How did that happen?

Well, I thought this week was shot as far as my weight loss goes. With camping, indulging in a few beverages, eating whatever I wanted - 2 nights of eating out this week (pizza then Red Lobster). Well, I lost 3.6 lbs! My goal was to lose 1 pound by the end of the month. Well, this was my final weigh-in to acheive my goal (25 lbs in 11 weeks). Well, I exceeded it by 2.6 lbs! I want to do a happy dance, I am so excited! I can say that even since being back from camping I have been not so good about tracking my points, but I eat when I am hungry and attemt to eat healthy foods. If I am craving chocolate, to have a fiber one bar instead (still satisfies that chocolate desire). This is so surreal. I will say that over the past 11 weeks, I have only skipped 7 days I think of working out. I think that is MY key.
4/14/09 starting weight - 190
6/29/09 end weight- 162.4
Whoo-hoo!

We went camping!

Here is baby redhead at the end of our camping trip!

She has a messy face from her love of baked BBQ chips.

Big Sister caught a catfish!

We filleted it, fried it and ate it.

Yummy!

This is the girls walking with Wade ome morning to get water.

Like big sister's pink jammies?


This was the first day. Not the best pic of the girls, but the background is amazing!

I had so much fun camping with my girls. The downsides of the trip were 1) a steep hill getting to and from the water on one side of our camp. I had a hard time walking up/down it (granted I was carrying baby all times too!). and 2) baby redhead slept with us both nights. 3) I ate way too much and seem to have gained a pound or two. We didn't have room for her PNP, so we tried to have her sleep on a mattress. That didn't work. She did stay warm snuggled between us though.

I survived!

We had 2 birthday parties this week. One was a huge bash Saturday night for my MIL. The other was for our neice's 6th birthday. I ate way too much, had a few drinks and still lost weight.
Down another 1.4 lbs. I am so close, but 1 lb and 9 days away from my goal. I was hoping to lose 2.4 lbs this week (however unrealistic that is). So.... one more week to hit my goal!

I LOST 1.6 lbs!

I had to make sure everyone read that! If you thought I was joking, my WI last week was 169 and this week I am sitting at 167.4. :o) I couldn't be happier! Yesterday I hosted a Tastefully Simple party with my wonderful consultant Kristin. I ate way too much yummy, yummy food! I took most of the leftover dips to my MIL's for a family GTG. So, sitting out most of the day I did not attempt to save those. I didn't take over the leftover keylime cheeseball though. Oh and I ate all the warm dip myself at the party. I was shocked that despite the beer bread, the dips, the chips I didn't retain a ton of water weight. I also ate a hamburger and a cupcake at MIL's (after having a plate of only fruit & veggies though!).
SO, I have 2.4 lbs to make my goal. We have a big weekend with 2 b-day parties.... so wish me luck!

I forgot my shameless plug. If you need any Tastefully Simple, please go to this link: http://www.tastefullysimple.com/Cultures/en-US/ just make sure to enter Emily Arnegard as your hostess before you check out! Thanks!

~Running on a different schedule~

I feel like I am running on a different schedule than most of America. Not just me, but my family. I guess I could extend this to say all family of shift workers. It is hard to get used to and hard to adjust. 4 day of being gone, working 15 hour days, 4 days home to enjoy. Of course, summer is now upon us and overtime is mandatory. Today is one of those days. Low on OT and no one else to fill. Did I mention that I am hosting a Tastefully Simple party today? Of course, he had to skirt out of OT 2 weeks ago so we could enjoy our anniversary as well as his cousin's wedding. So, I guess when it comes to working, I would prefer he work now rather than then. I do like the fact with his schedule I can get out at times that most Americans cannot. Monday afternoon I am going to take a bit to run some errands, alone. I also need to grocery shop which is also more pleasurable alone. (If grocery shopping can be pleasurable!) I have had it with the kids by the time the H gets home the past 2 nights. Last night was better because Alex fell asleep before he got home while she was in her room for a timeout. One night I took a bath, last night I folded laundry. Of course, baby red head had to climb on my bed (which is taller than average) and grab at the clothes I folded.
Yesterday, I updated my pictures on shutterfly. Feel free to view them at www.arnegard.shutterfly.com.
I have weighed myself today and it looks like I will have little to any weight loss this week. I know I have pushed my portion sizes. I also need to drink water and hopefully that will help. I post my WI results tomorrow.

Workout- DONE!

I did it. I got my lazy ass up this morning to work out. I actually woke up before my alarm. I did Jillian and it actually felt strangly good. I have not done Jill in many days. Taylor was crying at midnight and Wade got up and was rocking her. I am pretty sure that was when I rolled over to go get her and my 3 yo was glued to me. "How the hell did she sneak in my bed w/o me knowing?" That's right I was exhausted sleeping since her sister woke me at 4 am yesterday. So, then baby red head woke at 1 am and I got her back down. I was a fraid because she wouldn't let go of her milk cup. But, I laid her in her crib, she took 2 last sips and handed it to me, nothing said. I guess never having her cup in bed makes it routine. Today, off to the park with one of the girls BFF's! (Can you have a BFF at 1 1/2 & 3 1/2? If so, he is theirs!)

Workouts?!

Monday I felt like a toad and only made it 20 min on the eliptical. Last night (Tuesday), I did my full 45 min like a good girl. I am thankful to my husband for watching the girls while I worked out. Today, I set my alarm to get up like a good girl. Too bad Baby Red Head woke at 4 am! I tried to put her back in her crib at 5:15 and she howled. Well, I had forgotten to take my cell phone into the bedroom (after setting the alarm). So, nice to know the alarm goes off every 5 min of AN HOUR! I did not get up to turn it off. The song plays 3 times each time that it goes off. Right now, my alarm has been "I cross my heart" - by George Strait, my sister's ringtone. I need to change it or I will hate my sister just from hearing "her" song at 5:30 am. Well, Alex came into my room at 7 am and woke up Taylor. I was ready to kill her. I was not ready to get up. I think that I am 100% insane and we are going to walk to the library for storytime today. I need to get AP's or my ass will be 400 lbs. Oh, and to my joy I also got my visitor this morning. I celebrated like any level headed woman would. I pigged out. Yep, I ate 2 chocolate chip pancakes with peanut butter and a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast. I thought maybe my increased hunger was pregnancy.... maybe next month. I have realized though that it appears that all the summer maternity clothes I have will need to be sold or given away. Sorry all of my native ND friends, but even in April or May here in ND there is still a need for sweaters. We still have our heat on too and it is June 10th. The husband tells me that the last 2 years are odd with no spring. I am just ready for HEAT.

Monday Weigh-In

I lost weight! I am an appropriate weight for my height! I am down 2.2 lbs from last week (which if you remember was a 0.8 lb gain). So really, I am down 1.4 lbs. :o)
Please ignore my preliminary number I posted earlier... my official weigh-in is 169. I am still happy about this number.

New pants

Okay, it is official, I joined the Summer Slimdown Challenge by the Sisterhood of the Shrinking jeans. I am on team violet.
Starting weight: 172.2 (was 190 4/14 when I started WW)
Goal is to be 160-165

So, I have noticed I have 3 pairs of pants that do not fit anymore. I have one with a drawstring I still wear, but the others I cannot workout in because they fall off. My size 14 jeans are nearly falling off. I did bring up size 12's but haven't been brave enough to wear them yet. I will not be investing in smaller size shorts or capris though. I hope to get pregnant this summer, so the investment seems like a waste to me. Of course, I will not post here if I am pregnant since I will not announce it.

Oh, if the scale is right this morning, I have broken the 20 lbs weight loss! (I used my Monday's official WI for the challenge, today it said 167.8! That would put me at a healthy weight for my height!

Random pictures

Okay, so I took a walkand according to an online distance calculator, I walked 4.5 mi (2.4 earlier today!) in 70 min. I think I would rather do Jillian than walk so much. But, it was nice and both girls slept, so I got my workout!

Here are some random pics!

This is what we "ate" for our anniversary dinner. I sent the pic to my sis when she asked me where we were. YUMMY! I want more now! Who's in???

This is what my darling daughter did to a sleeve of Ritz crackers. I was in the back folding clothes & putting them away. I heard her rustling, but I thought she was getting into the open box. Lokks like we have mice, but it was a 17 mo old girl!

I was smart enough to allow my 3 year old to help me make brownies, which is pretty routine at our house. This time, I left her to stir while I put her sister down for a nap. This is what I found when I got back. Note the chocolate on both hands and her mouth. I wonder what she was doing?! I hope our friends still liked the brownies we made for them!


This was about 3.5 blocks from home after walk1 this morning. Looks so comfortable, I want to try that!

This was mid-way through walk2 today. I guess it helps that we walked about an hour. Plus little one only took a short nap while big one didn't nap (like normal). So cute when they are sleeping, I don't usually take the time to watch them sleep though!

I realize that this is a hard pic to see. It is on my phone but is through the top "window" of the stroller. Notice how they are sleeping. Taylor is laying on Alex's chest and Alex has her arm around her sister.

No motivation!

Okay, so I have lost motivation. I am exhausted and hungry. Yesterday I did not get up at 5:30 to work out because I was up from 11:30-1:45 with baby girl. So, when the alarm sounded at 5:30, I shut it off. Okay, so I did get my 45 min on the eliptical in later while said baby girl was napping. I think I need mental AP's for occupying a 3 yo in the same room while I work out. 450 cals burned, done.
This morning I also did not workout. :o( I walked past 2 parks (well, a park and a school) to get to another park to let the kids play. This way, I walked 1 hour total (round trip) to earn at least some AP's.

This afternoon was bad though. I had the munchies and did not stop. I ate 2 servings of asiago cheese and vegetable crackers and 2 servings of smores crackers (EVIL!) plus a skinny cow truffle bar. This was all before dinner! I didn't do so bad considering that I used about 10 of my WP's - and still have the other 25 left. I will take the kids out for another walk/play when I get done.

Taking breaks

Well, taking a day off or 3 really kicked my butt. Waking up early is harder now, just doing the eliptical is harder now. Jillian kicked my butt. If I am sore from the eliptical, I am afraid what I will feel like tomorrow from doing Jillian today.

I ate good yesterday and drank lots of fluids. Scale was down 2.6 lbs this morning, so I am hopeful it will stay this way until Monday. :o)

Weigh-In Monday!

I gained 0.8 lbs this week. Let's hope that a lot of that is water weight and I can see negaite numbers again this week. Not a surprise, but disappointing none the less.