I AM The Biggest Loser!

Happy Friday everyone! Today is a GREAT day because I have been crowned The Biggest Loser in the 20-week competition that I've been participating in! Excited doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling at the moment. I weighed in with a 5 lb loss this week, which not only puts me at a 25.2 lb loss for the competition, but also puts me back in the 100's, where I haven't been in many years. Woo hoo!!

Ahem...(tapping the microphone)
I would like to thank all of my friends who trash talked for the last 5 months. Without you, my urge to strangle you competitive drive might not have been as strong as it was. I thank my girls for driving me crazy keeping me busy, so that I really didn't have to time to think about all the food I was missing. I also thank my loving hubby, who has never given me a hard time about my weight and has tried very hard to be supportive! I share this honor with you (not the jackpot of cash, though) because I couldn't have accomplished this alone!

With my big winnings, I do plan to blow it on my trip next week, so fear not, I will be doing my part to bolster our economy. Thank you all!

Thankful Thursday

I have a lot to be thankful for today. I've got 2 gorgeous girls that are growing up so quickly before my eyes. My oldest had her last day of preschool (until Fall) today and they announced that the teaching assistant in her class is retiring. There wasn't a dry eye in the house! Ms. Vivian is an AWESOME lady and I'm really thankful that Ashlyn had the opportunity to be in her class. I'm sad that Ailey will miss out on that experience, but I'm sure they will put a great person in her place.

I'm thankful that (as of this morning) I'm down 4 lbs from last Friday! I have a good chance of winning my biggest loser contest tomorrow, but I'm still holding my breath because I know I'm not the only one who's been busting tail for the last week. Overall, I've lost almost 25 lbs this year and that's a huge accomplishment for me!

I'm thankful that we've got beautiful weather here so far and that I can enjoy it (with my family) out on our new deck. I'm hoping to get some furniture out there this weekend, so we can enjoy it on something more than beach towels.

I'm thankful that I have so many friends and family who love my family and support us in all that we do.

And because I don't say it often enough, I'm thankful for you!

The War Wages On

Happy Friday everyone! This week has been quite a challenge as the girls & I have been sick the whole time. My youngest is finally almost better, but my oldest & I still have raging runny noses and coughing spells. Yuck! But, I'm trying not to let all that gloom bring me down, so here's the positive spin.

Today was the Week 19 weigh in for my biggest loser competition and I gained a fraction of a pound, but I'm still in the lead overall. Less than .5% separates me from my 2 closest competitors, so this week is crucial. Tonight is girls night out at a friend's house and we are affectionately referring to it as "Gorge-Fest". This is because starting tomorrow, for the next 6 days, I will be living at the YMCA and enjoying all varieties of green leafy vegetables (and not much else). I'm in this to win it, so desperate times call for desperate measures! Stay tuned next Friday for the final results.

I was talking with a friend recently about my perspective on why I've been heavy for so long. I think a lot of it has to do with my house being a constant source of clutter. The clutter has gone on for years, and not surprisingly, my weight has gone up exponentially right along with it. So, in my ongoing battle with the clutter, I have some wonderful news to report.

First, here is a pic of the computer cabinet that I said I was going to clean the other day. See, I really did it! I'll try not to break my arm patting myself on the back.


The next series is of my oldest daughter's room, which we now are referring to as "Stuffed Animal Sanctuary". You see, all those plush animals that you pass at retail stores, well, they have all somehow made it into my daughter's room...to stay. We knew that the animal population was a little out of control, but last night gave us a new perspective on the madness. While I was resting, hubby and his friend, installed new shelves in my daughter's room, which was to house all of these animals. Or so we thought. Here's the before pic of the madness.

And here's the after. Amazing difference! Wow, I had forgotten that she had a rug! The sad end to this story is that there are still animals floating around this house, which hubby has already decreed "Need to go to other little girls who are starting their own zoo".

Just to give a little more perspective on the magnitude of the animal invasion, here are more pics of the full shelves. Now, keep in mind, that these shelves line all 4 walls around her room. Crazy!

And a last pic of Ashlyn being cute. She had just finished doing a forward roll and was doing her "ta-da". She's so adorable.

So, to finish up today's entry, I have to add that I attacked the laundry room also today. It's amazing to me that this week I have managed to declutter my kitchen (the biggest room in my house), my laundry room, and most of Ashlyn's room. Sadly, the master bedroom is still being neglected. I think I'm saving the best for last! Oh, and I need to send a huge shout out to Freecycle. If you aren't aware of this website, go there now. It's a wonderful place to give stuff away and feel good about decluttering! So, for today: Angie 1, Clutter 0.

Fabulous Friday

Wow, I hope you all are having as great a friday as I'm having today! Let's see if I can recap without writing a novel here.

1) Today was week 18 weigh in for the biggest loser competition that I'm in and I lost 2.4 lbs this week!!! Woo hoo!!! I'm back in a decent lead overall, so I have 2 more weeks to keep that lead and win this contest. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

2) I took the girls for their first visit to Chuck E. Cheese today. Boy, what a trip down memory lane it was for me. I had my only birthday party as a child at this venue (when it was Showbiz Pizza Place) and although the interior was drastically different, I still felt that excitement when we walked in the door. I bought tons of tokens and then proceeded to show my girls as good a time as their little hearts could stand. They were over it after about 40 minutes. I could have stayed for hours playing skee-ball and eating greasy pizza. Ah, memories!

3) The IRS bestowed our "rebate" today, so with it burning a hole in our pocket, we rushed on a pilgrimage to the Hell Depot. Oh, I mean the Home Depot. After an hour of misery, a huge scratch on my leg, and giving them our first born, we had our car and a friend's truck full of wonderful home improvement items! We're really very excited about this new chapter of projects that will begin this evening and last the entire weekend (if not much longer). Slated for this weekend are shelving in the kids rooms (for the stuffed animal overpopulation), building the tomato garden (my mother's day gift) and beginning on the back deck (the thing I'm most excited about). I'll have pics and posts all weekend I'm sure, to document the madness, er, I mean progress.

Running on Empty

It's 10pm and all is quiet in my house. That is unless you discount the sound of my leg muscles screaming in agony from the workout that I put them through this evening. I'm literally not sure if I'll be able to walk the 30 feet to my bedroom after I write this entry. I'm exhausted.

It's down to crunch time on my biggest loser competition and I'm feeling some extreme heat from my closest competition. She's the one who I started this whole contest idea with and she's been trash talking from minute one. I love her, but boy does she drive me crazy sometimes. After my pitiful performance at last week's weigh in, she closed the gap on my overall lead within .21%. I could literally hand her this win in 2 weeks if I don't get my rear end in gear!

Thankfully, hubby is trying to be supportive and urging me to stop making a monthly charitable donation to the YMCA that we joined 2 months ago. I just can't get my ducks in a row to get there with any kind of consistency. However, catching a glimpse of myself in a full length mirror this morning, pretty much gave me all the convincing that I needed. Yikes.

Well, this entry is not going in the direction that I had hoped, so I'm off to bed to recharge, regroup and hopefully wake up with a better attitude tomorrow morning!

Weekend Update with Your Host, Angie

Well, TGIF! This week flew by in a blur, but boy am I glad. We've already had a very busy few hours around this house.

After staying up way too late last night watching the movie A Mighty Heart, I woke up feeling amazingly awake with only having about 4 hours sleep. I recommend the movie for anyone who's willing to hang with it for the first hour and 25 minutes because the last 20 minutes are worth it. Angelina Jolie's performance was GREAT, especially towards the end. I haven't been that moved by a performance in a very long time.

We hurried through breakfast and made it to the weigh in that I've been dreading all week. You know, sometimes, it just sucks being a woman trying to lose weight. I gained 2 lbs this week, but I'm still (just barely) winning the contest overall. Now, it's on! I have to pull out an overall win in 3 weeks so I have spending money for my big trip at the end of this month!

Speaking of travel, I am heading to Atlanta tomorrow to spend a couple of days with my best friend, Angela. Yes, we have the same name, but no one calls her Angie and no one calls me Angela, so it works out. School was a nightmare for us, as we've known each other since Kindergarten, but I digress. We're planning a weekend of seeing the new Patrick Dempsey movie and having, what I'm sure will be a hilarious night out, at Medieval Times. Stay tuned for details when I return!

Oh, one good thing that happened today was that Ailey had her 2 year old checkup and she got a clean bill of health! You can't ask for anything better than that. I was, however, surprised to hear the doctor's estimation of how tall she'll end up being. He's guessing around 5'6". That's taller than me! Lucky for her, it appears she'll get my hubby's frame because he's tall and lanky. Thank heaven for small favors.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Biggest Loser weekly update

You know the old adage "Don't count your chickens before they hatch"? Well, you also don't want to consume all of those chickens after they do hatch because they might adversely affect your weigh in results.

Two days ago, I was semi-enjoying this dish of sweet & sour chicken from my favorite local Chinese restaurant. I cracked open my fortune cookie to see what pearls of wisdom it had for me and was delighted to read the following: "This coming Friday will be an exciting time for you." Well, I kind of shrugged it off until about 15 minutes later, when I hopped on the scale for my daily (keeping up with things) weigh in. I was STUNNED to see my weight was 3 lbs less than it was last Friday. Forget stunned, I was ECSTATIC! Not only was this going to get me to my first big milestone of losing 20 lbs, but it was also going to put me back in the 100's, where I haven't been for a VERY LONG TIME. It was all I could do not to shout from the rooftop with excitement.

Well, in true Angie form, I couldn't take that weigh in and learn from it and try to maintain it. No, I took the opportunity to indulge in a cookie here and there and enjoy that cheeseburger and fries for dinner last night. So, at the weigh in this morning, I in fact only reported a 1.2lb loss. Bummer. The good news is that I did hit my goal of losing 20 lbs so far and I'm only .7 lbs away from my next big goal, which I will DEFINITELY hit next week! Woo hoo! Oh, and I'm still winning the contest overall. That makes me the biggest winner in my own book!

The Biggest Loser...Angie style

Good morning! I decided on 12/31/07 that 2008 was going to be the year of some big changes in my life. I wanted to take control of some things that I felt had really gotten out of hand. This list includes, but isn't limited to:

1. My weight, exercise and diet
2. My incredibly cluttered house
3. My inability to finish these grandiose craft projects that I begin

So, with lots of gusto, I began to tackle each of these items. I'll focus on #1 this morning because it's provided the most awesome results so far.

A friend of mine & I hatched this plan in January to start our own Biggest Loser competition. She & I are both very competitive and the smack talking began almost immediately. It grew to 6 participants pretty quickly and the only real rules were that we had to weigh in every Friday on the same scale. Whatever diet & exercise plan you wanted to engage in, was your business. It really made us accountable for our own outcomes, but we still had the support of the other participants.

I ended up becoming kind of the leader of this group, because of my natural control-freak tendencies and the fact that I had created this crazy spreadsheet to keep up with all of our progress. The other girls in the contest have made fun of it, but I know they secretly wait with bated breath each week to get the results. I also try to be a cheerleader on the weekly email to keep us motivated. Today marks the end of Week 15 and our weekly weigh in is in an hour. If my home scale is correct, I didn't lose anything this week. While disappointing, it wasn't unexpected. I've not eaten well over the last week and there's been a lot of stress in my life over the last 2 weeks. (Look for an entry about that soon)

Anyway, wish me luck this morning at the weigh in. I'm hoping to at least retain my lead position overall in the contest. Yes, I'm winning!! So far, in 15 weeks, I've lost 19.2 lbs and 3 jeans sizes. Woo hoo! Expect to see some before and after pics later this year once I've lost way more weight and get increasingly closer to my goal weight/size.