Competition Goal

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Yikes!!!

Weigh in tomorrow... are you ready???
I'M NOT!
Damn Beer!

Friday, July 23, 2010

"It's a Holiday" = The Ultimate Excuse

Someone said to me the other day that we picked a bad time to “diet” because of the holidays.

“Seriously”, she said, “This month we have the 4th and then there is the 24th and then Labor day! That’s a lot of BBQ’s and beer to give up!”

Let’s just get it all out there people.

Here are a list of the US Holidays:

Jan – New Years Day & Martin Luther King Day
Feb – Jen’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day & Presidents Day
March - Saint Patrick's Day (oh the green beer!!!)
April – Easter
May – Mothers Day & Memorial Day
June – Fathers Day & My sisters Birthday, Karilynn’s Birthday
July – Independence Day, My mom’s Birthday, Jades Birthday and Pioneer Days (24th)
Sept – Labor Day & My Dad Birthday
Oct – Columbus Day & Halloween
Nov – My birthday, Jack’s Birthday, Veterans Day & Thanksgiving
December – Christmas Eve, My Grandma’s Birthday, Christmas Day & New Years Eve

I stuck some birthday’s in there just to illustrate a point… Everyone knows you can’t “diet” when someone is celebrating a birthday right?!?!? Let me ask you this… how many of you don’t know AT LEAST ONE PERSON who is celebrating this month? I bet if you thought about it, between work, friends and family, you could find at least 1 person each month to celebrate with.

Thus, providing us all with at least 1 day to skip the “diet” and eat cake.

Based on this calendar and the IDEA that holidays prevent us from “dieting”, it looks like the only month that I can “diet” is August because the rest of them are chuck full of good holiday, BBQ & Birthday fun!

COME ON PEOPLE!!! LET’S GET REAL!!!

First of all why are you “dieting” in the first place???
It's like Karilynn said, “Stop dieting and start living”!

As long as you are looking for an excuse to eat like crap and make poor choices you’ll find one! I hate to break it to you all but those holidays and even those birthdays are JUST ONE DAY. So even if you do choose to partake of some good old B B Q fun on the holiday LEAVE IT AT THAT!!! If you worked hard and ate GREAT (not just ok or pretty good, GREAT) six days of the week and ate like total CRAP-OLA one day a week you’d still see results!
It’s SOOOOO easy to get caught up in all of the excuses we give ourselves to make bad choices. It’s so easy to think that you’ll put it off till just after this holiday or that, till tomorrow or Monday. But after every holiday there is someone’s birthday; Tomorrow never comes and Monday you’ll just find another excuse.
(Trust me people I'm preaching to myself here)

Making change starts RIGHT NOW! The next choice you make can be a better one than the last. Don’t beat yourself up for choosing to eat at your family BBQ. Stop telling yourself that because you ate the potato salad you jacked up your “diet” and now you may as well kick back a six pack of beer.
Have potato salad just don’t eat enough for 3 people…
Have a beer but you don’t need a 6 pack.
YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

I CAN DO THIS!!!

We just have to choose to!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

It should be a crime...

... TO LOOK THIS GOOD!!!



JUST THOUGHT I'D LET YA ALL KNOW! LOL



Wednesday, July 14, 2010

When "want" and "need" meet in a dark alley...

...What happens? The dark alley I’m referring to is those dark places in our mind. (It’s true I just love talking about them.) I was at work today and my boss hands me a cheesecake. She is walking out the door to an all day meeting or something and tells me to spread the word and make sure that it gets eaten. I’m looking at this thing and thinking, “Woman, you may as well handed a six pack of beer to an alcoholic!” UGH! This beautiful cheesecake is lined with whip topping (YUMMY! anyone that knows me knows I’m a SUCKER for whip cream) and has a BIG bowl of cherry topping sitting there looking SOOOOOO pretty. Cherry filling in pies, on cheesecake, in turnovers or over ice cream is just about the greatest thing ever invented by man!

So I throw it in the fridge and plan to spread the word at lunch that it is there. About 11 o’clock I pull it out and tell everyone to have at it. Here’s the thing, now I can see that damn thing out of the corner of my eye. It’s sitting on the table and it’s calling my name. I SWEAR I can actually hear it saying, “Mindy! Mindy, you know you want me!!!” That damn cheesecake; someone ought to tell it to shut the hell up!

Anyway, my point: This cheesecake has started an internal debate in me. It is true that I do not “need” a piece of cheesecake but, damn it, I sure do “want” one. So here they are: want and need… going at it in my head…. Who will win?

Well, yesterday is was WANT but today I’m thinking NEED is taking the lead on this one. You see for every realization or hurdle that is over come there is one more standing in front of me. Having an “ah-ha” moment, about rationalization of poor choices getting me here, does not mean that I won’t have to face those same choices every day. Let’s face it. Temptation is out there and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Right now I still feel week when it comes to tempting yummy food. I have to really fight to make the “good choice” and some days I just don’t have a fight in me. In an effort to make it easier on me I’ve decided I’m going to make a “want list” to use when these little situations come up. This list will consist of all of the things that I REALLY want in/from life. For instance: I want to reach my 150 lb. weight loss goal. I want to take first in this competition and win some money. I want to complete my ½ marathon in 3 hours or less. I want to be a good example of health and fitness for my daughter. I WANT TO LOOK SMOKIN HOT IN A BATHING SUIT. (I’ve got a great hour glass figure so ditch some of this fat and I’m there!) Sure I can probably get there by sneaking in little pieces of cheesecake here and there but I’LL GET THERE SOONER IF I DON’T!

Every time I choose what I really want for me and my future and ignore that voice in my head, tempting me with the simple pleasures of the moment, I believe it will get easier. This is a lifestyle change I’m making. I’m not slinging HCG or having things stapled. I’m not fad dieting in an effort to rush into being skinny. I’m changing the way I think, act and live. I’m changing the way those temptations affect me and when I reach my goal I’ll be able to stay there because I’ll have actually produced change in my life that will stick with me and my family, FOREVER.

Now THAT is tempting!




As a special treat I thought I'd add this to my blog. I got this in an email today and I thought I would wet my pants I laughed SO HARD!!! This was SOOOOOO me!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Standing in the Corner

My husband and I were having a conversation the other day about life and I started talking about making excuses. As I was talking I realized what I was saying was somewhat a revelation to me and I’m almost certain some of you at least can relate. It is also a small glimpse at me personally which is good for those that are new to the competition so I thought I’d share. It’s kinda hard to pick a starting point since the words just rolled out of my mouth in the moment all tied up in our conversation. Also, my husband knows my background so I didn’t have to explain all of this to him. I’ll need to give you a little of it so please be patient as I attempt to make this all make sense.

We all make excuses in life. Daily we make small excuses for putting off small things and sometimes we make big excuses for putting off or ignoring the big things. Because we’re human and life is what it is, I truly believe that we each have a life story that is worthy of being a novel. Some more adventurous than others, some scary, some mild and some filled with overflowing happiness… But to each of us our story is unique. Our story is the exception, our story sets us apart in some way and it ultimately helps molds us into who we are.
Here is a bit of mine:
I grew up all of my life in Utah. Looking back I’d say that my family was pretty typical completely full of ups and downs. I’m going to focus on some of the downs here because they relate directly to my point. When I was pre-school aged I was sexually abused. The person that did it told me often that I was a “pretty little girl” and in processing that as a child I was somehow smart enough to realize that I couldn’t help that I was pretty, my beauty was natural and out of my control but, I COULD change the fact I was little. I got it in my head that being “big” would protect me somehow and I started to put on fat as a layer of protection against bad things.
In addition to this trauma I lived in a broken home. My parents married young and when I was about 4 years old ended up divorcing. They did remarry when I was around 9 years old but the years between and even somewhat after were stressful for everyone involved. My sister Angie is absolutely beautiful but always more fit than I. She was a rodeo queen, well dressed with a keen fashion sense and seemingly always full of confidence. As her younger sister, as younger sisters often do, I felt I spent many of my adolescent years living in the shadow of her life’s experience. She was so devoted to what she did and my mom and dad poured into her as much as she poured into it. I always felt as if I couldn’t live up to the level of expectation that she established in our family. I thought that I had to fight for my parent’s attention and approval, but I always seemed to fall short.
In trying to cope with all of that as a child/teenager I established really bad eating habits. I turned to food for comfort or to help or heal every emotion. I would eat when I was hungry but I’d also eat when I was not. I’d eat when was stressed, happy, sad, lonely, scared, frustrated, exhilarated, angry and on and on. There was never a reason not to eat and always a reason to. I spent my life crash dieting, binging and purging, extreme exercising and not exercising at all. It’s a roller coaster of experiences and has ultimately gotten me to where I am today.

Those are just a few of the skeletons in my closet. I'm sure you all have them; those things in your past that are tucked away in the dark recesses of your mind, those experiences you want to pretend don’t exist. But, when life comes at you and you're vulnerable, the doors open, the skeletons take on life and come out to haunt you.

When I get stressed out at work, at home, with my family or money I fling open the closet doors and cling to the past and use those past experiences, combined with the present ones, as excuses for making poor choices all over again.

I eat my donuts and fast food and look backwards. I tell myself that NO ONE can understand what it is like to be me. Look at what I’ve been through… look at all I’ve had to overcome. If people knew what it was like to live my life they’d understand why I am the way I am. This donut, this burger, it makes me feel comfort when I’m hurting. NO ONE can understand what that’s like. I eat one thing after another each time building on the guilt and the pain of the present and past; each bite adding guilt and requiring more justification. I tell myself I corner the market on personal pain and trauma. I rationalize and justify because NO ONE else could ever understand.
I find myself standing in the corner and tell myself over and over again that I’m justified in doing so. You see, as long as I can convince myself that NO ONE understands, then I can keep myself in the corner. I can feel sorry for myself and justify making poor choices over and over again. When people approach me about my weight I can tell my sad childhood experience and explain how I got this way. As long as I can convince myself that I corner the market on my pain and NO ONE understands, then I don’t have to take responsibility for the poor choices I’m making today.
But, here is the reality. What happened to me when I was young was out of my control.
What happens to me now is not.

I CHOOSE to eat that donut, that burger, those fries. There ARE people in the world who can not only understand, but can also relate. There ARE people out there that not only have experienced the same things I did, but had it SO MUCH WORSE. If I admit to myself that those people are out there and that I am not standing alone, then there is no justification; no rationalization. Once I am willing to admit that I am the only one putting myself in that corner and that the pity party I’m throwing myself is exactly that, then the dynamic of my life changes dramatically. I become responsible. I accept the fact that the only way I am going to break the cycle and really change is to admit to myself exactly what I am doing.

I DO NOT corner the market on pain!
I DO control this part of my life!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Loving me does not equal complacent acceptance of bad choices!
Loving me means giving up the excuses of my past and pressing in to the choices of my present!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Weigh In Pics for the New Competition

Here they are dun-dun-dunnnnnnnnnn!!!

I was exactly correct in thinking I'd post a 10 lb. gain this month. Not upset or disappointed though cause I'm putting muscle on like a tank.
I took those 2 piece pics at the end of July last year when i first started this whole weight loss adventure. i was hoping there would come a day when I'd be glad i had them.
Well, that day is here! Look at how far I've come.

Can't wait for the end of this summer to see how far I'll go.

Hope you're all ready to burn fat and get healthy!