PIPPAMOUSE's SparkPeople Blog

My First 5K

Sat, 11 May 2013 10:41:51 EST

So, as some of you may know, I started training to walk/jog a 5k back in March. Well, honestly, the training in March. The big day came last night. Hubby, a few coworkers and some other friends all ran the Rave Run.

Let me just start off saying, this seemed like the most disorganized race from packet pick up. We had to go to a Sports Authority store. There was zero signage about where to start, how it worked. They said to pick up other runners stuff you needed the registration n...

The week in review

Sun, 5 May 2013 12:04:19 EST

I'm just going to go ahead and start with my 3 pound loss at my WLC on Wed. YAY!

While I hadn't made the BEST choices on Thurs and Fri, I seem to be back up a bit...but I am working hard this weekend. Today was awesome foodwise! I just logged my food and discovered I still needed to eat at least 100 calories and 10-12 g of protein. This was after I got to have my PB and celery.

This past week was pretty crazy, here is a recap:

Monday: I was planning to leav...

Six weddings in 3 months.

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:55:05 EST

It hit me last week that I have six weddings to attend during the summer wedding season. Gasp! I haven't had this many to go to since the year I met my hubby, and those were spread out over 6 months.

Because of the weddings and the impending doom of trying to find one or multiple dresses that I like, I decided to join a weight loss challenge at the Herbalife club in my town. I have been using the products for about a month now. Note*This is not a sales pitch! I have found that th...

A few positive things

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:01:12 EST

I just realized that this will be the first spring, at least in a really long time, that I will be taking spring/summer clothes out of storage and they will still fit! I haven't made a lot of downward progress over the past few months, but I haven't gained any weight. My clothes will still fit.

We are sending another profile out this weekend. Adopting is a tough road.

We had a farewell potluck today. I did really well. I didn't stuff myself. I didn't eat lots of crap. ...

It's happy and sad at the same time

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:59:50 EST

I finally did it. I parted with my favorite purple sweater. It was time. I had undergrown it. This wasn't a really recent development. I should have said goodbye this winter. But it is my favorite sweater. It is a deep purple with a V-neck. It isn't too heavy (I tend to be a warm person, and I'm pretty well insulated) and works great with a lacy cami under it. I put it on last week with the intention of wearing it out. I looked in the mirror and realized it looked pretty ridiculous. Part of m...

What's New? (a long blog that deals with feelings)

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:11:44 EST

Well, feel like there are a lot of things worthy of talking about in this blog. Let's just go and see where it ends up.

I'm not sure about other areas in the country, but we have NOT been having spring in MN. We have had snow storms the past two weeks on Thursdays. This past Thursday it got so bad that MY class was actually canceled. Crazy! We never cancel classes. We actually had sunshine and 45 degrees yesterday. FYI, we should be having day time highs in the 50s and 60s by this ...

NSVs

Tue, 9 Apr 2013 22:46:02 EST

It's been a while since I have had any NSVs to talk about. Yay, I have some again!

My pants are getting too big. Yup, finally!

My wedding/diamond ring spins around quite a bit, even when I'm not cold.

A friend noticed my progress and commented in a positive/supportive way.

I've had to adjust my bra's hooks to the smaller row.

I feel much better and am less tired and groggy. I'm not bouncing off the walls 24/7, but that just isn't me any...

How many times do I need to learn this lesson??

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 23:46:29 EST

This week I just have to keep telling myself: failing to plan is planning to fail. I'm not sure about any of you, but that is so true for me. I don't do well with "winging it" in pretty much any aspect of my life. Eating well and making healthy choices is no exception. I am happy to report that generally speaking I am doing well this and making healthy choices, despite an occasional failure in planning. Hubby teases that even on my least planned and prepared days I am 100x more prepared than ...

Random thoughts

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:03:35 EST

I'm going to throw it out there now, this may get very long and rambling.

So first and foremost, I have a new motivation to work hard and make choices that help me reach my goals. Hubby and I are deep in the early part of the process of adoption. We have a few things we need to get working on such as creating the profile and getting the homestudy, but as soon as the profile is done, we get added to the list and could start hearing about potential situations right away. So, motiva...

Jogging setback

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:32:58 EST

So it isn't the shin splints keeping me from jogging right now. It is my knee. I injured it years ago. Now when I do things that are "high impact" it swells and gets stiff. I am trying ice and elevation, but I still have trouble with jogging and squatting and bending it for things like stairs.

I have an acupuncture appointment scheduled for Friday. Maybe this is something we can work on? It has worked wonders for several other things, so maybe on my knee as well.

On the...

Short jogging update

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:03:24 EST

Today was technically my third training day, however Monday was only 10 minutes. I finished my 25 minutes with just under a 17 minute mile. Very slight progress, but progress none the less. My plan is to do Friday as the week one training and then move to week two for Saturday. Since next week is my break week I should be able to get to the gym or do the elliptical at home most days. It will be nice to have a less demanding schedule.

I got an A!

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:04:02 EST

Thank you to everyone that has listened to (or rather, read) my whining about the class I am taking and how poorly I have been doing. It was for good reason. On our two tests (there have only been two) I got a 55% and a 68%. Yeah, that is not good, nor is that typical of my testing. For the final the teacher suggested looking over our previous tests. I did that. I looked at the questions, looked up what I got wrong and why, what the terms were that I didn't understand, I really learned some o...

Sick of the snow..

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 23:05:38 EST

..and the cold and the wind. It is the middle of March. I'm so done with crappy commutes to work and icy roads and snow and blowing snow and snow.

Anyway, the plan for today was get up early, head to the gym and do another 5k training day, return home and get ready for work. Hubby even decided to go with. I got up early as planned. It snowed. We left the house. It is only about a mile but we have to pass through a few stop lights. It was slippery and slow going. We got to the gym ...

Official first day of 5k training

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:14:57 EST

The program I decided to use was one that I started last spring, the Spark "5K your way walk/jog." Last spring I got exactly 2 sessions in. Neither of them was conducted as written. The plan for week one is walk 4 minutes, jog 1, repeat 5 times (25 minutes). In last years sessions I jogged for about 30 seconds 2 or 3 times. I had terrible shin splints and it sucked. I kept walking and doing other things through august, then working out became sporadic.

Today I set out on the track...

Return of the kickboxing

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:49:57 EST

I suggested that hubby go with me to cardio kickboxing tonight. He agreed. So rather than sitting around "spending time together" we worked out together. It was fun. I totally schooled him on upper body (arms) weights. It was pretty awesome. The instructor made us switch because I had 8# and he had 5#. I could have kept going with the 8s. He struggled with the 8s. I switched back with him so he could do a few of the moves. When we did shoulders I used 3# so he could use the 5#. My legs fee...

Happy Pi day!

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:07:56 EST

We celebrated pi day at work today, with pie. We had at least 10 pies there. I tasted a few. I had tiny slivers. What saves me is that I don't like traditional crust. I ate less an actual piece of anything, with no crust. Yay!

I also had Chipotle for lunch. Our "team" won a contest last November and we finally got our reward lunch for it. The deal was we all wrote down our chipotle order, faxed it in and "they" went to get it for us and we would have lunch. At about 11 my boss as...

T minus 10 days

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:21:40 EST

The quarter ends in 10 days, but whose counting? I AM! This quarter has sucked something fierce. I've been stressed and busy and stressed. Did I mention stressed? The class I am taking has been making me very unhappy. I shouldn't blame my stress and problems controlling food on the class, but man, there is definitely a correlation between the class and projects and assignments for it and when I reach for food when I am not hungry.

I have five class periods left to teach (between ...

Eek! What did I agree to?

Sat, 9 Mar 2013 23:01:04 EST

My hubby and some friends decided to run a 5k that happened today. Let's recap the weather shall we? It is Minnesota in March, so never predictable, but always "interesting." We got 6 inches of snow last week Sun-Tues. It has gotten above 32 degrees every day this week with sunshine. This equals melting snow. Today we did not have sunshine. We had rain and 37 degrees (F). For those of you that don't often experience this type of weather, let me share, it is cold, windy, wet, slippery, slush...

A quickie

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 00:37:57 EST

I've been pretty busy with class and work yesterday and today. I have still managed to check in and do a few things. I am not getting food logged very well, but I am doing the "how will this help me reach my goal" test for most food items.

I haven't gotten in much exercise other than a few minutes of shoveling this am (the neighbor took care of most of it for me last night!!) and walking from my office to the copier a BUNCH of times because it seemed like the copier was conspiring ...

I got fitness in today....

Mon, 4 Mar 2013 21:28:05 EST

...in the form of shoveling snow. 104 We got about 3 inches so far today. They are still predicting 6-10 inches tonight into tomorrow am. After an hour of shoveling our neighbor came over and offered to help with his blower. He did the last corner of the driveway in about 5 minutes. Its great because that's the crappy part of the driveway. The end, where the city plow leaves crusty chunks behind, and it is the "corner" of the circle where the fire hydrant is. So it is trickier to...

March goals

Mon, 4 Mar 2013 00:03:37 EST

While I was in Vegas I had the opportunity to listen to Jillian Michaels. I never was really a fan, but I really enjoyed what she said and how she said it. I didn't know she had a podcast show. I have listened to a few of the podcasts and am trying to reconnect on here to become re-motivated. One of the things she talked specifically about is setting goals. I've heard this before, but it was a good time...she talked about setting "SMART" goals and about writing them down and revisiting them o...

Viva Las Vegas!

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 01:42:55 EST

For those of you that have been keeping tabs on me, thanks! It has been a little while since I have checked in. I was in Las Vegas for a work convention for this past week. It was a lot of fun, and believe it or not, a lot of exercise.

If you have been to Vegas before, perhaps you know what I mean, if not, just believe me. Our convention was in Mandalay Bay. It is the hotel furthest south on the strip. We stayed at the Luxor which is just north of MB. To get too or to see anythi...

Making me a priority

Sat, 2 Feb 2013 00:03:55 EST

The past 14 days have been quite the roller coaster of stress and joy. I've been so stressed as to have tummy issues and so proud as to feel like I am floating on air. I know, normal ups and downs of life, but I have made the decision that I need to focus more on the positive and more on keeping me healthy and happy, and less on the things that are out of control. Perhaps I am being a broken record here, but focusing on the negative has gotten me no where. Being and focusing on the positive ...

Move your feet and the rest will follow

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:02:48 EST

So one of the major things that changed today was I worked on my attitude. I had to get back to the thought process of I can only change how I react/feel/think, I cannot change how someone else acts or thinks. When I kept reminding myself of this, I felt a bit more uplifted and positive.

I had a much better food day today.

I saw a shirt today that said: "move your feet and the rest will follow." I'm not sure what it was all about, as I just kept seeing the back of the...

Annual exam anxiety

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:10:37 EST

Tomorrow is my annual exam. I am anxious about it. I have a great doctor and I know that he wont say anything to make me feel ashamed that since my last appointment I haven't lost any more weight and, I may even be up a pound or two, but I am anxious about feeling like I have disappointed him. Add one more thing to the list of things I feel anxious and stressed about. Now that I have internet back at home, I WILL be better about tracking and blogging. Keeping in mind I have to track food sho...

Blarg blog

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:38:29 EST

Just when I was getting caught up and back on track with SP, I had to go an lose internet access at home for 5 days. The good news is I am back up and running.

Anyway. My last communication here was that I was stressed. Well, I still am. And, it isn't the busy schedule, new position or even work that is stressing me. It is the class I am taking. Bottom line, the teacher has what I consider unrealistic/uncommunicated expectations, she spends more time "lecturing" about unrelated ...

Date night update

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 11:54:03 EST

Yesterday was an awesome day! I got to sleep in a little bit. I made eggs for breakfast (Hubby LOVES when I do that). We were working on a few things and we started talking about the plan for the day. Our day shaped up quickly and we had a plan. I like to plan. I like to know what to expect from my day. Sometimes this gets in the way of having fun days happen, but not yesterday. The plan: Gym, benefit, dinner, movie.

Hubby may or may not have committed to doing a 7K run in Marc...

Some lessons from the week

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:09:10 EST

About 5 hours ago I sat here writing a wonderful blog. There was an issue with my web browser and I lost it. I was frustrated so I didn't rewrite it. I am writing a new one now. Here are some of the lessons that aren't necessarily new, but they are recently experienced.

Eating when I am angry leads to making poor choices.

My tummy doesn't like when I eat fast food, even when it is Arbys.

My body loves lean protein and veggies, and my taste buds do too, eat m...

Lesson learned

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:26:23 EST

Today I was busy finishing some projects. I also got a literal crap ton of supplies that I needed to put away. I lost track of time. before I knew it, it was 1:20. The class I teach starts at 1:40. I hadn't had lunch yet. I quick at a clementine and a string cheese and off to class I went. I got hungry by the time class was over. This was not a good thing. When I got back to my office I was starving. I ate a small bag of cheetos that was in the office. Eating cheetos with nothing else gave ...

It's been over a month?!?!?!

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:20:04 EST

Welcome to 2013!

So, I guess I better do a summary of the last month....

New position = more stress/new stress

Holidays = more sweets than one should eat

Family = additional stress that leads to more eating

Cold = craving carbs = eating more food than is healthy

all of those conditions = less exercising = weight gain.

So, if you do the math that means I gained some weight in the past month. In fact, I gained about 2-...

What HAVE I done this weekend?

Sun, 2 Dec 2012 13:32:18 EST

This weekend I actually cooked at home, a lot. Last week I was unprepared and I didn't cook both times I usually do during the week. I made dinner Friday, lunch Sat and already have the meals prepped for today. I am WAY ahead of the game this weekend.

In all fairness, I was counting on leftovers from our Sunday Thanksgiving last week. We had potatoes left over and enough turkey for hubby to have 2 meals. That was hardly what I was thinking we would have from our 13# bird. Anyway...

Back to the bascis is getting a bit easier.....kind of

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:48:44 EST

Aside from my poor choice for lunch today (it was the jalapeno bites that put me over) I have made good choices in the past week. My back to basics plan seems to be gaining steam. I have been concentrating on making better choices, not on being "perfect" like I had in my mind I had been previously.

Today I even went to Kickboxing. I am making progress again and this makes me very happy. I have been getting on Spark a little more and more...this is also good stuff that makes me hap...

Being active on Spark

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:23:22 EST

As promised, here I am writing another blog. Today was "Christmas Cookie making day" with my cousin. Let me tell you, I am so proud of myself and the lack of "tasting" the cookies that I did. When it was actually necessary to taste, I had a bite and gave the rest to hubby to try. When I really wanted one of the treats I had the smallest one in the batch. After 9 hours my cousin and I made Peanut butter truffles, Oreo truffles (mint and non mint) Bourbon truffles, peppermint biscotti, 3 fl...

The long overdue and long awaited update!

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 09:43:01 EST

We are all moved in and getting pretty settled. It really does already feel like home, even though we dont have anything on the walls yet and our furniture may or may not stay where it is. It feels so good to be moved and adjusting.

We have met a few of our neighbors. One of them went to high school with my brother. Yup, small towns have that happen. Another neighbor's daughter baked and decorated us a cake. It was so nice! We think we will really enjoy this neighborhood.
<...

October Goals

Wed, 3 Oct 2012 09:09:04 EST

Well, day 3 of the month isn't too bad for timing. :D

Lets start with the recap of Septembers goals. Here is what they looked like and how I did.
Eating:
1. Keep with my planned meals - NOT TOO BAD
2. Reduce grain carbs and get back to almost strictly veggie and fruit carbs - NOT TOO GOOD
3. Continue planning meals, shopping on a budget and not wasting food - 248

Exercise:
1. Schedule workouts and GO! 3 times a week - NOT GOOD!!! I...

Football, snakes, and chili

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 21:19:07 EST

You guys are going to get spoiled by my being off school and blogging every day. That may all change tomorrow. (But I hope not)

Today was a great day!

We had brunch at my brothers. We had french toast and fruit. I had extra fruit, but only two pieces of french toast. My brother made this awesome banana stuff. He put two bananas in a sautee pan with a touch of butter and brown sugar and let them caramelize. It was SOOOO GOOD! We also watched the first half of the Vikings...

Good choices and not as good choices

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 00:24:59 EST

I am so proud of my progress yesterday. Today, not as much. But yesterday was awesome! I had a plan, I adapted. I also had a plan for my afternoon and evening. I was pretty tired since I didn't sleep much during the night. So I sat on the couch longer than I wanted. I got dressed for our graduation ceremony (as a teacher they want us to be there). I picked the shirt I was going to wear from a few I had in the closet. It is a 1X. I had it on for a little while and realized that it is a bit too...

Turning inconvenience into success...

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 14:52:48 EST

After my long night of tummy trouble I feel pretty good today!

I did some clothes sorting today. I starting going through my sweatshirts. Normally I like big, baggy sweatshirts, but I actually had to get rid of a few. Some of them were big to the point of comical. Now, the MN Wild big comfy sweatshirt gets to stay, because the purpose is to be big and baggy and comfy. But some of them that have a purpose such as acceptable wear to functions outside of a sporting events or my home...

"I'm just one stomach flu away from my ideal weight"

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:05:02 EST

ok, so I'm not really. But tonight was a night of stomach bug, so I thought it was funny.

I realized as I posted a whole blog of it's own as a comment on GIRLALLIN's blog that I probably need to get my butt on here and write a blog of my own. SO here I am. Writing a blog that will contain TMI and random thoughts. Its what you get when my brain finishes a quarter and doesn't get enough sleep.

Tonight we had dinner with my family. Mom made crab legs among other things. ...

Beating myself up

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 00:48:04 EST

Ok, not literally, but figuratively.

Today I had a bit of a high calorie day. I ate too much ice cream, not enough fiber and had beer. In fact, I was ok on my protein (I would like it to be higher) but went over in EVERYTHING else except fiber. which was under. again.

So, really, I am not super disappointed about it. A little bit, but not too much. What I was more disappointed with was "my poor week with lots of going over calories." I feel this month like I am slidin...

I lied, I AM making progress!

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:23:12 EST

I crunched some numbers today. (I like crunching numbers, btw) and decided that I have, in fact, made progress this month. First off, I have seen movement on the scale. I have actually lost 2.2 pounds since my first weigh in on Sept 3. So what am I complaining about? I guess I lost sight of the fact I am still on a downward trend and was having a bit of a pity party that I wasn't losing faster?

I did my measurements this am. I'm not sure how/why I did them in the middle of the ...

Who set the clock to Warp 9?

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:33:02 EST

Wow, it is already Tuesday. Where is the time going? Part of me is really excited that the time is going so quickly, the other part of me is NOT.

Exciting is that closing on our house is 38 days away. Yay for moving soon. Exciting is that the quarter is over in a week and half! Exciting is that I have all of my homework finished for the quarter, I just need to do a little more review before the final exam.

Not exciting is that is already past the middle of Sept and I ...

Update time

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:51:19 EST

Wow, it's bee almost a week since I have blogged. What have I been doing? What HAVE I been doing?

Hubby left for a meeting on Sunday. I was on my own until Wed. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. Stupid work schedule.

Let's see if I can even remember back to Monday. Oh yeah, I had a guest speaker in class. It was a very fun day. We had a Veterinary Technician from the MN zoo come talk to the students about birds and reptiles. It was awesome.

Tuesda...

Weekend update and pics from the wedding

Sat, 8 Sep 2012 23:51:41 EST

First, here are some pictures from the wedding we attended last weekend. Hubby was an usher, so he was a monkey suit wearing hottie!

I was pretty happy with how I looked in the pics (the first time in a LONG time) but was bummed about the lighting. Our camera isn't that good and my photo editing software is being dumb right now. Since...

Sept Goals

Wed, 5 Sep 2012 16:23:13 EST

As usual, lets recap August. I would actually rather not, but one doesn't learn about ones self by ignoring things one doesn't like.
August Recap:

Food: I really feel like I am starting to build a better relationship with food. It isn’t perfect yet, but I am starting to feel full. I really want my focus with food this month to be sticking to my pre planed meals (I’m doing pretty well with this) and really focus on how food tastes, if I like it and how I feel when I eat it. I ...

Back in control and back on track.....

Wed, 5 Sep 2012 00:59:35 EST

...mostly.

This weekend was really fun! We went to a wedding in St Cloud, MN (about 1.5 hours away). My hubby was an usher, so we were invited to rehearsal and to the grooms dinner on Friday. We left home around noon. We took advantage of the afternoon off together to do a little shopping for hubby. He needed new shoes and some new shirts. Before Friday he had dress clothes for work and t-shirts. The man is 34 years old and a professional. I want him to have some nice, grown up...

A goal is in sight

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:34:06 EST

When I restarted Spark on Feb 26, 2012 I weighed in at 225.5#. At that time I looked ahead to a wedding we were invited to and my hubby would be an usher for on Sept 1. I set a goal of being 190# for this Sept 1 wedding. Well, here we are the last few hours of August are ticking away (less than 24 hours to be specific) and I find that I will likely be as much as 2-3 pounds over this goal.

For just a split second I was a tad disappointed. I missed my goal. (Well, technically I a...

Peanut butter bars are my nemesis

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:35:04 EST

On Sunday I posted a progress pic. I didn't talk about all of the baking and cooking I did this weekend. On Saturday I baked up a storm. I made banana bread muffins, chocolate chip toffee cookies and my nemesis, peanut butter bars. These were my Grandma's recipe. You mix graham cracker crumbs, powder sugar, peanut butter and butter together to make a "bar" layer and then top it with melted chocolate. Yeah, they are that easy and yeah, they are that good.

Don't get me wrong, I wa...

Progress picture

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 12:59:37 EST

We had "family pictures" taken about 2 weeks ago. I played with them a bit to put together this comparison from July 2011 to August 2012. This is about 30 pounds difference.

I had gotten rid of the shirt from the 2011 picture because it got WAY too big on me. Yup, that is 30#. I am excited to see how different 40 and 50# look. When I lose more than 50# I will be the smallest I have ever been in my adult life, so ...

The Great Minnesota Get Together

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 02:49:22 EST

Until 5 days ago, I had no intention of going to the state fair. Yup, that's right, we were gonna skip it again this year (That would mean it has been 5 years since we were there). Mostly, it costs us a lot of money to go and eat deep fried and other fair foods and see some animals. We don't really do much else at the fair, other than complain that it is hot and complain about all of the people. Yeah, so the fair isn't really for me. BUT as of 5 days ago, I was given free admission in exchan...