Beyond Willpower

So I've officially lost those last pesky 2lbs. I'm hoping I'll be down one more lb by tomorrow. I'd like to be able to post a loss for the week that is beyond getting back to where I was. I just wanted to let everyone know that as of today I have a really solid grasp on my bbq tofu taco recipe. I need to make them one more time to figure out all the measurements and then I will post it, I know some of you are waiting. It's not the healthiest of all my recipes. ha. I hadn't eaten more than a protein bar today so I had four of them, but for now on I think two with a side salad will be my go to. The recipe I will pass along will be for a serving of 2,and it'll be around 430 calories. But it's the dynamite version of them with tofutti sour cream and daiya cheese, you can leave that stuff out as it's processed crap but every so often I feel like I need to do my tacos up right. ;) They are just crackling with flavor, I LOVE them. I was feeling discoura...

Some new challenges to overcome I've been doing less than stellar. I didn't lose this week, didn't gain, but didn't lose. Having too many of those weeks. While I was stalled for no real reason I could discern before, this week was all my fault. We haven't really had groceries, so eating out was happening quite a bit, even though it was relatively healthy, it's still most likely packed with sodium. I've also not been going to the gym as often as I should, honestly my pain has been flaring a bit and the fear of making it worse has kept me home.  I'm 226 lbs and I want nothing more than to hit 224, I know it's a dumb number, heh, but it'll be more than halfway out of this decade, which I am SO looking forward to. This week I plan to hit the gym today, Thursday and Saturday. I'm trying to pace myself, since going so overboard the week before last set me back with my fibromyalgia pretty badly.  I've decided to go back to physical therapy a...

"I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen." -- Frank Lloyd Wright Do you consider yourself dedicated? Do you do what it takes day after miserable day for the results you want to see?  Watching extreme make-over weight loss edition the guy said, "You did a third of the work, you get a third of the reward."   TRUTH! Rising to the challenge Yesterday was a challenge for me. It was one of those days where for starters, I didn't want to wake up. I just wanted to stay in bed for another hour, but no, work was calling my name. So I got up and got ready.  I had my gym bag all packed, I took it with me, and as the day went on, I started to pay the price of skipping my PT for two days in a row. Time to get back on that! I was sore, and achy, and the gym was the last thing I wanted to do.  I sat on the bus and struggled with myself to NOT get off on my regular stop and just go home. I t...

So, I just wanted to let you guys know I have been talking to the woman who runs  www.yummyplants.com  and I'm going to write an article for her site. It was suggested I write about the health benefits I've experienced since switching to a plant based diet and different things about my experiences with obesity, maybe touch on childhood obesity. It will be an article style, not blog, but I just wanted to let everyone know to check out her site, it's really great and it's for anyone, not just vegans, even if you are just looking to add more healthy fruits/veggies to your diet, it's full of restaurant reviews and recipes and also has a forum so be sure to check it out. I have another job interview on Wednesday. I'm excited, I think I would do great at this place and I feel really confident.  I'll let you all know if I hear back. Today I went looking to buy a new outfit for the interview. Sadly I've decided I'm not a huge fan of what I bought. I was ...

So, I wanted to start c25k but my doc is worried about my joints and said that she would prefer if I waited until I'd lost a little more weight so as not to cause more stress on my joints than necessary. I recently got a recumbent bike.  This is the one I got: So, to prevent stress on my joints, but to help build my stamina and endurance for when I am able to start c25k (hopefully June 19th, that's when my second four month goal time allotment ends) I'm doing it on my bike. I mean it's really just interval training, and it will prepare me for 'the real thing' in June. I do a speed of about 10-12 on the bike on low resistance for the 'walking' portion, and then I up it to 15-16 for the "running" portion.  I'm pretty excited about this. Tomorrow is week 1, "run" 2. Tonight I did 10 miles on the bike at a consistent speed of about 11-12 and I feel great. :) I never trust what the machines say for 'calories burned' but...

So, I was reading a really interesting blog today over at  Escape from Obesity . She was asking what it is that keeps people going even when they aren't motivated. Anyhow, this was my reply, I thought I would share it here: -- I got to the point in my life where I realized that I want to be healthy more than I want to abuse myself with food. When I have slower losses, or am having a TOM craving, I just have to keep in mind that I've undone the progress I've made so many times over the years, and I am just at a place where I'm sick of it and not willing to let myself do that again.  Therapy has helped a lot. Blogging helps, I blog every day on spark, for accountability alone, and then I keep my beyondwillpower blog for the 'big things'.  When I ask myself what it is, it's just that I'm fed up. I'm 31 and still morbidly obese. This will only get more difficult the older I get. My real dad died at 47 from diabetes complications and he pretty much...

Well, today was our anniv! Joey and I have been together for 16 years, and to the person who basically asked "HOW?!" in regards to my age, ha, I'm 31!!!!! haha. We have been together since I was 15 and he was 14. :D We had a fabulous day! I woke up and made us breakfast. I made banana, strawberry, kiwi and protein powder smoothies with a bit of Silk and vanilla extract. The bananas were frozen so it was absolutely amazing! Healthy anniversary breakfast smoothies! We also each had a quarter cup of assorted raw nuts...Have I mentioned how much I love my ninja yet? In case I haven't... FABULOUS! We let our stomach's settle by watching a bit of How I Met Your Mother that we needed to catch up on and then we exercised! I did the elliptical for about 5 mins, then I did some kinect your shape cardio, three sessions with the 'personal trainer'. That was 20 mins, and I ended it with another 5 mins on the elliptical. Joey did the kinect while I elliptical...

So I went shopping the other day. I had posted those pics in this blog post  with my before and current pics. I had gone to buy some new tank tops and also picked up that cute lavender type top. I bought two size 3x tank tops along with other stuff. I tried them on before buying them. I came home and was pretty happy with them, put them away and didn't think much about it until later. A day or so goes by and I put one on to wear around in the house with my jammie pants. Suddenly I realize that this shirt is way too big. Joey mentioned it as well, like, why did you buy new clothes that are too big? Wasn't the point that all your old clothes were too big? What is it that I see? Have any of you done this? I was just so confused, what was it that I saw when I looked in the mirror in the dressing room? What made me think those tanks fit me? I could have easily gotten a 2x. I even washed and dried them this week, nope, still too big. I think maybe I can't see myself being ...

So last night my bf says, "You look smaller. Your hips look smaller." I kind of disregarded it because my hips are normally one of the last things to go. ha. I'm pretty 'curvy' in general. ( my pics ) So this morning I decided to take my measurements again. I haven't taken them for awhile. I sadly don't think I took 'starting' measurements but I did take some a couple months ago. So, this is how much I've lost!: I've lost 3.5 inches off my bust! I've lost 2 inches off my waist I've lost 2 inches off my hips At the very least it's nice to see that I'm losing uniformly in regards to my current body shape (hourglass) cuz I would hate to lose the one good attribute to my body! ha.  My bust is generally 6 inches bigger than my waist and my hips are 9-10 inches bigger than my waist so my loss keeps all that in check. haha. ;)