Summer Goals Revisited {Weigh In & New Goals}

I lost 2.5lbs this week bringing me back into the 240’s. Not too bad of a loss, I was hoping for more, but it was enough to get me back on track.

In June I decided to join the Lose a Marathon weight loss challenge. The goal was to lose 26.1 pounds from June 18 – Sept 17^th. I started this Summer off at 257.5lbs and I’m ending it at 249lbs.  That’s a total of 8.5lb lost. That’s a very slow loss over that past few months. I know I could have done much, much better. However, I’m not overly disappointed about my progress. I had one of the busiest summer’s I’ve had in a long time and one of the best. Almost every weekend was full of bbq’s, day trips; get togethers, parties, beach days, concerts, family visits and so on. Not only did I manage to lose weight during all of this, but I enjoyed every minute of my summer!

My wardrobe during the summer months is mostly capris pants, skirts and dresses (i.e. loose fitting clothes). I can clearly remember the past few Septembers when it was time to wear jeans or fitted dress pants and I had to squeeze myself into them!

But not this year! This past weekend I wore jeans for the first time all summer – they fit like a loose glove! These are the same jeans that gave my severe muffin top last winter. This morning I put on my go-to black dress pants and they’re about 10lbs from falling right off me – woo hoo!

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I’m happy with my weight loss this summer, but I’m even happier that I stuck with running! The heat this summer was almost unbearable.  There were many days where I ran jogged in 105+ degree temperatures. It was hard, so hard! But I stuck with it and yesterday I ran the Terry Fox 5k and this coming Saturday is the Toronto Zoo 5k. I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and I have every intention to continue running throughout this coming year.

Woot 5k!

Crossing the finish line!

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Now that the Lose a Marathon challenge is over, I think it’s time to hammer out some new goals. I initially thought that I would set some goals to reach by Christmas (only 15 weeks away!!), but I think that the month of December needs it’s own goals, which I’ll plan closer to the date. Instead, I’m going to set my goal for November 30^th – the day before my sister’s due date and the day my parents will be flying back for the birth :)

This gives me 11 weeks. To break it up I’m going to set a few smaller goals in between.

11 week challenge: (starting weight: 249lbs)

• -       Lose 2lbs per week
• -       Reach 35lbs (244lbs ) lost by Thanksgiving weekend (October 7^th)
• -       235lbs by Halloween
• -       Run another 5k race
• -       Continue running at least 3x per week
• -       Lose 22lbs (227lbs) by November 30^th

I was supposed to take progress pictures and measurements at the end of the Lose a Marathon challenge, but I’ve only lost 2lbs since the last time I took them so they likely haven’t changed too much. I will take my measurements and pictures again on Thanksgiving weekend and hopefully my progress will be better by then.

I think these are realistic goals and if I reach my final goal of 22lbs, I will have lost 50lbs to date, which would be amazing!

I’m going to set up a new page in my navigation bar and I’ll be sure to track my progress during the next 11 weeks! Feel free to join me in my 11 week challenge! 


You can also follow me on Twitter! :)

Progress, Progress, Progress!

Morning everyone!

It's a great today. Not only am I off work today, but it's a long weekend here in Canada (Civic Holiday!) so I also have Monday off..Woot! :) My morning started out with some homemade blueberry muffins, a workout and some Bon Jovi ;)

As you all know I'm partaking in the Lose a Marathon Challenge  and this week was the half way mark! I'm not doing as good as I could be, but I'm still happy with my progress. My summer has been super busy with friends, bbq's, parties, trips, etc and if it wasn't for this challenge I think I would be gaining weight or at least hovering in the 260's still. Instead, I'm losing slowly and almost in the 240's. I'm pretty happy with that :)

This week's challenge was to take more progress pictures and measurements, so that's what I did! I'm so glad that I started doing this because it really puts things into perspective when the scale isn't moving quickly. 

As of today, I'm down another 4 inches since June 18th and 16.5 inches since I started on this journey again. You can see the full breakdown on my Lose a Marathon page. 

Every time I look at my "before" pictures, I can't believe how big I was. It's amazing how your brain tricks you into thinking your a lot smaller than you are. When I lost weight back in college, I lost it from my face down and I can see that happening again. I think my face is getting slimmer, I can see my collar bones again (yay!) and my boobs are shrinking (boo!). I'm just so happy to see the progress!! The weight may be creeping off, but at least it's moving! 

I also decided to try on some clothes today. Back in the winter I had one pair of jeans that i wore all the time and another that were back up and the rest were folded up because they either didn't fit or gave me bad muffin top. Well, this morning they all fit! My go-to pair are almost too big, I think I would need a belt. There is a pair of 16's in there that just barely got on and gave me bad muffin top, so those will be my goal jeans. I haven't worn jeans in probably 3 months because of the heat and I likely won't be wearing any for another 2 months. I'm hoping that I will fit into the 16's by the time jean weather rolls around again :) 

I also tried on 2 winter jackets that I love, but haven't been able to wear the past 2 winters. They're a size XL from Suzy Shier (which is a normal size store btw) and they're more dressy, fitted jackets. This morning, they both fit! They're snug in the arms (they always were), but in order for them to fit nicely, I need to lose an inch or so in the arms. This should be doable before winter. I'm thinking that maybe I should start a arm workout routine at night. I've always been extremely self-concious about my arms, so  a few inches gone would be great. 

Overall, it's been a pretty good morning! Except for the run that I just got back from. This heat is seriously killing me. I honestly feel like my running is regressing instead progressing. My run this morning and on Wednesday were horrible, I've never felt so overheated in my life and I've run in hotter weather.. it sucks! I was only able to run half the route both days. My legs were fine, they could've continued, but my face felt like it was going to explode, my breathing sucks, and i feel nauseous. That's the best way I can explain it.. it's a weird feeling and it makes me unbelievably anxious to finish. I have a 5k race at the end of September and I'm just praying that the weather cools down a bit. 

One of my best friends from college, her boyfriend and their two kids are coming from up north tonight and they're staying for the weekend. I haven't seen them since November, so I'm excited! Tomorrow we're going to the Toronto Zoo, it's one of the largest zoos in the world and I've never been.. I can't wait! Apparently it's a ton of walking and it's supposed to be around 100 degrees (shocking!) so I'll be getting my workout in there :)

A lot of you commented about the nasty giant slugs. I can honestly say that I've never seen slugs this size in my life! I don't believe that they're common here... it makes me wonder what kind of shells they live in??? And just because you guys seemed to like them so much, here's another picture :)

Have a great weekend!

Slimey the Slug. 

Letter to Myself

As I've mentioned before, I'm participating in a Lose a Marathon Challenge. The goal is to lose 26.1lbs by September 17th. I'm not sure if I'm actually going to reach that goal, my progress has been pretty slow, but I'm still making progress and that's all that matters. 


Every week we are given mini challenges and it's up to us if we want to participate. Last weeks' challenge was to take photos of every meal and post them, preferably somewhere public. I didn't participate in this one. I love photography, but I just don't have the patience (or memory!) to photograph my meals every day. Not to mention the lighting in my apartment is horrible and my pictures always look like crap. 


This weeks challenge was intriguing though.
WEEK FIVE CHALLENGE: Love Thy Self. Write yourself a Love Letter.  This may sound corny, but please give it a try. Use this neat website here that lets you write your letter now and schedule delivery for a future date. This can help you focus right now, and again down the road. Here are some ideas on what to write...

• Tell yourself you awesome you are
• What are you fighting for? Why do you want to lose weight?
• What you've accomplished today, this week, the past month...
• Your strong habits, things you're good at
• What you love about yourself
• Words of encouragement to 'Lose the Marathon'
• How you are going to feel when you hit your goal? What are you capable?
• Be sure to thank your{future}self for taking the vow to change your life in healthy ways.
There is no need to share your letter with anyone else. This is a personal challenge that only you can benefit from. I hope you take five minutes out of your busy schedule to love yourself this week!

I'm not a writer. I struggle to come up with ideas, well-written sentences and meaningful posts. I'm actually surprised that I enjoy blogging. I also find it very hard to be honest with myself in weight loss and life in general. Which is why I want to take part in this weeks' challenge. 

I've mentioned before that I once got down to 214lbs and I have no recollection of ever being in the 100's ( I was very heavy as a child). Over the past few years I slowly put the weight back on, but my mind still believed that I had maintained some of my weight loss. I was in denial, I didn't want to believe that I gained most of the weight back and it wasn't until I weighed in at 279lbs and my old winter coat didn't fit that I started to be honest with myself. I remember when it hit me that yes, I have gained back 60lbs over that past few years.. it was hard to swallow. Even now, I have a hard time being honest with myself about my current weight loss. It's great that I've lost almost 30lbs, but I'm in denial that it has taken me since January to do so...It's not until I look at my Weigh In page that it really sinks in.

I've decided that I want to write an honest letter to myself, but I'm not going to make it public. Not yet anyways. I'm going to have it sent to me on April 22nd, 2013... the day before my one year blog anniversary. I will post it on the 23rd. I think it will be good timing. If I stay on track, I should be well into the 100's. If I have slipped and not in the 100's (and likely not being honest with myself), then hopefully it will be a good kick in the butt! 

Stay tuned on April 23rd, 2013 to see what I wrote ;) 

Quest to Lose a Marathon

I've been feeling really great the last few weeks and I know I have running to thank for it. Unfortunately, the scale hasn't been much of help and it's really starting to frustrate me. I still have my birthday goal in the back of my mind, but it feels like it's slowly slipping away. I've also been toying with the idea of changing my weigh in days to Monday. I think weighing in on Mondays would keep me more accountable through the weekends, but it also scares me! I hadn't decided on anything until I read this post over at Minus One Hundred. She has just signed up for a "Lose a Marathon Challenge".

Some details for the challenge are as follows: 

- The goal is to lose 26.2 lbs by Sept 17th

- Weigh Ins are on Monday (how convenient!?)

- Small prizes are rewarded throughout the challenge 

- There are over 800 participants!

- You must sign up by June 25th 

- For full details, click here 

This challenge came at the perfect time! I think it was a sign that I stumbled upon it before the 25th. My birthday goal (which I'm still aiming for) is to lose 30 lbs by September 1st (229lbs). The Lose a Marathon Challenge would bring me to 231.3 lbs by Sept 17th. Both of those goals sound good to me, but at the rate I'm going the Lose a Marathon Challenge is more realistic. 

Weighing in on mondays makes me very nervous. I'm going to weigh in this friday and then again on Monday and I'll continue to weigh in every monday throughout the summer. Yikes! We have a lot of weekend plans coming up, so hopefully this will help me stay on track...that is the point, right!?  

The challenge for week 1 is to write out your plan and goals. I'm going to add another page to my blog where I'll post my goals, progress, "before" pictures and my measurements. Stay tuned!