And The Winner Is!

Or shall I say winners... I couldn't choose between Brooke and Lauren so I will just give you both the prize.

Please email me at dragonscapes 24 at yahoo dot com with your snail mail and I will get you your prize!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my 21 day challenge. In a couple of weeks I will be doing it again so keep checking back.

On another note I lost 6 lbs this week! Yay me!

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

P.S. Sorry for the delayed reaction folks. My internet has been down for a couple of days. I was totally lost without it. I cried!

The Challenge is Over!

So how did everyone do? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Brooke already left her comment and you can read about her results over at her blog! Way to go Brooke!

As for me, I didn't quite make it through. Sometimes stuff happens, however in the end I was making the choice not to walk those days and I am accepting the responsibility for those choices. I will definitely do this again though so all of you will have another shot at the Michigan Mystery Grab Bag! (or whatever it was that I called it)

So everyone has until tomorrow to leave their comments at which time I will choose the winner!

Prizes are fun!

Also, for any of you feeling discouraged because you didn't make it through. Please watch this video. You will be inspired to get up and try it again.



Happy Training,
Love Jenn

I call her ButterBall!

... Not because she resembles one in any way! In fact she is quite cute and cuddly.




I call her ButterBall because she is a little Turkey!




Like yesterday when she stole the other half of my cookie! (I really wish that I had gotten a picture of her with the cookie in her paws, but I was too frustrated with the little turkey.)



So without further ado, I give you the conversation that Whit and I had last night.

Scene:Dark Bedroom

Jenn: Hey Honey, I think I have a ButterBall pressed against my leg.

Whit: Well go put it back in the freezer. It will go bad in this bed with us.

Jenn: Yeah, maybe I should go put it back.

Whit: Please do, I don't want to wake up to the smell of Funky Turkey!

Jenn: (laughing) You said that and my mind went straight to that really bad dance called the Funky Chicken!

Whit: Well I don't want to smell any of that either.

Jenn: What exactly does bad dancing smell like?

Whit: Hair spray and spandex!

Jenn: (laughing uncontrollably) I have to remember this conversation!

Whit: Are you going to blog it?

Jenn: Yepper!

Yeah, we are total freaks! This conversation is not even close to our normal goofyness!

We ended the night with.

Jenn: Goodnight goofball, I love you more than most!

Whit: Goodnight Foosball, I still love you more!



Yeah, he called me Foosball.

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

My own version of the Presidents Physical Fitness Test

1 mile walk
sprint
sit ups
pull ups
push ups
flexability reach

Long Over Due

I really am struggling with keeping up with my fitness and diet goals. It is so frustrating when I can be knocked off the wagon so easily and then have to struggle back on and try again. I do keep trying but until I can make it a consistent habit to exercise and eat right I am not going to get anywhere! I blame my disordered life but really I am getting everything pretty organized these days. I blame my hectic schedule but it's not that hectic anymore. I blame depression but the depression is mild and is mostly caused by my unfit lifestyle.

I can't keep laying the blame on everything in my life when in the end I am making the choice to exercise or not, I am making the choice of eating a salad or cake! My disordered life, hectic schedule and mild depression are not making these choices for me! I have to learn to own my choices and understand that in the end I am the only one who can take the blame for the way my day is going.

I have gained back every bit of weight that I have lost. Yeah, I said it! I am back to only working out occasionally (usually with Whit pushing me every step) and to eating whatever I happen to feel like (which is generally something that is processed and easy). All of my aches and pains have returned and I can't tell you when the last time was that I got in a full 8 glasses of water in a day.

I have got to change this pattern!

I have been reading Annette's Awakening for a while now and her story is a lot like mine, with one exception! She changed! She made the decision to be healthy and then she did it. She got on that wagon and rode it to a 70 lb weight lose! She learned to own her choices and it is paying off immensely for her!

I want that too!

So for the first time I am posting pictures of myself, right now, the way I am today. I am posting my numbers. I am posting my fitness level. I am basically opening myself up for everyone to see! I want a clean slate to draw my life on! So consider this post the cleaning of the slate. Tomorrow is a new day and I am going to embrace it anew!

Front view:



Side view:



Back view:




Goal Pants (These fit me at the beginning of the year. Now I couldn't hope to get them on):



(I had no idea that I looked like that. Seeing these pictures for the first time nearly made me cry. I have an image in my head of what I look like and that is not it at all. I have got to get this figured out, I don't want to be that person in the picture anymore. )

My numbers (in inches):
Bust=55
Chest=45.5
Waist=51
Hips=61
Thighs=33
Knee=22.25
Calves=18.5
Ankles=10.25
Upper Arms=19.25
Lower Arms=12.5
Wrist=7.25

Weight=295lbs

Fitness Level:
Push Ups= 0
Sit Ups= 0
Running= 15 seconds

I look forward to seeing those numbers change as the weeks and months pass by! I am going to weigh in every week but I will only do the photos and measurements once a month! For now I am going to work on walking every day and eating every 3 to 4 hours. I will make more changes later as I get used to this first part of my journey. I will think of it as if it was the Oregon Trail Game and do my best to make decisions that will enable me to continue on this bumpy wagon trail!

Thank you to all of my blogger friends who have stuck with me through it all. I sure hope you can hang on a little longer because I really appreciate you all and look forward to your comments and encouragement!

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

I'm a Convert!

As a cashier I always got so annoyed with THOSE women! You know the ones with two carts full of merchandise and a coupon for everything. These were the women that haggled with me over prices and left stuff with me if I would not take the coupon. It drove me crazy!




Well, things have changed since then. I am now one of THOSE women! I have been looking at ways to organize and streamline life these days and one thing that I have always been horrible at is grocery shopping. I go in with a list (if I remembered to bring it) and when I get to the checkouts I realize that not only did I not get all of the things on my list but I am now spending at least 50 dollars more than I planned to on things that I picked up along the way. I always ended up starring dumbfounded at the monitor as the cashier was scanning my order and wondering exactly where I had lost control of this trip.




My Mom in Law, Mary is an amazing shopper! She is one of THOSE women. She gets everything on sale and not only does she clip coupons, she actually uses them. I can't tell you how many times she has said "Oh hold on, I have a coupon for that!" or " I got this for you because it was on sale and I had a coupon so it only cost me (insert some ridiculously low price here)!"


I am in awe of her ability to stretch a dollar!



Which brings me to this week. We only had a little money to spend on groceries and a long list of items we needed to get, so I was busily trying to decide what items on our list could be skipped so that we could spend as little as possible. As I am sitting there glaring at the grocery list, I happened to glance at the newest Kraft Food & Family Magazine that was sitting in front of me. It was open to a page with a recipe for Taco Soup! It looked so good and I really wanted to make it for Whit but I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to get the ingredients on our tight budget. So I flipped the pages for a minute while I tried to collect my thoughts. I finished the magazine and moved on to the ads portion of the mail. I usually throw this stuff out without even looking at it but for some reason I didn't today.




And boy am I thankful that I kept them because the first thing I saw was the Kroger circular. Now normally I don't shop at Kroger because their prices are astronomical, however they have some pretty amazing sales to make up for it. Looking through that ad I noticed a lot of the things on my list were on sale this week. Making a Kroger shopping list reminded me of Mary, who shops Kroger sales religiously! Thinking of Mary brought me to coupons. I knew I was too late for the Sunday circular but I also knew that you could often get coupons online that you can print for free! So I started searching for Free Printable Coupons. I had to weed through some unuseful web sites but eventually I came across the Coupon Mom! I can't even describe how amazing this website is! It teaches you how to combine coupons with sales to get the most products at the least cost. She even shows how to get some things for free!

Last night was our first attempt at using the Coupon Mom system and at first I wasn't so sure it would work, Whit was on the skeptical side too, but we printed and clipped coupons, made a shopping list for both Kroger and Meijer (based on sales ads) then headed to the stores to test out the system ourselves.

Here are the results:
Kroger
Total bill= $144.80
Total coupon and sales savings= $80.14
Total money spent= $64.66
(We actually saved more than we spent)

Meijer
Total bill= $50.33
Total coupon and sales savings= $21.85
Total money spent= $28.48
(That's almost a 50% reduction in our bill)

I was so proud of myself for doing the work and saving so much money! I actually called Mary to tell her how great I did! I am looking forward to using the Coupon Mom site more extensively and saving even more money! By the end of the night it was actually feeling a bit like a game. I am calling the game "Groceries For Free" and the object is to spend as little money as possible on everything I purchase. Anyone else want to play?

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

P.S. Thanks for being my inspiration Mary! We love you!

21 day challenge... Week Two Update!

Well due to issues beyond my control, my walking has been halted nearly all week. I am going to do my best to put in a good showing for this last week of the challenge however. How are the rest of you doing?

Also, thank you all so much for the kind words. Whit's grandpa was laid to rest on Saturday afternoon and then Saturday night grandpa's only son had a son! (Well to be fair, Molly had the little wolff pup) So I guess that the most appropriate thing I can say is "Life Goes On"!

Hope you all are doing well!



Happy Training,
Love Jenn