I haven’t lost any weight since April.

I went on vacations for around two weeks, and have had a hard time getting back in the gym routine. I still work with a trainer once a week, but it’s hard to go on the other days of the week. My workout buddy also got away from going as much, so we’ve been trying to drag each other back into it.

And I always need to eat something while I’m watching TV. I don’t know why, but it freaks me out when I’m not eating while watching TV. I know I’m eating badly and I feel guilty about it, but I just can’t get myself to stop.

I really hope I get past this crap soon.

I’m going on vacation to Belize this month. I can’t wait for that. It will be my short escape from life.

Hopefully I will start having more time for this blog, for cooking, and for more exercise.

I did buy some Herbalife smoothie mix. It’s tasty so far. I also bought their lemonade packets for pouring into your water. Very yummy.

I have a lot to do to get my life into order. I would say back into order, but it’s a new way of living for me. I’m not sure if it will mean more money or less money and more free time or less free time. It’s very up in the air. I’m excited about it though. I will be focusing more on me. I’ve also reconnected with some friends, and I’m very happy about that.

On a happy note, I weighed in at the doctor this morning and it was 147! Two months ago I weighed 151. I know it’s not a huge loss, but at least it’s not the same and it hasn’t gone up. I love being in the 140s. It wasn’t too long ago that I was in the 160s.

I have a new personal trainer. Mine was fired from the gym because he quit showing up for work. Darn it. Luckily, my new trainer is an absolute doll. Check out his cute face at: http://www.shawnarani.com. He has been kicking my arse the past month. His workouts are different from the workouts with the last trainer. It’s more of a circuit. Last night he did my measurements. It had been 2 months since I was last measured at the gym. I lost 1 inch in my chest, 1 inch in my waist, 1.5 inches in my left bicep, .5 inches in my right bicep, .75 inches in my hips, 3 inches in my left thigh, 2.5 inches in my right thigh, 1 inch in my right calf, and .75 inches in my left calf. Oh my gosh, that is 11 inches all together. That makes me feel amazing.

I haven’t been doing as well with the eating right. When I travel, I seem to think I need Coca-Cola. I’ve spent a lot of weekends out of town. I will be in town this weekend so hopefully I won’t drink any Coke. I do eat differently than I did before I started all of this in September, so thank goodness for that.

And in super excellent news, my Belize trip in June is nearly finalized! Unfortunately, I have been unable to talk my dad into allowing me to bring a friend. Though I don’t think any of my friends have passports, and now it’s pretty much too late to get one.

I haven’t been doing super well with eating right because of all the weekend traveling. I did a little better two weekends ago while I was at another home and garden show. There wasn’t any Coke available, so I drank a lot of water. I cut back on the alcohol too – only one margarita on one night. I went over on my calories on Saturday, but it wasn’t as bad as my other home and garden show weekend.

I went to my hometown the weekend before that – and for a long weekend. Thursday – Sunday. I went to a wedding on Thursday night and managed to not eat much there. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings afterward, which I love, and I only ate two wings. Yay! I did go way over on my calories that Friday though because I went to my favorite Mexican restaurant with my dad and his wife. I also had several wine coolers that night which are loaded with calories. Ugh. I will re-think that next time I’m there. 

My female co-worker and I flew one state over (to my home state) for work on Friday afternoon. We started out well by eating Subway for lunch before going in to the airport. Our flight was delayed, so I decided to grab a Pepsi. I got disgusted by it halfway through, and threw it away. That was fine. For dinner on Friday night, we met up with a co-worker in my home state for dinner at Olive Garden. This is also fine because I don’t like pasta anyway and always get soup and salad. But then my co-worker buddy and I decided to split some alfredo dipping sauce for our breadsticks. Splitting it isn’t too bad, but our other co-worker didn’t want any.

We stayed at a Doubletree Hotel which is famous for giving chocolate chip cookies to its guests. I loved that idea, of course. I ate 3 of those cookies over the weekend (they are huge) and have a few more in my desk drawer now.

We ate a fairly healthy breakfast on Saturday, though I also had a Coke during the day. I needed caffeine at the time. We had time to leave for lunch and found a McAlister’s Deli close by. I tried the Havarti Chicken Chipotle panini – very yummy. I also got a giant iced tea which gave me enough caffeine to get through the rest of the afternoon. (I’m obsessed with iced tea, and I mean OBSESSED.) But for dinner we went back to Olive Garden. This time I wasn’t too hungry, so we shared TWO boats of alfredo dipping sauce with breadsticks. Ugh. This cost me around 730 calories. I felt disgusted as soon as we got back to the hotel room. I also had 2 peach Bellinis at Olive Garden. I didn’t feel bad about those at the time because I haven’t drank in a very long time. But today I found they are approximately 293 calories each. Disgusting. All in all, I had approximately 2900 calories on Saturday.

I had a very healthy breakfast on Sunday, but ended up hungry very soon later. I ate some Cheez-Its (LOVE THEM) and drank a Coke (unfortunately). I drank another Coke later. That got me through until we went to the airport. We grabbed some Mazzio’s pizza before getting on the plane. Has anyone else ever been to Mazzio’s? It’s not in my new state, so I figured I should have some while I had the chance. They have AMAZING ranch dressing. I know, I know, ranch is bad. But this pizza place is the only place I ever have ranch dressing and I haven’t ate there in maybe a year. Unfortunately, this was also extremely high calorie and high fat. I mean, I knew that, but looking up the food today scared me. I had approximately 2200 calories per day on Friday and Sunday. Sparkpeople suggests I should have 1220-1560 calories per day in order to reach my goal weight.

My co-worker and I are both trying to get healthy, so it was a huge FAIL that we messed up so much together. I think the fact that we love a lot of the same foods has something to do with this.

So is there an upside to this weekend FAIL? Yes!

1) I learned how many calories are in a Bellini & will remember this the next time I consider drinking one (or anything similar).

2) My co-worker & I were around fresh popcorn at work all weekend but didn’t eat any.

3) My co-worker & I were on our feet for 7 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday.

4) I will remember to keep a cooler around for the next event I work at (in 2 weeks) so I can keep bottled water in it.

5) I will find out ahead of time if the hotel has a pool (we found this out on Sunday) so I can bring my swimsuit. You can’t eat while swimming, plus you have to see yourself in a swimsuit which makes you not want to eat. Lol.

6) I will NEVER again go for the 2nd boat of alfredo dipping sauce. One is fine because I don’t like the idea of giving up any kind of food. I just want to eat less of it.

7) Even though you’ve ate fairly healthy most of the day, you can still blow it with your dinner.

I’m not mad at myself for eating these types of foods or drinking these high calorie drinks. I’m mad at myself for having SO MUCH of them. I’ve been doing great with the stopping after one high calorie thing, but just not this weekend.

I did have a great weekend though. I loved traveling, meeting new people, and being able to be on my feet while working for the first time in awhile.

Do any of you have problems with eating right while on work travel? How do you fight the urges to eat whatever you want (because you’re away from home/with a friend – my excuses)?

I managed to hop out of bed fairly quickly at 5:30 a.m. It was completely dark out driving to the gym. But there were plenty of people in the gym. We did a warm-up on the stair machine first and it killed me. I felt so dead. We did back and abs exercises too, which weren’t as painful. We did stationary bikes afterward and kept up a constant bitching about being up early. There were no young people in the gym besides the people working there and they were playing oldies music. The type of music played switches all the time at L.A. Fitness and this was by far the worst.

We probably bitched too much, but this work out was terrible. I felt so dead the whole time because I was barely awake and had no energy yet. I never want to work out in the mornings again. I guess I’m just not a morning person. Sometimes I like being out early because it makes me feel like I’m getting things accomplished, but this just felt terrible. I also had no idea whether I should eat anything beforehand – after all, I was going straight from bed to gym.

On a good note though, I’ve been sleeping extremely well since then. I’d had a hard time falling asleep the past week and now I’ve been going right to sleep when I get in bed.

Do any of you work out in the mornings? How do you get past the lack of energy or do you even encounter that issue?

Maybe I should buy weight lifting gloves. Do any of you use them?

I usually die during wall squats, but this time I was fine. Well, they weren’t easy, but I didn’t stand up from it like I usually do. He has me hold it for 60 seconds, and I usually have to stand up for a second occasionally during the hold. I’m proud of myself for that, but annoyed with myself about the glute machine. With the leg extensions, he had me do 10, then hold it up with no weight for 5 seconds, drop it and go right back up for another 5, again, again, again. Then I had to do 10 regular. Ouch. Prone leg curl was the last machine I did, and it was so painful. I could barely lift the thing up during the last set. He had me stretch a lot too. I had to sit down with my legs out and touch my feet, then move my legs to a V and go to each foot, then stretch in the middle. He would push on my back so I could stretch further. It felt sooo good to stretch.

Then he told me to do 30 minutes on the rowing machine. When we walked over to it, I made the mistake of trying to step over another rowing machine. I almost tripped because I could barely lift my legs! I hadn’t used the machine in 2 years so he showed me how to do it. I was afraid I would get bored doing it because I had no one to talk to and you can’t exactly read on it. He said, “Just watch the numbers! They change constantly.” Ha. Somehow I didn’t get too bored. I would try to get a higher calories per hour number. I watched people. At the last 5 minutes of it, I could hear my left knee constantly making a cracking sound – like cracking knuckles. I HATE that sound. I went slower for the last 5 minutes and tried not to move that knee as much as I had been. I hope it’s fine.

When I changed back into regular clothes, I couldn’t even put my jeans on standing up. I had to sit down to pull them on. I told him, and he said, “That’s what I like to hear!” Ha. Love it.

This was the toughest work out I’ve ever had. It felt shitty and I feel partially dead now, but it was also amazing. I want to be stronger. I want to be fit. I want to have a lot of muscle tone. It’s awesome. I need to work harder on eating right though. I’m already MUCH better than I was in college, but I did eat 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this past week. Yes, they were Thin Mints, and yes, they were delicious. Girl Scout cookie time of year is worse than Christmas for me. I’m all out of them now, thank goodness, but I won’t be able to say no if I run into anymore Girl Scouts.

Luckily, my work out buddy and I are going to check out that Herbalife meal replacement stuff tomorrow after our work out. We are going to try to split a container because we are poor. Lol. I know I will drink it, and I’m sure it will fill me up so much that I won’t be able to eat other things.

I really want to go to IHOP and get a blueberry pancake. I’ve been craving one for two weeks and haven’t been able to have one yet. Trainer buddy said I can’t have one, but it just sounds so yummy. And I would only eat one! Lol.

The thing in the bottom left corner is unreadable in the pic – it’s a ‘lesson learned from Jersey Shore’ that I thought was cool: “Confidence is everything. The ladies have regular-woman bodies – not some model ideal. And yet…they go for tight and short with lots of cleavage. What we learned: As long as you think you’re hot, who cares what anyone else thinks?”

The pink one says “I <3 new clothes!” I’m excited about dropping sizes so I can buy new clothes!

These words are starting to define my life. “Game On!” to a new lifestyle involving fitness and eating nutritious foods. My health is suddenly important to me. I’m in a “countdown to gorgeous.” I’m trying to “improve” my life…and my “fashion.”

I’ve always been a frugalista, and damn proud of it. I have ambition and a lot of bright ideas. I’m smart…and sexy.

This took a lot of time and digging through magazines, but I’m enjoying the final product. Do any of you have a collage like this?

This is a note from my aunt’s best friend. I’ve always been close with her too. Read it from the right side over to the left side. She gave it to me with a gift in August 2008 when I was in California visiting my aunt and uncle. I had suddenly booked the trip because I was breaking up with my fiancee and I needed to get away. This note made me cry, and made me feel so much better. I’m glad I’m not in that relationship anymore. He was a great guy, but it just wasn’t right. We wanted different things in life. I wanted to get away from Oklahoma and see the world. I’ve only moved one state south, but since then I’ve also seen new cities – NYC, Houston, Washington D.C., and Austin. I’ve found a great job in a big city. My life is going extremely well right now. I’m sooo happy.

Plus, he was allergic to cats. Now I have 3 of them, and a boyfriend who adores them.

I kept putting off going because I was afraid they wouldn’t fit. My regular pants from there have been feeling loose though, so I finally went to Express today. My work out buddy and I went to lunch, then the mall, and then the gym. I have also avoided Express since I moved to Texas because I’ve either been broke, or I wanted to wait to lose weight before buying anything else. I went in and searched for good pants to try on. I grabbed some pinstripe “Editor” pants, long blue shorts, and a super cute military green button-up shirt.

THE SMALLER SIZE FIT!!! I did a fist pump! The shirt was a smaller size than I normally buy there as well. It was freaking awesome. I still didn’t like how the pants or shorts looked though. I fit into them easily, but didn’t like the style. The shirt looked amazing on me, but I put it back because it was $50. I’m still missing it.

Next, we went into Victoria’s Secret. My bras have felt loose lately. I tried on a fitted shirt a couple of weeks ago and I could see my bra line sticking out. I asked a girl there to measure me.  I’m still the same number of inches around, but my cup size dropped from DD to D!! She found a bra for me to try on and it looked amazing. The first word I thought of was “dainty” when I looked at in the mirror. It’s white with lace. I definitely bought it. A good bra is totally worth it.

Trainer buddy wasn’t at the gym so I couldn’t tell him about dropping sizes. But I’m scheduled to train with him at 5:30 tomorrow. I put my work out buddy through the arms workout he gave me yesterday, and we did 35 minutes of cardio.

Has anyone else dropped any sizes recently?

I’m still working on the collage. I have many words cut out.