Monthly Update!

Seriously? The end of the month already? I'm so not ready for November. I guess that means I have to update my pounds lost and inches lost.

So, I had Janelle take my measurements today. She has been saying for the last few months that my measurements might start getting crazy. I'm still losing weight, but I have that dreaded problem of skin...I hate to admit it, but there is loose skin everywhere. I'm ready to just grab some scissors and cut it off. Zach told me he would help.

Anyway, I only lost 1/2 inch this month....kinda sad. Seriously, my arms, legs, and chest have hardly changed in the past few months. I've been preparing for this, but I'm just a little sad about it. It makes me want to work harder though.

So, I lost 5 pounds since last month. I feel like it should have been more. I've pretty much been working out 2 times a day for the last month. Janelle had to do two a days to get ready for her show, so I did as many with her as I could. I've also been sticking to my meal plan.

I do know that the less weight you have to lose the slower you lose it. I do know that I've been working just as hard as I always have.

I guess that makes my new totals 78.5 inches lost and 110 pounds lost. Don't get me wrong, I'm still proud of myself. I'm not quite sure how in the hell I've stayed positive about this for almost 2 years.

Pictures from the show

Janelle's show was yesterday. I think she placed 6th. I've never seen her not place in the top 5, so it was a little strange. Anyway, she looked flippin' great. She was bigger than she was last year. I guess I just don't know what the judges are looking for. She looked better than the girls she was competing with. Well, there are more shows to come, so I'm sure she will do better next time!

So, here are some pics from the show.

Workout buddies! Please ignore the competition
spray tan that Janelle has to have for shows!

Janelle and Ashley

Janelle and I

This picture isn't really good, but it looks cool.
Janelle is right in the middle.

After the show

Yea! Workout buddies.

Everything is running together, and a funny story.

My blog posts have been all over the place lately. I have been really busy and I think of things I want to write about, but then I just smash a bunch of nonsense into one blog and I'm sure I confuse everyone.

Anyway, today is Janelle's show. I talk about how Janelle competes in figure. I never really know how to describe it, but it's not body building. Anyway, here is the picture from last year.

Monster Mash 2010.
By the way, the only part of my outfit that
still fits are the shoes....awesome.

Today and tonight I know I will take a ton of pictures so I will have a bunch of stuff to post.

I have been taking a bunch of pictures lately. I do need to post them. I will find time to do that soon...I promise. I don't even have time to be doing this now. I have to get ready for work!

FUNNY STORY!

I went out the other night and I realized that I had to eat.....you know the whole eating every 3 hours thing. I was like 9:45 PM and I was at a bar, I knew I was going to be out for at least another 3 hours, so I decided to have a beer. It really doesn't happen very often.

So, I look at the bartender after he asks if I need anything and I say, "Yea Ryan, just a Miller Lite."

He looked at me and then my friends and said, "I thought you were in AA or something because I haven't seen you drink in soooo long."

"No Ryan, remember the whole losing weight thing? What did you think I was doing?"

"I don't know, Sarah! I just know you haven't come in here and ordered a drink a long ass time."

I really couldn't stop laughing. Then another guy comes over to talk. I didn't meet this guy until after I started meal plans and losing weight. He is forever trying to get me to have a drink. I decline every offer. Anyway, he comes over and is chatting with us and I finally look at him and say, "Hey, Rob, you notice anything?"

He looks at me for a second and I reach for my beer. When he sees that I'm picking the beer up he freaks out. He starts saying, "No way. No way. This isn't happening. I need a picture. No, really. A picture."

Then he made my friend take pictures of him and I holding beers. Actually he was telling me to point to my beer so everyone would know that it was mine. He told me he would probably never see it happen again and now he had photo evidence.

I was hoping he would post the pic on FB so I could steal it and post it here, but no such luck yet....and I look really cute in my pic too!

My very own non-scientific study.....for the day.

Today was a mess of a day. Very long story short, I ended up sitting in a teacher's lounge for 2.5 hours doing work and trying to keep myself busy.

In this lounge there is a pop machine and a vending machine. Staff and teachers wandered in and out the whole time grabbing snacks from the machines. At first I thought nothing of it, but after a few women came in and stopped to talk to me I started paying more attention to what they were saying. None of the women really wanted to talk to me about anything I was doing, they just wanted to justify why they were getting snacks.

I started paying attention to what they were saying. Here's a few examples of what I heard:

"It's not like I really need a snack. I'm just stressed today."

"I don't always do this. It's just a nasty day outside."

"I know I was just in here to get a cookie, but that just didn't do the trick....ohhh Mr. Goodbar! That should do the trick."

A few of the women asked if I wanted them to buy something that I could eat. I told them all thanks, but no thanks. Of course they kept asking. I told them I eat on a schedule. They would ask why I would do that. I told them that it helps me stay accountable.

I did notice that guys were totally different. When they came in they just said hey and got what they needed and left. They also only got sodas. They didn't even go to the vending machine. There was no justification for wanting a soda. They just got what they needed and rolled out.

The women were at the pop machine and the vending machine. They were working really hard to convince me and themselves that it was ok for them to be eating animal crackers, Hersey bars, brownies, Honey Buns (the frosted kind!), and other random junk.

I just thought it was interesting that there was so much justification going on in there. I bet they were all thinking they were going to sneak in and get some junky goodness from the vending machine and no one was ever going to know....but then they saw me working in there and they needed an excuse for being there.

I should have yelled, "I caught you and I'm telling everyone that you eat brownies out of vending machines! You will never convince anyone that you are healthy!" That would have been awesome. I bet a lot of women would have been super pissed off at me.

It's time for me to talk about myself!

Imagine that, me talking about myself. Who knew?

So, I've been running into people that I haven't seen for a while. I was unaware that some people are startled when they see me. I guess if I haven't seen someone for a few months it could be a little odd to see me.

The other day someone was so surprised to see me that they hugged me. I'm not much of a hugger, but I couldn't avoid it.

I've also been asked if I'm noticing the difference and feeling different. My response is, yes I do notice the difference. When I look at recent pictures I see the difference. A few times I've had to do a double take at the picture. I smile a lot when I look at pictures now and it also sucks because the other people in the pictures look at them and tell me that they look awful. I'm not going to lie. I think I  look pretty good in most pictures and I want to post them all on FB, but when everyone else says they look awful, I can't post them!

As for the other question, I don't really feel different. I feel the way I've always felt. My personality hasn't changed, my beliefs haven't changed (OK, some have), my morals haven't changed, ect, ect. I'm the same, I just look different. I guess people want to think that I've had some big epiphany about life and love, or whatever, but I haven't. All of those beliefs are still in tact.

I do try more activities that I was scared to do before or didn't think I could do because of how much I weighed, but everything else is still the same. I'm still the same outspoken, over opinionated, loud, hard working, smart, hilarious girl that I've always been.

Vargo Trained!

So, this is going to be a short and sweet. Zach got his web site up and running. Everyone should know Zach by now. I talk about him a lot. He's the one who helps me with all of my meal plans and workouts, oh and, he's married to Janelle.

Anyway, if you get a second check out his site. It's pretty impressive.....and there's a whole part about ME...so of course I love it!

http://www.vargotrained.com/

I love this weather!

Ok, the week started with crap-tastic weather. It was cold, rainy, cold, rainy, and cold. I even had to break down and buy a coat. So, true to Ohio weather it's like sunny and almost 60 degrees during the day now!

I'm not complaining though, trust me! Friday and Saturday have had awesome weather. I'm taking full advantage of how nice it's been. I've been outside for the past two days trying to hold onto this nice weather.

Today I went down to the Reserve with Kelly to take a walk. We walked for an hour because we just didn't want to be inside! We tried to sit at a table and just chill in the nice weather when we were done, but there were spiders and nature everywhere. It was too much to handle.

Kelly was freaked out by little spiders and then it freaked me out. We both jumped up and tried to look down at the spiders and Kelly rammed her head right into my face and smashed my sun glasses into my face. I swear I'm going to have a bruise. Honestly, Kelly and I are like a slap stick comedy routine wherever we go.

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice as well. Kelly and I are trying to plan our day to maximize our time outdoors. On Sunday's Janelle and I do a workout at the Reserve in the morning, so I know I will start my morning outside. I just hope I can stay out all day!

Pictures and random info...

I finally have a second to sit down and put some new pictures up. I was having such an awesome time at the wedding last weekend that I didn't even get a good full body picture to post. Oh well. I still look cute in my dress. You know, the outfit that is entirely borrowed except the shoes.

Danielle's dress, Janelle's sweater, and
my dress up Flava Flav clock.

I totally cropped Kat out of this picture.

Right after the wedding, when I was
still warm and sunny in Ohio.

There was totally a dress up
photo booth. There was
no way I was getting out
of that reception without
some photo booth pictures!

More photo booth fun time!

So, it's been freezing cold the past few days. Rainy, nasty, cloudy, nasty, windy, nasty, yucky, and gross. I'm already over winter and I'm pretty sure it hasn't officially started yet. Two days ago I had to break out the knee high socks to stay warm. Today I had to go buy a coat. I hate coats. They are bulky and, I swear, they never fit right. So, now I have knee high socks and a coat to, hopefully, keep me warm. I'm still fighting the urge to turn on the heat. I really try to make it to November, but I might fail this year.

Finally, someone that works at the gym that I like!

So, at my "favorite" gym today one of the employees came up to talk to us. At first I was trying to figure out her angle. She kept asking questions about what I've been doing and if Janelle is training me.

I just looked at her and told her all the issues that Janelle, Ashely, and I were having with the employees there. I told her that the trainers were accusing us of training each other and making money while we were working out.

She kept assuring us that she was not trying to get us in trouble or anything sneeky. So we talked with her for a while. She was asking a lot of questions and I didn't really want to get into specifics. I just had a bad vibe about the whole thing.

So we kinda changed the subject to talk about Janelle's upcoming show. She's less than 2 weeks till her show and I can't wait to post pictures! We told her that Janelle competes in figure and that is why we've been pulling all the two a day workouts.

Even though I was skeptical, she was really a nice lady. She asked if she can point me out to potential members. I told her that she could and I think that may have been her angle for talking to us.

Now I don't feel so freaked out at that gym. She was nice and seemed genuine. Hopefully all of the crap at that gym will stop now that we are talking to more of the employees and finding out that they aren't such jerks.

Oh and, I have had no time to upload pictures from that wedding. I have a few cute pictures of me in my cute, borrowed dress. I don't even have time to type this! I think later in the week I will find some time to get myself updated!

I'm sore and it's your fault!

I was going to post about my weekend, but then I heard this at the gym today....

First, let me try to set the scene for you.

Janelle and I were walking out of the gym and to do that we have to go through the lobby area where the "sales" people sit.

One of our favorite (I wish you could see the sarcasm in the word favorite) "sales" people was sitting at his desk with a 2 liter of Diet Mountain Dew and a 12 pack of ramen noodles. He usually has a little foam dart gun too, but I'm not sure where that was today.

Anyway, he was on the phone so we only heard one side of the conversation, but you could totally tell what the person was saying.

Sales guy, "Well who worked you out?" Stops to listen. "Well no, that's normal. You might even be sore for a few more days. You did a good workout."

So the gist of the conversation was someone wondering why they were sore from working out.

I mean, who goes to the gym, works out, and then calls to complain because they are sore? Weirdos.

Janelle had to go back and do a second workout today too. I went for a little bit, but I couldn't stay very long. Janelle calls me after she leaves to tell me that the same sales guy was giving her "advice" on preparing for her upcoming competition.

He was telling her to that she needs to build more muscle by eating half a chicken breast every hour. Then proceeded to pull a poster out of his desk to show her. The post was of a male body builder.

Janelle was like, "Well, he's a body builder and a man. I'm a girl and I do figure."

What a strange day at the gym. I'm sorry that I missed that conversation today. I probably would have laughed uncontrollably.

This is all a random mess of information!

So, I've been busy. Really busy...and I'm not even sure why.

I've been working out twice a day with Janelle and working at all 3 jobs. I'm looking to add a 4th...not joke. I'm trying to get a 4th job and I already know that it won't interfere with my workouts. Perfect.

Last week....or maybe 2 weeks ago, I'm not sure. I think I'm losing time these days! Anyway, Janelle and I were at the Reserve running and hopping up the stairs. We were getting tired of that so we decided to jog. We seriously didn't get too far because there were geese blocking the path. They would not move. They would also not make that annoying honking sound that they make. They were silent and staring at us. It was creepy. Not as creepy as the deer that stalk me when I jog alone, but it was still creepy. (If you missed my ranting about deer you can read about it here and here.)

At one point Janelle asked me why the seemed to be spreading out. I told her they were going to circle around us and attack. We decided to just turn around and jog the other direction. 




It is safe to assume that nature and I do not get along!

 

Yesterday, I was at one of my many jobs and I heard the voice of a teacher that I talk to all the time. We stay in touch on FB and I haven't seen her since the end of last school year. I walked into the hall to say hey. I waved at her and she turned around and walked off. She didn't recognize me. That is awesome and sad at the same time! I'm need to FB her and tell her that she totally blew me off because she didn't even know it was me waving at her!

So, today I have a wedding to attend. This wedding is going to be awesome. Two people that I love very much are FINALLY getting married. I was really excited to go out and buy a new dress, but I literally had zero time to get that done. I ened up borrowing a dress from Danielle, a cardigan and jewelry from Janelle, and a clutch from Kelly. I have put together an entire outfit from borrowed things that I would ordinarily never wear, except the shoes; the shoes are really mine.

I will have to post pictures. Hopefully I will have time to do that tomorrow. I'm pretty much blowing off all responsibility today so tomorrow I might be super busy. I typically run all of my errands on Saturday, but who wants to run errands when you can spend the morning getting all pretty for a wedding?



This week is never ending!

Do you ever have those weeks that are never ending? I'm having one of those right now! There is nothing happening to make it stressful or bad or anything; it's just not ending!

I blame the weather. It was so nice last week and this week the weather has been turning crappy. You know...nasty Ohio weather in the fall. I swear we have bipolar weather in this state.

Today was so, so, so cloudy and kinda chilly. I didn't want to do a damn thing today. Work was awful. All I could think about was getting home to my couch!

I wasted this whole afternoon on my couch. I thought to myself that I should just change my clothes and get my butt to the gym. Do you think that happened? Hell no. I sat my butt on the couch and it was all over from there.

At one point I got up and looked out the window and I saw the nasty grey sky and it made me really cold! I put my butt back on the couch and watched bad shows on E!.

I got up at another time and realized I should do some work to get ready for tomorrow. I even looked out the window and thought that I should really go to the gym and at least do some cardio.....then I got back on the couch under my blankets.

I did go see Kelly earlier this evening because I was bored, but not bored enough to make a trip to the gym. All I could do was tell her how tired I was and I was really wishing for a weekend where I could just "couch it up" for the whole weekend. It didn't even dawn on me that I had had my butt on the couch all day long!

I'm going to have to fight this weather. It makes me super lazy. Tomorrow is a regular workout day. I know I will be at the gym tomorrow. I have early morning cardio and then I will do a workout later in the day. Today wasn't totally wasted. I did catch up on some sleep!

Oh yea, I am still not able to post comments on most blogs. If I do I have to do it as anonymous. Sometimes I can post and sometimes I can't. I will figure it out!

I used to be fat

There is an I Used To Be Fat marathon on MTV today. Yea, I still watch MTV....you can make fun of me.

Anyway, I love this show. I know all the people on the show are 10 + years younger than me, but I like to see them trying.

They lose a lot of weight in like 3 months, but they do work hard. You know, the old fashioned way...hard work and changing their diet. They struggle, they complain, they whine, and I find myself yelling at the TV.

I really like the trainers the best. A lot of them make me think of Zach, because they don't sugar coat anything. I mean, they are a little more showy than Zach, but they say the same straight forward things.

There is one thing that does bother me. All the trainers say, "If you give me your summer; I'll give you back your life." That makes me want to puke. I guess they needed a catch phrase.

If you've not seen it; you should watch it. It's addictive.

Getting back to the yoga...

I think I'm going to start doing my AM/PM yoga video again. Way back at the first of the year I was doing awesome. Then I fell off the yoga wagon. I think I'm going to start tonight before I go to bed. It's like 1o minutes. I'm sure I can handle that.

I've had my love-hate relationship with yoga for a while now. If you've missed it, you can read about it, here and here. 

Bod Pod fun time!

So, Blogger still hates me and sometimes it lets me comment on other posts and sometimes it doesn't. I'm working on in. I've not had a bunch of time to figure out the issue, but I'm still not ignoring your posts.

Yesterday, I had my bod pod. I have had 8 of them now. I, and when I say "I" I really mean "Zach", use the bod pod to keep myself in check and make sure that I'm losing fat instead of muscle.

I had to go alone, which is always sad, because Janelle and I get really excited. We call Zach right away to give him the results. It's like 2 super giddy girls. It's an odd thing to be that excited about, but hey, it works for us. Yesterday I had to celebrate with Dawn, the totally awesome bod pod lady. I did get a chance to talk to her for about 20 minutes though and that was cool because she has some different insight about some things.

So, I would like to post all of them to show everyone the change, but I'm really short on time these days and I need to scan them all before I can post them. I have to do the same with some old pictures too.

The bod pod breaks everything down into fat and lean mass. It gives me the percentages and pounds for both.

I've decided to share the results from the first time I went for a bod pod and yesterday's results.

Jan. 5, 2010                                                Oct. 4, 2011
percent fat 56.2%                                       percent fat 37%
percent lean 43.8%                                    percent lean 63%

So, my fat mass and lean mass have totally flip flopped. I'm really close to being at my goal weight now. I think I only have about 40ish pounds to go.

I will go back to another one in January. I'm thinking that one will be even more awesome.

Working up the nerve.

Total side note.....I'm not able to post comments to anyone. Well, it's let me do a few. I'm not ignoring you, blogger just hates me.

So, long story short; mom brought home pictures from Nebraska. Her and her brothers and sisters were splitting Grandma's photo albums. Yesterday I saw some pictures that I haven't seen in a while taken from 5 or more years ago.

Some of the pictures are from when we were kids, when my mom was a kid, when my mom and dad were younger with no kids, etc, etc.

Then I see one picture that nearly made me vomit; me from December 2006. At first I put it aside really fast, then I picked it up again and just stared at it. I was huge. Ok, huge is an understatement.

It made me realize that I had lost a little weight before I really started trying to lose weight almost 2 years ago. I know what I weighed in January of 2010 because I was forced onto a scale. I don't know what I weighed in December of 2006 because there was no way I was getting on a scale. I can just look at that picture thouhg and I know I weighed more in 2006 than I did in the beginning of 2010.

I almost drove over to show Janelle and Zach at that exact moment. I did drive to Kelly's to show her. The picture is of my grandma and I sitting on a love seat. I look like I can barely sit on the damn thing. I think that's what I yelled at Kelly and her husband too. I think I said, "Look at this shit. I can barely sit on that effing couch. How disgusting." Her husband was cracking up.

Then I took a picture of the picture with my phone and sent it to Janelle. Her and Zach looked at it and were in shock as well. Zach said I could use the sweater I'm wearing as a blanket now. I totally agree.

I will post the picture, because it is a good comparison photo. I just have to scan it and work up the nerve to post it. It is shocking! To me, it is more dramatic than any other picture I have posted. I just have to come to terms with the photo. The only way it could have possibly been worse was if I was sitting at the table eating!

Anyway, bod pod tomorrow. I'm excited. I'm always excited for bod pods. I'll post the results tomorrow or Wednesday.

Update day!

Well, I'm not quite sure where September went.

Since it's the end of the month I had to get measured. My measurements were good for this month, but the weight was not so good. I complained to Janelle a few weeks ago that my meal plan was not good because I was not losing weight. I went for 2 weeks with no change. Janelle passed my complaints onto Zach and he said to get a grip because my body was trying to get regulated to the new plan and whatnot.

I do get a bod pod on Tuesday, so I'll be getting a new meal plan soon. I always drop a lot of weight when I start my new meal plans.

So....this month I lost a total of 5 inches. This month it was mostly from my chest and waist. I'm totally content with that. So now my total inches lost is 78.

From last month to this month I only lost 4 pounds. Now my total weight lost is 105 pounds.  I think my inches lost are going to catch up to my pounds lost.

It kind of seems unreal. I've been on meal plans and trying to lose weight for over a year and a half now. Two years ago I never would have imagined I would be where I am now. I have done all of this through sheer determination and hard work. I didn't use fad diets, pills, infomercial gimmicks, or surgery. (Not that there's anything wrong with surgery; it just wasn't for me.)

For me, it makes me that much prouder of myself. If I can do this; I can do anything.