(week 20). i'm not gonna lie...

I gained .06 over the past two weeks. No excuses here, I went on vacation to see my dad, only to come back and be icky sick for a week. Workouts have temporarily been halted, as I continue to cough a lung up (at least it feels that way!). While trying to stick to eating well, there were a few days that I allowed myself a “free pass”. Man, STL has some great food!

Mommy and Noah enjoying our vacation!

But I didn’t totally stray from it all (if I had, I can only IMAGINE the weight I’d have gained). For the most part, I chose sensible meal choices (I won’t mention the cream soda float with a mountain of ice cream, or the awesome ribs I had—TWICE!), opted for water or diet soda and made sure to keep active.

We took Noah to the zoo (he loved) and the Children’s museum (he L-O-V-E-D!), and chased him around the airport, of course.

Noah on his first carousel ride.

Now, being sick for a week now, I’ve really had to just bite the bullet and allow myself to get better. That means a lot of sitting/resting when I get home. No workouts, no over-doing it... Nothing but rest. I used to make fun of people who would complain when they couldn’t work out, but MAN, I’ve been feeling weird and achy without exercise!

I had also been getting super-comfortable with the WW program. So much so, that my food tracking became sporadic. With starting a new WW series today, I’m going back to basics—if it goes in my mouth, it gets jotted down! Here’s what the day has looked like so far:

I’ve been at this almost 5 months, and have lost ALMOST 25 pounds. I’m so proud of how far I’ve come, but am even more excited of where I can take this.

As my WW leader reminds us, we shouldn’t always look at what this week’s scale says, but at what you’ve accomplished so far. She’s so right. Big picture, people!

(NOTE: .06 is NOT bad!)

(week 17). I’m WINNING, DUH!

Yes, I took a page from Charlie Sheen, but if he’s taught me anything this week, it’s that you should be proud of your awesomeness.

And I’m super-proud of MY awesomeness; I’m down over 23 pounds! I’ve got another pound and change to go before I hit my “St. Louis” goal, and I think I can totally do it by next week!

Oh, and I almost forgot! With me not having blogged in a few weeks, I haven’t been able to mention I hit a MAJOR milestone a week or two ago: I hit my 10% goal! That is HUGE for me! It not only shows I’ve been able to stick with something, but that THIS IS WORKING!

I ran into an old co-worker earlier this week. She hadn’t seen me since I had just had the baby, and she was completely taken aback by how I looked. LOL, she said she didn’t even recognize me! I can’t always tell that I’ve lost weight... Sure, my face looks thinner, and my arms and legs aren’t as puffy, but I still look like the me I have in my head. Make sense? Maybe my brain never adjusted to “bigger Jen”. Sure, we’ll go with that.

This whole experience has been so positive; I just need to keep moving forward with it.

Now, what are YOU doing to WIN?!

This key chain is one of my most prized material possessions at the moment.
It represents the 10% I worked so hard to lose, and holds the promise of more to come. WORD.