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All posts for the month October, 2011

Fire Up For Fall: Week 7

Hello and Happy Monday! Just a side note for those of you who didn’t have a chance to catch a read over the weekend, check out Faith, Fitness, Fun for my Self Love Reflection guest post! And if you are a new reader thanks for reading, let’s be friends, K?

For those of you who are new I am apart of the FIre Up For Fall brought to you by Weight Wars. You can read about the challenge here.

Today I have 2 inspirational messages, the first is more for my Monday:

This is the best message for me since I am getting back from vacation, and the first day back is always the hardest. it doesn’t help that today is Halloween and I have to pass out candy. It also didn’t help that I ate HORRIBLE for the last 4 days. But I am putting that in the past and focusing on the future!

And my message for everyone else:

There is no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to weight loss! Slow and steady wins the race. I have to keep telling myself this every time I forget that this is a lifestyle change, and it is for-ev-er (insert kids voice from Sandlot). Which is fine, I’ve come to terms.

Five Questions!

1. What have you done to help achieve your goals? I’m not gonna lie. Being on vacation my goals kind of took a backseat. The good thing is that I have already made most of them and so I am thinking a reassessment is in order for next week. I did go to the gym 1 day out of the 4 I was gone. The gym I went to was disappointing, and no matter of me saying “suck it up” to myself made me go again. No excuses, no B.S., I just plain didn’t go. I should have adapted to the situation and just went. Live and learn!

2. What have you done this week to make yourself feel fabulous? My hub’s bought me boots that I have wanted for about a year. As I have mentioned in the past, when I had the little munchkin a year ago, the hub’s and I didn’t make a budget, and ended up in some hefty debt. We tightened up, and made some difficult (but good) changes and I am happy to report that we have dug ourselves out finally! We had rewards credit for Nordstrom, and he surprised me by buying me the boots I have been wanting. I can honestly say that the boots paired with my new jeans that finally fit make me feel fabulous when I look in the mirror!

3. How do you pull yourself out of a slump, or prevent yourself from falling into one? I try not to lose time on wasted emotions. When I say emotions I mean feelings that are counterproductive, and there is nothing I can do about them. A good example is stress when sleeping. I can usually turn my brain off if I have a conversation with myself like “its the middle of the night, there is nothing you can do to fix that problem right now. Sleep is the best thing for this issue”. This way of thinking usually prevents slumps. For me either I am working towards my goals or I’m not. I try not to get down on myself, because that just makes it worse.

4. Are you naturally positive, or do you have to work at it? How do you keep yourself positive? I am a naturally positive person, but I think it helps that my hub’s is always questioning everything. One of us has to stay positive! I believe positivity is the only way to achieve your goals. Without it I would get nothing done.

5. If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be? I have not been that many places in my lifetime, but I think my dream destination would be a European tour. I have always wanted to go abroad, but just haven’t had the chance.

What about you? If you are not participating in FUFF, tell me an answer to one of these questions in the comments!

6 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on October 31, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in About Me, Budget, Challenges, Fall, Finances, Fire It Up for Fall, Indulgence, Inspiration, Motivation, Positive Self-Talk

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 31, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/31/fire-up-for-fall-week-7/

Back Home, Back On Track

Just in case you’re wondering, Hanna’s 1st birthday party was a good time!

This was the one good shot of her and some cake!

Holy Cow! My baby is one and now it is time to really get crackin’ on my health and fitness goals! My vacation was fun and relaxing (for the most part) and now it is time to get back on the weight loss saddle! My goals didn’t get past the first day of being with family, but that’s ok! I knew going into a vacation that there were definite triggers for overeating and indulgence, and the important thing is that I get back on track on Monday.

So here’s the situation: Weight Watchers is out. We had some good times and those first 25 pounds were hard-earned. I love the Weight Watchers system and I believe it works, but the Points Plus system has too much freedom for a person like me. I loved being able to weigh in in front of somebody, but I am also held VERY accountable by all of my blogosphere friends (you!).

Body bugg is in! I should have my armband by next week, and I am so excited to be trying this system. I have heard so many good things about it that I can hardly wait until it gets here!

Some Exciting Things!!!!!

“The New Rules of Lifting for Women” Phase 4 Starts on Monday!!!!! I have felt such a huge difference in the first 3 phases, I can’t wait to see what Phase 4 brings!!!

Some changes in Weigh in Day: Since I won’t be going to Weight Watchers I am going to be figuring out a new day for weigh in day. Most likely it will be Wednesday, I figure it is a good balance. Check the weigh in tab for the next scheduled weigh in.

My First Guest Post!!!!! If you’re stopping by from Faith, Fitness, Fun, HELLO! THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! I hope you’ll check out a few of my favorite posts, it will help you to get to know me better! Or Leave a comment so I can get to know you better! And to all of my loyal readers: Check out Tina over at FFF! Her blog is addicting, honest, and fun! That, and she is just a super fun person!

Goals for this next week will be short and to the point:

Drink 100 oz’s of water a day
Go to the gym 6 times this week
Track calories on Livestrong’s The Daily Plate until Body Bugg arrives

I don’t want to overwhelm myself after getting back home, so these are things I was doing before vacation, and I should fall right back in the habit. Realistic goals are the only way to succeed!

What is a goal that you have this next week?
Are you a new reader stopping by from FFF? Leave me a shout out new friend!

11 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on October 30, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Blogs to Read, Body Bugg, Family, Motivation, The Daily Plate, The New Rules of Lifting for Women, Weight Watchers

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 30, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/30/back-home-back-on-track/

24-48 Hours

It’s official. I have ordered my Bodybugg system and it should ship within 24 -48 hours. I feel the motivation I felt when I started the blog in June, not that I was lacking motivation in the first place, but it is a renewed inspiration. A great feeling!

A not so great feeling is today’s goals. What a flop! A hacker got into my twitter account, and I have spent most of the day changing passwords that matched my twitter account. What a pain in the butt! I’ve also been running around trying to get the finishing touches for Hanna’s first birthday party. Needless to say, I didn’t get to the gym this morning because the whole Hacker thing made me in a bad mood. At lunch I was dragging (did I mention my baby slept horrible last night?) so I had a Pepsi. And then I overfilled myself on pizza at the California Pizza Kitchen.

Last night we watched the last game of the World Series and had more pizza. Why is it that I never get sick of pizza? Seriously. I could eat it for every meal (and in the past, some days I did), it always sounds good and never gets old. My fingers are sausages (from the salt) and my feet are swelling. I am seriously rethinking what jeans I put on today, I don’t think I can take any restriction on my tummy.

At home I would beat myself up, and get down on myself, but the fact that I’m on vacation makes it better on my ego. Vacations are for messing up and doing things that you wouldn’t normally do. I have no doubt in my mind that I won’t jump right back on track come Monday morning. This doesn’t give me the excuse to just go crazy for the next 24 hours, but I know that being hard on myself is not productive, and it doesn’t help the cause.

We will be leaving early on Sunday morning and then it’s back to the daily grind!

Is there a food that you could eat for every meal everyday?
Are you too hard on yourself at times?

PS. This post was started on Friday and finished Saturday morning so some of the wording for the days might be confusing!

1 Comment

by Shrinking Carrie on October 29, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in About Me, Body Bugg

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 29, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/29/24-48-hours/

I Like My Routine

Sweat it Out:
5 min. Arc Trainer
5 min. Elliptical
40 min. Different Elliptical

I cannot say enough how HUGE of a creature of habit I am, and very particular about what my habit is done on. I belong to Gold’s Gym, and I am blessed to be able to have a travel pass so that I can use the gym they have 2 blocks from my mom’s house. This morning I woke up at 7 and put my gym clothes on first thing so that I could go get my workout in and not have to worry about it the rest of my day.

I got to the gym and this is the first time that I didn’t have trouble getting in with my travel pass. The stars were aligning and it was meant to be. Little did I know that when I got into the cardio area, it would turn into a story of Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears, or in my case Goldie Locks and the 3 horrible Ellipticals. This gym had NOT ONE of the cardio machines that were in my home gym, which I thought was strange considering they are the same kind of gym.

I started on the Arc Trainer, because I use to love that machine. I couldn’t keep the beat with my music and the movement felt very foreign and did not flow right. I jumped off of that machine and then tried an elliptical. This machine was on its last leg and made grinding noises when it started moving. By the third machine I was thinking to myself “you know, it was really hard to get here this morning considering I am on vacation, and I better be able to work this third machine or I might just throw in the towel”. The third machine in no way compared to my home gym elliptical, but I needed to move to start my day, and so I powered through 40 minutes of jostling and back fat shaking all over the place, just so i could feel good about going to all-you-can-eat-sushi tonight.

I will admit that I had a better day because I started it with a workout (even if it was a crappy one). After I got ready we decided to go shopping and spent 2 HOURS walking around the mall. I did find a great pair of jeans (because my current fave’s now have holes in the crotch), but couldn’t bring myslef to buy anything else because I know that I will lose more weight and they won’t fit after a while. This mentality is a great money saver, but I”ll just end up spending it all at Nordstrom at the MAC counter (oh, how I love you MAC!).

I ended the day with over 13,000 steps on my pedometer, and my goal was 10,000 so I am on a roll! So far this vacation has been pretty manageable, and I am just hoping that I can keep it up!

Do you like to shop? I like to shop, but not for very long. 2 Hours seemed like a LONG time in the mall and I was definitely ready for a nap when we cane home!
What would you buy if money wasn’t an issue? Lots of shoes, handbags, & makeup!

1 Comment

by Shrinking Carrie on October 27, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Challenges, Distractions, Workout

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 27, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/27/i-like-my-routine/

The Reality

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 hour

As of yesterday I weighed myself and the scale has not moved. Disappointing, I know. And now I am on my way to Utah, and let’s be honest, I am in vacation mode. I am also frustrated with myself, and how me and the Weight Watchers Points Plus system is going. We don’t seem to get along. As you can see, my exercise schedule is on point, but exercise is only about 30% while eating makes up the rest. I feel like I’m tracking all of my food and staying within my points, but I am not really losing like I should be. It’s too early for a plateau, and I don’t think that is the reason why anyway.

As I have mentioned in the past, my mom is getting me an early Christmas present while I’m in Utah and getting me a Bodybugg. I am hoping that it will help me to see exactly how many calories I am burning throughout the day which can help me pinpoint the reason I am not losing. Bodybugg has its own tracking system, so at this point in my weight loss I have to ask the question “is it really necessary to do Weight Watchers and the Bodybugg tracking system?”.

Besides, Weight Watchers monthly fee is $40 and I feel like I have been wasting money by not continuously losing every week. I think that it has helped me start my journey, but now I maybe need to move onto something that helps me to see results. I started it for the accountability of having to weigh in, in front of somebody, but now I have the blog, which helps me WAY more than a meeting once a week. Anyway I seem to have a lot to think about in the next couple of weeks.

Vacation Time!

Dustin and I have been watching our pennies for the last 6 months and we have finally gotten ourselves out of our financial woes. Now we are going to do a little shopping for ourselves and the little one, and try to enjoy the fruits of our (mostly Dustin’s) labor. I am going to make some realistic goals. I’m not going into this nieve and thinking that I can achieve great things while being on vacation. It just won’t happen.

Vacation Goals!

Go to the gym. I’m already in the habit and I use to go to the gym that I would be going to so it isn’t anything scary or new. Just do it.
No soda. I don’t drink a lot of soda, but there is something about vacation that makes me do things I don’t normally do.
Drink plenty of water. I will take my Nalgene every where with me.
Wear my pedometer. Try to get over 10,000 steps a day.
Don’t over fill. The reality of the situation is that we are going to go out to eat. What I can control is the amount of food that I eat. I want to make sure that I don’t go overboard and stuff myself at every meal. I will eat slow and stop when I feel myself getting full.

I want to come back and still fit into my pants that just started to fit, so my goal is to maintain my weight loss, thus far.

Do you set goals for yourself when you are on vacation?
Have you ever used the bodybugg system?

2 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on October 26, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Challenges, Diet, Family, Frustration, Goals, Indulgence, Weight Watchers

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 26, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/26/the-reality/

The Best Year of My Life! (so far)

After 5 years of trying to get pregnant, it finally happened. On March 13, 2010 I found out I was pregnant, and started one of the most wonderful experiences of my life……motherhood.

Hanna and I on her Blessing Day January 23, 2011

On October 25, 2010 Hanna Elisabeth Seals was born at 6:36 pm, after 16 hours of labor (no drugs) and an emergency c-section.

There's no such thing as a good post-labor photo. Try to prove me wrong, I dare you.

Today my baby turns 1 year old, and I will declare that this last year as officially been the best year of my life (so far). I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father sent Hanna to be in my care. I love her so much and she has completed my life. She has made me a better person, and I never knew love like this could exist.Happy Birthday baby-girl! I love you more than words can say!

And this picture is just a good one to end on.

5 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on October 25, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 25, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/25/the-best-year-of-my-life-so-far/

Perfection Challenge Day……?

Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 1 hour
Clean house: Endless hours

Apparently I am losing track of the days because yesterday should have been day 7 (instead of 6, like I posted) and today is day 8. Let’s face it, I have started vacation mode. I’ve been eating good and going to the gym, but mentally my mind is ready to be with family, and have some much-needed time off with my hub’s.

Today I CLEANED the house. For Hours. Endlessly. I am one of those people who cleans the house like crazy right before I go out-of-town, so that it stays nice and neat for when I come home. This has gotten to be a bit of a challenge with a now toddler in my home. She has recently taken to opening up cupboards and scattering its contents on the kitchen floor. I dont’ know if I baby proofed because I’m afraid she’ll hurt herself, or if I’m just sick of cleaning up the mess’ she keeps making (j/k my child’s safety is always #1). Also, I watched my friends little boy today, which served as a nice distraction for my little munchkin.

When I checked my pedometer at 7:00 pm (right before I took my shower for the day, I know, so gross), I had over 17,000 steps in for the day, which is good considering I was handing out snacks all day to little ones, and the cleaning helped me from stuffing my own mouth with goldfish crackers.

I just have to have a little vent, because telling my hub’s this story didn’t get it completely out of my head:

Is it not an unwritten law that when you are doing cardio at the gym you should leave a “buffer” of one machine (if it is not a busy time of day), between two people? I was on the machine for about 2 minutes when a girl hopped on the machine next to me (when the one next to her was empty) and started to race me on the Elliptical. I now I have mentioned this in the past and I don’t want to sound paranoid about racers, but it was clear that she was starring at my machine to see what levels I was doing and how high my resistance was.

Here was the thing that really bothered me. While casually glancing at her machine to see what all the hububb was about, I noticed that she hadn’t even programmed the machine and she was on a level 1! the machine kept showing the “press quickstart to begin” rolling phrase and she was checking me out like she was kicking my @$$! I don’t mind a racer, but lets at least even it out by having the same levels (incline 9 resistance 10), and maybe programming the machine wouldn’t hurt you either.

Sorry for the rant, but I see this girl a couple of times a week, and although I think it is wonderful that she is at the gym trying to be healthy, I think she could use her time more wisely. But that is just my cheap jerk opinion!

Anyway, here is how the day ended:

I hope you guys are having a fab Monday!

Do you ever feel like people (strangers) get competitive in the gym? Do you think this racing thing is in my head?

9 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on October 24, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in Challenges, Daily Stats

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 24, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/24/perfection-challenge-day/

Fire Up For Fall: Week 6

Holy cow! Is it already week 6!?

Inspirational Photo:

Source

Yup. Because we should always think awesome thoughts about ourselves. Plus, Shatner is just the coolest, and I should find more reason’s to post pictures of him.

Weekly Questions:

1. What have you done this week to help achieve your goals?

I’ve met my first goal, and now fit into the pair of jeans that I bought for motivation post-pregnancy. Woot woot!
Just finished phase 3 of NROLFW, so that goal has also been checked off. New goal: Finish Phase 4
I am 4 pounds away from hitting my 10% with Weight Watchers, and I have been going to the gym 6 days a week and tracking all of my food.
Made it to the gym 6 days a week. CHECK.
#5. Make friends and find inspiration in others. DOUBLE CHECK!!! I am loving the people I am meeting by doing this challenge! You all have been inspiring and it has been so motivating to me! I love checking in with all of you on Mondays!

2. What have you done this week to make yourself feel fabulous?

I wore my new gym clothes to workout in, and I didn’t feel self-conscience! This is huge, and it makes me even more excited to go to the gym everyday! And it made me feel fabulous. With the tight fitting clothes I can really tell where I’m seeing progress, and it feel so good!

3. Do you listen to music when you work out? What gets you fired up?

Music is huge for me when working out, and I have to change out my playlist every couple of weeks so that I don’t get bored with what I’m listening to. Lately, my go to album has been David Ghetta’s (SP?) new album “Nothing But The Beat”. It is a collaboration album, so all of the songs sound like a mish mash of different albums by different people. My go to gym music has to have a good beat to keep tempo to and keep me entertained.

4. What is your guilty pleasure music? How does it make you feel?

I’m not really embarrassed by any music I listen to, because I love all genre’s besides country, I LOATHE COUNTRY. I would say my guilty pleasure would have to be music like Billy Joel, or Lionel Richie. I don’t listen to them very often, but when I do it takes me back to my childhood when we use to play music in our house. ”Dancing on the Ceiling”, and “Uptown Girl” immediately take me to a different time.

5. If today were a song what song would it be?

Ha! I just totally looked through my itunes to find some inspiration, and I found a good one! ”Seize the Day” from the movie Newsies, with Christian Bale. That would definitely have to be guilty pleasure movie/music for sure. And yes, I totally have the soundtrack for it. I am really giving you guys a skewed vision of what kind of music I like. I promise my taste is much more different than what this is displaying.

I hope everyone is having a great start to their Monday! Stay Tuned for Friend Making Monday!

3 Comments

by Shrinking Carrie on October 24, 2011 • Permalink

Posted in About Me, Awesomeness, Challenges, Fire It Up for Fall, Inspiration, Motivation, Positive Self-Talk

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 24, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/24/fire-up-for-fall-week-6/

Lazy Sunday: Day 6

I need to have more days like today, but with the gym included. Sunday is my rest day, like I have mentioned in the past, I am a religious gal, and I stay home on Sunday’s to focus on church and family. Today was one of those days that I kind of wanted to break my no gym rule, but rest days are good, and necessary. They also make me excited to go to the gym Monday morning, which is a definite plus!

My eating was on point today. I ate just enough so that I didn’t ever get to be dying of hunger (figuratively of course). I only have 2 more days until weigh in, and I’m not sure that I’m going to make my 10% Weight Watchers goal before I go to Utah. The weird thing is that the numbers don’t seem to be going down quickly, but I am feeling a HUGE difference in the way my clothes are fitting! I put on a skirt today that I hadn’t worn in 2 months, and it fit perfectly! In fact, a few more pounds and I don’t think it would fit anymore.

This is the why I don’t live or die by the scale. I am feeling amazing with my workouts, and have lots of energy. My clothes are fitting better, and I am staying motivated with that.

Here is how today rounded out:

I Finally got smart and just figured my smoothie into a meal instead of listing every single ingredient.