Friday: Post-Thanksgiving

I hosted Thanksgiving at my house this year.  With three kids and a husband who might as well be counted as my fourth child, let's just say I was under a lot of stress.  But I think I looked pretty good, and my kids & husband kept all of their clothes on the whole time the family was here...THANK YOU LORD!  

  thanksgiving before & after:

Me on Thanksgiving (yesterday) 

Me Today 

I hope you and your family had a wonderful day together yesterday.  I feel about 20 pounds fatter.  In fact, I am not getting out of these sweat pants today.  Holidays always seem to screw up any progress, but it's my own fault.  So, I'm excited to announce that on December 1st I am going to start a weight loss challenge for myself.  I'll be posting updates every week on Monday, starting on December 2nd.

Look for the update badge: 

(sorry, my graphic skills are horrible lol)

I have a week full of things planned to blog after the weekend so come back soon! :) 

TOP SIX WEDNESDAY: Things that I want for Christmas that I know I ain't getting.

PHOTO CREDS:  www.macrumors.com  www.averiecooks.com www.centervillewesternstores.com  www.missashramirez.blospot.com  www.sinbadsweets.com  www.novori.com

I love browsing the internet looking for things that I'd like to have someday.  Especially when my kids are fighting.  It's a great way for me to relax while tuning out the madness. 

Starting from the top left!  I really think the iPhone 5c is totally sa-weet!  I have an iPhone 4 at the moment and parts of the screen are missing. It looks like I ran it over with my car.  But it still works.  This is why I love the iPhone.  I've had one since the first generation and I swear you can't destroy these things.

The Crock Pot Hook-Up System looks so awesome on TV.  I want one pretty bad.  I want to be the hostess with the mostest, dang it! 

Those cowgirl boots aren't just any boot...they are the Double H Buckaroo UltraGel ICE boot.  I don't even know what all of that means but that's the longest name for a shoe ever.  They look amazing and probably feel amazing on. 

The jeans aren't really what I want.  They are Miss Me jeans, and I know I'm not ever going to spend that much money on a pair of jeans, but I really want my butt to look that good someday, in my Wal-Mart jeans.

BAKLAVA!  OMG, I love Baklava.  If you've never had it you're missing out.  Only order it from sinbadsweets.com.  My grandma buys this stuff by the truckload, and you'll understand why when you take a bite!

And last but not least, the diamond ring by Novori.  Wow, it is gorgeous.  I have a ring that's supposed to be part of a two ring set, but I only have one part of it. I've been hoping for the second part for years now.  We haven't been able to afford it, but I'm hoping I get one some day when we have no children that spends all of our money, he he! 

?:  What do you want for Christmas that you know you probably won't get? 

Off comes the water weight...

Hey all!

I'm super excited that my scale is already going down.  I weighed in yesterday morning at 212.8 and this morning I'm at 210.4.  Yahoo!  I know this is all water weight and  not fat loss, but still.  It's a lower number on the scale and I'm happy about it.

I'm having high fiber oatmeal this morning for breakfast instead of my usual sugary cereal/and or donuts from Wal-Mart.  I'm feeling...good.

I'm a little depressed today though.

Our finances aren't exactly great.  We're trying to raise a family of five on $15.00 an hour. I feel awful because I'm not working anymore, but my husband and I agreed to be poor until all the kids were in school so that I could stay home with them and finish school.  I'm no where near close to finishing school, but I will be done before the youngest is in kindergarten.  That's something to look forward to... but right now we are hurting.  I have bill collectors on me all day and night, we haven't had money to buy propane to heat the house and we're using electric heaters which makes our electric bill SO high.  On top of that, we won't have money to buy our kids things for Christmas. I'm not so worried about that because our family usually buys them lots of things but I feel awful that we won't be able to get them anything ourselves.

Praying for a miracle.

My husband has applied to other jobs that pay way better but they are out of state, which would cost us a move.  Ugh...sometimes I don't know where to turn.

But this made me feel a little better.  I just saw it on Facebook:

www.jcluforever.com

I'm sure a lot of you know how it feels to be in debt and unable to pay bills.  It's not a good feeling, especially around the holidays.  But then again, we aren't lacking much.  We are all healthy, we have food to eat, and we have each other.  God gives us our basic needs and I am very grateful for that.

Have a great day!

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Sweet potato fries in da oven

Who does not love fries?  Seriously?  Ok, my five year old hates fries and everything potato, but that's another story.

I introduce my recipe for sweet potato fries in da oven.   I'm pretty proud of myself for taking these pictures all by myself!

The recipe:

• 1 Sweet Potato
• Cooking Oil (I use light olive oil)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika (optional)

Preheat da oven to 450 degrees.  Slice up your sweet potato into thin strips.  Place in bowl and drizzle a bit of cooking oil on top.  Next, sprinkle on your desired amount (I don't measure anything) of salt, pepper, and paprika.  Toss potatoes until evenly coated.

Transfer potatoes to cookie sheet.  Bake for 8 minutes, then turn potatoes.  Cook for another 5-10 minutes to desired doneness.  Is that a word?  Nope, but you know what I mean.  

Cool for a bit so you don't burn your mouth off.  Enjoy with ketchup, as show below.  If you want. :) 

The ugly truth...

Well... I took some photos this morning and I hate them.

I can't believe that I have gained 20 pounds in less than two months.

(YES, that was 20 pounds in two months!)

WHAT THE #$*@!!!!

Pardon my symbols, but I'm really, really upset with myself.

And I'm upset that my mirror looks that dirty in the photos.

I swear they don't look that bad in person.  :)

I've decided to log back on to Myfitnesspal.com and start entering in my food consumption everyday.

Are you on Myfitnesspal too?  Yayyyy!!  Add me by clicking here!

I'm also going to install my weight ticker (shown below) to my blog homepage so that you guys can see my status as I will probably update it every other day or so.

Created by MyFitnessPal - Nutrition Facts For Foods

And since it is Monday...how about a little motivation?

I'd really like to wear this in the summer after my weight is finally gone.

JCPenney

JCPenney

I found this adorable swimsuit on the JCPenney website here. 

I have some exciting plans for blog entries later in the week.  Stay tuned!

Starting over...

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I gave up on blogging back in March.  My husband and I were having major problems and I was sure that it was going to end in divorce.  Fortunately, (praise God) we overcame our differences and we just celebrated our 6th year anniversary.  However, at the end of the year, I'm still...dare I say it...FAT.  I know that we aren't supposed to say that word because it's so negative, but you know what, it's true.  I have a huge butt still and it's been like eight months since I've decided to go on a diet.  All of this is due to giving up.

Giving up is something I've always done.  I've always given up on relationships, projects, hobbies, and worst of all, I've given up on myself.  So. Many. Times.

How is this cycle broken?  At what point do you start telling yourself, "Keep going!  Don't quit!"?  It's a frustrating and heartbreaking cycle, to say the least.

For years I've tried to lose weight.  My heaviest weight was 225 on my 5'5" frame.  That was six years ago, when I married my husband.  My lightest weight was 169 right before I got pregnant with baby #3.  I gained a whopping 70 pounds with that pregnancy!  Currently, I float between 202 and 210 and I feel like I'm in the worst shape of my life.  I'm constantly fatigued, moody, and plagued with anxiety.

But for some reason, my health problems don't give me enough motivation to stick to a diet plan.  Chopping vegetables and measuring food seems like a painstaking task to me and I dread having to do it. Most days I just feel like laying on the couch or surfing the net, stuffing my face all day.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm suffering from depression. But I think what I'm suffering from is laziness.

So...what am I going to do about it?

The first thing I know I HAVE to do is cut out the sugar and processed foods that I so dearly LOVE.  Those are my weaknesses so it makes sense that they be the first things to go.  I'm going to do this for ten days and see how my body feels afterwards.  Then after those ten days, I'm going to incorporate another good habit.

My goal weight is 155.  I have 55 pounds to lose.  Can I do it?  Absolutely.  But will I do it?  I'm going to have to. 

What is something you've given up on and wish you hadn't?  How did it affect your life?