Goals and Challenge Updates

I finished up a couple of challenges this weekend so I wanted to update my list of ongoing challenges and goals.  Keeping them all together like this makes it easier to track everything. I know it seems like I have taken on alot but its keeping me motivated and keeping me busy so I don't think about food so much. Updates are in red.


Weight loss goals (2 lbs a week):
November 2, 2010- 221 lbs (I weigh 223.6 lbs.)
November 30, 2010- 213 lbs (34 lb loss for Thanksgiving, thats a lot to be thankful for)
December 28, 2010- 205 lbs (42 lb loss for Christmas would make it a very merry Christmas)
January 25, 2011- 197 lbs
February 22, 2011- 189 lbs (under 200 for valentines how sweet that would be)
March 22, 2011- 181 lbs
April 19, 2011- 173 lbs
May 17, 2011- 165 lbs (it would be nice to celebrate our 5 year anniversary with me at this weight)
June 14, 2011- 157 lbs
July 12, 2011- 149 lbs ( 2 days before my birthday what a wonderful birthday present to myself)
August 9, 2011- 141 lbs (this would be the smallest I have ever been)

Recommended Daily Allowances:
(not really a challenge but something I need to keep an eye on)
Calories: 1760 to lose 2 lbs a week
Fat: 64 grams
Fiber: 25 grams
Carbohydrates: 300 grams
Sugar: 40 grams
Protein: 50 grams
Sodium: 2400 milligrams

Exercise: 

I have challenged myself to walk a 160 miles by New Years.  I am using the ticker on the right side of my blog to keep track of how far I have walked.

(I have walked 80 miles so far in this challenge.)

Hot 100 Challenge:
Steve from http://logmyloss.com/  is hosting the Hot 100 Challenge. The Hot 100 is a challenge focused on the last 100 days of 2010 beginning September 23, 2010. Here are my goals:
#1....This was my own personal challenge anyway so I'm adding it as my first goal here.....walk 160 miles by New Years.
(I have walked 80 miles so far.)
#2....Continue to eat healthy and exercise so I can lose 20 lbs by New Years. Beginning weight 235.4 lbs.
(I have lost 11.6 lbs so far.)
#3....Make it through the holiday season without falling back into old eating patterns.
(I made it through a Halloween without overeating so I'm doing pretty good so far.)

Monthly Goals (11/1/10-11/31/10):
(my own personal goals)
1. Water- My goal has been to drink 128 oz of water a day but I still have not managed to accomplish this so that is my first goal I'm going to work on this month.
2. Sugar- I have greatly reduced my sugar intake already but its still something I need to continue to work on.
3. Fruits- I love fruits especially sweet fruits like bananas, apples and grapes but I have learned that fruits have alot of natural sugar in them so you do need to watch how much you eat so my goal this month is to continue to keep my fruit intake to a maximum of 1-2 servings per day.
4. Vegetables- I have always been a vegetable eater but I have had to learn to replace some of my carbs like macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes with vegetables instead. I am learning to try new vegetables that I've never had before to add some variety into my eating and vegetables really are good for you and help to fill you up. So I plan on continuing to try at least one new vegetable and make sure I get my daily servings of veggies in.
5. Carbohydrates- This is probably one of my favorite types of foods, I mean who doesn't love macaroni and cheese and pasta dishes and breads but if you aren't careful these types of food can put alot of weight on you. So I plan on continuing to really watch my intake of carbs.
6. Exercise- I have been doing really good at exercise but I am adding that as one of my goals so that I make sure I continue to get all of my exercise in. I am challenging myself to walk/jog 5-6 days a week and at least 15 miles a week.  I also have began strength training and plan on doing this 3 times a week. 
7. Soda- I have mainly been drinking water but I have been sneaking in a couple diet sodas a week and I want to completely give up sodas this month.
8. Fast Food- I try to pick the healthiest thing when I get fast food but like a friend pointed out to me no fast food is healthy. I'm only picking out the least unhealthy thing on the menu so this is definitely something I need to give up. So my last goal is to completely avoid fast food this next month.

I Refuse to Blow it Over the Holidays Challenge:
This challenge is being hosted by Erika at http://wwwfatlikeme.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html . Its just a personal challenge not to overeat during the holidays. You just keep track of how much weight you have lost from the first day of fall until after New Years. My beginning weight was 235.4 lbs.
(I have lost 11.6 lbs so far in this challenge.)

I know this seems like alot of goals and challenges but they all kind of fit together I just want to be able to update all of them on the same day to make it easier for me to remember.

Food and Exercise Journal

Breakfast- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal
                 1/4 cup trail mix
                 1 cup skim milk
                 water (16.9 oz)

Lunch- 1 bowl of vegetable soup
            water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 bowl banana pudding

Dinner- 5 oz chicken breast

            1 cup broccoli

            1/2 cup mashed potatoes

            1/2 cup rice

            water (16.9 oz)

Eating was good today and instead of eating a bunch of halloween candy I made myself a bowl of lowfat banana pudding.  I used 9 vanilla wafers, sugar-free fat-free instant vanilla pudding made with skim milk and 1 banana.

I walked 3.4 miles around my neighborhood in 49 minutes and I did 3 sets of 12 bench presses at 48 lbs, 3 sets of 12 arm curls at 48 lbs and 3 sets of 12 legs curls at 30 lbs.

Photo Challenge Day 7

Here are the pictures of the day.  My kids went trick or treating with their dad last night and when they got home today I took pictures of them in their costumes.

Happy Halloween!!!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and remember as tempting as the treats are its not worth the trick its going to play on your body.  Just keep your goals in mind and walk away.  I wish everyone the best of luck, you can do this.

Photo Challenge Day 6

Here is todays pictures.  This is my backyard with a creek running through it.

Food and Exercise Journal

Breakfast- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal
                 1/4 cup trail mix
                 1 cup skim milk
                 water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 banana

Lunch- 1 bowl vegetable soup
            water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 fiber one bar

Dinner- 1 bowl vegetable soup
             water (16.9 oz)

Eating was good today but I'm skipping exercising today.

Change your thinking

I don't know about anyone else but alot of losing weight for me has been about changing my thought patterns.  I have to be able to believe that I can do this and not let my mind rule my body.  I have to let go of the past and all my failures with weight loss, otherwise I just set myself up for another failure.  I have to stop the negative thinking and replace those with positive thoughts.  This isn't something that has occurred overnight and its still an ongoing process. 

Just this morning I blogged about how discouraging weight loss can be because its seems to take forever.  Of course its easier to just sit and stuff my face and gain weight but is that the life I want to live....definitely not.  Noone ever said weight loss was going to be easy and yes I whine and complain about not being able to eat whatever I want and about having to exercise everyday but in the long run I know this is whats best for me.

I have had to overcome emotionally eating, from eating when I'm happy to celebrate to eating when I'm sad to make the pain go away.  I use to run to food when someone made me mad, thinking in my twisted mind that I was somehow punishing them for hurting me when the only person I was really punishing was myself.  Now when someone hurts me I use that hurt as my strength, I refuse to let that person win twice.  I turn to exercise to get out my frustrations.  I use to think of exercise as torture but now I see it as my time, time to meditate, calm down and think things out. 

I use to think of food as a reward.  If I had a hard day then I believed going out to dinner was a way of rewarding myself but not anymore.  My reward now for a hard day is to get me time to exercise.  I use to think of food as the center of my life, always thinking what my next meal was going to be.  Now food is secondary in my life, its what I need to keep my body energized and healthy.  I can do without the chocolate cake, cookies and ice cream, I don't need those things to survive and if I have a craving I can satisfy it with one bite not the whole cake, box of cookies or container of ice cream.

This time of the year is the worst for most people because of so many celebrations which usually include food.  Yes I worry that I'm not going to have the willpower to resist all the goodies but so far I have been very successfully at events like this.  The trick is to plan ahead and know that you don't have to eat to have fun.  I went to my nephews birthday party last weekend and I knew what I was going to eat ahead of time and thats what I had.  I also spent my time taking pictures, riding horses and other fun stuff going on at the party.  Enjoy the people you are spending time with instead of focusing on the food.  Tell yourself you can do it. 

I don't have very much support from anyone around me so I'm pretty much in this weight loss journey by myself.  Normally this would mean failure for me because I'm very codependent but not this time.  Noone can lose this weight for me and I don't need anyone elses approval, I'm doing this for me.  The people that are negative about my weight loss have no idea that their negativity is my greatest strength.  I have found a way to turn their negativity around and use it as one of my greatest motivations.

If you tell yourself your going to fail then thats exactly what you are going to do.  Change your negatives into positives and even if it doesn't seem to make any difference at first just keep telling yourself the same thing over and over again eventually you will change your thinking to.  Everything we have learned is about habit.  If you can learn the bad habit of overeating then you can relearn the good habit of healthy eating, it just takes time.

My Time

Why does weight loss have to take so long? 

It feels like I can put on twenty pounds in a weekend but taking that same twenty pounds off takes two months.  I know losing the weight slowly is the healthiest way and you have more of a chance to keep it off but it sure does suck being fat. 

These are our choices set around stuffing our face with everything that we love and gain weight or watch every bite that goes into our mouth and exercise like a mad person and drop one pound a week if we are lucky.  No wonder so many people fail at weight loss, what a choice.  It doesn't seem quite fair does it? 

As you can tell I'm in a whiny mood this morning.  My weight loss has slowed which I guess thats better than stopping completely but I liked stepping on the scale every morning and seeing even the smallest of losses.  I kind of set myself up for failure when I put a particular number in my head that I wanted to lose this week.  Lesson learned, never again will I plan for a loss, I need to just appreciate what I do lose. 

I know that my body is getting healthier and stronger and that the weight will keep coming off.  Its just sucks to look in the mirror and know how hard I have been working and not see a difference.  I know my clothes fit differently and I know mentally that I have lost weight but I'm not seeing it.  I see myself in pictures and I'm just as fat as I have always been.  I hate the way I look. 

As shallow as it may sound I look forward to the day when people start noticing my weight loss, which hasn't happened yet.  I'm so tired of being the "FAT GIRL" that noone notices.  I'm tired of worrying about how I look in this outfit or that outfit or what people are thinking when they look at me.  I just want to be normal.

I wrote this post in hopes of getting out some of my frustrations.  I also wanted to rededicate myself to eating right and exercising and cutting myself a break.  I'm so hard on myself and I don't need all that negativity.  To look in the mirror and know that I've lost over 21 pounds and still keep telling myself how ugly and fat I am isn't helping anything.  I want to be able to love myself, I really do, but when you have hated your body for so long for betraying you its hard to find something positive to focus on, but thats a challenge I'm ready to face.  I just read my last sentence and I have that totally wrong, it wasn't my body that betrayed me it was me who betrayed my body.  I chose to overeat and gain all this weight. 

Well no more I was given this one life to live and I refuse to cut my life short by continuing to be overweight.  I need to lose this weight not only so I feel better about myself but so I can live a longer, healthier life.  This is my time dammit and I'm not going to waste anymore of it.

Photo Challenge Day 5

Today is only the fifth day of my challenge to take one picture a day for 365 days and already its so hard to find things around here that are even worth taking pictures of.  I need to make a trip to the mountains or the beach and really get some beautiful pictures but until then here is a picture of my neighbors goats....lol.

So you see my halloween costume wasn't very far off from the truth, sometimes I feel like a hillbilly where I live.

My hillbilly costume

Strength Training

I finally got around tonight to starting my strenth training.  The only thing I have to use at home is my husbands weight bench.  I did 3 sets of 12 bench presses with 40 lbs of weight, 3 sets of 12 arm curls with 40 lbs of weight and 3 sets of 12 leg curls with 45 lbs of weight.  I'm trying to figure out what else I can do with the weights he has.  He has a straight bar for his weight bench and a curl bar which is what I used tonight.  The leg curl is part of his weight bench so I used that to. 

Any other tips on exercises I can do using this kind of equipment?  I asked my husband advice on the weight and how many sets I should do.  Does what I did sound about right?  It felt ok and got harder with the more sets I did.  My husband said that if I wanted to go for toning and not building up muscles like a bodybuilder then I need to go with less weight and more reps, is this true? 

I also have an exercise ball that I plan on using and I have some resistant bands and some hand weights but they don't weigh very much maybe 8 lbs.  I want to start doing more toning along with my walking because God knows my skin is going to need all the help it can get as my body shrinks.

What I would give to look like this when I'm strength training.

Food and Exercise Journal

Breakfast- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal
                 1/4 cup trail mix
                 1 cup skim milk
                 water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 cup grapes

Lunch- 2 slices turkey, 1 slice cheese and honey
           mustard on 2 slices whole wheat bread
           water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 fiber one bar

Dinner- 1 bowl vegetable soup
             grilled cheese sandwich
             water (16.9 oz)

Eating was good today.

I walked 2.1 miles in 27 minutes around my neighborhood and I also started my strength training tonight.
I did 3 sets of 12 bench presses (40 lbs of weight), 3 sets of 12 arm curls (40 lbs of weight) and 3 sets of 12 leg curls (45 lbs of weight).

Halloween Party

I went to a Halloween party that my photography class was having at school Wednesday. I wasn't able to get any pictures of the actually event but we did have alittle photo session after the party was over and here are the pictures.  Just click to enlarge the pictures.

In this picture I'm the one peeking out from behind Mr. Potato Head.

 This picture is all the first year photography students with our teacher (Mr. Potato Head).

 This is all the second year photography students and the teacher (Mr. Potato Head).

 Here we have an Athena Goddess and Mary Poppins.

 Here we have Mr. Potato Head and Gumby boxing it out.

Here we have a hippy with a bumblebee after her flower.

 I guess we went together because we both have overalls on.  The hillbilly and the train conductor.

And of course who could forget the college student and gumby getting drunk together. 

 Superman saving the damsel in distress.

 

Ms. Kitty

This guy was dressed as the Brawny Man but they photoshopped Gumby into his hand instead of a roll of papertowels

Goals, Challenges and Weigh In Updates

I'm using this post to list all my personal challenges and other blogger challenges in one place so I can keep up with them. I know it seems like I have taken on alot but its keeping me motivated and keeping me busy so I don't think about food so much. So here it goes with all my challenges and updates will be in red.


Weight loss goals (2 lbs a week):
November 2, 2010- 221 lbs (I weigh 224.4 lbs.)
November 30, 2010- 213 lbs (34 lb loss for Thanksgiving, thats a lot to be thankful for)
December 28, 2010- 205 lbs (42 lb loss for Christmas would make it a very merry Christmas)
January 25, 2011- 197 lbs
February 22, 2011- 189 lbs (under 200 for valentines how sweet that would be)
March 22, 2011- 181 lbs
April 19, 2011- 173 lbs
May 17, 2011- 165 lbs (it would be nice to celebrate our 5 year anniversary with me at this weight)
June 14, 2011- 157 lbs
July 12, 2011- 149 lbs ( 2 days before my birthday what a wonderful birthday present to myself)
August 9, 2011- 141 lbs (this would be the smallest I have ever been)

Recommended Daily Allowances:
(not really a challenge but something I need to keep an eye on)
Calories: 1760 to lose 2 lbs a week
              2260 to lose 1 lb a week
Fat: 64 grams
Fiber: 25 grams
Carbohydrates: 300 grams
Sugar: 40 grams
Protein: 50 grams
Sodium: 2400 milligrams

Exercise:

As you can see I have a new ticker on the right side of my screen now and it starts at 0 and goes to 160. I have challenged myself to walk a 160 miles by New Years.

(I have walked 75 miles so far in this challenge.)




Weight Loss Contest: Stephanie from http://unveilingthediva.blogspot.com/ is hosting a weight loss contest where you have to post a picture of yourself weighing in each Friday and at the end of 6 weeks she is giving a prize to the winner. My beginning weight was 237 lbs.
(I have lost 12.6 lbs in the last 6 weeks on this challenge.)

Here is what my scale said this morning.

Hot 100 Challenge:
Steve from http://logmyloss.com/ is hosting the Hot 100 Challenge. The Hot 100 is a challenge focused on the last 100 days of 2010 beginning September 23, 2010. Here are my goals:

#1....This was my own personal challenge anyway so I'm adding it as my first goal here.....walk 160 miles by New Years.
(I have walked 75 miles so far.)
#2....Continue to eat healthy and exercise so I can lose 20 lbs by New Years. Beginning weight 235.4 lbs.
(I have lost 10.8 lbs so far.)
#3....Make it through the holiday season without falling back into old eating patterns.
(I made it through a Halloween party without overeating so I'm doing pretty good so far.)

Weekly Goals (10/16/10-10/22/10):
(my own personal goals)
1. Water- My goal has been to drink 128 oz of water a day but I still have not managed to accomplish this so that is my first goal this week.
(Have been averaging about 51 to 68 oz a day so I'm changing this goal to 96 oz of water a day.)
2. Sugar- I posted yesterday about my sugar intake and how I was eating more than I should be and I got alot of feedback from fellow bloggers. Their recommendation was to watch the sugar content in the processed foods I eat so that is my next goal. I hope this next week to greatly reduce how much sugar I'm eating.
(I have done really good or at least I think so on watching my sugar intake.)
3. Fruits- I love fruits especially sweet fruits like bananas, apples and grapes but I have learned that fruits have alot of natural sugar in them so you do need to watch how much you eat so my goal this next week is to keep my fruit intake to a maximum of 1-2 servings per day.
(I have managed to keep my fruits to 1-2 servings per day but a couple days I didn't eat any at all.)
4. Vegetables- I have always been a vegetable eater but I have had to learn to replace some of my carbs like macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes with vegetables instead. I am learning to try new vegetables that I've never had before to add some variety into my eating and vegetables really are good for you and help to fill you up. So my next goal for this week is to try at least one new vegetable and make sure I get my daily servings of veggies in.
(I had a few days where I didn't get in all my veggies)
5. Carbohydrates- This is probably one of my favorite types of foods, I mean who doesn't love macaroni and cheese and pasta dishes and breads but if you aren't careful these types of food can put alot of weight on you. So this next week I plan on really watching my intake of carbs.
(I'm still doing pretty good at watching my carbs I think I'm staying under my goal of 300 grams a day.)
6. Exercise- I have been doing really good at exercise but I am adding that as one of my goals so that I make sure I continue to get all of my exercise in. I am challenging myself to walk 5-6 days this week and at least 12 miles.
(I missed three days of walking this last week but I have still managed to get in 11.4 miles.)
7. Soda- I have mainly been drinking water but I have been sneaking in a couple diet sodas a week and I want to set a goal to not drink any sodas this next week.
(None)
8. Fast Food- I try to pick the healthiest thing when I get fast food but like a friend pointed out to me no fast food is healthy. I'm only picking out the least unhealthy thing on the menu so this is definitely something I need to give up. So my last goal is to completely avoid fast food this next week.
(None.)


Gettin Sexy Challenge:
Katie from http://katie-fttw.blogspot.com/ is hosting this challenge for the month of October. As part of the challenge I have to come up with a goal that will make me feel sexier by the end of October. So here are my goals and I'm choosing more than one because they all kind of go together. Beginning weight for this challenge: 232.6 lbs

1. Exercise: I'm going to walk 50 miles.
(I have in 44.5 miles so far.)
2. Food: I'm giving up soda and fast food.
(None.)
3. Weight: I'm going to lose 10 lbs.
(I have lost 8.2 lbs so far.)

I Refuse to Blow it Over the Holidays Challenge:
This challenge is being hosted by Erika at http://wwwfatlikeme.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html . Its just a personal challenge not to overeat during the holidays. You just keep track of how much weight you have lost from the first day of fall until after New Years. My beginning weight was 235.4 lbs.

(I have lost 10.8 lbs so far in this challenge.)

I know this seems like alot of goals and challenges but they all kind of fit together I just want to be able to update all of them on the same day to make it easier for me to remember.

Photo Challenge Day 4

Today is day 4 of my personal challenge to take a photo everyday for a year.  I took quite a few photos and I couldn't make a choice about which ones I liked the best so I asked each one of my family members and these were there choices.  You can click on any of these pictures to look at them larger.

My husband chose this one.  I asked him why he liked this one and he said because its all alone.

My son Dylan liked this one.

My son Brandon liked this one.

My son Joshua liked this one.

And noone liked my sky shots but me.  I just liked the way the trees make a silhouette frame around the sky.

Food and Exercise Journal

Breakfast- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal
                 1/4 cup trail mix
                  1 cup skim milk
                  water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 cup fiber one yogurt

Lunch- 2 slices turkey, 1 slice cheese and honey
            mustard on 2 slices whole wheat bread
            water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 banana
             water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 cup grapes

I think I'm skipping dinner tonight and just eating a snack in alittle while when I get hungry.  I have to weigh in the morning and I want to see a loss.  I know its not healthy to skip a meal but I'm really not hungry and if I get hungry I will eat something small later.

I planned on walking at least 3 miles but as I started walking laps I just wanted to keep going.  I ended up doing 5 miles in 74 minutes around my neighborhood.  Thats the most I've ever walked.  I feel wonderful.

Worried about weigh in

This is the first week in awhile that I've had to worry about my weigh in.  Its my TOM and my weight is up alittle.  I have to weigh in tomorrow morning and I'm worried that I'm going to have a gain.  I am at the end of my cycle so the water weight is coming off but I'm still above what I weighed last Friday.  I'm hoping by watching what I eat today and exercising really hard this afternoon and drinking plenty of water that I will have some kind of loss tomorrow.  This is very discouraging because I was trying to hit a goal this week for one of the challenges I am participating in but at least I have until Sunday to try to lose for that challenge.  I just really don't want to see a gain on the scales in the morning.  I have gotten so use to seeing losses every week.  I need to get myself prepared mentally in case my weight is up in the morning because I don't want this to lead to any kind of backsliding.

Update:  After I got up this morning and weighed, ate my breakfast and got the kids off to school and  I had every intention of doing some housework.  Well I got on the computer to answer some emails and send some comments and ended up falling back asleep until 10:30am.  When I woke up I used the bathroom and decided to take a shower to get the day started and before I jumped in the shower I just had to weigh one more time.  The scale showed I had dropped 2 lbs since this morning which puts me below my weigh in last Friday by 1.6 lbs.  I weighed twice just to make sure the scale wasn't wrong and sure enough it still showed 224 lbs.  So crossing my fingers I will have a weight loss tomorrow after all.

Photo Challenge Day 3

I have been really busy today and haven't had much time to take pictures and when I finally did get some time it was raining so I took a picture of a part of our downtown.  I waited until there were no cars on the street just because I thought it was cool to see no cars or people, like the town was empty.

Food and Exercise Journal

Breakfast- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal
                 1/4 cup trail mix
                 1 cup skim milk
                 water (16.9 oz)

Lunch- 2 cocktail weinies
           2 meatballs
           3 sunchips
           1"x1" brownie
           1 scoop sweet potato casserole
           1 scoop blueberry dessert
           water (16.9 oz)

Dinner- 1 pancake w/ blueberry syrup
             water (16.9 oz)

Eating was ok today and once again no exercise but I will be making up for it tomorrow.

Halloween Party

Today is going to be another test of my willpower.  We are having a halloween party after photography class and everyone is bringing food.  I've seen the list of food and there is not one healthy thing on it, just things like cookies, brownies, meatballs and chips.  I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this one because there is really nothing I can eat.  I know I'm going to spend my time taking photos and socializing but when it comes time to eat I guess I will just get a very small plate of a few things.  People in my class know I'm trying to lose weight so I will just use that to my advantage.  I don't want them seeing me pigout when I'm suppose to be eating healthy so I will just keep that thought in my head.  We are also having a costume contest and I know I'm not going to win or anything but I'm dressing up as a hillbilly, I will be posting those pics later today.  It should be a fun day overall as long as I don't overeat.

Update:  I did really good with my eating today at the party but I didn't get to take any pictures because it was to dark in the room.  I do have some pictures of me in my costume that I took last night to see how silly I would look and as promised I'm going to post a couple on here.  Here I am as the barefooted hillbilly.

I know I look silly but isn't that the point of dressing up.  It was fun to get out of my comfort zone and socialize with some other college students. 

Photo Challenge Day 2

Today is Day 2 of my challenge to myself to take 1 picture everyday for a year.  I have been out taking pictures all day long for my photography class but that was with my film camera.  Of course I kept forgetting to take any with my digital camera so I snapped these when I got home.  I love the color of the leaves this time of year.

I also took a couple extra shots because the kids wanted their pictures taken seperately.

Food and Exercise Journal

Breakfast- 1 1/2 cups bran cereal
                 1/4 cup trail mix
                 1 cup skim milk
                 water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 banana

Lunch- 1 bowl white bean chili w/ cheese and
            lite sour cream
            water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 1 cup fiber one yogurt

Dinner- 1/2 roasted broccoli
             1 cup roasted sweet potato
             1/2 cup roasted squash
             1/2 baked fish filet
             water (16.9 oz)

Snack- 2 circus peanuts

Eating was ok today but I took the day off from exercise.

Warning: Female Subject

As you all know this was suppose to be a big week for me.  I'm completing two challenges and meeting alot of goals this week.  One of those goals was to try to lose 3 lbs.  Well guess who decided to visit this week, yep thats right Aunt Flo.  Sunday morning I weighed in at my lowest so far 224.6 lbs so I was pretty confident I was going to hit my 3 lb goal.  Yesterday morning I weighed in at 226 lbs and to my shock this morning I weighed in at 227.2 lbs.  Now I know this is only because its my TOM but is there anything I can do to counteract this?  Would drinking more water help?  Would exercising more help?  I only have 5 days to drop 4.6 lbs.  This is day 3 of my TOM so I'm hoping by Sunday that it will be over with but does that mean the weight will go with it?  Any advice would be appreciated.

Giveaway

Jessica from http://pudget1.blogspot.com/ is hosting a giveaway from Paisley Peach Designs.


The winner of the giveaway will receive a $15 Gift Certificate to Paisley Peach Designs and free shipping when using the certificate.

Here is one of the beautiful items you can purchase with your gift certificate.

How To Enter:  Just go to Jessica's blog here http://pudget1.blogspot.com/ and enter one or all of the six ways she has listed.

The Winner will be chosen using a random number generator. All entries must be received by Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 11:59 CST. The winner will be announced Thursday, November 4th, 2010. For U.S Addresses Only.

White Bean Chicken Chili

I fixed White Bean Chicken Chili for dinner tonight and a couple of my fellow bloggers have asked for the recipe so here it is.

White Bean Chicken Chili
3 cans Great Northern Beans, undrained
3 cans chicken broth
1 tbls olive oil
2 onions, chopped
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can rotel tomatoes with green chilies
4.5 oz can green chilies, diced
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano (I left this out only because I didn't have any)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (I used chili powder instead)
8 chicken thighs, cooked and diced (original recipe called for 3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced)

Topping:
sour cream
grated cheese

I boiled my chicken thighs in a pot of water until done then pulled the meat off the bone.  Then I took the 1 tbls of olive oil and sauteed the onion and garlic until translucent.  I used the stock from the pot I boiled the chicken in but you can use store bought chicken stock.  Combine the 3 cans chicken stock with all the other ingredients except the sour cream and grated cheese and simmer for 1-2 hours.  Serve with whatever kind of grated cheese you like and sour cream on top.