Ugh...

Has anyone noticed that I haven't posted anything on here about weight loss lately? Well...THAT'S BECAUSE THERE HASN'T BEEN ANY!! Oh I have been HORRIBLE! Last time I did this competition thing, I went off the diet for 2 months and gained five pounds. I figured that wasn't too bad!

So this time around, I went back off my diet and something in me SNAPPED! It has been three weeks and I have gained 9 pounds!!! BUT...I do have to say that I still am under my ultimate goal weight of 150. I said I wanted to go below 150 so I would have some weight to play with...I know, I can give all the lame excuses I want...

You know what really stinks though? Guess where it has ALL come back? My gutt!! UGH!! Granted I think that is more from lack of physical activity than anything.

Okay, I really need to get my butt back in gear. My husband and his family are doing a competition until December. Each person has to put in $50, winner take all. I figured if I lose 19 pounds, then I will have lost 50 pounds in one year. How cool would that be? That would put me at 12% weight loss this time around. I just don't know if that will be enough to win or if I can even actually get down that low. Decisions, decisions...

Tools I Use...Ab Lounge

This little contraption was a life saver for me when I first started this journey! I could not do a crunch, sit up, superman, etc. TO SAVE MY LIFE! Seriously! I had ZERO muscles in my stomach. I had given birth 5 times in 7 years (one six months before I started and one 15 months prior to that). I felt like the biggest doof! I didn't know what to do because I knew I wasn't going to build any muscles if I wasn't using them...

So I decided to give the Ab Lounge a try. When the ab portion of the video came on, I would let it play and use my Ab Lounge while the ab part played. At first I would just leave the exercise video playing and use the Ab Lounge for the duration of the ab portion. As I progressed, I would pause the video and use the Ab Lounge a little longer. Now, I can do all the crunches, sit ups, etc. on my own but I attribute a lot of that to this little machine! I don't use it anymore but it was definitely great to give me a jumpstart!

On drawback to the Ab Lounge is that it does have a 250 pound weight limit. There are other machines out there that I assume would serve a similar purpose (for example - Ab Rocket) but I am not sure what (if any) their weight limits are.

I paid around $100 for mine but the cheapest I could find was on Walmart.com for $77.

Tools I Use...George Foreman Grill

I LOVE this thing for dieting! I have seen these advertised before but never bought one because I figured it would just be another appliance that would sit on my counter, take up space, and never get used. My husband mentioned that he would like to have one and a couple of days later, my sister called to see if I would want hers because she was getting rid of it. I said sure, thinking I probably wouldn't use it much but at least I wouldn't be spending the money on something I wouldn't use.

We literally use this a least every other day. Some days it gets used several times during the day! It makes it so easy and QUICK to cook up a chicken breast (very good for diets). I have used different types of seasoning on the chicken and everything has turned out great. When I do cook beef, it drains off all the extra fat instead of having the meat sitting in the grease as it cooks. We have found that it is VERY versatile. We have cooked fries (so no oil), squash slices (very YUMMY), burritos, breaded chicken, regular chicken, hamburgers, steaks, grilled sandwiches (which can be done without the added calories of putting butter on the bread).

I always hated cooking up a chicken breast for myself because of all the work and time. With this grill, I just throw it on the grill for five minutes and I have a nice evenly cooked chicken breast. I have even thrown them on slightly frozen and just increased the cook time and still got a perfectly cooked chicken breast.

One complaint I read online was that they are hard to clean because you can't remove the plates. We have found that this isn't necessary. All you have to do is wipe the extra food off with a dry paper towel. The temps on the grill are high enough that there is no need to use soap and water to clean it (in fact the instructions actually recommend not using soap and water). I have never had a problem getting it clean with the paper towels.

I found this one online at Walmart.com for $29 (mine is white but I think it is the same grill). It comes with a drip pan and a spatula designed specifically for this grill. If you will be cooking mostly for yourself, they do have a smaller one for $19.

"You're too little..."

I had the most awesome thing happen to me today!! I went to buy a couple of shakes for me and hubby. I walked out to my car carrying two small shakes and walked by an older lady who was sitting in her car with the window rolled down. She asked if I was going to eat both of the shakes. I told her I wasn't. She responded by saying that if it was her she would probably end up eating both of them. Then she said "But you're too little to eat both of those shakes by yourself." She called me little!!! NO ONE has EVER called me little before!! I just wanted to give her a big old hug and tell her she made my day!! Talk about motivation to keep going and not put the weight back on...!!! WAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!!!

Pictures

So I promised before and after pictures so here there are. I was hoping that the change would be a little more apparent in the pictures but what can I say?
These are the pants I was wearing in the before picture. I always laugh at these pictures because the pants are flat so it is a way skewed but I couldn't resist!!