Update and struggles

     I'm really trying to keep up with this blog you guys, really I am. It's just really hard while I'm in school. Which brings me to my next point. I'm learning that while I'm in school is when I let myself slide on the weight loss and going to the gym. I really have no excuse not to go to the gym. I belong to not only the student rec. on campus that just got remodeled and is amazing but also a local gym with a child care center. I've been slacking BIG time on my diet as well. I jumped on the scale at the gym and I'm back up to 292 according to that scale. The damage could have been worse but it's still damage. 

I talked last time about doing the underwater weighing to calculate body fat last time. I can say I survived and I just went in there with confidence. Fake it till you make it, right? The worse part of the whole experience was on my 3rd and final time under the water I swallowed a huge gulp of the water when I came back up. 

I've been thinking of some future goals to hit when out of the blue I seen an ad for a Hot Chocolate 5K. My husband and I think it would be run to train for it and run it next year. It looks like so much fun! I haven't ran a 5K for about 5 years now and I think it'll be fun to train for something with my husband. He used to love running and he too let things slip as we've gotten older. 

I'm hoping to get a new scale come the first week in Dec. I know you read that it's unhealthy to weigh yourself everyday. However, I really like knowing what my body's normal is. I know that weight fluctuates daily but I like knowing by how much. Plus I miss sharing my Wednesday Weigh Ins. I think this has also contributed to the set back. There's a voice in me that reminds me I don't have a scale to worry about weighing in so why should I try. I know it's horrible to think this way and I need to change this way of thinking. 

Well, I must go....Homework is calling. Thankfully I only have class two days next week. 

Until next time....Stay Strong Iron Family.    

Slipping into old habits

Hello Iron Family!

  
     I know it's been a looooooong time since my last post. I will be honest and tell you I have once again put my fit goals on the back burner. I have let life challenges get in my way. I am a typical mom and  right now have to focus on my middle son. We have suspicions that he may also have autism. The past few months has been testing and specialist visits. We find out for sure on Nov. 10th when we meet with developmental specialist. 

    Another horrible event happened a few weeks ago. My beloved bathroom scale went to the scale graveyard. So right now I have no idea what I weigh. I have a feeling I won't be happy once I get a new one.

   Next week is going to interesting. As I've written about before I am currently in school for a degree in exercise science with a minor in nutrition. This coming Wednesday in my physiology lab I will have the underwater body testing done. I am both excited and absolutely terrified. I am excited because it's a great tool to have and I'm terrified that I will be in public wearing a bathing suit. I also have a small fear of water. 

     I really need to start blogging consistent again. I feel so much better mentally after I do, My goal is going to be writing at least 3 blogs a week. It'll be a challenge but I know it benefits me. 


Until next time, stay strong Iron Family!! 
    




   

Progress and Goals

Hello Iron Family! I took a short blog break but I am back!! Home life has been a little crazy and I haven't had much time to write. 

So you're probably wondering how my weigh in went this week. I would say pretty good...

I am finally getting this weight loss thing! Even on bad days I've learned how to just pick myself up and dust off. I've been hitting the gym 6 days a week and logging every bite that goes into my mouth. I get so excited seeing my number of days logged in go up on myfitnesspal.com. So far I have logged in 84 days in a row! I am going to have a big happy dance when I hit 100!

I also took a progress photo this past week. I personally don't see much change but I think that could be due to how baggy my shirt is. The black shirt is from the start of my journey and the gray shirt is from last week. 

I've been thinking of a few goals I want to hit that are reasonable. My first goal is for December, I want to hit 50 lbs total loss. Right now I'm at 29 lbs total and think that it's doable. The next is for my birthday. My birthday typically falls the weekend of The Arnold Sports Festival in March. We already have plans in place to go including our hotel already booked. I want to try to hit between 80 to 100 lbs total loss. I think it would be neat to be able to compare this year's Arnold photos to next year's.




I can't wait to see what this journey has in store for me!!!

Until next time, Stay Strong Iron Family!  

Sabotage and Giving into Temptation.

We all go through it at some point in our lives. Whether  it comes from the outside or from within. Some people do it to us without even meaning to. We have family members who voice concern because we are trying a new way of eating, a husband who brings home the newest Oreo flavor, or friends who want to go out for drinks. The hardest is when we do it to ourselves. We slip up on one meal and that one meal becomes two, then a week, a month and so on. My biggest obstacle is the internal sabotage. It's easy for me to tell other people no thank you when they put something in front of me. However, when that little internal voice pops up and tells me it's okay to eat that ice cream cone or stop through a drive-thru on the way home because no one else will know it's hard to say no. 

I've been doing so well diet wise until this week. I wish I could say it was due to a large 4th of July party spread with loads of temptation and goodies, but no. I actually did really well at our family's yearly cookout. I planned ahead, ate before going, and took water with me. The sabotage came later in the week in the form of a that horrible little voice. That bitch can be the biggest sabotager of all. She told me on Monday that since I hadn't broke my fast at 2pm that eating a crispy buttermilk chicken sandwich from McDonalds would be okay. Can you believe I listened to her!!!! I wish I could say that I at least enjoyed that sandwich and savored each bite, nope I wolf that baby down. I had a short drive back home and wanted it gone before I made it home. That inner voice didn't want my husband to know that she had won. I wish I could say that my little spree ended there. After I had an awesome weigh in on Wednesday I decided on Thursday I could relax on my diet for that day. I ordered from my favorite Greek restaurant and ate a huge meal of hummus with pita, chicken shawarma with delicious garlic sauce , grape leaves, and rice pudding. The meal alone was well over 1000 calories. My husband was working late that night and not only did I order pizza, breadsticks, and cinnamon sticks for dinner, I also ate past my cut off time of 7pm. Did it end there.....nope.....It went into Friday as well. I ate a whole Dairy Milk caramel candy bar and a package of twix. On top of all these poor choices the inner bitch sabotaged me with, I didn't go to the gym yesterday or today. 

So...why did I just tell the whole world I did this to myself? Because I know that I need to stop this cycle. This inner voice works in secret and tells me that if only she and I know then it didn't really happen right? I need to be accountable to not only myself but to you guys as well. This cycle has been what caused me to fail in previous attempts to lose the weight. I can't let this cycle stop my progress so far. Even though I ate these horrible things, I did something that I never did in the past, I logged every failure I put in my mouth on myfitnesspal. Before I would have just not logged anything and acted like it never happened. Not this time! I will stop this cycle and reach my goals. I need to shut this inner voice up and not feed into it. I am stronger than this inner sabotager and I will defeat it this time. I may have slipped this week but today is a new day. 

 Until next time, Stay strong Iron Family!!!     

Week 10 Weigh In and A Little Accident.....

Soooo if there's a lot of errors in this post, I'm sorry ahead of time. During this mornings workout I smashed my little finger between a 50 lbs barbell and a barbell rack. Thank goodness it was leg day and I was still able to finish my workout. I don't think I broke it but I'm still taping it to the finger next to it just for today. I'm just happy that 1) it could have been worse and 2) there was no damage to my wedding ring. 

This week's weigh in was shocking to say the least! GOODBYE 290's!!!!!!! I haven't been real clean with my diet and I skipped a workout last week. I have still been keeping all my meals within my marcos, even if some of the things haven't been on plan. I also learned that I can no longer tolerate dairy products. I ate a kiddy size ice cream and not only did I have an IBS flare up but also my face broke out. Looks like we may have found my IBS trigger.  

I'm keeping this post short only because it's hard to type right now and I plan on doing a longer post tomorrow. Also I've almost hit 1000 page views!!!! If I get a few more followers and hit 1200 page views I may do a surprise giveaway.  

Until next time, Stay Strong Iron Family!!!!  

Weight Gain and Social Anxiety

I've never been a real small girl and I've always have had issues with my weight. However, the social anxiety that I experienced didn't happen till after my first pregnancy. Before becoming pregnant with my oldest son, I was serious about weight training and losing weight. I was working out 6 days a week and playing competitive softball on the 7th day. Then we got the positive pregnancy test and I slowed down big time. I still played ball but the workouts stopped and the pregnancy weight piled on. I was around 215 when I became pregnant and ballooned up to 285 by the end of my pregnancy. I did what a lot of first time pregnant women do, I ate what I wanted and became inactive. I thought that the weight would just drop off once I had the baby. Oh how silly I was. When I went in for my check up after my son was born, the scale flashed back 285!!!! WHAT!?!??!?!?! But I just had an almost 9lbs baby! Surely I would have AT LEAST dropped 9lbs!! 

                                            This was me a few months before getting pregnant

                                     2 days before my son was born

At my son's 1st birthday

I started to really hate my body and I tried to hide from it. I refused to look at myself in the mirror and hid my body in pictures. Half the time I was the photo taker and refused to even be in photos. I was ashamed of my body and what I looked like. Even though this body housed my son for 40 weeks, I thought that it had failed me. In reality, I had failed my body by filling it with over processed foods and being inactive. This was just the start of this mental downward spinal. 

I felt alone the first few years of my son's life. Not only was I unhappy with the way I looked, I was also dealing with my son's developmental delays and finding answers for him. We didn't have much support the first year of Dylan's autism journey. Many people made me feel like I didn't know what was best for my son and that Dylan was "just behind." They would say things to make me feel like I was just a lazy mother and that's why he was behind. This didn't help when I was already in a dark place with myself. 

The anxiety and depression grew along with my waistline. It was getting so bad that I didn't want people to see me. I dreaded running into old friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. It became so bad that when my best friend would call and ask to do something I would make excuses not to go. I wanted to hid away and only go to places that I knew we wouldn't run into people I knew. 

My lowest point with my anxiety happened when our oldest was just a baby. A friend of my husband's was getting married and invited us. I had never met any of my husband's work friends and I was scared of what they would think of me. My mind kept imagining what his co-workers were thinking. Phrases such as "Wow, Daryl could do so much better." and "Wow, she is fat!" kept popping up in my head. I didn't want people to think less of my husband because he had a fat wife. After we dropped my son off with my mom, we headed to the wedding. I felt a knot in my stomach and it kept growing with every mile that we got closer. We sat in the parking lot of the venue and that knot made it's way up to my throat and poured it's way out of my eyes. I sobbed so hard because I was so scared to meet this people and have their judging eyes on me. My husband is one of the few people that can calm me down in situations like this. He loves me for who I am and not for what the number on a scale reads. He calmed me down and all night he would just tell me how beautiful I was. All those people that I thought would be passing judgment on me, turned out to be a great group of people. I knew after this that I had a problem with social anxiety and I needed to overcome this demon.  I never wanted to feel that way ever again. 

I still have challenges with social anxiety but I don't let them control me anymore. I know that I can't let this get in the way of living. It's a daily battle that I must push pass. Somedays are better than others and other days I just want to stay hidden inside. But I know that in order to do the things I want to do in life I have to be willing to put myself out there and let the World see me for who I am. 

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got came from my trainer. He told me to remember the saying "I am you, and you are me." Which basically means that we are all the same. We are all particles of matter thrown together. No one is better than the next person, we are all the same. This phrase has helped me get through a few situations. Examples would be my son's IEP meetings and an incident that happened at my youngest son's therapy. A trigger for me has always been authority figures. I had one of the therapist talk down to me (Not my son's, it was another therapist using the room at the same time we were) in a condescending way. I repeated the phrase over and over and it calmed my nerves. Before this technique I would have been in tears. 

I know that many people have anxiety far worse than I do. Please know that it doesn't make you weak. You don't have to battle anxiety alone. There are many doctors out there that specialize in anxiety disorders. Everyone has their own triggers and knowing what mine are has helped me greatly. If you know someone who is battling anxiety the best thing you can do is be there for them. Having a support system has been my greatest help.  

Until next time, Stay Strong Iron Family.                

Week 9 Weigh in!

I was pleasantly surprised stepping on the scale this week! With having to take most of the week off from the gym to nurse an old softball knee injury and with the start of my cycle starting, I still had a great loss this week! 

 I wish the numbers came up better in the pictures, but as you can *barely* see, that's a 2 lbs weight loss this week! I am now down a total from my highest weight 23 lbs and since the start of this blog I am down 13 lbs!!!


So as I started this blog off with, last week was kinda of rough with going to the gym. I woke up one morning and my knee was really sore. I injured it about 10 years ago playing softball. I slipped rounding 2nd base and sprained a tendon. From time to time it'll still flare up. It's okay now and it only takes a few days from heavy activity for it to feel back to normal. 

 I have a new favorite meal this week. I've pretty much have made it for lunch everyday for the past week, lol. I slice mild Italian chicken sausage up in a pan and cook it up with egg whites. Throw it in a bowl and top it with Frank's hot sauce. It's fast, easy, and yummy!!!

Tomorrow, I'm going to work on a post about meals on the go!

Until tomorrow, Stay Strong Iron Family!!!!   

Measurement Update and Plus-Size Workout Clothes.

Yesterday marked one month that I started to work with my trainer again. Which meant time to check my progress. Both my trainer Caleb and I were very happy with the numbers! In one month I am down 11.2 lbs! Whoop Whoop!!!! My measurements are also pretty impressive! 

                         5/17 measurements          6/20 Measurements  

Neck:                         16                                            16  

Chest:                       48                                             47.5

Shoulders:               52                                              53

Waist:                       60                                              56.5

Hips:                         60+                                          *60+
                               (*Tape measure was so close to being able to measure me *) 

Bicep:                         17                                                  17

Thigh:                        27                                                  24

Calf:                           17                                                  16
                     *All measurements in inches


Look at all those inches lost in one month!! 9+ inches in one month is awesome! I put the plus because the hips are smaller just not sure by how much. If I keep this up, I will surpass my Arnold goal of 50 lbs lost by March. 



Good Plus size workout clothes are so hard to come by....well along with nice looking workout clothes OR ones that aren't expensive and don't get me started on plus-sized sports bras. I am very blessed on top and trying to find a good supportive sports bra is impossible. To hold my H cup girls takes 2 sports bras. The only company that I've found that carries my size is Lane Bryant. However, I still have to throw a no-wire sports bra on top for a little extra support.

So where is a plus-sized girl to get nice workout clothes? I've found that my best options have been Old Navy and Kohl's. I love Old Navy's compression leggings and workout shirts! They always have sales online and their sizing goes up to 4X. I have found that a few of their sizing do run a little big. With Kohl's it can be hit or miss. However, 2 of my favorite capri leggings I got from their discount rack for 7.00!  Now, as much as I love Lane Bryant for their sports bras and everyday wear, I am not a fan of their activewear line. I find them expensive for their quality. I bought a pair their capris leggings and wore them 4 times before they started getting the wonderful pilling between the thighs. Their workout shirts I find run small and when you wear their largest size in tops thanks to your girls, this makes it difficult to find shirts to wear. I think once I get all my workout clothes washed I'll post a few of the outfits I like to wear.        

Wednesday Weigh In and What's in My Gym Bag

Well I thought I set my post to go live for last week's weigh in. I guess my account knew something I didn't know, lol. Because when I stepped on the scale this week the same number flashed back at me. Part of me thinks I should be ashamed that there was no change in the number from last week to this week, but I'm not. The scale is just a number and the fact that my shorts are falling off me is a more realistic indicator. With weight training, I know that my numbers will be going up and down as I lose fat and gain muscle. 

 I know the picture still says week 6, lol. I just used the one that was supposed to post last week. This is actually week 7. I was doing a little happy dance when this number popped up. That's 4lbs in one week!!!!!!  


I thought I would do a blog that I see that is common on blogs and vlogs. I see a lot of competitors do this post and I thought hey, why not?  

  From left to right.... (1)Nathan water bottles, (2) my workout log from my gym, (3) NLA for Woman Uplift, (4) 1UP BCAA's, (5) Versa Gripps, (6) Sweet Sweat, (7)Bath and Body Works hand cream, (8) Lip Freak lip balm, and (9) my ear buds. The Sweet Sweat bag in the back I got from The Arnold at the booth.

1) These are my FAVORITE water bottles! I bought these from TJ MAXX and I love how easy they are to clean. I also like that they have two lids on them. Not only making it easy to wash them but to fill with ice. I hate when a bottle has a big mouth on it and you try to take a drink while doing cardio and you get splashed in the face. The smaller opening prevents that from happening. 

2) This is just a simple log I got from the gym. I don't actually write in it. My trainer however does. He writes down what we did during workouts so I can look back and also records my measurements in it. 

3) This is my favorite pre-workout! I currently have the raspberry lemonade flavor. I really like this blend because it doesn't cause my heart to race. (* I am not sensitive to caffeine and this product can have a different effect on each person) It also gives me just that little bit of energy to get my through a tough set or get in all my cardio. 

4) I love my BCAA's! This is that watermelon flavor and it's one of the best tasting. I hate drinks that have a strong sweetness to them when I workout because it causes my stomach to get upset. This product also includes glutamine and L-carnitine in the blend so I don't have to include them as a separate supplement. When I add this to my water during my workouts, it cuts muscle recovery time in half for me. 

5) I have weak wrist when it comes to doing heavy weighted back and leg workouts. These grips help me to pull more weight during deadlift and even lat pull downs. I haven't used them much so the leather is still a little stiff but with more use it'll soften up. 

6) Wanna sweat? Then let me introduce you to my little friend. Not only does this work to increase sweat and reduce water weight but it also smells soooooo good! It comes in a regular scent and coconut. The regular scent has a nice clean smell to it and comes in a jar like this one or a stick. Right now the coconut only comes in a jar. However, at The Arnold they were hinting that they are working on getting this in a stick form as well. I love rubbing this stuff on before my workout. I someone who loves to feel the sweat drip down my body. I know sweat isn't a true indicator of how hard you are working but for me it makes me feel like a beast when I sweat through a shirt. 

7) This is my favorite summer scent! It's the Bath and Body Works Sweet Strawberries and Cream. I throw this in my bag for when I'm done working out. It not only helps soften those wonderful callouses from weight training but also makes you smell nice after all that sweating. 

8) I carry chapstick or lip balm with me wherever I go and this is my favorite. I used to love Burt's Bees in the 90's. Remember how it would make your lips tingle? It seems like that tingle isn't as strong as it once was and well I really liked that feeling. This stuff is that tingle and plus some! The tingle comes from the cinnamon oil that they put in the product. I use the shade Berry Sinister. 

9) These a just simple ear buds that I picked up at TJ MAXX when my son broke my last pair. I pretty much only buy cheap pairs because I either lose them or they get broken. 

So there we have it Iron Family, that's my gym bag for you. 

Until next time Stay Strong Iron Family.      

I DID IT!!!! Late Wednesday weigh in post

My first goal on this journey was to get below 300 lbs again ...aaaaannnnnddddddd

 I DID IT!!!! HAPPY DANCE BREAK!!!

I am soooooo happy that I will never see a 300 number again. So in total from the very beginning I am down 16 lbs.  My next goal is to hit 20 lbs down.

This week has been very hit and miss with the gym. All three of my boys suffer from outdoor seasonal allergies. It makes it rough to take them out this time of year when the cottonwood trees let loose. In some areas it gets so thick that it looks like snow on the ground. Next week will be easier since my hubby doesn't have mandatory overtime and he'll be home with the boys. 

Last week's training with Caleb was an eye opener. I consider myself strong and love to lift heavy. Well, he showed me some techniques that you use lighter weights for the movements and isolate the muscle. OH MY GOSH! That 5lb weight felt like 50! I also learned that I hate burpees after the first 50 of the 100 that he had me do. LoL

 I was also introduced to this yummy goodness this week......

 This stuff is A-MAZ-ING! I've had other protein ice creams before but they don't even compare to this one. So creamy and the taste is like eating cake batter. I can't wait to try the other flavors! I'm not ashamed to admit that I ate the whole pint. It was so easy to fit into my macros. 

My goal this week is to start writing more on here. I know I've been slacking. 

Until next time, Stay Strong Iron Family!  

Week 4 Wednesday Weigh in and the beginning of summer!

My trainer will not be happy that I'm still doing Wednesday Weigh ins. He told me I needed to throw the scale away,  pay more attention to how I'm feeling, and how my clothes are fitting. He says the scale has too much power over people and that, that number can dictate how you feel the whole day. Have a great number in the morning and you're in a great mood and if you have a bad number it can ruin your mood for the day. I get where he is coming from, but I'm not the type of person that really cares about the number. I just like having it to keep me in check. I know that my weight can bounce around 5 to 7 lbs in one day. Not to get tooooooooo personal but I also know that lost more than the scale is saying this week because a little visitor came to visit for 3 to 5 days this week, if ya know what I mean, lol.  So this is my week 4 weigh in 

WHOOOHOOOO Down 1 lbs this week!!! Like I said though I think it could be a little more because I always weigh 2 to 3 more pounds around this time of the month. 

This past week has been super crazy for our family. Not only was it my husband's 34th birthday, but also our oldest son's last week of school. My little man is now a 3rd grader! 

I was really proud of myself this week! I went to the gym everyday (But Sunday, Sundays are my rest day), logged everyday in Myfitnesspal, and did intermediate fasting 100%. Iron Family, this is the longest I've been 100% with myself! In addition to the gym we've also gone on family walks to different area parks. I tried my hand at jogging, something I haven't done in a loooooong time. I was slow but it felt amazing to do it again. My husband was sneaky and took a photo of me while I was jogging. He had the two babies in the stroller behind me.  I really like the photo and wanted to put an inspirational saying on it. This is what I came up with. 

I will be writing more frequently now that school is out for all of us and I will have more time. 

Until next time, Stay strong Iron Family 

Wednesday Weigh in and a Hard Look at Reality.

       This week was my first week back with my trainer and I got a real big dose of a reality pill. He took my weight, body fat, and measurements, it wasn't pretty at all. The gym scale said I weighed 6 lbs more than my home scale. However, I know your weight can shift around 5 lbs in a given day. So I didn't let that get me down too much. It was the measurements that caused me to cringed. Sure you see that weight when you look in the mirror, but when you see it paired with a number it somehow makes it more real. The one thing I really like about my trainer is, he doesn't make you feel horrible about those numbers but he is also honest with you. He doesn't promise you a quick fix with his program and he reminds you what you put in, is what you get out of it. So we sat down for an hour to talk about my numbers, my macros, and eating plan along with my training plan. We decided to give intermediate fasting a try along with 20 minutes of fasted cardio in the morning on top of my regular 40 minutes of cardio during my regular workout. We are going to try that for 2 weeks and see what happens. 

       I will post my measurements for yesterday but not my macros. The marcos my trainer did for me are just that for me. He factors my body fat, lean body mass, and my goals to tailor the macros to each person.

        So according to the gym scale I am 307 (I will still be using my scale for official Wednesday Weigh Ins)

    Gym scale: 307

    Height: 5' 4"

    Body Fat %: 50% (Ugh....50% of me jiggles) 

    Neck: 16 inches

    Chest: 48 Inches

    Shoulders: 52 Inches

    Waist: 60 Inches

    Hips: 60+ Inches (First mini goal, is to lose enough inches to get this measurement)  

     Bicep: 17 Inches

     Thigh: 27 Inches

     Calf: 17 Inches

   According to my scale I had a .6 weight loss :-)


       This morning I did my first fasted cardio. It was a beautiful morning, even though it was a little chilly, for a walk/jog. 

  It was nice getting out and enjoying a little quiet mommy time. With 3 boys, I don't get much alone time, lol.


Until Next Time, Stay Strong Iron Family!  

Getting out of your comfort zone and social anxiety

      I seen a photo a while ago online that read,  "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." As someone who suffers from social anxiety, sometimes that first step out can be scary. I'm fine when I have people I know around me, but I get attacks when I go out alone to do unfamiliar things. I didn't always have these attacks and they increased along with my waistline. The more uncomfortable I became with myself, the more uncomfortable I became in social situations. A lot of it stems down to me feeling like every person I come across is judging me for my size. I know it sounds silly and most strangers could care less about what I look like. I think it comes down to that bullied little girl that still lives within me. 

     So in conjunction with losing weight, I'm also trying to push barriers and live more outside of my comfort zone. Last night was my first test. My trainer told me last week that he was competing and that I should go to the show to help get inspired again. I really wanted to go but knew that if none of my friends wanted to go (my husband had to stay home with the boys), I'd have to go alone. Well, Saturday had come and everyone had plans. I knew I wanted to go and had posted to my trainer that I would be at the night show. Thankfully I have a husband that understands that sometimes I need pushed out of that comfort zone and so lovingly does. Sometimes I just need to talk things through with him to give me the confidence I need. So I got myself ready and kissed the family as I walked out the door. 

     Now onto the fun part.......

    It seemed like there were anxiety triggers all around me not wanting me to go to the show, lol. The show was only 25 minutes away and I left with plenty of time. So I get there and I miss my turn, no big deal, I know this town and know of other areas I can park. So I park 3 blocks away not thinking anything of it. The shoes I wore are a little big on me......you see where this is going don't you.......and start rubbing my heel......hello blisters. I get there and something told me on the way I should have stopped by the ATM to get money out. Did I listen to my instinct, of course not, lol. I get there and it's cash only. No big deal, my bank has a branch just a block down. I'll walk down there and get cash out. So I walk, hobble, down to the bank. I get to the ATM.....it's not working. Someone jammed the ATM. At this point I call my husband almost in tears.....It starts to drizzle. Really I mean REALLY!?!?!?! I told him the situation. Him being the calm and rational one, calmly tells me that it's okay for me to use another banks ATM even though there's a fee. So luckily there's another bank across the street. So I hobble, gimp across the street and use that ATM. By the time I make it to the show and sit in my seat it's 5:05. WHEW! Thankfully the show is a local and laid-back show and it didn't start on time. 


You wanna know something.....even through all the barriers I went through to get to the show, I had a blast. Who knew you could go to something alone and still have a good time!  It was so motivating seeing all those people on stage and cheering for my trainer and his girlfriend. There was a womens figure competitor there that was 57 years old! She did outstanding! My trainer's girlfriend did amazing in the bikini round and placed 2nd. My trainer was awesome and placed 3rd in a large group of qualifiers. 

  

My trainer's girlfriend is on the right. She placed  2nd!

 Figure round (This is what class I want to compete in)

 This woman is 57!!!!!

My trainer is in the red shorts

Caleb (My trainer) placing 3rd

My trainer and his girlfriend Amanda (photo taken by his mom)

      Oh, I forgot to add, on top of everything, my nice expensive DSL camera decided not to work and I had to use my cell phone. 

       I learned a lot about myself last night. I can do these things! Even with all the obstacles in my way, I did it. I only had a slight moment when I wanted to turn around and go back home. I'm glad I didn't and was able to experience this and support my trainer and his girlfriend.  

Until next time, Stay Strong Iron Family.   

Wednesday Weigh in Week 2

       Welcome to week 2 of Wednesday Weigh In.  The first week back on track has been pretty good. There has been a few slip ups when it came to food choices. However, right now my goal is to eat on track 80% of the time. I am human and I know there will be errors. I have been staying active in either taking the boys for walks or hitting the gym. There were only 2 days in the past week that I didn't get some sort of activity in.  With that being said here is this weeks results.......

WHOOOHOOOO!!!! Down 4 lbs and sooo close to being out of the 300's



       Next week, I  start back with a trainer. Caleb was my trainer before I went on this downward spinal. He is an awesome trainer and makes me realize that I am so much stronger than I give myself credit for. He pushes me past my comfort zone and that's where amazing things happen. 


                


      I am stepping out of my comfort zone on my blog as well. In most cases, I refused to have my photo taken from below my chest. I have decided to post some before photos on here.

The first two photos are me at my heaviest weight. I was anywhere from 315 to 320 at my heaviest. 

I never noticed back then how large my arms where. They are larger than a 4 year old's waist! 

 This was taken at a good friend's wedding. I thought looked "thin." Wow can the eyes play tricks on us!  I remember being so hot and uncomfortable in this dress.  It was a hot muggy day and underneath this dress I have on a spanx tank and shorts. I did everything I could to look thinner. 

This last set of photos I just took yesterday in my gym's bathroom of all places, lol.  This is where I am as of right now. I think I may start taking monthly progress photos. I know it's hard to see your own body's progress and I like the idea of being able to document changes. 

    

I promise next month's photo will be better. This was a spur of the moment idea while I was doing cardio. 

Until next time, Stay strong Iron Family!