I went shopping. . . and bought a dress!

I love non scale victories.  I bought a pair of shorts in a size 14 in early May.  I was going to wear them to a ball game over Memorial Day weekend.  I felt they were a bit too big so I didn't wear them.  I finally got my act together and exchanged them last night for a size 12.  Whoop! :)  I love NSVs. 

Since I was at Kohl's and I'm pretty much in need of clothes, I decided to hit the dressing room.  I've always wanted a long dress or a long skirt.  Often they are never long enough for me, but someone told me to go to Kohl's.  I don't "need' a dress or skirt, like I *need* other clothing, but I ended up buying both.  And nothing else other than the swap of shorts.  I gotta work on focusing on what I need. 

So excuse the sports bra and crappy end of day hair. . . 

Here's the dress: 

I often think dresses make me look wide.  And maybe this does a tiny bit, but I knew as soon as I put it on that I liked it!  I have no idea when I will wear it, or with what bra unfortunately, but if I don't wear it by fall I'll return it. :) 

Please ignore the shirt here. . . . 

I bought the skirt and not the shirt.  I don't know if I have a top that will work for this.  So it might go back too.  I sound like a broken record huh?  This shirt gave me no shape.  As you can see I look much bigger in this photo cause you can't see any waist/hips.  But the skirt is long.  And I think I can find something to wear with it.  I hope!  

I'm so not a girly girl so these purchases were almost stressful to me.  But I love that you can return to Kohl's for up to a year and if it was bought on your Kohl's card you don't even need a receipt. 

Inches lost. . .

Oh gosh. . . I'm so discouraged by the scale.  Up and down. . .the same 2 lbs basically.  This weekend I saw the 30 lbs lost mark. . . but my scale was goofy.  It took like 6 attempts to get two weights of the same number.  So scrap that.  I'll wait till I really believe it.

Yesterday I measured.  I needed some motivation.

Total lost since May 9th (that was the end of my last cleanse and the last time I measured)
Chest: -2 inches (really?  goodness.  I don't need or want to lose my chest!)
Waist: - 1 inch
Hips: -1 inch
Thigh: -0.5 inch

My totals since the beginning of the year when I first started Advocare:
Chest: -4 inches
Waist: -5 inches
Hips: -6 inches (I freaking LOVE this!  That's my problem area)
Thigh: -3.5 inches

The scale doesn't show it all, but gosh darn it if I won't do a happy dance when I see that 30 lbs mark for realz.

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Sunday I did my first real 5 mile run (ran the whole thing) in a long long time.

I cannot freaking tell you how good this felt!  Whoop!   I had negative splits!  Holy crap. I never have that on a 5 mile run.  It was cold!  It was like 58 when I started my run.  Breezy too.  I had a head wind from miles 0.5-1.5.  That was kind of a struggle and might explain the slower miles 1 and 2.  Normally my first mile would be below 11:00.  Funny how running into the wind can be tough, but when it's a tail wind, I can't feel nothing and it sure doesn't feel like it pushes me on!  This was one of those runs that felt so steady and strong. Just very rhythmic.  I LOVE those.  I was flying high after this run.

I've been taking Advocare's 02 Gold before my runs on the weekend.  People call it a 3rd lung.  I haven't quite got the timing down - you are suppose to take it an hour before you run. I'm usually out the door well within that first hour that I'm awake.  That being said I do feel like it helps and it's on my list to reorder this week.  I don't tend to keep using things that I feel don't work.  So there's something going on!

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I don't think I mentioned this here, but this past week I had Brussels Sprouts for the first time.  In my life.  First time ever.  I loved them.  Of course they were made with pork belly and might have been fried to some capacity.  I tried to roast some last night with oil and balsamic vinegar. 

They were ok.  I'm going to keep trying. If you have a recipe that rocks, please share it with me.  

Down down baby . . .

Tell me that title doesn't make you wanna sing Country Grammar? 

I'm going down down baby, yo street in a Range Rover. . . . 
Boom boom baby, ready to let it go. 
Shimmy shimmy cocoa what? Listen to it pound. . . 

Ok maybe it's not the same thing as the scale going down, but when I got on the scale yesterday I started singing this song.  No joke. 

This morning the scale was exactly the same.  Whoop!

So I'm not making much progress on the fat percent.  I think when I return from Europe I may have to start some weight training.  Just more stuff to add to my to do list! 

That brings my total loss to 23.2 since Jan 7th when I started Advocare.  Of course most of the lost was during the 24 day challenge and the rest of the first month.  I'm pretty happy with this.  I was hoping to see 185 before I left for London, but that's not very likely.  I'm ok with that.  

My lowest adult weight (when I did HCG in 2011) was about 173-ish.  I didn't even remember that and went back to look.  178 really stuck out in my head and I think that I maintained at that range for a bit.  So that was really on my goal list this year.  To see 178 again.  I'm slowly getting there.  My highest adult weight (I think 2010-ish when my thryoid went whacky even though I had been on meds forever) was 250.   It's fun to think about how far I am from that again.  It's definitely motivation!

Another thing that motivates me are NSV's.  Like the fact that when I'm wearing most jeans I'm comfortably on my last belt hole.  I do have a pair of jeans that sit more below my waist and those babies put my belt on the second to last hole.   Also seeing my reflection in door/windows is very motivating.  I'm finally really seeing a difference in my hips in the reflection.  Makes me happy!

So I leave for London a week from tomorrow.  My to do list is a mile long and I'm a bit stressed.  Work is still super busy and that makes me exhausted when I get home at night. 

Oh one more thing - I finally read Gone Girl.  . . . can I get my time back?  what I could have done with the time it took me to read that in the evenings.  Ugh.  Great story line until the disappointing ending that ruined it all.  What a way to fizzle out. I wanted to see the movie and I chose to read the book first.  I will not be seeing the movie.  Lame. 

Some Victories

So I'm a number person.  I hate that weight fluctuates so much.  In  my last post I said I lost 20 lbs.  Then for the next 5 days my weight bounced up and down a tiny bit and never went back to that 20 pound mark till day 5.  BLAH!   I always hesitate to say that I lost a certain amount of weight cause it might not be the same the next day!  Once you lose something it should be gone.  Permanently.  Wouldn't that be nice?!

So yesterday was the day I finally saw 191.0 again on the scale.  Happy dance!  And I was so determined to be good.  There are girl scout cookies in my office and I've eaten a few every day since they arrived.  I think that was Monday.  I ate some yesterday  as well.  But I'm chose to.  I looked at the calories and Trefoils really aren't that bad.  You get a decent amount of cookies for the calories. Anyways, enough about cookies. I've been working longer hours this week to work on this project for our trip to London.  My coworker works 4- 9 hour days and 4 hours on Friday.  So in order to maximize our time together I stayed late every day this week.  I'm not today though, but I will get off 3 hours early on Friday. Knowing my luck my boss will let the whole company leave early and then my comp time wouldn't matter.   He randomly does that and I tend to have bad luck surrounding that. But I don't see that happening tomorrow I hope.

Since I've been working late I've been slacking on working out and riding Eli.  In this case Eli is more important cause he's stuck inside due to the weather.  He needs to move regularly as he's tied up in the past.  I went to the barn last night and there was a group jumping lesson.  No room to lunge Eli.  I knew he'd be full of himself and I was right.  Whew.  Talk about being forward.  I just let him trot, trot, trot.  We didn't get any real work done, but I guess the point was to use the energy.  It was so cold my back started hurting.  And while he was certainly moving I felt like he never really relaxed his back so I just didn't push him into much work.

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So onto the victories. . . .

I saw the 180's this morning!!!!  Holy happy dance.  I got on the scale FOUR times.  Same weight each time!  Whoop whoop!!!  I told my husband once I saw the 180's that we could get pizza. I hate rewarding myself with food.  But we have been eating out once on the weekend usually.  And I was craving pizza, but in general we've made healthier choices when eating out.  Like BBQ for example.  Hunk of meat.  That haven't been covered in butter or fried.  So pizza is a lot of carbs.  I wanted it.  But I felt like I had to *earn* it.  How do you earn pizza?  So I said I needed to see the 180s.  Again I hate the food reward, but I also like goals.  So. . .  I haven't told my hubby yet about the scale.  Ha.  Cause I'm having second thoughts.  I also feel like this was a fluke.  So we'll see. 

Next up - I cut the tags off a pair of jeans this morning. I have no clue when I bought them.  They are from Maurice's.  They are the Taylor jeans in a size 13/14.  Taylor's run big though and they tell you that at the store.  I rarely wear a 14.  I guess at my thinnest I was in a 12, but that didn't last long.  These jeans tend to bag out on me as the day goes on.  I hate that.  And they were a tad lose (though not really in the waist) when I put them on.  So I wonder what they will look/feel like at lunch.  Anyone have a recommendation for jeans that keep their tightness?  

The final victory is that my belt wants to be on the last notch.  I haven't quite put it there cause I tend to like a more loose belt, but it wants to be there.  I might have to look into getting a new belt soon.  Woo hoo!  

I'm going to be honest, I'm still very stressed about the trip because of so many days of eating out.  I guess it's not possible to gain 20 pounds back in 2 weeks right?  I mean I'd have to seriously stuff my face and sit still.  But mentally I'm worried I'm going to return the states and be right back at 211.  I'm trying to keep this scale moving down down down till I leave. I want to have more of a buffer. . . a buffer to what?  I don't know.  That dreaded 200 I guess. I want to remain in onederland!   I like living here and I've been a resident before.  I'd like to not move out this time. :)