the detailed summary of an organized mess...

I am impressed with myself for a couple of reasons today - first, I am back here posting another post in less than a week's time! I would have guessed I would procrastinate for another 2 weeks. Second, I started my next dieting spree this past Monday (isn't that the only day you can start a diet?). I've decided to do just plain easy this time -limit my calories to 1100 to 1300 a day, start running for exercise (no special equipment needed, no gym membership needed, just walk out the front door and go!) and drink at least 64oz of water a day and so far, I'm still on track, 3 days later! That's pretty darn good for me! I've enjoyed reading Mama Laughlin's blog -it really made me want to kick my own ass into gear (again).

I think I officially started dieting around 1994/95 via Weight Watchers, and it worked for me. But the yo-yo wound back up (or would it be down?) and I gained and went on another diet, though I can't remember which one. Over the years I would go back to the WW system but without attending meetings and apparently that didn't work for me as the yo-yoing continued. Back around the summer of 2003, I went back on WW but also started going to the weekly meetings/weigh-ins again and I was able to go from 140 to 112 in about 4 or 5 months!  At only 5'2.5" (every 1/2" counts ;) and a petite frame, and 112 was perfect for me.

As you can see, at 140, I was quite pudgy. I will add that I had just had my 3rd child in April 2003 (I'll talk about him and the other 3 later :) but I was already pudgy before conception. Now, over the past 9 years my weight has, you guessed it, yo-yoed -I've tried boot camp classes (which made me feel even worse about myself because I couldn't keep up), I've tried eating only certain foods (that does NOT work for me, you just can't make brown rice and whole grain noodles not taste like pure crap), I've tried exercise DVDs (again, no membership, no special equipment but apparently it takes too much effort to keep putting the DVD back into the player after about 2 days), I've done Zumba and spinning (I love Zumba and it did help me lose some weight but I wasn't going to Zumba or spinning classes consistently after a while and just couldn't justify the cost of a Y membership anymore)...but with all of that, I have never gotten back down to 112. The lowest I got was 122. But I WILL do it this time! Actually, my goal is 115. Twenty (and a half) pounds to lose just seems more doable than 23 1/2, of course.

So, if you didn't do the math above, what is my current weight you ask? When I weighed myself Monday morning it was 135.5 (can I leave off the 1/2 when it comes to weight?...although I'm sure I'll be happy to count any halves I've lost come next Monday. For some reason, I'm not as pudgy looking as before at only 5 lbs lighter than my heaviest weight (excluding pregnancies)..or maybe I just don't see it. But I do feel it -I feel "the pooch" as I affectionately call it, hanging over the top of my pants, especially when I sit and have to adjust my pants up over the pooch, I do see it in my thighs and butt for sure.

This is a fairly recent picture of me. Notice how well-rounded my thighs are. Although, my face isn't as pudgy this time. And my stomach isn't as big as the jacket makes me look! (War Eagle!) But it's not far off.

So, I'll plan to keep updating here on my progress (Again, I'll say 3 days straight is HUGE progress for me!). Maybe this will help me stick to it. Actually...I don't need "help" because I AM going to do it...this time...the yo-yo's going back down (or would it be up?).