AHA!

The mind is responsible for a lot more than we may sometimes care to admit. What the hell am I babbling about?  Well, have you ever heard of the law of attraction? Its kinda like that. What ever you think about, or focus on, is what you attract. It's something I have believed in for years. I've seen it in action nearly everyday, yet the one area of my life that I have failed to use it in is my weight loss. I have never seen myself as a thin person. In fact, when I weigh in and have not lost the weight I wanted, I concentrate on the feeling of being "fat" all day long. Focusing on that feeling causes me to be a "Debby Downer" all day, which then causes me to eat more (all day), causing more weight gain, and and endless cycle of ups and downs.
      The other thing that has been sabotaging my weight loss recently is the fact that I have a "cheat day". It sounds harmless, but for me (a true blue foodie), a cheat day turns into a calorie packed cheat weekend, and sometimes that's three whole days of eating whatever the hell my fat-ass can get my hands on. Beer, (my weakness), bacon, cheese, ice cream, and occasionally (OK, more than occasionally) a maple bacon cupcake from that cute little bakery around the corner. So after eating a clean diet and exercising for 4 days, I have ruined any progress I might see on the scale.  Combined with fervent disdain for exercise, I have created a mind-boggling plateau.  Its enough to make anyone want to quit.  This is where the final part of my "AHA moment" comes in...
     Its so easy to quit.  Easy to get that overwhelming feeling that for whatever reason, you just aren't meant to be thin.  That you will never be healthy. Don't let those thoughts creep in!  Plateaus are hard to break but it CAN be done.  Take my friend Holly who worked for 5 months to break one.  Now that's dedication!  That's what it takes to change years of bad habits: Dedication.  You have to keep going.  You can change things that aren't working after you have given them a chance.  You can adjust your diet for what works for your body.  You can tweet your exercise routine if it get boring or stops being effective, but the one thing you cant do, is QUIT. So here is the run down on what I have learned in this epiphany:

1. Focus on being thin! 
2. Don't have a cheat day. (cheaters never win.) instead use moderation and don't deprive yourself.
3.  Don't see plateaus as failure.
4. Exercise (ugh)
5. DON'T QUIT!

Soooooo...What have you learned during your weight loss journey? Did you have an AHA moment?

Milftastic Mondays

Milftastic Mondays!

I really wanted to show you guys an awesome picture of me with high heels and hair "did", but frankly, I looked like a walking turd today and refuse to be forever immortalized as a chicken head on the web. Instead, I will share with you today's project.  My daughters helped me put together the IKEA KURA loft beds for their room.   Here's the story: (sigh.FML)

It all started when I got up this morning with a song in my step for some damn reason! I woke at 4:30 a.m., forced my partner to talk to me and listen to my musings on life until 7:30 a.m., at which time I jumped out of bed, peed, poo'ed and got super naked in order to weigh myself.  Down another pound!!!! Sweet! I looked in the mirror to see where I was losing the most weight and was caught off guard by the stupid grin on my face.  Its just a freaking pound, right? No need to be so damn happy, right? Anyway, I digress.  The stupid pound got me to thinking that I could do anything.  I ran down a list of things I had been procrastinating  putting off and decided on setting up the loft style bunk beds for the kidlets.  The wife said she would do it, but why wait?  "How hard can it be?" I said. "How long could it take?" I said.  "Damnit! I got this!" I said ...

Turns out, I don't "got this."  I sucked at "this."  in fact, what should have taken a normal human being less than an hour or so, took yours truly faaaaar longer.  Fast forward 5 hours , 15 minutes, and ten chipped finger nails later.  I was soaked in sweat, nearly starving, and finally finished.  "You are really slow at that mama", said my 4 year old. "Shut up minion!, I said under my breath. Now normally I would go ahead and leave out the fact that my project could have been more successfully completed by a 3 year old, but I wanted to show y'all how much of a "ride or die" chick I am.  I kept screwing (and screwing up) until there was only one screw left over!!! HA!

So here are the finished projects! 315 minutes later, each kidlet has a beautiful, albeit sweat stained bed.  Go me! Sooooooo, if I can muster up the strength, I will do my hair and take a pic to prove that I'm not a hideous beast behind this computer.  Rest well til then y'all.  I know the girls will!

Rasberry ketones (update)

     So I said I wouldn't weigh myself because evil Aunt Flo is in town but I couldn't resist since I started the Raspberry ketones, green coffee extract, dandelion root tea (which I haven't had yet), and green plums.  I stepped on the scale and to my ultimate surprise, even at my most bloated time of the month, I am down 2 pounds to an even 160!!! Sweet success...We will weigh again next Saturday.  Or tomorrow (because I'm a scale addict and I cant say if I'll be able to control my compulsive need to track every freakin pound!)
Mood: Content, energetic, FULL!
 These supplements absolutely work as appetite suppressants because its 8 o'clock, I have only consumed 650 calories and I am not even a little bit hungry! It's actually past lack of hunger.  I actually feel too full to eat. But...I will because eating less than 1200 calories will slow down my metabolism...OK? Happy now?!
Weight:160
Pounds to go: 20
Pounds shed: 20

Tired of spare tires (and love handles, back fat, and my muffin top)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8sCsFtEBBA&feature=plcp

     You wanna know what's the most amazing thing about me losing 20 lbs?  The fact that I look in the mirror and see how chubby I still am!  I mean, if I'm a chubby monster at 162llbs, how much more of a chubby monster was I at 180 lbs?! So I actually started this journey in June 2012. I lost 18 lbs in 2 months just from changing my eating habits.  Unfortunately, I had this brilliant idea to keep dieting for another month without weighing myself.  With 20 lbs to go, I felt as though I didn't need the added stress that came with weighing in everyday.  I literally went crazy every-time the scale moved up 1/4 of a pound!  I started analyzing everything I had eaten the day before, plotting how I would only eat 200 calories for the next three days, and then finally, I would settle into a scale induced depression that could only be cured by ice cream.  Crazy right?  Well most days, I skipped the ice cream and even without exercise, my diet seemed to work.
     August was a different story.  At the end of 4 weeks, of NOT weighing, I had only lost a pound.  Its seems that however psychotic the scale had made me, it had kept me in check.  So now I've made up my mind that its time to stop playing games with myself, the scale, exercise, and unfortunately, ice cream. Oh Dear Lord, please help me,