Merry Christmas!!!

     I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! It was a great day spent with family. And of course we all got spoiled! I had so much fun watching the kids open their presents (pictures and videos of the grandbabies in Minnesota!). The looks on their faces was priceless!

     I ended up getting 2 pressure cookers for Christmas! I am so excited to put them to use! They are going to help so much with making healthy meals during the week. I already have so many great recipes I can't wait to try!

     It is so hard to believe we are in the last week of 2016. I have to say, 2016 had a much better ending than 2015. Everyone is happy and healthy, and that is really all that matters! This also means that we are in the last week of our team weight loss challenge. Roger and I have lost a combined 7 pounds so far. I think that is great for the month of December! Can't wait to see what we can do with the new year!

     3 months until the girls trip to Vegas to check out some venues! I am super excited! It's going to be a great weekend with some amazing girls! Hopefully we can find the venue that is going to work! In the meantime... Operation: Wedding Dress is in full force!

Oh, The Holidays!

     The holidays got me this week. I had a gain. The gain wasn't as much as I lost last week, but it was still a gain. Upward and onward. Gotta hold on to how I feel right now and let that guide me through this week. I did work out some this week, but I know I can do better. And this week WILL be better!
     We had my office Christmas party last night. So much yummy food! I think one of the hardest parts of this year is not only staying away from temptation, but rebounding when that temptation gets the best of you. Sure, I didn't do as well as I hoped I was going to this week. But the biggest decision comes today. Do I continue to fall into the trap because "I already had a gain, so might as well start over with the New Year?" or do I learn from it and move on. I'm choosing the later.
     Roger is still on board and he actually had a loss this week! Makes me hate men and their metabolism even more! ;)
     I guess that's about it from our little neck of the woods this week. 1 more week til Christmas! :)

Only Going Down From Here...

   

     This week was the successful week I was looking for and needed! I lost 5.4 pounds this week and it felt great! It was the first week of our Couples Weight Loss Challenge and Roger and I lost a combined 10.3 pounds! I am really loving doing this together!
     A lot of our weight loss this week was probably water weight from what he gained on vacation, but it was great to see the scale move in that direction nonetheless! It wasn't a perfect week at all, and that just helps even more to stay motivated. I am committed to making this week an even better week! Adding the gym back in this week. Even though this can slow the scale down, I know I am going to start feeling so much better physically in no time!
     We had such a great day yesterday celebrating Roger's birthday! We surprised him with Christmas Story The Musical at the dinner theatre for lunch yesterday, and then had a small gathering of friends and family for a couple's bunco night. Mom made her delicious lasagna and we had a lot of fun. This may have been the biggest win of the week knowing that we can still have celebrations like this and still have a great week!
     Today I plan on doing some meal planning... something I haven't done in a very long time. I know it helps with success and it is so much less stressful not having to figure out dinner after a long day at work. It helps to have Roger help with this, too, so that he has somewhat of a say on what we have for dinner. We'll be going out to dinner for his birthday on Tuesday night, but we are trying really hard to limit eating out to one night a week.
     I have some work to do before I try the dress on again... but I feel like I am finally back on track!

Today is the Day!

     Today is the day! I had an "aha!" day like this a few years ago and it ended up in the loss of 104 pounds. While I am so glad that I don't have that far to go again, I am so upset with myself that I have gotten back to where I am right now. But I'm done looking back. I'm done fretting over what has happened. It is what it is, and I am lucky enough to be able to change it. 

     Vacation is over. It was an AMAZING vacation spent with some pretty great people. I visited places that were more beautiful that I could ever imagine, and truly fell in love with my fiance all over again. I am so glad we are able to spend these times together. It wasn't so long ago that these vacations were just dreams for us. We have both worked so hard to get to where we are, and the places we get to go, and I am so proud of us for that!

     While I tried not to let the way I looked or felt bother me, deep down it really did. I didn't take the pictures I wanted to take, and probably didn't do everything I wanted to do. But no looking back, only forward. I am looking forward to feeling good about myself again, and am so excited to see the pictures that will be taken on our next cruise. God has put some pretty amazing people in my life, and I am learning to take full advantage of that!

    Watch out world, today is the beginning of my next chapter. And this one is going to be the best one yet!