Biggest Winner

I used to say, "I would do anything to lose weight, except diet and exercise..." I thought I was funny!

8 weeks ago from yesterday I had my first weigh in for the Biggest Winner thing my school does. Today I had my last weigh in. Ready for the results.............

I LOST 20 POUNDS!!!

Well, technically I lost 19.8, but I'm going to round up! I lost the most in February, I kinda slacked off since I got back from the wedding! But I'm still pretty excited about my overall results!

Counting calories is pretty tough, and not really all that fun at all. I had a friend tell me, "You know what is easier than counting calories... NOT counting calories!" Boy is he right! Not counting is 10000x easier. But counting calories is the biggest eye opener I have ever had. I used to eat WAY too much in a day. I learned through this program that I don't really need a lot of food to get me through the day. I need a cup of cherrios and a banana for breakfast, a sandwich and some carrots and and apple for lunch, and maybe a frozen Weight Watchers dinner for dinner! I don't have to have deserts, I don't have to eat snacks all day long, and I don't have to eat right before I go to bed.

My workouts have been really good too! I used to go to the gym for a half hour and hop on a bike and feel satisfied about my workout. Now I know how to really work out, and I'm excited to keep up a good work out habit for the rest of my life.

My take-away from this program is that living healthy is a life changing decision. If I can study my scriptures every day, then I can work out everyday. Its just one of those daily things! Eating healthy is hard, and I'm going to have bad days here and there, but I can't just stop eating healthy! I am determined to keep it up forever!!!

Now that I have said all that about healthy food, I really must admit that more than anything right now I want a soda. It has been... 54 days since I last had a soda. So I can't decide if I want to wait until next Wednesday and make it an even 60, or if I want to go to Horkelys right now and get a big ol cherry coke!

Great Weekend

This weekend was by far the best of the year! I was so thankful that my classes on Friday were either cancelled or optional, or easy to miss! I only had to skip one class and I got to spend 3 nights in Park City! I drove there Thursday after everything was done for the day. (Side note... Thursday's are when I have my weigh-ins for the Biggest Winner, and in Week 1, I lost 6.4 lbs!) I got to Park City around 11 that night, and no one was awake but my dad, and as soon as we got to our room he went to bed. So I crawled around in the dark trying not to wake Keri up (but I failed) and eventually fell asleep! I felt like a little kid the day before going to Disneyland... I was TOO EXCITED to sleep! Finally Friday morning rolled around and I jumped out of bed and ran to my parents side of the condo where I jumped on there bed to wake them up! Well, they were already awake, but I still jumped on their bed! We caught up for a little bit, and then decided it was time to hit the mountain. So I ate my cherrios, put on my ski clothes, grabbed my board, and headed out the door with Keri and my dad! It was the greatest day to snowboard! The sun popped out every now and then, the mountain wasn't too crowded, and it wasn't even all that cold. I was warm for the majority of the day. I realized my dad hadn't been out with me in about 3 years, because he kept telling me how impressed he was with how good I was!!! Thanks Dad! We stayed out until about 1:00, came in and ate lunch, and was out again by 2 until about 4. Thats about 5 hours, and I'm not going to lie, I was hurting by the end! My feet both had blisters (not from snowboarding, just from working out in my old shoes) and my leg muscles were on fire! I didn't feel like we did anything hard all day long. We stayed on mostly blues, hitting the occasional double blue, but when I felt ready to go for the blacks, my dad said he couldn't do it. So I had to be content with my Double Blue Squares for my bragging rights.

That night my cousins came to go to the hot tubs with us and to play Signs. Its a tradition that we have been doing ever since we started going to Park City in 2001. We ordered pizza, which I was allowed to eat since I had only eaten 400 calories up to that point in the day, and I'm guessing I had burned off even more calories from my long day of boarding. So I ate two pieces and didn't even feel guilty. But then when my Aunt pulled out the amazing cake she makes every year, I didn't have some. That was probably the hardest thing I've had to say no to this entire Biggest Winner program! We had a blast that night though, playing signs and hanging out! Basically, my family is the greatest!

Saturday was really chill. We slept in, I went to the gym, we went shopping around the hotel, we watched a movie, went out to dinner, and ended the day in the hot tubs again! I thought about going out and snowboarding one last time, but my dad and Ty had gone to a different resort with my Uncle, so I would have been alone on the mountain. Plus all of the muscles in my body were so sore, so I decided not to kill myself, and instead to just take it easy. That night Keri and I had a little sleepover party. We watched Confessions of a Shopaholic, and then we talked until we were both asleep! I miss her already, and I say her 10 hours ago. She is my best friend and my favorite person, and I wish we got to spend more time together!





This morning was sad because the goodbyes had to come. It was snowing a lot this morning, but once I dropped off the mom and the sister at the airport, the snow turned into rain, and it stayed like that until I got to Rexburg. When I came in my apartment, there were PINK streamers and balloons all over the place. Today is my half birthday, so they all got me cards and presents, and decorated the place for me! One of my presents were pink playing cards, so Bri and I played a few games of Speed and ERS! Then I did some homework, and now I'm about to go over to Gaby's house to catch up! I kind of ditched her on Thursday to be with my family, so I need to make it up to her!

Pretty much, I can't wait for Winter 2015! That will be the next time I can go to Park City with my family!!! It will be a much awaited and anticipated vacation for sure!

Biggest Winner

I don't think I have said this on my blog, but I am doing my schools Biggest Winner program. (Basically its the Biggest Loser, but we changed the name so its not copyright infringement!)

I am on the yellow team, which we right away changed to the gold team. (Gold Team just sounds better!) There are 6 other girls on my team, and we have 4 trainers. We met each night to workout together, and we are becoming really good friends. The trainers are pushing all of us harder than we have ever been pushed, but going through it wil 6 other girls is really motivating. I also have a nutritionist that I meet with once a week. She put me on a 1300 calorie diet, and so far I feel like I've been doing pretty well! I think I will be able to keep this up, which really excites me!

At this point, I have lost .2 pounds, which is basically nothing, but its a little bit of a start. Plus that was before I started dieting, and that was from only workouts! I'm thinking now that I got this diet in place, and the crazy hard workouts every night, the pounds will come off faster than I can count!

Everyone keeps asking me what my goal weight is, or just what my goals are. I am determined not to have a goal weight, and here is why. I'm afraid that, knowing myself, I would set a goal that I could reach, say 160 pounds, which for my height would be a healthy weight, and then once I got there, I would say "CHECK" and be done with my healthy living, until I'm up to what I am now and have to do the whole thing over again. Instead of a goal weight, I have a goal lifestyle. I do not want to have Type II Diabetes. The main reason I don't want to have that, is because I want to open a Wellness Clinic for Women that would specialize in preventing Type II Diabetes. If I can prevent it in my own life, then I can help others prevent it in theirs. I am taking a health science class right now all about prevention and I love it! Why do so many people wait to get sick before they get better. If we change our life now, we don't have to get sick! (Of couse I'm not saying that all sickness is preventive, and its not always the persons fault). I just know that by good eating and a regular workouts, you will be healthier. I wish I didn't wait this long in my life to start applying it! So here's to me eating hardly any calories and working out harder than I ever have in my life to kickstart my healthy lifestyle!!! If anyone wants to help motivate me, I will take all the help I can get. Here's to being healthy!!!

Goals

First I want to start this blog by showing everyone what was on my facebook wall yesterday...



That was from my old roommate Bri, basically one of the greatest people you will ever meet! I just thought this was super funny and felt like more people should see it! She's the best!


Okay, now for the real reason I'm blogging. I have always been the kind of person making goals for myself. But I'm not really the best at keeping my goals. When I was in YW, they rewarded me for the goals that I finished. So I decided that I should do the same sort of thing. Yesterday I bought a calendar and some stickers. I have decided that each sticker is going to represent one of my new goals. Every day that I do said goal, I will reward myself with a sticker. At the end of the month I will be able to see how many stickers I got in total! I'm actually quite thrilled about this new idea! I'm not going to go into detail on each goal I have, because some of them are a little personal, but I can tell you one of them is working out! I need to get back in the hang of it so bad! I have been known in the past to be really good at it, and then something happens and I lose my rhythm, and it is so hard for me to get back in the swing of things. I am re-starting tomorrow! (Ok how many times have I said that before!) But really, I have my stickers, and I am determined to get one each day! Also there is a program at my school called the Biggest Winner. Its run by students, and students can join it. I wanted to do it a while ago, but my body fat percentile was 2 less than the required amount. I'm not sure what I'm at now, but I have gained weight, so I'm thinking I should be good! Hopefully if I get into that, I will be working out a lot next semester! If not, I have some back up ideas, like working out with my dear roommates in the mornings!

I had an eye opening experience while I was sick with pink eye! (Eye opening... Pink eye.... Its a pun!) -if you don't find that funny, it may be that you are on the outside of an inside joke, sorry! Anyway, I was watching Say Yes to the Dress. One girl on the show was a little bigger than the average girl. She found her perfect dress, but they didn't have it in her size. Then she found another dress she loved, but it cost an additional $1600 to make it in her size! I am not going to be the bride who can't find a dress or have to pay so much more for my size!!! Also on that show an episode later, there was this tiny little 23 year old looking for her dress. Her mom wanted her to have a more fitting dress to show off her new figure. This girl went from 200 lbs to about 130 by working out and eating right! If she can do it... SO CAN I!!! Hence the goal calendar idea!

The hardest thing for me won't be the working out... it will be the eating right! I eat out WAY too much, my roommates will attest to that, and I love to buy myself treats! Both of those need to stop like... now! Its going to be very hard for me, but I am determined to lose the weight!!! Feel free to be my support system! If you know of a good healthy food I can easily make, email me! If you know of a great work-out routine that you love, put it on my facebook! If you just want to send me words of advice, text me! I am totally available and want to hear everything you have to say!

So here is to me and my goals! I hope I can read this post in a few months and say, yup... that worked out GREAT!!!

Boredom

"Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is without any work or is not interested in their surroundings."
-wikipedia

I haven't been bored in a long time... I am always so busy between school and work that I don't even have time to think about being bored. But I am done with school, until January at least, and I'm afraid that I am going to get bored. I remember talking to Ty right after he finished his bachelors degree. He was saying how bored he was when he got done with work, because he had no assignments to work on, no papers to write, nothing to study, and nothing to learn! I laughed at him at the time, but now I am feeling his pain! Today I did 10 sudoku puzzles! TEN!!! Thats way to many for 1 day. The LAST thing I want to do is be bored without school. I thought about taking online classes, but there really isn't a point. I have 2 semesters left, and I need to save my classes for those.

So I need to think of things to keep me occupied between the hours of 5p.m. and 8a.m. I will be sleeping for probably 8 of those hours, but that still leaves 8 hours for me when I'm not asleep and when I'm not at work to do something... So what should it be!? I have decided that I am going to give plasma this summer. It will be nice to have a little extra cash, and it really is good to give plasma! So that will be my extra money/service project twice a week! I will be attending the temple more regularly than I have been during the semester. I need it! And I also plan on like losing 400 pounds! (K not really... but 40 would be nice!) So sometime I will have to schedule in working out! But I still am afraid I will have a lot of down time! I have contemplated getting a 2nd job, maybe a part time night thing where I just work 6 to 10 each evening at some restaurant or opinion center or something... Just because if I'm not working, I will be sitting in front of my laptop or TV, and that is no way to spend a summer.

Any ideas of new hobbies or fun things to do to keep me occupied are much appreciated! I really don't want to be bored!!!

Update!

I know its only been a little over a week, but I feel as though I haven't written in my blog in AGES!!! So here is what you missed on... GLEE (haha, Jk...)


As you may remember from a recent post, I got the amazing opportunity to go to the amazing city of Park (Park City) with my amazing family and my amazing BFF! (That stands for Best Friend Forever, in case you didn't already know!) Basically I could go into great detail about every thing we ate, like all the frozens waffles, the cups of hot chocolate, the wedding cake cupcakes, and the pizza... But I won't! I could go into detail about how amazing the weather was, how sunny and blue, and yet cold enough that the snow was perfect. We could take our goggles off on the lift to cool our selves down, and then by the end of the run we were all warm on the inside. I don't think I have ever had 2 days in a row with as perfect as weather. But I won't go into that detail either! I could also go into detail about the movie we saw in 3D on Saturday, actually I decided just now to go into that detail! Justin Bieber, Never Say Never, was the best movie OF ALL TIMES! Better than the Titanic even (ok, not really... but much better than Avatar!) Honestly, I heard of JB when I was in 12th grade before he was famous, and have been a loyal fan ever since. His movie was inspiring, funny, cute, hot (ok... he was hot!) and just plain good!

Here are some pictures...



So basically all day Sunday I was just complaining about having to come back to Rexburg, but it ended up not being that bad of a week at all! Monday was going to be lame, becasue it was the 14th of February and I'm not with anyone, but it ended up being just like any other day of me not being with any one, and I have done that for the past 19 1/2 years, so it really wasn't that bad! The rest of the week just flew by! Tuesday I watched Glee and thought it was super fantastic (they sang 2 JB songs!), and Wednesday I started to watch AI, but the power went out within the first 15 minutes. I was so sad. We ended up putting in a movie on my laptop and watched that!, I watched AI again on Thursday, as well as Bones. Basically its that time of year where I have a show on every night. Which actually makes me a good student, becasue I force myself to finish everything before I watch my shows. So I am litearlly gone from my apartment from 5:45 am to 5:15 pm (with the excpetions of a little lunch break or a quick change of clothes). Then when I get home I try to get everything done so I can watch my shows. Then when I miss some, like I did a lot this week, i catch up on Fridays. Today I woke up early so I watched The Office and Community, then I went to work, classes, and the gym. Then I came home and watched Castle, Glee, and Mr. Sunshine... I think I am a little addicted to TV and to Hulu. But hey, if I don't let myself take a chill from school and work, I won't have any fun right! Right... (like how I am trying to convince myself that my TV addiction is ok?!)

Anyway... its a 3 day weekend, and I have a HUGE to-do list. I am going to go to the Temple, work out, do my homework, send out a certain someones birthday package, clean my room, do my laundry, and prepare a RS lesson. Hopefully I can get this all done tomorrow and then I can just chill on Sunday and Monday!

Wow that was long, sorry if you read the whole thing and are completly bored. Anyway, thanks for reading my life story (for the week anyway!)

Coldness

I just wanted everyone to know how I am feeling about the weather outside...



I hate it.



Have you ever breathed in through your nose and felt ice forming on the inside of your nostril. So much so that your lungs just hurt to breath. You bury your face in your scarf, and breath deep and hard. Even then, it still hurts.

Have you ever had your skin dry more than you ever thought it was possible. You come home and lather lotion on until your skin stops stinging, and then you add more! My skin has never stung so much as me trying to re-mositurize it.

Have you ever stopped eating food because your kitchen ran out, and you are too afraid of the weather to run outside, get in your car, and drive to the store. (ok, I haven't stopped completely!)

Have you ever spent an extra HOUR at the gym just because you would rather work out your little tail off then go outside and walk the five minutes back to your apartment.

I have done all of these, today! And its only 10:30 a.m. Lets just say any temperature below 0 is not a friendly one. But when the weather channel tells you it is -21, and feels like -34... you just know its not going to be a good day. Luckily Friday its supposed to snow, so that will make the weather go up to at least 20 degrees. I can't wait!!!!

The only thing keeping me going tonight is the fact that I will soon be home, in my warm apartment, watching American Idol! Can't Wait!!!

Lazy Man Iron Man... 2

Ok... so remember last June when I had to work out for a class I was in, and I though, as long as I have to work out, might as well do this Lazy Man Iron Man thing and get a free T-Shirt. So I did, and all was said and done... Well I looked at my email this morning and read the student update (which I rarely ever do) and saw that the month of February will be doing... yet again... ANOTHER Lazy Man Iron Man. So the question is... Am I crazy enough to try again?!?! It was a really good experience, it kind of wore me out though. My grades slipped, I got my first ever B in college, and I was constantly tired. Also, if someone didn't already know this, the month of February is a bit shorter than the month of June. Thats a reason in and of itself not to do it again (ok, maybe thats not the best reason, I'm just looking for excuses.) So what do you think? Today is the 26th, I have 5 days to figure out if I am actually insane for wanting to do this again. Either comment or just vote on the poll to the right!

Iron Man!

No not the movie Iron Man, but the athletic event! An Iron Man is an insane triathlon. Like running 26 miles, biking 112 miles, and swimming 2.7 miles. It is pretty much INSANE to do in 1 day, and the people that do it are crazy CRAZY!!! Well our school is doing a Lazy Man Iron Man, where you have an entire month to accomplish an Iron Man Triathlon. So I started today. I went 8 miles on the bike! Hopefully I can finish in a month, if I do I get a free T-shirt! WOOHOO!!! Its pretty exciting because all my roommates are doing it with me, so wish us luck! To keep up with my progress just look at the thing on the right side bar, I will update it as often as I can! :D