Hiatus-OVER

Wow, I'm a terrible blogger. I must be the worse in history.

Well, an update I guess. In the month of August I participated in a health related challenge that started on YouTube. Bitsandclips along with another YouTube mom created this idea called GABI. Grin and bear it, I certainly beared it, not so much with the grinning. We were required to drink 2 liters of water a day, count calories on Monday's, not snack after dinner, and do the dreaded 30 day shred. Well after 30 days of misery, Jillian Michaels can kiss my ass. Each week we had special challenges to participate in. One week we had to make a meal for 550 calories or under, baby wear on a 2 mile walk, make a smoothie with veg in it, and record our dinners for one week. We could all add on additional goals for ourselves, I decided that I would give up soda for a whole month. I succeeded, it's now day 4 of September and I still have not had a soda. I actually enjoyed working out and getting to know some special women in the process.

My husband is amazing, he is up to somewhere around 65 pounds lost. The change is remarkable. He is back at his original weight from high school.

To date my total weight loss is at 30 pounds. I'm so proud of what I've accomplished thus far, and I hope things only get better from here on out regarding my weight loss journey. I really wish I had my husbands control. He is so much better than I am at passing up delicious treats and foods. He shows an amazing sense of restraint that I wish I had. I'm sure if I could say no as well as he can I would have lost a lot more weight since February. Well that's all for now.

We're Back

Wow. February has been a crazy month. I got so sidetracked with some new things Ive been doing. On the 9th I started doing roller derby. So far a really like it. Im making a ton of new friends and Im exercising in the process. I've lost a total of 12 pounds and Michael has lost 20! We have our rough days/weeks but its about moving on and getting back into it.

Good Riddance

This week I lost 5.8 pounds. That brings my total loss to 9 pounds.Under 300 pounds!! I will never weight that much again, period end of sentence! I've been working up to jogging this week. Combining jogging with my walks. The first day I woke up, stretched, walked to the high school track then jogged. It was a lot harder the first day than it was today. One of the main things I did differently was go for a long walk first. I was good and warm after a 2.5 mile walk. I could only run for about 15 minutes. But every time it will get easier! I can do this!

I'm having a hard time with food cravings. I miss pasta, cheese, breads, heavy cream, soda! I really want some cheesy creamy pasta! *drool* I wish I could afford some sea food. I would love to cook some salmon, shrimp, halibut. Sorry, off track. I'm hungry and waiting for dinner to finish cooking so I am dreaming about all kinds of yummy things. I am going to have to garden this spring because vegetables are just too expensive at the grocery store.

So last week I went with Michael to watch a friend's roller derby bout. I had SO much fun. Its something I have always wanted to do. She convinced me to come out to the recruitment last night. I have found a new goal to work towards! I am going to attempt Roller Derby! I am so excited. Nervous, and excited. I don't want to be bad at this. Hopefully, I can pick it up like I pick up most new activities. I'm looking forward to making some new friends, memories, and experiencing some new things. Plus the exercise is good too!


Torrey: 295.6

Discouragment Already?

SO, I feel like it is way too early to be hitting a wall. But I have hit little hurdle nonetheless. Our first weigh in was a success. Michael lost 11 pounds in about a week and a half. I lost 3.2 pounds the first week. Then this week I had a tough time. I drank 3 nights in a row and binged on jack in the box. Not good. On the plus side I did not stop exercising. Tomorrow is a weigh in day and I think I may have stayed the same or even put weight back on. I have a huge problem with overeating. I have to retrain myself how to eat slower and stop when I am full.

I made myself a motivation board. I will try and upload a photo of it in my next post. I put some inspirational quotes, a photo of Michael and I, some exercise ideas and a weight loss tracker. I also have a few quotes around the house, on my fridge, and my bathroom mirror.

Four days ago I started a crunches challenge. I started at 30 and I will be working up to 100 crunches. I did two days of 30 and two days of 35. Every two days I am increasing the amount by 5. I am now walking 3 miles in one hour, when I first started I was walking about a mile and a half. This morning I woke up at 7am and went to the high school track. I am working towards being able to run for long periods of time. Today was rough, as expected. I walked for an hour and ran for about 15 minutes. I don't think I have ran that much since I played softball in high school. I expected my throat and lungs to be sore from breathing really hard but they really didn't ever start to ache. My feet and ankles hurt pretty bad, and that kept me from running longer. Also, kids were starting to show up at school and I was pretty embarrassed about people possibly watching. I have also been doing Wii Boxing and Just Dance. They aren't much, but they are WAY more than what I have been doing up to date.

We are starting to look into a family gym membership with my parents. Hopefully, we can figure something out with our already tight budget and join. I really want this to stick this time around. I need to get healthy and happy. Hopefully, fingers crossed, there are some new and exciting experiences around the corner.

Gotta Have Faith

So after our first week of changes, I am feeling pretty good. It's harder for me to believe that anything is happening. I find myself constantly running to the scale and only seeing slight changes. This is my last week of weighing myself every day. I just need to have more faith in myself and the changes we are implementing. I think that so far we have a solid routine and it will only be refined over time. Tuesdays are going to be our weigh in's. We will be posting a new blog for sure once a week on Tuesdays after we weight our selves. But if we have anything blog worthy in the meantime I will make sure to jump on and write a new post.

I think it is important to set goals. I really want to try and get to the point where I can run without doubling over and dying. I think that a reasonable goal would be to be able to run a straight mile without stopping by the end of March. I also want to work on being able to make a full week meal plan. I feel like if I have my day planned out, from start to finish, I wont stray from it with unnecessary eating. I would like to get into a more set sleeping routine. If I can achieve a sleeping schedule, a morning walk may be a possibility. I just have to start going to bed early and find the motivation to work out before I leave for work.

I have been walking everyday this week. Everyday after I walk I feel more energetic and less tired than usual. Today I walked 5.77 miles at a brisk pace. I wish Biggs was bigger so I had more route options. I'm just going to have to start getting creative. I would love to join a gym but unfortunately that is just not in the budget at this time. So instead, I am going to use one of the Target gift cards from the wedding and buy an affordable set of dumbbell's to use at home. I want to lose weight but I also want to get toned and strong.

Food. One of my biggest vice's. We made a trip to Sam's club and they had a fairly decent selection of well priced produce. We bought two huge bags of Romaine and a big container of fresh spinach. I think they were each about 3 dollars. We stocked up on boneless skinless chicken breasts and pork chops. When we got home I separated them, two to a bag, and froze them. Prepackaging and freezing everything this way makes it very easy to plan for dinner and to not overeat. We have gone salad crazy! I like to add "stuff" to mine for variety. I love mushrooms, carrots, celery, nuts, and proteins in my salads. Where as Michael's are very simple. He likes lettuce, dressing, and protein. I think he is warming up to spinach though. I want to try incorporating  more healthy carbohydrates (couscous, quinoa, wild rice, whole grain pasta) into our diet. So far nothing has seemed very "meal"ish. It has all been just a bunch of rag-tag salads. I need to look into some healthy meals.

Goodnight. ~Torrey

We Did It!

Today feels like the first official day of our "lifestyle change." That's what I am calling it because I am not dieting. Diets don't work, not for me anyways. After you stop dieting you usually put all the weight back on. In my case you put everything you lost back on plus some, just for good measure. We set our ultimate goals AND bought our first scale today. I am 23 and rather ashamed to say that I have never owned a scale. I think the cartoon is the precise reason why I have never owned one. I'm ashamed to get on a scale because I don't like to admit that I have lost complete control of my eating habits and my body.

We both have started profiles on www.myfitnesspal.com. Michael's profile is bigpayne70. And my profile is HellbettyPayne. So far it seems to be a very useful tool to keep track of food intake and calories burned through exercise. That website allows you to have friends and keep tabs on each other. So I can motivate friends if I see that they have not been meeting their caloric goals and vice versa.

Down to the nitty gritty....

Torreys Weight: 304.6
Goal Weight: 180

Michael's Weight: 324.6
Goal Weight: 260

A New Adventure

I'm not really sure how to start a blog, this being my first. I guess I should introduce myself and talk about the point of the blog. My name is Torrey and my husband is Michael. We are two "normal" people, with normal jobs, and normal interests. Like most normal people we have found ourselves unsatisfied with the way our bodies look and the way extra weight makes us feel. We have a variety of reasons for wanting to change and also for wanting to blog about it. Everyone wants to look and feel their best. Of course we want to lose weight to look better naked, but another important drive is to be healthier. I feel like if we have somewhere to track our goals, successes, fails, etc. we will feel more accountable to this weight loss plan. We hope that with time and hardwork we will meet our weight loss goals. We know it wont be easy and we know there will be times when we want to completely give up. But I also know that I am done being 'the fat girl!' I am committed to this lifestyle change. -Torrey