In weight, that is! 😀
After a few mediocre weeks, I had an AMAZING week, losing 8.4# for a total loss thus far of 117.6!! Together, the kids weigh about 114!!
Tom told me I was getting too skinny and I needed to eat something. :p I still have a minimum of 10 to go and best case about 20-30.
I just got off the phone with Marcia Upson, the President of Naturally Slim!!
I had gotten an email from her the other day asking if it would be okay for her to call me. WHAT?! OF COURSE! HOLY COW! So we finally got in touch today.
I had no idea why she wanted to talk to me, but turns out she learned I was jealous that Brad (a Tivo friend) got to meet her when he filmed his testimonial last week! (He lives in Texas where NS is headquartered so he was able to go in to record his testimonial in person and ended up meeting and having lunch with Marcia.) So she said “Well I can call her!” 🙂
She also wanted to congratulate me on my success thus far, thank me for (in her words) my amazing testimonial (link coming as soon as they produce it), and just have a nice chat! It was all a bit of a blur, but according to my call log, we talked for 22 minutes—while she was on the treadmill, no less!—and she’s just as warm and gracious and lovely as you’d imagine her to be. What a pleasure.
We talked about the kids (she loves age 3!), hubby (she was excited for me when I said I now weigh less than him), my video testimonial (she really really loved it—said it felt very honest and heartfelt), the reason why the program price went up (since they are now affiliated with insurance companies, they have to do a yearly program with a cost per class and that’s how much it comes to), and the Tivo group (she loves that we have a spreadsheet—she’s amazed that we have so many people that have lost so much weight).
I told her they really need to find a celebrity spokesperson—like Oprah just did Weight Watchers and their stock went bananas and she thought that was a good idea. I told her I had a famous name but wasn’t famous so I wouldn’t be much help and she admitted that when she was first told about me, she did momentarily wonder. 🙂
She asked what videos I saw and I told her THE MARCIA VIDEOS and we talked a bit about that. I told her she was just SO much more relatable than a random doctor ever could be and I couldn’t imagine them without her. Like you were talking to a neighbor who’d been there instead of someone in a white coat telling you what has to happen. She basically said this is her baby…her life…and will NEVER let them force her out of the videos!
I admitted I was frustrated to have only lost 10# in two months (after losing that much in as little as three weeks before), but that it was still 10# and each week that I lost a tiny bit I envisioned her holding up the ounce or pound fat blob (the last pic is a 5# blob).
She said she knows I will have no problem losing the rest of my goal.
I told her to let me know if there’s anything I can ever do. She said I already have—the testimonial I did was amazing. She then told me to contact her if I ever need anything. 🙂
I told her today was a banner day for me—Onederland PLUS meeting and talking to her! She was very supportive and enthusiastic about Onderland and very gracious about my excitement to meet her.
Lastly I thanked her for saving my life with Naturally Slim and she was genuinely moved.
What an amazing person and a wonderful experience.
Another goal bites the dust!
My “one good week” (paying attention to the core principles and five days of exercise) saw a 5.6# loss.
I had thought I had to get to 200 to be overweight, but I input my weight today (202) on the spreadsheet…and it calculated my BMI as Overweight! YIPPEE! No more Obese!
Now to keep it up! My next milestone of ONEDERLAND (a weight starting with 1xx) should happen next week!
So, my tension-mount wedding ring is falling off and needs to be resized from a 7 to a 5.5.
We’ve known since we bought it that if it ever needed to be resized, it wouldn’t be your typical easy resize job. I remember them telling us it could be around $100. Fine. So fast forward to now when I actually need it resized and I contacted a few local recommended jewelers.
Ha.
Two places won’t even touch it because of the style, one won’t touch it because we didn’t buy it there, and one says “We can try and see what happens.” 😮
So I contacted the jeweler where we bought it and, long story short, they just informed me it can’t be resized that much [due to the style] and it will have to be remade…at a cost of $1200. TWELVE HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS. I can’t live with the cheapo $5 plastic sizer piece on it forever, but we can’t very well afford $1200 to fix a goddamn ring. FML.
A few people have suggested maybe it’s time to upgrade…especially because we hit 15 years this year. But I don’t really want to upgrade!! I honestly can’t imagine finding anything I like more than my ring. I still LOVELOVELOVE it after 15 years.
I knew there would be costs associated with this new body, but I honestly never thought about my ring.
WTF? 14s?! I haven’t seen 14s since…possibly college but high school for sure! I’m unbelievably geeked about this!
In my mind, I’m probably still a good 5# away from being able to wear them nicely—but I actually think it’s time to start wearing them so I’m more apt to watch my food intake. I’ve been wearing my comfy 16s and yoga pants for two weeks (and have been maintaining more than losing) so by wearing pants that “fit” (i.e. are a little snug) hopefully I’ll get off the maintenance bandwagon and start losing again! I know I want to lose more, but right now I’m just very comfortable where I am. I’ve actually said that if I never lose another pound, I’d be perfectly happy…except…I know my body can get thinner. I’m not even technically to Overweight yet if you can believe it (though I’m close)!!
Interestingly, all the size 14s I bought (three pair last night) are tight in the thighs and calves…while the good ol’ Costco Gloria Vanderbilt faves of the same size? I can barely button them. Tom says they all look good—and, considering where I started, yes I guess they do look good—but to me, if I saw someone looking like I look in them, I’d probably think they needed to lose 5-10# or wear a bigger size. 😐 All I can see from the side is my huge thighs. And I’ve always hated my calves (they’re HUGE and oddly-shaped) so to me, the clingy denim just accentuates that flaw even more. That said, I know we all see the worst in ourselves, so I’m trying not to let that bother me and just enjoy that I’M WEARING A SIZE 14. And know that I’m just (still) not used to tight-fitting clothes and this is the style these days!
Never thought I’d be able to wear this again. It’s been about 21 years. It never got donated because it was very college-specific (it was our dorm sweatshirt)!
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ME!
I DID IT! My first big goal—100 pounds—is complete! After “restarting” the program after not losing anything over the holidays, I busted my butt and lost 6.6# this past week and this happened at today’s weigh-in!
I really wanted to make my goal by the end of the year, and I think this is pretty damn close! And since I’m technically still Obese, now it’s time for the next 30-40!!!
For my last throwback of the year…they aren’t the best Before & After photos, but they are beginning to end: On the lefts, January 2015; on the rights, December 2015…almost 100# lighter. Bring on 2016!
My restart is going very well. My fluff is long gone and I’m at about 4# so far this week (of course, some of that may be daily fluctuation).
This is how getting dressed went this morning.
Funny how when I was bigger, I really liked loose-fitting clothes and that’s all I wanted. Now, if it doesn’t fit me PERFECTLY I don’t want it. Like the 18 jeans? They’re still definitely wearable with a belt, but why would I wear those when I have 16s that fit better? I hate wasting the money (I wore that $40 pair of jeans maybe two months at most) so that just irks me, but…why complain about needing a smaller size?
A bunch of friends that have been doing Naturally Slim for awhile now have decided to “start over” as if we were on Day 1 of the program again. We’ve all been sort of stalled (maintaining, if you will) or slightly gaining over the holidays and have decided a refresh is in order. And I’ve always said that if what I’m doing isn’t working I will go back to ALL the basics to get started again. (I’ve been following most of the rules, but have gotten a bit slack over the past month and especially slack over the last two weeks.)
As you know, I really wanted to make 100 by Christmas or the end of the year but after this past week I’m pretty sure I’ll have gained two pounds this week (I’ll find out in the morning) and I want the fluff gone before it turns into real weight…so I might as well start ASAP. I was originally going to start with them on January 3, but today thought “Why wait? Why give myself permission to splurge for another whole week?” Which means tomorrow I’ll be starting fresh for my next 30-40#.
I need to do everything by the book, just as I said I’d do if things stopped working.
I tried to have a last glass of wine tonight and it didn’t even taste good (but it was box wine that’s been open for a month) so I dumped it all out. I did splurge on a few peanut M&Ms and caramel corn, but even that splurging wasn’t a quarter as much as a previous splurge would have been.
HERE WE GO!
P.S. Also on my mind? This happened a few days ago on Twitter:
Whoa. So I have extra motivation to GET. IT. DONE!
I was down 1.2 for the week. Not much…and I likely won’t make my goal by Christmas…but a loss is a loss and I’ll take it!
Not to toot my own horn, LOL, but I thought I looked damn good and I felt amazing in my $20 size 14 dress. 🙂
Everyone I saw at the party that I knew (a small handful of the 40-odd people) told me I looked amazing. I honestly felt like a fairy princess and didn’t want the night to end. I can’t remember a time—EVER—when I’ve felt that good about myself and/or how I looked. Not even at my wedding (though that was an awesome day!).
I see the dress on a hanger and think “Man that looks small. There’s no way I fit into that.” But I obviously did. And I killed it. 🙂 (And I still have about 40-50 more pounds to go! I cannot even FATHOM that.)
Also tonight? Wearing a winter coat I last wore…in high school. Yes, I’ve kept it for 24 years because it was an awesome coat and dammit I was going to fit into it again someday!
Three if you count that it means a kidless night out at a holiday party.
If you can’t guess the two reasons, it’s 1) size 14 and 2) a good deal!
The backstory? I needed something to wear for a holiday party. I had NOTHING holiday-ish in my closet at all. No dress slacks, no khakis, no skirts, no dressy sweaters even. I had one dress that would have been okay, but I kind of wanted something new that was a bit more holiday-party-appropriate. So I went shopping at Ross and was looking at 16s. 16s!!! (I now wear size 16 jeans so thought a dress would be the same.) I haven’t bought a size 16 dress in…since maybe high school? So I picked four and tried them all on—and they all fit. Wait. What? I’m used to maybe one thing fitting and hoping it doesn’t look awful, LOL. So I was able to pick the one Iiked the best. And it was on clearance! So imagine my surprise when I got home and realized it was a 14! Holy crap! I never would have looked at the size 14 section! 🙂
Phew.
I fell off the wagon at lunch. Too many Biscuits and Gravy potato chips (probably the equivalent of a single serving bag) and about 9 peanut M&Ms when making pretzel/Rolo/M&M treats. Then two pretzel treats.
Since I felt the day was already a bust, LOL, I splurged on a margarita wine cooler while getting dinner ready.
Then we made a batch of garlic toast (amazing stuff) and I had the equivalent of two slices of bread over the dinner hour (before, during, and after)…while still eating dinner, of course.
Overall, today was completely unlike 99.9% of my NS days. Too much sugar plus too much food plus alcohol. EEK.
But.
It was still light years different from pretty much 90% of my pre-NS days—today’s consumption would have been a light day. I probably would have eaten half a bag of chips with lunch, two handfuls of M&Ms, a handful of finished pretzel treats, had two drinks, at least three pieces or more of bread/toast…plus twice as much dinner as I ate. Plus I wouldn’t have walked a mile during the day.
So I still call today a win. And that’s why NS is the bomb.
They’re a tiny bit tight, but with the long MSU jersey they’re just fine. (While I technically hit 90.2# lost this morning, my official weigh-in isn’t until Sunday.)
And I’m also trying something new—the Short version. I’ve always had to buy Talls my entire life…but in this style, the Average was perfect. Until I lost weight…and shrunk a damn inch! The jeans still fit great overall so I thought I’d try the Short. Well…the verdict is still out. They are almost perfect while standing, but when sitting they pull up just a bit more than I’d like. So I either a) get the Average and hem/fold them or b) get the short and deal with it. 🙂
I wore this coat while I was pregnant with Owen so thought it was appropriate that we still fit in it together. 🙂
Do you recognize anyone on Naturally Slim’s Facebook page? 🙂
A week or so ago I Tweeted my current results (81# lost after 26 weeks) and today they Liked it, retweeted it, and messaged me to ask if they could use it on their other social media accounts as inspiration for others. Of course I said YES! A little while later, it appeared on their Facebook page!
Of course, I’m completely embarrassed that my bedroom is such a hot mess in the Before photos…but I’m hoping that the After photos take people’s eye’s away. 🙂
Yeah.
She was nice enough, but when we were talking about why I wanted a general chem panel run (in addition to my thyroid levels) and I casually mentioned that I had recently lost 80 pounds, she didn’t really even bat an eye. Instead, she asked what I was doing for exercise. And when I told her that I was walking about a mile 3-5 times a week she kind of gave me a look, saw my FitBit, and asked how many daily steps I was getting. I told her about 7,000 and she said “You need to get that up to 10,000.”
Gee thanks, lady. Thanks for showing me any kind of positivity about LOSING 80 F***ING POUNDS.
And on top of that, I shrunk a damn inch. I am no longer 5’10”. What the bloody hell? At least Tom and I are shrinking in tandem (he lost an inch as well).
* Sidenote. I had complained about this to my friends, saying “That’s the problem being military…you get a new set of doctors every few years so no one is ever really invested in you long-term. And even while on station, you might not see the same doctor each time (unless you specifically make sure you are).” And they unilaterally said no way, I had a bad doctor. That any doctor should be THRILLED with that amount of weight loss, new patient or not. So I got a dud. I knew my friends would make me feel better. 🙂
Now I’m finding myself much more choosy about what I look like and how clothes feel.
I have three pair of size 20 pants (not jeans) that technically fit…but they don’t fit well. The waist is too high or the thighs are weird in comparison to the waist or they just look odd with whatever shirt I pick. So in the donation pile they go.
My favorite real (i.e. non-yoga) pants are actually jeans! The pair Nancy handed down, a Jennifer Lopez pair from Kohl’s, and still those silly $14 Gloria Vanderbilts from Costco! That’s hard to get used to.
And a lot of the tops I’ve loved—that still technically fit and are technically wearble—are just a hair too big and while they’re okay…they’re not quite right. So this morning I’ve added about six more shirts to the pile.
I keep thinking I don’t need that much more in the way of clothes, but every time I get dressed, nothing seems right.
Can you believe I held on to this sweater for 10 years? I obviously really liked it and hoped to wear it again someday. If you look closely, you will notice that I even still have the necklace—which was another favorite.
When I was cleaning out my closet this week I found this sweater… The last time I wore it was my first Raleigh New Year’s Eve.
As you know, I’ve had a few off weeks (no loss or slight gain) but I’m still thrilled beyond belief. I should still hopefully reach my goal of 100# by Christmas.
I’m really bummed this morning. I just weighed myself for my weekly weigh-in and…I’m up about four pounds from last Sunday!
WHAT?!?!?!?
Now, granted, last Sunday I weighed on a different scale (at my mom’s house)…BUT it’s the exact scale we have and my previous weighings on her scale showed similar results to mine (meaning I weighed myself Sunday night when we got there and it was up 2-3 pounds from my house, which was likely attributable to weighing at night with clothes as opposed to naked in the morning).
If our scale is right, I didn’t lose anything at all the entire week we were in Michigan when I was eating like a bird because I wasn’t hungry. Seems highly unlikely. Gah.
THAT SAID, I know I haven’t been 100% on my game because this past week just felt off all week. One or two days I ate a few pieces of Halloween candy (like a few sweet tarts, a mini kit kat, and a mini Reese’s cup—allowed, of course, except I didn’t eat them at the “right” time)—then I ate “dinner” (1/3 cup mac and cheese and 1/2 a brat) at 8:00 even though I wasn’t technically at the correct hunger level. And I didn’t exercise like I normally do. And on more than a few days it felt like I just wanted to eat ALL THE FOOD ALL THE TIME (even though I didn’t). It’s not “that time of the month” because that doesn’t happen on the birth control I’m on…but whatever the reason is I hate it. I don’t want to eat. I’m not hungry. But I want everything. And my normal willpower has dissipated.
Fortunately, this is a new week and I’ll just get back to basics (again) and hopefully I’ll lose another seven like I did a few weeks ago.
But in the meantime, I do try to remember that I’ve already lost a serious amount of weight in quite a short time and I should be thrilled (which I am!) but it’s hard not to be somewhat discouraged about such a huge unexpected swing. 🙁
Holy shit.
A loss of 7.2# and I’m just past 75# lost overall.
Wow.
And I’m wearing Tom’s old XL jogging pants. My matching ones were donated in the last go-round and he was going to give his away but I snagged them! They were a bit tight, but they’re perfect now! 🙂
So after the big boohoo I had this weekend about my .4 weight gain…I finally opened my spreadsheet today to input the info (I skipped it because I wasn’t ready to input hard proof of a gain) and…WHAT IS THIS? I lost .4 pounds?! That’s what you get for weighing more than once a week and you look at the wrong date it Fitbit to calculate your weekly loss.
So, it was still a sucky week and I still needed to get back on track, but at least I don’t have that small upward blip anymore! And it made me look back at previous weeks…and I had one other week where I only lost .2 so this wasn’t even my worst week. 🙂
Here’s my chart thus far on my Excel spreadsheet:
And with the same data at Naturally Slim:
I love it. 🙂
So my weigh-in day came yesterday and I didn’t lose anything. In fact, I gained weight. It was only .4 pounds, but that’s disheartening after consistently losing 2-4# a week for 20 weeks.
You may think that’s a bit of craziness after gaining less than half a pound…but gaining is not an option.
Oh yes, there will be times I gain weight during the rest of my life (think a vacation or special event), but the program has ways to deal with it: When you catch it immediately, you go hard core and within a few days, the “fluff” weight should fall right off. If you let it go and let the .4 turn into 1.4 turn into 3.2 turn into 5.6 then you have a problem and it takes more work to drop the extra pounds.
Sooo…I knew I hadn’t been following the principles as closely as I should have been for still being in weight loss mode (vs maintenance) and it was my own fault. So, true to my word—I said as soon as I stopped losing I was going back to the hard core principles—I did.
I went on a double walk (I did our 2-mile hiking trail instead of my usual 1-mile treadmill), drank my H2OJ religiously, skipped lunch because I wasn’t hungry, then ate my small dinner S…L…O…W…L…Y (and when I say small dinner, I mean 1/4 of a grilled hamburger, two bites of avocado, and about four chips—and I honestly wasn’t even hungry but you should eat at least once a day).
And this morning I had lost 1.6—which officially dropped me into the 23X category (my next goal!) and upped my overall loss to 70#!
That said, it annoys me to no end that I have that tiny upward blip on my weight loss line. I keep vacillating on just switching my Sunday weight to today’s weight but then I don’t. 🙂
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this week will be a banner weight loss week to keep up my average 3.3# loss per week.