Keeping Track of my Weight

Started a new diet thing ... yes I know people hate the word diet.. but I am ok with it.. for me it is just a short way of saying I started a new way of watching what I eat and paying attention to how I am feeding my body and how I am taking care of myself. A couple of years ago we started a "diet" where we cut out the junk food.. stopped going to fast food restaurants.. this not only saved us a lot of money but we figured between fast food... soda.. and pizza.. we were eating close to 8k calories a day.. yes that would be number one on how we got fat.. plus we were not doing any form of exercise... those two things together and the pounds just flew on. We stopped eating all the ick and started walking almost every day and hiking and we stopped gaining weight.. even started losing....then life happens and we end up being too busy for the hiking and the walking starts to be less and less and the weight slowly starts coming back on... and we start eating out more.. and here we are on the up hill again... we know what we need to do... we need to eat healthy and exercise more... having a hard time getting back on that track though.

A couple of people I know started a liquid HCG diet and Dave and I were talking about it... then we learned some good friends were also starting it and we decided to jump in too. Some people love this and some hate it... I am a bit nervous about it but I do see it working with people and I am going to give it a try. Plan is to use it as a jump start... since we are having a hard time getting motivated and started again I am thinking this is going to be a great cleansing to be able to get back to no junk food and better eating schedule and being able to exercise a lot more... anyone who wants to talk to me about the harm it can do.. I have heard it.. and I do not throw away the concerns.. but.. there is also the thought that being fat is doing a lot of harm. I am not posting this to debate if this is a good "diet" or not... I am here so I can keep track of how this is working for me and my progress with it.

We took our measurements and got on the scale.. I know that last time I was losing weight it really helped when I shared it here... it holds me accountable and makes me work harder. When the whole world can see what you are doing (I know the whole world reads my blog..holds its breath just waiting for me to post ) or not doing it helps.. last time I listed my weight.. so sharing that is not a huge deal for me this time around.. but writing down how big I am in inches for anyone to see.. wow that is a hard one... just looking at it on paper myself is hard. I will be weighing in everyday and measuring once a week. I will be updating on this post and not starting new posts for any of this ( at least that is the plan )

That all being said... here goes

Week 1 ~ This was not as hard as we had thought or in the ways we had expected. The drops really help with the cravings and with being hungry. My biggest problem is I am not hungry at all... I am having to force myself to eat to be able to get enough calories each day. The water is going through me as if I was a funnel... not sure what good it does when it goes through so fast. Dave is having almost no problems with any of it. Last night was his first night of feeling a bit hungry late at night... he was up working... but he dealt with it fine. He is getting his veggies in a soup every night.. boring but he likes it so that works. Learning a lot about things we do, mostly with food, because of habit.. really paying attention to those things and keeping notes... really focusing and talking a lot about how the healthy eating will continue in our lives. Will be keeping LOTS of veggies and fruits and smaller portions and staying away from sugar and carbs. This week will be trying some new recipes.... That is one thing I do not discuss with Dave.. he does not want to know he is eating vegetables. *smile*

Weight

Date Weight Total loss

8-19-11 ~ 255.6

8-26-11 ~ 247.6 -8lbs

9-2-11 ~ 242.6 -13lbs

9-9-11 ~ 238.0 -17.6lbs

9-16-11 ~ 237.0 -18.6 lbs

9-23-11 ~ 234.0 -21.6lbs

9-30-11 ~ 232.4 - 23.2lbs

11-8-11 ~ 225.0 -30.6

11-18-11 ~ 222.2 -33.4

2-2-12 ~ 213.8 -41.8

Measurements

8-19-11 ~~~~ 9-23-11 ~~~~ 9-30-11 ~~~~ 11-18-11 ~~~~~2-3-12

Neck ~~ 15 ~~~~ 14.5 ~~~~ 14.25 ~~~~~~ 14 ~~~~~~ 13.5

arms ~~ 15 ~~~~ 14 ~~~~ 14.25 ~~~~~~ 13.75 ~~~~~ 13.25

chest ~~ 50 ~~~~ 48.5 ~~~~ 47.5 ~~~~~~ 46.75 ~~~~~ 44.75

waist ~~ 51.25 ~~~ 51.5 ~~~~ 47.75 ~~~~~~ 44.25 ~~~~~ 41.75

hips ~~ 55.5 ~~~~ 53 ~~~~~ 52 ~~~~~~ 50.25 ~~~~~~ 48.75

legs ~~26.25 ~~~~ 24.5 ~~~~ 24.25 ~~~~~~ 22.75 ~~~~~ 22.25

9/30/11 ~Today is day 43, that is two binge days and then 34 days on phase two and now 7 days into phase 3. I am down now to 232.4 scale goes up a little and down a little every day... pretty much staying right about here. What has amazed me the most has been the inches I have lost in this last week. All of a sudden the inches came off and I lost almost as many in this last week as I did in the last month. Which is nice because I now am able to wear a size smaller and I have clothes in this size I have been saving and hoping I could wear again... now I am working towards the next size smaller. Will do phase 3 for a couple more weeks... then a little bit of phase four and start back on phase 2 around the 21st of October.

11-18-11 Into the last week of Phase 2 round 2 and I am down a total of 33.4 lbs and 21.75 inches. Next week is Thanksgiving... and then we have a road trip planned and my Birthday and Christmas and New Years... some big challenges coming up.. time to really stay focused. Will start another round in Jan... I am going to try to work hard.. lots of exercise and eating good between now and then to be as close to under 200 lbs as possible

2-3-12 Last week of phase 2on the third round.. this one has been hard. Does not help that we went through Thanksgiving.. Christmas... son being home.. two road trips ... and news years eve... before we started.. had a bit of a hard time before we started this.. all in all we did pretty good. Had gained back 4lbs that had to be lost in this round too. I did it :) I am really seeing a difference now.... started in a size 24 jeans and now a 20 is lose.. I can put on size 18 but not really wear them yet.. I do expect to be able to very soon.. which will mean I will need new clothes very soon. I have one pair of jeans and one pair of Capri pants in that size.. then nothing smaller. I have been wearing all my summer clothes just because they are getting super baggy and by the time summer gets here I will need all new clothes in that area too. I am not planning on doing another round of the hcg diet for awhile.. I want to give it 3 months or so.. really focus on working out and eating healthy and getting things toned up and adding some muscle... then possibly will do one more round end of April and then this summer will be all about hiking and working out and eating right. I Want Muscles!!

Mini Vacation (photos)

We went with some friends and headed to Sequim then down the coast to the Ocean and then home.. spent 3 nights 4 days and had a LOT of fun.

Sea lions playing in the water in Sequim at the John Wayne Marina

Fountain ( water comes up through the middle then pours through the roots ) at the Olympic Cellars Winery it is really cool and I am hoping to make one for the yard :)

Lavender, lots of it in Sequim.. this is at the Olympic Cellars winery Fun place.

The Lavender room at the The Red Caboose Getaway

Dining car at The Red Caboose Getaway in Sequim.. all set for breakfast

Sail boat in Port Angeles

A sail boat in Port Angeles with the big ferry in the background, ghosting into the fog.. it was really cool how it just disappeared into the fog

This tree is truly huge.. no way I can show it in a picture so I just did some fun ones :) We did see a mommy squirrel with her baby in the mouth moving it across the path and took it up the tree.



Ruby Beach on the Washington Coast.. just south of La Push.


Kites flying at Ocean Shores


Beach at Ocean Shores

The jetty at Ocean Shores

Promoting for Free

Who doesn't love Free.. it is like the magic word.. to get something for nothing... well nothing is for truly free.. but in this case Free equals no money... you have to do some work but it won't cost you any money. Every since I started selling online I have been meeting people who are looking for free places to put links to their shops and items they sell.. we all want to sell more and to sell more we need more people to see what we have for sale. It only takes one person seeing it.. the right person to buy it.. but often that person is buried in a pile of hundreds or thousands of other people.

Ever since I started selling handmade items online I have met a lot of people who are very supportive.. we share blog posts about each other and links to each others stuff... help spread the word as much as we can. Always seeing place mentioned that you can use to promote your shop/items/sites. That is how I found blogger, and twitter and facebook.. all of us talking about different places to share free links to our sites... how to get ourselves out there with the most coverage and the least amount of money.

On facebook I met Linda who is all about helping out small businesses and getting our links out there and sharing and supporting. She has been creating different groups and pages and websites all focused on these things. We got to be friends and I have trying to help her as much as possible in keeping these places going. Some have grown and are working good.. others have not grown and are now closed.. thing is.. she is all for trying new things and keeps trying them until she finds ones that work. Which is where the not so free part comes in. It might not cost money but there is a lot LOT of time involved in running an online site. One of the things that takes so long is finding the best places to promote your site. Linda has offered up a way to take a little bit of that time out of the equation for us. She has started a group on facebook Free Ways to Promote where we can all go and share the places we have found and see what is working for others. I decided to start a blog Promote For Free that ties into that group and we can work together to get as much info gathered up and shared as possible.

You can go through and post your link everywhere ( spamming it ) but who wants to do business with someone that is rude enough to do that. You need to find ways to get your links out there.. to the right market... in the right away so that no one is offended. Remember when you post your link you want people to want to visit.. to want to see what you offer.. and then to want to buy from you. Hopefully having a place where we can have a lot of different places offered to share on and all of us can communicate about how they work for us and give feedback.. will help us all to find the right places for our shops/sites. Some people are facebook people and some are bloggers.. some of us do both.. this has both options.

Would love to have you visit, follow, like and join. :)

Hike Through the Woods

Went hiking today at Four Springs with my friend Cassidy and thought I would invite everyone to enjoy a little of it. We started out by the Big Maple by the barn and headed out.

Stopped for a bit of a snack along the way, lots of huckleberries and salmon berries out there today.

One thing I really do not know how to show is the hills... there are some pretty steep ones.

Back to the barn and the jeep and headed home. Felt great to be out there in the woods again.. even wore my hiking boots.. I love them still! I met Cassidy last month, she is a friend of my daughters. I have seen her running around past the house for the last year and have admired her for getting outside and doing something and having the stick to it to get it done. I am really enjoying getting to know her and look forward to many more hikes with her :)

Catching Up

Well it has been awhile since I posted... before the 4th of July... A bunch has happened since then.. going to try to just wrap it up quick and move on. Will also post some random photos that might not relate to anything :)

The baby birds above the shop have hatched and are growing so fast.. they are so dang cute I can spend hours just watching them.

Dave's mom passed away on the 4th of July and it just sucks.. no matter that we knew she was not doing so well or that she lived many years longer than the doctors said.. it still sucks.. I am forever thankful to her for raising such a wonderful son.

We are getting everything out of storage... getting ready for son to be moving out and daughter moving to the back room ( or moving out ) so that we can take over the office... will be nice to not be spread out all over the kitchen table any longer.

Dave has been working just about 24/7... he goes to work for ten hours.. gets home.. has dinner.. works in the shop for an hour or two and then he is back to work ( at home ) until anywhere between 2 and 4 in the morning.. back up at 5:30 to start it all over again. He does this about 4 nights a week and has been spending time every weekend working crazy hours too. There is some stuff going on at his job that hopefully will help this.. but not in the really near future. Fingers are crossed and praying hard that it does get better though.

Still have not hooked up the auto sprinklers for the yard... seems we can not go more than 2 or 3 days without it raining.... this is the longest we have ever made it into summer and still had a hint of green in the yard. I am sure summer is right around the corner.. maybe.

Diet/exercise/getting healthy... is no where to be found... I do great for a few days then life happens and I am right back where I started... I am maintaining, which is a joke since I hate where I am.. but at least I am not getting any bigger or lazier. Vegas is coming really soon and I KNOW if I do not get on it I am going to regret it BIG time. Not only do I Need all my clothes (0ne size smaller than I am in now) to fit comfortably, but the amount of walking will kill me if I am not ready for it.

We are not getting as much done in the shop as we would like at all.. spending as much time out there as we can.. but it is just not as much as we would like.

I have been doing some battling with the bi-polar.. so far I am holding my own.. trying to stay focused and up but not too up... so many changes with the kids and home and everything right now that it is hard... been keeping my cd collection very busy!

Ok so that about wraps it up... I have a post coming about some places I want to share, places I have been using to promote my site and how that is going :)