All Posts By

Candi

weight loss

First Weigh In

Today was our first official weigh in for our weight loss videos and unfortunately I don’t have much to be proud of. It’s crazy that a week ago I had lost 3.5 pounds and then this week I ate even less than last week and here we are only a 2 pound total weight loss. How did I gain weight? I’m not too worried about it though. I did blog about some of this already yesterday so I won’t get to detailed, but I will say this is not fun. I feel like I am dragging butt because of not having caffeine and I feel like I am starving myself. Yesterday I literally had eaten next to nothing since today was weigh in and look where it got me. I need to figure out how to eat meals that are going to make me feel better and give me energy.

I am going to start making a checklist for each day and force myself to eat at least 2 fruit and 1 vegetable serving every day. Sounds simple, but it’s not for me. I will also allow myself to have one bad “carb” type food each day as long as I exercise- such as bread or noodles. Ken totally freaks out if I make spaghetti or anything with noodles. He thinks we should be sticking to chicken and rice and I swear right now I wouldn’t care if I didn’t eat chicken the rest of the month. I feel like I am depriving my body of all the things I love at all once and it feels miserable. I feel like I should be concentrating more on portion control and adding healthier foods each day so eventually I crave an apple, instead of chips. To top it off our kids are not thrilled with our food choices and I feel like I am starving them as well and they are all skinny minis already. I am going to work on a menu for next week so we have a plan of what we will have for dinner each day like I used to. Sounds like a plan, let’s see how this goes!!

videos

Karli does my makeup

I seen several videos on YouTube of husbands doing their wives makeup or boyfriends doing their girlfriends makeup and I thought they were fun to watch. Apparently this is one of many video “tags” floating around on YouTube. How fun!! I decided to have Karli, my 7 year old daughter, do my makeup. I found some other people that did the same so I wasn’t the only one with this idea. It was fun and I TAG you all to do it too!!

blog, weight loss

My week so far

Darn, I broke my routine of posting every day so far this year. Some days I was even posting twice. See I have a little secret, I don’t always publish my posts when I write them. I’ll write several posts at one time and them publish them so they post at different times. Trust me, most bloggers do this. Not that anyone noticed, but most of my posts publish first thing in the morning and I can tell you for sure that I don’t write in the morning. My writing would be full of gibberish if that was the case. My best writing is done at night, which is usually the reason why I have been staying up way too late. I’ve been enjoying making videos and editing them for you all. A couple of people asked me what I use to record and edit my videos. I use a Flip camera to record and I use iMovie on our Mac desktop to edit. I was thinking about maybe purchasing Final Cut Pro, but I think it might be a little overkill for the kind of movies I am uploading right now. Maybe someday down the road.

So why haven’t I been posting this week you ask? I have been a very busy worker bee! Every so often I go through these spurts where I just can’t stop working. Actually I think I do my best work when I feel overwhelmed and have tons to do. I also have been slowly working on figuring out our 4th quarter taxes. I’m always trying to get as close as I can to our true amount of tax owed so I don’t send in too much just to turn around and get it back. Not to mention that I have been trying to keep focused on work so I don’t eat as much throughout the day. I haven’t had any Mountain Dew this week and it’s been killing me! I feel so tired and drained and honestly- grumpy. I am going through major withdrawals and my headaches have been fierce. I have replaced Mountain Dew with Crystal Light Raspberry Lemonade. It’s pretty yummy, but doesn’t give me the caffeine my body craves unfortunately. That is the whole point though, to get off the caffeine and sugar.

Delicious Crystal Light

I also love these Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters. I love pretty much any kind of chocolate that has caramel and these are so tasty. The package only contains 5 to 6 clusters, but for 120 calories, they are the perfect snack when you are craving chocolate.

Yummy Low Cal snack

I haven’t lost as much weight this week as I thought I would, then again I haven’t exercised either. See, this is the vicious cycle I create. My way of dieting is just not eating much and then I am tired and can’t push myself to exercise. I know, go ahead and tell me how if I would start exercising in the morning I would have more energy throughout the day. Oh and how I can’t lose weight by not eating anything at all. I know all these things, yet I am just not doing things right yet. I’m not too thrilled about our first official weigh in tomorrow, but I am not giving up. I need to create a better routine and stick with it. Just not there yet. I really want to do the Couch to 5K Running Program (again). I’ve never completed it, but I WILL this time!! So who wants to go for a 3 mile run with me on March 25th?? That is when my 9 weeks will end. Hold me to this okay guys.

Ken went to the grocery store the other day because I just can’t wrap my head around what type of foods I want to eat. Nothing sounds good. We told the kids to write down what they wanted because they always complain we have no food in the house. Here was Karli’s list.

Karli's grocery list
Looks like I have a little snacker on my hands! Good thing she is a total bean pole!

movies & tv

The Bachelor – Episode One

Did anyone catch this mistake on the episode of The Bachelor last Monday?

Being the huge tech junkie that I am of course I would be the one to notice the screw up they made when one of the girls on The Bachelor, Linzi C., showed her iPhone when sharing the story of how she got dumped by her last boyfriend. Right away I was like, “Oh my God, that is SO wrong!” (Too bad no one was listening.) Anyone who has an iPhone knows that the messages that you send are in green or blue on the right and the messages you receive are in white on the left. So here she is trying to pretend that she received a message that was on the wrong side of her phone when obviously she typed it herself. I’m not blaming Linzi, I mean I am sure it was producers that told her to do it. Humor is found in many forms on this show. I have been a huge fan since the very first season!

The Bachelor Ben ---- mistakes!!

(I also caught that Amber T. said she was 28, but the screen said she was 29. I imagine she just had a birthday since the show was recorded, but they should have just had it match what she said.)

I was going to make videos each week on my thoughts on The Bachelor but I changed my mind. Instead I will just share some thoughts I had after watching the first episode of Ben’s season of The Bachelor.

First, my thoughts on Ben. I didn’t really care for Ben when he was on Ashley’s season of The Bachelorette. He seemed very dull and boring to me and I didn’t find him attractive at all. I felt like he would have been a very loyal boyfriend, a great provider and future father, but so BORING. I bet life with him would get pretty repetitive quickly. It seemed like Ashley was interested in him intellectually, but there was no spark in my opinion. Ashely definitely made the best choice with JP. Not that I wasn’t feeling bad for Ben when he was rejected. I felt like that was the most honest and real rejection scene ever on any season of The Bachelor. The way Ben didn’t want to hear Ashley’s excuses and how he spoke his mind, that was so honest and heartbreaking. One thing I will give Ben, he is a total straight arrow and I respect him for that. I just hope he acts a little more enthusiastic this time around.

Now my thoughts on some of my favorite girls.

Courtney – The Model. It’s obvious she is going to be the villain this season. She is incredibly gorgeous, but also seems very intelligent and it appears as though she is used to having to stick up for herself. She talks very defensively at times. I want to hate her, but I don’t. Her voice is so sexy when she talks to Ben and boy is she a smooth talker and Ben is just smitten.

Kacie B – The Geek. My first impression of Kacie is she is very vulnerable and will fall for Ben pretty quickly. She is presenting herself as the dorky silly girl and it seems pretty accurate. I am most excited about seeing her and Ben on dates, I bet there will be a lot of cheesy moments between these two.

Emily – The Germ Expert. She seems so bubbly and down to earth. She definitely came onto the show with a plan – show off her intelligence, her quirky side, and her beauty. Well played Emily.

Linzi C. – The Horse Girl. I didn’t like her at first. Her intro seemed a little strange and I didn’t connect with her right away. However her one on one time with Ben changed my thoughts. She seems sincere and truly interested in getting to know Ben.

Nicki – The Divorced One. I am on the fence with Nicki. She seems sweet and very sincere, but I don’t think she is being herself. She appeared as though she was trying really hard to impress Ben and it came across a little fake. Hopefully when she gets some one on one time with Ben she will be more at ease.

Jamie – The Sob Story. She grew up without a dad and her mom had dependency issues so she raised her siblings. The story was a little too much sappiness for 13 minutes into the show, but I guess it is who she is. She seems like a really nice caring, responsible girl and they way the producers introduced her makes it impossible not to like her. I’m looking for her to show some personality though.So far I just seen a lot of nervousness. I’ll be surprised if she sticks around for very long.

Some other comments…

Jenna – The Blogger. She needs to tone down the orange makeup or tanning or something. She wants to fall in love and get married like yesterday. The producers might ask Ben to keep her around just for drama, but I don’t think Ben will develop feelings for her. Just too high maintenance for him. Their conversation so far as been very awkward and uncomfortable to watch. On the plus side, her voice sounds exactly like Annabella Sciorra from Hand the Rocks the Cradle.

Brittney – The Granddaughter. That whole story line was stupid in my opinion. And when Grandma cried in the limo on the way home – Classic.

Blakely – The Old Woman. I shouldn’t crack, I am older than her, but she a strange one. Her crazy arm tattoo made me think she would be perfect for Vienna’s ex – Kasey!

Anna – The Gorgeous Blond. She was the girl that walked right past Ben when getting out of the limo and didn’t introduce herself. She was gorgeous yet we didn’t get to see her much and Ben sent her packing.

My Votes:
Prettiest- Courtney or Anna
Best Personality – Kaycie B.
Cutest Dress – Brittney
Most Dramatic – Jenna
Craziest – Monica
Best Hair – Elyse
Worst Dress – Erika

Of course I am hooked as always after the first episode. This season looks like it will be full of drama, lots of tears, beautiful locations, and as always a surprise guest.

weight loss

Weight Loss Update – End of Week One

Just a quick update of how things went this first week. It wasn’t really a full week since we just started on Tuesday – so we didn’t do a weigh in this week. Our first weigh in will be Friday, January 13th.

videos

Bowling Alley Fun

We just had to get the kids out of the house during Christmas break…they were driving us batty! We took them to the bowling alley for some family time. Oh and I played that silly game where you have to stop the cubes on top of one another, that game is such a rip off! I played it 3 times and got to the final cube each time and then lost. I was trying to win the kids an Xbox (like we need another one) so then they came up with their own ideas of who they could get one! Watch and see!

videos

Chase’s Christmas Program

Another better late than never video of our corndog Chase. He did such a good job at his Christmas musical. I tried to just cut and paste the parts that he was in. He is the only boy elf that has lines. In the beginning he is on the far left.

weight loss

Weight Loss History/Introduction

Here’s a little introduction video in regards to my weight loss history and goals. I just felt like I needed to share that my weight goal has been my normal weight range whenever I have lost weight. Sure I would love to get under 160, but for now…that is what I aiming for. It gets confusing with all the dates that I mention.

Basically I weighed 165 in 1999 when Ken and I got married.
After having 3 kids from 2000 to 2004 I went up an down in weight and by the time Karli was a year old I had lost all baby weight.
I weighed 160-165 in 2005.
I weighed 180-185 in 2007, I had gained back 20 or so pounds for no real reason. Mostly not eating healthy.
In 2007, I started gaining weight each year after Ken and I started our business. My lifestyle changed drastically with working again after being an active stay-at-home mom for all those years. Sitting behind a computer screen all day and focusing on work caused me to be lazy, stressed, and eating unhealthy.
In 2011, I weighed around 235 most of the year.
My starting weight for my LAST EVER weight loss journey is 237.4.
There ya have it!