The power of music

My eldest son Dylan just loves music. He is so carefree in his singing ya can't help but laugh and sometimes close the door gently.
Tom and I were looking for a way to let him enjoy his loud pop music and to get him to move a bit ore. We signed him up for  a grooving Zumba class at our local YMCA. No way did I know that he was about to quickly become the hit of the Tuesday night class. If he missed a class boy, did I hear about it from all the ladies.
Faithfully every Tuesday he would come from from school and quickly change into his Zumba and wait about 3 hours. Gotta love the kid..
I kept it up all winter I was able to just drop him off and let him do this wild thing while I attended other classes, just to give him some free time away from mom and be a teenager.
It so funny that when a song comes on at home or in the car he jumps up and starts doing all the moves.
The power of music.

8 Ridiculous Nutrition Myths

You can read a lot on the internet and really have no idea what to believe. Especially the commercial with the french guy.
Anyway I found this article to be quite interesting and I follow these lessons. Since losing my weight I have done a lot of research and reading about nutrition and I knowing how my body reacts to things I'm a full believer of non processed foods and eating as fresh as possible.
http://www.popsci.com/node/74033/edit
Take a look for yourself.

Sporting a New Body

By September 2011 I was at 186 lbs. into a size 10 and stepped up my exercise program My aches and pains went away and I was more motivated to keep going.   I loved to go shopping because now I could find things that fit without grabbing several sizes of the same thing. It was horrible shopping when I was heavy, Things didn't fit right or I had to try on multiple sizes and that would take forever. The problem I had now was I kept trying on things that were to big. That has never happened to me.
I found a new love for thrift shopping  In the past I would go into thrift shops but the bigger girl clothes were not stylish or was there a good selection. I was dropping weight so fast that I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I hit cheap stores. As a matter of fact the top in this picture I picked up from Goodwill.
My measurements from July to September were:

Waist 40.5 to 35
Hips 43 to 41
Thighs 23 to 21.5
Bust 36 to 34
It was summer and I was sporting a new body. One that I have never had before and I wasn't sure what to do. I fit into clothes off the rack and I wanted to show off all my hard work. Now to look for a 2 piece swim suit. Could I should I, HA, who cares- I'm going to do it.
I added some weights to my exercise routines but I gotta be honest. I wasn't working out that hard. I had beat myself up for so many years that I was done with the pain. I now understand that I can win this battle in the kitchen.

Feeling like a Loser

I'm sorry that it seems like I've been in hiding. I really haven't but life has been catching up to me. I'm working really hard to put things back into perspective. I know its easy to say take time out for yourself but sometimes things just get out of control and you can't help but feel like you are sinking.
I just got back from a 3 day field trip with my son's fourth grade class and let me tell you it about killed me. 120 people in charter buses with overloaded schedules to stuff educational information into our children which most of them wont remember a 3rd of it.
Let me back up a little to lead to play out the story.  My boot camp was over 2 months ago and I swore that I would keep up the exercises. Well, life happened and I didn't do it. 2 months of not working out and slipping with my food choices and eating things that I don't normally eat. A chip here, bread there I gained a few lbs. I knew better but my will power wasn't there yet because of my busy schedule (excuses). I figured I can take off 5 lbs no problem. This popped up that popped up and I was up to needing to lose 10 lbs. WOW where is the time going??? What is going on.
I'm planning this 3 day trip of back to back activity knowing that my food choices were not going to easy but I really had no idea what I was getting into. I packed some apples, black berries, raspberries and water and we ate it all the first day. I also had some trail mix with almonds, chocolate chips and dried cranberries. A gallon size bag half full misc chips, pretzels, chex mix and the like, for the kid to munch on during the 4 hour trip to our destination and back.
Up at 4 am to load up and to  leave on the bus by 5:45. ZOOM. up early, to bed late and lot packed in the middle. We were held captive to subs, pizza and sandwiches on the bus. They did take us to a buffet.(sad face) We lived off of vending machines at rest areas. Never in a million years did I think I would be looking at a vending machine for dinner.

I get home at 4:30 pm and I'm ready for bed by 5. I hold out a bit longer but I wind up kissing my family good night and I bail by 7 only to get up a 5 am to start my daily routine of school and work. As I drag my butt out of bed I jump on scale and I'm mortified. I knew it was going to be bad but this bad? I weighed 201 lb. Highest weight in over 2 years. I was staying in between 189 and 193 for about 6 months and now I hit 201? I worked to hard for my weight to creep back on. I signed up for a 21 day boot camp to get me motivated. I missed 3 days because of my trip but I hit it today and I will every day for the next 17 days. I knew I was going to be tired and it was going to suck. Guess what? it did SUCK, a lot!. I had a hard time completing my rounds and keeping up and I was feeling like a loser. I pushed harder and didn't give up. Emeka says "Hey Carla, Long time no see" I can hardly breath, I'm really tired and I mumble whatever.......!

Now, I know that I'm not really loser but what happens with me when I've had a tough stretch and my world  feels like it crashes a little. I get on myself pretty hard and add up all the things that are going wrong. I'm usually in this feeling sorry for myself phase for a few hours and then I start to pull it together to climb out my own mess. I have some motivational tools that I fall back on that I use often. This blog is one of them. It's venting about problem so I recognize how I got here, I'm owning it. Then I plot what I'm going to do to fix it,  that's holding me accountable. So yes, boot camp sucked today, but I ate right today and I will get plenty of sleep to start another new day tomorrow.Just keep going. No magic here, just keep going and you will thank yourself later.

Over 60 total inches lost

The month of August was epic for me. I swear I would try on something too small and then a week later it would fit.  I have so many pictures of my weight loss that I had to put it all in albums. And, now I am so glad that I did it. I can look back and it makes me proud every time of  I have done for myself.
This is me at 195 lbs. I was at a new low weight and I wanted to keep going. I originally set small goals but when I blew past 200 it was game on. Not only was I losing weight I was losing inches fast. It was round this time when I had my fat dream and scared myself awake.

 Now my measurements are getting impressive
July 2010              July 28th 2011
Weight 262           Weight 195 lbs
Hips 54                Hips 43
Thigh 39.5           Thigh 23
Bust 49                Bust 36
Waist 51              Waist 40.5
That is 61.5 inches of body that is GONE.
Totally amazing how I was feeling inside and out. I was really getting into reading about health and fitness. All about how food works in the body, the advantages of eating clean. I LOVED shopping for fresh natural foods and cooking in my kitchen. I had put in a garden and we grilled everything on the grill.Loving my 40's.

Happy Mothers Day.

To all the mothers out there. Happy Mother's Day.

M-O-T-H-E-R
"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.

- Howard Johnson

Giddy

Usual trips to doctors. It was time to visit my family doctor. No one had seen me for over a year and I was 62lbs lighter from my last visit. I couldn't wait to see the look on his face to see how much I have changed  from the old me poor whoa is me crying hating the way I looked into a pretty proud hot mom. The nurse walked in and did all my numbers. check check, everything is better than normal Blood pressure 95 or 65 Yeah, Ill take it. Doctor walked in reading my chart and said what ever I was doing keep it up. I had studied up on the hcg plan and I had no problems with it. But this was the icing on the cake for me. I had my proof that I stayed healthy and lost all the weight I wanted and then some.

Home made treatments

I had an avocado in the fridge that I had forgotten about and it was really ripe. I went back and forth on what to do with it. So good ole Google to the rescue and I decided to put it in my hair. I found a ton of recipes for hair avocado treatments and I had to start somewhere. I read about mayo, lemons, honey ( no thanks, tried that sticky mess before) eggs, Shea butter, olive oil coconut oil, etc. I settled on on olive oil and an egg. Now, just the white, just the yoke, both?? I tossed the whole thing in whipped it up with a fork and then applied it.  I had to put a plastic bag on my head too. I grabbed my lap top, glasses and sat on the couch  I told Tom don't judge. He didn't say a word and just kept looking over at me like I was an alien. He was trying to snap pictures of  me and I reminded him that he often falls asleep in the chair and anything is possible. About 15 minutes later he says "the lengths that you go to, to turn me on". Love you honey!

It was messy to put in as pieces of avocado kept falling out all over the counter. 20 minutes passed and I washed it and combed i out. It didn't  feel any different or any softer but I kept getting more chunks as I brushed and it smelled really woody. Not a good woody smell but more like a rotting log. My hair was soft but not SUPER soft. I will try it again someday but next time I will blend it to avoid the chunks and perhaps something that smells better.

I MADE IT

This is the best day ever. August 4th I weighed 199 lbs. I can't even remember when I was under 200. I lost a half a pound each day for the whole week. then I gained one back on Monday and one more on Tuesday then I dropped 2 lbs Wednesday. Weird. By August 30th I was at 191. It took me a month to lose 10 lbs.  Then by my husbands birthday I was 185.5 lbs. I was eating good, not a lot and I was sure to get the most food I could to follow the program. I was eating a variety of fresh vegetables and lean meats. And, a WHOLE lot of water.
It was time to try on some clothes that I've  been saving for at least 10 years.  I put on some fun music (80's) and I headed to the bed room. As I'm pulling stuff out of the closet and trying it on, I'm seeing a pattern. Everything was to big. WTF!  I had lost so much weight around my hips and tummy that all the clothes were to wide. I laughed and realized that I get to go shopping. I had some really nice things that I was actually hoping to fit back into.  So I gutted the closet and grabbed some garbage bags  I had piles all over the place and the bed looked like a giant rummage sale. clothes and hangers every..I had at least 6 bags full of clothes, and I lot of hangers waiting for more. Oh that was fun.

Is this a dream?

I had a FAT dream. In the middle of the night I woke up, sat straight up and started mumbling I guess. I think my husband thought I was having a heart attack or something. I had a very real dream that I was walking around the house and I walked by a mirror and I all my weight was back on. It was that instant that I must have jolted myself awake. All groggy I  jumped out of bed and got the scale out. I flipped on the light and my husband told me I was crazy. I stepped on it still at 200. I was good, but what was that all about?. If that wasn't enough I ran into the bathroom for the full length mirror just to make sure. I guess I had to see it for myself.  I was still getting thin, it was only a dream. Never had that kind of dream again. THANK GOSH!