August Goals Recap

I am writing some content in advance of my vacation, as I wanted to give my readers some updates while I am away. This is a scheduled post.

Well here we are at the end of another month, and it's time for another monthly goal recap. My August goals were:

• Write down my food, for at least one week. Challenge yourself to take it one step further and TRACK said food intake. - WIN!
• Strive for 4 days of activity. (walk/c25k run/zumba/gym/whatever) - Fail(ish)
• Attend Weight Watcher meetings every week - Fail(ish)
• Start studying for HAM radio exam - In Progress
• Clean the inside of my car - WIN!
• Host a giveaway on my blog - fail

All in all... I sucked this month. I wasn't really aware of my goals, and didn't do a good job keeping track of things.

I did not keep track of my activity. Although I did get so level of activity each day in, I didn't keep track of it, so I am going to give myself a big old FAIL on that one.

I was doing very well with attending my Weight Watcher meetings each week, however last week, due to a meeting and work conflict, I could only weigh in and not stay for the meeting. Even though I failed at this goal, I am still planning on attending a weigh in and meeting while on vacation. Which I do think is a success on my part. I am not giving up and still committed to the long term journey and goals that I want to achieve.

While on vacation, I am taking my HAM book with me and I do plan on studying and actually reading up on testing for my HAM Radio Operator's License.

I finally got around to cleaning the inside of my car, it was all dusty and dirty and was in dire need of a vacuum and a cleaning.

Finally hosting a giveaway on my blog, yeah, I haven't gotten around to that and with the vacation, it's just not going to happen before the end of the month. I am going to re-commit this goal next month and hopefully you all will be able to see this in the works soon.

Of course the one goal that I did well this month was tracking my food! To be honest, I didn't have high hopes for this, I wanted to challenge myself, and I do believe I succeeded well! Of course Jen issuing the tracking challenge helped tremendously. I've tracked at least 2 weeks worth of food. Although no consistently, I went 9 days of tracking consistently before last weekend (August 21-22). Moving forward, I am planning on to continue tracking my food, I saw losses at the scale when I track consistently, and it works. It makes you more focused and aware of what you are eating/drinking.

Overall, even though I had more failures that successes, I am committed long term to my journey and I do believe there is long term changes happening within myself and my mindset. I am excited for the future.

What a Summer! (Product Review)

This summer has flown by! Thankfully, this summer has been great, weather wise. Many days of sun and nice weather. I've had the opportunity to enjoy a lot of summer activities. I wanted to be outside as much as possible to enjoy the warmth that summer offers.

One of the events I went to this summer was hiking a 4200 foot mountain! Don't mind the red face, it was a lot of work to hike that mountain, but I didn't get a burn! I reapplied the Liquid Daily Sunblock once during the day and it worked wonderfully!

However, I was always aware of the sun and my skin. I had many chances to use my Neutrogena UltraSheer Liquid Sunblock. I've found that this works great on my skin, especially my face. My face is combination type skin and it has a tendency to break out when the pores are clogged. I am happy to report after using Neutrogena's product, my skin is breakout free!

I love the light feel of the product, it's not greasy at all.


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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the product mentioned above for free for review purposes from Tidal Labs. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

New Kid on the Block...

I've joined a new online community to help embrace and promote a healthy living and positive community.  

Healthy Living Blogs is a new resource for the health blogging community. Created by Lindsey of Sound Eats, HLB is a site designed to enhance the positive community of the healthy living blog world. Bloggers and readers can explore the site and find more blogs to love, bloggers in their area, and forums to deepen healthy discussion and support. If you're interested in having your site listed on HLB, simply send the following information to healthylivingblogs@gmail.com and check the site out for yourself!

• Email subject line: MEMBERS

• Your name (please share if you prefer to go by first name, first and last, or however you prefer to be known on the Internet)

• Blog Name

• Blog URL (please start with http://, not www.)

• Your twitter handle, if applicable

• Your location (if you prefer not to disclose this information for privacy's sake, that is completely understandable. We'll simply include your blog listing in the A-Z listing, not by location, too)

• Any specific labels (i.e. vegan, gluten-free, weight loss, running, etc.)

Weigh In

Well I had to weigh in a day late due to a professional meeting. So when I went to weigh in today, I didn't stay for the meeting, I had to get to work. So I will miss that goal for August, which I am a little bummed about. However I am leaving on vacation on Sunday and I have a lot of stuff to get done before I leave.

Last Week's Weight: 290
This Week's Weight: 290.8
Gain: 0.8

Total Loss: -23.0

So I had a small gain this week. I didn't track the last half of the week, so I totally anticipated a small gain. This coming week I will be on vacation to Bar Harbor Maine. DBF is from Maine originally and has family in the area. I am looking forward to being on vacation and getting to spend time with DBF and his family. I've already looked and found a weight watchers meeting up in the area, so I plan on staying on track while on vacation.

I will begin tracking my food again beginning tomorrow (fresh start). Currently I am drinking some Crystal Light and water, I just can't seem to get my thirst quenched. I guess it's better than eating ice cream.

One Bite, One Decision...

Random Updates

So I had my first problem with my Gruve. I wasn't able to sync with my computer. I was able to plug it in and charge it, but it wouldn't sync. After finally getting an e-mail from a gentleman with some troubleshooting ideas, I went home to try and fix my issue. I went through all of his suggestions (even uninstalling and reinstalling the program) with no success, I hunted around and found a spare USB cord so I plugged it in and crossed my fingers. It worked!!! It synced no problem! I was thrilled. I found it weird that the cord would charge the unit but not sync the unit. Ugh. Either way, I asked Muve (the company that makes the Gruve) about sending me a new USB cord for my unit.

I am so happy that I was able to sync and download my data, I didn't want to loose any this week! Although I was in yellow for 2 out of the 3 days I wasn't able to sync, I think it's important to have an accurate record.

Tomorrow a whole group of my friends and DBF and his friends are getting together for our annual Water Country trip. I am looking forward to hanging with some friends that I don't get to see all that often anymore. It stinks that I can't wear my Gruve, I'd like to see how many calories I burn while walking around a water park and swimming. I wish there was a way to manually enter activity into the Gruve system so you could at least keep track if you did activity.

DBF and I are being smart and planning ahead, we are packing some healthy snacks and sandwiches for the day, instead of eating the fried food there. We are bringing a big pitcher full of Crystal Light instead of buying soda (especially me, while I am still on my soda free summer challenge).

Of course with all my running around and planning for tomorrow, I forgot to get dinner for tonight! So I ordered out and got one of my old nemesis.... Steak and Cheese Sub. YUM Of course it came with greasy onion rings, I only ate about 6 inches of my 8 inch sub and threw out the onion rings. Actually looking at them made me sick to my stomach. I do believe I've kicked my habit of onion rings. They just don't look appealing to me anymore. And even now just sitting here, the Steak and Cheese is just sitting in my stomach like a lump and it's not a great feeling... the downfalls of not planning ahead.

I do believe when you are eating better and healthier that your body gets used to it. So when you go back to your old ways, your body revolts, almost as a way of saying, hey you... you are doing so good, don't you dare go back to the old way...

Believe me, I'm not... It may take some time for the weight to come off, but I still want to enjoy my life while on this healthy journey. That is what I really love about Weight Watchers, they teach you how to lose weight while eating every day foods, and still be able to enjoy the foods you love. Although I am finding that the foods I used to love, I no longer crave or crave less of. Of course, aside from ice cream, sigh....

In other news, I am very much looking forward to my vacation next week. DBF's family has a summer cottage up near Bar Harbor, it's just such a relaxing and fun time. DBF has a knack for picking vacations and having great weather, so I am hopeful that this year will be no different. I do need to look into about seeing if there is a Weight Watchers meeting locally up there, as I would prefer to still weigh in and go to the meeting (Gotta keep up with my monthly goals!). Since we have the cottage we typically have most meals there and only eat out once or twice. So as long as I keep my snacking in check and make healthy decisions I should fair ok. I do plan on bringing my Gruve and keeping it green all week! I am sure I can convince DBF to go for a walk or two if needed ;-)

Since FitBloggin' 11 was announced, twitter has been aflutter with everyone talking about going or thinking about it. I'd really like to go, as far as conferences, it's really not that far away. Baltimore is a great location and May is a great time to be there! I am going to try and see if I can get a sponsor to help with some of the costs. Typically Southwest does some great deals out of Manchester to Baltimore and I could possible get a roommate to help cut down on hotel costs. I jokingly offered to Kerri from Kat Does Diets on twitter, and she said if she goes, she'd be my roomie! Of course DBF thinks the whole Fitbloggin' idea is funny, and thinks it's funny that I'd just randomly agree to pair up and get a roommate for the weekend... Kerri, he's hoping you aren't a serial killer or anything.... just saying.

Lastly, since using Networked Blogs on facebook and posting my updates over there, I've noticed a dramatic increase in my traffic, I am assuming it's my IRL friends checking up on me. Most of them know that I am actively trying to loose weight, but don't really know how I blog about it all the time.

**Hi Real Life Friends**

Facebook Status with Food

Are you single and ready to mingle or It's complicated when it comes to food?

If you aren't living under a rock, you know of facebook and probably have an account even. Ever notice the relationship status? And how now a days, it's a big event if you change your status?

(Image Source)

I recently overheard one girl say to another "Like, so you are like facebook boyfriend and girlfriend?" "Like he changed his status for you?" I didn't realize that times have changed. But it's not that long ago that one would pass a note in class, saying "Do you want to go out, check yes or no".


How about when it comes to food; what is your relationship with food?

Are you single? Ready to mingle and eat with reckless abandon.
Are you in a relationship? And eating consciously, taking into consideration, your healthy relationship with food/calories
Is it Complicated? Are you still trying to figure things out, how to juggle it all and make it work
Engaged? Congrats, you've got it mostly figured out and are working on perfection!
Married? You've attained blissfulness with your relationship with food, and life is a breeze, right? You don't need to count calories, you are making smart food choices and working at it, after all, marriage takes work sometimes, right?
Divorced? Have you given up trying? Thinking about being single again or starting over for a new relationship?
Widowed? Perhaps you've had a traumatic experience or life changing event that shakes you to your core, and you need to start over again, after you've had time to process things.

I think we all go through life experiencing these different relationships with food, in some form or another.

If you had to say today, what your facebook relationship status would be with food, what would it be?

Weigh In

Well as I posted last night I wanted to get back into the swing of things and get back on my regular meeting date.

Last Week's weight: 291.8
This Week's weight: 290
Loss: -1.8

Total loss: -23.8

I'm feeling great. Tracking works people. (Not a new concept, eh?) This is my second time using Weight Watchers to loose the weight, and both times I started out not tracking. Jen posted a tracking challenge and for me, it works. It may be tedious and difficult at times, but it keeps me mindful of what I'm eating. For me, it stops the mindless eating, I am more aware of what I am eating, if I have to track it.

I've also been mindful of getting my Gruve green consistently and getting my activity in.

I am really excited about this turn of events and re-commitment to my weight loss journey.

The meeting topic this week was about fitting in those filling foods and how filling foods help keep you feeling fuller longer. The members of the meeting then really started talking about fitting the healthy oil in. For me, I enjoy my popcorn cooked in oil. Low in points, it also counts as a filling food. Instead of butter, I pop it in some oil and use a little garlic salt to season.

I am feeling really good! I wish you all successes at the scale this week!