Friday, November 14, 2014

my weigh in this morning was 201.9! I was excited, however I know it's due to the fact that I've been sick all week with a cold and haven't really had much of an appetite. That's why I haven't been posting as often as I should. BUT THIS IN NO WAY EXCUSES ME FROM DOING WRITING DOWN WHAT I EAT! I need to do a better job of keeping track of what I eat....One day....One day it'll happen.

Yesterdays weigh in: 203

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Meanwhile.....

I'm a huge fan of the show Shameless. We all have those shows that we really shouldn't watch but it's so out of this world and unbelievable that you just have to watch it. This is how I feel about this show. I don't advise you go out and watch it. It's not wholesome by ANY means. Since we don't get channels on our TV I usually wait for the season to come out on DVD and then we binge watch the season for a weekend. Anyways the show is a little over an hour long and usually starts off with a character doing this one thing...pans off to see what everyone else is doing and then towards the end of the show, comes back to what the character was doing in the beginning. Whenever I see this in the show I always say 'Meanwhile.' and my husband shakes his head. That was a weird way to start this blog post but as I was going though my blog posts from the past and realized that from January to October I didn't write anything....how awful of me! So I thought that it would be best to fill you in on my life during that 10 month span of nothingness. Meanwhile......Note: ponder that word for awhile....meanwhile....it sounds really weird if you say it really slow...it's a funky word. MEANWHILE....

I had written that I wanted to live a more simpler life. To me what this meant was I wanted to strip my life of materialistic things. I was going to try and spend less money, buy things in bulk, make things from scratch, learn how to sew and do DIY projects, be more organized etc. I'm disappointed in myself in the fact that I didn't give an honest try. I did try a few things such as making laundry detergent which wasn't so bad, it just didn't get my clothes smelling like Gain as much as I would have liked....I did end up making a lot of bread and shopping at the farmers market more this fall. I did learn a lot about eating whole foods and reading labels.

In February I started working at Cookies by Design. My insurance agent bought the store right next to his agency and posted on facebook that he was looking for a part time decorator. I told him I was interested, and went into the store to test out my skills and fell in love! I worked there from February until August, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and some Saturdays. I learned what it was like having two jobs and believe you me I don't wish that upon anyone! I wasn't myself. I would get home and neglect my husband. I wasn't able to do the things that I really wanted to do with my down time, yet I loved decorating and saw it as a great creative outlet after work. It cured a lot of stress....however I think this caused some of my weight gain, not because I ate cookies, but because I was so tired and stressed that I never found the time to work out thus making me fall back into my lazy habits.

Once August rolled around I accepted a learning opportunity with State Farm to join the Bank Dean Team for a year developmental opportunity.  The Bank Dean Team oversees all the training that is done for the bank as well as updates procedures, writes the training material, creates job aids that sort of thing. This opportunity is only for a year. I like to think of it as like an internship. If all goes well, I could potentially have a new job, or if it doesn't go well or there isn't a job opening, then I'll be going back to the Bank Operations Center possibly to what I was doing before, or if there are any areas of need within the bank, I'll get placed on that team. I love this opportunity. I love to learn new things and I'm learning more about the enterprise, technology and banking than I did before. Granted I'm still new to the company since I've only been a full time employee for only a year. I love to create job aids and updating procedures. I've become more of a 'Geek' and have learned to read code and work with Dreamweaver. I'm proud! Of course I love the training aspect as well. This is what my degree is in and I love to share information that I have learned. Of course there are ups and downs with any job and this one has them. There are lots of things that I need to learn, but that's the beauty of a Dev Opp....to learn! And that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm trying to take everything in and absorb all the information give, but let me tell you it's a lot! With this opportunity I have less stress and more fun. I really do enjoy what I'm doing most of the time and that's better than what I could say before! Things are improving.

Billy got a full time art teaching job in Peoria. He loves it, but is also understanding that the first year of teaching is hard. He has about an hour drive every morning and night which gives him the time to listen to his music. There is talks of us trying to find a place to live halfway between Peoria and Bloomington but that's still in the works.

There is a family from our church that has adopted us as their own. I'm very grateful for that seeing as how my family is far away and I miss them! But this family, is just like mine. We've met up every Tuesday night since February or March for game night. We enjoy hanging out with them and learning more about them. We also house sit every once in awhile and just this past month we played parents and stayed with their 2 kids. It's crazy to think that there are people that will trust us to watch their kids for a weekend.....:)

Life for us to an extent is full. We are here there and everywhere, but at the same time making a more conscience effort to be invested in serving and giving to the community and our church. This may seem weird or maybe exaggerating a little bit, however we are making the effort to give more generously and make ourselves more available because isn't that what our lives should be filled with? This is the happiness that I have been looking for all this time. Not a better job or more money (even though yes those things play a part and are nice) but investing in a life devoted to doing God's work is more beneficial.

Hopefully there won't be a huge 'Meanwhile' next time.....If anything else it is the time to be grateful and time for new resolutions. Here's to 'Meanwhiles'

Monday, November 3, 2014

The slacking continues

So this weekend I did a pretty crappy job at keeping track of my calories. On friday during the day all I had to eat was Halloween candy and came home and wanted to eat everything under the sun. So we ended up going to McDonald's........epic fail. When I woke up on saturday I decided not to weigh myself because I was ashamed by the happenings of the previous day that I just wanted to forget. So on Saturday I made an apple pie and I think that was the only thing I ate...2 pieces of apple pie. On Sunday when I woke up I weighed 203.2 and I was excited thinking that it wouldn't take long now! I even went to the gym before church! Well I consumed a venti Iced coffee with caramel, two chocolate crossaints (children's ministry at our church serves us day old Panera pastries every sunday for teaching sunday school......) I didn't eat anything until small group that night which was a piece of cheesecake and a bowl of potato soup. When I woke up this morning I was 205.3.......angry face. I knew it was too good to be true. So today's stats are as follows......

Total calories before work out: 994
work out: 20 min walking over lunch 100
(getting ready to go to gym)


Breakfast: 199
greek yogurt
peach
herbal english breakfast tea

Lunch: 660
chic fila grilled chicken sandwich (no sauce)
medium waffle fry
24 oz water

Snacks: 135
milky way mini
Hershey's fun size
sweet stripe mint

I'm really not hungry for dinner tonight. I probably should eat something but I don't think I'll wither away.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Already slacking

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I've been busy with training and getting things ready for training at work, that I forgot to jot down what I have been eating. I can tell you that I didn't weigh myself yesterday morning....or this morning for that matter because I completely forgot!

Today I can tell you all that I have eaten is Halloween candy. I haven't eaten anything else.........I'm so horrible. However I can tell you that I plan to work out tonight! OH and I didn't work out the last 2 nights. Wednesday was because I was making part of a halloween costume for a friend, and we watch a 2nd grader on Wednesday nights as well, that I didn't have time to head to the gym....and yesterday I was so concentrated on making my Where's Waldo costume that when I was done, it was time to go to bed. AHHH craziness!!!!! But we'll get back into it! Nobody said it was gonna be easy!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Soup of the Day

I'm watching Kitchen Nightmares and the lady that owns the restaurant doesn't know what Soup of the Day means. I thought it would be a funny title for my blog because that's all I can think about right now...anywho ON TO STATS!

Today was a hard food day all around. I thought I was going to do well, but I ate well over 1200 calories before dinner....I was really busy after work so I was unable to get a work out in...however, my friend and I walked for 45 mins over lunch, which we thought we were doing about 3 mph and went about a mile and a half....my lose it app told me I burned about 182 calories.

Even though I burned 182 calories....I then ate a bag of Applewood Smoked BBQ chips which....was 180 calories.....way to go Anndee. Anyways here are my stats for today....man why am I watching cooking shows when I'm starving?

morning weigh in: 205.2
total calories consumed: 1301
45 min walk: burned 182 calories

Breakfast: 605
whole wheat bagel
2 tsbp peanut butter
Chobani blueberry greek yogurt
small plum:
11 oz English Breakfast Tea

Snacks: 270
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup:
3 malted milk balls
Applewood BBQ chips

Lunch: 426
Homemade chili
1/2 C blueberries
cheesestick

Hopefully I won't regret stepping on the scale tomorrow....

The Stats

Alright! I'm already a day late in posting....I knew this would happen, however I was busy last night so this morning will just have to do. Anyways here are my stats for yesterday. I wasn't overly impressed but I'm not disappointed.

I ate a lot yesterday....or at least I feel like I did.....

starting weight: 206.4
work out: 250 calories burned
total calories after work out: 1291.5

Breakfast: 515
Avocado
2 eggs
1 cup strawberries
1 cup blueberries
11 oz Harry and David's herbal Irish Breakfast Tea

Lunch: 337.5
half cucumber sliced
10 grape tomatoes
Turkey and cheese sandwich on wheat bread
11 oz herbal red tea
32 oz caffeine free Diet Coke (1/4 regular Diet Coke)

Dinner: 689
big bowl of pop corn (1/2 cup unpopped)
1/2 stick butter
cheese stick
1 cup blueberries

Starting weight this morning: 205.2

I'm not disappointed...it's a good start...however there will be Pizza Ranch on Thursday...Lord help us all! :) Have a good day everybody! Until later!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Starting Over

It's been a year. One, long, year. A year since I lost motivation of working out and trying to lose weight. I will say that I'm impressed that I've only gained 10 pounds in a year, but it's not where I was hoping to be at this point in time and certainly not over 200 pounds. I told myself when I came back from Costa Rica last year (I weighed 192) that I would NEVER be over 200 pounds again. Of ocurse until I get preggers. I think back to the time when I first started and how motivated I was; I thought nothing could stop me and the weight would just come off! I'd be to my goal weight in no time! Then the brick wall smacked me in my face and I was stuck. I couldn't move. I just maintained. Only to a couple of months ago to where I stopped maintaining and just went back to old habits.

The funny thing is I noticed how confident I was in myself and how anti-depressed I was when I was working out and losing weight. I was ME! I was never thinking about what others thought of me because my self worth and esteem were through. the. roof! I could slowly feel myself get more sluggish and depressed...why would anyone put themselves through that?

It's time to kick this in the butt once and for all! No more feeling sorry for myself, no more pitty parties and depression. NO MORE DIET COKE! No more muffin tops and shopping in certain parts of the store! Time for cute sexy underwear and dancing around my apartment naked cuz I love the way that I look and damn proud of of it! (More sex with the husband because I feel more attractive! Can I get an AMEN?)

I'm starting over. I'm going back to making a daily calorie log and this will be just that! Keep me in check and accountable! I'll write down my weight and my daily weigh in's as well as what I'm eating and the calories. If I don't write a blog post one day, please someone yell at me no matter where you are from!

My goal for this month is to be back to 192 by December 1st. Ideally I want to be 185-180 by New Years Eve....That's a big goal! I have about 15 pounds to lose.....but I'm confident and think that I can do this. Tomorrow will be the official first day of logging in food but my husband is already headed to the gym so I need to go to! Until tomorrow...bye bye fat!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Here's to New Years and Resolutions

Lots of things happened in the year 2013. Some good, some sad, up, and down but to be honest, it was a really great year! So many things happened this year and probably in the midst of it all I was feeling distressed and upset but looking back, I grew and learned soooooo much this year. Lets see what happened in 2013 for the Simmons family

January
*We made a commitment to lose weight together. We achieved much, but still have a lot to go! 2014 will be getting back into the grind of working out and eating right.
*And don't forget Billy and his fathers' birthday!
Feburary
*Anndee got baptised. Billy's family came down as well as Anndee's sister and brother-in-law. It was a great time to share with family
*Anndee starts running. I hated the sound of running when I first started...I haven't run since October and I can feel it. Here's to back-tracking what I already did!
March
*Anndee starts running on Monday's with a group of runners. This was a fun run for "all running types" however, my friend and I were deceived when they all ran 5 miles and we didn't even make it a half mile...
April
*Anndee's Birthday
May
*Anndee starts a 5k training program and signs up to run her first 5k. I started getting into this whole running thing and challenged myself by being in the advanced group the whole time, because I knew if I didn't, then I wouldn't try my hardest...it turned out to be a great idea
June
*Anndee run/walks first 5k. It was the Color Blaze in Springfield...I'm sure the Color Run would be much better as this Color Blaze is the bootleg version
*Billy decides he's going to start working on getting into the school system by applying for assistant jobs in local school districts. I'm so very proud that he made this decision. 
July
*Anndee applies for teaching jobs and other art jobs in the area, and interviews for a full time position for current job. There were 3 art teaching jobs that opened up in the area and one in a K-12 school about 10 mins away. It would have been the ideal job for me, however I didn't get any interviews. There was another job that opened up at Illinois Wesleyan, to be the office coordinator for the Art Department. I thought that would have been the best job in the world! I had an initial interview with HR and they LOVED me...I never had a second interview and was given a letter a month later...after college was back in session, that I didn't get the job...thanks but I think already knew...
August
*Billy quits State Farm/Temp and becomes a Special Ed assistant for Kingsley Jr. High. Most people that we tell this to are baffled that he would give up a job at State Farm and the chance to be hired on, to go work as a special ed assistant for Junior High kids. But here's the thing, when you have passion to do something and when you know it's your calling, you need to follow it. Eventually it'll lead to great things, even though the timing may suck, or you're not getting paid as much as you would have but these are all things we considered when he decided to this. It's not like it wasn't thought through. 
*Anndee gets hired on full time with State Farm. I was really excited when this day hit and then when I realized what it actually was...I'm glad I did and they saw that I had potential and great work ethic, but I can't wait to get to where I really want to be with State Farm and that is either Creative Services or Learning and Development.
*Anndee goes to California with family to a very special friend's wedding. This was one of the BEST vacations. I had so much fun seeing Hollywood and LA and spending time with my dear sister Morgan and her wonderful son and spending much needed time with our dear friend who got married! It was the most beautiful wedding I had ever been through, and this may be sappy of me, but it was the only wedding to where I had tears running down my cheek. Seeing Tierney walk down the aisle so confidently, and how beautiful she looked and to think back to what her life has been and to share this moment with her was priceless. I can't be more happy for her!
*Anndee RUNS her first 5k. Yes folks that's right! With a time of 40 minutes 30 seconds, Anndee ran an entire 5k without stopping. This was the graduation race for the 5k training program.
September
*Anndee joins the fall 5k training group...but doesn't commit to follow through with this program. This was when I was under 200 pounds and have maintained that weight the rest of the year.....the lowest weight being 193. but hey, I haven't gone over 200 so I'm very proud for fluctuating 5-6 pounds for 4 months!
October
*Anndee's car starts breaking down slowly. I started to feel glum and it didn't really end until December. I wasn't feeling appreciated at work, finances were constantly on my mind trying to figure out how we could afford a car and the dreams of getting house someday, in my mind, were going out the window...I stopped working out, lost motivation and basically got my life sucked out of me.
November
*Anndee's mom died 5 years ago this month. It's getting a little easier now that some of the firsts are out of the way...however, not all of them. I don't how many times I've had an art question and I'll be like, "I need to call mom," and as I pick up my phone, I realize that I can't. That's when I remember that I have a husband who is an art major. How ironic right? It's hard when people talk about their mom's or hearing them arguing with them....what I would give to have those moments again.
*Anndee's car officially dies. We don't really know exactly what is wrong with it, but know that it's something to do with the transmission/system tracking and electrical system......yay! So we went on the hunt for a car and found one, thankfully, but it wasn't a fun time. We ended up getting a 2012 Nissan Versa, I call it the Mario Kart car because it's small and I feel like with every turn I take I need to be throwing shells or banana peels behind me...and ooooo the mystery boxes would be fun too.
*Anndee and Billy spent Thanksgiving with a WONDERFUL family from our church that we have all adopted each other as family. So grateful for them and their hospitality always! Someday Billy will win in Blokus and hopefully we'll someday soon play Ticket to Ride
December
*Anndee goes to Costa Rica with a friend from work. We went ziplining, (which broke my fear of heights) took an ATV tour around the Volcano, went horseback riding around the Volcano and then went to a Wildlife Refuge to see the wildlife that we had hoped to see on the tours, but didn't. Even though we lost a day due to weather, it was still a fun trip. Some day I hope to go back and see the things that I didn't get to see, but until then I'll have to dream!
*We spent Christmas with both Billy and Anndee's families. Christmas day was spent with Billy's family in Gary. Lots of food, fun, laughter and playing with Makayla (fatface) is always enjoyable. We then spent the weekend after Christmas with Anndee's family in Eldridge, IA at her sister's house with LOTS of children and tons of fun!
*We spent New Years Eve with close friends going out to dinner. Anndee did the unthinkable, and tried a piece of swordfish. Now if you didn't know, I have a terrifying fear of fish. I don't eat them, I don't look at them, I don't touch them, dead or alive, real or in picture books, I'm terrified. I tried it and did not like it at all....all I could taste was fish...yuck....however the others at the table loved it! Kudos...no fish for me thank you!

So what will 2014 bring for the Simmons household? I don't know. But with all our traveling over the Christmas season, we've discussed a lot of how we are going to do things differently this year. To be honest I'm really excited to see the year unfolds and how we both grow, challenge and lean on each other. In a previous post, I said that I wanted to live a simpler life style and try to be content and happy no matter what. I'm going to work on losing more weight and go back to the healthier life that I did have before. Here's to 2014!