New LOW!!!

The scale is moving. And the best part is...it is moving in the right direction! I couldn't be happier!!

This will be short and sweet.

Wednesday Weigh-In:

This morning the scale read 173.4 pounds!!

87 pounds down...13 to go!


Happy Valentine's to me!! Hope everyone has a great week!

Home loves!

I love decorating. I love interior design.

I can spend countless hours looking at pictures of houses, home decorating ideas, DIY things for the home and the list goes on and on.

I have not bought my own house yet but when I do I have a pretty good idea of what I want it to look like. I am a neutral fanatic. I love blending and mixing shades of white, beige and gold...as you will see. I love vintage styles as it pertains to decorating and design as well as vintage fashion. I like mixing the old with the new. I love shabby chic and country chic.

This is what I want my future home to look like:

Have a terrific Tuesday!!

Picture Post and Weigh-In!

Finally Friday!

I am off work today so I am just taking it easy, doing a little cleaning, going to run a few errands in a while...anything but real work.

Weight:

I am finally back at my LOWEST WEIGHT!! Back around October I hit 175.8 pounds. And since then I had gotten all the way up to 186 pounds after my trip to NYC and after Christmas. Big disappointment.

But I have been working my butt off to get that number down. Within the last month I stayed steady around 178 but couldn't make the scale move. But this last week I have pushed and pushed and pushed myself and this morning I weighed 175.2 pounds!!

Officially my lowest weight since surgery!

Goal:

To be 160 pounds by my birthday in April. I need to lose 15 pounds in 10 weeks. 1.5 pounds a week. And we got a new exercise bike yesterday and I plan on using that as much as possible to get those pounds off.

Pictures:

These are some pictures from last weekend. Kevin and I went to visit our friends in Auburn and it was also his birthday weekend. We had an awesome time with them as always. Sunday night we came back and my parents took all of us to the Melting Pot for Kevin's birthday. It was delicious. I don't know how the scale didn't show a gain the next day from all that food...but thank goodness it didn't.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

On the way to the Melting Pot for Kevin's birthday dinner

The best dessert ever!!

Me with Kevin and my brother, Trey



In Auburn!

Surprise!! Happy Birthday Kev!!

Best friends!

Creeping in the right direction! And Question!!!

Hello friends!

I meant to get on yesterday and restart my "Monday Weigh-In" posts but totally forgot. So this week it will be my Tuesday Weigh-In. As most of you know, I get on the scale more frequently than I probably should. I usually weigh myself every morning and every night before I go to bed.

Why do I weigh myself at night you may ask. I sometimes find it interesting to see how much less I weigh in the mornings compared to the night before. Sometimes it will be one pound less in the morning and like this morning, after using the bathroom of course, the scale read 2.5 pounds less! I'll take it!

My weight this morning was 178.2 pounds.

My goal is to be 160 by my birthday in April, approximately 11 weeks from now. That means I need to lose about 1.6 pounds each week. Because I have been in the 170's for about 5 months now, this isn't going to be easy. It means hard work.

And speaking of hard work, we are going to the Melting Pot for my boyfriend's birthday this weekend so that should be interesting. I guess I will be saving up all my calories for the day on dinner! No seriously.

Question...

It was so exciting to hit the 170's but I am ready to move on. The 190's came and went pretty fast...within like 2 months. The 180's took me about 4 months to conquer. But these 170's are tough.

Did any of you have this same problem? How long did it take you to conquer the few pounds keeping you from your goal weight?

I would love to know!! Have a terrific Tuesday!

Getting there...And NSV!

Finally back in the 170's!!

Oh how I have missed you so! During the last month...New York City, Christmas, New Year's, etc....I worked my way up to 185 pounds. What a terrible feeling. I know it's something we all deal with this time of year but you tell yourself you aren't going to overeat but it usually happens anyways.

Starting January 1st I made a vow to myself that I was going to be back in the 170's as soon as possible. 12 days later I have arrived! This morning I weighed 179.4 pounds. Finally! I have eaten between 1,000 and 1,200 calories each day the past week and this has paid off for me. I feel a little deprived at 1,000 calories but I feel satisfied around 1,200. Tonight I am going on a date night with boyfriend and we are either eating at Longhorn Steakhouse or Red Lobster. What shall I eat?! Eating out at restaurants, in my opinion, is the hardest thing for me. I was looking a nutrition facts online and at Longhorn they do have grilled chicken fingers and a house salad with dressing for around 600 calories. This may be what I eat if we go there. I don't eat fish so that is out of the question. I will eat healthy. I will eat healthy.

And as for my NSV...


I went shopping at TJMaxx yesterday...one of my FAVORITE stores...and came home with an exciting piece of clothing.

First of all I have been in size 12 jeans officially for the past few months, probably since October. I do have some size 14 that fit but most are a little too big around my waist. But yesterday I tried on size 12 designer jeans and they fit perfectly. Joe's, J. Brand, Ralph Lauren...all size 12's. I didn't end up buying any because I have a million pairs of jeans but it was awesome being able to fit in them.

But I did come home with a cobalt blue gorgeous dress in a SIZE 10!! What?! Now I must admit...it fits perfect from the waist up but it is a little tight around my hips. I would say I need to lose a little more weight before I wear it out but a size 10?! Holy cow.

I remember buying jeans that were size 22 and occasionally size 24 and now to be wearing 12's feels so great! If you have hit this milestone you know there is no greater feeling!

Just wanted to share! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! I start my new job Monday so this is my last weekend of freedom :)

Little by little...

So I am having one of those days where I feel renewed, refreshed, regenerated, motivated, excited and so on...

I have been doing good on the weight loss front...and this is the first time I have been good in well over a month! HA! A week ago I was around 183.4 pounds and this morning I weighed 181.2 pounds. If I can continue losing 2 pounds a week I will be able to hit my goal of 160 pounds on my birthday!! So fingers crossed :)

I had my first workout of the new year Saturday, 2 days ago. My dad and I worked out solid for an hour, sweated and burned about 300 calories. It felt good. I must be honest and say that was my first workout in a good while.

I also went to the grocery store and got a lot of good, heavy foods to eat. I think that is the main reason I am feeling good today. You know when you go to the store and only buy healthy foods and you tell yourself those are the only foods you can eat for like 2 weeks?! Well that gives me motivation and if I don't have the unhealthy food in the house, I can't eat the unhealthy foods. Did I spend way too much money? Yes. But it's worth it in my opinion.

Here are a few more pictures to share! About to head out to watch the National Championship!! I am a huge Auburn fan as you know so, as always, go TIGERS!!! Sorry boyfriend (who is a huge Bama fan!)

NYC Picture Post!! Weight..errr...gain. And Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!

It has been almost a month since I have posted and so many things have happened...New York City, Christmas, New Years!!

First of all...NYC was amazing! I wish we could have stayed for a month but my checking account wouldn't have been able to handle that. It was barely able to handle 6 days! I took about 800 pictures but because that would take you an hour to look at them, I decided to post only a few :)

We shopped until we dropped, ate at some amazing restaurants, went to a Broadway show, went on some awesome tours, met some nice and not-so-nice people and best of all I made wonderful memories with some of my best friends! Maybe I will post some more pictures in another post.

Christmas was wonderful. Spent quality time with my family and friends. It always comes and goes so fast...which makes me sad. Today we spent the entire day taking down all the Christmas decorations. Sad again.

I spent New Years Eve in Auburn. We had a great time. Went to dinner and then to a local restaurant/lounge and heard a local band while bringing in the new year. Happy 2012. This is going to be a great year. Several resolutions have been set. Which brings me to my next point.

Weight loss. Weight gain. Whatever. Ha!

The day before I left for New York I weighed 178.8 pounds. And to be completely honest, since my surgery, I don't think I have eaten as bad as I did in NYC. Literally we ate out for every single meal. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and, on most days, dessert. For the first two days I tried to make health"IER" food choices. That didn't last too long. But I wasn't there to lose weight.

I felt heavier. I knew I had gained. But I was fine with that. Then only 4 days after we came home....Christmas....and all that delicious food for several days at all the family gatherings.

So the time came to weigh myself. Was I a little nervous? Yes. But as of yesterday morning, I weighed 183.0 pounds. Gained about 4 pounds in NYC and over Christmas. Typical I guess.

But lucky for me....today is NEW YEARS and the perfect time to start over. Right?! My goal still remains to hit my final goal weight of 160 pounds on my birthday. April 18th. That means 23 pounds in the next 3 and 1/2 months.

It can be done. I am ready :) Hope everyone had a fabulous and safe New Years!! Enjoy the pictures!

New York City. This is for anyone who has ever been to NYC!!

First of all, thank you to those of you who have already given me suggestions for things to do in NYC. I have written them down, looked them up and found some winners!

But this post is for anyone how lives or has ever been to NYC!

My friends and I will be there for 6 days and 5 nights and trying to narrow down things to do feels impossible. I have been to New York once but I was only 13 years old. I do remember it like it was yesterday but I am beyond excited to go back and at Christmas! The fashion, the restaurants, the architecture, the lights...NYC is fantastic.

When it comes to restaurants here is our dilemma.

People have suggested some amazing restaurants with fabulous views and amazing atmosphere. But the problem is....when I pull up the menus online...
1) I can barely read the menu because I don't know what anything is
and
2) The meals are all at least $50 per person.

Now I do love atmosphere and nice restaurants but I do not eat super elegant food and typically if I pay a pretty penny for a meal I want more than a tiny little piece of meat. You know what I mean?

So my question for you is...

What are your favorite restaurants where we can get good quality food in a fun atmosphere for not too much $$$? None of us are too big on seafood if that helps. I have been researching but I figured asking people who has tasted it first hand would be a good idea. Our hotel is on 41st street and 9th avenue I believe...if this gives you a reference to where we are staying. I would love to go to some "off the beaten path", maybe not so crowded little cafes or restaurants if you know of any. Also any lounges you would suggest would be wonderful.

Also have any of you seen any good Broadway shows recently? We thought about going to see Wicked but it is coming to my home town in February for about half the price so I think we are going to hold out for that. Any smaller shows that are good? Ones that aren't so popular? I know some of these are fantastic but I don't know which ones specifically.

I believe the only "touristy" things we are doing is a tour of lower Manhattan, taking the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and doing the Ground Zero memorial/museum. Because 3 out of 4 of us have been to NYC we didn't want to spend all our time doing tours but wanted to do a few highlight tours.

Suggestions?
Ideas?
Must sees?
Shopping ideas?
Restaurants?
Shows?
What to wear?
Anything really :)


Thank you so much! 9 shorts days away!! Cant wait!!

Weigh-In. New York. Such an exciting month!

It's Christmas time again!

The most wonderful time of the year in my opinion. The birth of our Savior and there is no greater feeling than being surrounded by family, friends, lights, presents, Christmas trees, holiday parties and love. But the greatest of these is love...by a mile.

When it comes to my family and Christmas there are gatherings galore. We start several days before Christmas and continue them until several days after Christmas. I have a large family on both sides and getting together with everyone is such a fun time.

An added bonus this year is my trip to New York coming up in 13 short days!! Thank you to those of you who have given me suggestions of restaurants, shopping, shows, etc. In such a large city and only 6 days we definitely need some good ideas! There are four of us girls going. We leave at the crack of dawn on the 15th and return Tuesday night, the 20th. So excited! Going to NYC during Christmas has always been a dream of mine. Many pictures will be taken I can assure you!

I also wanted to give a little weight update. Unfortunately Thanksgiving and all the delicious food got the best of me this year. I didn't think I overdid it too bad but after a nearly 3 pound gain in the last two weeks, I guess I should have been more conscience of what I was eating. This morning I weighed 179.2 pounds. Still in the 170's thank goodness but about 3 pounds higher than I was in mid-November. But as of yesterday I am back on the bandwagon. The holidays are just hard when trying to lose weight. Period.

After much contemplation and thought, I have decided that I want to set a final goal for myself. Some people don't like to set goals that are set in stone but it gives me the motivation I need.

I have always said that my final goal weight will be 160 pounds. That is also a huge milestone for me because I started my lap band journey at 260 pounds and that would be a 100 pound loss. I am currently 179 pounds, thus I need to lose 19 pounds in total. By April 18, 2012, my birthday, I would love to hit my ultimate goal.

That would mean I need to lose 19 pounds in the next 4 and a half months. That is roughly only a pound a week starting now. If I want to make this easy on myself I need to start asap. So that is where I am at. I have lost 81 pounds and I am proud of how far I have come. 19 pounds to go. These will be the hardest but I am ready for the challenge!

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend!
Happy Holidays!!!

Recent pictures and weigh-in!

The weight it coming off! Slowly but surely.

This morning I weighed 176.8 pounds!

This is only 1.6 pounds away from my all-time lowest. (About 6 weeks ago at the end of September I got down to 175.2 pounds.) I will be there again hopefully very soon. I have made myself stick to around 1,000-1,200 calories per day and have not budged for the last week and a half. This week I had a good exercise session on Tuesday and also today.

The weekend always scares me because my family and I always seem to eat at the best restaurants on the weekends and that makes it so hard to be good. But it's a must. There is no turning back. I know the rules of eating out...I just have to stick to them.

I also found something so cool the other day. I was in a cleaning mood and decided to go through my "junk" drawers to organize important papers and throw some things away. I found my original lap band journal that I started about a year before my surgery with notes from doctor visits, questions I had for my doctor, notes from the seminars, etc. I found a sheet of paper I filled out with my nutritionist about 2 weeks before my surgery. She put down that she wanted my goal weight to be around 180 pounds. At 80 pounds down from 260 pounds (which I was 260 pounds at that time) and being 5'7'', 180 pounds would be the perfect place to end up. I told her at that time I would love to get down to 170 pounds and she agreed this would be reasonable.

All that to say...180 pounds has come and gone and I am on my way to a healthier me :) At the time 80 pounds to lose seemed so far away and so hard to do but as you know with hard work and determination anything is possible.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I am going to see Dave Barnes in concert tomorrow night. He is the best!