In fact, this past month especially I have gained four pounds. I now weigh 197. I posted my measurements in my last post and the funny thing is, I have now lost a half an inch on my neck and my thighs. So I know something is happening with my body.

I have changed up my routine a bit, I am not as aggressive on my cardio workouts, and I have incorporated strength training again – working on getting rid of that sag in my arms. Normally I was walking on the treadmill or elliptical for 45 minutes, now I usually go for about 30-35 minutes, but I have increased my level on both. My friend Dana has also started a wellness class at our church twice a week, so I have been doing that too. She is a big proponent of changing up your routine every three weeks. So I am going to see if by taking her classes if my body gets the kick start it needs again.

Now I titled this “stuck, content (sort of)” – because while I am stuck, and a bit frustrated about being stuck, I am actually content right now. I am really liking how my body has changed. I feel better all around, my clothes look better on me. In fact I need to go through my clothes and pull out the stuff that is now too big on me because it looks funny if I try to wear certain shirts now.

I am still working on changing myself. I am happy to announce that I am now 193. I did gain a little bit of weight during the holidays, but I’ve worked it off.

My goal for this month was to get down to 190, but it’s okay if I don’t make it. I can make it my goal for next month. I did take my measurements again and found that I’ve lost an inch on my hips.

So my measurements are now:

NOW
Waist: 33″
Hips: 40″
Chest: 35″
Neck: 13″
Thighs: 25″

THEN
Waist: 40″
Hips: 47″
Chest: 38″
Neck: 15″
Thighs: 29″

I am not as aggressive this year with my workouts. I’ve have actually cut back from 6 days a week to 5. I also still need to reincorporate strength training into my workout, it just hasn’t happened yet.

I feel a lot better now. I now weigh less than I did when Carl and I got married. So for the last 15 years I’ve weighed close to or over 200 pounds. It saddens me that I became so used to that weight, that I couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything to try and lose weight. I just settled and became comfortable, when I knew the entire time I was not content with myself. I knew in order to make a change, I had to want it.

This ends my daily picture a day. I ended it with a picture of our Wii-motes and a couple of games we’re planning to play tonight.

We usually try to find some family friendly activity to spend New Year’s Eve.

This year we’re gonna play video games, maybe some board games too if the Wii becomes too much. LOL!

I’ve enjoyed taking a daily picture. It has stretched my creativity quite a bit and caused me to find different ways to look at the world around me.

Now that I’m not taking a daily picture, I will need to remind myself to come blog as well.

There is only one more day to this photo a day journey for this year. I had to run an errand earlier and decided I would stop at the train tracks and snap a picture. I’ve always been fascinated with railroad tracks. Their leading lines just draw me in visually.

I started off at 234 pounds, the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I started off slow. I attempted to do the couch to 5k program, but quickly realized I am not a runner. I get shin splints too easily because my left leg is shorter than my right. But this did not deter me. I made a goal to workout 6 days a week. Once we got our tax return, we joined the YMCA. This made working out so much easier. I rotate between the elliptical and their treadmill. I also incorporated weight training into my workout routine.

The weight loss has been slow, which is fine. I would hit plateaus every once in awhile, but ultimately it just meant I had to make another change, either in my diet or my workout routine. I did make changes to what I eat. I didn’t completely eliminate all foods. I started by counting calories. This helped me to see what I was actually eating each day. Came to the conclusion, I wasn’t eating enough food. Here I was 234 pounds, but I wasn’t eating enough. Seems strange, but your body will go into storage mode thinking you are never going to feed it. So it kept trying to store all this extra fat for me, so kind of it.

But like I said, I didn’t cut out my favorite foods. I just started to eat the proper portions. I did incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. I love love love LOVE – did I say love – avocados!! I get romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers a lot. The kids enjoy eating salads, so that has made trying to eat healthier foods so much easier. I didn’t cut out my favorite things, but I do limit them more. Take for example, I used to love getting Dairy Queen blizzards. I could eat a medium size with no trouble. I still get the medium size, but now I eat half and put the rest away. It was very hard to do at first, but once I cut back on the amount of sweets I was eating, I started to notice that I can’t eat sweet things in big doses anymore.

Now I am 40 pounds lighter and it feels great. I still have a ways to go. I want to lose at least another 20 pounds and see where that puts me. It will put me at 175 pounds. I may go lower, but I want to work on maintaining that weight for awhile before I make any more changes. I have been able to drop almost 2 dress sizes. I was wearing size 18 clothes and XL tops. I was actually nearing size 20 as all my 18s were getting too tight. I am now a size 16 and that is starting to get loose on me. I can easily wear size L in tops now and in some cases I wear a M – I have not been a medium in a very long time.

Along with the weight loss, I also started keeping track of my measurements too. I am going to post my before and my now measurements:

Waist then: 40″
Waist now: 33.5″
Hips then: 47″
Hips now: 41″
Thighs then: 29″
Thighs now: 25″
Neck then: 15″
Neck now: 13″
Chest then: 38″
Chest now: 34″

That is a loss of over 22″ off my body. The end of my year has been hit with some sickness, so I have not been able to workout like I have been wanting. But I plan to start back anew once this present cold has left me. It’s going to feel like I am starting over, but it’s okay. The beauty of it is my muscles will all remember. When I first started working out, I only did 30 minutes. Now I can push myself to workout for 45 minutes. I also started to incorporate other ways to help tone up my muscles. I was planking for awhile there, but I need to get back into that habit again. I had gotten myself up to five minutes, it was really started to add definition to my abdominal muscles. I also started doing a wall sit, where you just lean back on a wall and slide down till you are in a sitting position. This works my abs as well as my thigh muscles.

So I am hoping for another successful year in regards to weight loss and maintaining what I have already lost.

Especially when you are sick during the holidays.

I was determined to hit the ground running on December 26th to get right back into my workout routine.

Apparently the ground had other ideas and hit me instead.

Since Christmas day, both Cauner and I have been battling a nasty cold, along with a fever. Thankfully the fever has yet to go over 100º, but it definitely makes for very lazy days when your body aches and your head hurts.

Tomorrow based on how I am feeling, I intend to post a one year post about my weight loss experience. I am quite proud of my accomplishments and look forward to what 2013 has in store for me health-wise.