This Moment - 2/25/2011 - Better late than never

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Sickness has struck again..

Well.... the cold\flu\bad bug etc has struck our home again. Nicole was suffering immensely last night, at times it reduced her to tears. We were finally able to break her fever last night with the proper combination of Aleve and Tylenol coupled with some Delsym for her dry, yet productive, cough. I swear she has slept for like 24 hours in the last 30! But I'm very glad about that; she clearly needs the rest. Let’s hope she recovers from this one quickly and without antibiotics so it doesn’t weaken her again.

This morning I woke up with a really sore throat, but so far Throat Coat tea and my coffee is mostly soothing it. Please Lord, I don’t want to get sick! 

Nicole didn’t cough very much throughout the night at least if I’m recalling correctly. Her fever is down a little this morning, but she is just exhausted and her skin still hurts from the higher temp. She woke up for like 15 mins twice and is going back to sleep again after taking some more meds. I miss her beautiful blue eyes already! 

I hate feeling helpless and I just hope this passes quickly so we can get on with life as we know it.

Here's the scoop!

My birthday was spectacular, definitely one of the best! Everyone made it so special for me and I'm so grateful for all everyone did for me on my birthday. My lovely wife got me a hybrid bike, something I'd been wanting for some time, and I have to say she mostly pulled it off. ;) Unfortunately for her, I was watching her every move. I even noticed a spatula that made it from the trunk of the TL to the passenger seat to which I bombarded her with questions she had a hard time answering. haha she did a nice job, it's not easy having this Jen on her back! :) I love love love my new bike. It was such a tease getting it on Thursday night where leaving town the following day for 4 days! I couldn't wait to get home to it. You know, the first thing I did when we got home was go for a ride. We had to take it in for a minor adjustment @ Sports Chalet so I rode it home (ok so I stopped @ Starbucks on the way, who cares, so what, what do you want from me?!) haha I crack me up! Anyway, that was day 1; roughly 1-2 miles. Day 2 I rode up to our gym on Sunset\Park then back home; approx 5.5 miles. Today was the best though, Day 3 I rode to work then back home; approx 7.4 miles round trip. It's such a great workout and man is my booty sore! (TWSS) I can't wait for the weather to get better so I can ride to and from work. Right now, it's too cold @ 530am. Anyway, I love the heck outta my bike and I need to get all of my cool accessories on it so I can really use it to it's full potential. Thanks again everyone!

For the weekend we went to the Marina's house! It was SO much fun. We enjoyed our time with all of them and little Ethan is growing and learning new things every single day. Even while we were there he sat up from laying down on his own for the first time. He had some proud cheerleaders around him! Little gym was pretty dang cute! He smiles so much, it's just priceless. He is a happy boy! All 4 of us went in the spa 2 of the 3 nights and really enjoyed ourselves. We also played Settlers (I know right?) TWICE! Loved that game. Another special thing was watching our rehearsal and wedding videos, we got to watch them while we were down there and relive the whole special event. We loved them and B did such a good job. We can't wait to have a copy so we can share them with our families up here! We also ate tons of yummy food. From Tri-trip sandwiches @ the Langs to Salmon and Shrimp @ Marina's all the way to In&Out after us girls got massages to rainbow chip cake. Not to mention a FABULOUS trip to Ruth's Chris that was ah-mazing, to saw the least, we ate well! That brings me to the next paragraph!

WW - Even though we literally weren't "on plan" (didn't track or exercise at all) we did surprisingly well @ yesterday's meeting. Nicole was just barely up .6lbs and I was down .2. We can live with that! This week is a new week and hey, it was fun while it lasted and apparently we didn't do as bad as we thought. I really think WW has given us the tools for the lifestyle change and therefore it was easy not to "over eat" all the bad things if you will. Portion control is one of the biggest things (hehe) and I think we've mostly got that down.

Total Combined Weight Loss = 44.8lbs
Jen - 24.8 *I plan on getting 25 this next week! ;)
Nicole - 20

Well that's the scoop on our weekend and my birthday. Again, thank you everyone for making it as special as you did. I was surrounded by my friends and family and showered with gifts and I couldn't be any more grateful to have each of you in my life.

This Moment - 2/18/2011

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

Onward and DOWNWARD!

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

And we are still moving in the DOWNWARD direction ladies and gentlemen!!!

Tuesday was our latest weigh in and I am happy to report that I, Nicole, lost 2.2 pounds and have hit the 20 pound mark!! And the 10% weight lost mark!! Woo Hoo

I am very excited about it and proud of myself. I worked really hard and sacrificed alot to get here and I am LOVIN being here. I am also 2 pants sizes down from when we started! Hello Shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Jen also kicked booty this week and was down 2.2 as well putting her just below 25 pounds! Are we awesome or what!?!

This Friday is Jen's birthday (Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...ok I'm early) and we are having a little get together at our house tonight so our familes can celebrate her birthday before we head out of town! I made a healthy (er) version of Jen's newest favorite dessert, Red Velvet Cupcakes. Hopefully they are as good, or similar to the full fat ones. But for 4 points (instead of 12) they should be worth it!

We are leaving tomorrow to go to Clovis to hang out with Bogdan, Christie and baby Ethan for the long weekend, we are so excited to see them and to spend some time with them. The last time we drove to their house we drove right back to welcome little Blair into the world! Marina's here we come!!

Another exciting development in our world is Jen's Schedule. Starting next month and rotating every 4 weeks she will have WEEKENDS OFF!!!!! I am soooo excited about this and I know she is too!

I won't blog about it just yet but Jen has an exciting change to share, hopefully she does soon!!!

This Moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

I did it!!

I freaking did it!! I am under 200lbs as of this morning!! As I stood on the scale anticipating the loss, I looked down and saw what I have worked so very hard for and that was 199.5! I literally threw my hands up in the air in victory! It has been YEARS since I've been under 200, I want to say approx 8-10yrs... practically since HS. I can't believe it, but I can at the same time.

Thanks to all of you for so much support! I'll continue to need your support as I shred off many more lbs!

~ Jen

"It's working!"

Last night we had a fantastic weigh in. We mentioned on FB - Nicole had an exceptional loss down 2.4lbs total -18.4!! I was down .8 total -22.4! That put me @ 10%. The Leader was SO proud of me and shared some of the many benefits to losing that 10% such as reducing the risk of Diabetes and Heart disease by over 60% on both. That really helped me to feel even better about my loss and lifestyle change. I hit 200 even this morning, it's my second time, but I'm REALLY liking the idea of the 200's being a thing of the past!! I'm SO close and I DO want it SO bad, so I'm gonna get it! :) 


Also in our meeting last night was a newbie. She stated she had done it before and "it didn't work!". The leader ate that right up and proceeded to be a smart alec "Well it's not going to work this time!". It got awkward for a second, but we all laughed because we know how sarcastic our leader is, but the newbie didn't. LOL The point is, "nothing changes, if nothing changes" and unless you work this program it's not going work! She said "we're all here because our own program didn't work, right?" It's so true it's not even funny. I'm really taking to this program and for the long haul I think. Even once Nicole gets prego we're going to stay on it because "It's working!" When she asked me about how I feel after recognizing me for the 10% in front of everyone I said "I feel wonderful and it's working because I'm working!" 


We are at a grand total of 40.8lbs and we have a combined goal of 50lbs on or before March 6th. Nicole also has a separate goal of 20lbs on or before March 20th. My goal right now is 199.5 or LOWER! STAT! :D The point of these goals are to set yourself up for success, that's why the time frame.


Anyhow, clearly I am LOVING WW. It's really working for us, honestly and rest assured there's no plan to stop anytime soon; especially with all of this incredible support.

PS - I am down to 33 points; I lost a point last night! BOO! LOL 

Mildly Interested

I think I can speak for both of us, we're having a case of feeling "mildly interested". This sparked just days after successful weigh ins however there are many contributing factors which I won't name each of! haha Anyhow, we are at least managing our mildly interested feelings, but man is Taco Bell good! All I have to say is, I'm glad they got my order wrong when I ordered 2!! crunchy taco surpremes and a bean\cheese burrito and only gave me 1 of each. I took it as a sign, a sign to save it for frozen yogurt! Man, last night was yummy. A nice little break from the low point, frozen or "regular" meals we've been having. (I'm not complaining, it was just a nice break! :)) I am looking forward to getting that "committed" feeling back.

Some "excuses" are ~ having terrible workouts on Wednesday. Having a lot to do @ night having Jon for the week. Nicole still not up to par. I won't mention any others!

I will say, we have been tracking and aren't going overboard.

Here's to "feeling committed" ~ Jen

Edit: So after this was written but not proofed yet we had a case of not just "Mildly Interested" but we went over the deep end to "Don't give a Crap!" We went out to dinner and had CHINESE FOOD....oops. It was SO good though and we enjoyed every bite. However, we did not enjoy the heartburn and uncomfortableness that followed. Jen also has a couple "regular" beers and enjoyed those as well.

But we are back on track and after a successful Superbowl we are both down a pound this morning! We are back to committed!!

~Nicole

Feeling Committed!

Good morning everyone!

Last night's weigh in was one of the best for me especially. I hit a 20lb weight loss milestone. It took great dedication, commitment and hard work to say the least, but I'm seeing and feeling the results! Our FB peeps are just incredible! All of the encouragement and support is greatly appreciated, please keep it coming!  Our totals for last night were Jen -21.6 and Nicole -16lbs - I'm proud of both of us and I know Nicole's -20lb is just around the corner! She was sick all week and is still fighting her cold, but still managed to lose, very proud of her. In our mtg they talked about being "committed" or "mildly interested"; this morning we both woke up feeling committed!

My next milestone is going to be breaking the 200lb barrier, I'm SO close! You will all hear about that one because it will not only be an accomplishment, but it will have been at least 8 yrs since I've been under 200lbs that I can remember. And to think my highest weight at one point (approx 3 yrs ago) was 248.5 - I'm very proud of myself and don't plan on stopping any time soon!

I would also like to mention that I don't think either of us could do this without one another. I encourage the rest of you (working on this of course) to find a buddy to do this with as doing it alone makes it twice as hard!