have to buy the thing for him for Christmas lol.  Cuz’ I really didn’t want to spend the money on it.  It’s right around $200 right now on Ebay.  My oldest son says I should’ve made Nick sell it, but how could I do that?  He so desperately wanted that card, and I sincerely believe that God made it happen…why God sometimes chooses to do things of this nature while other times not, I don’t know.  I mean..it was most likely to not have a loot card at all, or it could’ve been several different loot cards….but to be the very one he’s been wanting and praying for?  Just so incredibly cool!

So, it was a great day of celebration, starting with my son Noah getting his excellence in math award and we made him his special dinner (he ALWAYS chooses meatballs lol), made a cake and he got a small gift to open.  Then, the loot card to top it all off.  It was a good day.  I also got in all of my workouts and ate good!  I did eat a small piece of cake, and it was quite tasty!  I didn’t go overboard on the good eats though, and have been conciously eating for quite awhile now.  I’ve noticed that my stomach just can’t take on the large quantities of food it used to.  I believe that I have finally gotten my eating under control!  Granted, I am sure the bad habits are there, lurking under the surface just waiting to rear their ugly heads given the proper opportunity.  But I am aware of them and I think that is going to be half the battle whenever they do try and take over again.

Yeah…Noah’s got a mohawk…in the picture up top, with his award you can’t see it good cuz’ we’re not allowed to stand it up for school.  Silly school rules, always trying to dictate how we do EVERYTHING and it drives me MAD.  Here’s a pic of Noah with our Sensei Ric at the dojo after getting his green belt awarded to him.  I will have to take a pic of Nick with his Ethereal Plunderer card and post that too.  Oh yeah…I was supposed to be scanning pics of me and the hubby from when we were teens and posting them too, to talk about how we met and all that.  OMG for the few that had asked about that, I am SO SORRY that I forgot!  I will do that, I promise!  Will make it a priority for tomorrow!

By the way, dunno why all my pics lately are turning out blurry, but it’s quite irritating.  Sorry about that!

I tried going for my 3 mile “wog” (that’s what I’m gonna call it cuz’ it’s part walk part jog lol), and I just couldn’t do it.  Instead of the pain of my blister going away as I walked, it got worse and worse.  I didn’t even get in a quarter of a mile, think it was right around .17 of a mile and had to stop.  I stopped, thinking I’d put the thick socks on and then try again.  So, took my shoes off and noticed that there was blood inside my shoe on the heel area….looked at my heel and yeah, the sock was bloody.  I’d even been wearing a band aid, so it bled through the band aid and through the sock onto my shoe.  I did think I could try again anyway, so put the thick socks on, put the shoes on and stood up and then immediately sat back down.  Too painful.  I thought of pushing myself, but then thought, nope, I’m not a Marine…and besides that, I NEED to be able to walk to the dojo this Saturday morning and chances were pretty good if I pushed it today I was only going to injure myself more and God knows when I’d be able to wog again.   My son Nick has to do the black belt run on October 12th, he’s got to run at least 2 miles, Sensei laid a guilt trip on them all today by saying that all the kids that have tested for black belt before from that class have run the full 3 miles, but that it is up to them if they want to run just the 2 or 3…no pressure, yeah right.  He says he’s going to just do the two miles…I don’t know if I should try and get him to run the three or what.  I do plan on running with him, and plan on running the two miles.  Dunno if I’d be able to stick with him for a full three.  October 12th isn’t all that far down the road and I just don’t know if I’d be able to run that far so soon.  For that matter, I don’t know if I could expect Nick to run that far so soon, either.  We’re going to start running together just as soon as my heel is well enough to do so…God, I pray that the dang thing heels quickly because I can’t tell you how extremely disappointing this is, having to rest it.

It’s ironic because early today I told my buddy Dawnie no more pity parties and then here I was starting to have one myself!  Pity parties suck butt!  I had a BIG one when my husband went back to Iraq after his two week visit in early July. The day after he left was a Friday and the kids and I set out to have a REAL pity party, it was all in good fun, with the intentions of getting it out of our system so to speak. Went out and bought pizza rolls, soda and ice cream and stayed up all night eating junk food and playing video games. While it was fun, it did get depressing for me on the inside and I ended up spending the next week in a very strong depression.

So, today I decided to take my own advice and am choosing to look at the bright side.  I can still do my other workouts and I will be running again before too much longer.  No pity parties allowed here!!!  But, I don’t have all that much time before I have to run that two miles on the 12th!  So, I pray my heel is healed soon!!!

I get asked alot how I’ve lost the weight I’ve lost so far.  So, I thought it would be a good idea to re-post a blog I wrote in late July that tells all about how I’m doing it.  I know some of you have read this before, but some haven’t and it’s just easier for me to bring it out near the front again anyway.  That way I can refocus myself, too.

I have gone back to my “old school” way of losing weight…doing the same things I did in the first half of 07′ when I lost my first 100 lbs.  I exercise ALOT (at least two hours a day total) and eat between 1200-15oo calories daily.  I don’t drink soda at all…even diet soda is no good for a body.  Seriously….if you drink it, stop!  I drink lots of water, 80-120 oz. of water a day.  I also drink two servings of either Arizona diet green tea, Lipton diet green tea with mixed berry or Lipton diet white tea with raspberry each day.  I cannot put enough emphasis on drinking no soda and only water and these teas.  When you’re limited to only 1200-15oo calories a day like I am, you do NOT want to be wasting those calories on drinks!  While it’s true that diet sodas don’t have any calories, they’re so full of chemicals  that they’re just no good.  From what I’ve read about it, artificial sweeteners can cause you to crave more foods…and we all know how harmful that can be!  Also, sodas are so acidic that they are horrible for your teeth; they literally erode your teeth enamel.  I believe that in order to lose weight and lose it for good, we need to focus on our overall health and make it a priority to do what we can to take care of our entire well being.  There are so many things that are important for me to do in order to lose weight; so many things that I try and focus on…

1. Make the decision to be committed and don’t back down…no matter what.  This is #1 in my book for a reason.  Have discipline, get set in your mind that you are going to follow your plan, you aren’t going to allow yourself to sabotage your weight loss strategy!  Otherwise, none of the other things you try and do are going to matter!
2. Set realistic goals.  A good one that I go by is to set mini goals of 10% loss at a time.  For instance, my starting weight this time around was 248 lbs.  So, I’ve set my mini goals at 25 lb. increments.
3. Remember that the weight often comes off fast in the beginning and can slow down drastically after a week or two.  Don’t let this deter you from your commitment to yourself.  Don’t let the scale rule you, it is merely a tool.  The most important thing is how you’re feeling and how your clothes fit.  Sometimes the scale isn’t kind to us but our clothes are looser and fitting better.
4. Eat 1200-1500 good calories a day.  I eat foods high in protein and low in fat, if I need a sweet snack I’ll eat something from the pre-packaged 100 calorie goodies out there.
5. Portion control!  Can’t emphasize this enough.  Take the time to measure; at least until you get the hang of being able to eyeball it accurately.
6. Eat on a regular schedule, go no longer than 3 hours between eating, allowing for three meals and three snacks a day.  I like to keep my breakfast and lunch at around 200 calories each, dinner at around 300-400 each and snacks between 100-150 each.
7. Stay away from all fried foods.  No matter what!  They are never okay for our bodies.  Never.  Keep these in the super rare treat category.
8. Exercise at least twice a day for at least 30 minutes a go.  My exercise routine - each morning I get in 30-40 minutes of all over body strength training to include sit-ups.  Each afternoon I get in at least 30 minutes of cardio, which is often just having fun swimming in our pool but can also be a bike ride or a walk.  Each evening I get in one hour of either kickboxing or karate, depending on the day of the week.  Obviously if you don’t do these activities, you can get in some other form of cardio that you find fun, even if it’s just going for a walk.  I just urge you to do it twice a day.
9. Drink LOTS of water.  At least 80-120 oz. each day.  I carry a 64 oz. giant insulated cup with me everywhere I go so that I am always drinking nice, cold water.  I very often will drink three of these a day; that is equal to 192 oz. and is a bit extreme, but when you’re sweating as much as I do, it is necessary.  Water not only helps to flush out the fat, it replenishes our cells and keeps us clean.
10. Stay away from sodas and juices…just say NO to all drinks that have calories.  I am an avid lover of milk…love, love, love the stuff.  But I won’t even drink that when actively trying to lose weight, except for on Sundays, which is my “day off”.  The rest of the days I take calcium supplements.
11. Take vitamins daily.  I take one multivitamin each morning, along with my calcium supplement and some fiber pills to help me stay regular.
12. Eat consciously, every time you eat be completely aware of the entire experience.  Eat slowly and enjoy the meal.  Make every time you eat something you enjoy doing, that will help keep you from feeling deprived.
13. Plan ahead, bring healthy snacks with you if you’re going somewhere you know that you will be tempted to have a bad snack.
14. Take one day off a week.  No exercise and no calorie counting.  This of course doesn’t mean to go wild though.  Eat whatever it is you want to eat (except for fried foods!!!) but stick to portion control.  Craved Chips Ahoy cookies all week long?  Allow yourself to have a serving on your day off.  When we allow ourselves to have a day off, it helps us fight off those maddening cravings throughout the rest of the week.
15. Keep track of your food intake and exercise daily in a log.  You can keep a written journal in a notebook; I use a program called Fitday.  I sincerely love that program cuz’ it keeps track of everything for me.  Shows me how I’m doing over time in graph form even.
16. Every now and again you’ve just got to go wild and refuse to feel guilt about it!  About once a month I will indulge myself and have pizza with the kids, or order that appetizer of fried mozarella sticks, or go to Coldstone and get a love it size of my favorite treat there.  The key is to making this a rare treat, a one meal or snack kind of thing…not a whole day kind of thing.
17. NEVER, EVER, NEVER give up!  ALWAYS persevere!  Prepare yourself, it IS going to get tough from time to time.  Expect that and you will never be surprised when it does.

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. - Philipians 3:13-14

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. - Philipians 4:13

Good morning everyone!

I often am asked how I put pictures on my profile page, blog, and/or into booster notes, so I thought I would write a blog with the instructions in it.  That way I can refer easily back to it instead of re-typing the instructions each time, as I’m always afraid that I am going to forget something, or leave something out accidentally.

First I thought I’d start with directions for putting a picture into your blog itself.   This one I find the easiest.

Inserting a picture into your blog:

When you’re writing your blog make sure that the”Visual” tab is open, not the “code” tab.  See the little row of icons there underneath where it says “Visual”, that starts with a B I ABC?  Look over to the left where there is what looks like a little picture of a tree, it’s the 13th from the left.  Click on that to open up a new little window.  The only line that you need to worry about is the first one that says “Image URL”.  I only use Photobucket.com for pictures for inserting into my blog, because it’s the only place I’m aware of that gives you the option to copy the “Direct Link” to the picture itself.  I’m sure there’s other ways to get direct links to pictures, but Photobucket has more than enough pictures to serve my needs.  Okay, so go get your direct link to the picture you want to insert into your blog, click on that icon that looks like a little tree, and in the line thaat says “Image URL”, paste that direct link code and then click on the insert button.  You will see your picture in your blog.  To insert a personal picture, I first upload the picture(s) I want to insert into my blog onto my account at photobucket.com.  That way I can get the direct image URL to copy and paste here into the blog.

Insert Pictures into booster notes:

This is the way I insert graphics, cut and paste the code, into the html section of this

http://www.online-html-editor.de/index_en.php

online html editor. To get to the html section click on the at the top left hand corner of the editor.

You get the html codes from:

http://www.photobucket.com   http://zwani.com/     http://www.myhotcomments.com/

http://www.coolmyspacecomments.com/    http://www.myspacegrafix.com/

http://mycutegraphics.com/     http://www.graphics4myspace.com/     http://www.supaflygrafix.com/

There are other sites as well, these are just a few.

Now just cut and paste that html code for the graphic, into the html source section using the . Then click apply at the bottom and hit OK and you will see the animation in the editor box. Sometimes the animation won’t show, but don’t worry it will show in Buddy Slim. Just write your message underneath. Now, highlight the graphic and your words, and cut and paste them into the Buddy Slim booster.

DO NOT cut and paste the html code into Buddy Slim… cut and paste the graphic and your comments!

If you did it correctly you will see the picture in your comment or booster comment section on Buddy Slim, if you only see html code you didn’t do it correctly. What you see in the Buddy Slim box is what will show up online!

Inserting pictures into your profile page:

As for putting pictures on your profile, that is done differently but it’s still using the html code. I’ll give you an example on how to put a picture into a section there.

1. Click on home
2. Click on edit
3. Click on Buddy info: profile edit
4. Copy the html code for the picture you want
5. Paste the html code into any section there, being mindful that you can only insert so many characters into each section.
6. Click on submit and then go to your home page to check it. You may need to refresh the page to make the pictures show. But they should be there.

These directions work in the info: profile and the Extended Info/ Interests: sections.

Have fun with it all!

My weigh in this morning was awesome!  I weighed in at 215 for a 4 lb. loss for the week!  You know what the absolute coolest thing about it is?  I got past that 218 lb. mark that I haven’t been able to get past, EVER!!!  Another cool thing about it is TOM is due tomorrow, so maybe I lost another pound or two for real…who knows…but I’ll happily take that four and do the happy dance!!!!

I also now fit into two pairs of pants that I bought like six months ago.  When I bought them I put them up thinking that I would use them as motivation and planned on being in them roundabout November ish.  Don’t know why but I had an urge to try them on today and about jumped up and down for joy when they were easy to put on!  One pair is a coral color cotton capris in size 16, that zip up and the other pair were my “dream jeans”.  They’re a pair of 501’s with a 38 inch waist.  I seriously didn’t think I’d be in those for awhile still.  I used to wear 501’s all the time as a teen and thought how cool would it be to have a pair again, so I splurged and bought a pair and have had them hanging in the front of my closet ever since.  They were a great motivator!

My husband is the most awesomest man on earth!  He called me at about 5:30 this morning.  Yeah, I was sleeping, but I don’t mind when he calls me just because he misses me.  That makes me very happy, he can call any time of day or night.  I miss him so much it’s crazy!  It was really nice being able to talk to him while still sleepy in bed, in the dark like that.  With my eyes closed, talking to him like that made it seem as if he were there in person.  It was very, very nice.  Man…I sure wish these next 4-5 months would hurry up and pass!   He’s been gone for almost eight months now.  While that thought is sad to me, it is also a good thought because that means we’re that much closer to him coming home again.  He’s calling in about an hour for his regular bi-weekly call where he talks to me and the kids, and that is always nice.  So, I’ll get to talk to him again soon!

I hope that everyone one had a GREAT weekend, stayed on plan and made good memories.  Although, you know, if you didn’t stay on plan, tomorrow is a new day!  A day to start fresh our plans all over again, with our end goals in sight.  So, if you’re out there mad at yourself and beating yourself up over a bad weekend…STOP!  Brush yourself off and get back on track tomorrow.  It’s time we were as nice to ourselves as we are to others.

lol I’m not a Britney Spears fan but just couldn’t help using that as my title.  I did it again!!!!  Ran 1.5 miles this evening!  Woohoo!  This time I was at home and did it on my treadmill.  I didn’t find it any harder or easier, but it was nice because I watched tv while doing it.  I did a total of 3 miles again, walking at 4.0 MPH and when I ran I ran at 5.5 MPH for the full 1.5 miles without stopping.  This all is amazing to me because when I first started out, whenever I would walk on my treadmill I walked at 2.2 MPH and that was a real workout for me.  My entire walk then was always between one and two miles total.  When I could go as far as two miles it was thrilling to me.  Now lookit me go hehe.  Walking at 4.0 MPH is fairly good..but yeah, 5.5 MPH running speed is kinda slow lol.  But, it’s frikkin’ AWESOME that I am at that speed now, and I know it’s only going to get better!  My buddy Lori said yesterday, “It does feel amazing to have changed your life so much and to do things you have never done before doesn’t it?  and theres more to come makes you wonder what’s next doesnt it?” I love that thought!  That thought excites me!  I am so looking forward to what’s coming next.  I really am.  There is so much to be thankful for, I feel so blessed.  Amazing how something so simple can make a person feel so darn good.

Aside of my run, I also got in my 40 minutes of strength training on my Hoist machine this morning.  I ate good, my calories right over 1200.  Drank all my water, and am feeling good.  TOM is due any day, I’m none too thrilled about that, but in spite of it, I’m feeling really good.  I am looking forward to my weigh in tomorrow morning!  The weather today was unbelievably beautiful, just perfect.  About 80 degrees with a cool breeze, another perfect Autumn day, albeit a few days early.

Got this quote in my email today and wanted to share.  I found it to be very appropriate in our weight loss endeavors because most of the time we sabotage ourselves and have no one to blame but us.

If you could kick the posterior of the person

who has hurt you the most,

….you wouldn’t be able to sit down for six weeks.

~John Hagee~

I hope everyone is having a SUPERFANTABULOUS weekend!

Some of you may remember that last Friday I ran 1.2 miles (with the power walk included I did a total of 2.8 miles) and was stoked because of it.  Well, I just got back a little while ago from the dojo and boy let me tell ya what!  This time I power walked around four times and then ran 3 1/2 times around then walked the last 1/2 lap for a cool down.  Break it down into miles and it equals a 1.6 mile power walk, then a 1.5 mile run (OMG!!!!!) then a .2 cool down walk.  Grand total 3.3 miles in 40 minutes.  The grandest part being OMG I RAN 1.5 miles without stopping!!!!!!  I have NEVER, in my entire life…I mean NEVER…ran that far.  Not even when I was a skinny teenager.  I was one of those lazy kids that walked instead of running for PE and took the lower grade instead, just because I HATE running lol.  Well, I still HATE running when I first start.  But can I tell you, no other form of exercise that I do brings me such immense joy when I am done.  I feel SO DAMN GOOD as I near my finish line, and when I am done I actually cry a little.  You know I used to be morbidly obese and couldn’t walk a half a mile in under ten minutes and then when I did finish that half mile walk I’d collapse from being out of breath.  I am telling you, when I finish running I feel so overwhelmed with pure joy.  I don’t know that I’ll ever be running marathons, or even half marathons.  But, I do plan on eventually being able to run 3 miles…and heck, may as well shoot for the moon and plan on someday in the far, far future, getting to the five mile mark.  And you know what, as long as I am shooting for the moon, I am going to make it a goal of mine to no longer hate running some day.  I think that running is going to grow near and dear to my heart because dammit, nothing makes me feel so good after finishing it.  I never want to cry after my karate or kickboxing classes, or even my cardio classes.   Jo, WonderWoman - you know what I’m trying to say here lol.  Running is so freeing!  I feel so FREE!

This picture is how I feel after running:

I meant to blog about my new running shoes in yesterdays blog.  Wednesday I had to go buy a new pair because my feet have shrunk yet again lol.  When I started out losing weight in January 07′ I wore a size 10 shoe.  I’m now in a size 8 again!  It’s funny to me how much my feet and hands have shrunk.  My wedding ring keeps falling off, gonna need to have it re-sized back down to it’s original size soon.  Anyway, back to my new running shoes.  Today was my first day wearing them for a substantial amount of time.  I grew a blister on my right heal during my power walk and then my run…could feel it growing.  Then when I stopped running and slowed down to walk for my cooldown, I felt the thing pop and dang it, it hurts!  But I love it…I am kind of proud of this popped blister!  I did, after all, work hard to achieve it.  hehe

I want to sincerely thank my buddies, from the bottom of my heart.  You were all with me as I ran today and pushed myself to go further than before.  I could almost hear you cheering me on from the sidelines.  You all inspire me to do the absolute best that I can do.  Just thinking about being able to tell my husband, my family, and all of you of my accomplishment is what kept me going.  It was my fuel.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU, for all of your friendship, love, and support!!!

Mmmmm…..the air, it smells fresh and clean this morning, doesn’t it?  So refreshing.  You can smell the cleanness, the crispness on the light, gentle breeze as it plays around with the curtains.  There is Autumn in the air…only a couple of more days until the first official day of Autumn!  Oh, how I love the Autumn.  My most favorite time of year.  Time to bring out all the pumpkin scented candles and room sprays.  I love the warm colors of Autumn, reds golds and browns.  Two of my favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, are in the Autumn…another reason to love it!  Everything about Autumn just makes me feel good all over, it’s a refreshing, happy feeling.  I even love that the football season has begun again!

I do wish that we lived elsewhere for the Autumn season though.  Don’t get me wrong, it is nice here weather-wise.  But I get tired of the same old blue skies that we get 360 days a year.  The temperature doesn’t even go down much.  Summer it gets pretty darn hot.  Usually 100-115 degrees each day.  Winter drops down to maybe 60-65 in the day time.  That’s all the fluctuations we get though.  Either warm and sunny, or hot and sunny.  Take your pick.  Thankfully, in the Autumn and Winter our nights do get pretty chilly, often dropping down into the high 30’s to low 40’s.  But, you know as well as I do that those temps are often considered warm days in some areas lol.

It really is like that here, nearly every day of the year.  While that may sound like bragging, it is not.  It’s more like whining.  I want to live somewhere where there are four different seasons a year.  I lived in Pennsylvania for a few years as a young child and still can remember the beauty of it.  I truly envy those of you who are lucky enough to live where the four seasons manifest themselves so diversely!  Geesh, even a little thunderstorm every now and then would be nice…but those are virtually non-existent here.  Hmm…I think we need to move lol.

Yesterday and the day before were kind of sad days, watching someone on the site spiral so far out of control.  I feel as if I literally watched her descend into madness and it wasn’t pretty.  I don’t want to blog about it, don’t want to re-hash it, as I am tired of it all and I know you all have got to be tired of it all too.  But I do want it to be known that even though my name and character were dragged through the mud, I do not wish her any ill will.  All I ever wanted was for peace to reign at Buddyslim, as it always has in the past.  I am truly concerned for her because I do think what happened to her was a very sad thing and I pray that she finds the help she needs.  I am almost 100% certain that we have not seen the last of her though, and think it highly likely that she is still among us under a different name.  I only hope that she plays nice this time around.

Today is going to be a GREAT day!  We need to say that to ourselves every day, I believe.  First thing when we wake up.  Say it and believe it and make it so!  But, I have even more reason for saying that today hehe.  My 7 year old’s school is having a “picnic” day at school today that we get to go to.  My son, Noah, he just loves these things so much.  I just love how happy it makes him and there is no way in the world that I would miss out on making him happy, especially in such an easy way.  So, my daughter and I are about to make all the foodstuffs and get ready to go in a few.   I will be eating 1/2 a PB&J and a 100 calorie bag of Doritos….nom nom nom!  After the picnic they get out of school, because Fridays are always early days.  So we’ll head home and then all jump in the pool for a few hours of play time.  I wish my 12 year old son could join us too, but he doesn’t get out of school until 2:30 today.  At least he’ll join in for the swimming!  Then, at 5:00 my 12 year old and I are going to head to the dojo.  He so he can take his weapons class for karate, and me so I can get in a 2.8 mile walk/run around the outside there, same as last Friday.  I’m going to run without stopping for at least the 1.2 miles around like last time, but maybe get in a smidge more.  One of these days I want to be able to run 3 miles without stopping!

Okay, I’m off to go enjoy my day now.  Will come back on later and read blogs and give out encouragement where needed.  Have a GREAT day all!

When I was morbidly obese at 338 lbs. I had some perceptions that were simply not true about those around me.  I remember thinking that people treated me different because I was fat.  Granted, there really are people out there, lots of them, who do treat fat people like substandard human beings.  I’m not in any means trying to belittle what jerks like that are doing.  What I’m trying to talk about here though is that often times it is we who are the ones who’ve got it wrong.  I know I for one was.  I walked around with this shell around me and would place my misconceptions over a situation.

For instance, there was this one man at the last church I attended, he was the youth pastor actually, and I always thought he couldn’t stand to be around me because I was so disgustingly fat.  I’d say to my husband that I didn’t want to go such and such place because Joe would be there and Joe always looks at me with disgust in his eyes and I just couldn’t take it.  Looking back on it now, he didn’t treat me any different than he treated anyone else.  It was me that had the wrong ideas.  I thought that because he was such an active person that he must not know how to deal with a fatty like me.

Another prime example would be my aunt and my husband.  My aunt didn’t like to come around my husband because even though she really liked him alot, she was afraid of being judged by him because she was so overweight.  I told her that is ludicrous, I mean, look at me.  He has never treated me with anything other than respect and love and here I was morbidly obese.  I told my husband about her fears and he thought them just absurd and made extra effort to give her more hugs and attention, anything to make her feel better in his presence.  But the fact remained that he is a healthy, fit, active Marine and that made her feel substandard in his presence and she projected that to mean that he thought less of her.

Going to the dojo back when I was morbidly obese, I thought that people must look at me in disgust because I was so fat.  When they saw me exercising by walking fast around the empty lot outside and sweating buckets, they must be disgusted and laughing….oh, look at the fatty fat fat thinking she’s all that.   In reality I inspired many to get out there and get walking themselves.  I even inspired one of the owners to the point that she gave me six months free to her kickboxing class and she cried and shook as she handed me my certificate in front of everyone there.  She told me that I inspired her…do you know what that meant to me?  Here is this woman, who health and physical activity has been a major priority for all of her life….telling ME, that I inspired HER?

One thing that used to always hold me back from exercising was that people were going to look with disgust in their eyes and laugh at me behind my back.  I have come to learn that at least 95% of the time, people look at me with respect when they see me working out, and often it gets them going on their own workouts.  They think to themselves, way to go!  Another person who has come over to the healthy side!!!  That is exciting to them.

The other 5%…who cares about em?  Why do we let them, the very tiny minority, dictate our lives and actions?

Perception vs. reality is so often not one in the same.  Even though we make it our reality, it is not the truth.

I urge you, if you’re letting your perceptions of a situation hold you back from doing things you want to do, pull down that veil and look at the reality of the situation.  I really do believe that more often than not you’re going to find that it is you that is projecting your bad thoughts about yourself onto others.

I hope that what I said makes sense, and that it helps someone out.  It’s been weighing heavy on my mind these days, so wanted to get it out there.  Bit of good news where my brother is concerned.  They have him attending five group therapy sessions a day with the other people on his ward and he is now beginning to realize that he has a problem and he wants to work at getting better.  This I believe, is not just due to the fact that he is attending the therapy sessions, but also because his pain meds are being regulated by the hospital now so he’s not OD’ing on em…which I’ve no doubt makes for a clearer mind.  Please keep him in your prayers!

OMG - Can’t believe I nearly forgot this - my scale is all better!  It is working again!  It didn’t even lose my pre-programmed info.  Woohoo!!!