Official Weigh-Out and Pictures

Starting weight on August 9, 2015: 211.5 on the home scale, 214.3 on the gym scale
Weight on November 7, 2105: 190 on the home scale, 192.9 on the gym scale
Current Loss: 21.5 pounds

Before Pictures:

Progress Pictures:

There are definitely some differences, but I certainly don't want to call the second set, "after pictures," because I still have a long way to go. I think the biggest difference is in my waistline. I didn't take full body measurements when I started, but I wish I had. There's a big difference in my waistline, which is most apparent from the side and back.

Jason and I are heading out on an actual date, and I am wearing these amazing bright green linen pants that I bought as a goal over a year ago, and I have to say--that's pretty awesome. I tried them on as a test, with very low expectations, and they aren't even the slightest bit tight. So exciting! I know it's November, and WAY past linen season, but people, I cannot help it--these things have to be worn!

Day Thirty: Beach Day!

I spent the morning on the beach with the family, lifting Finn and dragging him through the waves about 1M times. I certainly got an arm workout, but I have no idea how one logs that. I am trying hard to maintain decent nutrition and a good activity level while on vacation, and still allow myself to have some treats here and there. Today's treats were a small glass of wine and a little piece of key lime pie with whipped cream--so good!

Meredith and I tried to go for a big beach walk before dinner, but we were thwarted by rain. Luckily it cleared off later, and we were able to gather the Hippie and head out after the kids were abed for a long walk on the beach with thousands of stars, meteors, phosphorescent sea critters, a low tide, and a lovely breeze. So nice, and my word at the steps I have accidentally taken today!

In addition to all the walking, I have completed the 30 Day Abs Challenge! Yay!!! Now, I just have to figure out what to do next, but that can wait till tomorrow. I am beat, and need sleep.

Log:

Exercise: 

• Walk on the Beach: .61 miles, and it started to rain. boo.
• Day 30 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge: 125 sit ups, 65 leg raises, 200 crunches,  120 second plank
• Evening Walk: 3.48 miles

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: tea with 2% milk and 1/2 a tsp of raw sugar, a boiled egg, half a honeycrisp apple
• Lunch: crazy thrown together food on the beach: 3 turkey roll-ups, 15 sun chips (that's a serving, btw), a banana
• Dinner: beer boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce and old bay, sauteed veggies (mushrooms, zucchini and squash, shallot, garlic, onion, and leftover baby lima beans--so good!), a small glass of wine, 1/2 a slice of key lime pie with whipped cream
• Snacks:12 smoked almonds

Stats:

• Steps:17239
• Calories: 1352 consumed, 547 burned
• Weight: no scale at the beach

Day Twenty-Nine: Keeping it Up-ish

We tried to go sailing today, but alas, it rained. We, and half the universe defaulted to the Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores instead. Normally, we walk on all the nature trails at the aquarium, so it felt a bit odd to be stuck inside with the rain, but it was still entertaining. The kids of course had a blast!

Vacation means plenty of opportunities for food cheating, and I can't say I was perfect, though I didn't totally lose it. I had some whole wheat bread, a 16-ounce vanilla chai latte, and a small glass of (absolutely delightful) wine with dinner.

I managed to walk a lot, do all my ab work, and be fairly active, while simultaneously managing to color in my new coloring book and generally chill out. Feels like vacation to me. :)

Log:

Exercise: 

• Walk on the Beach: 2.68
• Day 29 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge: 120 sit ups, 62 leg raises, 190 crunches,  115 second plank

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: tea with 2% milk and 1/2 a tsp of raw sugar, a boiled egg, half a honeycrisp apple
• Lunch: Lunch at the Village Market in Emerald Isle: chicken salad on whole wheat and a few slices of marinated cucumbers
• Dinner: grouper baked in parchment with baby lima beans, garlic, and lemon, a few bites of quinoa and brown rice, a small glass of wine
• Snacks: 1 Babybel, 16-oz vanilla chai latte from 4 J's Coffee Shop at Emerald Isle

Stats:

• Steps: 12023
• Calories: 1237 consumed, 218 burned
• Weight: no scale at the beach

Pretty Thing From My Walk

Can't Live Without My Fitbit

I just ordered this from Amazon, and had it shipped to the beach house:

I forgot mine, and the charge on my Fitbit isn't going to make more than a couple more days. I know I'm on vacation and all, but a girl has to keep up with her steps.

Days Twenty-Seven and Twenty-Eight: Packing and Heading to the Beach

I'm at the beach! Yay!

However, working a full day when the kid has early release from school, and packing for the beach at the same time makes this mama a freakishly busy person with no time or thought to give to fitness, eating, or blogging. I had no time to eat breakfast, then ate a late lunch because I had to get to the school to get the kid. Last night I was packing like a crazy thing while still doing laundry, and my friend Meredith was arriving, and there was all kinds of frenzied activity. I literally forgot to do my ab work, let alone blog about the day. I skipped zumba on purpose, though I felt a little bad about that. But there it was, 11:40pm, and I realized as I was crawling into the bed that no ab work had been done and not one thing had been logged for the day. I did manage to eat decently, though not enough calories. I thought I had eaten so much food till today when I logged the calories--skipping a meal is a mistake.

Today, I made up for the calorie thing yesterday. We ate a good breakfast, but then lunch on the road at Chick-Fil-A while driving. One cannot eat a salad while driving, and I knew that we were going out for dinner, too, so I just declared today a cheater day. And how. I ate more calories for lunch than I ate all of yesterday. Ugh. Not only that, after Chick-Fil-A for lunch and fried seafood for dinner, I feel like crap on toast. I will NOT be doing that again tomorrow--I want green things.

Today should have been day 28 of the ab workout, which is a rest day, so I just did day 27's workout today, and I will skip the rest day. Only two more days to go, which is hard to believe. Now, I need to figure out what ab work I am going to keep as part of my daily workout. I definitely need to keep going with the ab work--I can already see and feel a difference in my body from the past 28 days of dedicated and targeted work.

Tomorrow begins my official vacation, and I plan to walk and walk and walk. I brought hand weights, a medicine ball, and resistance bands with me, so I am going to try to fit in some mild strength training as well. And there will be stretching--I want to stretch every day.

Day 27 Log:

Exercise: 

• Does packing count?

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: N/A
• Lunch: big salad with lots of veggies, avocado, and turkey breast, with honey dijon dressing, muhammara and 5 pretzel thins
• Dinner: a small grass fed ribeye, French green beans with olive oil and porcini salt, heirloom tomato salad
• Snacks: 1 mozzarella Babybel

Stats:

• Steps: 5965
• Calories: 732 consumed, 57 burned
• Weight: 201 (home)

Day 28 Log:

Exercise: 

• Day 27 of the 30 Day Abs Challenge: 115 sit ups, 62 leg raises, 180 crunches,  110 second plank

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: two eggs scrambled with cheese, microgreens, little tomatoes, watermelon
• Lunch: Chick-Fil-A sandwich and fries with iced tea
• Dinner: went to Frost, a fried seafood joint at the beach (tradition)--I split a popcorn shrimp plate with Meredith with a side of squash casserole and a small salad with ranch dressing
• Snacks: N/A

Stats:

• Steps: 5407
• Calories: 1978 consumed, burned
• Weight: no scale at the beach