Ringing in the New Year

Well it's been a long time since I posted. Things have been very busy but going really great.

Here are some highlights from 2010:

- Finished my first year of teaching! (hardest but one of the greatest things I've done!)
- Received my contract for another year at my same amazing school- seriously so blessed
- lost 50 pounds (gained some of that back but spending the next several weeks getting it all off again- definitely learned the struggle of the holidays with weight loss- haha we won't make that mistake again and we learned a lot but we don't want to continue to Yo Yo in our weight so we are taking this seriously now that we see how quickly it can come back)
- Celebrated 2 years of marriage- going on 3 years now!
- one of my best friends in the entire world had a beautiful baby girl
- another beautiful best friend got married!
- really clicked in our young married's small group and have found such joy in those friendships
- started my 2nd year of teaching and loving every day of it (ok well not always everyday but I definitely love what I do and know I was made to teach!)
- went on our first cruise (already planning our next one!!)
- Jeremiah is heading into his 5th year at Palm Valley Church and we bought a building and it's been a huge blessing to move forward and have our own space
- adopted 2 adorable wonderful kittens
- bought a new house closer to town and LOVE it to pieces
-struggled with my time with God and He continued to convict me to work actively on my relationship with Him and ready for 2011 and God to show up big!
- coached a middle school sport and loved the bonding time with my fellow coach and girls!
- and so many other little details that could fill pages and pages

2011 is going to be great... I pray God blesses us, stretches us, challenges us, and continues to provide so that we can bless others.

Bring it on 2011! :)

Finished!

Well both Jeremiah and I have finished our last round of HCG and are so proud of the results. We never cheated, never diverged and did it by the book and it has paid off! We don't plan on doing any more rounds of it- just maintaining a healthy lifestyle with food and exercise to keep our current weight and even lose a little bit more on our own.

Jeremiah is officially down about 70 pounds!!

I am officially down about 50 pounds!!

It has been such a great journey doing it on our own with HCG. We know that HCG is not a miracle diet and that we can gain it all back in a few weeks if we go back to our old lifestyle. We have learned so much during this process- SO much about food and realizing that food is really 90% of the weight loss battle. We look at ingredients now more than nutritional facts (while those are important- we now don't really want to be eating something a low 100 calories but with sugar as the first ingredient). We just look more closely about what is in our food... we eat a lot more fresh foods and organic foods when possible. We haven't had any processed food in 10 weeks and it's amazing how I haven't felt sick or anything all summer (which usually happens when I am done with school or preparing for school) and it's great!

We are so thankful that we did this being so young, before we have kids- so we can help our kids develop healthy eating habits. We know we will have our weekly treats or "free" meals where we can eat a few things that we wouldn't eat on a regular basis and we love that we can see those as a "treat" now and not our normal foods.

I'm stoked to go back to school 50 pounds lighter with so much energy.

We are officially doing our 2nd half marathon in February and excited to smoke our old time being so much lighter. Training starts in a few weeks. :)

God has blessed this time in our lives and we pray we have the discipline to keep it up!!

Summer 2010

Well so far this summer has been fabulous!! I have been super busy but it's been nice to just be busy with life and not life AND work/school haha. Our diet is coming to an end (well the super strict part) and we are both so thrilled. I'm down about 30 from when we started a few weeks ago, Jeremiah is down 40. Its been great. We are going to do 1 more 3 weeks cycle of it to get down our last 15-20 pounds and then maintaining it for hte long hall begins.

I am going to Idaho for 4 days to see one of my best friends get married and stand by her on this special day! Its so great to watch my friends go through this phase of their life now that Jeremiah and I aren't really considered "newlyweds" anymore (even tho many people would disagree haha).

Jeremiah and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary and celebrating with a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean (SO THRILLED!!!) and so many people around us are having babies (including my best friend Lauren and I SO wish I could be there when baby Emily comes!) and it makes me want to have some of our own- so instead of going that route yet- we are getting kittens! I LOVE cats and I'm excited to have them in our house soon. Babies will, Lord willing, be in a few years- we are enjoying this time to just focus on each other and have a little bit extra money to splurge haha.

I'm enjoying summer- only about 5-6 weeks left and my second year will be so much easier than my first (in the sense of planning and having things to go off of!) There will be challenges ahead, joys to come and many things to look forward to!!

6 weeks is over- maintenance period begins!

Well 42 days has come and gone and we did it!! We successfully completed 6 weeks of hcg and we are so pleased with the results. 6 weeks, 26.5 pounds for me and 37 pounds for Jeremiah (nuts!)

It was REALLY hard at times but the scale and fit of our clothes was worth it all. We both still have about 20 pounds to go for our goal weight but to get this close to our goal weight is just wonderful! Jeremiah is the smallest he has been... well... in almost 10 years! He looks and feels great! I am putting on clothes (special dresses or few things I kept) from high school! A whole new wardrobe has to be purchased but it's SO worth it!

There were MANY times we wanted to quit, cheat or just felt discouraged. We were thankful we didn't and had people around us to encourage us!

We are now on a 3 week maintenance period. Still no sugars or starches but we go from 500 calories a day to 1500 calories! (sounds like SO much food after eating so little) but we don't have drops anymore and can have dairy, salad dressing, oils, all veggie's and fruits up to our allowed caloric limit. So wonderful! I had egg casserole and bacon this morning, melba toast with laughing cow spreadable cheese, a huge salad with cheese and dressing and turkey hot dog with chilli for lunch! So low in calories all those foods but SO delicious after a very limited menu before).

Our cruise is in 4 weeks so we are hoping to lose as much as we can by then and spend the rest of the summer getting down those last 20 pounds. Back to the gym this week (so excited) and much more going on in our lives!

Glad the hard part is now over!

Week 4- only 2 weeks left!

I can't believe we have been doing this diet for a month- NO cheats!

My body actually feels really good to not have had ANY sugars, oils, butters, white starches! So crazy - I remember the first week and I just thought I would never be able to do this- now it's 2nd nature!

While I do miss a lot of my favorite foods, I know that eventually I will be able to eat everything (in super moderation and being more conscious of what I'm putting in my mouth).

I had a revelation the other day because I weight myself at night (dumb idea haha) and I was 3 pounds heavier than I was that morning- now i know that your weight fluctuates during the day but 3 pounds! How was I going to lose 3 pounds just by sleeping. .. The next morning I had lost 4 pounds *which was a pound less than the morning before) and I got to thinking that by putting healthy food in my body all day, over night my body used that food ALL up- there was no excess food, fats, junk, to figure out what to do with- my body utilized every ounce of food and then I lost weight.

It was a huge breakthrough in thinking that if I help my body out by eating what it needs, I will get the results I was looking for.

2 weeks from today I will be able to have salad dressing, dairies, some oils and all the rest of the fruits and veges and just counting calories closely.


As of today I have lost 19.5 pounds!! (I am SO close to the 20 pound mark and so excited!!) We have 6 weeks until our cruise and my goal is 3 pounds a week until then to get failry close to my goal weight :)

Jeremiah, oh gotta love guys, has lost 27 pounds!! He has another 20 to lose until his goal weight and it's encouraging to see an average of 5-7 pounds of weight loss a week!

I just really desire to feel confident- I don't have a goal pant size really or a certain number that I feel would make me "happy" i just want to be confident and have my body reflect the energy, athleticism and personality I know I have but that might have been hidden by my weight.

Pics to come eventually :) Thanks for all your support!!

Week 2 and going strong!

Well we are finished with the 2nd week of our new eating plan.

Great results and feeling good. Don't really feel hungry anymore, tons of energy and sleeping really well!!

We are on day 15 and I am down 12 POUNDS!! It's so awesome. I am starting to feel it and see it a bit. I think next week once we are closer to the 20 pound mark, it will be more obvious. It's been hard when the scale says the number is loser but I don't see it in the mirror or feel it in my clothes. Today I started feeling it in my clothes :)

Jeremiah has lost 16 pounds!!! He is doing really well and starting to feel it and see it more. It's been hard for him with the limited choices on food but we know it's only temporary and we will get all our food choices back again (just in moderation and smaller portions). We know this is a life change but we are ready for it. Getting ready in a few years for starting a family, we want to make sure we have a habit of a healthy lifestyle so we don't have to figure that out while starting our family. :)

We booked our cruise to the Caribbean last week- more motivation! We are both hoping to lose around 30 pound (Jeremiah probably more!) and we will be so confident on this trip and really enjoy ourselves. God has provided free plane tickets, cheap cruise price and the time off!

We are so thankful and blessed!! Stay tuned for week 3 results!

Been a while- lots to catch up on!

Well it's hard to believe but in 4 weeks I will be done with my 1st year of full time teaching!! How did this year pass by so fast?????

I'm happy to say that I've been offered a full time contract for next year and I signed that puppy so fast!!
I'm so thrilled to be back at Country Place next year and be with my students again. It will be a blast- and a lot easier now that I don't have to come up with ALL my lesson plans again, just recycle many old ones :)

This summer is going to be great! Middle school summer camp, going to Idaho for one of my best friend's weddings!!! And a mystery vacation for Jeremiah and. While we have money saved, vacation fund set, full time jobs for next year and a few weeks off, we are going to go somewhere this summer. We are hoping somewhere tropical, a Bahama cruise, or Hawaii or something. We know that in the next few years when we start our family we won't have that luxury as much with extra funds, time, etc. So we are wanting to do this now!

Another big thing we are doing is the HCG diet. We have had many friends do and successfully complete this diet and we are thrilled to have finished our first week on it!

Basically we take these hormone drops and can only eat 500 calories a day! I know I know... it sounds crazy but the drops allow our body to go after the fat cells (rather than muscle sells that normally would happen on that low cal of a diet) and they suppress the bad hunger, although we are still pretty hungry.

So far in the past 5-6 days I have lost 6 pounds and Jeremiah has lost 8 pounds. (Darn boys and losing more weight!)


I will be posting each week our progress and we are hoping to be down 30ish pounds by the 1st week of June and then reward ourselves with a 'beachy' vacation and be proud of our bodies!! Then we go up to a 1500 calorie diet and exercise and if we keep with that, we will maintain and lose even some more weight.

I'm excited to rely on God for this because it's hard not to cheat!! I want to eat EVERYTHING haha but I know the reward will be worth it!!