Never forget this...

Here are two things I found on Pinterest that I need to always remember -

Pounds down and a new goal!

As you know for the past several weeks I have not been losing weight and it is kind of discouraging. Well with so much going on at work and not much time for myself I decided on Thursday that I would weigh myself and see where I was at. My food and exercise plan wasn't taking center stage in my life for about a week and a half and I wanted to make sure that I hadn't gained or gained much. To my wonderful surprise I was down 6 lbs! That makes my grand total so far 22 lbs!! I was so excited  that I had to immediately call my mom and sister. I'm not sure if I was holding onto weight because of stress or if the exercise I was doing at work mixed it up enough to make my body do something. Whatever it was I am happy with it.

My 5k race that I had been training for is Sunday. I am very nervous of how much I will be able to jog. Since the 5k at Easter I haven't jogged at all. Oh well, I will do what I can do but I know that I will finish. I have decided that it is also time for a new goal. This one I am trying to recruit people to join me. I am going to set a goal of walking at least 200 miles by Labor Day. My daily movements do not count towards this goal. It basically breaks down to walking 1.5 miles a day. I know that some days I will do more and some I might not walk at all but at least I have something to shoot for. As long as I walk 11.5 miles a week I will have no problem making this goal. My sister and my cousin Molly are all ready to join me in this. Who else is with me??

Couch to 5K

I may be doing great with my JM workouts but my couch to 5k jogging plan is going slow. Actually it is almost non-exsistent. I have realized that I do not like jogging. I would rather walk for one mile than jog for 1/4 mile. I'm not sure what it is that I don't like but I just don't like it. On Saturday my sister and I decided to do a local 5k here in Bayfield that they had for Easter. It was a tough one for sure. There were a lot of hills and I was only able to run about 1/2 of it. That's good I guess since 2 months ago I couldn't run at all. I will continue to walk and maybe add some bursts of jogging in just to mix it up but I do not see a future for me in running. Good things there is a lot of other types of exercise to do!

Well it seems I am getting behind again in my posts. I am now 2 1/2 weeks into my Jillian Michaels workouts. I completed workouts 1 and 2 last week and moved on to 3 and 4 which I will continue through next week. She really amps up the workouts. I am kind of scared of what is to come. The good news is that I know I will be ready for whatever she throws my way. I can definitely feel myself getting stronger and able to do a lot more different exercises every week (with the exception of planks). Any exercise involving planks is very hard! I will master them though!!! I have been getting up at 6am to workout and that is working great for me. I feel so good all day. The one downside that I have noticed is that I am tired and ready for bed at about 8pm. I'm not sure if my diet is causing this or I what. I will try different foods and see what happens. It might also be that heated mattress pad that I got for Christmas calling me to bed early. It just feels so nice and warm in there. Last week I didn't lose any weight but I feeling a difference in my clothes. I am really trying hard to not get discouraged with low number loss. I know that I am losing inches but seeing the scale go down is easier for me to see than inches. I'm trying to change my mindset and focus on how far I have come since January 1 instead of how far I need to go. I'm doing great and I will keep it up.
Every so often I post my progress on Facebook and that is really helping me keep going. I love the positive feedback that I get from friends. Something else that keeps me going is that a lot of people have told me that I am inspiring them to go work out and get moving. I have never thought of myself as an inspiration and that really means more to me than I can put into words.
Here is a picture of my progress so far -

Before- taken fall of 2011

Beginning of April 2012

I can really see the difference in my body. I'm glad I took this picture to keep me motivated!

Thanks you everyone for continuing to support me and for all the positive feedback!