It's ok to fall off the horse...

as long as you get back on. I haven't necessarily fallen off, I'm just kind of hanging off to the side a bit. Like my foot is caught in the stirrup and doesn't want to let go. This is ok, as long as my foot doesn't slip. And it's not going to slip because I'm not going to let it. I'm going to use every ounce of strength in my wimpy little arms to pull myself back upright.

Just about everyone who is trying to lose weight has set backs. I haven't had one in a while. I'm just not moving forward as much as I'd like to be. Not yet a plateau, though. Originally, I thought the Dreaded Meal Plan (now called the Sexy Meal Plan) would be the hardest part. I thought three 30 minute cardio sessions a day would be a piece of cake. Boy was I wrong! I finally do at least one and usually two a day. It's a rare day that I manage to squeeze in three. But I need to make sure I do three or I will plateau. The all important strength training three times a week is a must, as well.

Once I got through the first 2 weeks of my newly revised meal plan (remember, meal plan, NOT diet) I found I didn't miss a lot of the foods I knew I couldn't live without. I grew up on Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs, and Cap'n Crunch with whole milk. I'll probably have a bowl every once in a while for old times sake but won't go back to eating it every day after these competitions are over. I don't miss Rice-a-Roni or pasta. I do miss a good bread, though and pancakes, and waffles, and ham, and soup, and , and.......

Ok, I'm back on the horse again. My butt is securely in the saddle. I've wavered off and on the meal plan and exercising the past couple of weeks. It's time to kick things up a notch since I'm on the down side of the Waist Watchers Contest as of this Wednesday. My cyber friends are going to have to miss me a bit. My cyber family will wonder where I've gone. My blogs may be shorter or written in the wee hours of the night or morning (hopefully they'll make sense). I have until May 6th to make as big of a difference in myself as possible. I can do it. I know I can. Feel free to ask me if I've done all three of my cardios. Comment and ask what I've eaten. I'll tell you honestly. Why? Because if I lie, I'm only cheating myself. And lying to you. How can I be a good roll model if I lie to you? I've made myself accountable to you, Hubby, my trainer Douglas, my friends, family, and most importantly, to myself. I can and will do this.

Slacker Fattie tip- Get up. Right now. That's right, I said, "GET UP!" Go move for 30 minutes. Walk in place. Jog in place. Put on some music and shake what you're mamma gave you. Go on a bike ride. Oh, or you could borrow my friend Melissa's, son. She's offered to rent him out to you if you don't have your own kids to chase around outside. Just make sure you return him in the condition you received him (or close to it). I'm getting up off my butt, too, right now.

Sexy Meal Plan tip- I don't fry anything (ok, except for the chicken and hush puppies I made tonight, but only because Hubby grew up on good Southern cooking and it's not his fault he married a Yankee girl). I will lightly sautée in Extra Virgin Olive Oil or a bit of butter, or canola oil but I do NOT drown food in vegetable oil. Yuck. No frying, got it? Hubby only gets fried chicken about once every three months so I hope he enjoyed it.

PS Updated Thing 1 and Thing 2 pictures will be done of Friday. I hope you see a difference.

To diet or not to diet?

I must be on a Shakespeare kick! To answer the question, don't diet.

I love fate. I wrote this and decided to save it. My creative juices have exploded the last couple of days and I have spare posts hanging around in "drafts." I get updates from yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com in my emails. This article (click on "article" to read it, Aunt Bee!) popped up and I thought it was perfect to stick in here. It says pretty much what I wrote below but, well, they're experts and I'm not so I thought I'd let them have their 2 cents.

Actually you already are dieting. Your diet is simply what you eat every day. Most fad diets don't work because you either get bored or once you lose the weight you go back to how you ate before. I am not a nutritionist nor am I licensed to dish out nutritional advice. Ok, there's my legal disclaimer. Now you can't come back and blame me if things don't work out for you, haha.

My first step in trying to lose weight was to limit the amount of food I consumed. I switched from the standard dinner size plate to a salad plate. And NO you may not go back for seconds. This defeats the purpose of using a smaller plate. Google serving sizes or actually pay attention to what the serving size is on your favorite foods and drinks. A 20 oz bottle of soda is actually 2.5 servings. When you look on the label and see 100 calories you think, "That’s pretty good." Multiply that times 2.5. Uh huh, not so good anymore is it. Next Google calories burned ____insert favorite exercise. Find a site where you can enter your weight since it varies greatly. Now you'll see how much you'll have to exercise to work off that yummy soda you just gulped down. I quickly switched to water.

Next I started writing down everything I ate. EVERYTHING! If you don't write it down, you're only cheating yourself. Boy was I eating a lot! And it was all very yummy! And very unhealthy. Most of it anyway.

By making these small changes, I lost 4 pounds in a month. I walked every once in a while too, but not on a regular basis.

In making baby steps I knew I would be less likely to go back to my bad habits.

Then I met Douglas......

Slacker Fattie Tip – if you have a Wii, use it. You don't need all the extra games. You can burn calories with the fitness game it comes with. In my opinion, playing tennis is about, but a little more active, than playing ping pong. There are lots of sites you can go to and enter your weight and exercise to see how many calories you're burning.

Sexy Meal Plan Tip – I hate oatmeal. Other than egg whites, it's the only "breakfast" item on my meal plan. I top it with a 1/2 cup fresh fruit to mask the taste. For me, it's a very doable way to eat oatmeal.

5 Guys Hamburger, Heaven or Hell?

Heaven, definitely. Mmmm. For about 5 minutes. That would be the 5 minutes that I was eating it. Then hell hit. That would be the cramps I got when my newly healthy (ummm, getting there) body decided to reject the bacon cheeseburger with grilled onions. I knew, even while driving to Five Guys, that I would be headed to AnyTime Fitness later. I guess it was a good thing that I only had 2 egg whites for breakfast. I burned those 17 calories driving to and from the restaurant hauling 2 small kidlets.

Of course I ran into Douglas at the gym, later. And, yes, I was honest and told on myself. He asked if it was worth it. Mostly no, it was not. But it was somewhat worth it, in a tiny way. I definitely won't be splurging like that again. It's kind of like when your parents tell you not to stick you finger in the light socket. You have to do it just to see what REALLY happens. Well, Douglas was right. It made my body feel gross inside. There is no way I'm cheating like that again. I don't care if I'm starving and there's only a bowl of cheesy pasta, or a greasy hamburger, or giant piece of cheesy pizza. At least until June 15th when the Sexy by Summer contest is over. Even then, I really don't think I'll go back to eating as bad as I did before I was introduced to The Dreaded Meal Plan. Who knew it would actually feel good to eat healthier?

To work off my 640 (ACK!) calorie lunch, I spent 10 minutes on the stair master burning 66 calories (I think that may have taken care of the bacon, or not.) I moved to the ellipticals which I love oh so much (NOT!) for all of 3 minutes taking care of the piece of cheese and onions (28 calories, maybe). I spent 40 minutes on the bike and burned half (209) of the calories from the hamburger and bun. Ok, not really. All of that took care of less than half of my splurge. Even with my two 20 minute jogs before and after lunch, I was unable to burn more calories than I ate. Seriously? Seriously. After the gym, thankfully Carson talked me into playing Wii tennis and boxing, baseball, and golf. I think that helped me break even for the day.

Nope, not worth it at all. Sorry to me, because that's who it hurt. I let myself down. I let my wonderful trainer down. It really sucks seeing the disappointment in someone's eyes when you've done something you shouldn't have. I felt like I needed to go in time-out.

Lesson learned, time to move on. Remember- tomorrow's a new day (I'll spare you the sunny "Tomorrow" song again).

Cheaters, cheaters never win

I'm eating healthy foods but I am not sure if it's healthy to eat so little. It's hard to tell. I'm not starving myself which I'd like to point out again. I eat when I'm hungry and only the portion sizes I'm supposed to eat. At the end of the day, when I add up my consumed calories, I'm shocked at how little I took in but I am also shocked that I was never starving.

I didn't cheat a single time yesterday! Go me! Woot Woot! (as my personal cheerleader, Kris would say). I have a great support group. My friend's, Kris & Melissa and I spend our weekdays emailing back and forth about weight loss (well, MY weight loss!), food (how sad mine is and how delicious theirs is!) and all about everyday life. They cheer for me when I lose yet another pound and pick me up when I have a bad day and cheat.

Beth is my text support. I text my updates and she texts me positive support as well as funny tidbits that make me laugh hard enough that I burn a lot of extra calories. I've already told you about my live-in supporters who help with name calling ("Fatty" and "Chub-o") and my wonderful son who enjoys playing with mommy's "squishy fat."

Another great support system is the women in the Sexy by Summer contest – although we still have no idea what the grand prize is. We get on a website several times a week to update our progress and cheer each other on. We all want to win, but we all want to see each other win as well. We're such nice mommies!!!

After my workout with Douglas yesterday, we chatted with another guy from AnyTime Fitness who knew about the Waist Watchers contest. He pointed out that I had to work harder than everyone else because I had the least amount of weight to lose. With me, every pound counts. Every ounce counts. Cheating is no longer an option. Not doing my 3 cardio workouts in a day is no longer acceptable. That one statement totally put things into perspective for me. Douglas is helping me get in shape and be healthier. I am helping me win. And I want to win, dammit! I've never been to New York City. I want to go and I want to turn thousands of heads while I'm there.

I'll say this more than once so get used to hearing it – I don't want to be "You look great for having 5 kids." I want to be "There's no way you've had 5 kids!"