It has taken a lot of thought to come to this final decision, but together Queenie and I decided that we both needed to move on to other things.  It isn’t that we wanted to stop writing for this blog, it is just that there are some other things that we want to focus on.  I know this comes on the heels of my “giving up” post, but the truth is I just needed to vent, I have no intention of giving up.  However, I’m not going to obsess like I have been.  It has been very counter productive for me personally and I think I’m going to take a step back and figure out my personal goals and so forth.  I want to start writing my book and I want to do a lot of other things - and although I only post a few times a week, I just need to put this baby to bed so to speak. 

I sincerely hope that you all have gotten as much information from our site that you can to make your own great decisions about weight loss.  I know we tried so hard to talk about not only what we were going through but to give you tips and help with your own weight loss journey.  So, just because we’re leaving doesn’t mean that we’re giving up on you!  Many of you have become close blog friends to us and we will still continue reading your personal blogs to make sure you are staying on track We’re not deserting you - rather we’re just focusing on some things for ourselves. 

I know I will leave here with many more friends then when I started, a wealth of information that I have learned, and a knowledge of how hard weight loss can really be without the support of great people like yourselves.  You have all stuck with us and for that we are incredibly grateful.  I wish you HUGE amounts of success in your weight loss and health journey and hope that you can take what you have learned and apply it to your own lives. 

I’m going to miss you guys!!!  Take care

Last October, I stumbled in to this place. I was fat and miserable. Erin and Jasmine quickly became my new BFF’s with their funny take on health and weight loss. They were just what this Queenie needed for cheerleaders. They kept me going when I was ready to fall down into the half gallon of Chunk Monkey. Since January, Erin and I have been running the show here. Jasmine has moved on to bigger and better things and well...now it’s time for Erin and I to do the same.

It wasn’t an easy thing for either of us to decide. This place has been a second home for us for a very long time. Reality is though, there is only so much you can write on weight loss and keep the funny coming.  I mentioned that it is a sad yet happy day for me. I am sad to say goodbye to a place that literally saved and changed my life. I am happy because I am getting some more time to devote to my new projects.

I am still planning on blogging. And once I am completely set up, I will be redirecting all of our visitors from OWW to my new digs. Once in the door, you have the option to turn around and leave if you want. I hope you will stick around though. I am moving my writing focus away from weight loss and will be concentrating more on living an eco friendly and healthy life. My topics will be about organic gardening, juicing, green living, raw & vegetarian cooking, recycling, self sustained living, and eco friendly product reviews. I am excited about the new venture yet...I will miss this place. Badly.

Sometimes growing up sucks. That is what I feel like right now: Like I have grown up and am moving out of the house.  Exciting as it is, it is bittersweet. I hope that all of you who are left here will continue on your various journeys. Stop by Erin’s place and mine and let us know how you are doing. 

Ciao (one last time)

Queenie

I’m going to be oh so honest here - I’m having big issues with weight loss.  I just haven’t done it.  I started out more than a year ago and minus 10 pounds I weigh exactly the same.  Queenie has lost 50+ pounds, many of you have lost weight, but apparently I still have not committed to it.  Why is that?  Why can I not do this?  I WANT to lose weight, I WANT to be healthy, I WANT to look good but my motivation is lacking in so many ways.  I make huge excuses as to why I don’t have time to work out, why I just have to have that one more piece of bread, and why I can’t lose weight.  The fact is, I don’t work at it.  I’m telling you all of this because I feel like a hypocrite. 

That being said, I think a lot of you are going through the same thing - which I can tell from the lack of Friday weigh-in posts.  I think you, like me, have either stopped losing weight, given up completely, or simply have moved on.  I can accept that - and it may be what I need to do as well.  I feel like I have put so much pressure on myself over the past year and a half and it is almost counter productive.  I guess you can say I’m ready to give up.  There are a whole lot of “I’s” in here huh?  That isn’t to say that I’m not concerned with how you are doing, but right now I have to admit I am concerned with my particular need to give up completely and accept the fact that I will always be fat. 

Huh.  Anyone have any really great advice for me right now??? 

The weather is starting to cool and I have been really looking at my exercise program. Particularly, how I can increase it. I found an interesting study that is going to have a HUGE impact on my program planning and goal setting. Did you know that running can add YEARS to your life? Years? Not just by some fluke. There have been decade long studies that prove it.

Two hundred and eighty-four runners and 156 healthy “controls,” or non-runners, in California completed annual questionnaires over a 21-year period. The participants were 50 years old or over at the beginning of the study and ran an average of about four hours a week. By the end of the study period, the participants were in their 70s & 80s or older and ran about 76 minutes a week.

At 19 years, just 15 percent of the runners had died, compared with 34 percent of the non-runners. 

At first, it was assumed that running, particularly in older persons, would cause severe joint injury. That has now been proven to not be the case. Apparently, the running has strengthened the joints of the participants which actually decreased the injuries.

Now, last year, I jumped on the whole couch to 5K program. I was gung ho into it. Even finding info on the mini marathons etc in my area to participate in. Then, I got injured. I haven’t run since. I wimped out. Gave up. Tossed in the towel. Now that I am almost 50 pound lighter than when I started last year, I am ready to give it another try. Running is a great way to burn calories and build muscle. Something that I am hoping to improve upon this year. With that said, I am relinking the couch to 5K program for my dear readers. I hope anyone that may have given up on this program will join me with a revisit.

Couch 2 5K Program

Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say today - therefore I’m opening this up to you all today!

First, make sure you weigh-in because let’s face it, that is what Friday’s are for I did end up gaining weight as of this morning, but not too much considering what I ate last week.  I gained 0.4 pounds - not too shabby considering my vacation eating. 

Now for the fun stuff… do you all have any questions for us?  They can be personal questions, health related questions, weight loss related questions, anything you can think of.  Maybe you can spark a few new ideas for us all!  Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

When you begin to make changes in your life, a natural part of the process is to set goals for yourself. I am a goal setting queen. How many of you actually set the tiny goals for yourself though? Not the yearly, the monthly or even the weekly ones. I am talking about the daily ones.

I have preached over and over about how important goals are for reaching the big target. But have you stopped to think about how important the tiny ones are? Those tiny goals are the ones that get you through your cousins wedding without scarfing down extra helpings of wedding cake. Those daily goals help you to curb your addiction to soda. Those daily goals will be what gets you to your big goal that is setting at the end of your rainbow.

Here are some things that you can do on a daily basis that will help you to reach the bigger things. These can be your daily goals.

Get through today with NO EXCUSES
Work harder than you did yesterday. No matter how hard you think you worked yesterday. Today, vow to to better.
Do not eat any snacks from my “bad” list today.
Do an extra 10 minutes on the treadmill/stairmaster or elliptical
Do not eat ANY chocolate today.
Check into that yoga, martial arts or Tai Chi class that I have been wanting to do
Plan dinner. I realize that when I am busy, dinner is where I ind it easiest to cheat and splurge. Today, I am planning dinner so I don’t blow it.
Drink water instead of soda.

This list doesn’t have to be your set in stone list. It is just a place to give you a jump start for setting daily goals. The important thing is to set goals that are specific to your wanted result and make sure they are reachable. There is nothing more frustrating than making a list of things that you would have to be superman to attain. Remember that every journey begins with a single step. Make yours count.

Before I move on to talk about the massive amounts of food I ate on vacation, I want to send a very special thank you to Queenie for taking care of my posts for me while I was gone That was so great of you to help me out and I REALLY appreciate it!

Now - to the main issue at hand!  Most of you know that I went on vacation to Laughlin and Arizona.  Let me tell you this up front - the food there at the hotel was freaking awesome.  Too awesome!  I literally ate my way from Laughlin to Phoenix and back again, and let me tell you - it was good!  It’s so funny how when you go on vacation, literally there are like no calories in anything you eat.  I ate huge ham and cheddar omelets for breakfast with hash browns and HUGE pieces of rye bread.  For lunch, if I even bothered to eat because I was still so full from breakfast, I either had McDonald’s (which was in every casino!) or I had a cheeseburger from the Beach Cafe.  For dinner I had the buffet one night (which I thoroughly took advantage of) and one night I had Mexican which was to die for, and then one night we ate at a sushi place where I skipped the sushi and had my healthiest meal of my vacation - spring rolls and chicken takatori.  YUMO as Rachel Ray would say. 

Sure, I could have at least had wheat toast with my omelets, or perhaps I could have gone with the tortilla salad instead of the big tortilla I ate - which was actually not bad because I got a huge amount of protein that night in the black beans I had with it.  Sure, I could have ate the salad and fruit at the buffet (well I had a salad, but it would hardly be considered healthy with all the crap I put on it, lol) and I could have even gone for a turkey sandwich instead of the cheeseburger.... but I was on vacation and I let myself enjoy it! 

Which comes to the point of this whole story - sometimes you just have to let go and have something you enjoy before getting back to business.  The funny thing is, I didn’t gain any weight.  I weighed exactly what I weighed the day I came back as the day I left and do you want to know why?  Because while eating all this stuff, I was walking.  I didn’t have a computer to sit at, I didn’t have work that needed to be done, I didn’t have anything to worry about but myself - and I walked!  I walked and I walked and I walked some more.  I did the river walk numerous times between casinos.  I walked miles in the casino itself between finding a machine and then finding more machines.  I walked all over the hotel itself just to get places.  I wish I had a pedometer because it easily would have been over 20,000 steps a day if not a lot more.  I would wager to say that if we all went on vacation for the rest of our lives, we’d all be thin!  Because while on vacation you feel energized and awake and ready to do things you normally wouldn’t do!  For me that was walking everywhere, everyday.  And I did!

Right now I’m going to continue my vacation mentality and get back to walking - I’m getting on my treadmill, pretend that I’m walking from casino to casino and hopefully get in as many steps as I did while I was there.  Why don’t you do the same thing?  Go outside and walk to the store if you have one nearby pretending you don’t have a rental car to take you anywhere like I didn’t.  Take a walk around the neighborhood - anything!  I guarantee, if you act like you are on vacation (minus the massive amounts of food of course!) you’ll start losing weight in no time!

You do. No matter how crammed your schedule appears to be. We can’t always make it to the gym for a workout. That’s the way life is. So, what do you do when you are faced with a packed full day planner and you need to get a workout in? You improvise of course. Here are some easy suggestions:

If you live or work in a multistory building, skip the elevator and take the stairs. If you work in a high rise, take the elevator partially up and then take the stairs.
Add some cardio to your morning routine with a run around the neighborhood or a quick jump-rope session!  Working out in the morning is also a great way to wake yourself up and boost your energy for the entire day. Set your alarm 20 minutes early to get in a quick shot of natural energy.
When your kids head off to bed, do some circuit training exercises. When little Jimmy’s sleeping, you won’t be distracted. Less distractions = more focused work out.
Get creative and put common household items, such as soup cans or water bottles, to use as exercise equipment. Putting away groceries just got a whole lot more fun.

No more excuses. Just get out there and move that bod.

Today is a day to celebrate. I have decided that we need a party. We have had all these good things happening and most of the time, they go by, unnoticed and unmentioned. Not anymore.

As many of you know, this site, was nominated in the Blogger Choice Awards for Best Health Site. Some of you even joined us in the voting frenzy that followed our nomination. Well, this past week, we received an email that we made it to the top 3 in our category. That is better than we ever expected, and way more than we could ever hope for. If you haven’t voted for us yet, click the link in the side bar and head over there to do that. There is a week left to cast the vote. The BCA people remove the vote totals for the last two weeks of voting so I really have no clue if we stand a chance of making it to the top or not but vote anyway.

Secondly, we were contacted a couple of weeks ago by the ladies over at Thindependence.com. They stumbled in here and were apparently so impressed that they decided to put us up as a spotlight site on their site for the entire month of October. They have a great thing happening over there and I would highly recommend a visit if you haven’t ever been there. Be sure to let them know that you are part of the Wicked crew over here.

And finally, I think we need to toss some confetti around for all that we have accomplished here in the weight loss zone. We have been here for a year in some form or another. Most of us are plugging away at dropping the pounds. I think it is high time that we celebrate that. So, comment below and give us your overall total dropped. No matter when you began your journey. I want to know your totals. And then, by god, let’s party a bit and enjoy our hard work.