Stephanie here...

I have been battling the binge and I am winning.  I have some handy tools which I use every second of the day and I am so far doing okay.  I eat at certain times of the day and I only eat what I bring.  Now when the lady from the office brings in her super incredible best fudge in the world in, I hope I have strength to make it through...

I weighed in at 185.  So got through the holidays without a gain...so I am a winner there!!  I watched portions and drank a ton of water.  And coffee! :)  And tea... :)

My kids have been keeping me plenty busy and we are making crafts and getting gifts sent off for our craft swaps.  My daughter is finishing that up this week.  I am finishing up a stocking swap! :) 

So my goals for this week are very similar to Trisha's....water, water, water.  15 minutes of movement a day.  and of course, no binging.

Update, update, update!

--Trisha
Hello! I am letting you know that you can keep up with my progress on my weight loss journey on my personal blog :)

As well, I have revived another one of my blogs, and I am making it into a thankful blog.

You can check it out right here! I totally cannot guarantee that I won't blog about everything and anything else, but no matter what, I will find one thing each day for which I am thankful :))

Maybe we will come back to this blog, maybe next summer...We will see! Thanks for coming along for the ride!!

A LOSS!!!

--from Trisha

I lost 3 pounds this past week! YEAH :) SO, I now weigh 206.2!! This is especially awesome because last week I had that 1.4 gain. I am getting so excited, because at this pace, I will be under 200 in three weeks!!!! That is my goal!

You can check out more details at my PERSONAL BLOG :)

Not a diet...

First and foremost, Stephanie…you hit the nail on the head, it’s NOT A DIET! It shouldn't be a diet. DIETS DON'T WORK!!! Maybe part of the reason why this is working for me this time is because, it’s NOT A DIET for me!

I have had several conversations with several people lately, as so many people have asked me, “What are you doing?” or “What diet are you on?” Some of them have been genuinely bummed when I tell them, “What am I doing? It’s called LIFE! I am not on any special diet. I eat what I want when I want, I just made CONSCIENTIOUS choices, rather than letting my emotions rule what goes in my mouth. I try to move. I don’t move as much as I would like to move, but I do some moving!” And, I always tell them about how I write everything down. That is the key for me, being 100% honest with what I eat and how much I eat, no matter what it is.

Stephanie...No one expects you to give your family time away. I ALWAYS choose my family first in everything I choose to do, and I know that I always will do that. I know that if I wasn’t choosing my family first, I would downward spiral into who knows where, but it wouldn’t be a good place. For sure if given the choice between being with my kids or working out, the family will always win. You have made choices for you. You are moving!! You walk and do Zumba, and you are right to not feel guilty to choose your family over your treadmill!! It’s all about balance. Life is crazy for most people. I think we all feel overwhelmed in our own situations, and it's just about truly figuring out what works and what doesn't.

As far as this blog goes, I don’t really care if we keep it going, unless we get to a place (maybe next summer) where we want to do some physical challenges or even just do some things together physically, like ride our bikes—you, Sarah and me. Or, go for hikes or walks or whatever. The blog could take on different topics, if we wanted to let it evolve into hobbies or parenting tips or healthy recipes, or whatnot. Though, I kinda feel like we both do that on our own blogs, as it is already. So, maybe it's come to an end...or, maybe we keep it around and just blog once a week or every couple of weeks to keep updates going.  

Response to Trisha...

Stephanie here, and I wanted to give my two bits on your subject:
Here we are at a milestone, indeed! Now I am curious where we are going to go with our blog from here, as certainly our challenge has changed quite a bit. We both face our own personal battles with the scale, with an entirely different focus for each of us. Do we keep blogging here? Do we keep blogging about the same topics? Is this blog growing and changing and morphing into something new? Or, fading?


What are your feelings, Stephanie?

You know, I have been thinking and I think we have learned a lot about ourselves through this challenge/blog.  I almost feel like it is fading.  I think we are at different places, good places, but different.  We really aren't "challenging" each other anymore, in fact the real challenge is within ourselves and I think we are both winners there! :) So I will let you decide if you want to still keep this going.  I kinda don't want to let go yet, but I feel that we have grown to something different now...

Checking in!

Well I took a hiatus from dieting. Or at least the word dieting.  I am dealing with my issues and life.  I didn't have time to let "dieting" consume me. I had a husband who I basically didn't see and my kids.  When my husband is working crazy ranch hours, it makes "dieting" hard.  I basically don't sit with my family during the week unless they sit at the kitchen table, which my daughter does, until the weekend.  I am busy picking up and cooking, doing homework, folding clothes, talking baby talk to my boy, having girl talks with my girl, packing lunches, making coffee, making breakfast, reminding others of their tasks, changing diapers, making sure my boy isn't eating something he shouldn't or pulling the dogs hair! :) I wake at 4:30 and I go to bed by 8.  I leave the house at 7 and get home at 6.  When my husband is home, the house runs more smoothly because he keeps me calm and takes some chores so I don't have to do everything and I get to sit or at least breathe.  Last week, I was exhausted.  I run on auto pilot and when a moment of quiet passes, I see that I need to sit and breathe.  I know that making time for myself is the key to this journey and making myself a priority, but seriously folks, unless you have the support and a nanny, exercise is hard to fit in!!! Yes, I know you can incorporate moves in when playing, but I am talking about jogging on the treadmill or doing a DVD.  After making sure everyone was on track and had eaten and had clean clothes and homework done, I just wanted to spend any moment I could with my family, not with the treadmill.  So I didn't have a loss, but I did have a gain...a gain of not feeling guilty over spending time with my family over exercising my butt off.  I did do my walks and such during the day, but nothing extra.  And you know what...I'M OK WITH THAT!

New week, thank goodness!!

--Trisha
Last week was a tough one for me. I had a few tough days, and then a few days that were OK, and then a few more tough ones. BUT, thankfully it's over!! This week has been FAR better, and I feel back to normal. You can read more about it over at my personal blog!

So, my weigh-in this week was a gain. That hasn't happened, except for maybe one other time on this journey. Though I was not surprised.

Last week: 207.8 this week 209.2 = 1.4 gain :(

100th POST! How cool is that?!

--Trisha

Here we are at a milestone, indeed! Now I am curious where we are going to go with our blog from here, as certainly our challenge has changed quite a bit. We both face our own personal battles with the scale, with an entirely different focus for each of us. Do we keep blogging here? Do we keep blogging about the same topics? Is this blog growing and changing and morphing into something new? Or, fading?

What are your feelings, Stephanie?

BED update

Stephanie here...I updated my personal blog about my journey through Binge Eating Disorder (BED).  You can check it out and see what I am doing on my quest to conquer this addiction of mine.