OMG!!!

A card I made a while ago but it represents how I feel inside!!
It's a party with ferris wheels and balloons and everything in my head!  

I did it!!  I made my DietBet weigh in!  I'm now at 205.1 - holy cow!  It wasn't easy but it was worth it!  Yesterday evening my husband and I went on a walk (the last half felt like a death march) around a lake in our town.  I ended up with 16,016 steps for a total of 6.79 miles for the day.  Then when I got up this morning I weighed in and I was at 206.3.  My husband had mentioned yesterday that if I was close that we would go for another walk in the morning.  However, I developed some hot spots on the balls of my feet so I could not fathom another death march so I put on my regular running shoes and got on the treadmill.  I did 30 minutes of walking at 3.0 MPH and then weighed in again.  I was pleasantly surprised that just that little bit of exercise moved the scale that much.

I'm now sitting here happy as a clam and enjoying my first cup of coffee since Monday.  Boy does it taste good in all it's fat-free, sugar-free yumminess!  I'll tell you that if someone would have told me just a few years ago that I would celebrate a weight loss with this cup of coffee I would have told them to go get their head examined!  I would have celebrated with a DQ Blizzard not a boring cup of fat-free sugar-free coffee (and did I mention it's even decaf?!?) - I a much better party animal than that!

My next DB goal is getting to One-derland!  I'm super excited and so incredibly motivated!  Now...back to this amazing warm celebratory mug!  Hugs to all!!

Changes and Disclosures!

Well...I am on day 19 of a juice fast (the last 8 without any coffee at all!!) and I've lost a little over 10# which is great.  However, I have been pretty miserable the whole time.  Not really all that physically miserable but emotionally worn out.  While juicing has done incredible things for me I have come to realize that I need to do something more sustainable and easier on my psyche.  I've done South Beach in the past and have really liked it.  The losses are definitely going to be slower this way but that's ok with me.  I miss so much about eating real food and it's been a huge struggle to either be going without real food while I'm juicing or having another juicing fast looming over my head.  I am finishing off the last of my juices today and tomorrow starts some new eating patterns.  I am definitely going to try to make the majority of my food fall into the vegetable category but it's time for some real food again - you know, the stuff that tastes really good and you have to chew?!?

So that's the changes part of my title and now comes the hard part - the disclosures!!  I've been very hesitant to share my weight on this blog but I've recently realized how much I get from the blogs of people who share where they started, where they are, and how they got there.  Hopefully by putting myself out there I can maybe inspire someone else like I've been inspired by others.  So...here goes...

My history prior to January 2015 when I started this blog is written about in this post:  http://gabbyspersonaljourney.blogspot.com/2015/01/first-post.html.  The highest weight I referred to there was 262 pounds (yikes!).  I got down to 206 on my wedding day and that has been the lowest I've been since 1999 when I got down under 200 for my sister's wedding.  I've already written about how I started to gain some of the weight back after I got married in 2013 and what I've been doing since then.  And that brings us to today...when I weighed in this morning I was at 207.6.  I'm getting really close to One-derland again and my next DietBet goal is 205.5 but unfortunately I have to meet that tomorrow.  I've been struggling the last week on the juice fast by staying right around the 208 mark.  I'm planning on a long walk with my husband tonight and crossing my fingers that some of this latest plateau is some water weight that will come off between now and tomorrow.  However, I'm not completely living in fantasy land - I definitely understand that tomorrow might be my first ever unmet weigh in on my DietBet journey.  If that's the case, I can't promise I won't shed a tear or be sad but what I can promise is that I will not give up.  I have goals and I plan to reach them!!

Here's my plan over the next month to reach my DietBet goal of 199.2 by May 9th:

Follow South Beach phase 1 for the next two weeks and then slowly introduce phase 2 foods
Do not go to bed until I have at least 7,000 steps on my Garmin
Drink at least 84 ounces of water a day (3 fills of my water bottle)

First Transformer Complete!!!

Well...I did it!!  I met all the goals on my first DietBet Transformer!!  I made it by the skin of my teeth (.5 to spare) but I made it!!  I officially lost 24.1 pounds in this six month DietBet challenge.  That makes my total loss 44.1 from my highest weight!!  I'm super happy with this!  And I did it even though during this DietBet I had Thanksgiving, Christmas, a 12 day vacation to Disney/Universal, and numerous business trips!  In the past that would have been an open invitation to putting on at least 10 pounds and most likely more.  The key to my success is definitely juicing and the support of my husband.  I never would have been able to stay on the juicing train without him.

I'm going to sign up for another Transformer right away so I don't do any backsliding.  I'm not sure what day that starts but hopefully it will be this week.  I'm also going to have to really get back into working out.  I have no real excuse for not doing it other than lazy butt syndrome (LBS).  LBS has gotten me into more trouble over the years than I care to admit and I need to banish it from my life!!

I started to write here that I wanted to get to my goal weight by the end of the year but I just did the math and that would be setting myself up for failure.  I think instead my goal is going to be to continue with DietBet on a continuous basis and that should put me at goal around October next year.  It sounds so far away but it seems so much more doable than my normal way of setting goals that usually leave me feeling like a failure.

I don't have the grand total on what I won during this DietBet but I'm guessing I will have about $325 in my account.  I spent $125 to join the bet so that's a $200 profit!!!  I'll have to give some thought to what I'm going to do with my winnings to celebrate.  I'm leaning toward some sort of jewelry that I can wear and remember how it felt to meet my goals.

2016!

This last year has just flown by and I happily got on the scale this morning knowing without any doubt that I would weigh less than I did this time last year!  I'm 22.2# lighter than this time last year but all of that has mainly happened in the last 4 months while participating in a DietBet.  I'm a big believer that once you find your motivator you can do anything.  In some ways I'm embarrassed that my motivator is money - not necessarily getting more (although that's nice) but not throwing away what I have is the stronger pull.  I'll console myself in the knowledge that being frugal is an admirable quality.  Well, that and the fact that I'm getting healthier every day and able to wear clothes that had been relegated to the back of the closet for years.  If it takes something like DietBet to keep me on track, then so be it!

We are going on vacation soon to DisneyWorld and Universal Studios!!  We are definitely foodies so the opportunity to eat at such unique restaurants is not something we are going to pass up.  I fully expect to gain a bit while we are there although I'm hoping that all the walking in the parks will counteract a bit of that and I don't plan to go on a crazy feeding frenzy by any means but I will also not be depriving myself of things I really want.  So...between now and then the hubby and I are ramping up our juicing.  Yesterday was our first full day of juicing (well...that and the glass of champagne we had at midnight) and I won't lie it was a little difficult given all the little extras we've been indulging in.  However, when I weighed in this morning I'm right back where I was before Christmas so I guess the damage wasn't as bad as I had expected.

I've also not been as good about getting in my 10,000 steps per day as I used to be so I need to be more diligent about that.  I'm not really thinking about those steps as aiding my weight loss so much as helping me to become healthier and increase my endurance.  My hubby is a half a foot taller than me so when we go hiking I'm taking more steps than he is and sometimes I have a hard time keeping up.  I'd really like to be able to keep up and not slow him down.  Speaking of hiking - I was surprised on Christmas morning when my hubby brought me a wrapped present.  This year we pooled our money and bought a PS4 so there weren't going to be any wrapped presents to each other under the tree.  This one was extra special because it was actually from his mom.  She gifted me her amazing hiking stick!  I have been looking for one just like it since I used hers while we were visiting them this summer.  The hubby and I went on a long hike in the Smokies and she let me borrow her stick.  It fit my height perfectly and the circumference was absolutely spot on for my hand.  It gave me confidence when I was navigating declines and the extra help my knees needed when climbing up.  I'm really excited to use it this summer!

My health goals for 2016 include continuing to lose weight and to make it the norm rather than the exception that I hit 10,000 steps per day.  I feel really confident I will be back here next year at this time with success!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I can't believe I was the winner this week on the DietBet token weigh in drawing!  I'm not one of those naturally lucky people so winning anything at all is a huge excitement.  I won a $75 gift card to UnderArmour and I should have my selected items before Christmas.

I've been sort of lax about getting on the treadmill and getting my 10,000 steps in.  Maybe the new workout clothes I ordered will spur me on.  I replaced my Fitbit with a Garmin Vivofit that I earned through my health insurance plan.  I like that it has a digital readout that tells me how many steps I've taken and how many I have to get to my goal for the day.  However, I let it set my goal for me so the goal has been around 7,000 steps a day.  Most days I've met that goal but since I had been doing 10,000 previously I sort of feel like I'm cheating. *blush*

I've been doing pretty good with weigh ins and have hit a number this morning that I haven't hit since I got back from my honeymoon in 2013.  This is completely due to juicing!  Thank you Joe Cross for finding a solution and then sharing it with others!  My husband and I have been juicing in between other events we have going on so we haven't been doing it exactly like Joe did but this is what works for our lives.  We are going to do mainly juice until Christmas and then ease up a little bit when my son comes over for Christmas with us.  Then we will go back on the program until we leave next year for our fabulous DisneyWorld/Universal Studios trip!!  I'm turning 50 in 2016 so that is the trip I picked out to celebrate.  I know, I know, I'm such a kid!  I wanted to get to One-derland before the trip but I don't think I'll make it.  But...as soon as I do I will definitely be posting about it here!!

In the meantime - here's the recipe to my favorite juice - this makes four servings:

1 Pineapple
8 Oranges (I prefer juicing oranges but can't always find them)
6 Apples (Fuji's are my favorite)
14 Carrots

Juice all these ingredients together - it takes 3 rounds in the pitcher on my Breville.  Sometimes I also use my inversion blender to add in 4 bananas.  Other times the hubby and I eat a whole banana each while we are drinking our juice.  My hubby prefers a green juice I make so I'll share that recipe in a future post.

Still Juicing!

I can't believe it's been so incredibly long since I've posted here!  We are still juicing but have been intermingling regular meals here and there.  It's been working out really well and I'm down a total of 12# since we started juicing on October 18th and 20.2# since I started my DietBet on September 7th. I'm completely pleased with my progress!  I haven't been this weight since 2013 just before I got married.

What really amazes me is that I've been able to do this even while traveling a couple times and eating with abandon at Thanksgiving!  The juicing has been very instrumental in helping me recover quickly when I have special occasions.  In the past I would go on a business trip and gain a couple pounds but never lose it again.  Then the next trip or special occasion would come up and before I knew it I had gained 30#!!

We have a trip to Florida coming up and I'm hoping to lose another 10# before we leave and that will take me to what I weighed when I got married.  Speaking of weight...I'll need to lose another 15# after I hit my wedding weight to weigh what my driver's license says I weigh.  Isn't it funny how I listed that weight because I thought it was a normal (read - non-embarassing) weight?  However, my next big goal after that is another 25# lighter and I feel very confident that I can meet it!  My DL expires in 2018 - would it be awful to go in and get a new one once I meet goal weight just so the number is right? lol

Juicing - Day 24

We have been doing pretty good with juicing!  We did end up buying a new juicer so I guess my first piece of advice is to buy the best juicer you can right off the bat.  We bought the Breville BJE820XL Juice Fountain Duo Dual Disc Juicer from Amazon.  We haven't used the smoothie disc yet but I plan on trying it out later this week.

We have been juicing the majority of our meals but eating full meals every few days.  We are both feeling great!  I've lost 10# and the hubby has lost more than that - he can't remember off the top of his head right now.  Isn't that crazy how us girls can tell you to the tenth of a pound exactly how much we've lost?!?  Or maybe that's just me and I obsess about it too much!  I'm absolutely thrilled with how the weight is coming off.  In the past I would be lucky to lose a pound a week and I'm averaging almost .5# per day and I feel fantastic.  The first few days were rough but I think that was mainly the caffeine withdrawals.  There are some juices that we absolutely don't like but we have found a couple that are real winners.  Here are the recipes for the two we really like - this makes two servings each:

Green Citrus (Green Juice)
4 Oranges
4 Apples (I like to use Fujis)
4 Handfuls Spinach

Orange Dreamsicle (Orange Juice)
1 Pineapple
2 Oranges
3 Apples
6-8 Carrots

ps...the hubby found his weight loss - 13.1# as of October 31st.  He did have to go out of town for a week last week so he wasn't able to juice much and he hasn't weighed himself yet.  He looks thinner to me!!