Been a while...

Well....It has been a while since I have blogged. I feel like I am letting the few followers that I have down because I haven't really been sticking with this....and really it is only because of a lack of time....I love blogging. 

So what has been up with me...

--My Thanksgiving went very well. I hope everyone else did well over that challenging time for dieters. I actually lost 1.8 pounds that week! Yes it was hard. But I did well with staying within a healthy range. I had only one plate of food that had a small amount of potatoes, small amount of stuffing, and lots of white meat turkey.....with some other stuff too. I just kept my carbs at a minimum and my protein at a high! .......and I only had two SMALL pieces of pie....so the equivalent of one piece. I don't think you should completely deprive yourself from the things you love. This is a lifestyle change, so it needs to be something that you can live with for the rest of your life....and for me....living without Lemon Meringue pie for the rest of my life is just not an option! :)

--Next piece of news...I joined a weight loss competition on Nov 18th from weightlosswars.com. You should check them out. It is great motivation. I love having the accountability of having a weigh-in every Sunday and having everyone else in the competition seeing what my loss was. It really holds me accountable to my diet and my exercise. Since the 18th, which is 3 weeks, I have lost 6.2 pounds....about an average of 2 pounds a week. I am pretty satisfied with that. Sure I would like to lose more each week...but if I can keep a steady 2 pound loss each week, I will be happy.....Also....I am VERY VERY close to being out of the 180's! I may just be out of them by this Sunday's weigh in. This is going to be an amazing accomplishment! I can not wait to kiss the 180's goodbye forever!

--Remember how I said I really wanted to do a 5k and I was going to sign up for one to keep me accountable.....well that said 5k is tomorrow!!!!!! I am nervous because I didn't get as much training in as I would have liked. Last week I was seriously ill the whole week....and running on the treadmill was just NOT an option....This really set me back, and it is really disappointing. However, I have been training this week, and no matter what, I am going to FINISH the 5k. Sure my time isn't going to be what I would like it to be....but I AM GOING TO COMPLETE A 5K! This is going to be a huge accomplishment for me. One of the things that happens as we dieters move along in our journey is that we often forget where we came from. The true accomplishment in this 5k is that I am going to complete a 5k and that is something I never would have been able to do before. I have never been able to run a full mile (and I am still not to that point) and I have always gotten extremely fatigued from running. My first mile that I ran back at the beginning of my journey when I was at my heaviest took me about 22 minutes to complete and I almost died from the inability to breathe like 20 times throughout that "run". Now I am able to run about .6 of a mile without stopping and I can complete a full mile in about 14 minutes. Sure that isn't the best time and it definitely isn't going to win me the race tomorrow....but WOW what an accomplishment from where I came from! 
Here are my goals for tomorrow's race: 
     --Run at least 50% of the 3.1 miles
      --Do my very best and push harder than I think I can
     --Have NO NO NO negative thoughts throughout the run. No thinking this is too hard. No thinking, I am going to die if I don't slow down. No thinking I can't do this, I might as well just walk the rest of the way. NONE OF THESE STUPID THOUGHTS THAT I OFTEN HAVE WHILE RUNNING! Why? Because I CAN DO THIS! I CAN PUSH HARD! I WILL NOT DIE!

I will update you tomorrow with how the run went and if I achieved my goals. 

On a last note....I will leave you with a question that I would like to know-------How do you get past your negative thoughts that happen while you are working out and it gets hard? I am sure you get them. I am sure you want to quit and just give up sometimes right? So how do you push those thoughts away? How do you keep pushing hard?
 ---And if you feel like it, tell me about a huge accomplishment you have had since you started your lifestyle change and how different it is from where you started. It is good to reflect on these things.