My 2nd 5k! and other stuff :)

                                                     Please ignore my "breathing face" lol

I ran my 2nd 5k this past weekend! It was called Sherry's Run, for anyone who wants to look it up! It was amazing seeing all the people there in Honor and Memory of those we have lost to cancer. We had a balloon release right as it was time for the run to begin! What a beautiful site! There were over 3800 participants known of that day. I am not sure what the final count is. I did pretty good. I was and still am a little disappointed with my self which is crazy!!! My time was 43.47 which is 29 seconds FASTER than my first 5k time!! What I am upset about is the fact that I had a a BAD side stitch hit me at the beginning of the final mile. I tried to push through it but had to finally stop and walk some. I walked and jogged for about half a mile and then ran the last .6 . I was determined to finish it running! That being said i actually had a awesome finishing time! I was shocked that my time was still so good! I think it would definitely have been under 42 minutes if I wouldn't have had to stop. But stopping and walking some and still finishing is better than not stopping and ending up on the side of the road in pain not finishing at all! :) Anyways I am looking forward to my next 5k in October. As of right now I am only doing one that month but the week before The Color Run,the one I am doing! :), they are having a breast cancer walk/run and I am seriously considering running in that one as well! I have ALWAYS wanted to do a breast cancer 5k. My grandmother had breast cancer and beat it I must add! So I have always wanted to do one that supports the cure!

In other semi related news.. I have officially applied for college and financial aid! I am waiting now to get my acceptance letter and info in the mail! Hopefully it is delivered soon! I was told it would be this week! So I am on edge!!!! I am absolutely thrilled to start this new journey in my life that not only will help with the one I am on but will let me help others began and hopefully succeed through theirs!

Oh and since I haven't updated since my weigh in.. I lost another pound last week! Grand total of 52.4 pounds gone!! :) 

My purpose

I have been thinking for years on what my purpose is. When I was younger up through high school I want to be a nurse. A pediatric nurse in the hospital to be exact. I went through one semester of college and just realized my heart wasn't in it anymore. Dropped out of college and became pregnant. Since then I have worked in one place and it just wasn't for me but it was a job. I have been unemployed now and a SAHM for almost 3.5 years now. While that is fulfilling in itself I feel like I need more. Through these past couple of years of losing weight I have had people ask what am I eating and what type of exercise I have been doing. I have been asked for advice on certain exercising and have found my self motivating people. letting them know they can do anything! Still I am struggling with my purpose in life. Do i even have one? It came to me yesterday. I think I am supposed to help people achieve their goals. Whether it is exercise wise or food wise. I want to make a difference and help others. I know firsthand how hard losing weight is and how hard we can be on ourselves. I have and still am struggling so hard with losing weight and loving myself and body. I know how it feels. I feel like maybe my purpose in life is to help others that may be going through something similar. Now the question is where do I go from here? What field do I go into? Personal training? Registered Dietitian?  Counselor? All of these jump out at me. And it is crazy! Maybe I can find something that combines all three.. Body image is something that has always been important to me. I just never realized how much it impacted me until I became so overweight that I was considered obese. I have been on both ends of the spectrum. I have been at a healthy weight and felt fat and pressured to be thinner and then I have been fat. I know that's harsh but that is the reality of it all. I know now how difficult both places can be. I want to help others feel better about themselves and make themselves healthier.  

Weight loss journey

This  is about my weight loss journey to right now. I am nowhere near finished and still have a lot to go but thought I would post a before and halfway picture. I see pictures all the time that help motivate and inspire me and I am hoping that maybe if anyone reads or sees this I am able to do that for them. First let me be completly honest and admit how difficult it is to post the before picture. Just a little background.  My weight has always been something that has bothered me. Even when I was in HS and was smaller and "skinny" I still had the typical girl issues with my weight.I will say that at times I was really mean to myself on my weight. I look back now and realize how crazy that was but I have and still do struggle with body image issues,thank you media! So when I got pregnant with Addison I was technically considered overweight for my height but was okay(had a love hate relationship) with how I looked. Over the course of my pregnancy I gave into literally every craving I had. My biggest craving was sweets mainly cupcakes. See where I am going with this? I gained 60 pounds! So by this point some of you may be saying oh well you will lose it blah blah blah... I was NOT one of those "lucky" girls that drops all of their baby weight in 3 weeks.. Nope mine stayed with me. My weight flipped back and forth I would lose 20 pounds then gain 30 and so forth. I will never forget the time I went to my doctor and he told me with the way I was gaining weight that I would be a canidate for gastric bypass... I remember calling my dad and bawling. I wasn't that big was I? It was one of the worst days. I remember feeling so helpless and upset that I did this to myself.I felt ugly. It was a real low point to hate yourself so much because of weight, I know now more than I did then that I am not a number on the scale. I have to stop letting it identify me.  A few days later my dad signed me up at the local gym.. I would love to say that is when everything changed but it wasn't. I went to the gym a few times took a nutrition class and met with a fantastic personal trainer. That was in March of 2009. I gave up and stopped going.. It was too tough and I didn't have "time".Even though I really did because I had just lost my job! So i had all the time I needed because the gym even threw in free childcare! When in all honesty I just wasn't ready or committed to making a change.. So from March of 09 to early January of 2010 I put on 16 more pounds. My dad and I had started walking in about October or Nov of 2009 but I wasn't losing. In January of 2010 I was over at Roy's parents house and his sister Rachel came in and told me about this new program the gym was starting. It was going to be called the Battle of the Bulge, their own form of biggest loser. It was a 6 week program and their were a few different teams led by the trainers. Our teams were competing on who could lose the most weight. It was brutal. Our team leader, the awesome trainer I mentioned earlier, was tough but it was tough love. She believed in every one of us and pushed us. The first night was so hard. I was sore for days! On the off days I would walk with my dad in the gym. He didn't join me that round. My first week I lost 6 pounds! I can't remember exactly but i think by the end of the first 6 weeks I lost 17 pounds! I was ecstatic! So of course when they offered another 6 weeks I jumped right on it! This time my dad joined with me! :) In the middle of this round we started taking a free group class at the gym(still take it to this day). When it was all said and done I had lost 33 pounds in 12 weeks. My dad lost 30 I think in those 6 weeks.. Men always have a easier time losing. Anyways then I  got pregnant with Masen. I am not going to lie, I was terrified at first about gaining all that weight back! I tried to work out still but wasn't able to. i did great on weight until about halfway through. I ate better with him than I did with Addison but I still gained 51 pounds. But the difference was I knew when I was able to exercise again I wanted to. But even though I dropped about 30 pounds after having I gained 15 back.. That is when I knew something had to change again. I had found myself eating bad again and making poor choices. I had been thinking about joining weight watchers to help me with the food part of needing to lose weight. On Mother's day 2011 after seeing the way I looked in pictures I knew I had to make a change. I wanted and still want to be healthy for me and for my children. i want to set a good example for them. I do not ever want to be a sideline mom. And I want to feel my age. I mean come on at the time I was 22, a month away from being 23. An I felt horrible about myself. So on May 12, 2011 I joined weight watchers. I started making the gym a priority again. I had always wanted to be able to run and to run and finish a 5k race. Never and I mean never in a million years did I ever think I would actually be able to do it though! So I told my dad that on January 1st 2012 I was going to start the couch to 5k program. he decided to do it with me. Running is one of the most rewarding and challenging things I have done exercise wise. The first week was tough. But I remember how good I felt when I did it. Then when it came time to run for 20 minutes I was terrified. An didn't I could do it, but I did and I felt amazing afterwards! I made a album to follow my progress and to help keep myself accountable. I never missed a run. I ran my first 5k in May and I finished in 44 minutes and 16 seconds. Being able to run 3.1 miles is an amazing feeling and such and accomplishment. I reccomend it to everyone to give it a try if it is something you have wanted to do. I f I can do it anyone can! It has been a long, long slow process to get me to where I am right now. I know I could be closer to my goal right now but I am not and I am okay with that. Weight loss is not a race. Losing slower is better and healthier for one's body. Even though we all want instant gratification,I know I still do at times. So the pictures I am about to post are my before and halfway point. I am not to my "AFTER" yet. I have lost 51.4 pounds and I still have about 47 or so to go to get me to a healthy weight but I do not know if that will be my stopping point. So I may only have 47 pounds to go or I may have 60 pounds to go. I haven't decided the end goal yet. I am trying to only focus on the right now goal. I have made positive changes in my life.. Do I still screw up? Of course on a daily basis. This isn't some fad for me. I know right now at this points the gym and WW changed my life, I have been blessed to meet amazing people at both places who have forever changed my life. An I will forever be grateful to the role they are playing in this journey! Oh and I started at 230.8. I am now at 179.4! 

So bad at this..

I think maybe I should be thankful I have no followers. I am so bad at remembering to blog! I have to be better. So a small game of catch up. My oldest has started pre-k this year!  Yay! Except we start every morning off with crying.. School apparently is a BAD word now. An even though she loves me sooo much that she doesn't want to leave me in the mornings she still comes home and act rotten :) My youngest seems to enjoy being at home without her though.. No one to interrupt his naps now and that means when his sissy gets home that can destroy the house together, as a unified team! But no seriously, I do really miss her during the day however it is a great break for us both. See she seems to be 5,well almost 5, going on about 16.. So I am a little terrified of what the teenage years hold for us! I am doing great on my weight loss and will actually post a blog pertaining to that right after I post this one :) Which is right now.. I do however promise to try to at least blog once a week.. Like during Masen's nap time :)

Been a while

It has been a crazy long time since I have blogged. So much has happened.  So I will start with the new year 2012.  January 1st I started the C25k program, an man was it amazing! Besides joining weight watchers this program was one of the best things I had decided to do for me. I was and still am a slow runner but I am passing everyone that is sitting on their couch! I took pictures after every run to hold myself accountable and to see the progress I was making. Finally my weight had started falling off pretty consistently. I completed my first 5k race May 12, 2012 my time was 44:16. I ran the whole thing, see told you I was slow ;-). It was the most exhilarating feeling ever. Just amazing. i swear I had a runner's high for the whole weekend! My weight loss as of last Thursday was 40 lbs!!! I know still not very fast but I am so pleased to say in the past year I have lost 40lbs. I still have about 60 or so to go until i am at a healthy weight. I have a goal I hope I am able to achieve by the end of September. Though after this weekend holiday i have a feeling I will be a little farther away from it. I would like to be down another 20 to 30 pounds by then. We are going to the beach and I am hoping to be a lot smaller than what I am now! Surprisingly I have not dropped a pant size yet, I am not sure why but I just haven't. So part of my major goal for September is to be wearing a smaller size in clothing. Anyways its amazing how I feel much healthier now than I ever did when I was skinny before kids! An I love working out. I have just recently started taking a class called Piloxing at the gym and it is a blast! I hope it helps kick start some weight loss for me again and helps me shrink my middle. It seems as if my belly isn't going down as much as I would of expected. I still need to get my weekend eating under control. I am eating salads whenever I can when we do eat out though. I had started drinking green smoothies as well but I haven't drank one in a few weeks.

                                                    Before my 1st 5k

                                                   After i crossed the finish line!

Okay so now on to the mother part of this blog :) Masen turned 1!

                                          His cake and cupcakes I made :)

                                              Mommy and Masen

He had a great 1st birthday! Hard to believe how fast his 1st year went. Both kids are doing great and just growing up on me.

Here is a picture of Addison.  This is from some family pictures we had made. Hard to believe this rugrat starts pre-k this year! I am so excited for her though and she is so ready!

Now just some other pictures from our family shoot and some from Pigeon Forge.

Hopefully I will be able to stay on top of blogging. So much was going on that I just kind of forgot. Plus I am not sure if anyone really follows anyways :) Until next time!

This week

First of all for anyone that may follow, sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things gets hectic with a 4 year old and a 9 month old! I haven't really had the time to sit down and blog.
I managed to lose 3 pounds this week!  It feels pretty amazing! I have been having some slow weeks with just a .2 or .4 loss then last week I gained a pound :( So the 3 lb loss this week was very encouraging and a big shock!! My first thought was WOW Halloween didnt screw me! Though I did decent I was still afraid of a gain.
We have a nasty habit of eating out on the weekends and this past weekend I didnt eat out as mch and made better decisions when we did. I also dropped to half of my nursing points. Because Masen does get solids 3x a day now so 14 extra points is just too much!

Anyways back to Halloween! My little ones dressed up as bees :) They looked adorable! (picture above) Masen finally got the "hang" of trick-or-treating. By the end he would look at the people then back at his little bucket as if to say " Hey put whatever that is you've been putting in this thing they keep trying to get me to hold"  He also enjoyed his first sucker :)

Addison loved getting all the candy and couldnt wait to get home to eat it all! In fact first thing she said Tuesday morning was "get my candy down mommy!!"
Hoping this week goes just as good as last week!

Dread!

I am really not looking foward to tonight's weigh in! This week has been horrible we ate out way too many nights and thanks to a infection of some sorts under my arm I have not been able to work out. Oh and I am on antibiotics. So I am sure I havent lost anything and have probably gained :( Sometimes I feel like I am just wasting my time. I wish I could have it easier like some women. They just lose the weight without fail! But me no that doesnt happen! I know I didnt go over my weekly points yet I know I have probably gained. Something has to give!