Just so tired. . .

I've just been so tired lately.  It started when I got sick last week.  I had a cold/sinus/allergies or something like that and it slammed me.  I have a runny nose occasionally still, but my eyes are so fatigued.  They just want to be closed.  I thought maybe it's allergies.  I took zyrtec the last 2 days but didn't notice much difference.  Last night my husband and I both fell asleep in the living room by 8 pm.  It's very strange for him to fall asleep like that.  But it did help both of us with our evening snacking issue!   I think if this continues to next week I'll make a Dr appt.  Might be time to check my thyroid anyways.  I don't know if my weigh loss will affect the dosage of the meds.  I've kind of been waiting to hit 175 before I pursue that.

---

Speaking of weight. . . I clocked in my lowest of the year.

Small little happy dance.  175 truly is my goal for now.  I want to see what I look like and how I feel.  Getting closer! :)  

I've made a different smoothie than normal this week.  Usually I use a chocolate protein powder, banana, ice and almond milk.   This week I've been using my Advocare Vanilla Meal Replacement Shake, almond milk, berries and ice.  Yum!  I make a huge breakfast smoothie. 

32 oz bubba there! :)  It's great. I sip on it at work in the AM.  And then I freeze my ass off cause it's cold in the my office *and* the smoothie makes me colder for at least 30 mins after drinking it. (yes that's my Yadi bobblehead peeking over my cup!)

---

My car is in the shop.  I need new tie rods apparently.  I don't pretend to know what that is.  My husband's friend is a mechanic.   And apparently Toyota makes replacing the *inner* tie rods a bitch.  They won't sell them separately but they want you to buy the big huge thing they are attached to.  Yes I'm a girl and I don't know what I'm talking about.  What I do know is that inner tie rods run about $35-ish a piece.  And this big huge part runs about $900.  So we are actually trying to replace just the tie rods if it works.  Fingers crossed!  They should be in today.  I hope to have my car back no later than tomorrow. 

So I'm driving our truck.  It's a 3/4 ton Dodge Ram.  My work parking lot is so small it's kind of a PITA to park it.  I like driving it when my horse trailer is attached, but to just drive it as a regular vehicle - it's just too big.  I also drive it slower because of the size I guess. . . so it takes me longer to get to work.  Yesterday when I got to the barn I took my ring off and thought it looked pretty in the little place I found in the truck to stash it. 

I'm sure I've mentioned it before.  I bought that as a reward a few years ago when I got out of the 200's.  I won't let myself wear it if I weight 200 or above.  It's a ONEDERLAND ring :)   I often wear it as a wedding band because it's easier to wear than my wedding set.  And since I take rings off everyday when I get to the barn, it's easier to take off one than three.   I'm so thrilled to be wearing it almost daily now.  It was probably a whole year that I was in the 200's and that baby sat in my jewelry box. 

Advocare and Onederland!

On January 7th I started the Advocare 24 day challenge with many many other people that signed up for their "All In" challenge.  Everyone started on the 7th.  I have to admit that I've been kind of hesitant to start this.  Advocare has been around a LOOOOOONG time.  When I was in high school (I graduated in 1996) I remember it being sold in the town where I worked.  This guy (yeah he was a rather good looking guy - lol) had this little store from where he did Advocare and some real estate I think.  His little billboard sign outside the store would talk about results people had. . . .  Well time passed and suddenly in the last 1-2 years it seems Advocare has exploded.  I can name soooo many people that I'm FB friends that sell this.  I've had to take them out of my newsfeed cause it was getting slammed with Advocare.   But I would go snoop. . . . and I would see results on their FB pages. . . . then  a friend of mine did the challenge and I saw her results.  So I decided to go for it.  January is the best month for me to do something like this because there isn't much going on and therefore not much temptation.  

Let me say that over Christmas I pretty much retained my weight.  I was holding between 206-208.  I was 208 just after Christmas.  The holiday was no big deal.  I didn't like that weight, but I'd been stuck there for months and as long as I didn't gain over Christmas I was happy.   Then new year's came and I held strong.  I hate that holiday anyways.  But then I decided to do this challenge and every meal was like my last meal on earth.   I just ate everything I wanted and drank soda non stop.  I was really drinking a lot of soda the past few months and I knew that was not a good thing.  I gained weight the few days leading to the challenge.  I weighed an even 211 on the morning of Jan 7th. 

I've had better results on the scale than I expected doing this challenge.  Let me say that the eating program is all clean eating.  3 meals - 3 snacks, not many restrictions other than processed foods, white carbs, dairy. . .   You shouldn't be hungry.  The first 10 days is a cleanse phase.  I lost 9.4 lbs during that phase.   Many people report losing a lot of inches even if they don't lose that much on the scale.  I measured the morning of the 7th, but I haven't since then.  I know my body and it takes a lot for inches to come off.  I always say that's because I'm 5'10" and there's so much more height to take those inches from.  So it's slower.   But I am finally noticing some difference in how my clothes fit. 

Today is day 14. . . I got on the scale and so in the first 13 days I've lost 11.4 lbs!!!!   And welcome to ONEDERLAND!! (again!)

This was my goal for the whole 24 days . . . to get below 200 lbs.  I have 10 days left and I'm so excited.  The weight is falling off.  I will say that I suspect it's more due to the eating than the supplements, but I can't be sure.  I've eaten well before and not had these results.  But probably not as clean.   My hubby is doing the eating, but not the supplements and he's losing too.  I'm finally seeing it in him.  When you see someone every day it's hard to see those changes.  My mom says she can see my weight loss.  So I'm happy about that.   I'm having some trouble with the MNS part of this - phase 2 that is.  But I'll write about that later, if I get if figured out.  For now I'm just so excited to see these kinds of results.  I have to think hard about what to do and how to transition after 24 days. . . . but for now I'm thrilled and I'm finally wearing my diamond ring that I bought a few years back when I accomplished getting to the 100's - and staying there for some time. I can't wear the ring if I'm not in the 100's and if you know me and my love of jewelry it kills me to see it sitting in my jewelry box and not being worn!

Choices

It wasn't a fluke! 

I'm in shock. I'm not complaining, but history indicates that this should have shot up today.  I was so excited this morning.  

I made good choices yesterday.  I went to lunch at a pizza place.  It's very very hard for me to not get pizza.  But I was strong.  I looked at my ring and I thought I worked hard to get under 200 lbs. I can have pizza again, but not today.   I ordered a grilled chicken salad.  The lady asked if I wanted a small or large.  She indicated the large was really big.  But when is a lot of lettuce bad for you?  I got the large. OMG.  I wish I'd had taken a photo.  Wow.  It was ginormous.  I can't even guess how much chicken was on there.  I was a bit worried about any butter being used on the chicken.  But I ate every last bite of that salad.  I was stuffed. My biggest concern was that I used every drop of dressing they gave me.  I usually don't do that.  Especially when the dressing comes out in small bowl.  But the salad was just that big.  I had poppyseed dressing.  Every day when I eat at my desk I use salsa as dressing.  When I go out I figure I can splurge and have real dressing.  It was SO good.  

Last night I was on my own for dinner.  I had 2 scrambled eggs with a slice of melted cheese, 3 links of banquet turkey sausage and a glass of chocolate milk.   My favorite dinner!   Now don't think that I don't have "bad" food.  Cause I do!  I made sugar cookies this past weekend.  I gave 24 to my mom to take to work with her.  But I kept some aside for me.  I've had one every night.  It's my treat.  I don't like to "diet" where I restrict food.   I've never been good at that (except with HCG).  When I can't have something I tend to eat *more* other things to satisfy a craving.  Usually I'd have been better off just eating the thing I wanted in the first place.   I also have these skinny cow chocolates filled with caramel.  I had a pack of those.  I'm not going to lie.  6-9 pm is my worse eating time.  I just want to keep eating.  I tend to struggle a tiny bit after lunch at work.  I try to eat lunch as late as possible (I tend to want to eat lunch at 11 am) so that the time between when I'm done with lunch and get to leave work is shorter. :)   Also I just can't keep any kind of food at my desk.  I suck at portion control.  So I have what is in my cooler and that's all I can eat. I'm doing much better with that time of day.  But the evenings hit me hard.  I'm working on that, but so far it hasn't been hurting me too much I guess. 

---

Oh and yesterday was a cross train or 2 mile run.  I chose to run.  I think maybe I should have done the elliptical or stairs for my knee.  I'm still working on that dang knee.  I did ice it last night.  In anycase I have 3 miles tonight.  First I have a chiro appointment.  I swear I have a rib that is slightly out of place.  It was *beyond* painful on Sunday.  I can't even begin to tell you how much pain I was in.  My mom saw me briefly that day.  I guess I looked like hell.  Cause she texted me 3 times on Monday to see how I was doing.  I had a massage on Monday and that seemed to have helped.  Might have even relaxed the rib but things aren't quite right.  So the chiro is first after work.  Then the 3 mile run.  And if it's not to late ( meaning my chiro wasn't running crazy late) then I'll hit the barn for a ride on Eli cause the weather is just suppose to be so nice today (40's).   Have a great day!

Small little *happy* dance

This deserves a happy dance!!!!!

So this is probably temporary.   Yesterday I was like 201.4 (?).   It's also that time of month.   So this is so strange.  However when you get in a huge fight with your husband and don't eat dinner I guess you get rewarded on the scale the next day!  I'm going out to lunch with a friend today so I expect that this number will jump a bit tomorrow.  However I'm super excited to even see this for a moment.

I may have mentioned when I hit Onederland in 2011 I bought myself a ring.  It's a 1 carat 5 stone ring that I got from ID Jewelry in NY.  They are an approved Pricescope vendor.  I ordered it via email and insisted on Pricescope quality stones.  It's fantastic!   I promised myself I couldn't wear it if I was over 200 lbs.  I don't think I've worn it since last April.  I usually wear it as a right hand ring, but sometimes just wear it as a solo wedding band.  I put it on today to remind me that I'm moving forward on this journey and even if the scale is up tomorrow, I'm going in the right direction.  Excuse the crappy cell phone photo.

---

Yesterday started my road to the KY Derby Half Marathon!   I ran 3 miles on the treadmill.  Looking at this plan, I'm committed to the Tues, Thurs, Sun runs.  Though the days may change.  I will get those runs in every week.  I did Hal's 15K training plan and ran Tues, Thurs, Sat most of the time and that worked very well I think.  This half plan has an optional run on Wed.   I can't guarantee I can fit that in every week.  But I will try.  I actually plan on the 2 miles today.  I'm too crabby to go home, so I'll probably ride Eli and then hit the gym for a quick 2 miles.  Plus I gotta burn some calories after going out for lunch.   I was really dreading running yesterday.  I do better when I have a running schedule, but I was rather enjoying the time "off".  I was alternating short 2 miles runs with Chalean Extreme and things were going pretty well.  However, once I got the run done yesterday I felt great and maybe I'm back in the groove.  April will be here before we know it.